the bus blog

In one of my biggest online gaffs to-date, when I moved this blog from http://craddy.swdl.org to http://swdl.org I forgot about redirecting RSS feeds. That’s hopefully now been fixed - so if you’re reading this as a first post for a very very long time then that’s why!

If anyone’s interested this is how you can redirect a whole domain / sub-domain:


Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.swdl.org [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.swdl.org/$1 [R=301,L]

Obviosly change swdl.org to the domain you want to re-direct to and place the above in a .htaccess file in the source domain / sub-domain.

I’ve been meaning to write about version control for a while, its seen to be an incredibly boring and geeky subject. I started using it for my dissertation project in my final year - and now I’m using it for almost every document, script or spreadsheet I have. I think that not oly can anyone use subversion, most people should use it!

I like using it so much I’ve started to get interested in the stuff behind the scenes, the stuff that makes it work - and how that can be used to improve it. So much so I’ve setup a subversion server with plans to start selling it. Free, time unlimited, trials will be available.

So, why is it so good and how can you use it?

Well, assuming you use a repository that’s hosted on a different physical machine, the first advantage is an automatic backup. That’s a plus, but not the main event - let me explain how it works. Every time you ‘check-in’ your work subversion notes the changes that were made from the previous revision and remembers that. So you can go back and see all of the previous versions - and what was changed in each version.

This really comes into its own when you figure out that last Friday you deleted a paragraph that you just realised you want to keep. You can simply view the version before that paragraph was removed and get it back.

There is a lot more to subversion that that, especially when you get more than one person working on the same thing. But I really think if you have the tiniest inkling that subversion might be interesting then give it a go!

If you fancy giving subversion a go then you’ll definitely need TortoiseSVN, if you can’t find anyone offering a free trial repository then drop me a line. I’m working on a web client for managing subversion repositories so testers are needed!

I’m trying to find a decent beginners tutorial to TortoiseSVN - but not having much luck so watch this space.

I’ve been scanning in some photos my Grandfather took during the second world war, and some of them are absolutly amazing. I’ve added them all to Flickr - but here are a few of my favorite’s.

I’m not really sure of the history of my Grandfather in the war, I seem to remember hearing he was in the Marines but I don’t know any more than that. I’m going to talk to my Grandmother (his wife) about it and try to find some records from the archives.

Last weekend took me to Westonbirt - its supposedly one of the best arboretums in the area. I say supposedly, its the first one I’ve ever been to so I don’t have much to compare it to. Its was interesting, and absolutely packed. I imagined an arboretum to be a peaceful, quiet calm place - which it would have been if it wasn’t for the thousands of other people their noisy children and crazy dogs. Saying all that it was nice, we took both cameras and took some interesting photos. I’ve created a Flickr account, and I’ve uploaded the photos we took on Sunday. Here are a few from the set.

More Here.

Last Sunday was the last race in the Formula 4 2007 season - and as Sencon sponsor a local car I went along to watch the race and take a few photos. Sian and I have just got a D50 so I thought this would be a great time to use it and figure it out.

That’s my best effort from the day - I’m still getting used to using this camera (in fact any DSLR) and really would have done better with a longer lens. Saying that it looks like a pretty decent first attempt at motor sport photography to me, so I’m pleased!

The car finished 8th overall but a 6th place ‘went begging’ mainly due to old front tyres that had to be used because of a clutch failure in qualifying neigh-on destroying the last set of decent fronts. Charles finished 7th in the championship overal, slipping from 6th in this last race.

We’re all hoping for an improvement next season, and I’ll be paying an interest in progress over the winter & I’ll be sure to get some interesting shots of the rebuild progress.

Here it is! Unbelievably fun to drive, I didn’t think it would be as much fun as it is. There’s no point in writing some sort of a review of the car - its fantastic to drive. Its not as fast as I thought it might be but in ‘the twisties’ it makes up for its lack (140bhp) of power.

I’m probably going to change the tyres soonish as the fronts are unheard of and don’t inspire confidence, and I’d really like to get a roll bar fitted but funds are the limiting factor on that.

