Taking a browse over the latest updates over on Halifax Online yesterday I noticed that the nominations for next years executive committee are through and that no one has applied for web officer. This is slightly disheartening as it means that clearly someone doesn’t want to take on the running of the unique CMS system I wrote to power the college website. It also means that the brilliant resource the site has become for college students will be without an admin to keep it ticking over which could mean its regular updates and indeed use by college students may well decline.

All I can say is if you are a Halifax college student and are technically minded, please consider running for the position. I’d love to see the site continue to be a success, after all its still the best college website at the University of York and you wouldn’t want Goodricke to get ahead now would you

Last weekend I blogged about a large number of setbacks that had caused my progress to somewhat stall on the development front. Good news, I have managed to resolve pretty much all the problems now so as soon as the modernbill issues can be sorted I’m well on the way to completing a number of really cool projects so stay tuned. I love it when I manage to fix something thats been problematic

On Wednesday night I went to the Wardrobe with some friends from the Jazz and Blues society to see Soweto Kinch play live. He’s a sax player, but one of the few to have successfully integrated rap and hip-hop with jazz. His style is unique and almost totally incomparable with any other jazz artist. His music is widely appreciated and his gig was recommended to me by a friend as a must see. He plays regularly at the wardrobe and entrance prices are very reasonable for all who want to check it out.

Normally when the wardrobe is setup table style (with tables and chairs on the dancefloor instead of it being empty and all the seats around the edge) you can expect a smaller crowd however by the time Soweto and his band took to the stage the club was absolutely packed. We had secured seats near the stage and it was a good job too as I swear some people ended up beng to far back they wouldn’t have seen very much.

The set started with a really funky bit of jazz with Soweto’s skill on the saxaphone shining through immediately. As part of the first number we were also treated to a taste of his mc’ing talents. It’s amazing how well this stuff goes with jazz. Die hard fans would never have thought it, but Soweto on the mic with a bit of jazz backing really makes you form a new opinion of the hip-hop style of music. It’s both rhythmic and musical, and soon has you feeling the music from the ground up.

I first got my taste of what hip-hop and jazz is like when I saw Us3 play at the jazz cafe. I’t hard to say who’s better than who, but there is certainly a lot of good comparisons to be made. Whats so refreshing about Soweto Kinch is how he focuses on the importance of the music the whole time with two of his live pieces actively taking the piss out of the money orientated conventional hip-hop scene and how it really doesn’t matter because its making the music feel alive and in touch with the audience that counts - Soweto did this perfectly

The first half of his set was very much getting the audience used to the musical style and the second half is where it all really kicked off as he told us the story behind his album, the area he lives in Birmingham and the people he knows on a day to day basis that each have a story to tell through his music. I love music that tells stories and with Soweto’s music it’s amazing how you can really feel the story when you hear the music. Without a doubt the best jazz orientated track of the night was “The house that love built”. Both the story behind the song and the music it’s self has to be heard to be belived. If you need just one reason to buy his album then this song is it.

To finish his set (amid huge cheers, its the encore by this stage!) he did a freestyle piece. Throughout the night he had people send pictures they’d taken on their phones to a pc and then for the freestyle piece he put them up on the screen and did a personalised rap piece just for us at the wardrobe. It was a brilliant bit of mc’ing and something that had the whole group of us cheering.

Quite simply you don’t know you’ve been born until you see Soweto Kinch live.

I’ve had quite a lot of interest in my events calendar over the last few weeks so I decided to write it up into a proper WordPress plugin that everyone can use should they so wish.

