Community developer blogs

Simon Harriyott

Recent Posts

• OpenHack 2009 London

  Posted: 07 May 2009 at 19:17 by Simon

  I'm very excited about OpenHack this weekend. I had such fun at the last one, and this one is already shaping up to be so much better. Last time I hacked alone, and came up with a utility to visit all the links in a user's del.icio.us account to see if they're still around. The links were listed on the page, and any 404 errors turned the link red. It was all updated in a lovely Ajaxy way too.Fun as it was, I was slightly envious of people who were creating team hacks, so this time I posted a tea

• Site redesign

  Posted: 20 Apr 2009 at 16:54 by Simon

  Well, I have a new-looking website, and not before time. It looks so much better, is strictly XHTML, and is faster than the old one. This post is about why and how this happened.I decided to have a new site as I'm looking for work, and in a competitive market, my old site was letting me down. It looked dull, the homepage was the blog, and the design started as a free blogger.com template that I've incrementally hacked about with over the last few years. There was nothing (other than a CV) that

• Availability

  Posted: 30 Mar 2009 at 23:59 by Simon

  Due to being super quick and efficient, I've finished my current contract sooner than I expected. This means that I'm now available for C# contract work right now. I'm based in Sussex, so I can travel to Brighton, Mid-Sussex, or the London Bridge area, or I can work from home. If you, or someone you know has anything interesting that may suit, please let me know. Thanks.

• Availability

  Posted: 30 Mar 2009 at 09:59 by Simon

  Due to being super quick and efficient, I've finished my current contract sooner than I expected. This means that I'm now available for C# contract work right now. I'm based in Sussex, so I can travel to Brighton, Mid-Sussex, or the London Bridge area, or I can work from home. If you, or someone you know has anything interesting that may suit, please let me know. Thanks.

• Hey, check out my new band, er, startup!

  Posted: 17 Mar 2009 at 18:37 by Simon

  When I was in my late teens, I drummed in a band. It wasn't very good, but we were all learning how to play our instruments, and related skills like song-writing, co-operation, how to get gigs, how to get people to come to gigs, how to run rehearsals (hint: don't nip out for chips halfway through).Many of my friends were in bands, and so were their friends, and some were good, and some weren't, some didn't get as far as gigging, and one or two did pretty well, such as Top Loader and Blue States.

• Hey, check out my new band, er, startup!

  Posted: 17 Mar 2009 at 04:37 by Simon

  When I was in my late teens, I drummed in a band. It wasn't very good, but we were all learning how to play our instruments, and related skills like song-writing, co-operation, how to get gigs, how to get people to come to gigs, how to run rehearsals (hint: don't nip out for chips halfway through).Many of my friends were in bands, and so were their friends, and some were good, and some weren't, some didn't get as far as gigging, and one or two did pretty well, such as Top Loader and Blue States.

• Desktop Clients for Web Apps

  Posted: 16 Mar 2009 at 03:45 by Simon

  I'm noticing a trend for creating desktop clients for popular web apps. Twitter is the clearest example; the website was popular, and has a simple and comprehensive API. The whole premise of twitter is based around messaging, so a desktop client is ideal, as it is similar to traditional one-to-one messaging clients such as AIM, MSN Messenger etc. Due to the simplicity of the API, many third-party clients exist.Other web apps have desktop clients to perform some or all of the web functionality;

• I am a Snail

  Posted: 24 Feb 2009 at 01:40 by Simon

  I am a snail.Nomadic; I need no base.I feed on coffee, power, signals.I carry; knapsack, laptop.On my back, my office.I am a snail.

• Numbered Stored Procedures

  Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 09:21 by Simon

  I've been looking at some legacy code recently, and came across something completely new to me; numbered stored procedures. It turns out that in the old days, you could create several stored procedures with the same name, and give each a different number. As you can see from the MS documentation, there is a number parameter.These are called in the normal way:EXEC UpdateOrder;4 20, 39EXEC UpdateOrder;7 '12 High St.'It's not very nice, and the "advantage" of being able to DROP them all in one go

