Reflection is by far and away the most widely used open-source project I’ve ever been involved in (from a programming point of view). As of right now there are over 16,000 downloads, which I frankly never expected at all! So thanks to everyone that’s out there right now using it.

However, it’s dawned on me that it’s about two years old now, and it is in desperate need of some maintenance and tender love and care. I’m starting to get back in control of my crazy schedule, and now is the time to do some much-needed maintenance.

To help me in that endeavour, I’m hoping you will all go out to the forum and suggest your features for Reflection 2.0! On there already is my own list of features. Some things I’m keeping hidden for the time being; whilst there’s not going to be a massive change of the style, there will be a lot of

So go check it out, and give me your suggestions.

3:24 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | Show comment » | Hide comment » |

Unfortunately I ran into a few problems with crashed database tables and general crappery in the upgrade to WordPress 2.9.1. Hopefully everything should now work, including Reflection!

9:14 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Well, vbLatex has had a good innings, but unfortunately I have decided to do the decent thing and cease development on it. The primary motivation for that is that on SFN, the only vBulletin forum I run, we are moving to IPB due to recent shenanigans.

Personally I feel this is the right move for SFN. IPB provides a much nicer development environment at a significant cost saving now that the licensing rules have been changed for vBulletin. Myself and the other moderators at SFN all feel the same way – that Internet Brands are essentially going to treat vB as a nice cash cow, since upgrading from version to version is going to incur a significant cost.

So, since I will no longer have access to the forum software, vbLatex will be retired. I am happy to incorporate any bug fixes, or for another developer to maintain their own website (as long as original credit/copyright is maintained).

Also, you should probably expect an ipbLatex fairly soon…

11:29 am | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

So, it turns out that I’m alive after all! However, three months without even a mention is pretty impressive, even by my standards.

What have I been up to then? Mostly, PhD work. About two weeks ago we submitted a paper to PNAS. My fingers, toes and other extraneous limbs are now crossed for (hopefully) my first publication! It’s gotten through to review which is something, so we’ll see how the peer review process goes. Assuming it gets through that, I will most likely put a preprint up on the site since the license gives me that right.

Apart from that, I’m taking up a new hobby – drumming. I spent quite a lot of money constructing an electronic drum set, which is now drowning my photography right out. Whoops! Hopefully, I will have another post on that shortly detailing some of the stuff it’s made from.

For those of you now using Reflection (almost 10,000 downloads!) the forums are now in a fully operational state, with all spam removed. Time will tell if the spambots return, but this was a pretty common thing in phpBB 3.0.4. Apparently 3.0.5 has an upgraded CAPTCHA system, so we’ll soon see…  Also, another update is on the way soon. This will mostly include some minor bug fixes, but with luck I will have Category support in the archives along with a lot more customisable options.

Right now that I feel like getting a good night’s sleep. So I shall hope to update more in the coming days!

11:24 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | Show comment » | Hide comment » |

Just a quick note to say that a patch has been released for Reflection 1.1.1 which fixes a few issues found by guys on the forum. Get yours here.

10:59 am | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Well, thanks for everyone hanging in there. It’s been a long time in coming, but I’ve finally got Reflection 1.1 to the point where I’m happy to release it.

You can find all the latest info on the Reflection page, or just take a look at my photoblog for a quick demo.

However, please note that if you’ve got problems or feature requests, you should check out the new forum I’ve set up. E-mails probably won’t get responded to.

Enjoy!

3:11 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I am still alive! Just a quick update – I plan on writing something more substantial later on.

1. Reflection 1.1 is almost complete. There are some pretty cool features – better archives (in the same Mosaic style but AJAXified), animation bug fixes, and a lot more customisable features through the admin control panel.
2. vbLatex will also be updated very soon to fix some issues with the later versions of vBulletin.
3. I will be posting Iceland pictures shortly.

Talk later!

11:27 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments » | Show comments » | Hide comments » |

There’s no doubt about it: the default headphones that ship with all iPhones and iPods today really, really suck. They are just far too big to be able to fit into my earlobes, and the quality is pretty shocking; way too much bass for me.

When I got my first iPhone, I decided the buds simply wouldn’t do and so the search was on for a replacement pair.  They had to have:

• Good sound quality.
• Hands-free capability, preferably like the default Apple buds.
• Noise-isolation.

Up until recently there really wasn’t much choice at all. You essentially got a good pair of headphones and used an adapter for the hands-free, or you don’t bother at all.

There’s a nice product on eBay which was my first replacement pair. They use the same driver unit as the Sennheiser CX300 (which is an awesome bud), but have a clicker unit attached. The cable is really rubbery and crap, but for £25 I think they were a pretty good buy. Unfortunately, they died after about 5 months of reasonably heavy usage because the connector edges are sharp and don’t have rubber grommets to prevent the cable being cut.

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Continue reading “Etymotic hf2: finally, headphones that don’t suck.”…

11:53 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | Show comment » | Hide comment » |

Occasionally, I have free time, and and like any other bloke it is a good idea to spend this time play whichever video game you’re addicted to at the moment.

My drug is Guitar Hero. It’s great. I don’t know why.

In any case, I got addicted when I was lent a copy of Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. It has an awesome set list, and learning to play the guitar parts on expert takes a long, long time. But I have completed that whole game on expert minus three songs – Raining Blood (which is crap); some French song (which is crap); and Through the Fire and Flames (which is completely insane).

So naturally, when Guitar Hero: World Tour was announced, I had to buy it. The fact that it is prohibitively expensive was neither here nor there, furthering my hypothesis that this is in fact some sort of narcotic.

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Continue reading “Why I love Amazon”…

12:35 am | Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of posts on the NO2ID forums. For those that have been living under a rock for the last few years, the lovely Labour government is trying to push through a massive, centralised database that contains a number of personal information items; DNA, fingerprints and other biometric information; passport information; drivers license and insurance details; journey details using ANPR, and a number of other things.

I’m going to skim over the fact that implementing a system like this is completely ridiculous, and focus more on the one phrase that makes my blood boil.

If you’ve got nothing to hide, then what’s the problem?

I have two responses for this. They run something like:

1. The issue of whether I have ‘something to hide’ is completely irrelevant. The government has no place in my private business, period. If you cannot comprehend the possible scope for misuse of power of a database such as this, then you need to get yourself down to a hospital, pronto.
2. Now go away before I beat you.

Seriously people, contact your local MP right now, before this gets completely out of control. Canada is looking like a damn good option right now.

9:55 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | Show comment » | Hide comment » |