Sam Morrell's Weblog

There's something that has always really bugged me out the music industry; greatest hits compilations. These albums supposedly consist of the best music that an artist has done. However, for the most part I've found this to be radically untrue. The way that most of these albums are compiled is by looking at the chart performance of each of the singles and then slamming them onto a CD, generally in roughly chronological order. Here's the kicker, what if the artist's best work wasn't released as a single and didn't reach mainstream airplay?

With this in mind, I decided to compile my own best of album for one of my favourite artists; Barenaked Ladies. This prolific Canadian band have been going since the late 80s and released loads of albums, but unfortunately they only have 2 best of albums, and most of the tracks on those have been duplicated.

Why did you Choose Barenaked Ladies?

Good question! I chose Barenaked Ladies because I felt it needed to be done. They've done so many excellent songs, most of which most people will never get to hear because they aren't featured on the albums that you wouldn pass in your everyday shop. I just want to share my favourites, and maybe help someone get into the band a little easier.

The Rules

So that I don't just go adding tracks willy nilly I've decided to give myself some rules. They're pretty simple.

1. No track can have been already featured on a greatest hits compilation before - Quite obviously really. If I was just going to go through picking the ones off of the compilations it'd defeat the whole point of doing this, so all the tracks I'm allowed have pretty much only appeared on the album they were originally released on.
2. Only 2 tracks per album - I decided on this to make me really think about which tracks I wanted. If I was only allowed two from each album, I'd try and choose the ones I felt most deserving and not just shove tracks in here for the sake of it.

Here's my track listing

1. Crazy [Gordon]
2. Box Set [Gordon]
3. The Wrong Man Was Convicted [Maybe You Should Drive]
4. When I Fall [Born On A Pirate Ship]
5. Just A Toy [Born On A Pirate Ship]
6. Who Needs Sleep? [Stunt]
7. Never Do Anything [Maroon]
8. Take It Outside [Everything to Everyone]
9. Aluminum [Everything to Everyone]
10. Take It Back [Barenaked Ladies Are Me]
11. Sound of Your Voice [Barenaked Ladies Are Me]
12. Down To Earth [Barenaked Ladies Are Men]
13. Fun & Games [Barenaked Ladies Are Men]
14. Another Heartbreak [All In Good Time]
15. Every Subway Car [All In Good Time]
16. Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! [Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before]

If you'd like to I've compiled them into a spotify playlist so you can easily listen through to them like a proper album.

Happy Listening.

This month has been chocker block of tunes I've been listening to, owing to having a lot more free time than usual. So, I'm going to limit myself a little. Without further ado, let's get started.

Chris Rea - Julia

If you've never heard of Chris Rea, he's a veteran guitarist and song writer through the 80s, 90s, 00s. I picked up a best of album after hearing his song 'Road to Hell: Part 2', which is very good by the way, and various other snippets of songs other places. At 34 tracks it was a real bargain and there's some very good songs on it. As well as the catchy riff of 'On the Beach' which I'm sure everyone has heard at some point there's also some very nice songs he's written about hist daughters, here's one of them.

Alex Day - Lady Godiva

What's that? You don't know Alex Day? Then, you've probably not been on YouTube very much. I got this today after seeing the music video and decided to support him. This song is damn catchy and it's very, very cheesy pop. But hey, we all need some cheesy pop now and then. Also, the video is hilarious.

Queen - Body Language

If you know anything of Queen, you're probably sat there now thinking 'why the hell did he choose this one?'. Good question! I chose to share this one as conclusive proof of how good Queen are. This is hotly contested to be Queen's worst song, along with most of the other songs off of 'Hot Space'. But I put this in here to prove that even Queen at their worst is better than most other songs that have been made. Though, I do have to admit that this is a peculiar music video at the best of times, but if you can stand this, their good stuff will be a doddle.

Pink Floyd - Echoes

I had this on the other day and I reminded myself of how bloody good this song was. It's quite simply a piece of prog rock mastery, as is most of Pink Floyd's early work. So I dug up this live version from 'Live at Gdansk' to share with you. Not only is the song good, but the performance is also excellent.

Fleetwood Mac - Bleed to Love Her

Fleetwod Mac are just another one of those old bands I love. Grown up with them and their music and I just can't get enough of it. Recently I've been listening to their newest album and I was truly surprised. The prevailing trend of old bands is to do new albums and they are atrocious, however this one is actually really, really good. All of the songs are well produced and they keep their quriky, rich pop rock attitude which we all know and love. This is my personal favourite from the album, it's just so lyrically rich and the arrangement is just lovely. Such an endearing and beautiful song cannot go without being mentioned at least once.

