Chris Projects Manager
With the tools of scientists and the skills of artists the internet has created a publishing revolution like the world has never seen.
Almost anyone can now anonymously reach out to a world wide audience immediately without fear of censorship or reprisal.
I am proud to work in an industry where I can use my skills to build the tools that empower people and allow them to embrace all this new medium has to offer.
Skittles Hacks
posted by chris on April 2nd, 2008
It's been a long time since I last posted anything on the good ol' Netbasic blog so I thought I'd try and get back into the swing of things by announcing my newest achievement in the office - hacking the skittles machine.
For way too long Jon has been king of the skittles dispenser (it is his after all), and taking all our hard earned change for just 4 miserly skittles at the every turn of the handle - but now we can strike back!
Yes Jon, I can get get skittles out of the machine without cash and without undoing the top! A slight turn of the handle, a short sharp shake at the right angle and out they come, one by one.
Winner!
So what does this mean for office politics from this point forwards? Well, Jon's power has certainly been undermined as the Sultan of sweets, but beyond that I don't really know. I'd like to think this is somewhat akin to the demolition of the Berlin wall, and the ensuing freedom that resulted, just with me in the Hasslehoff role!
So there you are, one in the eye for the design - tech triumphs again! Now where's my Baywatch outfit...?
For way too long Jon has been king of the skittles dispenser (it is his after all), and taking all our hard earned change for just 4 miserly skittles at the every turn of the handle - but now we can strike back!
Yes Jon, I can get get skittles out of the machine without cash and without undoing the top! A slight turn of the handle, a short sharp shake at the right angle and out they come, one by one.
Winner!
So what does this mean for office politics from this point forwards? Well, Jon's power has certainly been undermined as the Sultan of sweets, but beyond that I don't really know. I'd like to think this is somewhat akin to the demolition of the Berlin wall, and the ensuing freedom that resulted, just with me in the Hasslehoff role!
So there you are, one in the eye for the design - tech triumphs again! Now where's my Baywatch outfit...?
That Was Easy!
posted by chris on June 28th, 2007
My turn to blog again this week, so first of all I thought I'd tell you about one of the best features of Word 2007 - you can blog directly from it, making it even easier to upload content to the web.
In some regards it's not as advanced as ecto (or the free w.Bloggar) for interfacing with and editing raw blog content but in others it really is.
For example I have a lot of old word based science essays that I thought I'd like to publish on my personal blog and as such these contain a large quantity of things like this:
When word saves a page as html for example it can convert all these math-type/equation editor plug-in objects to images which is fine if you JUST want the page as a web page.
Invariably though, if anything is saved as a webpage from word it is bloated with excess styles (hence the need for Dreamweaver's clean up word html command) and you'll generally want to edit it in some way to make it look more presentable, as the presentation offered by word is usually somewhat lacking.
So when you save an essay with a lot of equation objects in it, that leads to tonnes of files which are a pain to copy back into a blog manually or edit along with the page content in Dreamweaver - literally hours can be spent reformatting the document.
Word 07's publish to blog function though cuts out all of this rubbish and generally does an excellent job in maintaining formatting (possibly because it may be restricted to sending data for the post in some predetermined minimal format or it doesn't have to 'worry' about styles or html page structure so much) and also uploading the images with the correct paths/associations - which is AMAZING!
Secondly today, I'd like to introduce you to the easy button (Staples, £2.50) a fantastic little device for helping you get the point across, worryingly though it seems to have the same voice as Luke! I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this little fellah in the office and on the blog!
In some regards it's not as advanced as ecto (or the free w.Bloggar) for interfacing with and editing raw blog content but in others it really is.
For example I have a lot of old word based science essays that I thought I'd like to publish on my personal blog and as such these contain a large quantity of things like this:
When word saves a page as html for example it can convert all these math-type/equation editor plug-in objects to images which is fine if you JUST want the page as a web page.
Invariably though, if anything is saved as a webpage from word it is bloated with excess styles (hence the need for Dreamweaver's clean up word html command) and you'll generally want to edit it in some way to make it look more presentable, as the presentation offered by word is usually somewhat lacking.
