James Titcumb

SOAP in PHP is quite simple, and as it’s something I’m doing at work at the moment, I thought I’d copy a bit of code to remind myself how to do it. Also to remind myself about the idea Chris had for Private Passwords.

Creating the client:

// WSDL client
$client = new SoapClient($wsdl);
 
// Non-WSDL client
$client = new SoapClient(NULL, array(
					"location" => $endpoint_url . $script_name,
					"uri" => $endpoint_url);

It’s that easy to create the client, and just as easy to make the request itself:

// WSDL client
$result = $client->doSomething("argument");
 
// Non-WSDL client
$result = $client->__soapCall("doSomething", array("argument"));

As this is PHP, and PHP is lovely, the result is an object, and can be accessed as a normal object.

I’ve started a decent amount of work on a new secret website I’m developing together with Tom. I’ll be using Amazon Web Services for a large part of the site, so I thought I’d post my experiences so far.

For the most of the part, its really simple, and using cURL (or a simpler file_get_contents) makes it work pretty well. All you gotta do is formulate a nice-looking URL, retrieve it, and parse the results using something easy like simplexml_load_string.

Read the rest of this entry »

We headed off to Thorpe Park on Saturday for a little fun and games. With an earlier start to the morning than we would if we were working (gah!), we got there for about 9:00. The thing I dislike (and don’t most people?) about theme parks is queueing. Regardless of this, we joined Fail queue number 1, to buy tickets. Post this, we joined Fail queue number 2, to hand tickets in. Then Hannah and I got stopped as we looked suspicious, so we had to wait in Fail queue number 3 to get searched and screened for knives etc.

Anyway, after a bit of faffing, and Pol taking an awful long time to poo, we made it to the rides and set off on our journey through time and space…

Stealth

The first ride to go on should always be the biggest/busiest as the queue would be shortest. Hannah feeling ill gave a it a miss, so Pol, Leila and myself went to queue. And then it broke down. The car was flung up, stopped at the top, and rolled back down into the starting position. Oops… 15/20 minutes later, it was fixed and we were queueing again (in Fail queue number 4). It’s a quick ride, very fast (faster than anything at Alton Towers), a nice exhiliarating ride for the morning. Rating: 8/10

Tidal Wave

Thankfully, there was very little queueing for this, as not many people were mad enough to get this wet. We got very wet, so Hannah wanted to go on it again, so we got even more wet. Rating: 7/10

Detonator

A moderately sized fail queue for this one, and it was the most unsafe-feeling ride I’ve been on ever (except maybe the roller coaster on Clarance Pier…). It was over very quickly though, thankfully… Rating: 6/10

Rumba Rapids

A typical rapids-type ride, was well met after a filling Triple Whopper at Burger King to prevent seeing lunch again. Gentle and relaxing, very nice. Rating: 6/10

X:\No Way Out

The second ride that had broken down, we waited in another Fail queue for a little while. After another 15/20 minutes, we managed to get on through the dark tunnels (ooh, spooky…). A strange ride, it goes backwards, and did a lot of stopping and starting. I think perhaps it could’ve been a little longer, and it was a little rickety. Rating 7/10

Rush

Another nice long Fail queue which was longer than expected with some windy bits. Rush is a very noisy ride, due to the enormous air compressors. Nevertheless, it was a really great feeling, and I grinned pretty much all the way through. Rating: 8/10

Colossus

An immense Fail queue for this one, but it was just Pol and me this time. After a long queue (and some annoying kids who kept barging into me…), we made it to the ride platform… where it stopped for a little while due to “essential cleaning”… i.e. some inconsiderate bastard had puked everywhere. Another 15/20 minutes later and we were on it, and it really was all over the place. Plenty of loops and a long corkscrew, it gave Pol a banging headache. I had fun though, so: Rating 8/10

