My CMS add-on for phpBB got a fully fledged search engine this weekend, when I finally finished the relevant code. The search function allows you to sort results by a variety of criteria and also include additional information with the results such as the last time each result was updated, who updated it and a summary of the page content.

Also included are some site map functions that provide the ability to list all pages, pictures, forums and supplementary features on one page with descriptions/titles.

This addition to the CMS has already been applied to Halifax Online and RouterTech. Anyone using my CMS system who would like a copy of this addition is welcome to contact me for the code

On Saturday night I went with Claire, Chris and some members of the Rock Soc to Rock of Ages, an “old rock” night held at Leeds Student union in the mine bar. Normally you wouldn’t catch me at a rock night, but when it comes to the likes of Floyd, Hendrix etc. I can’t resist.

While the evening was good fun I don’t think I’d go again. There wasn’t nearly enough stuff I recognised as “old rock” and while there wasn’t a huge amount of modern stuff (which is what causes me to boycott most normal rock events) they did slip in some indie and such which wasn’t marvellous. What tracks I did recognise were really good though and it was fun to dance along to them.

The company was good though so it was far from a total loss, and after all if you don’t go you’ll never know as the saying goes.

After the recent leeds school of computing Linux install fest and my resultant tinkering with many machines I have now perfected the fastest way to install ubuntu Linux on a newcomer to Linux’s computer while leaving their Windows install intact, even if initially they only have one partition on their hard drive.

The trick is to use the GParted utility on its own boot cd, this can be downloaded from Sourceforge. Boot from this cd and resize the Windows partition to leave space for Linux, then on the free space create your root, home and swap partitions. When the utility is finished (5-10 minutes max), remove the cd, insert the ubuntu alternate cd (not desktop or server) and restart the machine. Boot from the new CD and run the server install of ubuntu. You will get a Linux install and grub on the machine in 5 minutes or under using this method, and with almost no risk of the installer crashing (a problem with ubuntu on slower machines and laptops). Then, boot into Linux and using apt-get, install the main ubuntu package from the cd. This will pull up the normal package list as dependencies and install it all at once for you, taking no more than 10 minutes.

Thats all folks! Restart the machine ensuring all cds are removed, boot into linux and your install is ready. It’s a bullet proof way of installing linux onto your system and I will be sure to repeat this method for all people in the school of computing who ask me to get linux on their machines. If any folk I know in Leeds want an install of Linux on their machine I can pop round and do it for you; all I ask is a pint in return

Ok, so today in my business lecture we focused on the importance of communication and understanding the role of personalities in the workplace. In the seminar afterwards we had to do a little activity aimed at allowing us to discover the roots of some of our personal traits and preferences; essentially what fundamental things cause us to act and respond in a certain way in given situations.

Get to the point I hear you say! Well, the point is that to do this we were asked to write a short story about something we did yesterday which we would then pull apart and analyse to achieve the above. I found myself sitting there with pen over paper wondering what on earth I could write. Then I suddenly realised that this was extremely odd; I blog and never have any trouble coming up with content or writing about things I have done so why then when asked to essentially write a paper blog entry was I unable to think of a single word? It would appear that writing in the same style of an electronic blog but on a piece of paper is actually much harder than its computer counterpart.

I’m not going to spend ages dwelling on possible reasons but if anyone has any ideas I’d be interested hear about them

Leeds SoC now has a student blog in the form of SoC Gossip. This is a special site setup by myself with the assistance of a few school of computing friends to allow what will eventually be a fair number of committed students to post blogs in the one place, and even syndicate certain posts from their own blogs onto the central one.

The exact aim of the site is a little bit of a grey area. Initially it was supposed to be a place just for gossip about people we knew, but as the notion of this is rather closed minded and possibly even a little immature (*ducks for cover from Chris and Sarann*), it has been given a much broader scope in which anything to do with the school of computing, be it gossip about the students in it, how how well a compsoc event went or interesting comments about module content is welcome.

We don’t exactly know how well this is going to do yet, how many people will read it, and how many people will post to it etc. but hopefully people will find it a fun place to read about what the students here at Leeds SoC get up to.

Recently I’ve had a few discussions with friends which have had a leaning towards life and decision making, future plans etc. It was with interest then that this morning in my BBC news feed I saw an article on a statistical survey that seems to indicate that despite what main stream media seem to indicate, people do actually want to get married and settle down earlier. You can read the article here.

