It's been two months since I finished up at the shop.  I've had a break, had the flu, got a tatt, covered a few km's on Casper, spent some time with the family, played lots of xbox & got slaughtered on Call Of Duty on xbox live!

I'm now shoulder deep in projects including: site maintenace, new sites and writing & maintaining a few Joomla Components & Modules.  In addition to that, there's all the accounts and nightmares that go with that!

I don't think I was quite expecting the amount of work that was going to hit me, although a lot of that has come by neglecting the Joomla extensions.  It's been a year since I wrote them, and I've received stacks of emails regarding adding new features.  As soon as I started updating them, there was another barrage of emails and support requests.  I've updated my site to better cater for this by adding in a proper download section, and a forum for support/suggestions etc.

Wacky Halibut is not all about Web sites though.... While my side handles Web sites, Web Hosting, PHP development, Mac Support, Joomla deelopment etc, we also do Graphic Design and Illustration.  After a dry spell, Dee has been flat out for the last 3 months. If you haven't come across her site or work before, click on "DEE" in the top menu to visit her site.

Well, that'a VERY brief update.  As new projects and sites happen, I'll update this blog!

 

Well, my affair with Tango really turned into a brief fling!!  It was a great bike, and the colour was incredible, but I found myself in a very fortunate position of being able to update. So being hooked on the Sprint, I decided to buy a more recent model.

Meet Casper, a 2007 Triumph Sprint ST (ABS model). 13000kms, luggage etc etc.  I flew down to Sydney early one morning to check the bike over, paid the money and started the return jourey at about 11am (the picture on the right was taken at Turramurra servo just before the freeway).  95% of the trip back was in the pouring rain, and with all the flooding we'd had, I opted to head straight back in case the mountain closed again. I finally arrived home at about 7pm.

That was a looong ride, but even in the rain I had fun!  Casper just wanted to go and go, and handled beautifully.  More than I can say about some of my gear!!  The Dri Rider Nordic Pro jacket was great, no leakage there.  Luckily for me, I decided to buy some better pants for the journey, rather than my usual Draggins.  The Rivet Jaguar pants stood up to the rain too.  My Dri Rider Nordic, so called waterproof, boots weren't.  Nor were the gloves.  Top marks to the Jacket & Pants though, anything that can survive 7 hours solid rain has got to be good.  I doubt they'll get exposed to that much water again.

I've since had a few more accessories fitted, such as the matching top box, the tank pad and a Rego Pro Tube (great idea)!!

Check out the gallery for a few more photos!

Most Australians will have heard something about the Internet Filter that's about to be trialed here in Australia.  The first six ISP's have been selected, with the largest being iPrimus, and the others being very small ISP's.  How the government can get accurate figures on such a tiny amount of users is beyond me. From the Get Up 'Save the Net' page, I quote: The Federal Government is planning to force all Australian servers to filter internet traffic and block any material the Government deems ‘inappropriate’. Under the plan, the Government can add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist. Testing has already begun on systems that will slow our internet by up to 87%, make it more expensive, miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and accidentally block up to 1 in 12 legitimate sites. Our children deserve better protection - and that won't be achieved by wasting millions on this deeply flawed system.

{jumi plugin=[includes/jumies/savethenet.php]}

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So we finally accepted an offer on the shop, and it looks like the hand-over will take place on the 1st April.  With the shop now heading out of my life, I thought I'd change the name of my site... which turned out to be a lot harder than I thought.

I was hit with the gaping realisation that I just don't know where I am anymore.. spiritually I guess, although I wouldn't consider myself a spiritual person, or what I want to do.  I'm pretty much in a state of complete loss and bewilderment.  Is this a mid-life crisis?

Fortunately, I have a well-grounded career to fall back on, but to return to support & networking would require a move to the city, and I don't really want to program unless the interest levels are high.. i.e. new languages/products, or fun projects etc.

Computers took their toll on me physically, the Carpal Tunnel causes me some real problems, and I just don't know if I can put myself back through that.  I've already had to give up the guitar because of it.. what will be next? I guess I could always go under the knife and have it fixed up.

[...]

It seems like the end could be drawing near for Three Monkees and myself.

I've loved running the shop for the last 3+ years.  It's been a lot of fun.  I love the various conversations I have through the day.. it tends to flip from Movies to Music to Games to Motorbikes and anywhere in between.  Unfortunately, there is one small group of people that just love to bring me down with their talk of piracy, illegaly downloaded movies, burning, copying etc etc, and I've finally gotten so worn down by them that I'm having a problem getting motivated.

I know I probably shouldn't let these people get to me, but it's hard to avoid it.

The other group is those who thing I am unjust in charging overdue fees.  If I charged ridculous amounts, then sure enough, but I get a two or three copies of a movie, and these people come in on a cheap day ($4), hire a brand new movie on the first couple of days it's in, and then don't return it for many days.  When I ask if they want to sort out the overdues, they whinge about how much it is... I only charge the amount that I've lost out on, it's not like I charge the full rate on cheap days etc.  Keep it 3 days, I charge the $12.  That's what I lost by them keeping it...I think that's pretty fair eh?

Rant, Rant Rah Rah!!  It's pointless... but it makes me feel better!  :^)  Just ask me about Telstra and ANZ!!!  B@st@rd5!!