Even though its written for WordPress any coder could adapt this to work stand-alone or with another content management system. You can download it on this page here

Feature List

• Monthly view of events
• Mouse-over details for each event
• User and search friendly URL scheme
• Events can span more than one day
• Multiple events per day possible
• Easy to use events manager in admin dashboard

While coding today I’ve been listening to Chris Rea a fair bit, some great music it really is. One song in particular caught my ear for the message in its lyrics so I thought I’d share them with you here. Discussion is of course, as usual, most welcome in the comments

I come home from work
I see my little girl
Shes crying on the floor
Shes been watching that tv
This aint late no, this aint even dinner time
To show them things on that screen
Whats wrong with you

You must be evil

Oh I know why you do it
Youre just looking for sensation
You got a hold of something
You tell us that its news
You dont have to show that stuff
Cant you show us some respect
You can tell us we dont need to see it
We dont need those cheap effects

You must be evil
You must be evil
I wish you were here

You dont have to show that stuff
You aint fooling no-one
You made my little girl cry
I wish you were here
We all know why you do it
Sometimes you even slow it down
Youre giving out some bad ideas here
I cant believe that you dont realise

You must be evil

Right I’m sure many of you don’t even know what modernbill is, but for those that do I’m going to have a little moan about what really should be working in a stable production environment copy of their latest v5.1 release but infuriatingly isn’t

• Importing of TLDs from eNom reseller account - you have to enter every TLD manually at the moment, a total nightmare when there is over 40 to do.
• Disable credit card forms - for sellers who don’t take credit cards and set their admin panel as such still have their clients presented with the ability to pay by and store details of a credit card in the client area. Totally stupid.
• Paypal links to settle outstanding invoices are not included in the client area or on reminder e-mails so customers can’t complete their payments. Sellers go without being payed and clients run up a debt while we wait for modernbill to fix the issue. Doing business is like getting blood out of a stone with this problem.
• Disabling of the FAQ - I have my own FAQ, why can’t I stop the empty one modernbill provides from coming up in the client area?
• Helpdesk integration - v4 handled Intellodesk fine, why can’t v5 do the same instead of just spitting out some message about settings not being available?
• Documentation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen documentation for such a large released piece of software being so scarce. If you are lucky enough to find something in there that even mentions what you are trying to do you can be rest assured that it doesn’t go into enough detail about it to actually be of any use.
• Developers refuse to accept that the above (and other issues) are not acceptable in a stable release of the application

So there you have it - a total disaster. As someone said on the modernbill forums, I feel like an alpha tester here, call this a release version? *sheesh*

I really hate it when this happens; you’ve got so many things to be getting on with but somehow every single one of these things ends up being stalled because there is soemthing you are waiting on in order to complete every single task. Strangely reminiscent of an SY21 lecture on scheduling algorithms I know, but still, its happened to me today.

I’m working with several very new pieces of software for a project I’m trying to complete but at present there is a problem with every piece which requires a response from a third party which I’m just sitting around waiting for. The main reason why its so annoying is I have a little less work to do for my course right now so I was trying to use the extra time to complete the project. Looks like its going to be delayed by weeks now though, all because of a load of problems hitting me at once in the space of two days, and in another two days I’ll have a load of coursework again. I really hate being a developer sometimes

On Wednesday evening I took a jaunt off to Manchester to see John Mayall and The Blues Breakers play live at the Bridgewater hall. Before John and his band came on stage we were also treated to another awesome blues band, Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. Basically it was a very bluesy night! A number of jazz and blues society members were supposed to be going but in the end only myself and Heather could make it. It didn’t spoil the enjoyment of it though and on the way there we tried to contain the excitement of seeing such an amazing act by recounting tales of our respective cat’s antics back home - its amazing how much mischief a cat can get up to in its lifetime! Anyway I digress, back to the blues

First onto the stage was Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack. The great blues name had great promise and we weren’t disappointed. They opened their set with a lively blues number and then Stan Webb chatted to the audience. Turns out he’s quite the comedian as well as a blues artist and soon had us all chuckling with comments about political issues and having been in the pub all day. His band was what I call guitar heavy, with a large amount of guitar work going on, but after the first few songs it was easy to tune into and pick up the sheer range of guitar work going on - a truely great sound. Stan’s vocals were also superb and really made the whole experience very enjoyable. I was soon foot-tapping my way through the set and applauding loudly at the end of each piece. This all really came together when he played Sweetest Little Thing, a Jonny Cash influenced tune, and his singing really did sound like Jonny Cash in many places. The song literally blew myself and Heather away and at the end of the set when we went out for the interval we both unanimously agreed that it had been the best song out of the whole set by a mile. If you’re thinking about going out to get a CD or to try and see Stan and the band live then this song should be the reason you actually do it.

