Evil Fly

Category:

Web Development

Listening To:

Greeley Estates - No Rain, No Rainbow

It amazes me sometimes when working in web development at how much you think you know compared with how much you could know.

Every day I am learning something new that makes me rethink how I can approach and solve a variety of problems. With the release of the new jQuery 1.4 a lot of code that I had written to fake the now in-built functionality has become redundant. This allowed me to clean up code in a lot of areas and save some bandwidth, but ultimately in web development, where do you draw the line?

So what?

My point is that everything is changing so fast that it has the drawback of having to choose which methods and technologies you put the time and effort into to get the job done. I learnt MooTools a while back and yet all that time was more or less wasted from a front-end point of view as I found jQuery was better supported and cleaner for the jobs I was working on.

I love web development but sometimes I wish I had more time to really get my teeth in and understand everything more, but how do you approach a medium where everything is constantly changing?

Tags:

web, html, css, jquery

Category:

Web Development

Listening To:

Hail Archer - Leave Your Body Behind

I have finally ported over the entire evilfly.co.uk site to a CodeIgniter framework. I've been meaning to do this for ages and after having a bit of down time over Christmas I could really get my teeth stuck into it.

The original code running this site was written by me many years ago and although it worked perfectly, it was bloated and started to become a pain to manage. It also meant that adding anything or trying to improve the site became a massive chore as I would have to wade through chunks of old code and test everything. Now I have clean HTML templates running off a MVC framework.

This sounds all rather boring, but as a web developer it is my job to stay up-to-date with these things and to be honest 'practice what I preach' came in to play a lot in this. It also gave me a chance to remove a lot of redundant articles and content that will allow me to build up the site to grow a lot more with the content I post and also how it is seen on the Internet itself.

One of the casualties in all this was the original Undertow site. This site has served the band well for many years, but seeing as we haven't gigged in years and is looking unlikely in the future, I would rather take it down than pretend we are still alive and kicking - I feel it has at least some dignity in what we did and accomplished that way. All the songs are still available to download on this site anyway and one day I may even add a little section with some other stuff that was never released etc.

Anyway, as that time has passed I am in the process of writing and rehearsing with my new band called 'Empire Nine.' We will hopefully be gigging during the middle of 2010 and hopefully get an EP done also at some point. The new site for the band is already being built using the ExpressionEngine content management system. This will hopefully be the best and impressive website I have worked on.

NB: The comments will be back soon.

Tags:

codeigniter, frameworks, php

Category:

Music

Listening To:

Capulet - We Won't Let Go

Well as 2009 draws to a close - I thought I would post up my favourite albums of the year. 2009 has been an amazing year for music - I don't think I have ever heard so many new bands and great albums.

Anyway, here is my top 10 and in no particular order:

1) Thrice - Beggars
2) Blessthefall - Witness
3) Closure In Moscow - First Temple
4) Oh, Sleeper - Son Of The Morning
5) Eye Alaska - Genesis Underground
6) August Burns Red - Constellations
7) The Dream The Chase - Found Again
8) Inhale Exhale - Bury Me Alive
9) Jonny Craig - A Dream Is A Question You Don't Know How To Answer
10) You Me At Six - Take Off Your Colours

Happy new year!

Tags:

N/A

Category:

General

Listening To:

Bless The Fall - Witness

I thought I would update this as I have been really busy lately on a variety of things. First thing I need to do is stop posting so many song lyrics as people searching are arriving on this site on some weird search combinations as well as diluting content; it doesn't help that all the words are mainly negative either, so welcome to all you manic depressives ;)

Me, James and Walton are still doing the band thing. I just need to confirm a few things and then we can announce the name, some gig dates and also the new site.

Speaking of music, it's funny how I have been sat on this huge amount of recorded stuff. The new Undertow album, my solo stuff and now this new band, and yet nothing has been put out there. There is a very good explanation for this... I am useless! Seriously though, it may see the light of day one day but I am a bit cautious now of releasing too much stuff that for a period of time was cathartic and a bit too personal.

Anyway, I shall have some more information regarding all that soon. I have added loads of links to the front page of the site. If I have missed you (it's fixed now Jason) then please let me know.

Tags:

N/A

Category:

Lyrics

Listening To:

Eye Alaska - Genesis Underground

There's many who'll tell you they'll give you their love,
But when they say "give"" they mean "take."
They'll hang 'round just like vultures till push comes to shove.
They'll take flight when the earth starts to shake.

Someone may say that they'll always be true,
Then slip out the door 'fore the dawn.
But I won't leave you hanging on.
Another may stay till they find someone new,
Then before you know they'll be gone.
But I won't leave you hanging on;
No, I won't be that someone.

And come what may, I won't abandon you or leave you behind
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
And come what may, I will be standing right here by your side;
I won't run away, though the storm's getting worse and there's no end in sight.

Some talk of destiny, others of fate,
But soon they'll be saying goodbye.
But I won't leave you high and dry.
Because a ring don't mean nothing
If you can't haul the weight,
And some of them won't even try,
But I won't leave you high and dry;
I won't leave you wondering why.

And storms will surely come,
But true love is a choice you must make
And you're the one that I have set my heart to choose.
As long as I live, I swear I'll see this through.

Tags:

N/A