gary’s web sofa

I’m writing a website in PHP that works off data in a MySQL database. The site was ready for launch, but there was a last minute functionality addition that required one of the scripts to add a record to a remote MySQL database. This should be a piece of cake, but it’s not. The function in PHP that actually runs the query on the database is mysql_query(). It usually requires just one argument the actual SQL query, which is then submits using the currently open database connection, or if one doesn’t exist, the last one.

There is an optional second argument that will connect to a specific connection, but if I force it to use this new remote database, all the other queries after it will connect to the wrong database, unless I modify them to force them to use the correct database. Aaaaaggghhh!

The logical option is to modify the other bits of code, but it’s already been tested and verified, so I’m not touching it if I can avoid it. What I’ll end up doing is separating this new function out into a separate PHP script, that I’ll call with CURL and pass the necessary data in the query string. It’s not ideal, but it’s the only way to integrate the new function without making radical changes.

Is there no end to Michael O’Leary’s shit stirring? He’s only gone and announced 4 flights a day from Belfast to London starting next month. This makes Aer Lingus’ job even harder. They’ll now be competing against three airlines with a head start on the Belfast – London route. Maybe Ryanair had planned this all along and it was their motivation behind trying to keep Aer Lingus in Shannon…

Imagine you’re a telecommuter in a company where everyone else works out of the office. Your only interaction is via conference calls, email and IM. You miss out on all the work and non-work related chatter that happens in the corridors, other people’s cubicles and in the lunch room. Ivan Bowman in a Sybase subsidiary in Canada was one of those people, but he wanted to change that.

Phase one was to install a webcam in the office, so he could see and hear what was going on, but he couldn’t answer back, and it wasn’t what you would call mobile. They ended up building a remote controllable platform with a webcam, speakers and a touch screen on a pole, so he can roam the corridors, attend meetings and drop into coworkers cubicles just like he was there. He controls it all remotely using a joystick, and the touch screen displays a live feed of his face from his webcam. Some would discard the idea as a toy or gimmick, but I see this as a very workable solution to the disconnect often felt by those who work away from the office.

The Record via Slashdot

Repost of a comment I posted here:

Right… I’m a business user of Shannon airport, so forgive me if I have a bias. Lots of people are saying that London is reasonably well served from Shannon by Ryanair, but “London” is a big place, and Ryanair’s main London airport (Stanstead) is actually half way to Scotland. The Gatwick link is a joke. One flight a day means no way to get in and out on the same day.

If you’re going on your summer holidays, and have all day (an hour to get into the city centre, and another 30 minutes to get the tube across town, and then another 30 minutes to get out to Heathrow, at a cost of at least £40 in train fares) to get to Heathrow, then that’s fine, for the rest of us, it’s 4 hours that we’d rather spend at home with the family.

Right now I can get the morning flight into Heathrow and be in town by 11am. I can do nearly a full days work and be back out on the 7:30pm flight. Because Heathrow is such a major airport, industry has grown up around it. A lot of technology companies (like Dell in Bracknell) are on the M4 corridor within a half hour of Heathrow, but outside London. Visiting these guys via Heathrow means I get to eat dinner with my kids. If I have to go via Stanstead I need an extra 2 hours in each direction on the M25. It requires getting up before dawn and not getting home until after 10pm. My other option is a 2 hour drive to Cork to fly out of there, or a 3.5 hour drive to Dublin…..

I’m in London at least a couple of times a month. If I lose a 1/2 day on each trip I lose more than two weeks a year sitting on commuter trains, rental cars and taxis in and around London. I’m just one person, but there are large companies around here who’s entire executive group are over and back to London at least as often as I am. This will cost them serious money. While they won’t (I hope!) pull out of the region because of this, they’ll certainly think of redistributing these higher paying jobs to other locations that are better connected to the real world.

Let’s be honest, the Mid-West is a backwater. Property and pay rates here are cheaper than Dublin, but Poland (which is very well connected to Heathrow by the way) is cheaper still, so the region will turn into a wasteland without some positive discrimination. This is why there are several incentive plans, such as the NDP, to keep industry in the area. The lack of a frequent direct link to the largest hub airport on the continent will lead to a net increase in the cost of doing international business out of the region. This is A Bad Thing. It’s already expensive to operate out of Ireland. Making business people piss away half their day to get here won’t make them think any better of us.