Anyway.. I've also REALLY been missing my daughter.  I was her main carer for her first three years, and I loved every moment of it.. I thought taking on the business would be good while she was at school, and I could still do some web work on the quiet days, but it's getting more and more of a wrench every day, paticularly when I feel like I'm losing the fantastic bond we had.

So 2 + 2 + 2 = 6 and with a party that was interested in taking the shop on, I started to look into selling.  I should know within a week if they are going to proceed, if not..  there are going to be some pretty major changes ahead.

Zef is meant to be heading off to her new owner this weekend, it'll be sad to see her go.  Having said that, since the arrival of 'Tango', Zef hasn't had a look in!

Tango is my new 2000 Triumph Sprint RS.  All I can say is WOW!!  I was blown away when I first saw it.  It's gorgeous!  And in fabbo condition too.  Mileage was a low 30,000km's, and there were many extras, such as Carbon Fibre exhaust, headlight protector, and the little belly pan underneath.  It also had the matching top box (as seen in the pic) and Givi hard panniers.  I travelled about 120 km's to pick it up, and the ride back was one of the best I've ever had on a bike.  This baby just clung to the road, and egged me on to whip round the corners faster than I'm usually game.  100km's was a walk in the park.. it felt the same as doing 60 on the Zef thanks to the fairing.

Now you must excuse me.. the sun is shining, and there are roads to be ridden!  :^)

After a 3 year 'recharge break' from my main career in IT & Web development I'm looking at returning for some more technical challenges.

I never really stopped the web development work, I just stopped taking new work on.  Instead I focussed on a new business, some new skills and a bit of fun, while maintaining some selected existing clients, and learning a few new tricks.  No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't pull myself away from the lure of computers and new products. I simply LOVE playing with, evaluating, and making best use of new technology.

So now it's back to the job search sites and looking for some challenging IT work again.

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I've decided to put my 1996 Kawasaki Zephyr 750 up for sale in order to fund the purchase of my 'dream' bike.  She's got 72,000km's on the clock, and is in very good condition.  I've owned the bike for about 18months, and in that time, it's only done between 3,000 and 4,000 km's.  It also has a Ventura Rack.

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I briefly mentioned Ping.fm in my previous blog entry, but this site caught my interest, and I've been spending some time working on a Joomla 1.5 package that integrates Ping.fm updates with a joomla site.

Basically, Ping.fm can send your message to a whole stack of social networking sites such as Twitter, Plurk (my personal fave), Tumble, Pownce, Facebook etc.  They also have the ability to send the message to a Custom URL. It's utilising this CustomURL that gave me the idea of writing a component that will receive your status messages from Ping.fm, so that even those who don't subscribe to any social networking sites can see what you've been up to.

(Image grabbed from the Ping.fm blog, hope you don't mind guys!)

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This is my first ever module for Joomla.  I coded it because of something I wanted to do on my site, and I figured I'd release it in case others wanted to use it.

It simply displays icons for various Social Networking sites you are registered with, so visitors to your site have an easy way of finding you on all those social networking sites.

Currently it handles Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Jaiku, MySpace, Picasa, Plurk, Pownce, Tumblr, Twitter & YouTube.  I'm open to suggestions for any additions.

Anyway, head over here for all the details.

Social Networking getting you down?  Finding it hard to keep up with all those 'imaginary' or virtual friends?  Well here's another one to add to the list.  Plurk.  Plurk has taken a different approach to Twitter, by displaying messages  on a timeline.  I won't go into too much detail here, you can either head on over to the Plurk website for a look see, OR, you can click the Plurk Icon in the 'Stalk me on' module on the left hand side of this page.

Which leads me on to 'Stalker'.  That's it there, on the left, my very first Joomla module.  For all the details on this plug-in, have a look at the Joomla Modules page.

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Having had a break in web development for a while, I'm now back in full swing.  Out goes ColdFusion development due to increasing costs in software, and I'm now using PHP for all future development. This should bring down the hosting costs too, as well as making my life a bit easier.  My two largest clients are being converted over to PHP at the moment, and the smaller ones that don't require many changes will stay on ColdFusion until they decide to update their sites.

Joomla is also playing a big part in my plans, and any site that doesn't need a purpose-built solution will be put together using this great tool.  Currently, Gecoz, Dee Texidor's site, the old Folk & Blugrass Festival site, and this very own site are all running on the latest version.  It makes adding content, and dynamic features a breeze.

So if you have any web-based requirements, whether it's a 'refresh' of your old, stale, presence or if you want to get your first site together, contact me via the 'Contact' button above!

Having just spent the night converting the site over to joomla 1.5 (YES!  ANOTHER new backend... so that's been about 5 iterations of my site in just about as many years!), I'm now too tired to add any new articles, so I'll add them over the next few days (in between work and pulling a kitchen out!)

Well after a NINE week wait, my new MacBook Pro finally arrived yesterday. WOW!! These new laptops are amazing!! Big, but amazing. I've got the 17" widescreen model, and the screen is just huge. Beautiful! Talk about clever... it almost took my breath away when I turned the main light off in the lounge, and the MacBook automatically lit up the keyboad and dimmed the screen for me. Yup, it's smart too.

[...]

We now have a new addition to the family. To join me (Zolt) and Zef (the bike), is Zorro. Zorro is a 12 week old Husky (cross Blue Cattle) pup!

He's a lovely little fella, with a great temperament. We're going through the training thing at the moment... fun & games & patience!!