Isn't that just brilliant, I spend time learning to write search plugins and then i come across the http://mycroft.mozdev.org site with tons and tons of search plugins. It is really cool, they have everything there.  Since this is only my owrk machine and not my personal one, I have started to keep track of my Bookmarks by Uploading them to redbrick, You can lok at all my bookmarks here,

I hate, dislike, abhor, abominate, allergic to, anathematize, be loath, be reluctant, be sorry, can't stand, contemn, curse, deprecate, deride, despise, detest, disapprove, disdain, disfavor, dislike, disparage, down on, execrate, loathe, nauseate, object to, recoil from, scorn, shudder at, shun, spit upon, spurn …… pop-up windows…If I click on a link, I want to go to that link in the current window… I do not under circumstances ever ever want to have a new window open and the link load in that. It is the one of the few things that makes me want to slam my mouse into my monitor. If you are a developer and you have have links like this "target = 'whatever' ", and you don't have any real reason for it..STOP DOING IT. The only times I see this as forgivable is if the  pop-up serves a purpose that could not/would not be suitable to have in the main window .. pop-up calendar for instance. That's my ranting for today 😉

I got a PHP.net Search Plugin working in Firebird. Simply extract the archive (http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~proche/index/MozPlugins/php.zip) to your MozillaFirebird/searchplugins directory and restart. You will then have the choice to search PHP.net as well as Google and DMOZ. UPDATE: I just wrote an Acronym Finder Plugin , (http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~proche/index/MozPlugins/af.zip) and also a TEOMA search Plugin (http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~proche/index/MozPlugins/teoma.zip).  Enjoy 🙂

Messing about in Paint Shop pro today I came up with this masterpiece. I really want  to learn PhotoShop but I have no time, Thinking about it I might (If I ever get time .. learn Gimp properly as it's Open Source and Cross Platfrom (GTK) and Supposedly as good as PhotoShop). http://gimp-savvy.com/ seems to be a pretty good source for Gimp Information . Also see the Online Gimp User Manual.Another tutorial for Gimp : Gimp.org

I wrote this to search and replace any entries on a text string with another text string. It searches all fileds in all tables of the $dbname specified.
[code lang=”php”]
< ? $dbname = "proche"; $result = mysql_list_tables($dbname); while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) { $table_name= $row[0]; $fields = mysql_list_fields($dbname, $table_name, $link_id); $columns = mysql_num_fields($fields); for ($i = 0; $i < $columns; $i++) { $field_name = mysql_field_name($fields, $i); $sql = "update proche.".$table_name." set ".$field_name; $sql .= " = Replace(".$field_name.", 'http://redbrick.dcu.ie',"; $sql .= "'http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie')"; $sqlresult = mysql_query($sql, $link_id); }//end for }//end while mysql_free_result($result); ?>
[/code]

You can now search Yahoo news (Yahoo & RSS) and receive the results in RSS see blog entry
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001001.html . I use Aggreg8 more and more now when I get free time to read blogs. I really like it but I do aggree that there is a lot of work to be done (after all it is still in Alpha), Joe Jones (not too sure if he has a website) is doing some work on it and i hope to test this week some time. I really really wish I had time to work on it but with work and no PC/Laptop with me, I don't get a chance. RSS is popping up all over the place and I would love it if Aggreg8 could somehow improve to the standard of other Aggregators. Alas back to work (non- Aggreg8 related 🙁 ).

On another note , I have provisionally decided to return home in June/July next year and try and get some work in the UK (more precisely the North West) so if anybody has any contacts or know of any LAMP, XUL, DEV type jobs going give me a shout. [My CV/Resume]

Since the gallery is down (Uploading part anyway.. waiting for the server admins to re-install ImageMagick) I thought I'd post some images here.

Me in the Submarine in Sydney harbour.	My IHP100 from the front.
My IHP 100 From the Side	My IHP 100 From the Side

I've written a PHP script to Search and replace values in any field in any table of a specified database. I needed this because redbrick removed the * subdomain so you can only use www. This caused havoc in images and onsite links I had in my database. All is fixed and I'll put the code up soon.

In Reply to a Slashdot article about what people view as their essential PC software. I have compiled a list below , more than ten entries though. The list is for software for a windows machine. {[F]= Free [P]=Pay :)}

1. OpenOffice [F] Office Suite
2. Firebird [F] Web browser
3. Thunderbird [F] Email Client
4. Aggreg8 [F] RSS Aggregator
5. Gimp [F] Graphics Suite
6. Java [F] Java Platform
7. SmartFTP [F] FTP Client
8. Putty [F] Telnet/SSH client
9. WINSCP [F] Secure FTP
10. Adobe Acrobat Reader [F] PDF Reader
11. Edit Plus [P] Text Editor
12. Win RAR [P] Compress/DeCompression  tool
13. Zend Studio [P] PHP Development Environment
14. Apache [F] Web Server
15. MySQL [F] Database
16. PHP [F] Scripting Language
17. PHPMyadmin [F] MySQL admin tool
18. AVG Anti Virus [F] Anti virus Software
19. VLC Media Player [F] Media/DVD player
20. CDex [F] Cd -> Mp3 convertor
21. Nero [P] Cd Burning app.

I'm sure I can think of plenty more (In fact I had the list nearly complete when I accidently closed my editor :(  ). There is a really good project called the OpenCD project which has Open Source Software bundled on a CD. I have recently become more and more pissed off that i can't touch type perfectly so I found Tux typing to try and learn, I haveen't used it yet and probably won't 'cos I won't have any time.

Yesterday I received all my mp3 stuff…. The Iriver IHP 100 10GB Mp3Player is absolutely wicked. It has wav/mp3 encoder built in so you can encode directly from cd if needs be. The main benefit I see for this is that you can record voice using an external microphone or the built in microphone… very usefull for meetings or lectures. It has an FM tuner too which you can record directly to mp3 :). It is also firmware upgradable which means that any upgrades made for newer releases on the ihp series can also be made on the current models. The second Item I got yesterday was the Iriver IMP 550. This is the slimmest cd player in the world at 13.7mm. It plays normal cds/MP3/WMA/ASF/OGG (update in December) and has an FM tuner. It comes with an optical out which means you can use it to record to mp3 like the ihp100 or to any minidisc recorder. Both devices come with the sweetest wired remotes. The third item I received was the Irock! 400 which is an FM transmitter. This is great for in a car or if you don't have any external speakers, you just plug it into the headphone jack and set the frequency and tune your radio to that frequency…really cool.It carries for about 10 metres or so. The were deliverd in about 6 days from Neutron Express in the states. I did however get stung for inport duty (AU$160 ouch!!!). It all came to AU$1000 whcih is about 600 Euro..well worth it. I now travel to work (an hour each way) in my own little world. All I have to do now is acquire a taste in music as right now it is all over the place… a bit of Opera here and hardcore Rap there with some Dance in between…etc.

Open Office has a new release 1.1. which is great and I definitely intend using it instead of MS Office. The Presentation Tool (Like Powerpoint) has an SWF export feature which I used to create http://philroche.web1000.com/swf.html [It's a series of slides with images from our golfing last saturday]. I got word that my MP3 Player etc. will be shipped tomorrow so I should have them some time next week. Enda Kane is here now arghh!!!!!!!!!!!!!