High Charts is a javascript library that allows graphs and charts to easily be added to web pages. A chart like this can easily be added with a few lines of html and javascript. <script src="https://code.highcharts.com/highcharts.js"> <script src="https://code.highcharts.com/modules/exporting.js"> <div...

For the past few weeks my software developing has been taking a back seat as I planned and coordinated the IT requirements of an office move. The company I work for has been working out of a converted barn, but as the company has grown we have outgrown the building and for quite a while it has been a real squeeze to...

I created my GitHub account in August 2010, lets look at what I have done with it. In 2010 I started by committing the code for an old php website I had created. Then in December I committed some other php sites. Between 12 December 2010 and 29 September 2011 I must have created some automated process which is why...

I would like to automate the promotion of this blog. Currently to promote this blog on social media I use a few different services. Buffer (buffer.com ) is a service that allows you to schedule updates to the main social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+) IFTTT or If This Then That (ifttt.com ) is...

I recently came home from a busy day of work to my wife blaming me for allowing our 18 month old son to reach some paint and get it all over the carpet. She was concentrating on the fact that he could reach the paint not on the fact that she had brilliantly got the paint out of the carpet. My instinct on being blamed...

I am trying to understand interfaces and when to use them in my code. An interface defines a contract and any class that implements that interface agrees to fulfil that contract. Lets look at an example as this tends to be how I learn best. Most applications require some sort of data to work from so lets start by...

This week I have been looking at improving my understanding of a few programming terms, like SOLID and I will try and define them so I can look back here when I get confused. MVC I have previously blogged about MVC , but my understanding was not 100% correct so I will refine this here. Model – Now this is where my...

A few weeks back I attended a talk at Agile Yorkshire about Test Driven Development or TDD by Dr Oliver Shaw. I was impressed at how easy Oliver made it look, so as I have never tried it I thought I should give it a try. Test Driven Development or TDD is a way of development which starts with writing a Unit Test. First...

As a developer using source control and git is bread and butter of what we do. Github is probably the most popular and widely known hosting service for source control but I have also used Bitbucket and Visual Studio Team Services. Lets have a look at each one and what they offer. Note while I have included prices I...

Today I spent some time learning the R language. The problem I was trying to solve was to convert local prices of some items into Euros. I had been using a fixed exchange rate for all data, but as exchange rates fluctuate so much this is incorrect. My first though was to find a free API that I could query to get the...