Viewing posts tagged tech
In the most self-referential of blog posts, I've redesigned and relaunched this website using Mezzanine, a Django-(and therefore Python)-based CMS.
In a slight break from our normal family news...
So, Facebook added their Chat application but still haven't added the promised Jabber support so that you can use it through a standard instant messaging client. (If you haven't ever used one I recommend Pidgin - you can use it to do messaging over Jabber, Google Talk (which uses Jabber), MSN, Yahoo IM, etc, etc, in a unified way without having to install hundreds of programs. There's also a Mac-specific version called Adium.)
After thinking about de-nuctifying the world I've started to investigate creating a Pidgin (formerly Gaim) plugin to control Skype. This means you're still using a closed network, but from an open program, which makes migrating easier (and allows people to try multiple networks from the same interface).
I found PyToddler recently and had James having lots of fun moving crayons round the screen and trying to make a mouse eat some cheese and say "Yum yum yum yum yum" - great watching him say "Go over there mouse!" and trying to encourage him to move the actual mouse (as in the computer-type one, not the rodent-type one). Just the kind of thing I wanted to write... the annoying thing in teaching James letters is that it's easier to learn lower-case letters but computer keyboards are all usually decorated with upper-case ones. Once we get to Japan we'll have plenty else to worry about :-)
I've had a strange experience over the past year, and it's getting more common. As a developer, I used to be the one recommending software/tech things to my friends. Now all my non-technical friends have started recommending things to me that they have discovered on the intar-web. The trouble is, they're almost all closed systems - apparently free, but under the control of one group.
Have been setting up Drupal for this new site (frasergo.org)
Works reasonably nicely, just such a shame it's written in PHP :-)