Posts Tagged ‘leeds’

Last month, I went to Temple Newsam to see my mum perform at the Olympic torch celebration. The choir were fantastic, well done to everyone involved!

Getting in was a struggle. After the padding down and the cavity search you then have to have a long argument about whether the folding furniture you have brought counts as genuine folding furniture. No prizes for guessing who was sponsoring the event either…

All the heavy rain last month caused the River Aire to just about reach its banks.

Last month, I went to a talk by Richard McIntyre on “The Future of PHP”.

Turns out, it’s JavaScript.

More and more these days, web applications are being developed with fat front end clients loaded with JavaScript, and the server-side processing is primarily used for data processing and APIs. So we’re seeing a shift from PHP being used as a somewhat front-end technology to merely (I say merely, there is a lot of work to do it) delivering the content in a format the JavaScript front end can consume.

Perhaps this is why we’ve seen a rise in the number of microframeworks, such as Silex, that I recently blogged about.

I think the overriding message I took away from the talk though is that they’re inventing development platforms faster than I can learn them! I’ve already got a large list of technologies and libraries I need to review and I think I came away from this talk with another half a dozen!

Really enjoyed the talk though, and if you’re interested in PHP and in the Leeds area you should definitely check out the Leeds PHP User Group who host such events on a monthly basis.

We see so many broken displays showing their Windows backdrops, it’s a refreshing change to see a Mac one.

Btw, does everyone else still remember when Bed used to be Gatecrasher? I’m so old…

I always knew that the are just north of the city centre that is exclusively reserved for crack addicts and muggers with knives was called Little London. But I think I must have thought it was a disparaging nickname that everyone gave it. It never really clicked that that was it’s actual name.

I’m pleased to announce the re-launch of Know Leeds, your guide to city centre living. The site has been going for six years now and was in much need of a refresh. It now has a stronger focus on restaurant reviews, but still has listings as well as local news and more to come.

This month’s Humanist Community of Leeds was looking very promising with the glorious sunshine that the weekend had experienced. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite last until Sunday evening, but it was an enjoyable evening none the less. With food now served until 10pm we were a little less under pressure to get started and enjoyed a long evening of discussions that was arguable even more political than normal.

We recently headed to the bowling alley to celebrate Fonze’s birthday.

It was a rather confusing start because the alley used to be owned by AMF Bowling, but it is now owned by 1st Bowl. However, AMF have now bought Hollywood Bowl, so if you search for AMF Leeds you get what was the Hollywood Bowl out at Cardigan Fields rather than the one you are looking for. Never the less, we sorted it in the end.

They have a pretty cool offer called Big Work Party, which is where you can take your office (as long as your office is at least six people) and bowl for £2.25 a game! Being a Yorkshireman, I decided to take all the saving I could get and booked three games. I then bowled the worst games I’ve ever played, but a steak as ‘Spoons afterwards made it all better.

Last week, I finally made it down to the Leeds PHP User Group.

The meeting consisted of a talk by Lorna Mitchell on Git, Github and Open Source. It didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know, but it was interesting none the less. They also provide free food at their meetings, so I then regretted eating before I went 😀 .

By a perhaps unfortunate coincidence, the next day one of my friends sent me a contact they recommend I speak to about my career. The name rang a bell – turns out the recruitment agency had in fact been sponsoring the event and she was there – if only I had known 24 hours earlier I could have introduced myself in person! Still, there is always next month.

This month’s meeting of Leeds Skeptics in the Pub welcomed Dr Neil Cooper from the University of Bradford’s Peace Studies department to talk about arms regulation.

It certainly captured the interest of the audience as the talk itself was followed by one of the longest question and answer sessions we have ever had at Leeds Skeptics!