Answered: “What are your thoughts on specializing on the JS ecosystem?”
Here’s my answer to the question above from a post on Reddit: As always, there are pros and cons to specialising vs generalising. Read more
Archive
49 posts
2024
1 post
December 1, 2024
1 post
2023
3 posts
July 1, 2023
1 post
Unreal Engine: How to use Swarm to speed up lightmap baking
Got a spare computer on your LAN sitting idle? Do you wish your lighting bakes wouldn’t take so long? Read more
June 1, 2023
2 posts
Unreal Engine C++: How to spawn a Blueprint by name
If you find yourself wanting to spawn a Blueprint class within C++, here’s how. Read more
Visual Studio Extensions: How to get colors from the VS theme
TL;DR: Read on for full details. Read more
2022
1 post
May 1, 2022
1 post
How to be a Great Remote Teammate
Working from home is nothing new, especially for those of us in the technology business. Since the COVID pandemic, however, many companies were forced to jump into the deep end of remote work. Read more
2021
2 posts
December 1, 2021
1 post
Unreal Engine: How to Add Widgets With C++ at Runtime
Let’s say you have an existing UMG UI which you’ve created in C++ already* (derived from UUserWidget), and you want to add child widgets at runtime. Read more
November 1, 2021
1 post
How to Create a Circle Crosshair in Unreal Engine
This tutorial shows you how to create a circular crosshair using a widget blueprint with a material. Read more
2014
1 post
October 1, 2014
1 post
Ethics in Software Engineering
I’d like to start by first talking about software engineering itself, and whether it can legitimately be called engineering. Read more
2013
2 posts
February 1, 2013
1 post
Drive Caffeine: Keep Sleepy Drives Awake
Got a tired drive that just won’t stay awake? Then you may find my new (open source) utility, Drive Caffeine, useful. Read more
January 1, 2013
1 post
console.log() with jsFiddle
jsFiddle is a great tool for quick JavaScript prototyping. Read more
2012
2 posts
October 1, 2012
1 post
JavaScript snippet: Remove base URL from link
I needed this function this morning so I thought I’d share it in case someone else does too. Read more
September 1, 2012
1 post
It’s Not That Bad…
It’s taken nearly a year for me to become angry inspired enough to blog again. The culprit this time is ASP.NET poster boy Scott Hanselman. Read more
2011
5 posts
October 1, 2011
1 post
Steer Well Clear
This morning a friend told me about this article, all about a new advertising campaign run by Steers, a South African fast food chain. Read more
March 1, 2011
1 post
Gentle Editing
Like many programmers, I’ve come to love Stack Overflow and the rest of the Stack Exchange network. Its unique Wiki / Blog / Forum blend creates a fantastic platform for knowledge sharing. Read more
February 1, 2011
1 post
At Your Service
I want to talk today about that all important entity that often gives us joy, sometimes anguish, and is the reason we service providers get up in the morning. The dear customer. Read more
January 1, 2011
2 posts
Doing it Write
I’ve blogged before about how the standard of our written language is rapidly deteriorating, and today I wanted to talk about how we’re making the problem worse with computers. Read more
2010
2 posts
March 1, 2010
2 posts
K&R – Solution to Exercise 1.23
I’m working my way through The C Programming Language at the moment, and so far I’m loving C’s purity and leanness. Read more
Users Are Not Stupid
Really! And, quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of programmers talking about them like this (not all programmers, some are worse than others, and all the usual disclaimery stuff applies). Read more
2009
14 posts
November 1, 2009
1 post
Tubecaster 3 UI Mockup
Here’s a mockup of the main window for the upcoming Tubecaster 3. The release will include support for multiple downloads at once, playlist download support and built-in media conversion tools. Stay tuned! Read more
August 1, 2009
2 posts
Pre-populate Django ModelForm with Specific Queryset
I just had a situation where I was trying to filter the queryset for a ModelMultipleChoiceField based on the currently logged-on user. I was going crazy trawling through the Django docs and eventually Google. Read more
Language in the New Millennium
One of my passions has always been the articulate expression of oneself through language. Read more
July 1, 2009
2 posts
Why I Love Django
I’ve used Django for a few small projects in the last year and have absolutely fallen in love with it. Read more
CSS auto reload with Django templates
Have you ever been in the situation where you’ve updated your CSS file but users’ web browsers haven’t automatically loaded the new one? Read more
May 1, 2009
2 posts
SourceForge drops IE 6 support
SourceForge has changed its appearance more often in the past 6 months than Joan Rivers’ face. Not in small ways either. Read more
Server Fault Private Beta
Following on from the wildly successful Stack Overflow programming questions and answers website, Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky have launched Server Fault, a questions and answers site following the same format but now for “system administrators and IT professionals”. Read more
April 1, 2009
3 posts
Tubecaster.org live
I’ve just launched a new website for Tubecaster. The new site was created with Django, with which I’m extremely impressed. Read more
Firefox Tip: More room on your Bookmarks Toolbar
I’m a huge fan of the Windows Quick Launch bar. Mine is two lines high and contains 20 shortcuts, all of which I use almost every day. Read more
Balsamiq Mockups, donated license
The wonderful folks at Balsamiq have graciously donated a license for their Mockups user interface design software to the Tubecaster project to help with future improvements. Read more
March 1, 2009
1 post
Python Line Counter
Yesterday I was looking for a Python source code line counter to give me a summary of some source files, but I couldn’t find a free one that would do the job as I wanted. So I created one. Read more
February 1, 2009
2 posts
Tubecaster 2.0.1 Released!
