The new pastor speaks at Connect Church

This morning, Connect Church Bendigo got to meet our new pastor. He is pastor Kerrin Wallis who comes from Roma, in Queensland. He visited us today along with his wife Tegan and new born son Boston. He gave a very good first up sermon. I think he and his wife will fit in very well here.

After the service, we had a pot luck luncheon in the church hall.

Dinner at the RSL

On Tuesday night, BUCO had it's end of year dinner at the Bendigo RSL. The meal was good although not everybody from my workplace turned up. It was the first time I have ever visited the RSL in all my years in Bendigo. Not a bad place generally.

Watchers 9 - days of chaos

Tonight, I watched the DVD watchers 9 - Days of Chaos on my DVD player.

The DVD arrived yesterday from the USA. it is the 9th in the Watchers series by LA Marzulli. It basically goes into end time events from a Christian Biblical point of view. The show is very well put together and well worth watching. LA Marzulli interviews a variety of people who speak on various topics from UFO's to ancient prophecies. Well worth watching.

Spectre

I haven't blogged for a while. There has not been much to comment about really. I have been studying JavaScript which has kept me busy.

So I thought I would give myself a break and go and see Spectre, the new James bond movie.

I thought it was pretty good, generally speaking . Best one since Casino Royale. To be sure, I though it was a bit silly in a few places, but it was pretty good entertainment.

Well worth the price of an admission ticket.

The Digital Show 2015

Today i went down to Melbourne to attend the Digital Show of 2015.

This show is held every 2 years and showcases the latest in digital technology. The show did have some interesting exhibits.

For example, Olympus had a very interesting stand and gave away a cool showbag as well.

A company called Print 2 Metal showed off a cool new product. It lets you print a colour image onto a sheet of aluminium.

But the best part of the show was a Tesla Model S on display. It was a right hand drive model. I got to sit in it. Looks rather cool.

I was disappointed that major companies like Canon and Sony did not have any displays at all. It was not a bad show generally though.

Car fix at Bendigo Mitsubishi

This morning, I had to get up early to take my car to Bendigo Mitsubishi. A couple of days ago I misjudged a three point turn, hit the curb with my left front tire and knocked out some insulation on the tire well. The guts at Bendigo Mitsubishi fixed it up for me in a few hours. It was good to have it fixed up.

Bendigo Mosque protest day

Today, Saturday 10th 2015, a Mosque protest rally was held in Rosalind Park. There were actually two rallies going o. On ewas a small pro mosque rally and the other was a large anti-mosque rally.

The pro mosque supporters were small in numbers.

The police did a good job of keeping them apart.

The anti mosque rally was very vocal but peaceful. The crows was well behaved.
There were about 8 speakers there including Pastor Daniel Nalliah from the Rise up Australia party.
The United patriots front was also there as well.

Overall, it was a hot day but the rally lasted about two hours. I think they all made their point.

Funeral of Ted Aisbett

Today, we finished up work at 12.30 pm so to go to the funeral of Edward Norman "Ted" Aisbett.
When I first joined BUCO in 2007, Ted was my first boss. I worked under him at the print shop for a few months, before moving into the IT work.

Ted had run the print shop more or less since BUCO was founded back in 1990. He died on the  weekend following complications from an operation.

He had retired from the print shop only a couple of years earlier. he was 87 years old. The funeral was held in Forest St Uniting Church and was well attended.

Grand Final weekend and my nephew gets married in Frankston.

This was quite a busy long weekend for me. On Saturday, I traveled down to Melbourne where I met my brother John and we drove down to Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula where we were due to attend the wedding of my nephew David lang and his fiancee Josie lamb. In Frankston we met up with other members of my family and had dinner at the Baxter Hotel. The other family members stayed at the Baxter for the night.

Saturday was also AFL Grand Final day in Melbourne. Hawthorn easily beat the West Coast Eagles to make it three premierships in a row.

Jon and I shared a hotel room in another Hotel. In the morning John got up early to watch Australia beat England in the Rugby World Cup. I slept through it, not interested in Rugby. Australia won well.

After breakfast we put on our suits and went to the wedding which was help at WhiteChapel receptions just outside of Frankston.

