I started out this morning with the realization that I’m not ready to go to China.  A visa for China requires 6 months time remaining on your passport.  Mine is due to expire in a few months.  So, I need to renew my passport, transfer my UK visa to the new passport, and apply for a China visa.  This is going to time-consuming and expensive.

One thing I really needed was some passport photos.  The London U.S. Embassy site puts the fear of God into you about not having the right type of photos:  “Don’t get them from a machine.”  “Make sure they comply with standards.” “Any problems with the photos and your application will be REJECTED!”  So, I decided to use one of the photographers they recommended.

I went to a tiny place at Charing Cross called The ID Photo Shop (http://idphotoshop.co.uk ).  It’s a nice little hard-to-find place in the Charing Cross underground station.  It’s not a chain, but they have a nice informative website. 

The shop is hard to find.  On entering it looks like a sandwich shop—I think the business shares the location with another shop.  I actually walked into the place and asked the sandwich guy to take my picture.  He directed me around the corner to talk to the guy who runs the other id photo place.

It is run by a guy named Samir.  He knew all about the photos I needed for my US Passport and for the Chinese visa application. 

In addition to passport photos, the shop also advertised “professional photos”.  I asked what this was (I’m ever the hayseed sometimes) and he told me that this is what people use to put on CVs and media types use it for press releases etc. 

I have been having a hard time finding a new photo for this blog and other places like Facebook, etc.  It was a big self-indulgence, but I asked if he could make a professional photo for me.  After he took the passport photos (no smile—not even a smirk!), he took about a dozen photos for my professional picture.  He talked me through various poses and let me choose one I like afterwards.  The price for this picture?  Same as the passport photos: £4.95.  It’s much better than anything I could have done on my own and I think about as well as any portrait studio could have done for much more money.

So, here’s the new look as compared to my old pic.  I’m not used to looking at pictures of myself, but I think Samir did a great job.

Old picture (taken by me)	New picture

Yeah.  I’m getting older.

This place is hard to find, but well worth the visit if if you need a “professional” picture.

It was a nice find and I highly recommend it.

As I’m finishing my current contract, I’m also trying to put in place plans to attend the CISIS (China International Software and Information Service) Fair in Dalian this June.  I’ve done a small amount of work with Chinese software developers before but haven’t really been to visit any of them.  The CISIS fair looks like a good opportunity practice my Mandarin and talk to some of the service providers in person. 

I’m really looking forward to it.  I need to get all my visa situation in order.  That, and I have concerns of the swine flu ruining everything.  But, if all goes to plan I’ll be there.

I’ll keep you posted.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been working a contract for an investment bank.  I finish up in 5 weeks.  It was a nice work with good pay.  The people are great.  I was very comfortable doing it.

I was working for a company that I had worked for before.  This time around, I used some of my experience with offshore development and helped set up the offshore development team.  I helped introduce SVN and we stumbled through collaboration in the enterprise.  It started out being very difficult and challenging, but then got easier and easier as the offshore team became more confident and didn’t really need me around much at all.  It’s bittersweet– I’m proud of how well they are progressing while seeing myself fade more and more into the shadows.  All as it should be.

But it’s time to move on.  More challenges await. 

One of the tough decisions of being a contractor is knowing when to leave for something more challenging.  Every time a contract comes up for renewal, the client has to decide if they want to keep you and you have to decide whether you should stay on.  If money were the only consideration, the choice would be easy–just stick with a job until they stop paying you.  But stay in a place too long and your skills start to wane.  You become a company guy instead of an industry guy. 

The market changes and you have to adjust to it.  If you stay in one place too long, you end up stranded.  This philosophy has worked for me so far.  In technology, as in so much else, diversity it king.

In London you see a lot of guys with fold-up bikes.  They’re pretty cool.  Kind of like laptops for bikes I guess.  You can take them anywhere.

But nearly every guy I see with the folding bike is decked out in full cycling gear.  I don’t just mean the helmet (everyone should wear one).  I mean biking shirt, spandex trousers, shoes, etc.  They are obviously on their way to work and they are being healthy.  I have no problem with that.  But if you are going to ride a half a bike, shouldn’t you wear just the basics in clothing?

Before I bought my motorbike, I was looking to buy a scooter instead.  They look small and fun and easy to zip around in.  I’ve rented them in Hawaii and it was really nice to cruise around with the wind in my hair.  But helmets weren’t required there.  It was half a motorcycle, so it didn’t require a full motorcycle safety commitment.  In England there is a helmet law. When I saw that I would have to wear the full garb with a scooter that I would on a bike, I decided to get the full bike.  (I’m really glad I did, by the way.)  I guess I kind of think of fold-up bikes as the pedal equivalent of scooters.  I’ve never ridden one, so I’m in no way an authority.

