Lemonrock Editor

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Twins?

3 May 2022Twins?

If you head over to our new sister app, Pubs in Town, it will look rather familiar.

The sisters have the same parent!

From Lemonrock, I have re-used the database, filing system, security, photo software, CRM/email and much of the logic that I had written from scratch over the years, while designing Lemonrock.

I have always loved pubs, and I know a lot about how they work.

I'm also concerned about their well-being, and their place in our unique British culture. So, Pubs in Town is my offering to the world of social media, designed to make it easy for pubs to get all their events out there, in one easy-to-use app. There are 8 categories that pubs can advertise their events in - Food & Drink, Beer, Live Music, Quiz, Disco/Karaoke, Comedy, Social Event and Sport.

Pubs who sign up to Pubs in Town get their Lemonrock gigs included automatically.

Punters who sign up (for free) on the app will get instant push alerts to their smartphones about all the events they are interested in. They can also rate pubs and write reviews to help others find the right kind of pub. There is a neat filter that will help you find exactly the type of pub you're looking for. Pubs with real ale, pubs with cocktails, pubs with Gluten-Free, Vegan and Veggie food, pubs with accessible toilets and real fires, pubs with gardens and covered seating.

It's been a long road. Pubs in Town has taken a big 10-month chunk out of my life, and I truly hope it will benefit pubs and pub-goers alike.

Please use it. Please join as Pub Owners or Pub Goers, write reviews, suggest new pubs, create your own pub crawls, and discover new pubs and new events in your town, or whatever towns you visit in the UK.

https://pubsintown.co.uk

Cheers,

Mac, father of two (apps)

DVD TV Android Madness

22 Apr 2022DVD TV Android Madness

TL;DR : Modern DVD technology sucks

So, I still have DVDs. Yes, how old-fashioned, I hear you say.

But I love being able to play the movies (sorry, films) that I really like. Like I love to play the CDs I really like. And walk through the park that I really like.

Before I got this really clever Android TV, I would just put a DVD in the tray, and press play, and I would watch the film (sorry, movie).

Not any more.

I have now spent 2 days trying to watch a favourite DVD of mine on my Android TV, and it refuses to play it. However, it is very happy to play the adverts and trailers on the DVD. Perhaps if I had the patience to wade through 5 / 10 / 20 minutes of banal, irrelevant adverts, I would have finally been able to watch my film. But I demand to exercise my right not to watch adverts on a DVD I already own.

Next? I can't walk through my favourite park without taking a 20 minute questionnaire about my motivation for going for my walk, or my opinion of the Spring flowers growing there. This is getting very, very silly.

Tonight's results: I had to abandon the TV / DVD, because it refused to play my film. I'm now listening to a CD I really like. So far, no adverts. But I do worry that some semi-forgotten actor from the naughties will interject a new commercial verse into the middle of my favourite Aimee Mann song.

Back to vinyl, then.

___

Mac, a free bird

Thank you, thank you, thank you

16 Apr 2022Thank you, thank you, thank you

Nothing to do with thanking happy punters at a gig.

Instead, this is a shout-out to all the individuals and companies who have helped Lemonrock to become what it has become, with their technical help...

In no particular order...

PhotoSwipe, thanks to Dmytro Semenov for helping us to make our photos look fantastic!

jPlayer, an amazing audio plugin led by Mark Panaghiston makes it possible to listen to Lemonrock bands' tracks online.

CSS HTML Validator led by Albert Wiersch helps us keep our code clean.

JSHint. A few individuals make this JavaScript linter worth its weight in gold. There's a lot of JavaScript in Lemonrock, and this tool has saved us many days of code debugging.

Google, for their web development tools, including Lighthouse. Leading the way. Google Maps is awesome, too.

Our web hosting company, UK Fast, now re-branded as ANS. Extremely reliable and helpful.

Geograph for their free-to-use archive of venue photos.

Linux operating system, PHP programming language, MySQL database and phpMyAdmin database tools are not forgotten, either. If these things mean nothing to you, and you have only ever heard of Windows and Microsoft, it's time to take a trip to Wikipedia (another favourite) to find out what's actually going on...

Some charged money, some did not. Those who did, charged a fair price. Those who didn't, I humbly salute your efforts.

What connects these engineers / innovators / entrepreneurs?

They listen, and they care.

And when they have listened, they go forth and create. It's a beautiful thing.

___

Mac, believer in other good people

A Geek's Poem in JavaScript

15 Apr 2022A Geek's Poem in JavaScript

I have always felt that war was ugly, unnecessary, and inhuman. That's not something anyone taught me, just something I was born with.

And now, as an adult programmer, I've managed to come up with a succinct way of expressing my feeling.

Those of you with JavaScript skills will understand.

___

Mac, programmed for truth

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