After missing a blog post last week I have officially screwed up my Project 52 status. I posted every week for 15 weeks, on it's own that's still a pretty good achievement. Alas, I am a programmer, not a weekly writer; so it's time I set myself a new challenge.

One Week App

Next week I conveniently have a whole week off college, so I decided to use this free week to create a web app. I already know what I'm going to build and have an extremely rough idea of how it'll all work out. But until Monday hits, I won't be writing any code or creating any pretty designs. To be brutally honest, this app is fairly simply so I don't expect it to take a whole week. I expect most of the week will be spent polishing it all off and making it look kinda sexy.

More libraries

I'm hoping that building an app in such a short space of time will help me think of new libraries to create and release to the community. I already have an idea that I'm looking to try out on this app, and possibly release if it's any good. There's probably something out there like this already. There's plenty of room for everyone in this community, that's what makes it great, there's so much choice and so many options!

Future projects, and the master-plan

I hope to make a few more web apps in the future. Now, when I say web app, please don't think 37signals. I won't make anything nearly that awesome in a week, I'm simply going to create stuff I think I could make awesome and see if it flies. It it dives then I'll leave it and move onto the next idea. Of course if I get some interest and people feel it could be useful, I'll start to add things and make it look better until I am happy with it, and the users are happy with it. If/when that happens, well, we'll have to see how it goes won't we? Hopefully everything I create will be valuable to somebody out there so everything gets used and I can get a nice, warm fuzzy feeling that I've helped someone perform a task.

This months Shropgeek was awesome as always, but due to a beer festival we were all out in the cold instead of our usual quiet back room!

Being outdoors was good for us all though. We found out the lights outside the Admiral Benbow aren't operated by clapper (hehe) or sensor, there's simply a button to push on the wall. Of course, I still acted like I was using a clapper, when actually I just clapped when someone was going to push the button. The effect worked rather well, even if I did look like an idiot!

Topics of discussion this month was very different to any other meetup I've been to.

• Digital Economy Bill: this months shropgeek featured a short discussion on the #debill – mostly on why it's a load of old todge, why we were unhappy about it; and @jamiebiddle brought in a letter from his MP regarding #debill, it turned out to be exactly the same as the letter @zbeauvais had from his MP, it's not even the same MP, they live in different constituencies!
• iPad: With the iPad being released in the US, we had to talk about it, we are geeks after all! Same conversation as usual, are you buying one? is it any good? I think it looks awesome, etc.
• iPhone OS 4: I had been trying to get my hands on OS 4 all day ready for shropgeek and, well I failed. I didn't get my iPhone Developer Program activation email until Saturday morning. So we had to simply talk about it, rather than play with it on my phone. Although now that I have it we'll be able to play with it on my phone next month!
• Top 10 Pubs in Shropshire: Two of the guys who come to shropgeek, @martinchilds and @cpritch, run a local website shropshirelive.com. They ran a competition to find the top 10 pubs in shropshire, I tried to find out the winner before hand as my friend runs one of the pubs on the list but they simply wouldn't tell me!
• Radio traffic reporting: For some reason I decided to ask if anybody remember the Street Hawk, a guy who went round Shrewsbury on a motorbike reporting weather for a local radio station. A few did remember; it was my Dad! I also told them he wouldn't go out in the mornings as traffic was always the same, turns out @cpritch did the same when he reported the traffic too! It's surprising how much you don't know about what goes on behind the scenes.

It was almost a week ago now so I don't remember every tiny detail of what happened so I'll wrap it up here! Shropgeek was awesome as always and I can't wait for May's Shropgeek!

I am on the market for a new machine; of course it has to be a Mac, I couldn't live without TextMate and I'd rather not go down the hackintosh route (I won't go into why as it could be a whole blog post on it's own!). I am now stuck between two different set ups, an iMac and an iPad; or a MacBook Pro and an Apple Cinema Display.

