The iGoogle gadget that I wrote for the CSIRO has finally been released. Use the Add to Google button at the bottom left and you too can keep up to date with the latest CSIRO media releases, events and podcasts.

It's Sunday and I don't feel like writing PHP code. Right now I'm bored of writing code that does the same old thing everytime. Check user credentials, query database, insert record, update record, delete record, list records, output stuff. I'm sure there are frameworks that make it even easier, but I don't have the time to investigate further - what I write works and can be customised without much thought. Most days I enjoy writing code, but it's difficult to write when you aren't in "the zone" and I am not in the zone.

Why am I even thinking about writing code on a Sunday? Very senior people in the organisation demanded an application to enter staff CV's for a science review. No problem, said I. I had already written the same application for a sister division. But wait, they said, we want workflow, multiple user levels, etc, etc. By the end of the week, the two weeks you are asking for is too long.

Dreamweaver just about tipped me over the edge into full blown insanity today. It kept reverting to using the wrong library items on web pages. I like Dreamweaver, and use it daily at work, but generally I am just as happy using a syntax highlighting text editor. I tend not to use Dreamweaver's "advanced" features such as templates and libraries because I have had very bad experiences (like today's) with updating pages across a site.

Templates and library items are, in my opinion, okay options for small sites, with single or limited maintainers and infrequent updates of shared items. However, for a busy and dynamic intranet server side scripting and content management systems are far superior. However, thanks to stupid decisions by our manager I have to build all the non-news and non-events pages in Dreamweaver (he wanted FrontPage!?!) using shared library items and templates.

I've finally got around to releasing my first application as open source. The Image Management System is a web based image cataloging program. It's not as fully featured as some other products, but it does run on a variety of databases and can use GD, ImageMagick or NetPBM to manipulate the images. There's even a demo available!