Leviathan talks coding~ #2

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[css-div="text-transform: uppercase; font-size: 18px; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #f3f3f3;"]entry #2; expectations verses reality, and giving tech to toddlers. [/css-div]

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Well. Time for round two, I guess!

Following on from my last entry...I got my web applications project done. The only thing is, it's a steaming pile of crap. I'm even too ashamed to post a link to it on here. I can say that it has been deployed on the internet, using a hosting site that belongs in the garbage but had to use it due to lecturer's preference. Pffffftssssssss.

And what's that failure of a hosting site's name?

Atspace.

Brrr it tastes like poison to say it.

Honestly, suckish as my web app project was, at least the parts that I managed to get done (that is, using PHP code to call to a database to either retrieve or write some stuff to tables) actually worked when using XAMPP and localhost. Only when it went up on failspace did random bugs start to appear.

*sigh*

Truth be told, it's probably the way I coded stuff that caused some parts to break once put on the host's site. But I had to work back-to-back on this and a team project at the same time, so I was under pressure to get stuff working. I'm not finished with this beastie, though. I'm going to reattempt it over the summer, once my knowledge of object oriented PHP and web sockets vastly improves. :)

Good night for now, sweet prince.

******

Woes of being a software dev, I suppose....

Whilst we're on the subject of object oriented PHP, actually...Does anyone know of a good site that has tutorials for this kind of PHP? I'm fairly alright with proceedural PHP, and I'm well acquainted with the OO approach to programming in languages like C++ and Java, but for some reason it hasn't yet 'clicked' for me when using functions in PHP.

And I realllly need to be ace with this stuff, because I got a practical exam in, like, two weeks and the notes that my lecturer has provided have only managed to confuse me further. I was thinking of using Lynda.com, but whilst I like that site's vast array (heh) of tutorials, some of the narrations on there really do put me to sleep...

Agh! Data Driven Applications! Will you ever stop managing to vex me so!

But yeaaaah. Exams. Starting 8th May. Bring. It. Onnn!

Thank goodness for continious assessment marks though. *phew*

******
Technology, though. Ain't that a thing of beauty? I always like getting my paws on new stuff. Though, after acquiring a new laptop back in March, I think I'm done with buying tech for the next few years. I have my PS4, my laptop, a discount android phone that I got for free for simply changing network providers, an aging Galaxy S3 phone that'll forever feature a cracked screen and my highly valued Sony Walkman MP3 player. So I'm goood.

One thing you'll probably notice missing from the list above, which seems to be a stable of families these days; an android tablet.

Well, sirs and madams, please allow me to tell a small tale;

The tl;dr version; my 68-year-old grandfather recently doled out €300 to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4.

The longer version; He was motivated to buy it so that his two and a half year old grandson, who has not yet managed to speak a single word, might be able to games on it. Huh. Well. 'kay, then.

If I can be frank; I'm not fond of the recent trends where parents will freely give their android phone or tablet to someone under the age of five to play with. Especially in cases where it's done so that the parents might get a reprieve, and drink and/or chat without being hassled by their young, impressionable child.

It doesn't sit right with me, allowing someone so young the use of a device that, unless set up properly (i.e., 'kids mode', turn of wifi and/or cell service), gives them the world at their fingertips. Actually, scrap that, it damn right scares me.

Why? Because I've seen this all play out before my very eyes. I've had my nearly three years old niece (who is two months older than my younger relation, mentioned above), scream the house down at 7am, wanting to use their parent's iPad. And worse still, her parents obliged her. So who is worse, really?

Thankfully, I see my little nephew more than my niece, and I'm trying to stress the point to my nephew's uncle to not make the same mistake. I understand that one could make the argument that using something that's interactive like a tablet might help my young, as-of-now mute nephew to maybe perhaps say a few words (at the moment he grunts 'n' growls, gesturing a lot and responds to visual cues, so he can communicate. I just hope all's well upstairs...), but at the same time, I do not want to see him grow too attached to using technology.

Because it's my grandparents I'm concerned for. (They were present during the 'screaming down the house' iPad moment.)

Well. Here endth mah ramblingzzzz. Tahs for reading!

Obligatory blog-siggy for the records;

This fascinating Pokémon Towns supporter collab!

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pssst. that text parsing...

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