BinaryJam

I have a five year old boy, some of you may know that already. Part ofthe joy of having kids is teaching them. Now having a slight scientific bent a lot of questions I answer tend to be about science or things I point out are about science. Recently J said that he was not part of me as he came from his mummy and not from me so he could not be “from” me. So without going into squishy details I still have to explain this one.

It was not that hard, but some of the credit goes to a computer game called “Cloning Clyde”. In this game the character has clones, I did mention that these meant copies but did not want to go there. There are also things to collect like DNA symbols around the place, also the character gets merged with chickens and sheep and monkeys, I explained that Clyde’s DNA and the sheep’s were merged to make a clyde-sheep (look its only a game its not real, before you start on that one). Those ideas seems to have settled in his mind. Other conversations we have had have involved that living things are made from cells, skin cells, brain cells, plant cells etc. From those elements of understanding, I managed to pull it off. I explained that every cell contained DNA (“Like in Clyde dad? ” ) and that had all the information to make every part of you. That when babies start they are the merging of two sets of DNA to create a new type of DNA and those cells with that DNA grow into you. That’s why you look like me and mummy. He just accepted it. Totally got the idea that despite being born of one parent he is comprised of parts of both. That he can take these abstract ideas that I cannot prove or demonstrate(much like I have myself) then logically assemble them or understand when I assemble them is just fantastic. Later I hope to explain evolution in these terms, currently I told him people were monkeys (simplistic explanation, true, but close enough) and he will quote the line I used to explain the differences along the way”monkeys, children, children, children, children, children, children,children, children, children, children (ad nauseam) and then people”.He even saw that in the start of a Simpsons* episode once where cell-homer evolves into current homer, although when we reached Homer he said”rat-thing, monkey, people, people, people, idiot”. Putting those two concepts together and understanding them will be a great day. Then hopefully one day he can go and explain it to the denialists and they “get it” to . For a great read on teaching kids science read the Friday Sprog Blog entries here . *Occasional Simpson’s episode, vetted beforehand (i.e. they are repeated so often on sky I know what’s coming).

Last weekend to get away from everything I found a place to go walking.  Having spent a large part of my childhood holidays in the Brecon Beacons I feel drawn to canals, forests and woodlands.

For anyone reading outside the UK, finding places that you can actually go walking in was quite hard and still is to some degree.  Being a small island with pockets of dense population and much of the land in private ownership by men with shotguns and gamekeepers, “Get Orrf my land!”.  What woodlands there are, Cannock Chase for instance, are managed woods consisting mainly of pine and the Beacons for that matter.  So finding decent woods of deciduous trees close to where I live is problematic.  Whilst the “right to roam” act is now in effect that’s still not everywhere.  Private land that was taken from the public and granted to some knobs family years ago for helping a long dead king fight some battle is still private,  considering they “fought” for that land they are reluctant to get into a punch up for it now (thx Paul Merton, you were brilliant once).   Access Details.

Having been to America, Seattle, and investigated purchasing property there once upon a time when a job was in the offing, I know that this may sound strange to those people who can walk out of their million dollar house, I could afford that now with exchange rate being what it is ! (he he he your money is worthless, but still more than Aussie dollars   ), and cross the small backyard into a forest larger than what I am about to describe here separating one estate from another.  You do have bears and wild cats to contend with where the worst I could come across is an Adder  a snake so poisonous that it could take days to kill me, which is probably good considering wait times in casualty (ER).  Although lyme disease is on the increase (wrap up well people, don’t recommend DIY surgery).

Anyway I was saying. Finding good places can be hard.  Some are too well-prepared lots of parking, picnic areas, ice-cream van, arcade machines all the trappings of a commercial enterprise.  Some so well known by the city dwellers that a quiet weekend visit is out of the question, Kingsbury Water Park, they even have a small gauge railway round the site now, still good for riding bikes around and bird-watching if you get far enough away from the main car park.  But I went out to find Beacon Hill Country Park to take the lad to see where I did a bit of climbing that was close enough to travel to, the Roaches was too far.

On the way to the park I passed a sign to Jubilee woods so we got out and went into those woods, later we went to  Beacon Hill Park and on the way back stopped just a little bit further up from Jubilee Woods at The Outwoods.  Now this was more like it, midweek there was no-one there just the odd runner or two.  My five year old son and me wandered about the woods and strayed off the signposted tracks.  We got lost, I had no idea which way was out and the lack of traffic in the area meant I could not hear which direction the road was in.  Luckily I had my GPS unit with me and my phone and MS Local Live Mobile, desperately low on battery the GPS locked enough satellites to find me and I got a bearing and found the way out.

It was so nice I decided to take the rest of the family out walking on Sunday.  We purchased a brand new baby carrying rucksack from sMothercare packed some lunch and headed off again.  Weekends are a little busier but you can still find yourself walking in the woods with no-one around.  We walked for about a mile, which is quite a bit when you haven’t taken any Ibuprofen and your joints are burning.  Best woodland walk I’ve been on for a while, now I’m desperate to find other such places to walk, that are located in the Midlands, any ideas within 40-50 Miles of Tamworth please leave a comment.