Nemesis Inferno

Alton Towers’ Nemesis’ little sister, Nemesis Inferno had a reasonably large Fail queue. It was nearly as good as Nemesis, but sort of lacking something. The photo was also split into two, so Leila was on her own and Pol and myself together, which I thought was a bit odd… Not as good as the original Nemesis. Rating: 7/10

Depth Charge

It was getting late, we were tired, so we went on Depth Charge on the way out. A small Fail queue for about 20 minutes or so led to a wet bottom, and a terrified James (I wish I could’ve afforded to buy the picture!). Not bad, a nice gentle finish to the day which included Hannah at least. Rating: 6/10

The Verdict

Well - as Pol mentioned to me walking out, there’s something missing from this theme park… and that’s themes. The themes were vague and unclear unlike Alton Towers, where you know exactly what the theme is. The rides weren’t too bad, just below par with Alton Towers, but the redeeming factor was that the queues were a lot smaller. Overall Rating: 7/10

• James is back from Stoke and going to sort Han’s PC out now. (10/08/2008 15:59:10)
• James doesn’t want to go back to work. The weekend was too short! (10/08/2008 21:04:23)
• James hopes it stops raining at my Mums house so it is sunny for our holiday!!! (11/08/2008 09:11:09)
• James thinks you should buy stuff: http://tinyurl.com/6qlt7d and http://tinyurl.com/55oxzz !!! (11/08/2008 09:23:31)
• James just can’t get this report to be right! Argh. (11/08/2008 16:23:26)
• James is a little flatulent! Oh dear… (11/08/2008 20:33:27)
• James will eventually get all the clothes washed! (12/08/2008 09:03:53)
• James thinks it’s just Child’s Play! (12/08/2008 11:55:41)
• James says: keep on rotting in the free world! (12/08/2008 12:05:27)
• James just poked himself in the eye, argh! (12/08/2008 16:59:07)
• James hates the FSA. (13/08/2008 11:55:47)
• James thinks you should sign: http://tinyurl.com/6ypppk (13/08/2008 14:52:39)
• James says to Carcass: MORE COWBELL! (13/08/2008 15:50:43)
• James thinks PHP is really good at calculating sums. (14/08/2008 09:46:56)
• James - Bearforce 1! (14/08/2008 10:10:00)
• James is liking his Flake Cake! (14/08/2008 14:21:36)
• James has teh linux fails, argh. (15/08/2008 09:10:06)
• James is watching Kelvin screw his desk. (15/08/2008 11:20:41)
• James wishes it was the weekend NOW! (15/08/2008 12:35:21)
• James is dead. (15/08/2008 15:04:46)
• James has pineapples on his head. (15/08/2008 16:21:34)
• James is waiting in the fail queue at Thorpe Park. (16/08/2008 09:14:06)
• James is waiting in fail queue number two… (16/08/2008 09:31:44)
• James lols at Stealth breakdown. Waiting in fail queue number 3… (16/08/2008 10:35:11)
• James thinks he’s a harbringer. Every ride I queue for breaks down! (16/08/2008 15:20:00)
• James got wet and scared. Damn dingy ride… (16/08/2008 17:32:23)
• James is playing a strange word game… (16/08/2008 20:54:01)

With regards to this story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7560887.stm

I disagree with the final paragraph of the story:
“Shilpa, meanwhile, became a household name in the UK after the series.”

I have never even heard of Shilpa Shetty before this story.

Surely a household name, by definition, is something or someone that EVERYONE knows? For example, Hoover, BT etc.. I mean - even iPod is only JUST becoming a household name, and even James May knows what an iPod is, despite pronouncing it incorrectly in an episode of Top Gear.

I protest the fact that Shilpa Shetty is a household name, and you should replace the sentance with:

“iPod, meanwhile, became a household name in the UK due to completely unconnect events.”

P.S. I’m really REALLY serious about this, it has REALLY offended me so much - I’m crying right now… no really, I am…..

P.P.S. If you think I’m being serious, you’re wrong, it’s just a little jibe and hopefully I might give someone at the BBC a smile.