Jun 3 2009

019Well time has just flown hasn’t it. Freyja is already 7 weeks and 4 days old, and she’s still as gorgeous as ever! She’s so amazing and I’m such a proud dad. She’s doing really well sleep-wise, and we consider ourselves very lucky. We manage to get her to sleep around 8pm of an evening, and normally she’s sleeping through til about 6am! Over the last couple of days she’s been waking up a couple of hours earlier, we guess because she’s so hot with all the warm weather, but we really can’t complain!

Last weekend we spent outdoors with her at a couple of picnics (one of which was my nephew Finley’s birthday!) which was really nice and so she got to see some friends and family. We’re keeping in touch with my parents in France via webcam which is great, and she gave them a smile the other morning which was really nice to see. If you’ve been following my tweets, you’ll know that she’s already smiling and laughing. At the moment most laughs turn into hiccups, but there is the odd time (normally when I’m at work, damnit!) that she does a proper laugh. I managed to catch her doing it this morning which was so awesome to see.

It’s a busy and hectic life at the moment, and I rarely get a chance to do anything for myself, but she is totally worth it.

May 20 2009

Freyja laughed today for the first time (at 5 weeks, 4 days old), which was exciting, and this video pretty much says it all!

May 20 2009

With the release of the 1.8 series of Zend Framework, I felt the need to update this article, especially due to the entirely new project setup process provided by Zend_Tool.

Again, we start with installing the LAMP stack if you haven’t done so already:

sudo tasksel install lamp-server

So now you’ve got your LAMP stack up and running, lets download the latest SVN tag of Zend Framework. At the time of writing, the latest stable is 1.8.1, which I’ll use here. If you want to check for the latest version, visit http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/ in your browser, and the last folder is the one you want. If you want stable full releases, ignore the RC/PR versions. So, once you’ve determined the version you want, we’ll check out the release:

cd /opt
sudo mkdir ZendFramework
sudo svn co http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/release-1.8.1/

It is likely you’ll need to use sudo for these commands as /opt is owned by root by default. You’ll see a big long list of files being checked out, and once that’s done you’ll have a new folder appropriately named “release-1.8.1″. Create a soft link called “current” to the release folder so you can change the default included Zend Framework version without restarting Apache in the future:

sudo ln -s release-1.8.1 current

You can stop there if you like, and manually add the include path into your PHP scripts using set_include_path. However, if you would like the current Zend Framework included automatically, then continue by opening /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini in your favourite editor. Add the path to your include_path list. For example, if your current include_path is (and this is the default):

include_path = ".:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/pear"

Then change it to:

include_path = ".:/usr/share/php5:/usr/share/pear:/opt/ZendFramework/current/library"

All you need to do now is restart Apache:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

In the future, if you wish to change to a new default Zend Framework version (for example 1.8.2), then just check out the SVN directory and change the soft link. You won’t even have to restart Apache, and the changes will take effect immediately! For example:

sudo svn co http://framework.zend.com/svn/framework/standard/tags/release-1.8.2/
sudo rm current
sudo ln -s release-1.8.2 current

Now to initialise a new Zend Framework project using Zend_Tool, we need to set up paths and so on for your command line. If you haven’t already, you need to install the CLI (Command Line Interface) for PHP:

sudo apt-get install php5-cli

Once that’s installed, we need to add the Zend Framework’s bin directory to the path. First lets add the framework path to the CLI’s php.ini. Do the same php.ini modification as above but in /etc/php5/cli/php.ini.

Edit your ~/.bashrc or /etc/profile (or wherever you’d like to add the path) and add this line:

PATH=/opt/ZendFramework/current/bin:"${PATH}"

To check this is all working properly, you can:

zf.sh show version

If you see the above output, then Zend Framework is successfully setup. For more information about Zend_Tool and how to set up a new Zend Framework 1.8.x project, read the documentation.

You can keep up to date with the latest Zend software, then just subscribe to their RSS feed!

May 11 2009

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Talk Like A Pirate Day, and here’s my rather geeky idea for another day. It’s Talk Like Apache Day!

Basically, you talk like an HTTP server (not specifically Apache, but “Apache” was similar to “A pirate”…). If you need help, here are some responses you can give people to confuse them.

Other ideas could be borne from this, such as Talk Like an MTA Day, or Talk Like SSH Day. I expect the later would have to be encrypted though…

Just imagine the conversation anyway:

You: Hi James, how are you?

Me: 200 OK

You: What?

Me: 304 Not Modified

You: I don’t understand…

Me: 304 Not Modified

You: You’re such an idiot…

Me: 400 Bad Request

Apr 11 2009

p4110008This is our newborn daughter Freyja Éowyn, who at the time of writing is nearing just 10 hours old. She weighed in at 8lbs 8oz, and is just adorable. Hannah laboured for a little over 13 hours, and did exceptionally well. We have both been awake for approximately 36 hours now, and are both exhausted.

Unfortunately due to a large amount of blood loss (from Hannah, not the baby!), Hannah and Freyja have been kept in overnight, which means I am home alone tonight with my thoughts and experiences on this truly lifechanging thing.

I will certainly never forget the first time I saw Freyja’s hair appearing, or when the head was born, or the cutting of the umbilical cord. I’m not exactly squeemish so I got stuck right in with everything I could, but of course mainly supporting Hannah the best I could.

I also would like to send a rather large hat tip to our absolutely fantastic midwife, and the rest of the staff in the labour suite. She did an astounding job at calming Hannah, keeping myself and Hannah up to date with the happenings, and surprisingly – for an NHS hospital – attentiveness was excellent, and for most of the time we felt like we had her [the midwife] to ourselves! Unfortunately we didn’t get the planned water birth at Blakes in Gosport, but all that matters is that both Hannah and our gorgeous daughter are OK, and for that I am truly thankful.

Well, I have sheets to change so I must get on – I am so tired and can hardly function, and I have to be up early tomorrow to visit Hannah at the hospital. So, until next time…