I use many different applications. I like using programs dedicated for one purpose, rather than the sort who uses a few applications to do many different things.  The Major reason I change from one app to another that I use is that they are either processor, disk or memory intensive.  What I have noticed is that these apps that have performance issues don’t tend to use databases.  What I can’t work out is why different systems come up with their own methods of data storage and don’t use proven methods with mathematical bases of performing quickly.  After talking to colleagues and friends there seem to be two camps, either those who grasp SQL and those who don’t.  Some of the apps that I have had problems with are Windows Live Messenger and RSS Bandit, Tiny Time Tracker and  all that work well until you overwhelm them with data and they stop performing.  For those who are unfamiliar, I would suggest that they look at sqllite (which I will be posting more on in the future) and data storage becomes easier, faster and more flexible; with an advantage that there is less programming (provided you learn the basics of SQL like this post (The Top Nine Most Important SQL Keywords; What they mean and how to use them)

Between state, local and federal elections, it seems that someone is always campaigning about something in Australia.  Whilst this means that we are nominally supposed to get representation based upon our geographical area, this does not seem to happen in practice.  Instead what we get is a government that is ruled by one authorative leader, who places their vision into all policy that is administered and how the executive and legislative branches of the government operate.  I am not the biggest advocate of a complete separation of power, and provided there is representative responsibility then the system […] Continue Reading…

Sometimes the decision to host your own domain is not as easy as just going to blogger or wordpress.com and using a hosted blog.  My post count is down due to a break I have taken over recent weeks and a constant battle just to keep my blog operating.
Currently I am using byohosting.com as my hosting provider at $1 US per month.  As I make no income from my blogging this is an appropriate investment giving my limited finances.  My current experiences with this hosting company are that you get what you pay for.  I get email that does […] Continue Reading…

The title says it all… After a blogging holiday I am back with more spare time, fresh full of ideas and new enthusiasm, I did note however that it was hard to get windows live writer and start my first post back and I thought I’d share some of the reasons with you   Time - although some indicate it takes minutes to write hundreds of words, I’m not of that camp Thinking - Knowing what to say is not that easy Keeping up to date - Knowing what other people have said and not said […] Continue Reading…

Although people like me have had hotmail email addresses for over ten years, it does not mean that using this address in the workplace is either credible or professional.  I do not think that using a common, free email looks good on a resume to a top tier law firm.  Nor does sending emails to prospective clients or even new social networking associates with an email that is littered with ads seem an approach that means that people will take you seriously.  Using the email address provided to you by your Internet Service provider does not look much better […] Continue Reading…

Completely avoiding the double entendres that could be drawn out of being a blogger that Does Follow; I have now decided to open all comments on this blog to let their url’s not be shielded by a "link condom".  I really like the idea of people commenting on my blog and encourage anyone to do so.  To enable this I have not put any measures to prevent people posting, save akismet which has caught over 3,000 spam posts in three months.
I have decided to remove the "nofollow" that is automatically added to posts by wordpress.  If you are unfamiliar […] Continue Reading…

What is Mind mapping?
Mind mapping is method of brainstorming that uses visual cues for putting thoughts onto paper.  This produces an easy to read result that is visual, fun, fast and creative.  Many different ideas and unexpected connections can be easily drawn limiting words and increasing understanding.  A picture, idea or central word is used to begin with, branches are then drawn out, free associations and other words are added as they appear in one’s brain as they arise in the course of thinking about or studying the topic.  From these nodes, further branches are drawn.  This can create […] Continue Reading…

You may have seen boxes appear in the last few months on people’s blogs that look like:

I have one on the right hand side of my blog.  This service is called Blogrush.  The idea is that you sign up your blog and they will display your posts headlines on other people’s blogs the same amount of times as you display the widget.  This is a good idea and I would like to do anything that will get people to read what I have written and to contribute to my blog.  They have had all sorts of problems with not […] Continue Reading…

 It may be possible that some questions can not be answered, others are those that are not impossible but there is nothing that you have ever heard to explain the phenomenon, below are some of the questions I have been asking myself for some time where I can not find answers…. Are they answerable - you decide!

