KevBaldwyn

Get something up and iterate

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-08-15T22:00:00+01:00

So I've had the same website for far too long and it hasn't changed much in...well, far too long, probably not since I initially built it actually. I've done so little with it in fact that it took me a lot of digging just to find the FTP user account details to log in so I could upload this, my new website!

Adhering to Boyd's Law of Iteration I've decided to get this site up and iterate on it over time. Too often we (I) spend weeks trying to build a completely perfect website in one hit, when the reality is that it was actually more than suitable weeks ago. With that in mind I've decided to follow in Colonel John Boyd's theory that; speed of iteration beats quality of iteration. He was talking about fighter aircraft, I'm talking about websites, I'm sure there are similarities there somewhere.

To keep things brief this website is now going to serve as a place to share the things I do with anyone or no-one who is interested, instead of being the big useless flash movie it's always been in the past - the way back machine is testament to that.

A simple and tasty recipe for chili jam

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-08-26T22:00:00+01:00

I love this recipe, its easy simple and makes an awesome jam / chutney / jutney. I'd like to say it's been passed down over the years through my family but it hasn't, an illustrator friend of mine gave it to me, maybe it was passed down over the years through his family? His name is Dave Doyle and he is a fantastic illustrator, he did me the jam pot sketch in about 2 minutes of me asking for one, look how nice it is.

Anyway the recipe is as follows (feel free to adjust to your taste, it always turns out slightly different each time I make it, but always tasty.

Ingredients

1 garlic clove
1 small onion
2 inches of ginger
100 ml white wine vinegar
450 grams of sugar
150 grams of chilis (or more or less depending on your taste)
1 lemon's zest
Cashew nuts - I've just noticed this written in my scrawly handwriting and I've never actually tried putting them in, next time I will.

Method

Roughly chop the garlic, chili, onion and ginger.
Blitz / crush the mixture (I use a pestle and mortar) and add a dash of the white wine vinegar, keeping the rest for later. You don't need much at this point - just enough to lubricate it a little.
Grab a largish pan and add all the ingredients, bring it to the boil and then simmer for at least 10 minutes and no longer than 20.
I check it every 5 minutes or so by spooning a little amount out onto a plate and seeing how runny it is after it has cooled.

That's it! It's great with cheese and, well pretty much anything. The amount here makes about a jar full, I recently tried making double the amount but I think it needed to simmer for longer as it came out runnier than I wanted, still tasted great though.

Things I will never live down, number one

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-09-06T22:00:00+01:00

So it was my friend Tim's wedding at the weekend, I was joint best man with his brother Ben. Being best man I had to do a speech, everything went really well, really well that was until I wished the happy couple a loveless marriage (I actually said "Love Free"). The best bit for me was looking over and seeing my girlfriend holding her head in her hands.

So thanks Jen for this.

I brew beer, I am man

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-09-17T22:00:00+01:00

As a present for being best man at my friends wedding I recieved a BruBox, that was a couple of weeks ago now, so today I have decided to give it a go.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, the biggest issue I've had so far is that my kettle takes about 4 hours to boil and I need around 4-5 litres of boiling water in the whole process. The box it all comes in does stink but I think thats because the packet that contains the cleaning powder has leaked slightly, not a big issue.

It comes with everything you need, including hops, grain, yeast and a big can of malt extract (mine is a pilsner BruBox), the bag and box to brew it in, and even a thermometer to monitor the temperature. It's all re-useable and apparently you can get six brews out of the box but you do need to buy the ingredients each time. All in all it should take about 5 weeks to brew!

The hardest part once all the ingredients are added is getting the temperature of the liquid down to between 15℃ and 22℃. I've done it by putting it in the coldest room in my flat (my bathroom) and immersing it in a bowl of cold water and wrapping wet towels around it.

Discovery of earthlike planet

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-09-29T22:00:00+01:00

Through the wonders of the interwebs I've just read this fascinating article. It describes how scientists have now discovered a solar system in our galaxy that has a planet capable of harboring life. I find this stuff completely mind boggling, I instantly start thinking of ways I could chyrogenically freeze myself so I can wake up 500 years in the future and do some inter-galatic space travel, however considering I currently don't even own a freezer I may be a little way off my dream.

The planet was discovered by a technique called radial velocity which detects shifts in a planets position due to the gravitational pull of a nearby star. The planet is 20 million light years away - thats the time it takes the speed of light (which we all know is one of the fastest speeds around) to get from that planet to our own beautiful home - take a moment to digest how far that is!

Apparently 10 to 20 percent of all stars may have potentially habitable planets, which, according to the boffins that discovered this system, means there could be "tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy". I've always been one of those people that believed that there was life outside our own tiny planet, but now I'm convinced. I mean seriously, in the entire universe how can we be on the only planet thats capable of sustaining life?

If ever I want to feel really really tiny and insignificant I will think about this new planet 20 million light years away, and how I will never get to go there on holiday.

First week as a freelance web bitch

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-11-04T23:00:00+01:00

I've had a crazy month, I decided to quit my agency job at the beginning of October to go in search of self earned riches instead of the steady income from the man.

I have spent a decent amount of time attempting to secure some contracts throughout the last couple of months and decided I had got enough to warrant making the jump. Although only 2 clients had actually agreed to work with me I didn't want to keep stalling and waiting for the stuff I had at tender to come in, otherwise I would never commit. So I had my last day in an office exactly one week ago, I've got lots to thank my previous employer for and I will miss working with many of the faces. No regrets though and I'm looking forward to doing my own thing.

Its been strange adjusting to the self motivated style of working, I've always done work outside of my day job but knowing that all the income you will receive is down to the work and effort you put in yourself is a weird thing to get adjusted to. So far I've found it motivating and exciting, and having received payment from my first invoice today its also been rewarding.

All the fears I've had have suddenly become amplified - lots of "what if's" almost exclusively revolving around money. But all the advantages I hoped for have been realised - freedom to take 2 hour lunches, start work at 8.30am, finish at 3pm, go out with Julz knowing I will make up the time later, being able to make plans around my own life instead of weekends and bank holidays, and spend more time in Paris and more time kitsurfing. Not to mention all the professional decisions I get to make myself, having creative control and doing things I wouldn't normally get a chance to do. Maybe all this is a little rose coloured at the moment because I'm in the new job honey moon period, but I don't think so.

Frustrations of web development

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-11-14T23:00:00+01:00

Web development is a continue process of learning. I enjoy that process, I suck up knowledge like a hoover, it motivates me and makes me want to try new things, push it and do something exciting.

What I don't enjoy is spending 3 and a half days (including my weekend) trying to solve a problem, approaching it logically, methodically, and spending hours re-reading all about trigonometry, ultimately resulting in nothing. Nothing. Having to re-write from scratch my code 4 times becuase its simply not working. This is something I don't enjoy.

Then having poured my weekend into this problem.....I find a library written by some people much more clever than me that solves the heart of the problem I'm tackling. It doesn't solve it completely, but it does solve the bit that took me 2 and a half days to achieve basically nothing. I'm still undecided if I'm happy about this or not. I feel annoyed that I didn't find this earlier but also releived that google smiled on me with the correct search term.

I guess what I'm saying is thanks to GreenSock

323 days of failure

kev@kevbaldwyn.co.uk — 2010-11-18T23:00:00+01:00

I really tried to keep up with the 365 project but I failed massively. I made it to about 42 days which isn't great....11% or something! Anyway instead of having the pressure of taking a photo every day, I've decided just to move the photos I have taken to here and keep it going as a photo blog instead. Enjoy.