It is at this point though I have to say the Dog Owners need staking out for the crows.  Just cos its a wood doesn’t mean that you should let your dog freely crap all over the paths made in the wood.  In fact see the countryside code, dogs are not woodland animals and the food they eat hardly natural so can adversely effect the wildlife and environment.  Just because bears crap in the woods doesn’t mean you should let fido do it too.  PDF for Dog Owners.

Saying that Access for all is a good thing provided we all clean up after ourselves and don’t be afraid to pick up the litter you may see that some other inconsiderate pillock has left. You’ll be making the place better for everyone and really as you should carry something for your own waste, is that plastic bottle or that empty can of pop you spotted such a big deal to carry to a bin, I know it’s not yours but lend a hand.  Better still take it home and recycle it.

Been away for a bit having a kitchen fitted. It wasn’t cheap. It was supposed to be the dream kitchen we had been saving for five years. Builder came and f##ked it all up. We have to sue him. The whole experience has really upset the family and knocked me sideways doc signed me on the sick for a while but I had to come back to work to keep busy.We have a kitchen we can’t use except we are using sink and f/freezer and have everything else set up in dining room on table and camping table. No oven and no washing machine and no cupboards just boxes to store dry food in. We can’t stock up with veg as there is no space to put it. All with a six month old baby and five year old boy starting back to school.Its a lot like being burgled except you know its your fault for inviting them in.I’m walking round like a zombie all confidence seems to have gone and its going to take a while to get straight mentally and physically.Due to amounts involved I can’t involve solicitors and have to take on the job of sueing him myself. House insurance has legal protection but spent all their time dodging the claim. Trading standards visited and agreed its shocking and we have a case but they can’t/won’t/don’t take on the task of sueing anyone, bit of a waste of space in some respects but do serve as independent witness of what I claim is wrong before I rip it all out and geta competant joiner in to fix it.The road out of this mess is going to be long and hard but there is a way out. In the end the feelings of violation fade and the legal stuff will pan out and either I get compensation or bastard gets paid for f#cking up my house I am in a job that does pay reasonably and there is always the mortgage to top up again so its only a kitchen I’m not dying or anything (unless lady luck is gonna screw me there too) so at some point normal service will be resumed. So it might be quiet for a bit I might blog about some of the walks I have been doing as I have to do something to get out of house and clear head.Can’t tell you builders name for obvious reasons.

My house is in bits at the moment everything is upside down. The family are at the in-laws and i’ve a make shift kitchen In the nursery and bathroom.Just so damn bored hanging about in case builders need owt.

I have released the source for the stand-alone project onto codeplex.

I have also published a working demo so that you can see it as well.  Something that has been missing for a while since I started this little bit of fun.

Of course being on codeplex anyone can create work items and bug reports and even make their own updates and send it as a patch, so any designers who can do a better job of the xaml than me feel free to do so, it won’t be hard.

Here’s the codeplex project

Here is the Demo.

Here is the Sharepoint version

The last source code release I did for the web part was buggy.

Sorry part of the joy of web part dev and cached items and everything else that goes with it.

Also I took the time to migrate the code to codeplex the initial release has the bug fixes and enhancements to select different image library lists from the site, this was the reason it was based on the template part so that many of the parts will work together.  The picture show 3 parts using different lists.

All source code and a place to suggest things can now be found here.

http://www.codeplex.com/bjsspv

and btw codeplex rocks.

Well me and the boy are going camping for the weekend. This is one of the tents for the weekend its damn hot and its 6pm so tomorrow might be baking.

I know its beta but I’ve had it a while now, and we all know the problem with the lack of content but the biggest problem I have is that of bandwidth.  Even though I ‘ve now moved to an ISP that doesn’t throttle, and its gone up to 2.5 connection joost just can’t hack it, even at the low res its transmitted at, the net is not ready for joost.  Jitter, or splutter would be a better name for it at the moment.

Anyone else finding the same ?

Sorry, changed ISP’s and forgot to reset web forwarding.

I’ve done this now and in 20 minutes it should work, if not and you cant wait please replace the www.tocker.co.uk with www.binaryjam.ukfsn.org and you will find it.

Hmmm it was also not putting in the extra / and lower-casing the  source code.  Watch for this, but I have changed some of the URLS.

Well I did say take the code and run with it, and somebody did. 

Link Here

Ian Morrish has taken the webpart, deconstructed it a little and created a version that doesn’t require the whole installation on the server custom webpart thing.  Ian’s version uses the Data view webpart to render the various components of the PhotoViewer webpart. 

This demonstrates how flexible Sharepoint is with its funky built in parts but also how easy it is to take some Silverlight and have it work in a slightly different manner.

I just want to see how he’s implemented it now.