Just a quick tip for those who (like me) have wanted to install the Subversion client on their CPanel/WHM VPS. (I have my repositories hosted with SVNRepository.com so no need for a Subversion server to be set up). I have a couple of VPS servers set up and wanted to install subversion on both. After a bit of Googling I worked out that by simply logging into the command prompt as root and installing Subversion via YUM

# yum install subversion

It should install fine, and on the first of my VPSs (CENTOS Enterprise 4.6 x86_64) it did. Great!

However, on the second VPS, it came up with the error:

Error: Missing Dependency: perl(URI) >= 1.17 is needed by package subversion

This VPS is running CENTOS Enterprise 4.6 i68. Initially I tried to install Perl URI via YUM, using the command yum perl-URI, but it reported that there was nothing to do, so I tried to clean the cache (yum clean all) and try again, but still no luck. The solution was to find a suitable RPM, download and install manually. After a bit of searching, I found a list of RPMS, one of which was suitable for my distro. I installed the RPM, everything went well, so had another go at installing subversion and all worked fine. These are the steps I followed:

# wget ftp://ftp.wavelink.com.tw/pub/Cent4464/CentOS/RPMS/perl-URI-1.30-4.noarch.rpm
# rpm -i perl-URI-1.30-4.noarch.rpm
# yum install subversion

To test I tried

# svn –version
svn, version 1.1.4 (r13838)
compiled Aug 21 2005, 20:56:55
…. etc …..

Which means it’s working!

Hope this helps someone out there.

Posted in Development | 1 Comment »

Revamp of CM-WW website along with development of client area for download of large files. Flash animated art buying area. Fully optimised for search engines.
www.cm-ww.com

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Complete redesign of The Listening Company website, with CMS.
www.listening.co.uk

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ibrow designed and developed a simple brochure site for this talented group of aircraft failure investigators.

www.afta-ltd.co.uk

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DC-SAT.net website launched, complete website overhaul, with ibrow CMS system.

www.dc-sat.net

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Hi, and welcome back.

This is my first proper post in almost two months, so can I first apologies for the radio silence. Many reasons for this: really hyper busy in last 2007, then was struck down (like everyone else in London) by some horrible bug and bed-ridden for over a week, and then I had to get on a plane and fly off on Holiday.

But now I’m back, a little bit jet lagged and certainly NOT tanned!

One strange side effect of suffering the effects at the edge of Cyclone Helen was that I had quite a lot of time to think. And this thinking allowed me to really get my head together for 2008. There is so much that I want to do, and so much that needs to be done. So without further delay, here are my top 5 things to do in the first half of 2008:

1) Sort out this website

Yes, there is no denying it, this website is a little bit rubbish. It needs a major overhaul. The ibrow.com site should really be focused on promoting ibrow as a company and business, but still with my personality - it shouldn’t just contain my ramblings about whatever I happen to think about. (Edit : the site you are seeing now is a definite improvement on what it was! - april 2008)

2) Get the ball rolling for forking Timesheet.php

I’ve had a load of feedback since writing my entry about forking Timesheet.php, from here and Sourceforge. I need to get the ball rolling on this otherwise it’ll never get started.

3) Find some great people to work with.

If all goes according to plan, ibrow will be getting a load of work in over the coming months - more than just little old me can handle. It’s scary, but exciting. And I definitely need to find some great people to help me out.

4) Learn more

So many things I want to learn in 2008, there is so much out there to do - where do I start?!

5) Write more

Simple really, write more on the blog - and good quality entries, not just of the “I’m on holiday” kind.

Expect much more from this site over the next coming months. Also, I’d love your feed back, so please let me know what you like/don’t like about this blog.

Thanks, and 2008, here we come!!!