I’ve not added anything here for a long time. I’ve got a few things I’m working on that will be published in the coming weeks. In the time since I last posed my results came in, at just over 80% I got a first class degree - with honors! I’ve also just bought a Mazda MX5, and will be picking it up tomorrow, so photos when I get it!

Yes, for the first time in my life I’m suffering with hay fever, and it sucks! The kind of thought that usually runs through my mind when I hear people complaining about hay fever, or allergies as Americans call it, is something along the lines of “get over it“. But it really is very crap, like the thought of having a bad cold that might not go away for a few months…

In addition to this my Sky+ remote stopped working, not a huge deal you might say, and I’d say your right - unless you want to watch a recorded program. To do this - a fairly major part of the Sky+thing - you need to press the green button, which doesn’t exist on the box itself! I did find a work around, by pressing the play button twice you’ll play what seems to be a random recoreded program, from this pressing the ‘back up’ button you’ll get to the list of recorded programs, where you can select whatever you want to watch. This is simple enough - but surely its an oversight on the part of Sky, or whoever designed the box / interface? If any of the people behind Sky see this then sort it out!

This site has changed how I listen to music, simple as. Its got to be the best implementation of any ‘Web 2′ type of site I’ve seen, more people should take a leaf out of the book those guys were reading when they created that service. Pandora lets you create a personalised radio station based on bands and songs you like, it then plays songs that are deemed to be similar to that music. In my opinion the best bit is that to use the service all you have to do is type in a artist / song name into the funky flash based player- no need to sign up.

That’s important, so many people don’t bother using really good sites simply because they don’t want the hassle of signing up. With Pandora you can use the service for a limited time and then decide if you want to sign up, I defy anyone who listens to music on their PC and has broadband not to sign up after a few minutes of using Pandora.

The really cool part of Pandora is highlighted in this video interview by Robert Scoble with Pandora’s CTO Tom Conrad, its really worth a watch. Pandora (if you live in the US) will work on your mobile phone, advertisement free, for $3 /month. Thats something I’d love to try, the ability to listen to any music on the move without having to actually have it with you is really cool.

Aside from DMCA restrictions (thats a whole other post) potentially ruining this I think its going to be the way that we’ll access music, I hope so anyway.
The interesting part of all this is, is this the end of the iPod? If my phone could access Pandora there is no way I’d buy a MP3 player that cant.

Have you ever had an email address that got so spammed that by the time you check it there are 7000+ emails there? Well, I have - and I’m not the kinda person to go through each one deleting them. I knocked up this script to simply empty a mail box.

Feel free to use and distribute at your will - however it is supplied ‘as is’ and no guarantees are given to its operation and usefulness - it did work well for me though! Its easy enough to figure out - if you don’t understand what to do don’t just guess, you may well end up in a hell of a (email less) state!

Be carefull though - it will delete every message in the mailbox defined!

// enter your POP3 mailbox username and password
	$username = MAILBOX;
	$password = PASSWORD;
//enter the address of your POP3 server - this is usually mail.domain.tld
	$server = 'MAILSERVER';
//enter the port your server runs on - this is usually 110 for POP3
    	$port = 'PORT';

//Do not change anything below this line for normal (empty mailbox) opperation
    $cmd = array();
    $cmd[]  = "USER $usernamern";
    $cmd[]  = "PASS $passwordrn";
    $cmd[]  = "STATrn";
    $cmd[]  = "QUITrn";

    $fp  = fsockopen($server, $port);
    if(!$fp)
    {
        print("Error connecting to server $server");
    }
    else
    {
        $ret = fgets($fp, 1024);
        foreach($cmd as $ret)
        {
            fputs($fp,$ret);
            $line = fgets($fp, 1024);
            print($line."");
            if($ret=="STATrn")
            {
                $fields = explode(" ",$line);
                $num_mails = $fields[1];
                for($i=1;$i<=$num_mails;$i++)
                {
                fputs($fp,"DELE $irn");
                $line = fgets($fp, 1024);
                }
            }
        }
    }