No need to get into details here, Only to say that it was a very nice wedding. Lots of fun.

A new suit

Today i bought a new suit for the first time in years. I need it for the wedding on Sunday. I also bought a new pair of black shoes as well. Getting swish I think.

Murachs beginning Java with Netbeans - Book review

Murachs beginning Java with Netbeans

This my review of the book entitled “MURACHS BEGINNINING JAVA WITH NETBEANS”. This book is intended to teach the user to program in the Java language using the Netbeans IDE.

I downloaded the Java SDK and then downloaded Netbeans. Generally, the downloads were easy to install and worked well. I also downloaded the examples from Murach.com onto my hard drive. The examples worked well when I ran them. So we got off to a good start.

Chapters 1 – 10

The Java programming language.

I won’t get heavily into detail here but I worked my way through the book and followed the examples along the way. But I got a feeling that the book was too heavy on the theory side of things and not good on the practical aspect. While the text in the book was fairly clear, I still got to the end of these chapters feeling that I had not got a solid grasp of Java itself. The book only uses one practical example per chapter. I felt that I was doing a lot of reading but not a lot of understanding.

To compensate for this, I went to the website http://www.thenewboston.com and followed the examples on that particular website (all 64 of them). The author gave simple but concise explanations of each programming concept followed by easy to follow examples. I have to say that I felt that I got a better grasp of Java by doing that than following the examples in this book.

Chapters 11 onwards

From this point onwards, I felt the theory side of the book was getting very heavy and harder to follow. As I started to read about interfaces, inheritance, Lambdas etc., very little began to make any sense just going on the text and examples. Once again I had to resort to Youtube videos from third party instructors such as Sue Ceklovsky and John Morris to get a handle on the concepts that these topics were discussing.

Summing up.

I realise that this review is a bit brief but I will summarise the book this way. Too heavy on theory and not real good on practice. I feel that a lot more easy to follow examples would be better here, rather than just one example per chapter. Java is not hard to pick up but once you get into the more difficult concepts such as inheritance and polymorphism, it gets difficult to follow.

These concepts needs to be simply explained and unfortunately, I felt that by Chapter 12, your explanations were starting to go over my head.

Your usual idea of two pages per topic and only one example per chapter did not work well here at all.

I am sorry if this review is a bit brief but I do not feel that a chapter by chapter review is necessary. Programming needs to be explained simply and well. I have found that I learn better by doing, not reading and I ask that maybe in future you use more of an example based approach accompanied by an explanation of the concepts.

Cheers

Gerry Gates

Office 365

Today, I bought myself copy of Microsoft Office 365 from harvey Norman.. It works on a subscription basis. it cost me $77.00 for 12 months. That is not bad as I am getting Microsoft Access as well as Publisher and Word. Pretty good value for that money.

A new phone...

Today, I upgraded my mobile phone. I traded my old one in for a Microsoft 640 Lumia. I felt that it was time to upgrade after just over two years. I am anxious to find out what this new phone will do.

Another book sent to me from Murach

Today, I received in the mail, another book from the Murach Publishing Company in the USA. The title of the book is Murach's beginning Java with Netbeans. It is is an instructional book on leaning the Java programming language using the NetBeans IDE!!

I will have to write up a review on this book in six to seven weeks time.

A new Ice watch.

Yesterday, I managed to go and break my watch while I was doing my cleaning job. That annoyed me as it meant that I will need to buy a new one. Today, while walking past the Jewelry shop in the mall, I noticed they were selling ICE watches for $59.99. So I went and bought one. They are normally $130.00 so I feel that I got a good deal on a new watch.

Christmas in July 2015

Today, BUCO had it's annual Christmas in July celebration. I got asked to be there as the photographer.

I managed to get some interesting photos of the event.

Murach's HTML5 and CSS3 3rd edition - my review

Murachs HTML 5 and CSS3 3rd Edition

My book review

Crash course!!!

The rear cover of this book says “Get a crash course and start building pages like a pro...”. I wish that Murach would get away from this "crash course" idea. I firmly believe that learning takes time and that we learn at our own pace. If we try to cram in too much at  once, then a lot might be lost.

