Wouter's Blog

PHP 5 - I returned after 7 or so years

Wouter Simons — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:20:24 +0000

I like to have very clearly defined structures when I write code. I am not a great developer, that is why I need the features of object oriented design. After having tried PHP back in the day, I switched to python for web applications. But now it seems that the time of the PHP-mess I used to get myself into is over. An actual implementation of objects that works made me smile and see how fast I could get things done.

The features I am liking are:

Inheritance arranged
Specifying the access level for variables
Interfaces implemented

Finally the ability to implement a solid MVC pattern and get truly reusable code. A big cudos to the people at www.php.net

No updates for a while

Wouter Simons — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:59:16 +0000

because I have started a new job (IT Specialist at Getronics Pinkroccade) I have not written a lot of text in a while. Soon I will start working on updating my book again. In the mean time thanks to the people who have taken the time to send me some very helpful feedback! I will update it all in my writing.

Many updates to my book

Wouter Simons — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 09:16:24 +0000

After some time of not having added anything new to my book, I have gone back into gear and wrote a couple more chapters, added a community forum, and made sure my book became more visible on the internet.

Writing this book is proving to be a fun task, but also involves a couple of tough decisions. To aim to provide a reasonably complete set of information to a group of very different readers means that you have to really think about what topics have to be described. I have been researching other sources of information for a look at their approach and looked at user reviews to see how those were received.

More to come on this. For now you can read what I have so far at http://itsupportbook.com and post your comments in the new forum

Python imapcopy script

Wouter Simons — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 14:54:24 +0000

I needed to be able to move from Zimbra to Exchange 2007. After trying to use IMAPCopy and IMAPSync I became frustrated. IMAPCopy kept on crashing, IMAPSync was trying to look at changes back and forth, but I just want a fast straightforward copy to happen. The frustration of this process prompted me to write pyMAPCopy.

There is one issue with this code, it bails out on messages larger than about 5 MB. Other than that it works. I tested this on windows with ActivePython 2.5.

To use this, get the file that is linked here and rename the extension from .txt to .py (remove the .txt part). Make sure you have installed activepython which is downloadable from the ActiveState website: http://www.activestate.com/Products/activepython/index.plex

Once this is installed, open a dosbox and browse to the folder that holds the script. Then type in pymapcopy.py and hit enter. You will be asked to type in the server names user names and passwords. Optionally this can be specified on the command line as well, type imapcopy.py -h for more info.

Download pyMapCopy

Writing, harder than it seems

Wouter Simons — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 21:42:02 +0000

The good news is that I have found a very helpful contact through the critique circle website who has been willing to review my writing. She is quite good and her comments are rather to the point.

The bad news is that there is a lot of room for improvement. Well, it is not that bad. It just means I will have to study hard and spend a lot of time to find the right structuring and wording of the message I want to send into the world. To help me there I ordered a book by Strunk and White on english grammar. Apparently the writer’s “bible”.

There is more good news. I am finding the process of writing and researching very satisfying, even if it is time consuming. There are a few things that I really like about it. One of them is that it is a good way to improve my English and the knowledge of IT support. Another is that I am finding it relaxing to organize my thoughts. It is a good way to free up space for new thoughts.

A pet project

Wouter Simons — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:47:31 +0000

Today I started work on a new project of mine. I registered myself on http://www.critiquecircle.com/, downloaded XMLMind, and started writing. Now I have never been much of a novellist, but I have always been writing technical documentation. Therefore my pet project is a book for IT Support written for IT support engineers, not the manager literature that you can find everywhere. You can find this project at http://itsupportbook.com

The first chapter is about the question what IT support actually is. How do you define what the numerous groups of tech support people actually do? I wrote it as I always do, fast and without much second thought. A waterfall of thoughts flowing onto the paper, well screen actually, and put out there right away. This means it is far from perfect, but I like that. Because I know that I did not get it right, right away, I am still very open to comments relating to the text. I will revisit everything I wrote periodically and update it. I will add feedback forms. And I have a lot more action items on my list. Of course you are free to tell me your thoughts here as well!

Let’s see if I am worthy to add to the huge scope of valuable information findable online!

I was watching Lifeblood - EP 1 Finchley when I realized:

Wouter Simons — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:00:35 +0000

How much more fun the internet has become …

From Joost : Lifeblood - EP 1 Finchley

The Fly on the Wall Documentary series with Janet Ellis spends a day in Finchley Hospital

My net space

Wouter Simons — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:29:01 +0000

This blog is here for me to spam the internet in a non-intrusive way. Here I will talk about whatever I am up to and post some of the things I am working on.