I’m pleased to report that Tubecaster 2.0.1 for Windows is now available for download. Click here to go to the downloads page on the Tubecaster homepage. Read more
DPAPI user-mode access in Python
In the latest version of Tubecaster I’ve come to the point of needing to give users the option of storing passwords on disk. Needless to say the very thought sent shivers down my spine. Read more
January 1, 2009
1 post
Troubleshooting 101
The most likely cause of the problem usually is the cause. That mantra sounds deceptively simple and obvious, but remember it when you’re diagnosing a problem, programming or otherwise. Read more
2008
12 posts
October 1, 2008
2 posts
Python proxy client connections requiring authentication using urllib2 ProxyHandler
I’ve been playing around with trying to pass HTTP connections through a proxy server requiring authentication from Python and after a few hours of hunting around I’ve managed to find enough bits of information to cobble together into a working example. Read more
Artificial Intelligence, Project Concept: PIE
I’ve been doing some reading on artificial intelligence (AI) today as it’s the time of the year again when the Turing Test is performed on a handful of selected artificial intelligence systems. Read more
September 1, 2008
2 posts
Tubecaster: First Linux version
If you’d like to try an early version of my port of Tubecaster to Linux, you can download it here. Please see the readme file within the archive for dependency details. Read more
New utility: tabs2spaces.py
I’ve just created a Python script that will take a filename on the command line and convert all of its tabs into the given number of spaces (2nd argument). Click here to download. Read more
August 1, 2008
1 post
Old Blender 3D Renderings
Whilst digging through some of my old backups this afternoon I came across some old renderings from about 2004 (the same year I gave my 3D graphics presentation to CLUG) that I did in Blender. Read more
July 1, 2008
1 post
Computer Programming as an Art
I highly recommend anyone interested in programming as an art form read Donald Knuth‘s article entitled “Computer Programming as an Art” where Knuth explains the view excellently. Read more
April 1, 2008
3 posts
Hardy? Hardly!
I’ve spent the last few days with the final release of Canonical‘s latest offering, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS aka Hardy Heron and overall I am impressed. Read more
Hardy is Here!
The latest Ubuntu release, version 8.04 codename Hardy Heron, has finally arrived! Read more
Ubuntu 8.04 LTS – First looks
I just wanted to share my excitement at the latest Ubuntu desktop release. Fantastic! Read more
March 1, 2008
1 post
Tubecaster Reviewed!
I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find an e-mail in my inbox from a website called “Uptodown.com” informing me that they had tested Tubecaster and thought that their visitors would find it useful. Read more
February 1, 2008
1 post
To Be, or nt 2 B?
In the age of cellphone text messages, online instant messaging and e-mail we are using written communication more than ever before. Read more
January 1, 2008
1 post
“MIT Sketching” software
I first saw the video below a few months ago and I was very impressed at the time. It’s now been featured on YouTube. It seems MIT has developed some natural machine “sketching” software. Read more
2007
4 posts
December 1, 2007
4 posts
MVC / Design Patterns with Python – Links
I’ve been doing a lot of research into design patterns lately, Model-View-Controller (MVC) in particular. Read more
Tubecaster – new version
I’ve just released a new version of my Tubecaster application which allows you to download YouTube videos and converts them to MP3. Get it from the Tubecaster homepage. Read more
The Problem(s) with Linux
I started using Linux in 1999. At the time I was sorely frustrated with the state of Windows, as are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people every day. Read more