That said, I found this book to be a very good learning tool but even better as a reference book. I am experienced in HTML and CSS but as you know, these topics are moving targets that do not stay still for very long. So having a good reference book is essential for anybody in this field and I must say this book fills this gap very well. It is well written, the examples work well and is very up to date with the latest features of CSS and HTML. I certainly would recommend this book as reference and a training book.

That said, let’s go through Chapter by Chapter to find out what I learned in the book.

Chapter 2 – How to code, test and validate a web page. 

The chapter is well explained but I think a discussion of things like
ID's and attributes and classes might be a bit early at this stage.

What is a "Boolean"? You did not explain the concept.

Page 54 – You should have explained what CSS is, not just what it does.

Page 78 – Do we really need a discussion of "Validation" here? Could this be left until later?

I am finding the idea of using adjoining pages useful.

Chapter 3 – How to use HTML to structure a page

Well explained. All the examples worked very well which is good to see.

Chapter 4 – How to use CSS to format the elements of a  web page

Page 132 – "HSL" and "HSLA" values are new to me. It was also interesting to learn about "normalize.css". I might us it in my pages from now on.

Page 136 - The lesson about "relational selectors" was interesting. Some of it was new to me.

Page 140 – The discussion of "pseudo classes" and "pseudo elements" was new and very educational.

Chapter 5 – Box model

This chapter was easy to follow and the examples worked well. Things are building up nicely so far.

Chapter 6 – How to use CSS for page layout.

The explanation of "float" and "clear" was well explained. This chapter was clearly explained.

Chapter 7 – How to use work with lists and links.

Page 243 - was new to me and on Page 254 I leaned about "accesskey" and "title" for the first time.

There was a useful discussion about the difference between “block” and “inline” elements and there varying purposes.

I followed all the examples and they all worked well. No mention of Tables so far!


Chapter 8 – How to use Responsive web design.

This was one chapter I struggled with. I think a beginner would get a bit lost here. I ran the examples at the end and it took me a while to get them to work. I feel this is a fairly advanced topic and probably should be left to the later chapters.


Chapter 9 – How to use work with images.

Page 331 - "figcaption" and "figure" are new to me.


Chapter 10 – Tables.

Page 353 - "thead" and "tfoot" and  are new to me.

The lesson on "border-collapse" and "border separate" was interesting and new to me.

Page 358 – lesson on figcaption was new as was the ideal of using "pseudo classes" to format the table.

I though the lesson on accessability was hard to understand at first. Also, the "nowrap" was new to me. So I learned a bit here.


Chapter 11 – Forms.

Quite a bit about this chapter was new to me. I did not realize just how many form items are now covered by HTML5. I had thought that things like "date pickers, regex, file upload controls, range controls" etc belonged either to JavaScript or PHP etc. It was a revelation to see how much HTML5 has changed the way we do forms. I feel it makes it easier to do things on the client side, rather than on the server side makes programming much easier. The whole chapter on forms was a good lecture through and through.


Chapter 12 – How to add audio and video to your website.

The majority of this chapter was not new to me. I was surprised about the lesson on defaulting back to Flash. It was interesting to learn about the "Miro Video" converter.


Chapter 13 – How to work with fonts.

Page 456 and 457 – How to use the CSS3 @font-face selector.

This topic was completely new to me and I know it will be useful to include other fonts in my websites from now on.

Page 458 and 459 – Learning how to use "Google web fonts" was an interesting lesson.

Page 462 – Leaning how to format fonts for printing was another new and interesting lesson.


Chapter 14 – How to use CSS transitions, transforms, animations and filters.

I went through this chapter and found it very interesting. I am not sure of the value of transforms and transitions – I feel that they could make your website look cheesy if overused.

The article concerning the accordion was well written and interesting as was the example of the slideshow. I was pleased to see that all the examples worked well.

Chapter 15 – JavaScript and JQuery for the non-programmer.

Page 503 – The explanation of the "DOM Hierarchy" was well explained.

Page 504 – Methods and Properties for DOM Scripting. This is where things started to get a bit heavy. You are getting into programming at this point and a non-programmer might find this subject over their heads.

Page 512 – Learning about the "CDN" was interesting.


Chapter 16 – How to use JQueryUI and the JQuery plug-ins to enhance your applications.