My current setup

Here is my current desk. I have my Late 2007 2.0Ghz MacBook connected up to a Samsung SyncMaster 923NW, along with my Samson C01U condenser microphone. My MacBook has served me well but it's battered and bruised and I will need a new machine when I go to University in September.

27" iMac & iPad

The first option for me to go down is to buy an iMac and an iPad. Please note: I really want an iPad so I'm already pretty much sold on this set up already. If I am buying an iMac, I'm getting a 27 incher; no way I'm forking out £1,000+ for a 21.5 inch screen. I'm also getting a Core i5 model, this would future proof the iMac for at least 5 years. I won't be opting for the Core i7 model as it's too much money for the gains you get. Anyway on to the next setup!

MacBook Pro & Apple Cinema Display

This is a lot like my current setup, just with a much better laptop and a much better screen.

My needs & future needs

My current needs are simple, I need a machine to sit on my desk. My MacBook hasn't moved from my desk in well over a year (not counting the times I've had a clean up etc). However, my future needs differ immensely. Of course I need a machine to use when I'm at Uni in my room. I'll also need a device to take notes on. I was thinking I could have an iMac and then use an iPad to take notes on.

One thing I just thought about, which I didn't think about before. When I go home for a few weeks at Christmas if I have an iMac I can only bring the iPad on the train. If I wanted to do some coding over Christmas I wouldn't be able to on an iPad. Unless I keep my MacBook (I doubt anybody would buy it in it's current state, and I reckon it's worth more to me as an extra machine anyway.)

Final setup?

iMac for heavy lifting at Uni; iPad for note taking, content consumption etc. MacBook for use at home for stuff like web development etc. Is this my perfect setup? Probably. I mean the MacBook works fine, it's just a bit rough around the edges. Let me know what you think in a comment / on twitter / on facebook. Try and sway me either way. I'm still not 100% but writing this post has led me to think that an iMac / iPad / MacBook setup would be just so sweet.

Ok so here's another "I'm stuck and I need advice" post, this post also has a link to University in it (which ones don't?!).

I have the opportunity to buy a 2004 registered Citreon C2 LX. It's in good shape and it's cheap. Insurance is still expensive but I can just about manage because the car's so cheap. Here's the thing though, I'm not sure how much of a necessity a car will be when I move to Cardiff. I would guess it's just as useful in Cardiff as it would be here as I'll have to travel to a hall 40 minutes walk away for kickboxing plus I'll be shopping at Uni.

But do I buy a car, keep it for a few years and build a no claims bonus; or do I keep my money and be a bit more financially secure for when I move to Uni? I think I'm abusing this blog by posting these "help me" questions. I guess I need someone to tell me "yes" or to tell me "no" or I just feel like I'm acting on impulse – which technically I am.

So buy a car or be exceptionally financially safe? Hmm.

I have definitely lagged behind with a post this week. It is with a heavy heart that I have to say there is not very much going on in my life this week.

Kickboxing has been going very well; I've had to go on my own for a few weeks now because my partner has taken quite a bit of skin off his hands. This has led me to go further, training with different opponents at a much better skill level than me. I know I am better now for a few reasons. Firstly, all the black belts commend me in training and after sparring, this is good, I know I am progressing and that makes me want to go further. Also we stretch our legs before we do any kicks. When I started I could barely get my leg 2 foot from the floor without screaming in agony. But now I can keep my leg on the shoulder of a 6 foot man without whining. It hurts but it's bearable. This is good progress on my part and hopefully I'll be able to touch the goddam floor!

