Owen's Blog

First off appologies for not updating in a while, but hope everyone’s been able to survive just watching the live pictures of my office and the Lava Lamps.
The reason i’ve been quiet is i’ve been seriously snowed under trying to get a presentation ready for a conference this weekend where i have to present to my work colleagues.. it’s a bit nerve racking but mainly its just damn hard work trying to get it as interactive and fun as possible while still getting the desired message accross… my main problem is i’m just a bit too techie and so i’ve been relying on others to reign me in. But i’ve managed to get my Lava Lamps and Homer Simpson sound clips included so should be a laugh none the less.Also there’s a meal in the evening with drinks and this year it has a theme of Hollywood so i’ve finally bitten the bullet and gone and hired a costume which looks great, i’ll post some photos up when i have them… although they might be messy.

Andy and Nich,
originally uploaded by owenmcevans.

Andy and Nich came to see me this weekend, which was rather nice. Had a great weekend (I hope they did too) and got to go out more than i usually do on the weekend…. yay. Also saw some stand up comedy with a few good comedians (and one bad one) so all in all an A++ weekend, cheers for visiting guys.

Edit: Ok so it may only be live until i have to switch off my machine and go home.. Edit 2: Managed to get the web cam working on the server so it can stay on 24/7 

It turns out that the code i used to switch the Lava Lamps in the build caused the build to fail so i removed the task and instead made an EXE that could be called from the publishers block of Cruise Control .net configuration.

using System;
using CraigsCreations.com.X10;

namespace X10RemoteControl
{

        class X10RemoteControl
        {
                ///
                /// The main entry point for the application.
                ///
                [STAThread]
                static void Main(string[] args)
                {
                        try
                        {
                                if(args.Length>0)
                                {
                                        X10CM11aController objX10Switch = new X10CM11aController(HouseCode.A,"COM1");
                                        objX10Switch.ControlDevice(1,Function.Off,0);
                                        objX10Switch.ControlDevice(2,Function.Off,0);
                                }
                                else
                                {
                                        if(System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CCNetIntegrationStatus")=="Success")
                                        {
                                                X10CM11aController objX10Switch = new X10CM11aController(HouseCode.A,"COM1");
                                                objX10Switch.ControlDevice(1,Function.On,0);
                                                objX10Switch.ControlDevice(2,Function.Off,0);
                                        }
                                        else
                                        {
                                                X10CM11aController objX10Switch = new X10CM11aController(HouseCode.A,"COM1");
                                                objX10Switch.ControlDevice(1,Function.Off,0);
                                                objX10Switch.ControlDevice(2,Function.On,0);
                                        }
                                }
                        }
                        catch(Exception)
                        {
                        }


                }

        }
}

This seems to work and we just had the Green Lamp Turn on by itself. Passed build yay.

Build Lamps,
originally uploaded by owenmcevans.

Ok my little pet project has finally got off the ground. Basically we have a binary process here where our software gets built on a regular basis (not as often as i like but better than nothing). Whenever anyone checks in a new peice of code, or modifies existing code the build is kicked off and the program is compiled and tests run against it, and we get a pass or a fail. (This is continuous integration).At the moment the build is all controled by a nice piece of software called Cruise Control .net , each developer also runs a small application which monitors the build and lets them know the latest build status. Also an email is sent to all of us at the end of each build notifying of any failures and successes. HOWEVERFor me this was just not enough…. I wanted more… so last year i read about someone who had hooked up some lava lamps to turn on depending on the status of the build.BRILLIANTSo today my very own set of lava lamps appeared allong with some X10 Switches care of Simply Automate and i set to work.The hardest bit was finding a dot net library to let me control the lamps from the build but finally i stumbled accross a C# X10 LibraryWith this i was able to code a Nant task to switch the lights on or off, and then use the task at the end of the build process. All very neat apart from an annoying exception in the X10 Which i can’t stop… Damn you!!! I’ll post the Nant Task Code tomorrow.

Fire.,
originally uploaded by owenmcevans.

Fire engine Apparently my parents next door neighbour’s gas boiler nearly blew up! How very interesting. Oh and i’m enjoying this mobloging.

Crapped out,
originally uploaded by owenmcevans.

Cardiff post match Well that was pretty dire i must say.

Game on.,
originally uploaded by owenmcevans.

Sat 11/03/2006 13:27 11032006016 National anthem time. Here’s hoping we put in a decent performance against the italians. Come on Wales.

Hey all as you can see to the left, I now have a “Now Playing” section, which should let all you people hear exactly what i’m listening to while i type and code away. Oh the power of technology, also thanks to Alan Shum i can suggest that people go and visit the awsome Ctrl+Alt+Del. Plus i came across this web comic the other day an it tickled me pink. Anyway enough short updates for this week.

American Gods

Ok so i’ve only just started reading this book and i promise to re review it when i finish, but so far i have to say this is turning out to be quite brilliant. It’s got me hooked already and i only picked it up last night! Very unusual for me so i’m going to give it a positive review to start, plus i can check out some of my special features of my blog software

£3.99