I have had previous experience of using JQueryUi widgets and controls. It is pretty easy for anyone who knows HTML and CSS.

Your book explained the process very well. I downloaded a few of the plug-in examples and they all worked very well. Easy to understand.


Chapter 17 – JQuery Mobile.

I am very glad that the authors included a chapter about "JQuery Mobile". I had never heard of this program before. This turned out to be one of the more interesting chapters. I followed the examples and they all worked well. I feel that it makes sense to design a website for mobiles and tablets rather than use responsive web design. This chapter was a revelation.


Chapter 18 – How to design a website.

I have tried in the past to do design only to find out that I was not very good at it. I went through this chapter and found it was well written and informative without getting into too much detail.

The author did a good job to explain the concepts of "usability and simplicity". I also liked the explanation about using the homepage to sell the site. 

Your "9 guidelines" for developing an effective home page made a lot of sense.

The discussion of "prototyping" and "top down design" was interesting and informative.


Chapter 19 – How to deploy a website to a server.

I hope the authors don’t mind but as I have had plenty experience in uploading files to a server, I did not study this chapter in any depth. 

In conclusion

I very much enjoyed reading through this book and trying out the examples contained within. I feel this book excels as a reference book rather than a tutorial. I feel that it is written more for the intermediate to advanced user rather than the novice. Someone completely new might get overwhelmed. But I would certainly keep this book with me in future when I do my next project. 

Thank you Murach and keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing what you come out with next.

Cheers

Gerry Gates

Wednesday 17th of June..

Today was a very relaxing day. I watched the Matildas draw 1-1 with Sweden in the Women;s World Cup. That means that they will go through to the next round of the world cup. It was a good game

In the evening, I saw Jurassic World at the movies. It was a great movie.

Meeting with Des Sampson

After work, I met Des Sampson for coffee. He asked about my health and in turn filled me in about how the church is going. It was a useful conversation.

Joining the RACV

Today, I joined the RACV. That is the Royal Auto Club of Victoria.

It was raining when I drove to work this morning and unfortunately, I forgot to switch off my headlights and so must have flattened the battery. A friend suggested that I join the RACV to get automotive assistance. I signed up for two years.

Thankfully my battery came back so I did not have to call for assistance but I am glad I am now a member as I may need their services in the future.

Back to hospital

Hello folks. It has been a while since I posted a blog up here so lets recap. On the 6th May, which was last Wednesday, I returned to  Bendigo Hospital. I needed follow up surgery from my big operation last year. I needed to have a Stoma removed from my right hand side.

Well, the operation went well. I spent five days on the hospital wards but I am home again now and feeling much better for it. I will resume work on thursday.

I do need to take it easy for a few days just to give my bowels a chance to readjust.

I had some good news in the after noon. I got a phone call from the Energy Ombudsman. I have had an ongoing dispute against my energy provider who were charging me for a gas account even though I do not use gas. The Ombudsman has seen the issue my way and has wants to have the gas account closed off. Good news again.

Other than that, It is getting cold down here once again.

Pastor Simon Williams to no longer lead Connect Church Bendigo.

At church this morning, Pastor Tim Hall delivered the sermon. Earlier, it was announced by a board member that Pastor Simon Williams would not be continuing as the senior pastor. No direct explanation was given as to why he is stepping down, we were told that he would no longer continue in that role. Looks like we are getting a new pastor.

Car registration changeover

Today, I got my car registered in Victoria in my name. I got new Victorian number plates for the car.
So, I have finally got a Victorian car.

Out with the old:

and in with the new....

Easter Saturday - a very busy day

I was flat out all day today. Yesterday, my old computer crashed on me. I had to go to Harvey Norman to buy another one. I got one fairly inexpensively but unfortunately I have to go with Windows 8,1 which is a drag. I got an extra 4 meg of ram as well so i can do video editing.

In the afternoon, I drove out to Epsom to watch Bendigo FC take on the Zebras from Melbourne.
Bendigo lost 4-0, so it was a bit one sided. Got some great photos though.

Pastor Tim Hall

At our Sunday service, Pastor Tim Hall preached. Ps Simon is still unwell and we do not know when he will be back. Also, a saw a few old faces at church this morning who I haven't seen for a while.

