Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but…….ARRGGHH!!! Once again the super simple act of creating a super simple working contact form that sends a super simple e mail via our super simple e mail server to my super simple inbox appears to be so, SO, super complicated that even the monstrous mega-computers that power the SWGFL can’t even cope with this super simple request. I mean ‘What’s a guy to do’? Trot out the usual “A career in farming seems very attractive” line again? It’s days like this that make you feel like jacking it all in. (Yes I know we ALL have those but…….) I think at the very core of my frustration is the inconsistency of the delivery service that we get via the SWGFL servers. Some contact forms submissions arrive some just disappear into the ether. Some land in the inbox within seconds of being sent, some seem to get queued for days. Frankly I just wish that it was either broken or working, none of this “Hmm well maybe…it’ll be delivered, maybe not, who can say”? No end of e mails to the grid seem to make a difference. It begs the question “If the rest of the world can do it, why the hell can’t we?” I know I’m not a coding genius (Heaven forbid) but I do understand the mechanics under the hood of a functioning form reasonably well. Why can’t the grid? In a final bid to get it all to function properly we purchased a copy of Appnitro‘s excellent ‘Machform’. A really well designed php driven app that creates forms, sophisticated or simple, either way it does it brilliantly. Can the servers handle it’s content? Well…. yes & no. Try one out here. Same old story, some arrive,  some don’t &  some just wander off in to the great e mail graveyard in the sky. Lost forever lord knows where. Now can you understand my frustration. ARRGGHH!!

I don’t mind telling you if I have to suffer another week like the last…….. I’m off! I would quite happily shovel cow pooh for a living rather than have to deal with all the cobblers & stress that the last 7 days have thrown up. I’m not going to go into details (It’s more than my jobs worth) but suffice to say that we have been at the mercy of someone else’s decisions this week and it’s caused no end of grief. Basically some stuff on the website that we developed here at the College and that has been running smoothly for ages & ages suddenly stopped functioning. In fact it didn’t just stop it keeled over stone, cold dead! Now the sensible side of me kept saying “Don’t worry, in the grand scheme of things it’s not important, it’s actually irrelevant, the world will keep turning and staff will keep doing what they do without a few web pages here and there” and I know that’s true. Truth be told it really doesn’t matter much at all. Yet here’s the rub, I minded. I minded a lot (A HUGE amount in fact) it does matter, it matters to me. READ MORE »

No virtual mud slinging this week I’m afraid, just good old honest real Devon mud. Loads of it. Tonnes. Oddles of the squishy, squelchy stuff.
In yet another bid to prove that I really, truly, honestly DO have a life outside of the four walls of the Web Dev’ Office I thought I might jot down a couple of lines about this weekends antics on Exmoor with the Year 8 Expedition group.
You might have read some time back about my involvement with the BEG and so far the trips out on to the moor as part of their ‘Exmoor Challenge’ training have been pleasant, enjoyable affairs, but last Saturdays ‘stroll’ was a little more demanding that normal. I blame it on the rain. Well, the wind and the rain. Oh and the mud….In fact I blame it on the wind, rain & the mud. Lummy what a day. It wouldn’t be so bad but we actually volunteer for this malarkey. We aren’t even paid to do it. It’s all out of the goodness of our hearts and the honest wish to help out & let some kids see the wilder side of their locality.
I/we must be mad. READ MORE »