| Staff are not Patrons - Django Users | Published | I have been working with the Django framework since 2012, and see some trends that have a foundation more in dogma than utility. One such trend is subclassing the AbstractBaseUser model and getting Django to recognise it thru the AUTH_USER_MODEL setting. The reason for doing this is to change the field called username into a field called email or phone or something else that is unique to your users, and having some user_type field to determine the user as staff or visitor to the site, and using permissions and other processing to make sure that the user experience is appropriate, and the authorization is appropriate. I put forward the argument that there is a better way. | 03/05/2025 |
| Tailwind CSS | Published | I used to hate working in CSS because it is messy and complex. They I found Tailwind. | 20/04/2025 |
| Tracking Errors with Sentry | Published | Tracking errors needs more than just email. Sentry is a solution. | 20/04/2025 |
| Jenkins Server | Published | Jenkins is the tool of choice for Continuous Deployment. Easier to set up and configure with more control and a much cheaper alternative than the commercially available pipelines. | 20/04/2025 |
| Reports | Published | I have a ReportView class based on Django's ListView class. The ReportView uses a filter object allowing me to create filters for any report. In the JobView pictured left, I have a filter for open and closed jobs, and one to filter by clients. I also have a search field which is part of the ReportView. This was inspired by the excellent Django Suit application along with some clever programming by my predecessor at INTRO Travel, Jared Quin.<br /> | 20/04/2025 |
| Wagtail Stream Field | Published | Wagtail is a Content Management System (CMS) for the Django Framework. StreamField lets you select components to build a page. This page uses Django Wagtail's StreamField in a set of desktop two column blocks that responsively converge to a single column on mobile view. | 20/04/2025 |
| Enumerated Types in Django | Published | Waking up at 3am in the morning and wanting to execute an idea is a good indication that you have chosen the right career. It came to me one early morning that the way I was dealing with ordinal types was clunky, and I needed a type that was orderable, quick to compare, easy to display and not prone to typing errors. | 31/03/2025 |
| American Primeval | Published | Yeah....but naaah! | 23/01/2025 |
| Our New Home | Published | Paradise is a Swimming Pool | 11/11/2023 |
| A Child's Christmas In Wales | Published | The small village of Llangeneth in South Wales had a caravan site that gave an off the grid experience. | 11/11/2023 |
| Jindabyne 2023 | Published | The last of Australian Snow | 03/09/2023 |
| Sophia's 6th Bithday | Published | Sophia turns 6, and as Owl wisely wrote "Hipy Papy Bthuthdth Thuthda Bthuthdy" | 21/11/2022 |
| Christmas Day 2021 | Published | Christmas Day in the Thorne Household saw a trip to Parramatta Lake, and of course, opening presents.... | 11/01/2022 |
| Christmas Eve 2021 | Published | Wot I did in me 'olidays. This is the Thorne family Sydney, and some pics and videos. | 30/12/2021 |
| Bust out of Lockdown | Published | Since the beginning of July, we have barely shown a nose past our front door, and even a dedicated couch potato like myself can only take so much. Jigsaw puzzles, XBox, Playstation are fun, and I have gotten to know my kids so much better, but the tangible feeling of relief when we had a destination for fun more than five kilometers from our front door (though actually not much more) made for tingles of pleasure, and another blog of photos. | 18/10/2021 |
| A Trip to Wollongong | Published | Driving in Sydney on a weekend can be a trial, but working from home means that hook or crook, I need to venture out of the house every now and again. The solution is a train ride... | 27/05/2021 |
| Blue Moutains in September | Published | Sydney has high country to the west, and in winter will often get snow. | 27/05/2021 |