I also drove to church in my own car for the first time. Cool morning all round.

My new (used) car finally arrives.

My car finally arrived from Sydney today. I had just got back from downtown when the car arrived. It was good timing. The car belonged to my mother but as she was no longer driving, she gave it to me.

Great to finally have it. I was so happy that I did not go to the gym today. I drove it around for a while to get used to it. Feels great. I still have to get it registered in Victoria as well as get my own insurance.

Murach's PHP and MySql - my book review

The following is a book review of Murach's PHP and MySql. This is a computer programming book that deals with web site development using the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database.

Please tell me what you think about the following review.

MURACHS PHP and MySQL

2^nd Edition

My book review.

I have just been reading through this book, studying it, trying the examples that were provided and I am sorry to have to report that I had to give up after chapter 7. I simply found this book too hard to follow. Let me point out that I am NOT a beginner to computer programing or web site development. I have developed web sites in the past using ASP and Coldfusion. I do understand HTML and CSS and I work with databases, so I do have a certain expertise in software development.

On your back cover of the book it states; “Begin with a quick start course that will have you developing your first database driven web applications in record time.” Herein lies the problem.

The author’s simply go too fast!

Why the rush? In my experience you need to learn to walk before you can run. Trying to go too quickly has one big disadvantage – too much gets left out and I am afraid this is the case with this book.

Book intro

Just who is this book for? The author’s should have included that the user have some programming experience. PHP uses a C like syntax that is confusing for novices. Is this book for beginners or someone with intermediate skills?

Chapter 1

The architecture of a web application was well explained!

Using 2 adjoining pages to explain the same process was interesting! There were certain things I did like about this book!

Page 20 – explain “Escaped”. It is mentioned it but no explanation is given for what it is.

I think that Chapter 1 contained too much information for a novice user. Did we really have to be concerned with NetBeans in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2

Basic PHP Skills

Is this the best was to introduce PHP. The author’s write a lot but don’t give simple examples.

Some things were well explained such as the fact that $_GET is a super global, as well as the difference between GET and POST. I was glad that the author’s explained why it is good practice to use single quotes, not double, for strings.

Page 64 – what is an XSS attack? The author’s don’t explain what this is? I am beginning at this point to wonder if they are simply assuming pre knowledge on the part of the learner which is most likely not there!

Page 72 – How to code control statements.

I do think an explanation of control structures are would be useful.

I am glad that the author’s did explain the difference between the assignment operator (=), the equality operator (==) and the identity operator (===). I was not aware of that.

Finishing Chapter 2

I have to say that as far as introducing a new user to PHP, chapter 2 was rather brief. A newcomer would be totally lost. You need to throw in basic examples people can follow. For example you say nothing about “Echo”.

Chapter 3

Introduction to relational databases and MySQL

The author’s did not explain what a relational database is as against a flat file database.

I just get a feeling that you move too quickly through this chapter.

Page 108 – The author’s talk about Referential Integrity and Transaction processing but don’t explain what they are. Again, if I were a novice user I would be totally lost right now!

Chapter 4

They write about creating objects from classes, but you do not explain what objects or classes are!

The author’s do not explain what methods or arrays are! Again you are going too fast.

The whole of the chapter was hard to follow.

Chapter 5

The Model View Controller Pattern.

This chapter was generally well explained. I had not understood what MVC was.

Chapter 6

I did not even bother with Chapter 6!

Chapter 7

How to work with form data.

Once again, the same problems are reoccurring. The author’s are talking a lot about stuff but not giving the user simple examples that they can follow.

At this point I gave up as I felt that I was not really leaning anything. Please slow things down a bit. Give the learner some time to get used to this stuff. Some things you simply cannot fast track. Leaning web site development is one of them.

I hope this review was not too negative! There were things I liked about this book but I do feel that on the whole you were simply going too fast for my liking. A complete novice would be swamped.

Have a nice day

Gerard Gates

A new Optus Broadband account and my car is on it's way

Today was notable for two reasons. I got my new Optus naked broadband service up and running. This will give me 30 GB data instead of the old 8 GB of my old Telstra account.

