madfellas - London

Blog redesign, Twittering, OS X and more...

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 13:27:00 -0700

About a week or so ago I gave my blog another redesign :D This time I've gone a bit more minimalist by using just a couple of gradients and some old-school pixelated design elements for the logo and edge of the content area. In my search for an image to go in the header I thought of using the CF logo somehow but didn't quite know what to put with it; then I stumbled on Kai Koenig's "coolest CF t-shirt ever" photo on Flickr featuring the (slightly modified) CF dude from the AIR Launch Party poster by eboy. <boratVoice>Great success!</boratVoice>

Next, I've begun using Twitter on a regular basis now and you can see my last few messages on the madfellas home page or follow me if you're also using Twitter. I'll mostly be twittering about CF and tech related topics with the usual funny web stuff thrown in. At the moment I'm using the TweetDeck client and I'm finding it quite good.

Over the course of the weekend I'll be playing around with setting up my development environment in OS X along with replacements for my frequently used Windows apps. So far everything is going well and the only things I am really missing are a Windows Media Player 11 which I'm replacing with VLC, and Windows Live Writer which I am running (and composing this blog entry with) using VMware Fusion's Unity feature :)

I've also got a few updates to make to ColdExt in regard to user extensions and some other new features to investigate.

And last but not least... I'll finally be starting work in London next week! More on that to follow later ;)

Rolling with a new design, settling in to London life

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:20:40 -0700

It's been almost a year since I've given madfellas.com a redesign so I've rolled in a bit of grungy stuff while still keeping a similar colour scheme and layout. I've used a large background image with a gradient on purpose so that I can switch it out easily, at any time, to change the mood of the site. It's not exactly a designer-quality layout, but hey, it's not bad for a nights work :)

We're all settled in to our new place in Shepherds Bush (yes, yes, I know, that's where all the Aussies live!) and have had a relatively quiet week; except for the couple of times we have been to the new Shepherds Bush Westfield shopping centre, that place is nuts!

My girlfriend Monique is finding it a bit tough on the web design job front, even though she has a nice portfolio and plenty of experience. On the CF job front it's pretty quiet too but I'm hoping to get some good news before the end of the week about possible interviews - fingers crossed. We'll see how things go for us in the coming days/weeks.

I'm also off to the UKCFUG tonight which should be cool. It'll be the first CFUG meeting that I've had the opportunity to attend, and hopefully not the last :) Maybe I'll see you there...

Moving to London, looking for excitement!

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:09:07 -0700

The time has finally arrived... In 4 days time I'll be riding the tube and roaming the streets of London looking for somewhere to live and somewhere to work! And hopefully the excitement will follow :)

Since I'm travelling with my girlfriend Monique we decided London would be the best place for us to quickly find accommodation and both get jobs. There are a number of other cities in the UK we would have liked to try but it's really difficult to get the timing of things right when you don't have family or friends there to help get you off the ground. Having a permanent address is incredibly important for applying for bank accounts and NI numbers, so we really have to be there to get things organised, and time is money!

The house share situation in London seems to be pretty good (when viewed from afar, at least). On Gumtree there are dozens of flats going up each day within our price range and in Zones 1 and 2, and to increase our chances of finding a place quickly we're also going to a Speed Flatmating event next Thursday. Yes, it is what it sounds like, you get to meet heaps of people that are looking for flat mates or looking for a flat, so it should be fun.

As always when looking for developer jobs you come across some doozies that you can't help but laugh at. I found one that name-dropped ColdFusion (along side PHP), and then proceeded to list a bunch of technologies that would be required - some which didn't make much sense in context, and one in particular that hasn't really been defined or experienced by anybody yet:

"Additional coding - PHP, MySQL, SQL, JavaScript, LAMP, Apache, Coldfusion, software, applications, web, SQL Server, Linux, UNIX, Ajax, JQuery, RSS, JSON, Web 2.0, Web 3.0"

Classic...

On the ColdFusion side of things there seems to be quite a few permanent/full-time jobs going in London but not too many contract jobs. We want to spend around 6 months working in London so that we can travel again next summer to see some more of the world, which kind of counts the full-time jobs out (and technically I don't think you're supposed to work in a "permanent" position on a UK Working Holiday Visa).

I've just put my CV online so I guess I'll see if I get any bites from recruitment agencies. I should also say that I'd really appreciate any tips if a suitable CF Developer position pops up in the near future (my email address is on my CV), and likewise Monique is looking for Web Design work :) But enough of the self promotion.

One of the best things about moving to London will just be getting back into some kind of normal routine. After travelling for 6 months I've realised I miss sleeping at regular times and being able to cook nice healthy meals every night (not to mention relaxing with some Xbox 360 games!). I'm also looking forward to being able to attend CFUG meetings and other ColdFusion related events since I didn't have the opportunity to do so in Australia. I'm disappointed that I will miss out on seeing Porcupine Tree play at the O2 Arena this weekend though, I just missed it by a few days!

So, just a few more sleeps to go - I hope everything fits in our suitcases :)

P.S. ColdExt Beta 3 will be released very soon...