So the homework for web design and development this week was to create this.

The challenges were interpreting the mistakes in the instruction sheet, source code for jQuery not being on the virtual learning environment where it should have been and not sticking my fingers down my throat at the tweeness. ‘Inverhaggis’???

I believe we’ll end up creating bilingual versions of the site – my other language will be Klingon!

For a long time now, I’ve been using my Pismo¹ as a web server. It’s now running out of space. Should I:

1. delete the 9·2·2 partition and use that space to increase the 10·4·11 partition (cost £0)
2. replace the 30GB SSD with a larger SSD or HD (cost £3 for new enclosure)²
3. use my netbook³ instead of Pismo. (cost £0)
4. refurbish my 17″ MacBook Pro⁴and use it instead of Pismo. Total cost £200⁵, but with the advantage that I could run QuarkXpress 7 (useful for freelance work) on a mac that isn’t teeth-grindingly slow or noisy
5. something else?

If I go for 3, 4 or 5, what should I do with Pismo? I’m very emotionally attached to her. I’m also very attracted to option 4 – I want SURGE back in my life. But I’m too tired to make a rational decision about £200 just now.

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1. 400MHz, 1GB RAM, 30 GB SSD (as 2GB for MacOS 9·2·2, 28GB for MacOS 10·4·11)
2. I have a 60GB PATA SSD, currently in a USB enclosure and containing installers for SnowLeopard, Lion and MountainLion. I also have a currently naked 60GB SATA HD, for which I’ve just ordered a USB enclosure. So I could CCC the installers from the PATA to the SATA, then put the PATA into Pismo.
3. Dell Mini 10v, 1·6GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HD, MacOS 10·6·7
4. 2·5 or 2·6GHz (depending on which motherboard I buy), 4GB RAM, 250GB HD, MacOS 10·5·8 (if I use it for QuarkXpress7) or 10·8·whatever (if it becomes just a web server)
5. SURGE’s motherboard died about a month out of warranty. At the time, a replacement would have cost over £600, which I couldn’t afford. I can now obtain a refurbished motherboard for £200, which I can now afford, but it would have only 60 days’ warranty. SURGE would live on my hardware altar, so there should be no strain on his graphics chips.

I did my first ‘distance’ cycle of the year tonight. (Inverted commas because 20 miles with 2 stops is fairly pathetic compared to my intentions for this year.)

Apart from getting onto tarmac that’s relatively free of potholes, I also aimed to charge the USB-WERK’s battery so it could continuously charge my iPhone. I cycled from Haymarket to Broxburn, stopped to watch a plane coming overhead and then cycled back as far as the Mariott hotel: total distance 16 miles in 64 minutes riding (just under 15 mph).

I then connected my iPhone to the USB-WERK and cycled home. The phone didn’t start charging while I was stationary but did start charging when I started moving. As before, when I stopped moving the phone stopped charging. So I’m still concerned the USB-WERK isn’t behaving properly – or at least not behaving how I think it should.

I’d have liked to cycle for about 4 hours, starting with the iPhone’s battery about half-full. So long as the battery charge didn’t fall, I’d be reasonably content – I would have a means of keeping my iPhone charged enough. However, I won’t get a chance to do this until next week. Watch out for part 4!

Yesterday’s shot-between-the eyes came while using MAMP. I don’t know whether this was due to a whacko configuration but MAMP required us to put our website files in C:/Program Files! Surely no luser should ever go in there.

The horror … the horror.

UPDATE That should, of course, have been WAMP.

The marks for the second coursework from last term’s information systems engineering module were released yesterday. The headline is I scored 92%. In the previous coursework, I scored 91%, so I guess I have passed this module. (The marks are provisional: they need to be confirmed or amended by the programme board.)

The ugly details of this coursework are:

1. requirements
2. my written submission
3. my database (MS Access)
4. screenshots
5. an Access report that’s a products catalogue
6. my mark breakdown
7. my marks so far (87% of available marks)

I’m happier with this submission than I was with the earlier, written coursework. However, I recall being in an utter panic, just not understanding ‘relationalism’ about 3 weeks before the submission deadline. Thanks to some patient teaching from the lecturer, I began to get it, and some of my SQL lessons from last year fought their way back into my consciousness. (There was a case for a query using a intersection with the union of two sets – I forget exactly why – for one of the reports I wanted to create. I didn’t get this to work but, given the lecturer’s comments, this wouldn’t have been necessary.)

As usual, I can see where I’d improve the product: there’s no clue as to what to do once you’ve entered an order. There should be a ‘print’ button and/or some way of sending the completed order to dispatch (or holding the order if the customer is held.) However, I can see how to do this, and this database was meant to be only a prototype to show a customer what software could do for him or her. I’ve succeeded at that. And I wasn’t one of the drongos who caused the lecturer to remark

‘I have to say I have been getting increasingly annoyed at (and delayed by) students who ignored the simple, clear submission instructions. I have just marked 3 courseworks that supplied NO printed outputs (so I have had to print them myself). Despite my specific instructions NOT to print the full table details I have just marked 2 who had 25 pages and 18 pages respectively of output from the documenter tool.