I am starting to take kickboxing very seriously as well. I've just bought hand wraps, new gloves, shin pads, shorts and a gum shield. I need the hand wraps to protect my hands as they start to hurt now I can punch faster and harder. I need new gloves because my current ones are about to fall apart, but I guess that's what you get when they only cost £7. I need shin pads because the ones I use when I get there are used every week and never washed…yucky. I need shorts because my tracksuit bottoms are too long and restrict me when I'm kicking; plus they look cool. Finally I need a gum shield because I would like to keep my teeth. Now I tend to spar with 5 guys each week I need the gum shield as some guys can get rough. :)

Ok so I don't want this whole blog post to be about kickboxing, so I'll waffle about college and University for a while. College is still boring as hell and I'm still not learning anything. Very soon I'll be building an interface for a flower shop till using CodeIgniter and AG Complex Auth. This will probably be the highlight of my college work; working with CodeIgniter on my Mac in the middle of the room whilst everyone else works on the slow PC's on the terribly slow college network. I'm not being elitist but I'm being elitist!

I'm sorting out my student loans application. I'm almost ready to send off some forms so they can properly asses me for bursaries and all sorts of fun stuff. I've been looking at student bank accounts and it looks like Lloyds TSB is the best in terms of 0% interest overdraft and the benefits you get (free NUS Extra Card etc).

So there you go, that's what you missed in the last week and a bit of my life. I have more time on Friday to write a post before kickboxing so I will probably put up another post then.

It's F1 weekend folks. For those of you who haven't been following me on Twitter that long this is the time when my tweet stream turns into mostly F1 related tweets! (But only on race weekends!)

This weekend's race is in Bahrain and as it's the first race of the season it cannot be missed! Plus we're already getting into controversy with McLarens new rear wing. If you're not following there is basically an air duct in the car which directs air through the rear wing, decreasing drag and bettering the cars straight line speed; all operated by the drivers knee.

Thoughts on the McLaren Rear Wing

As a relative newb to F1 I don't want to comment to heavily on this, but I want to say my piece on the matter. A number of teams have stressed that this is illegal and should be removed from the McLaren, even though McLaren liased with the FIA throughout the build process. In the eyes of the FIA, it's legal. I think the other teams are having a bitch-fit because they didn't think of it first.

I am very excited for the new F1 season, it's good to have Michael Schumacher back, great to have a "British" team and great to have something decent to watch on the TV now!

Confidence comes in many forms, and is sometimes mistaken for arrogance. Some people feel I am being arrogant by writing a book; and being 17 this doesn't help in deferring them from thinking I'm an arrogant git.

I have been asked this quite a few times now when I tell someone I'm writing a book; the question is usually something like this.

Aren't you worried people will tear you apart if something is wrong in your book? Doesn't it scare you that you'll have such a large audience that are bound to nitpick you?

My answer is always "Absolutely not" for one simple reason. I've had code up online for well over a year now in the form of tutorials and libraries, and all the comments I've had have been constructive. Not once has somebody laughed at me if something is wrong, or I miss a semi-colon or put the wrong type of quote mark in a query. Everyone has been helpful. That's the key here, people want to help others, rather than shoot them down.

So, yes I am confident enough to write a book and put myself out there and I don't need to worry about people picking my code apart and asking questions. And if somebody is out there to get me and they start giving me negative comments, I'm big enough to take it on board and ignore it if I need to.

To all those who asked the question above, I'm not worried; I've no need to be worried. If someone wants to pull my code apart, let them. Let's see them write a book to the same level as me and then see whose a better coder. :)

Today I had a letter from Cardiff University. In short it tells me I can now apply for a room in the Halls of Residence. Now my preferred Hal is fairly small, so I need to apply A.S.A.P. There's just one problem.

I can't accept Cardiff's offer because I haven't had an offer from all of my choices. It's my college, not only do I have nothing in the way of an offer from them (but everyone else has) I haven't even had a letter of acknowledgement for my application. I basically have two choices.

Choice 1

I wait until Monday when my personal tutor can speak to the woman at college who deals with all UCAS elements to find out what's going on so I can accept Cardiff's offer and get a room in my hall of choice; and still keep college in mind just in case everything goes tits up.

Choice 2

I simply cancel my application to my college so I can accept Cardiff's offer and get in the hall of my choice. I'm not planning to go to college anyway so why the hell am I worrying if I ditch it or not?