We were called back to the concert hall rather swiftly after the interval to see the start of John Mayall’s set. As is often the case with blues bands the band came onto the stage before John Mayall and played a couple of numbers. You always know when you’re seeing a band that is both amazing and one of your favorites because each song is unmistakably the band in question. This is how it is with the Blues Breakers. You’re sitting there and even if you’ve never heard the song before you immediately recognise it. The sound was very reminiscent of some the groups more recent releases and most enjoyable.

When John came on stage a large amount of people around us went crazy with whoops and cheers. I then realised we were seated amongst some seriously hard-core John Mayall fans and that was sure to make the experience a whole lot better. As John started to play I realised why I like him and the band so much, his talents are so wide ranging, sounding great on the keyboards, harmonica and guitar, not to mention vocals. I recognised a vast number of the tracks that the band played and it was great to be able to hear them all live. Theres something that just doesn’t get accross on the CD - the atmosphere of hearing live blues. It just fills you up untill all you can percieve is the sound in your mins, its a truely amazing feeling. Without a doubt the best track of the evening was John’s final song, Room to Move off the album Turning Point. This was one of his earlier pieces and the harmonica and vocals in this track are simply outstanding. The song got the biggest cheer of the night when it was done and John and the band got a standing ovation afterwards. In fact we refused to shut up or sit down till himself and the band came back on stage to play a couple more songs. When they tried to leave the stage we got them back again for another superb keyboard piece with vocals, a great way to finish a gig - two encores, you don’t see that very often.

All in all this was a truely amazing gig, and one I’m so glad I didn’t have to miss out on. It was a bit of a trek into manchester but I don’t think I’ve ever heard live blues quite as good as this. My enjoyment of John Mayall’s music will no doubt continue with even more enthusiasm from now on

Last night was really cool, I hadn’t been to a bonfire or fireworks night in a number of years but this year I went to Hyde Park with Heather, her house mates, some of their friends and met up with Claire, Chris and Phil when we got there, to see a great fireworks display and one of the largest bonfires I have ever seen.

There is something so nice about watching such a large fire burn. For a start it was a freezing night and yet even at the distance we were standing it was really warming. Also its hypnotic, really hypnotic. Stare at it for long enough and you start to see shapes, faces and all sorts in the flames, dark becomes light, and the flames do literally dance. It really is magic, reminding me of the last time I sat in front of an open fire at Christmas in the dark with only the fire lighting up the room. I got a picture to indicate the size of the fire in the park, although it doesn’t give you any idea about the heat!

After the fireworks we went back to Heathers house to chat and to have drinks and pancakes, very nice pancakes in fact. Its always the simple (and often tasty) things that make life great

Users of AVG free for windows may have recently been confronted with a dialogue saying that their anti virus support would cease in January 2007. This is in fact not true and is just an adertising gimmik to try and make you buy one of grisoft’s paid for products. Do not hand over your credit card details!

While it is true that AVG free version 7.1 will cease to work in January 2007 you can download AVG free version 7.5 that will continue to work after that date and long into the future without paying a penny. When you see the dialogue pop up, click the tiny link on the bottom left, then on the web page that comes up you will see a load of products. On the bottom of that page click to download AVG free 7.5, again the link text is small. Installing this file and restarting your machine will leave you protected (as long as you download regular updates as normal) for a long time after January 2007.

Just thought I would warn everyone who might otherwise end up feeling they have to pay to get continued protection - you don’t - AVG free is still going to be just that, free.