Server issues arise

We’ve been implementing a Joomla/Virtuemart storefront to replace our Joomla/Virtuemart storefront, this time updated and hackless. But the trick to it is that we still have to hack it, without hacking any core files… This is tricky indeed, a coworker hipped me to the

ob_get_clean()

method in PHP, this enables you to look at certain code chunks spit out to html, then replace them before processing. This takes care of most hacks needed however we implemented a lightbox bit for product images, this required some core modifications slightly.

Now the question I have is, when your “reinventing the wheel” as my boss calls it, but it’s to redo something already done, is it in fact … a waste of time, or are you building a better tomorrow?

Secret of Life

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing… if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.  -  Groucho Marx

Truth

If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people — including me — would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism. - Hunter S. Thompson

What a crazy world!

With the hustle and bustle of daily life it’s no wonder that people are commonly exhausted.  Just ask any of my coworkers on a Monday morning how their weekend was, the answer’s always the same “Not long enough” it’s not just my office however, everyone feels the grind at their place of employment. Maybe the Europeans have it right with their four day work weeks and extensive “holidays” (their term for vacation). Who else out there would love that sort of thing, and have the security of a “normal” job? It seems that you can do this if you are running your own business right?  According to my colleague Ash, you sometimes work even longer hours and less days off.  Sad to say the weekend will probably not get any longer in our lifetimes, so just stop complaining that it was too short and make the best of it people!

Happy Friday, and the iPhone price dropped people (I still won’t buy one for fiscal reasons) so be merry!

mellow and relaxing

Well, as it’s labor day today, I have not labored one bit, I woke up, ate a bagel, watched some tube, went for a walk and laid around lazily.  I don’t do this often enough, we were going to do a barbecue this weekend but it didn’t turn out to be in the cards because I’ve been feeling a tad ill the past few days.  Just relaxing today to make sure I’m bright eye’d and bushy tailed for work tomorrow.  Well as writing feels close to labor right now, I’m going to close it up, just a quick post to check in.

Has anyone seen my personal life?

So I’ve “forgotten” about my site for a few weeks, my apologies to all. I have been tremendously busy at work as of late. I am currently preforming on a level of 3+, and no that’s not just my charisma there, I’m working on a couple different sides of the box lately, just trying to break out of the box concept.  Things are not all bad though, I may be getting a reward shortly of a new MacBook Pro, as I have been working at home as well as the office, and we are doing Interprise/Win2k3 server stuff my G4 here at home isn’t going to cut it, and I need the dual monitor workspace for productivity. So I will be getting a MacBook to take back and forth, that’ll be cool however it will probably end up meaning that I’m expected to do more work than I am doing currently :(

No biggie, we are getting caught up at work and I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, kinda. At any rate, I’ll be posting up some of the exciting things I’ve been working on in the very near future (so you can stop thinking I’m more bark than bite)!

Good Samaritan

This evening my wife and I went out after a grueling day at work, it’s been busy busy busy the past few weeks for me.  So per usual my wife likes to offer my services to people in need, not that I mind it’s just something I chuckle about.  A couple at the Pub/Restaurant we frequent called the Tin Can on Morganford in the heart of South St. Louis had a flat tire.  We sit down and order drinks and food, she gets to speaking with the wife of the couple that has the flat tire, and let’s them know that I know a bit about working on/fixing cars, maybe I could help.

I wander over and mention to the guy that if he would like some help I’m more than happy to assist.  He’s on the phone with someone in another land trying to get the tire issue resolved, he thanks me and says that if he needs to he’ll let me know.  I proceed to wolf down my Chicken/Bacon Sandwich that really hit the spot and then help him get the tire off of his Explorer.  He seems to have it from there then offers me some money in exchange, I turn him down albeit I could use some extra green as of late.  Upon our leaving the Tin Can they’re having an awful time getting the spare onto the Explorer, I assist in that and am again offered some money, this time I don’t refuse because it’s poor taste to turn someone down for kindness twice in a row.  The $20 was nice but didn’t matter to me, I felt good to help them out because I’ve been in similar spots before, and the help would have been nice.

Hopefully that inspires someone else to help somebody out.