Blog

Confessions of an Input Device Fetishist
21 May 2008

What can I say? I really really like input devices. I use a laptop day-to-day, it has its own keyboard and glide pad. Do I use them .... err, not often! I've always been quite particular about keyboards and mice, and since developing tendonitis in my hands and arms a few …
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Data Migration Podcast
15 May 2008

I'm the guest on this week's php|abstract podcast from DevZone, talking about some techniques for importing and migrating data. I have a few pet strategies for dealing with this and they're outlined on the podcast so dip in and let me know what you think.

There will also be …
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Manchester Is Decidedly Undiverse
14 May 2008

So last night, more or less on a whim, I popped to the Geekup that was on in Manchester. I was slightly alarmed when I enquired at the bar where the event was and was told there was nothing like that booked for that night ... anyway I wandered outside and …
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Nest Of Tables
13 May 2008

We've been decorating the living room since what feels like forever, I'll post some proper pictures of it finished but here is a sneak preview of the photos I took of the new nest of tables that's been waiting for us to finish decorating for a few months. I finally …
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Attempted Break-in
11 May 2008

Last night we came home at around midnight and disturbed an intruder. Nobody hurt and nothing taken, is the short version.

We got back, walked up to the front door and I decided I needed to water my plants as they were looking at bit sad. So I went up …
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Inaugural Sheffield Geekup
08 May 2008

Last night I attended and spoke at the First Sheffield Geekup held at the Fat Cat in Sheffield. My talk was entitled "Deploying Web Projects with Subversion" and you can see the slides for that at http://www.slideshare.net/lornajane/deploying-web-projects-with-svn/.

Overall I think the event was well-organised, there …
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Geekup Sheffield
30 April 2008

I was very pleased to hear that Sheffield is getting its own Geekup event, and that it starts next week on 7th May and will run on the first Wednesday of every month. I was even more pleased to be asked to speak at it - I'll be giving a 20 …
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OpenOffice Custom Quotes
28 April 2008

I have been driven mad for the last week or so by the silly slanty quote marks that OpenOffice insists on using instead of the normal ones. It is especially annoying when adding code snippets to presentations!

To turn these off go to:

Tools > Autocorrect > Custom Quotes tab

And until …
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Weedkiller
26 April 2008

The garden, the bit of it we haven't dug over yet, is FULL of dandelions! I didn't have time to dig them all up but I did go and pick all the flowers in an effort to stop them seeding.

They're pretty though :)

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SugarCRM SOAP Data Types
24 April 2008

Since SugarCRM only works with PHP5 in non-WSDL mode, I had to create all my calls from scratch. The SugarCRM documentation is somewhat minimal, as I may have mentioned, and I found I was mostly reading the WSDL to figure out how to format my SOAP calls. I've put together a post with working examples but I've also assembled a list of the data types needed. Click through to read more.

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SugarCRM SOAP API Examples
24 April 2008

By popular request, here are some examples that worked for me when using the SOAP API offered by SugarCRM. Its nice that there is an interface, but it isn't brilliantly documented or nearly as widely used as it should be!

SugarCRM can't talk to PHP 5 native SOAP libraries in …
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Installing VMWare Tools
21 April 2008

I recently did some work with Debian Etch virtual machines which I downloaded from the good people at thoughtpolice. Here are my notes on getting the VMWare tools added to that machine.

To be able to do anything interesting with a virtual machine, you need to install the VMWare tools …
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