I finally got word that my car is on it's way down from Sydney. The car removalist finally picked it up today. I should receive it next week some time.

Another visit to the Doctor

I had another visit to my doctor today. Got the all clear. The doctor will try to get my follow up operation moved forward. Good.

Socceroos win the Asian Cup Final

This evening, the Socceroos won the Asian Cup Final by beating South Korea 2-1. It was a nail biting game but it was well worth watching.

Go the Socceroos.

Scots Day Out 2015

Today was Scots day Out in Rosalind Park. I took my camera down there as well as my new mono-pod and got some great photos ans a few videos (which didn't turn out well). I was an interesting day, if a bit hot. There was the usual pipe bands, Scottish dancing etc and a  few displays.

Ears waxed out. I can hear again.

Today, i visited the Primary care Clinic to get my ears cleaned out. An Indian lady doctor did the operation and thank goodness, i can hear properly again. Cool.

I got a text message from Optus telling me my new internet will be connected on the 6th of march.

A new Mono pod and I sign up for a new web hosting plan

Today, I did two new things. I went to Optus to sign up for a new broadband web hosting plan. It will be a Naked broadband plan that allows me to download 30 GB of data per month. That will be better than my existing plan that only allows me 8 GB. Because I am an existing Optus customer, I get a discount on my mobile phone plan.

Afterwards a bought as Mono pod from JB HI FI. It is a device I can attach my camera too when I am outdoors, to make for steadier shooting.

It also acts like a walking stick.

Murach's PHP and MySQL

Today, I got my copy of Murach's PHP and MySql. I am required to do a book review on it in six weeks time. I have begun studying it and it looks like a very good book so far.

I am sure this book will add to my programming knowledge as well as keep me busy for a while.

The Torah Codes

Yesterday, I received in the mail my copy of a DVD called "The Torah Codes". It is made by Pinlight Productions in the USA. They are the same movie company that makes "The Watchers Series" by LA Marzulli.

Basically, the Torah Codes is a documentary about certain codes found hidden in the Hebrew text in the first five books of the Bible. They have been uncovered in recent years by Hebrew Scholars in Israel. You really do need to watch the DVD to understand what is going on, as it is very intellectual.

But it is a DVD worth seeing. The producers also go into some details about events that are happening in Israel today, especially in relation to Israel and Hamas. I really do suggest you get the DVD and see it for yourself.

Follow this link:

http://www.lamarzulli.net/torah-codes-documentary.php

I have also been watching the Asian Cup on TV. Australia beat China 2-0 to advance to the semi-finals tonight. Tim Cahill got both goals.

Lucy, and the Socceroos get beaten

In the evening I watched a movie called Lucy. It is a rather offbeat sci-fi movie starring Scarlet Johannson. I bought it on Wednesday and watched it on my BLU-RAY player. It was a good movie, if a bit off beat.

In the evening I watched the Socceroos play South Korea. Our boys lost 1-0. A great game though.

Bendigo Flooding and the Asian Cup begins

Today was a day of wild weather in Bendigo. It rained so heavily that parts of the city were totally flooded. Very unusual. I was glad I bought my umbrella.

In the evening, the Asian cup began. Australia got of to a flyer beating Kuwait 4-1 after going down a goal in the eighth minute. It was a really good game.

A new hat and the Imitation Game

Today was Wednesday and I did not have to work today. I got a new package in the mail today. It was a Sydney Thunder cap. I watched the Big bash league on TV while in Sydney and I decide that I liked the colours of the Sydney Thunder, so I bought a Sydney Thunder cap online while I was in Sydney. It arrived at the Post Office today. It is a nice looking cap and a pleasure to wear.

In the evening I went to the Cinema to see a move about Alan Turing called "The Imitation Game".

It was a really fine movie and well worth seeing.

Welcome to 2015

It is now the year 2015. We did not do much to celebrate the New Year. Just had a quiet party at home. We couldn't be bothered going into the city on New Years Eve as the joint is a madhouse. We did not do much all day long. Just watched TV and prepared myself to go home on the 2nd.

In the evening we went to Tradies at Gymea for dinner with some of the family members. The lamb shanks tasted great. It was a nice dinner.