I find this interesting because every day we are seeing peoples lives changing focus. Once the focus was on settling down, starting a family and finding stability in your life, now that focus has very much shifted onto further study, career prospects and other such bits and pieces. The reason I found the article interesting though is not because we might be getting a leaning one way or the other as a society, or indeed because I want to blow a trumpet one way or the other but its that despite what we are told by media, careers advisors, financial advisors and even our teachers when we leave school, people still have and idea in their own head about what they want, and are holding onto it and looking to achieve it.

Speaking to students on a university campus, even those of us who have been there are while, reveals little information on what their aspirations are when it comes to their personal life and yet, it would certainly seem anyway, most have given it some quite serious thought. So when a student tells you they don’t want to settle down yet, it might just be because they can’t see themselves meeting the right person yet, not because they actually don’t want to. Obviously you will find some exceptions to the rule, but in a world where the career focus amongst the young is increasingly strong its certainly food for thought anyway. It seems it might be time for those folk who are saying that the young aren’t grounded and have a fear of commitment to try thinking again.

Following on from a previous day out in Keighly & Skipton it was high time I had another day out and seeing as Claire had never been to York before, York it was. We met up for late lunch (mainly because I was still sleeping the previous nights alcohol off at midday, but there we go) and then hopped on the train to York. Not wishing to get stuch there on a Sunday night we also had the foresight to have the staff at York print us off a timetable of the last trains to Leeds when we arrived so we could make sure to be on one of them.

Despite earlier weather in the day and indeed the previous night (I don’t think I’ve ever been so soaked) it had really brightened up and it was pleasent to once again be walking in the streets of York. Firsly we took a trip to the minster and arrived in the middle of a service which was wonderful as the sound of the choir singing floated up into the rafters causing me to relive my choirister days all over again and also served to surprise Claire that I’d ever been in a choir, ah well not everyone knows everything about me

After admiring the cathedral we hopped up onto the city walls and discussed fighting techniques using arrow slits and battlements and what a tough time some poor invading soldier might have against the mighty walls of York. As if by perfect contrast I managed to capture a shot of a butterfly drying off on the walls in the sun. It came out rather well too. At a convenient point on the wall walk we headed back into town and up the shambles where I ended up explaining how the overhang on the old buildings didn’t cause them to fall down, and took a picture to show the extreme of some of the angles. As we reached the top of the shambles sweets becacame the importent topic of conversation as pressing our noses to the little treasures sweet shop we rememberd buying just such sweets as kids; rubarb and custard never tasted so good.

Next stop then Betty’s tea room where we had some tasty deserts (we hadn’t eaten lunch all that long ago) and some wonderful china rose tea which was really refreshing. We set the world to rights over the course of our time there (got to love it when you do that) and were also lucky enough to be able to take in the sounds of a live pianist too. I was eyeing up the event listings too, noticing the evenings of live jazz they had planned and the tasty set menus. At over £40 a head though it might well have to be given a miss!

We finished up the day in the evil eye cocktail bar and due to it being Sunday, easily found a seat. Going back there reminded me what an awesome place it really is, I mean what other cocktail bar do you know that has four poster beds you can sit on and chat with a group. Marvellous drinks too. Due to needing an early start and not wanting to drink too much two nights in a row we headed home but with firm resolve to get more people in the group to come to York, if only for the wonders that is evil eye!

On Saturday night I went along with a few friends from the group to Izzy’s house party. I’d only met Izzy a few times in our various visits to the Quilted Llama, but I remembered her when I showed up at the house which for someone who is awful with names and faces was rather handy. Quite simply it was a great party. I got to chat to a fair number of people, consume a large amount of drink (cheers for bringing the crate of beer Chris!), and marvelled at how suitable their kitchen was for house parties, I mean seriously, who else do you know that has a sofa in the kitchen!?

After a few more drinks and much conversation, someone put on some music we could dance to, and some of us started jiving away to it in the living room. It was really good fun and left all of us ready to sleep for about a week afterwards due to tiredness, especially Claire who really let the rocker in her show her face, lol. It was only the next day though that I realised how long it was since I’d actually danced at a house party, I guess that means it truely was one of the best house parties in a while. Now we just need to persuade Izzy to host another one in the not too distant future