Hierachical Order in mysql

Most of my posts are informative, advertisements or purely notes for my convenience, this post falls under the latter.

Hierachical Data in Mysql is just that a blog post by another on the subject of using hierarchy or parent child relationships to control data and the intracacies that come with it.

Just some thoughts to note and add to this rather good article, and to let you know I've trawled a few alternate articles and most neither add to this or give an benefit this article is very well written and provides all you should need to get started using this.

Some more thoughts:
Order may be used to provide simplified SQL in you application over teh full usage of parent/child this is for you to decide.

1.  parent child is complicated and requires a way to distinguish in your application the following:
   
   
   • which are parent
   • which are child
   • how many parent levels
   • current highest right value

This is just my first observations I will possibly add to this later.

Working iPhone DSLR Video

Working iPhone DSLR Video

Some thing I found on the net and rather like.

iPhone 4 with OWLE and EnCinema 35mm Adapter (SLR Lens) from \\Vid-Atlantic Media Prod on Vimeo.

I first heard about this over on TWIP which is worth a look/listen if you liek photography.

You lost which file... Windows Fix

I've said this before windows has moments, small strokes, momentary Alzheimers. Normally coursed by UIE, or SUE the bane of all techs lives User Interface Error or Standard User Error or otherwise known as not using it right. Generally this is not really the case its more you did not design it right, or test it right but one case that i think is the biggest grey area and courses windows to have the most strokes. Turning it off.

Every one can use the windows shut down, and everyone seems to know hold the power key down for ten seconds is faster.. its also the route of most evil. I'm not going to get all ranty about the fact it courses the hart murmurs i mentioned, or into the whys and hows of teh proper shut down procedure.. Its not worth it.

what i am going to do is link for you two good walk throughs to fix the main problems it does course which is corrupted boots files and boot sectors.


or the text version
http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp/

if you do mess it up deeper than this then you may want to keep a copy of Spinrite from grc to hand I promise first time you lose a hard disc or a back up its worth every cent.

Don't Hold it like that..

The Iphone 4 as been out approximatly one month and its huge presence in the media, on line and in the press as not been al gleaming.

The antenna-gate saga as its been coined keeps rising to the fore.

Lets forget that the phone is a stunning design, it does look and feel wonderful in your hand. Lets  for get Apple change dthe interface world single hand-idly and almost over night with the original interface. Lets also forget that the platform although remains the most stable feature even if due to apples Sith lord like over control of releases.  But actually lets not forget any of these things.  The Iphone is great for all these things.

Until recently it was also one of the best phones. It as a simple interface for calls, good solid reception, a contacts book that can be updated from several sources and was easy to navigate.

Then the saga begins. Apple designed a phone with an external antenna. Every smart phone company and regular phone company has done or tested this and decided its a bad idea. Apple stuck to their guns or as is more widely totted around the press Steve Jobs stuck to his wants.

The result is:

an excellent looking phone, that functions as everything you want out of an iphone, but is more prone to drop calls in weak signal areas. 

Now i'd like you to look at that last line, its not the sensationalism or attempt to put it in black and white that others have done. its simply a statement of what it is. The phone looks and works brilliantly, the apps and functionality are still the same. But if you are in a weak signal area and hold teh phone too hard in just the right spot you may drop a call. Not always and no guarantee.
And seemingly not in the UK half as much as in the States! or so it seems.

Apples resonce after a few week was to bow to media pressure with out ever admitting it various tech blogs, vlogs and journalists had been asking Apple to man up and just give away a bumper/cover. Apple responded with a live conference/broadcast you can watch it here if you were living in a cave.
The short of it was:

We screwed up but were not sorry
Every one else has the same problem look
We did not think you'ld buy our phone as much a a fashion statement 
Were going to give you a cover because that will solve the problem

I'm not a apple fan boy I'm a technologist, I like Tech.  I like tech enough I'm fed up of hearing about the iphone, antenna gate and the jobs announcement.
So go get you free cover and be happy. Now can the rest of the tech world get on with some News...

Media Round Up

A few years ago the blogging scene exploded, blogs for any  thing and everything became available. Photoblogs, video blogs, podcasts, and various text blogs on various platforms.

Journalism got opened up to the public any one could be a reviewer / journalist in their own way. Some of the old physical media journalists kept up and some held where they were.

Blogs became profitable with ads and sponsorship and then there was a backlash against paid for posts/ sponsored posts and their ilk.

Ive discussed the various blogging platforms http://abcdit.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-live-journal-meme-or-notes.html although i did miss the various types of blog out there maybe i'll discuss that later.

This post is more about the Blogs that survived the media cull, and now successfully produce quality online content. These are my favorites not the best on the web or maybe they are.

TWIT.TV Leo Laporte and crew bringing the best in technology based blogs, Mac, security, phone Home entertainment in a verity of formats, Video, audio, text. Sponsored by several services  but with informative, entertaining journalism always worth a listen.

www.smashingmagazine.com/ a web based developer/ designer based blog rounding up and gathering posts and feeds on a common theme with hard back publications to support the blog.

http://it.toolbox.com/ not a stand alone blog but a network of tech based blogs always with something to read. I especially like the security monkey..

Wired.com is it a mag or is it a blog, i think its like a chicken and egg. The blog supports and extends the magazine and vice versa.

John Underkoffler points to the future of UI | Video on TED.com

John Underkoffler points to the future of UI | Video on TED.com

Misadventures in Development

Development of anything, whether its a website, a piece of code, a system or an interface, can run in many ways. if your lucky these will be smooth and a kin to a steady loop of progress, feedback development and reassessment.
Serenely calm and always moving forward. If you get a project like this can you call me! I'd like proof time lines, and dates. I'd like to see a successfully perfect development.

To be honest most my developments are fairly clean, straight forward and with only a few small rapid sand weir falls to deal with.
Then every so often you have the one that feels like I'm swimming uphill, the role has changed the brief has changes the feature creep has not only creeped but, crawled and down right vaulted.
I have read horror stories of people who have been caught out like this. I hoped never to be caught out but I have been.

Development should be managed, if your not managing your development pray that the manager is managing... If you find they are not, then manage your self, make sure your part is done, and try help the others along too.

Development should be defined, timescales, targets, results, and outcomes predefined. If you find these changing, stop discuss, develop these targets and measures. make sure your target and deliverable are achievable, deliverable and that what ever your value the deliverable is not undervaluing you.
If targets are there management of the work to gain results is measurable and manageable.

I'm not just ranting, I am just offering advice, My nightmare came from a project that was more than deliverable.  I was engaged only on a consultation bases, this changed to a developer bases, Then as a developer I found that I had to steer the role, the management and the development. All the while trying to do this, the project changed, the development environment was changed, the deliverable changed due to other factors. The client changed servers, suppliers, setups, with no respect for development, with no forethought for his requirements for deliverables.

read the quotes from the link, think carefully about what you are asked to do, plan, provide statemnets of intent. And believe me that when your nightmare comes it will be a doozy.

Blog, Live Journal, Meme or Notes

Keeping a diary in the technological age is as simple as in the real word pick a diary(piece of software/app) and start writing. The diary of choice being as much a reflection of taste and personality as the diary you would buy form the stationary shop.

The main difference on the web is the possible voyeuristic audience is no longer limited to family and friends. It can be with a little know how of course limited to your self but with a lack of knowledge it can be left for the entire world to read. To secure it, unlike hiding your journal under the bed. You need to set choose the write medium and then learn their rules. But it can be made far more secure in public view. Almost like leaving it on the coffee table in the coffee shop but with in a see through case and set in place every one knows where it is and can see it as they pass by but no one can read it should you choose.

A excellent article on the flavour and verity of blogs and subjects available can be found at http://modernl.com/article/the-blogging-spectrum. While your choice of medium is compared http://webupon.com/blogging/top-31-free-blogging-websites-the-ultimate-list/

Its the medium of blogging thats my main focus today, from Live journal which in ways feels like Facebooks older cousin, to Facebook which is more akin to the journal under your bed except every so often they turn your bed upside down on the street. Wordpress and Blogspot which are the cool kids journal shops, depending on your style fashion and nerd status.
I can go on like this all day about various blogging sites and software and their look, feel, and  approach.

I think it better you look at the two articles above as they have done this for me.

Bumptop aquired by Google

A few years ago on my personal blog i wrote about http://blog.ted.com/2009/04/bumptop_launche.php
Bumptop was a marvel to interact with a new way of using the desktop.


Now it appears Google have bought it up, and it is no longer available read more here.

Apple

I turned to mac when i started uni, the development of osX was astounding compare dto previous versions.

but every so often i turn back to this video

Main Reason being the jack russel parody the only thing really still relevant from the time this video was made.

Affiliate Income Streams

Affiliate Marketing is an odd subject but something I thought I'd stick an article out about.

Firstly its not free or easy money, if you want very little of it what i refer to has book and coffee money then its simple to use and depending upon your social circle and networking ability it can be just that.

If you want it to class as an income stream then it takes marketing, managing and work to help you get there.

A lot of companie son teh wbe offer this service, from ebay, amazon and itunes to independent design studios, large scale retailers and the majority of the porn industry.

The system is simple enough, create a web site => create an affiliate account => advertis affiliate products and stand back.
The reality is create a SEO managed website => create an affiliate account => advertise SEO targetted products and manage the links and return => repeat and manage infinitum !

Teh difference is hardly subtle but it is there, I use some affiliate linking across my differing sites and I make coffee or book money, maybe one or two £8-£15 books a year. No guarantee of income.

But the other benefit of these links is the SEO nature of them they are produced for you, they are always pretty good SEO links so they do have none direct commercial merits so think of this too before you discard the idea.

Social Networks - The not so New Band Wagon

Social Networks have been the buzz for most of the past decade, the use of user created content and connecting people. Creating networks of information that can be analysed for mountains of social data worth money to teh right people when used and applied in the right way.

Ask Face book what the average 30 something is interested in, by geographic location and the percentage chance they are at home in a specific postal area?

