UPDATE: A new version of InvisionYourLife.com went live around Christmas 2008
I got my PHP/MySQL book – Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional by W. Jason Gilmore – in the mail at the weekend and I’m well into the nitty-gritty of development. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m using the TinyButStrong template engine, and now I’m also using the ezSQL class just to cut down on the lines of code to the absolute extreme.
I was glad to see that I could use subtemplates with TinyButSTrong, and this is the technique I’ve been using to create re-occurring page elements (headers, footers, and – in the .NET lingo – user controls.)
It’s great fun so far, though on the graphics side I’m … read on »
Archive for November, 2006…
Russell, Proust and Peake
Reading Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy I’m struck by his intellectual generosity and fairness. He goes out of his way to extract the best from all kinds of ideas, including those that are easily rejected in the modern era, in the light of science. The book is a classic but it is widely criticized for its treatment of certain philosophers.
[Russell] treats Nietzsche with supreme cruelty as Nietzsche was a thinker that broke from the Enlightenment tradition and refused to play with numbers.
Russell’s bias and his dismissive treatment of philosophers that he does not agree with.
(Reviews at Amazon.com)
On the one hand it is obtuse not to see the (non-causal) connection between Nietzsche and Hitler, and on the other hand it … read on »
The Consistency of Paul Keir
I think I’ve noticed a contradiction. My good friend Paul and I were discussing religion recently, and I said that a religion is hardly worthy of the name unless it, and its followers, try to spread it. Paul said no: perhaps you can subscribe to a religion because it’s right for you, with no claim as to its universal applicability. I think Paul has neatly summed up a widespread modern attitude, one that has its foundation in excessively individualistic relativism. And I think it’s easy to show that it’s contradictory.
1. A religion is, or is based on, a set of particular beliefs
2. A belief is a proposition about the universe that is held by the holder of the belief to … read on »
Brian Rowan's Glaswegian Anthropology
I must record Brian’s apparently original theory as to why Glasgow is more friendly than Edinburgh. But first, some background. I have always enthused romantically and vaguely about Glasgow’s atmosphere, usually contrasting it with Edinburgh’s. I will say, whenever the subject arises, that Glasgow is more friendly, that it has an exciting edgy atmosphere, that the women are more attractive (sorry all you Edinburgeresses), that people talk in the street, that people are approachable and open, and so on. But until recently I had come to wonder if it wasn’t just my western bias: I am from the west coast and had come to know Glasgow much better than Edinburgh. I had also come to realise that it was a … read on »
Building a New Website and The Joys of Public Transport
First, a warning: I don’t have categories on this blog, so everything’s gotta go in the one place. So if you’re not remotely interested in how I decided between PHP and Ruby on Rails in planning the development of a website, scroll down to Buses for some commuter moaning.
A couple of weeks ago I agreed to build a website for Laura’s sister Jeannie, who is a hypnotherapist and life coach in Courtenay, British Columbia, in Canada. First I tried to decide which technology to use.
Microsoft is my background but ASP.NET wasn’t an option because of the costs involved, in development and hosting. Also, I was excited about using the project to learn a new technology. I thought at first that … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson