About this blog

Hi folks, Jamie here.

I'm a web developer at the PaddyPower.com.
I blog about web development, content management systems, design, user experience and anything else that comes to mind.

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For the climate change deniers out there

entry logo December 18th, 2009 | admin Posted in politics |

Post from: The Real MFG

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JQuery Cheat Sheet

entry logo October 3rd, 2009 | admin Posted in JQuery, Javascript |

JQuery Cheat Sheet

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What has the EU ever done for us?

entry logo October 1st, 2009 | admin Posted in politics |

See David McWilliams’ yes to Lisbon Treaty article.

Vote YES!

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NAMA Bullshit

entry logo September 23rd, 2009 | admin Posted in politics |

Excellent post detailing the Fianna Fail NAMA bullshit at Gavin’s Blog

Does anyone in the country trust the Fianna Fail anymore?

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Sorting Algorithm Animations

entry logo April 19th, 2009 | admin Posted in Web Development |

At an interview for a software development position before Christmas I was asked to describe the difference between the Quicksort and Bubblesort sorting algorithms.

http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/ is a fast and fun way to recap.

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jQuery .animate for css background color does not appear to work

entry logo April 9th, 2009 | admin Posted in JQuery |

I’ve tried this a several version of jQuery including jquery-1.3.2.

$(’#my_div’).animate({backgroundColor:”red”}, {duration:500})

Include the plugin http://plugins.jquery.com/project/color and .animate works properly on the background color.

Bye

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Ireland is not working

entry logo April 5th, 2009 | admin Posted in Analysis |

In light of the fact that unemployment has reached 11% what can the government do? Here is my 10 step plan to save Ireland.
1. Number one priority is to keep people in work. The government must do more to prevent companies on the brink for going under. We need to keep people in work rather than unemployment.
Look at the German aproach.

2. Reduce taxes(for the time being). Yes you read the right. Right now Cowen and his cohorts intend on rising taxes. Yet in a recession when people are not spending money and consumption falls the last thing you would want to do is exacerbate this by reducing the amount of money people have to spend.

3. Remove tax exemptions. Plough money into infrastructural projects. Aiming to create/retain jobs.

4. Massive increase in spending(borrow it) for the key sectors that are our future: bio-technology ,telecommunications, R and  D etc.  Focus on the industries that will see Ireland grow into the future

5. Cull senior bankers. Heads must roll. Send a message to the international community that crony Ireland is a thing of the past and an honest place to do business. Show the international community that we are disgusted with this corruption and this period of cronyism is coming to an end. Pay reductions across the board for banks funded by the taxpayer. Bring back regulation, the bankers cannot to trusted to police themselves.

6. Cull financial regulator, they have failed us.

7. Set up asset management company I.E bad bank to free up credit for business.

8. Reduce the public sector wage bill. Pension levy is a step in the right direction. Now address the pay unbalance between the private and public sectors.

9. Mortgage payment holiday period to see the newly unemployed through a tough period.

10. Replace the inept government. Obvious this one. Our government squandered the riches of the Celtic tiger. When we should have been developing indigenous enterprise, the government inflated the property industry causing the bubble. This type of short term thinking is typical of this government however along the way the government managed to increase they own wages and become among the most highly paid public servants in Europe. Remember the current Taoiseach who is attempting to save the economy was the minster of finance during the years the government squandered it all.
The real winners of the Celtic tiger along with the government were:

  • The civil servants who through the social partnership enjoyed 10 to 30 higher wages than private sector equivalent positions plus incredible benefits.
  • The lawyers who enjoyed fantastical pay due to the endless tribunals to investigate our government.

That’s should do it for the moment.

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IE7 scrollbar issues

entry logo February 22nd, 2009 | admin Posted in Web Development |

In IE7 scrollbars appear in the browser even when there is no content to scroll.

Try:

body { overflow: auto; }

This removes the scollbar.
I think!

BTW not a problem in FF etc as you would expect.

Good luck.

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Adobe AIR for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide

entry logo April 21st, 2008 | Jamie Posted in Analysis |

Adobe have released a free PDF book on creating Adobe Air applications for JavaScript developers.

Adobe AIR for JavaScript Developers Pocket Guide

For those of you who have not heard, Adobe Air represents a fantastic advance in web development technologies. By using the HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the standard bread and butter for web developers, you can leverage those existing skills to create fully fledged desktop applications. Complete with standard OS install, uninstall procedures, custom taskbar(XP)/dock(Mac) icons, the works!

No messing around with C and MFC ( the horror!! ) when developing WinXP apps any more. Plus an Adobe Air app is platform independent. You can build an Adobe Air app and it will run on any OS that has the Adobe Air runtime installed. And what’s more, the Runtime Install procedure is the thing to behold too for it will install painlessly the first time you decide to download an Air app.

Adobe Air will change the way we understand the web, and continue to blur the line between the OS and the browser. It’s my guess for web technology of the year.

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Problem with creating a new file in Ruby on WinXp

entry logo March 13th, 2008 | Jamie Posted in Rails |

I came across this problem today. I was attempting to create a new binary file using Ruby and tried the following:

File.new(”picture.jpg”, “w”)

While this worked on the *nix os, it resulted in a corrupt binary file when run in WINXP.

Solution

To create a binary file in ruby you will need to include the “wb” option. See below.

File.new(”picture.jpg”, “wb”)

Bye!

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