djb31st.co.uk

First and foremost i am a developer.. but every now and then i have to fire up Photoshop to do some minor tweaks to images etc.

EVERY single time i’m frustrated by the process.

Here’s the list of things that annoy me so far.. feel free to add more to the comments!

1. How many designers have more than one monitor, all of them i hear you cry! So why is Photoshops support for multiple monitors so seemingly random. I click to choose a colour and the colour popup appears on my 1st screen even though i have photoshop open on the 3rd. This causes me to click on the photoshop window trying to “do stuff” with no visual feedback that anything is wrong causing me to assume the program has crashed until i finally find a box on a random screen. Same deal with open boxes, save boxes etc




2. Whilst where on the colour box.. as you more than likely know you can enter hex codes, such as #FFFFFF for white.. Often i’ll have got this colour into the clipboard from firebug and often it will still have the hash at the start.. Its 2012 surely they could have coded it to ignore any hash at the start and use the rest as the hex code! Instead i have to paste the colour into notepad++ first and then select without the hash




3. The save and open dialogue is some bastardisation between somewhere near windows 95 / XP and Mac’s. I have no way of copying the path i’ve just saved a file to, which is often quite long and in my local web server directory, making getting to the file i’ve just saved just that little bit harder rather than just using the standard windows 7 file dialogue.




4. Layers.. by default why the hell does it not select the layer you click on.. why is this even an option that can be off! I shouldn’t need to consult someone who “knows a bit of photoshop” just so that i can click on a layer and the program think.. oh he might want to select that bit he’s clicking on!

I think thats it for now.. but i’ll keep this updated as the day progresses!!

Don’t get me started on Excel either.. that lying non multiwindowed POS!

So even after my last blog which said i would “probably” get back into the swing of things.. i clearly haven’t!

Finally had a slow week so thought i would update my blog a bit (to avoid having to do my accounts!), i’ve now been back in the UK almost a full year and have thankfully been busy for that entire year thanks to the guys at Dijitul developments.

Had a number of big projects though the year and a lot of small edits and additions to other jobs that the guys have been doing. I’m not sure which i prefer to be honest.. the big projects give you a nice sense of satisfaction when they are finished but cause a lot more stress and usually work out a bit less profitable, whereas the smaller jobs are a lot less stress but not as satisfying to complete.

The largest job we’ve had this year was completed last week, which explains why this week is slow tbh! I can’t link directly to it as the client has requested that the developers remain anonymous. But if you search via this link and click on the URL who’s name is similar to a popular web browser thats the site.

Very proud of it to be honest think the final product showcases what i’ve learnt over the years and should hopefully help the client in his continued success in that area.

As i’ve previously mentioned on this blog last time i was looking for a new car, i finally went for an Audi A3 and managed to find a really nice example of the 170bhp 2.0TD version. Its a lovely drive and a really nice car, not AS good on Diesel as i expected although i did check a few forums after i’d put the deposit down that said economy is awful in comparison to the 140bhp model. Ahh well who needs economy as long as it puts a smile on your face!

After having the car for about 3 weeks it started juddering slightly when idling, although only at certain temperatures. I popped across to Rotherham which is where i got the car from and they checked everything over.. they couldn’t find any issues.

Got the car back and it ran fine for a few weeks then the juddering appeared again. It appears to start happening after a week of short runs, doing some investigation into the issue and it appears to be doing it when its doing an DPF regeneration. It does appear that many A3′s especially the 170 version have DPF Issues when used mainly for short runs.

I took the car to shark performance in Mansfield to get a diagnostic done and also to switch how the central locking was working as it was setup for a single driver rather than a family. They advised me that no faults where found but from his experience it might by the dual mass flywheel on its way out

Although on the plus side he did say it might always do it and never actually die… so fingers crossed!

Its more of an annoyance than an issue and as i was mentioning earlier it goes away after a long run and i’ve linked it to the DPF filter in my mind as the 1 time the DPF regeneration light has been on, once i’d cleared the DPF the juddering went away completely for a good 2 1/2 weeks.

So either save for a DPF removal and remap the car to 215bhp or put the cash to one side just incase the flywheel goes!

I’ll stop rambling about the car now and get back to doing some more quotes.

As i’ll probably not blog again till the new year, i’ll finish off saying that this years been great and next year is shaping up to be just as good

Still really busy with the day to day of business of being self employed, thankfully so far i’ve been really busy with work coming in from Dijitul in the UK and also plenty of ongoing work from Greek island of Cyprus!

I’m currently mainly working on a large project in the Photography and Illustration portfolio sector, i can’t currently release a link or any screenshots as its still in development but hopefully i’ll get chance to blog about it when it goes live.

Its nice being back in Mansfield and in an office with other techies. I know a fair few techy people around here and its nice to be “back in the loop” with what is happening in the world of tech as well as mates here.

Was speaking to another computer techy guy here i’ve know for a long while who was until just before i arrived back driving a Porsche 911, unfortunately he let it go as he is saving up to buy a house. Would have loved to have had a ride in it, amazingly this guy is still looking for a full time job and is currently making his money by playing online poker 9-5.

Hopefully once i’ve got the big portfolio project out of the way i will have a bit of time to spend on a few of my own personal projects. I think i’ve mentioned it before on the blog but i keep looking at ideas that will be self running money generators, subscription based websites and things like that. I have a few ideas that could work, it just needs time and a bit of money put behind them rather than a half arsed attempt.

Also on the lookout for a new car.. originally looking at Golf’s, but think i’m after a Audi A3 now so if anyone knows any good ones for sale drop us a comment below.

Sorry about the slightly random nature of the blog post, i’m trying to get back into the swing of it and will soon be blurting out whatever is in my mind onto these very pages like i did back in the day!

I’ve not blogged for ages, apart from a couple of technical posts about geeky stuff, maybe this will kick me back into the swing of blogging, or maybe it won’t!

As some of you will know i’m back from Cyprus now, had a great time out there but 5 years was just a bit too long and happy to be back in the UK now (apart from all this rioting thats going on!)

I’ve been doing freelance PHP work and a lot of work with Dijitul here in Mansfield, they have a contract with a local office furniture website and as they are in the process of redecorating their offices i figured it was a good time to get myself a nice new office chair.

I didn’t realise their was so much choice to be honest, i tested chairs out in Ikea, Staples and a few places in town but none of them where comfy enough to sit in all day. By this time all the other lads in the office had already had chairs delivered, so (shh don’t tell them) i borrowed a different chair some evenings when i was working late and decided which chair would be best. I decided on a “Soft Leather Executive Chair” which is really comfy and has a fair amount of adjust-ability to get the right position. I’ve not put the arms on it yet as i like to be close to the desk, although the arms do have adjustable height which is a bonus.

Anyway thats it for now, hopefully i’ll start blogging more soon!

I’ve been working hard on lots of interesting projects and hoping early next year or towards the end of this year to start work on some stuff that makes money for me.. rather than lots of websites and bits that make money for other people