Jukebox the Ghost - Somebody

Say hello to my latest musical crush. Ever since being introduced to Jukebox the Ghost it has become a morning ritual to play their first two albums in the car when I'm feeling a little down, so being greeted with the news that they're releasing a new album soon, to understate it a little, made me a bit excited. This song is the first song I heard off of their album and I totally fell in love with it. It feels summery while still having something meaningful about it and everything is mixed just beautifully. I seriously wouldn't be lying if I said I've had it on repeat for the last 3 days, my iTunes play count will attest to this fact. I highly suggest you take a listen to this if nothing else. Also, if you like what you hear, they are currently giving away another song, 'Oh, Emily' on their site and it is equally as brilliant! Why not sheet across to http://www.jukeboxtheghost.com/ now and get yourself a copy.

If you have been, thank you for reading.

Most people who know me will tell you that I'm not one to shy away from a challenge. This is one of those occasions where said stubborn jack-assedness comes in quite useful. Many times before I have wanted to learn the programming language, C++, however as I've come to discover, this is no easy feat. So, my challenge to myself is to become proficient in C/C++.

It's at this juncture I should probably mention my motivation. The first language I learned to any great proficiency was Visual Basic.net. Though this was all I was capable of at the time, it was a very bad idea. My advice to anyone starting out with programming is to not start wit VB. Having knowledge of it is esoteric at best, and while programming with it will give you a rough idea how programming works, the syntax of the language will seriously screw you up when you try to write using a 'proper' language. The next language I learned was PHP. My advice to anyone wanting to get into programming would be to try and start with PHP. It'll give you a very sound grounding in the syntax of most commonly used languages, it has a relatively good object orientated component when you're ready to move up to it and it's weakly typed so you don't have to worry about type casting and the such, as PHP does it for you. The reason I'm belittling VB is quite simply because when I attempted PHP for the first time, the bad habits that VB sets you into are very difficult to break out of, so for example I'd end up getting a significant amount of syntax errors due to lacking a semicolon at the end of a statement, which PHP and almost every other language require but VB does not.

Now, I'm going to be doing it again. In learning C++ I'm going to have to get out of the bad habits I've picked up with PHP. I'm wanting to learn C++ quite simply because it is the programmers language. Most high performance applications on the market today are written wholly or in part using C++. The language itself is strongly typed, meaning that you have to do all the type conversions yourself else the compiler throws an error, you have to worry about memory allocation and pointers and it also has a minimal library to fall back on, which forces you to either write complex algorithms yourself, which I'm gong to have a crack at, or track down supporting libraries yourself. This is where I have to break bad habits again. PHP has a myriad of functions and pre built objects and interfaces to fall back on when you're writing code, so instead of writing things yourself you tend to search out the function that does it for you. Also, you don't particularly have to worry about the types of variables in PHP, because the interpreter will automatically type and convert types when you combine them together. In C++, merely trying to concatenate a character array with a floating point number will throw an exception. So, this is merely the next step up in becoming a mildly useful programmer.

You might now be asking "why not learn Visual C#?". Well, the simple answer is that I have. I've written a couple things in C# over the years, but the thing that I dislike about C# is that it falls under the the .NET framework's Common Language Runtime, meaning that when you compile it, you compile to merely a byte code rather than binary and at runtime the virtual machine then interprets this byte code. This is useful as then you don't have to compile for different architectures, but it has some serious downsides. You have to constantly rely on Microsoft's .NET framework which means that code you write is effectively tied to Windows. Also, the fact that it's interpreted byte code means that, compared to compiled languages, you're taking a performance hit. Also, when I was writing code in C# I was constantly referencing Microsoft's pre written functions which always felt like cheating to me. C++ is a chance for me to try and become a better programmer and computer scientist be removing all the abstraction and get back to basics. Let's see how it goes. I'm betting I loose this resolve within the week.

If you have been, thanks for reading.

I've been once again neglecting my blogging duties, nothing new there, right? I thought I'd ease back into it with doing a nice simple post. Let's get going!

The Popular Thing - Jukebox the Ghost

Seriously! This song is excellent to the highest order. I picked this up from a friend's tumblr blog. I just love the arranging on this song. The arranging and lyrics of most Jukebox the Ghost songs are of a calibre I have not seen in many, many moons. Give them a listen if you ever get the chance.