• Co-working at the Lewes Werks

  Posted: 11 Feb 2009 at 11:03 by Simon

  Today I've been co-working at the brand new Lewes Werks. Co-working means to work in an office with people who are not your colleagues, which is ideal for self-employed people or homeworkers.It's being run by the same people who run the Brighton Werks, so the philosophy is the same; to provide a shared workspace for creative workers, with an emphasis on the social side of work. There are also two separate rooms that would suit small companies of 4-6 people.I can turn up with my laptop, and have

• Working in Uckfield

  Posted: 11 Feb 2009 at 08:26 by Simon

  Despite my enthusiasm for co-werking in Brighton, I have a problem. I live in Uckfield. Not that it's a problem in general; I love being near the country-side, being able to afford a house, and seeing someone I know every time I go into town. Uckfield is a small town, and contrasts greatly with Brighton. Brighton has free wi-fi along the seafront, and in lots of cafés, bars and restaurants. Brighton has lots of web agencies, software companies, financial institutions and a thriving tech

• Twitter iPhone DM hoax

  Posted: 05 Jan 2009 at 07:50 by Simon

  Just noticed my first twitter hoax. Someone I follow retweeted this message:If you get a "want to win an iphone" DM, don't click the link...it's spam!!! Pls RT!At the time of writing, two hours after this tweet, 18 people have retweeted, so people believe it can happen, which it can't.Spam is unsolicited, and one would have to follow the twitterer to receive it. Following someone means that you are opting-in, or soliciting, so by definition, any tweets, direct or otherwise, from the twitterer ca

• Twitter iPhone DM hoax

  Posted: 05 Jan 2009 at 05:50 by Simon

  Just noticed my first twitter hoax. Someone I follow retweeted this message:If you get a "want to win an iphone" DM, don't click the link...it's spam!!! Pls RT!At the time of writing, two hours after this tweet, 18 people have retweeted, so people believe it can happen, which it can't.Spam is unsolicited, and one would have to follow the twitterer to receive it. Following someone means that you are opting-in, or soliciting, so by definition, any tweets, direct or otherwise, from the twitterer ca

• Free upgrade to Parallels 4.0 for ReMix08 attendees

  Posted: 27 Nov 2008 at 17:07 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon)

  As well as getting a BizSpark subscription recently, I also got a Microsoft Expression subscription as part of my ticket for ReMix08 in Brighton in September. Tucked away in the subscription was a licence for Parallels. That's cool, and I'm using it. But then recently Parallels 4.0 came out, and it

• Free upgrade to Parallels 4.0 for ReMix08 attendees

  Posted: 27 Nov 2008 at 15:07 by Simon

  As well as getting a BizSpark subscription recently, I also got a Microsoft Expression subscription as part of my ticket for ReMix08 in Brighton in September. Tucked away in the subscription was a licence for Parallels. That's cool, and I'm using it. But then recently Parallels 4.0 came out, and it costs money to upgrade. Ho-hum, version 3 seems fine, but wait, hang on, there's a free upgrade for people who bought Parallels since September. Does my Expression subscription qualify, especially as

• Free MSDN licences for microISVs

  Posted: 27 Nov 2008 at 14:48 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon)

  I came across the BizSpark programme a few weeks ago, and it is super. What happens is, is that Microsoft want to help small new software development companies get going, and are providing free(ish) licenses for practically everything. The requirements for qualification are that your company:Is in t

• Free MSDN licences for microISVs

  Posted: 27 Nov 2008 at 12:48 by Simon

  I came across the BizSpark programme a few weeks ago, and it is super. What happens is, is that Microsoft want to help small new software development companies get going, and are providing free(ish) licenses for practically everything. The requirements for qualification are that your company:Is in the business of software developmentIs privately heldHas been in business for less than 3 years, andHas less than US $1 million in annual revenue.There are some slight conditions around the definitions

• Learning about pointers from plasticene

  Posted: 24 Nov 2008 at 05:52 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon)

  I rather enjoyed this animated way of explaining how pointers work. And don't.

• Learning about pointers from plasticene

  Posted: 24 Nov 2008 at 03:52 by Simon

  I rather enjoyed this animated way of explaining how pointers work. And don't.

• New Laptop

  Posted: 31 Oct 2008 at 16:38 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon)

  This is the first post from my new laptop. Well, when I say new, I mean second-hand. My last laptop (and indeed my first) is a tablet PC, which has been great, but my life has changed since I bought it, and it's not quite up to what I need it for.When I bought the tablet, I was a permanent employee