I guess I’m guilty with this over-dressing when it comes to running.  Back in my early twenties, when I had little money, I can remember looking at special running shirts which removed sweat from your body and dedicated running shorts which fit the contours of your legs and marvelling at how expensive they were.  There was nothing wrong with my ratty-ass cotton t-shirts and shorts.  This high-tech gear didn’t help that much—the important thing was to get out on the road.  I used to snicker at people who wore that stuff and obviously didn’t run very often.  Now, I have a few running shirts and a couple pairs of those shorts.  I head out in the morning looking like an Olympic athlete in training – except for the belly of of course.  I don’t know how much the gear helps me.  It’s more for motivation than anything else.  Sometimes, that one thing that gets me out on the road is the chance to test out my new shorts or see how comfortable my new running shirt is.

Maybe that’s why the portable bikers wear it.  Because it was fun to shop for and it keeps them on their bikes.

My site was down for a little over a day because I upgraded Plesk to version 9 on my VPS.  It caused the PHP and Mysql adaptor to stop working.  The site gave me this error:

Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress.

It took me more about an hour Googling this to find out what the issue was.  Plesk modified my php.ini fil while upgrading. 

The guy that helped me the most was Donncha O Caoimh which his blog post on Holy Shmoly: “Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration“.  I’m really glad he posted that.  I’ve never met him, but he really helped me out.

Problem solved in less than an hour.  5 years ago, before the blogging explosion, this problem would have taken me days to resolve (at least!).  Thanks to Donncha.

Facebook reached a tipping point some time last year I’m sure.  That’s when I joined.  I was surprised by how many other had joined too.  When I joined the service, a colleague gave me a hard time.  He thought I was too old for Facebook.  After politely reminding him that I’m only 36, I told him how surprised I was by how many others are on there too. 

These days, not having a FB account is almost like it was to not have an email account in 2001. 

Then there’s Twitter.  Twitter is the popular thing at the moment, but I know very few people who actually use it.  It’s tipping point hasn’t been reached yet.  Celebrities use it.  There is no better way for a B-List celebrity to move up the ranks than to adopt the new technology.  Politicians use it.  Average ordinary people use it, too.  Just not many that I know.

I personally prefer Twitter. 

Facebook is nice in that it has so many people subscribed.  It’s nice that your friends have to be confirmed before they see your special little area.  But it’s also cluttered.  There’s a lot of talk about how Facebook as adopted a Twitter-like interface, but it is still filled with loads of clutter. Here’s the kind of things that bug me about it:

1.  Every other status update is “John Smith has taken the Blah blah quiz and found that he is a blah blah person”.  You voluntarily took a quiz?

2.  "So and so threw a snowball at you.  Do you want to throw one back?” or “So and so smiled at you.  Smile back?”  What does that mean?  Does it mean “I acknowledge that I know you, but I have nothing to say to you”?

3.   So many alerts and notices.  Alerts say things like “Someone voted for you as a nice person.  Go here to find out who.”  I get three of these a day.  I think I’m being spammed.

I suppose it isn’t all that bad.  I’ve been able to re-establish contact with people who I haven’t seen in years.  It’s nice to see what people are up to and where they’ve gone in life.  I’ve re-established contact with people I knew in High School and in the Army.   I know what my not-so-immediate family are doing and don’t have to wait for a reunion to see what they are up to.  I also get to see what kind of Doctor Who they would be because of a quiz they took.

Twitter is more self-obsessed really.  It says “If you want to follow me, then follow me—but I’m posting it anyway.”

I had installed a Facebook application which updates Facebook status with Twitter updates.  I had it for about a day before I turned it off.  It was just not right.  I might tweet something which I don’t want that group to see.  Posting 8-10 updates a day on Twitter is normal.  Updating your status 8-10 times a day on Facebook is just weird.

Twitter as a fad is definitely fading a bit.  People aren’t updating it like crazy anymore.  Some people will stick with it, I’m sure.  I probably will.  I like the open API and there is something to be said for expressing a thought where others could see it and getting it off your mind.  I like that any time I have some downtime (like standing in line), I can take out my iPhone and read the latest tweets by the people I follow.  I myself have something like 7 Twitter followers (as popular as ever).  I know they don’t hang on my every word.  I’m fine with that.

I’ll keep Facebook open.  I’ll update status from time to time.  But, I prefer the blog and I prefer Twitter.