Queen!

I think that sums it up. If there's one band that I can consistently call my favourite band, Queen has to be it. What with there being a 2011 remaster of all their albums, I decided it might be a decent time to try and scoop them up. So, I now own most of them. I'd be tempted to say that the worst album Queen have ever made (most likely 'Hot Space') is better than most other music around a similar period.

So, I am now stuck with a dilemma. Which song do I embed with this entry. For the reason that I have yet to acquire this album and it's just such a beautiful song, it has to be 'Sail Away Sweet Sister'. Enjoy.

Time Will Crawl - David Bowie

I also recently acquired a David Bowie best of album. I've heard many people talk of the man's brilliance so I let curiosity get the better of me. I bought the best of that spans 1980-1987 which unfortunately doesn't contain many of the greats that he has made, however I will have to go through it again when I have more time to properly listen, I think. Despite this, I really do like this song. I don't know if it's the video for it or the song itself, but it had me hooked for about 3 days solid.

Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine

They say every great man needs his vices, not that I'm saying I'm a great man, but this is most likely my current vice. I was never overly fond of Natasha Bedingfield when she was at her peak, and I can't honestly say that I ever spent an awful lot of time or effort listening to her music. I have however found this song to be pretty damn good. It is also quite good when you have too much to do and too little time in which to accomplish it.

Happily Ever After - He Is We

I'm pretty sure I shared this song before, probably quite some time ago, but I found an alternate mix of it that I think I almost prefer to the album version. It seems more endearing to me for some unknown reason. Such is my personality.

I Belong in Your Arms - Chairlift

This was the iTunes Free Single of the Week a little time ago, and I grabbed it then. The overwhelming consensus on the reviews feed was that it seemed boring. I'd agree to a certain extent. But it's quirkiness straight out of the 1980s more than makes up for that as far as I'm concerned.

Little Red Door - The Zutons

Last, but certainly not least. I can praise myself on owning all three of the Zutons albums, that's about the only musical credential I have to my name. I recently went back and listened to all the albums. I never realised at the time they were more active just how good their music was, but at least I am able to appreciate it now. This is most likely my favourite song off of their last album. If you get a chance, their whole back catalogue is definitely worth listening to.

And so endeth my jumbo sized portion of auditory delights (or torture depending on your taste). If you have been, thank you for reading.

Today has been the my first exam at university, I'm not going to lie, I'm not very confident about how it went. It seemed like the writer of the paper in question had in-fact decided to almost avoid everything I'd revised. This crippling blow has forced me to look back over my techniques over the first term and revise them somewhat. So, here's a quick post with some of the tips that I have come up with.

Always Be OCD About Your Notes

I've decided that I'm going to start being OCD with my notes again, as I did at A-level. Everything has it's own folder, tucked away in a plastic wallet for each lecture with a contents page in the front of all the things we've covered / have to cover. This is going to take a boat load of effort now, but when I come to revision it should make my life a ton easier. Plus, it makes me feel good about myself when everything is nicely tidied away in folders, because I'm like that. Another thing I've noticed is it's very hard to write things that you find obvious at the time, but not remember what was so obvious later. I think that making an effort to write everything that I think I'd need to know is a good idea.

Sleep Like Your Life Depends Upon It

I wish I was joking, but even as a self proclaimed nocturnal nerd, you need to sleep. Your mind cannot operate properly if you don't sleep. Also, the knowledge you have accumulated during the day are processed while your asleep, so if you don't get plenty of rest at night you'll be doing yourself out of remembering things. This will be very difficult for me, I'm prolifically up very, very late at night doing things. I'm just going to have to force myself to take a break.

Take a Chill Pill

One thing I can't proclaim I've not been doing this past 12 weeks is working, Yep, I've been doing something Physics related nearly every single night. Though, that's fine in the short run, you just can't do that, it's not possibles to keep up like it. Take a break every now and then. No matter what you have to do, just take an hour out at least to wind down and do something you enjoy.

Procrastination is your Enemy

Serial procrastination should probably be listed as my hobby. I'm terrible for putting things off until they really need to be done. That's why next term I'm going to try my very best to try and do things with plenty of time... and to not let my mind wander while I'm doing them. What with all the distractions of modern living it's very difficult to not get pulled away from your immediate task by something 'ooooh shiny' like, especially if said task is rather difficult.

So, these are a few tips I've accumulated over the first term. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to buy some folders and revise for tomorrow's exam.

Thanks for Reading.