Ask the same question of Myspace, LinkedIn, Beebo, and Blogspot, Flickr the list goes on. Between them you'll more than likely in a metropolitan area be able to deduct actual percentage of people at home logged in their interests.

The power of these applications is in the spread of influence and advertising power, the ability of word of mouth one person walls a link to your site and approx 100 others see that link, gratis and chances are they share an interest as they are friends on a list.

This article was brought on by something I found today http://www.v2v.net/ or Starbucks v2v
Apparently a new form of social network. I am intrigued to the direction it will take, and how a large company such as starbucks would choose to use its own social network over making use of Facebook.

The site is presented as doing good, social volunteering, event organising, yet I feel it is just a way to gain all the data Starbucks want to market and query the data the exposure of facebook but with them in charge of the data. Possibly cutting into facebook with social tagging ap integration. Any way I've signe dup just to see were it goes..

Wibya See is What You Get!

Serfing around the internet as I do i found http://www.wibiya.com .

So now if you take a moment to look at the footer of the page you'll see a andy bookmark bar and some social media content links.

I was impressed at the ease of use, login => register =>  setup=> download/copy and install/edit code.

It was around 5 minutes between finding and having in place even on blogger template and a Wordpress based website using same content code.

I can se ethe idea as incredibly useful and relevent to people interested in that kind of social interaction.

Bitnami - it really can be this simple

Every time I visit this site i'm more impressed.
if you want to set up a development area for any of the main CMS, or if you want to start your service on the cloud this product is truly indespensible.

It will take away the skill of installing the packages and the CMS something I strongly advise any developer gets to grips with but as a quick start it is truly a indispensable product.

I develop mainly in wordpress, Joomla and Drupal with a odd wiki here and there. Bitnami stack collection lets me run all of them on my laptop or home pc and easily swap between them, i can run multi sites and test themes plugins, module setc to my content.

then when it comes to running a site I can easily upload a cloud deployment and move th reuired files and databse and alter the config and httpd files to fit.

If you want a head start look no further.

Ebay 'have your say'

A open list of ideas for ebay...

I use ebay a fair bit, whether for private use skimming for parts for projects and bits and bobs or for business getting components and network hardware.

Things on their have been frustrating me, so I thought I'd list them, allowing me to share these ideas.

Firstly and simplest a directions link to Google map or some such service. I spend hours looking at large goods and working out if I can get the item picked up or delivered. Ebay could monetize through a third party a courier quote service they have all the needed info once i'm logged in,  alternativly a map provider such as google could provide a get directions link knowing the items location and my postcode.

Secondly, view similar item options. I want this option from my first search results. the serach results can be massive amounts of data if I had it to my watch list I can get similar listings I want this as a button from the search results it would make my user experience richer.

Their are more, but i'm working and this is just really a brain download for a itch I can't scratch

Bright Sparks

Every so often in technology something grabs your attention, this grabbed mine.

Its not just that the plug (bane of bare footed geeks ever where) is a horrible ugly thing, it takes up space and no matter how hard you try there is never enough or enough space for them.

This new design solve sthat problem too in a innovative way that also includes USB compatability.

My only hope and not covere dby the article is that the connectors between the plug and wire are replaced with a covered bayonet and clamp design. undoing plug screws is just annoying.

Its brilliant when can I buy one.

[Click here or on the image to read the full article]

Cannot open the Outlook window

Every so often Mircosoft Windows just really does have a momentary set back, a stutter a small stroke even. This morning was one of them.

The simply answer to what happened is outlook crashed out and lost its profile settings.

The simple answer to fix it is Google the error message.

You will be told on eof two three things:

• run system restore
• delete the registry key and reset the profile.
• Start->run..then type the following -> "Outlook.exe /resetnavpane"

My advise follow the third one its easiest and works.System restore may or may not work or be on depend son your settings. Deleting the registry key unless you think to back up teh profile files first will overwrite your data.

This leads on to general trouble shooting, I run Windows, Linux and osX at varying times of my week. I trouble shoot and support all of them. But the geenral rule if anything goes wrong is Google the error message.

I'll happily run a fix for clients, or advise best practice when some have found their own solutions.

But in general if something new appears It gets googled, a little reading of multiple answers and solutions looking for nearest operating system comparison and newest answers, the amount of times a patch has changed a solution is worth bearing in mind.

Anyway I ran teh third answer and up popped outlook all well and less a few emails.

Documentation

A bug bear of mine is documentation, I try to provide cost effective web sites using easy to manage CMS solutions such as Worpress and Drupal.

If I have to document the sites functions because the end user has difficulty getting to grips with simple usable systems then it can add two to three days work time to a site and hundreads of pounds accordingly.

A days training with no documentation just the user making notes can be much cheaper and easier, but should this fall short the need for documentation is an expensive and time consuming addition.

Don't get me wrong if its needed it needed, but I wish it was easy to tell when it was needed and that larger clients did not expect it.

Most the CMS and WYSWYG editors provide excellent documentation of their own that only a marginal level of understanding can allow to be used with any site developed with these packages.

Anyway that's my new year gripe. On the other side click on the post image to visit a entertaining post about the documentation you gather, some times I feel that's alll that happens to my documentation any way..