From my Blog…

1. Getting started with PHPUnit

   4th November 2012

   I've been adding and modifying tests in an existing PHPUnit test suite for the last few years, mostly at work. My experience has gone through the usual stages of, anger - do we really need to waste time doing this, resistence - ok it caught that bug but still, acceptance - without tests I dont trust this bit of code, to embracing it. Time had come to setup my own test suite for one of my personal… continue reading »

2. Digital supply and demand

   23rd June 2012

   This week I finished watching NCIS series 5, therefore stocking up on the next instalment was top of my list of things to do. I checked iTunes, £24.99. The Amazon, £9.99 - with free delivery. O.K. So burning 6 disks, moulding the case, printing the sleeve, and shipping it from the Channel Islands to my door - 634 miles according to Google Maps - is 150% cheaper than the digital download.… continue reading »

3. Why do people navigate the web using search?

   20th March 2012

   You know that thing when you see a regular web user navigate to Facebook via Google rather than using the address bar? Why do they do that? I was thinking about this the other day I think I've come up with a reason. If you think of the browser address bar as a command-line and a web search as a GUI it starts to make sense. If you get one character wrong using the address bar you will be met by—probably… continue reading »

4. CSS responsive images, max-width and captions

   17th February 2012

   Working on a small project recently I came across a frustrating little issue when trying to use responsive images with a caption (demo). The problem arises when a rendered caption is longer than the width of the image it belongs. Images in responsive designs need to be marked max-width: 100%; so that the content can naturally flow to the width of the page. However without an explicit width when… continue reading »

5. Tay Bridge Notifier

   7th January 2012

   Tuesday 13th December, the last day a colleague would relish the look on my face as they convey news that the Tay Road Bridge was closed. For now at least the bad news should be mine. The frustration of coming home via Perth–a 25 minute journey becomes ~2 hours–twice within a week was motivation enough to write TayBridgeTweets, a simple program that tweets when the status of the bridge… continue reading »

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