Hey all, as has been a tradition for me for many years, I must have a Star Trek marathon. It just has to happen. I generally do this on Christmas Eve Eve, but owing to being confined to a hospital bed after an operation that day, it was not an option. So, I decided to get 2012 off to a good start and have it today. The rules are as always, episodes from all series of Star Trek are chosen by a random number from random.org and then I watch and write a quick review of the episode as I go through the night, spoiler free of course. So, check back for updates if you're interested. So, let's kick off with...

1. Star Trek Enterprise - 'Terra Nova' Season 1 Episode 5 - This was a very early episode in the Enterprise story arc, and it's easy to tell at this point the writers were still somewhat establishing their characters. Though, this is classic Star Trek. Enter with a mystery, meet a race of people cut off from society and slowly earn their trust until they listen to what the crew of the Enterprise are try to tell them so that they can save their life. It's a classic Star Trek storyline, and I don't think anyone has ever done it better.
2. Star Trek Enterprise - 'Home' Season 4 Episode 3 -  This is one of my favourite Enterprise episodes. If you've watched Season 3 you'll know why. In this episode the crew return to Earth and it's mainly a very nice character development episode. The captain deals with his internal troubles and there's a nice bit of character development between T'pol and Trip. This episode also shows some of the negative parts of humanity, namely xenophobia and lack of understanding toward alien species. Tis a shame to see it, but I think it gives an important lesson. This definitely one to watch, but only if you've seen season 3 and the first couple episodes of season 4.
3. Star Trek Enterprise - 'Observer Effect' Season 4 Episode 11 - Another classic Star Trek storyline, which I'm sure I've seen more than a couple times throughout the run of the show. In this one two miscellaneous non-corporeal aliens watch the crew as they deal with a crisis bought on board the ship. Once again, the episode is touting how humanity is unique within all the species they've observed in how they react to it. I swear, if there are any aliens out there watching, they must think we're a vain species. A good episode to watch if you don't want to get tied into a story arc, as it resolves rather nicely by the end of the episode.
4. Star Trek Deep Space Nine - 'Paradise' Season 2 Episode 15 - Finally, we're on to something other than Star Trek Enterprise, not that I dislike it o' course. Another classic formula, seemingly perfect society run by an overly nice evil woman with Orwellian intentions. It's a nice enough episode, but it's very much a filler, though the storyline is interesting enough. Some things of note about this episode. We get a little development on Miles O'Brian at the beginning and the female antagonist has the most annoying speaking voice I can recall hearing. I swear it sounds like she's always on the verge of crying.
5. Star Trek Deep Space Nine - ''Til Death Do Us Part' Season 7 Episode 18 - Have to admit, paid very little attention to this one. Wasn't a good one to watch in this context as it is right in the middle of a very involved story arc at the end of the series. Though, I can recall watching it during the arc and it has plenty of twists in it, so from that perspective, it's a good episode. You have to watch all of Season 7 of DS9 together for it to make much sense anyway.
6. Star Trek Enterprise - 'Dead Stop' Season 2 Episode 4 - This is a pretty good pick to be honest. It's probably one of the best Enterprise episodes in my opinion. Essentially after the previous episode, the ship is in a pretty bad way, so they find an automated station to stop off and repair their ship, but some funny business goes on. It's definitely one to check out, as it's probably one of the more original story ideas I've seen in a while. You might want to watch the previous episode if you want the full story behind it, but still, it's no big deal. It's enjoyable enough without it.
7. Star Trek The Next Generation - 'The Survivors' Season 3 Episode 3 - Ah, now that one is a classic. It's typical TNG as well. Main story is basically weird people left on a planet that has been completely obliterated by a mysterious unknown alien race, meanwhile Troi is affected by something completely random that you never really find out about. It's a nice enough episode, well worth not skipping if you're going through TNG but it's nothing to really go out of your way to watch.
8. Star Trek Voyager - 'Caretaker' Season 1 Episode 1 - So much win! Personally, this is my favourite series opener. It has great introductions to the characters, an interesting storyline and it even has a Deep Space Nine cross-over. What more could you want. Also, it's super long clocking in at about and hour and a half, it's effectively a Star Trek Voyager movie; which I'm really unhappy they didn't make by the way.You must totally watch this episode if you have a chance, it'll get you kick started brilliantly to watching Star Trek Voyager. I grew up watching Voyager and this is a very fitting opening to a brilliant series.

So, I think that's all I have time for this marathon, I think it's bee pretty good, though I would have liked to have got some Original Series in there. Maybe next time. If you have been, thanks for reading / following.

