After I wrote about the death of a gadget, I decided that I would definitely just go out and buy something which would make music, to use in the car and at the gym, which wouldn’t matter if it died too. So I got one of these logik orbit mp3 players (mine was actually black). I thought it would fit the bill, it was dirt cheap (35 GBP for 2gb player), little, and had multicoloured backlight which I love!

Not such a good idea. It had an internal battery that never seemed to hold charge for long. The mini-usb connection was a faff but that was the least of the problems I had. Often, it would play and show the battery as half full or even more, but if you turned it off for ten minutes when you stopped at a service station and then asked it to play again, it just wouldn’t turn on. This thing took longer to boot than my sister’s windows machine, an old hand-me-down from me with goodness-knows-what installed on it. I regularly ended up on a long drive or in the gym with no music, not something I enjoy. The best was when we used it in the car while visiting over Christmas. I had never really noticed before but it doesn’t correctly identify the tracks. When playing a track, it would show you 3 random pieces of information. They weren’t even necessarily an artist, an album and a title – you would just get any three. My favourite was “we will rock you” being labelled as “Kylie” sung by “Andrew Lloyd Webber” from the album “various” :)

Better things

So I got an iriver T20 from Scan’s Today Only for a little over fifty quid.

Its beautiful. Its cute, its tidy and its elegant. The biggest downside was that it is a “play for sure” player, but following instructions from a couple of sites, it was possible downloaded the manufacturer’s new firmware and turned the device into a normal USB mass storage that can be seen and understood by Linux as well.

This device is tiny (did I mention it’s also quite cute?), has a lovely quality of screen, a separate line in socket and a USB connection that retracts into it when not in use. The menus are not terribly intuitive but so far I haven’t found anything I wanted to do and couldn’t find out how. The battery doesn’t seem to go flat at all, it plays ogg-vorbis format and frankly its the best thing I have spent money on in a long time. Isn’t it satisfying to have something that you really like?

Next week I’ve been asked to go to the netball club committee meeting and tell them a bit about what a website is and whether I should be making them one. In order to get my brain in gear I’ve been thinking about tools that would be suitable for this … I have been looking for a reason to try out Joomla! for a while, because the phpwomen.org site uses it and I don’t know much about it. Anyway last week I read a good review of it in LinuxFormat which reviewed a number of CMS tools and rated Drupal best but gave Joomla! the same score but said it was simpler.

So I’ve just installed Joomla! for the first time and it was as easy as falling off a log :) Actually it might have been even easier than that, once I set off through the process of installing it then suddenly I was all done and fiddling with the admin tool! This product has a very active community behind it so I was quickly able to grab some free templates and suchlike, very cool (especially as they look quite complicated to write from scratch) and appealing to my instant-gratification appetite.

Items, Categories and Sections

All items (my items are like articles, I’m still learning so not sure if this would always be true) have to go into a category, and all categories have to go into sections. It is necessary to set up the sections and categories first, before creating anything to go in them; the Joomla! manual explains that these are like folders and drawers and your room would be a mess if you didn’t. Its easy to move things around later anyway so that’s no big deal.

I found it confusing to add a link to a section and realise that this would then list the categories within it, rather than the items. However I got around this by removing the menu item and creating a new one which pointed directly to the category.

Table – Content Category

The default section listing is horrible, its a big table with the date, the author, the section, the title, the phase of the moon and a bunch of filters and other navigation. The category in question is a list of netball venues and there are about five of them! I faffed around with templates and had a bit of a dig in the code (I knew there was a reason I always use PHP stuff even though I rarely fiddle with the code as it only causes upgrade nightmares), but I couldn’t work it out.

To cut short a long story, in which I learned the true size and depth of the Joomla! community from the sheer volume of material that’s around, what I actually needed to do was edit the properties of the menu item (obviously!) to make the category display differently. I’ve turned off all the guff and now I’ve got a nice, tidy list. sighs contentedly

First impressions

First impressions are that I love Joomla! but I’d need a good reason to install a tool with quite this many capabilities. This website uses textpattern and that’s more than enough for every day, but Joomla! can handle so many different types of content that there’s hardly anything you can’t do. Anyway the main purpose of the new site is to show fixtures so I will soon be trying out some events calendar extensions … I’ll let you know how I go!

This is a nice little tool that I use a lot, especially when I only want to see stuff posted by real people or posted in a given timescale: blogsearch.google.com.

A search on Zelda got me (via a couple of links), to this zelda name generator. I love the internet!

(my Zelda name is Malon, incidentally)

In the wider world of software development, supporting software is seen as the lowest form of employment in that field. I have to say that I totally disagree, working as a support developer needs quick thinking and expertise on every subject that might come up plus a whole raft of complimentary skills to understand how different users and environments can affect the outcome. The exception to this is first-line support, which is a different job altogether. Here are my thoughts on what the differences are, and why first-line support can be demoralising for a developer.

Different Levels of Support

First-line support is the initial point of contact for a user. This person usually knows what questions to ask to narrow down the likely cause of the problem, and can deal with common queries about functionality. They usually have access to a knowledgebase so that they can research simple problems and help the users. The first-line support person may also do some basic investigation into a fault, for example replicating the problem and investigating obvious causes. A good first-line support person is organised so that they can keep track of lots of calls/users/faults/tasks, and has good communication skills for dealing with non-technical users over the telephone or by email and for conveying information about technical problems to the next level of support as needed.

Second- and third-line support tends to have less clear boundaries. Usually second-line support is a skilled developer who will develop a solution to the problem, whereas a third-line support person might be a more senior person who designed that part of the system in the first place. Sometimes the distinction is not made at all. These developers will be looking at existing problems which have been verified and they will then apply their technical abilities to correcting the problem. Often they will have only limited contact with the user; their solution may be conveyed via the first-line support people.

Support as a Route Into IT

Having worked as a support developer I have to say its a great place to start in an organisation. You get an overview of every part of every version of every product and come into contact with large portions of the organisation itself and its user base – or at least that’s my experience from working in an ISV. As experience is accrued you can take on more and more difficult faults to fix and can also start to specialise in areas that you are now knowledgeable about. If there is a structure to move from first-line into second-line support, I think an intelligent person with an enquiring mind and a good attitude can thrive.

I could write at length about this, but I’ll save it for a(nother) rainy day.

Asking Experienced Developers to Work First-Line

If, as a manager, you ask developers who report to you to do support, you’ll normally get grumbles. Ask them to do exclusively first-line support and you’ll get a revolt (there’s a joke in there somewhere, about revolting developers, but I can’t quite form it). It might seem to you that they are lazy, don’t want to use the phone, or would rather surf with their headphones in all day like they do now when they’re supposed to be developing, but (for me anyway) there’s more to it than that.

I can’t speak for everyone but personally I find second-line support invigorating and rewarding. Users present problems or other unexpected experiences, and I’m able to make their lives a bit better by using my skills to help. I feel helpful and its rewarding – even if the users aren’t actually very grateful! First-line support is chaotic, my secretarial skills are good but its really hard to ignore the fact that you could probably untangle this user’s problem because you have to get them off the line and talk to the next one. The whole thing becomes a fog of error messages and phone numbers! Personally I’ve worked in first-line support before and my organisational skills are well up to the task – I’d even say that I’m good at it. But “invigorating and rewarding”?

Not at all. A bit like doing a good job when working in MacDonalds wouldn’t be invigorating and rewarding![1]

¹ Actually I’m not sure that really conveys the depth of difference between an ordinary development role, even one which is mostly maintenance, and the front line of support. Any better metaphors are gratefully received!

I commented on an article about music player technology, saying how much I liked my Packard Bell AudioKey and how simple it was.

