SmarterBlog

news that matters from smartercode

Web Development Frameworks

Posted in technical on March 6th, 2008 by bri

From time to time I experience “web development framework anxiety”.
Are we using the right framework for the job?
Is there a newer, better framework out there that can enable us to do the job faster and with less effort?
So it’s good to see that at least one of the frameworks that we have chosen to produce […]

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Barcode Scanning

Posted in geeks, technical on February 7th, 2008 by bri

I was the proud receiver of a new phone last week - the Nokia N95.
Only today, somebody alerted me to the presence of a Barcode Scanner!.
Apparently, it is all the rage in Japan, but yet to catch on in this country… it’s only a matter of time - that’s what I say! (also it obviously […]

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New Site Live

Posted in Uncategorized on January 19th, 2008 by bri

Well it’s only taken a few weeks and the new Smartercode site is now Live!
The Django development has gone really well - from the initial project setup to more complex tasks such as integrating with the Blog database back-end. I’m definitely recommending it as a platform that enables you to get up and running […]

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Ubuntu Wireless Joy

Posted in operating system on December 22nd, 2007 by bri

I decided to have a go at installing the latest version of Ubutnu (7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon) on my desktop machine the other day (with some trepidation - I’ve had trouble with Linux before involving spending several days trying to get a Radeon card to work!).
To my extreme joy everything worked fine as soon as […]

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Developing using Django

Posted in technical on December 9th, 2007 by bri

I’ve been waiting for a long time for an opportunity to develop a site using Django, and the opportunity has finally presented itself in the form of redeveloping our own site at smartercode based on a new look and feel.
I’m hoping that the Django framework will make developing the site as easy as promised in […]

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Firebird

Posted in technical on November 22nd, 2007 by bri

Only just stumbled across this today - Firebird SQL.
I’ll certainly be looking at this as an alternative to MySql. At first glance, it looks great!
(I stumbled across it whilst searching for an Oracle dialect for NHibernate, after a discussion with a colleague who seemed convinced that NHibernate dosn’t work with Oracle. Well - […]

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Calling East Midlands Web Geeks

Posted in east midlands, geeks, meet-up, social on November 22nd, 2007 by johnap

I really enjoy going to conferences and social gatherings of web geek types.
Ok I can admit this now I’ve been to a few really good ones over the last year or so (dConstruct, Multipack, Geekup, FOWA and most recently @media Ajax).
But… the regular grassroots ones that cost the least, also seem to have been the […]

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@media Ajax 2007 Day 1

Posted in @media, Ajax, Conference, Javascript on November 22nd, 2007 by johnap

Scanning through the list of speakers and their subject matter, day 1 of @media Ajax looked like it wasn’t going to make my head hurt too much. Largely a day of “here’s how things are right now” talks - with one or 2 exceptions it gave us all a chance to ease our way into […]

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Agile Roller Skates

Posted in Uncategorized on November 18th, 2007 by bri

It’s always worth keeping up with Martin Fowler’s latest comments on the state of Agile development. One post I particularly like can be found on his blog : RollerSkateImplementation
Development teams and project managers could learn a lot from this post - i.e. don’t try to deliver 100% of the product all in one […]

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@media Ajax - Conference time again

Posted in Ajax, Conference, Javascript on November 15th, 2007 by johnap

After having missing out on d.Construct this year (due to it selling out in a staggering 2 hours or something!) I’m off for a conference fix on Monday at @media Ajax in old London Town.
The @media events seem to veer more towards the design side of things, but this one (the first time they’ve an […]

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