Why Can’t Delivery People and Installation Staff Give you an exact time? Why do they have to give you an 8 hour window when they may be available? it is not as if anyone else is able to do […] Continue Reading…

There are many different Smilies or Emoticons -Some in the Picture form above, and others in the traditional Text
…..:)…:-)…*<;-}=
 
However - When you use a smiley or emoticon - do people really know what you are saying?  There seem to be many problems in communication / conveying mesasges that arise because of the lack of consistency in the use of smilies and emoticons.  I propose that there needs to be a standard usage across the board.
These devices are […] Continue Reading…

It is exam time once again.  Last exams for the year and gosh it feels like time for a holiday, not studying the nuances of mortgages or working out the standard deviation and variances of a population. 
It interests me that I always seem to be most productive when I am supposed to be studying.  Not productive in terms of what I should be doing, rather things that I normally avoid but would rather do than study.  I detest cleaning, abhor any physical labor, don’t like filing but do not like studying either.  Here is what I almost always end […] Continue Reading…

Before beginning to blog, I did not think that it would be much of an effort to post every day.  I was wrong; to write quality material that is not merely saying what another blogger has said and coming up with well written (well I think it is) original content takes a lot of time.  I spend on average three hours per post and whilst this is good in terms of my content, it means that unless I have a lot of time to commit to writing I don’t post that day.
I have been suffering from serious computer problems, […] Continue Reading…

The Australian Federal Government instituted a Do Not Call Register earlier this year.  This is a system where you register your personal details and telemarketers are forbidden to call (except for charities and political parties).  This is something that I have felt that was needed for some time and it was about time it was implemented, even if it cost a fortune for something that could have been done by professionals at a fraction of the price.  Although I never give out my phone number and have a silent number so I don’t have this problem. It is […] Continue Reading…

I have been trying to come up with something interesting to write, on the topic of law and less of technology and programming that I have been writing about recently.  I have noticed however that I am not sure what is the best thing to write about, and was inspired by a recent post that I read - that was outlining different ideas taht they had had which were worth discussing but insufficient for a full blog post so they listed 30 of them on their own site.  This is my attempt, and if you, the readers are in […] Continue Reading…

Recently I was contemplating redesigning my blog, and was told by a regular reader that I need a really Large RSS icon to make sure readers have somewhere to subscribe to.  This made me feel rather Inadequate and I decided to ignore the comment.
Days Later, as a point of interest I went out looking for some Beautiful and Large RSS images for my blog.  I found some of these;
The Big
 
   
 
The Not So Big
However, being insatiably curious I decided to see what the celebrity and A-List bloggers use for […] Continue Reading…

My last post indicated the plugins that I use on my blog.  These are fine but some require that you change code in the actual blog.  Changing code is not something that I think people should have to do when all they want to do is publish their thoughts and ideas in their CMS platform.  Not all of us have degrees in programming or understand the nuances of HTML and PHP (ok I do but…) It is also painful if you wish to change themes or have multiple sites and have to do the same setup repeatedly. To […] Continue Reading…

Plugins extend and expand the functionality of WordPress. If you are hosting your own blog and want to have complete control over its appearance and functionality then plugins are for you.  They are generally very easy to install and what they will do make it easy for someone who can’t or don’t want to touch the code to create a site that really rocks.
The concept is very similar to plugins for applications like firefox, where you can download code that increase what they can do see The Top 50 Lightweight Firefox Add-Ons. Powerful plugins and extensions that will not […] Continue Reading…

After Working in IT for what seems a very long time, I do not generally like upgrading things. I have read the good things about the newest version of WordPress, and thought that added security and functionality are the things that I would like for my own peace of mind and that of my readers.

Yesterday I had some spare time and decided that I would take the plunge and upgrade WordPress from 2.2.1 to 2.3.  As readers of this blog will know, it has not been around for too long, but in this time Wordpress has wanted to upgrade […] Continue Reading…

I was at O’Riellys yesterday, Nestled in the Gold Coast Hinterland.  They have wild parrots and other birds that you can hand Feed.  It was lots of fun, but they have very sharp claws and all of us had many cuts and scratches afterwards.  Here is one of hundreds of Great Photos I took yesterday:
 

What surprised me was how difficult it was to get an in focus, well framed image of a bird in flight.  I managed to get some - but the static pictures generally turned out best.
Also Note that I am hosting this photo on Zooomr http://www.zooomr.com/ […] Continue Reading…

 After contributing to thousands of requests for programming help online and in person I have many theories and ideas about how people should learn programming and how they should consider the problems that they find themselves in.  This post is the first of many that will look into commonly asked problems and give tips that if read should solve some of them. 
Much of my experience centers around SQL databases and as such is one of the areas where I think people should understand the central ideas before they begin to ask questions of others. Conceptually, there are ten main […] Continue Reading…