Posted in General, News | 1 Comment »

SwitchHack Blog goes live.

ibrow designed and developed SwitchHack as a personal blog for Neville Upton of The Listening Company to put out his thoughts and ideas on the call centre industry. The blog is managed by Wordpress and has been fully optimised for SEO.

www.switchhack.com

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My apologies for not posting recently, but (as those of you on Twitter know) I’m on holiday! Normal service will be resumed when I get back in the New Year, Jan 12th. I have loads of ideas for 2008, so subscribe to my feed. Have a great New Year to all my readers.

Posted in General | No Comments »

Marc Benton in his new blog has written a good write up on the spec of the £100/$200 laptop offered by the “One Laptop Per Child” charity - the XO laptop. Saw this on News Night last night and was impressed that they could get a laptop that cheap. Marc’s post describes the specs and explains how they kept costs down. Nice work Marc.

read more | digg story

Posted in General, On The Web | No Comments »

As many of you know I’m doing a part time degree course (Politics, Philosophy and History) as well as being a self employerd web developer. One of the best things about this course is that I can go to extra lectures which complement the course. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of going to one of these extra lectures, “The Philosophy of Wine Tasting” by Barry Smith. I must say, it was fantastic. I’ve never really thought about wine tasting before but this lecture was so interesting and Barry was so passionate and eloquent about his subject, I ended up wanting to buy a vineyard.

Incidentally, Barry has just brought out a new book, which you can get from Amazon (I have, perfect Christmas present for my Dad!)

During the lecture Barry took us through the journey of a wine tasting, contrasting the difference between a novice (like me) and an expert. A novice finds a nice bottle of wine, likes it – it works for them – and that’s kind of it, thinks that all this “it smells of blueberry leaves” is a load of crap. Whereas the expert goes beyond their personal preference and analyses the multitude of components the wine has. The grape, the age, the weather, the process, even the earth, the people and history that all go into making the wine what it is. This started me thinking. Now, I’m a bit of a geek and pretty addicted to my job of coding. And I began thinking:

Wine tasting is a little bit like programming

Now run with me on this one.

When you first start, you’re a novice. You’re looking around for what you like, and when it works, you’re pretty pleased with yourself (at least, I was/am). But there is no background to it.

When I first started programming, I was one of those copy/paste kids that wasn’t quite sure why it worked, but it did, and I was pretty pleased with myself. This is like most people. They have no idea how or why Google works, or Word, or email, it just does. At the same time, people aren’t quite sure why they like a nice bottle of Jacobs Creek, any concept of what’s gone behind it, the effort put in.

But then people start to get more interested, start asking how it works, or why it tastes like it does. Then they get hooked. At this stage most people really go for it. They buy countless books, they read hundreds of articles, but most of all, they start to try out lots of new things. First they start with the foundation, either the language: Ruby, Java, PHP, C#, or the grape: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Gris and Noir. Each of these have different philosophies, concepts - call it methodologies, behind them. Dabble in these, test them out, see what works for them, try them out for size, for example OOP or “under ripening the grape”.

By now, an appreciation is being formed. Irrelevant of whether you like it or not, you can distance yourself from the actual “flavour”, but instead focus on the inner working of the code, or the wine. You can come to appreciate a well made wine, or well structured code. But also you can come to appreciate the history gone into producing the product in front of you. The age of the vine, the good summer it had a decade ago, or the frost suffered last year, the problems faced by people using the language, the particular itches that had to be scratched, experiences gained from other projects. Once you’ve truly immersed yourself for a few years you can come to appreciate the nuances, the culture, for want of a better word, the soul of a language or of a wine.

At this point, go for it, taste everything, try everything, become an expert. Know the most obscure syntax or date and time functions, know that if you have a cheap bottle of bubbly you can make it taste like the most expensive champagne you’ve ever tasted by complementing it with a little slice of Parmesan cheese on the side. There is so much out there to find out, to sample and to learn.

I have to admit, I love it. I love wine and I love programming. But the most important thought that struck me during this lecture was this: both the best wine in the world and the best programming most likely originate from the garage or shed of someone who is truly passionate about what they are doing.

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