So now here comes some complications. Cardiff University might not be processing applications right now, but it might still operate on a first-come-first-served basis. I'm edging towards my second option right now, fob my college off for being useless and just do what i have to do to get the best hall at Cardiff. What do you think?

P.S. This post seems kind of useless since I've pretty much made up my mind already, but I needed to write this to make my decision. Plus it's always nice to see what you guys this anyway.

I have been working on the web for a good few years now; and so far it has been awesome. I have a fairly successful development blog, released an awesome Authentication Library and I even have a book coming out fairly soon. Pretty sweet for a 17 year old in college, readying himself to move country and city to a University, don't you think?

But I don't want to be a Web Developer

Web Development is awesome, but it's a hobby. It will always be a hobby. One of the reasons why I haven't done any freelancing work for some time is that I find it difficult to work for others because it's my hobby. If it becomes work then I won't have a hobby. Without a hobby I will probably burn out really quickly.

Web Development has served me well but it isn't a viable job prospect. Since school I have wanted to be a Software Engineer; and I don't consider creating websites anywhere near being a Software Engineer.

You don't get to work at Google with HTML and PHP skills do you? In fact, to work at Google you need a BSc, MSc or PhD in Computer Science or a similar subject; proficiency in C/C++/Python/Java and a whole host of other qualities. In fact Google doesn't even use HTML directly, they use the Google Web Toolkit to build most of their applications. I'm droning on about my hopeful future now but it echos my point nicely. Web Development is awesome, but it isn't going to pay the (eventual) bills.

Another reason why I don't want to be a Web Developer forever is that I've been making websites since I was 11; sure the sites I built 6 years ago were useless, looked dreadful and did nothing in particular, but the skills were there. If I'm 40 and still creating websites, it won't feel like I've moved on. Sure I might know more languages than just PHP when I'm 40, but it will still feel almost juvenile.

I'm not knocking web developers as a whole. Most of the developers I know are awesome guys (I know no female web developers personally) and some are really successful (although that is subjective). What I'm doing is simply exclaiming how I wish to move on and create bigger projects.

University

Some people are probably getting annoyed that most of my blog posts include a reference to University, but this time there's a very good reason for it.

To become a Software Engineer I planned out my GCSE's, College and University in Year 9; when I was about 14. I picked GCSE subjects that would get me into College and I picked my College course based on the content of the course and how it would take me on to University. I've wanted to go to Uni since then, purely to realise my dream of becoming a Software Engineer.

I need a Degree to work on decent Software projects. See I have big dreams, I aim high. Maybe even too high. If a goal is easy to achieve is it even worth setting it in the first place?

Truth is, you can only get so far in the Web Industry and you can go much further as a Software Engineer. I feel creating enterprise desktop software is going to be much more fun than writing HTML and PHP.

This is not goodbye. This, well, this is just the beginning.

This week I completed and sent off my student loans application nice and early mainly because of this quote.

Early is on time, on time is late, late is unacceptable.

That and I'm told the earlier you send in the application the more likely you are to get your loan on time. Also since my college always leaves things to the last minute I took my own prerogative and did it myself already.

I was quite surprised at how easy the form was to complete; considering I'm basically asking for £8,500 when you take in the loans and grants in to account. The hardest part of the form is sending off my birth certificate and and Declaration of Identity form; and that's only hard because I have to use a pen, paper and snail mail.

I am quite pleased with the governments approach to student loans. Making it all web based puts students in a place they are familiar with and makes it all so much easier to process. The online form also makes it impossible to lose the form. Although it does open up possibility of forgetting your password or secret question.

Talking of passwords and secret questions, their login form is really odd. Like, really really weird. To login you need to enter your ID number, your password and the answer to your secret question. I guess they did it like this because we're asking to borrow thousands of pounds. In hindsight it's probably a better idea that just leaving it down to a password.

Overall the form didn't take that long to fill in. It wasn't as painful as I had expected it to be and now I can focus on college work while I wait to hear back from the Student Loans Company.