So when you save an essay with a lot of equation objects in it, that leads to tonnes of files which are a pain to copy back into a blog manually or edit along with the page content in Dreamweaver - literally hours can be spent reformatting the document.
Word 07's publish to blog function though cuts out all of this rubbish and generally does an excellent job in maintaining formatting (possibly because it may be restricted to sending data for the post in some predetermined minimal format or it doesn't have to 'worry' about styles or html page structure so much) and also uploading the images with the correct paths/associations - which is AMAZING!
Secondly today, I'd like to introduce you to the easy button (Staples, £2.50) a fantastic little device for helping you get the point across, worryingly though it seems to have the same voice as Luke! I'm sure we'll be seeing more of this little fellah in the office and on the blog!
Office Science Mark 2: Minty Car Park Explosions
posted by chris on June 1st, 2007
We've all see the famous You-Tube diet coke and mentos experiment here (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mentos) and thought it'd be fun to give it a go, but much like some of our other ill-fated office experiments (that if they're not here I'm not allowed to blog about...) it didn't go exactly according to plan.
Due to not thinking too much about what goes on chemically when a bottle of coke meets a mento, and not wanting to get too sticky or destroy the nice cars of the people that work here, we decided to try the experiment with bottles of fizzy water and a selection of cheap mints - at least if it went wrong the most we'd get is a refreshing minty shower!
So, Jon and myself bought a 2 litre bottle of Sainsbury's 17p cheap fizzy water, and Kelvin bought some premium fizzy tonic water in a bottle I can only describe as shaped like a volcano. I had Sainsbury's economy extra sugary mints, Jon had a roll of polo's and Kelvin had tic-tac's.
As you can see from the following video of my try, the experiment was an utter shambles!
I don't know if the design of the bottles for Jon and I were to blame (rounded tops over straight reducing the pressure towards the opening) or if the mints were not of good enough quality to break down quickly and cause a fast release of gas, but something was up as Kelvin won the day!
It seems that, for this experiment at least, tonic water and tic tacs were the best combination, but if any of our readers out there have any other suggestions please leave them below.
This contest isn't over yet!
Due to not thinking too much about what goes on chemically when a bottle of coke meets a mento, and not wanting to get too sticky or destroy the nice cars of the people that work here, we decided to try the experiment with bottles of fizzy water and a selection of cheap mints - at least if it went wrong the most we'd get is a refreshing minty shower!
So, Jon and myself bought a 2 litre bottle of Sainsbury's 17p cheap fizzy water, and Kelvin bought some premium fizzy tonic water in a bottle I can only describe as shaped like a volcano. I had Sainsbury's economy extra sugary mints, Jon had a roll of polo's and Kelvin had tic-tac's.
As you can see from the following video of my try, the experiment was an utter shambles!
I don't know if the design of the bottles for Jon and I were to blame (rounded tops over straight reducing the pressure towards the opening) or if the mints were not of good enough quality to break down quickly and cause a fast release of gas, but something was up as Kelvin won the day!
It seems that, for this experiment at least, tonic water and tic tacs were the best combination, but if any of our readers out there have any other suggestions please leave them below.
This contest isn't over yet!
Chris thinks...
...he codes like Rainman
Science & Technology
Though I am now a web developer, I am also a qualified Chemical Physicist and still have many interests in my previous fields. In my spare time I regularly contribute to the work of the Vega Science Trust, a charity promoting the public understanding of science.
Cycling
I am a keen cyclist and love to spend sunny afternoons out on my bike getting lost in the countryside. Every year I take part in the London to Brighton Bike Ride mainly for fun but also to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation along the way.
"If we had to choose one of us to go on University Challenge, Chris would be our man. His list of academic achievements ranges from a PhD in electrical engineering to a masters in Chemistry. And this of course is of great commercial benefit for Netbasic in our kitchen experiments.
He probably tracks more people each day than the world's security services. His experience of tracking people and kitchen implements has fast become a concern however, as MI6 are hot on the recruitment trail of our man known only as 'tracker (bar)'."
He probably tracks more people each day than the world's security services. His experience of tracking people and kitchen implements has fast become a concern however, as MI6 are hot on the recruitment trail of our man known only as 'tracker (bar)'."