Well its died, and the search is on for a replacement (no I can’t wait for Christmas!), So far I’m interested in the iriver players, and the main requirements are 512Mb or more, a USB connection and no drivers needed – since I dock it in all sorts of different places and different operating systems.

I’ll let you know what I choose but suggestions are greatfully received, any ideas?

I read this article from Elliotte Rusty Harold yesterday, and its kind of stuck in my mind [1]. He writes about what the different types of HTTP requests were actually intended for; the difference between the verbs GET and POST. His point is that to view information, GET should be used so that the page can be bookmarked (or indexed, or emailed) and reused. POST is just for actions that shouldn’t be repeated – and he’s right.

His article is here: http://cafe.elharo.com/web/post-considered-inconvenient/ and its well worth the read. I don’t think I’d ever really thought about this before, or not in these terms. Thanks, Elliotte, for a great and thought-provoking article!

¹ Possibly because I’m writing a big search form and sorting mechanism for a big set of results at work! Since I work in manufacturing its all dates and partcodes and supplier codes and so on, not terribly exciting but a good illustration of when to use different posting methods.

Opera has sneaked in a fabulous new search feature – and I missed it completely! In looking up how to set up some shortcut searches, I stumbled across this and thought I’d share.

Opera 9 (and I think earlier versions) comes with a preconfigured search function, where you type the letter “g” and then the search terms you would have typed into Google’s search box and the search is performed for you. I have a couple of other searches set up as well, previously it was necessary to work out where in the query string to put your search and hack about with an ini file to get it working.

Not any more! On any site with a search box you can right click in it and choose “Create Search …”, you will then be asked to choose a shortcut letter to use with it. That’s so clever! And very non-techie to use.

Self-promoting example

In opera, go to lornajane and right-click in the Search box on the right-hand bar. Choose “Create Search …” and type “l” into the search box. Now in a new tab, type into the address bar:

l opera search

And guess where you’ll end up??

Usage

I have p for the PHP Website and w for Wikipedia, and am lost without them!

Following my brush with RSI, I’ve become very mouse-averse, which is difficult on a windows computer! There are a couple of shortcuts that I use to launch programs, mostly revolving around use of the Start->Run dialog (press Windows and R and it just pops up).

PuTTY can have saved sessions which is very useful – for example I use a different coloured background for the production server at work, so I remember which window it is and don’t type into the wrong one. To launch a saved session from the command line (or Run dialog box), use:

<path to putty.exe> -load <saved session

I have to look this up every time I need to change my machine or set this up somewhere else, so its here for safekeeping!

My partner asked me the other day if I would like a new watch for Christmas. Actually I would really like a new watch for Christmas and I’m touched that he had thought of such a gift. He asked that I choose, so that he could be sure of getting something that I liked.

As a first step, we grabbed the Argos catalogue and he started to browse. I brought some drinks in and asked how he was getting on. “I’m looking for a ladies watch that actually does something”, he replied. But we didn’t find one.

Why is it that men need dates, alarms, lights and interesting energy solutions on their watches (not to mention ones that are manufactured from interesting stuff, like titanium), when women just need the time (often with no second hand and no accurate markings) and plenty of bling? I don’t get it. I want one with a backlight so I can see the time at night, and an alarm to set in case I fall asleep on the train.

With women being target market for phones, music players, and even games consoles these days, it seems very odd that such a fundamental market hasn’t caught up. I’m not a gadget freak really (not much anyway) and I don’t need something which remote controls my talking entertainment centre and is waterproof to 100m or anything. My current watch was an emergency buy from Next when the last one died and its pretty good – it has minute markings and a second hand – and a diving bezel thing that I use when I’m cooking to remind me when something will be ready.

I suppose the answer is to buy a man’s watch. I’m a big girl after all (at almost six feet tall) and I do have big hands. The trouble is that I have tiny wrists, ladies watches are too big even after I’ve had links taken out – an average man’s watch is big enough for both my wrists at one time, which isn’t practical!

Short of starting my own gadget accessories range, I’m not sure how I’m going to solve this!