Hi All, it's that time of the year again. Time for a good ol' rant from yours truly.

This time I'm ranting about digital audio. In particular, music downloads and CDs. Personally I just can't get my head around why someone would rather buy MP3s / AACs off of iTunes or any other miscellaneous MP3 purchasing service. Whenever I buy an album, I usually, if given the choice, buy the CD. Why you ask? Because CDs always have been and always will be much higher quality than MP3s and AAC, or for that matter any lossy format.

You're currently probably sat there at the moment thinking I'm a complete fool, trying to espouse a 30 year old format over modern standards. Ok, let me prove it! CD Audio, or the 'Red Book' standard uses Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) which is completely uncompressed, meaning it's the signal that was exported from the Artist's computer or whatever they used to make it. This means it keeps all the nuances of their mixing, the way you hear it is exactly as the person mastering it heard it. However, both MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3) and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) are compressed 'Lossy' formats, this means that the signal that is derived from the data being fed in to the decoder to make the pretty sound come out of your speakers has been sent through filters, compressors and mangled beyond belief. Now, why would you spend the same amount of money on a mangled, nasty MP3 when you could get the same recording on CD for the same if not less, which is bit for bit the same signal that the artist or recording engineer intended.

The other bug bear I have is iTunes, for various reasons I've always stayed well clear of iTunes unless absolutely necessary, which surprises many people as I have a MacBook, an iPhone and an iPad. There's many reasons for this. Maybe it's the fact that Apple, at least used to, impose very restrictive digital rights management (DRM) on all music and video downloaded from iTunes, maybe it's the fact that once you've downloaded the file once you cannot download again if you loose yours, or maybe it's the fact that Apple claim to have very high quality audio, when their files are a measly 256 kbps, and yes that is lossily compressed, when CDs are a whopping 1411.2 kbps completely uncompressed. The audio is just much higher quality. I mean, hell it's well over 4 times the bit rate! Does that mean nothing?

Another thing I like is that CDs are generally just nicer! You have something to hold for your hard earned £8, or whatever you pay. There is something tangible to hold, with MP3s all you have is a smattering of numbers stored in some kind of storage medium. You get the excitement of waiting for it, unpacking it, sticking it in the stereo and sitting and listening. With iTunes and other download services all you have to do is click and button and they're there, it's no fun!

If that doesn't put the final nail in the coffin for my argument, what can you do with CDs. Stick it into your computer's CD drive, which pretty much every computer has, load up iTunes, take 2 or 3 minutes to rip the AAC / MP3 files and end up with exactly the same thing you would buy off iTunes minus the crappy DRM and restrictions, from the CD! It just seems a no brainer to me, with the CD you can play it as many times as you want, rip it to any computer you want, no 5 computer limit. Every computer!

You can mock me for 'standing in the way of progress' if you want, but get this. The MP3 standard is just as old as CDs. It's been around since the 80s. So There!

Okay, I think it's time for a geek out. Here goes. Since I am a massive geek of general sci-fi, and in particular the Star Trek form of sci-fi, time for a little trek related trivia post.

• The phrase 'Beam me up Scotty' was never, ever actually said in the original series, quite ironic seeing as it's one of the few lines that ever became famous from the show (that was never actually from the show).
• The phrase 'Star Trek' was never said on screen until the 8th feature film, 'Star Trek - First Contact' where it was said on screen by actor James Cromwell playing Zefram Cochrane, creator of the warp drive.
• Star Trek didn't actually reach a wide audience until it was cancelled after the 3rd Season of the original series (a decision which the network later came to regret).
• Star Trek features features the first inter-racial kiss show on television between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols.
• The term 'Jeffries Tubes' (tubes that spread throughout starfleet ships to allow easy maintenance) were named after Matt Jeffries, designer of the Enterprise on the original series. They were named by the crew on honour of him.
• Star Trek was ground breaking for it's time, as it featured not only a woman, but a coloured woman at a very important post in the command crew of the federation's flagship. Something practically unthought of in the 1960s.
• Spock was originally rejected by the network due to his 'satanic' appearance. He later went on to become one of the most popular characters from the show.
• Majel Barret, wife of Gene Roddenberry, has been in every single series of Star Trek, either as a person or as the voice of a ships computer.
• A series of Star Trek after the original series, commonly known as 'Star Trek Phase 2' was in pre-production in the mid 1970s after the late success of the Original Series, however instead the first feature film was made.
• James Doohan, who played Scotty on the Original Series, lost the middle finger on his right hand during World War II.

It's that time of decade again! I don't know if anyone actually cares about reading these posts but I like sharing them anyway. I can go back over them and see what I liked listening to back in time. If nothing else it's a musical bookmark for myself. Before I get any wise cracks about the frequency of these posts necessitating them being named after seasons rather than months, let's get started!

Kal Lavelle

Much of my discovery of music is done via the iTunes free single of the week, by virtue of it being free to try and introducing artists I wouldn't other wise have found / listened to. This time is no exception. About a few weeks ago I found an artists called Kal Lavelle with this song ('Breakfast at Tiffany's'). I wasn't expecting an awful lot as predominantly, iTunes free single of the week sums up mediocrity, however I really enjoyed this one. I just seems really natural and airy. The vocal harmonies also help it along very nicely.

If this song isn't quite to your taste, she's also worked with Artful to make 'This Could Be The Bassline'. Also really like this one. There's another version of this song circulating with Ed Sheeran on vocals, as he was meant to do them but was unable and recommended Kal (I think).

He Is We

Here's another lucky discovery of mine. This duo are really quite good. These two songs are my two favourites for you to have a listen to. The first one is called 'Happily Ever After' and the second is called 'All About Us'. The second features Adam Young of Owl City fame, so if you recognise the vocals, that's why. They've done plenty more good songs too so why not go check them out?

Amy Macdonald - This is the Life

Basically, I kept hearing it on the TV adverts for some car, I forget now but I think it was Fiat. I've always this song, but never known exactly what it was, thank goodness for iPhones and Shazam, eh? Once again, many harmonies, that seems to be a recurring theme.

Dlugokecki - Save My Soul

Just so you know, it's pronounced der-loo-go-ken-ski. Don't worry, I had that trouble too. I've loved this song since way back when I first heard it. It's got everything in it that makes me want to listen more. Strings, a really punchy bass line, clean drums, plenty of vocal harmonies and generally a really big a lovely sound! This is the way I'd like to mix music.

Ady Hart

I can't end this post without mentioning a friend of mine, Ady Hart, who has recently finished and published his own album. All the songs on it a very good, I'd be hard pushed to find a weak one. The production of the CD is also very well done. An all round class act. Why not have a look at his website at http://adyhart.com/. Seriously, you won't regret it. In the meantime, here's a sample I managed to dig up of one of his songs. Enjoy!

Right, I think that's enough for now, else I won't have anything for next year... ahem, month's post. So in the meantime, thanks for reading and hope you like the music.

Hello all, if you follow me on twitter, @smorrell if anyone is interested, you may have noticed I haven't half been prattling on lately with a load of mumbo jumbo. These are my little snippets of code so here's some context to my programming jargon fuelled tweets. Time for a little progress report on Dahl, which I introduced a couple posts ago. I won't bore you with another introduction, you can read the other post for all that. Here's what I've been working on.

Caching

The main focus of my work over the past couple days has been working on Dahl's caching capabilities. I've managed to get it very ably fetching from databases, but how could I improve performance and reliability?

So, I implemented a nice little time based cache. I had to invent some extra objects and properties to make it all work out but alas it's working rather nicely now. Only a few hours work too. It's given performance a nice little boost too. With the data cached I saw performance that was averaging about twice as fast, even when I was executing 9 table fetches it still showed this trend. I'm happy with that, there's always time for tweaking and performance improvements later on eh?

Offline Mode

It occurred to me today that I'm storing all this data locally to avoid some performance issues, so there must be something else I could do to leverage this. So I decided to allow Dahl to run disconnected from the datasource. Dahl will run off of the cached data if it is unable to establish a connection to the server, it will run off of that until it is able to reestablish a connection, at that point it refreshes the cache from the data source. I thought it was quite a good idea, though I might well add some kind of flag within the configuration file to allow it to be disabled.

Dataset Tweaking

Probably the most important object within Dahl is the Dataset object, this deals with all the data manipulation and storage while active within PHP. Today I've been tweaking how it behaves when treated like an array. Before, I had implemented the arrayaccess interface to allow it to be accessed like an array, but today I decided to also implement the Iterator and Countable interfaces to permit the count() function to be used and also to permit foreach statements and the like. So far it seems to be working fine but I think I shall keep tweaking it for a while yet before I'm happy with it.

I hope you enjoyed this little roundup of my recent activities. I'll be sure to post another update soon. Thanks for reading.