This ignoring of instructions is unacceptable at this level and I am deducting marks.

p.s. I have just marked the fourth assessment that did not supply the password used….’

Even better, I’ve created another access database to track my freelance work – and found that payment was overdue for one bit. That situation was speedily rectified – thanks to both this lecturer and my client!

Now it’s time to park this learning until I next need it and concentrate on my two current modules: management of software projects and web design and development. In the former, I’ve learnt so far that to be a good IT project manager, I’d need to be younger, have a personality transplant and gender-reassignment. In the latter, I’ve learnt what divs and stylesheets are.

A large mirror that was on the wall of the stairs leading down to our front door has fallen and shattered. It’ll be hard to clear it enough to be sure our bike tyres are safe – and I’m not looking forward to trying.

It was probably due to age and the current weather but I can’t rule out attack-by-neds: there were some voices outside at the time. If you happened to be near where I live around 11pm and saw anything dodgy, please let me know.

Thanks indeed.

So I had a few days before term 2 starts and was able to arrange a little tour to visit old friends in north-east Fife.

On Thursday I cycled from Edinburgh to Crail. Lev was carrying 2 full panniers – spare clothing and waterproofs, MacBook Air, various chargers, sandals, Marianne the cuddly pig, various unguents, etc – and so I wasn’t fast. A bumpy ramp on the Fife end of the Forth road bridge affected Lev’s recently reset brakes so that I was pushing against resistance for the next 30 miles.

Last night I cycled from St Andrews to Leuchars using the cycle-path. This confirmed my strong aversion to using cycle-paths at night – they just don’t work. I cycle at night with more than adequate lights for unlit roads (see here for a list) and am a fairly experienced commuter-cyclist. I’m usually not afraid to take on any situation where it’s legal to cycle but this short trip was scary and inefficient. Here’s why:

For a start, joining the path involves using a roundabout properly to turn right and hence go past the university playing fields. If a cyclist can handle a roundabout, her or she can handle most other road conditions. (I am qualified to teach cycle-skills so I’m sure I know what I’m talking about here.) A cyclist without these skills is scuppered.

Next, the path hadn’t been gritted or cleared. Cars, for all their many faults, do a reasonable job of clearing roads. I skidded at least 3 times in the first quarter mile. I’m quite glad I had fairly heavy rear panniers because I believe their weight helped my bike push down through the  snow and slush onto tarmac, thus preventing me from skimming over the snow, ice and slush and skidding more often and worse. Also the weight helped ensure I cycled much more slowly than usual, so I had time to control skids.

Lights from oncoming traffic were blinding, even through the hedge on my left. (For those that don’t know, the path is on the right of the road when traveling from St Andrews to Leuchars, so cyclists are next to oncoming traffic.) I believe the hedge prevented motorists from seeing my lights and hence dipping theirs. In any case I frequently couldn’t see either edge of the path due to being dazzled. From past experience, this would not have happened if I’d cycled on the road – most drivers would have dipped their headlights. Even if they did not, their lights would have illuminated the left edge of my carriageway and shown me where their carriageway was. Vehicles coming from behind me would also have helped illuminate where I was to go.

There was no visible sign for where the path moves away from the road to go through Guardbridge. I had to stop suddenly to avoid hitting a raised kerb. Had I done so and there had been oncoming traffic, I might well have fallen into its path. No thanks.

And all along I was conscious of a ridge down the middle of the path where a cable had been laid. As well as being an obstruction of itself, the ridge from the cable also trapped snow in areas that were otherwise clear.

So, Fife Council, this effort gets 2 out of 10 from me. It would have been much better if the space used for the path had instead been used to widen both carriageways, hence allowing cycle-lanes on both carriageways. In future I’ll use the road – I’ll be able to see oncoming traffic, it will be able to see me and both of us will be able to see potholes! And I’ll be able to cycle at greater than crawling speed and so not miss my train.

I should also mention here ScotRail’s lack of cycle-space information. The ticket-person at Leuchars couldn’t tell me whether there would be a cycle-space free on the trains and that I’d just have to ask the guard. Surely it’s not impossible for guards to note when cycle-spaces have been occupied and forward that information to stations. Bah!

I was at a social media surgery on Monday evening, and met the driving force behind The VAT Run, a mountain bike trail that’s being created in South Queensferry. I understand some of the trail is ready to roll, but that much more is planned. I’m told it’s called The VAT Run because it’s partly on the site where VAT69 was produced.

It all depends upon a team of volunteers – so if you want to invest in some muddy fun futures, get yourself along to the trail’s Facebook page and find out how you can help.

Personally, I’m quite excited. I’ve only mountain-biked once, at Glentress (near Peebles). That’s an hour away by car – no use to me. (There isn’t even a train service to Peebles.) But South Queensferry is well within cycling distance – so I’m definitely going to try it. Who’s with me?

I should have posted this days ago … To see out 2012, Lifescycle had organised a 2-hour session from 10pm to the bells. A lot of fun, if you’re inclined that way – and at least 30 of us were! Here’s Elly and me, sweating our way into the new year: