Yearly Archives: 2001

Chandler Gooding Intranet

Friday November 2nd 2001

CG Intranet This site was developed over my time with the company and features a contacts list, production information, global calendar and a custom content managment system.

The site was written in PHP and runs from a MySQL database hosted on an Apache web server. The simple design was necessary to fit the constraints of screen resolution and colour definition, due to legacy computer monitors present within the company.

Although single handedly building an intranet seemed like quite a daunting task initially, it has turned out to be a fantastic learning experience and a great resource for the staff at CG. The web server I built for hosting the intranet has coped with the task quite admirably, too. Well, for a machine built from spare parts, anyway!

The second evolution of the CG Intranet went live at the beginning of November 2001. Sadly, due to the winding down of the New Media department, I’ll be leaving the intranet behind, however – I hope to keep it up to scratch on a freelance basis.

Not very easyJet

Tuesday October 23rd 2001

After delays totaling more than three hours at the weekend there, I believe my love affair with the UK’s low cost airline is over.

The first delay was forgiveable – fog had meant that our plane was diverted elsewhere and they had to source another plane. But the delay of the return flight was a glaring example of piss poor customer service. We were initially told that it had been delayed by half an hour. Later I found out that they knew that the plane hadn’t even taken off at that point, so there was no way in hell it would make it in half an hour.

It would be annoying anyway, but if they’d said “The flight will be delayed an hour and a half” we could have left the gate and gone back into the airport for some food. But for some reason best known to them, they thought they’d top up the delay time every 20 mins or so!

You get what you pay for, I suppose, but for ten pounds more we could have flown from Heathrow (only a few stops from where we live on the tube) and avoided the hassle of getting to London Luton. So the next time I have to fly back to Scotland, EasyJet will not be an option

Madden 2002

Wednesday October 17th 2001

I’ve been pleased with Madden 2002 since the very second I purchased it in EB. It’s not often you get ?20 trade in for a year old title, however, and that stands as testimony to the standard of game that Madden 2001 was. That I can trade it in a year later and receive half it’s value back shows that it is indeed a worthy franchise!

As far as game play goes, the game is sensational. The “just one more go” factor of the Two Minute Drill is highly addictive – I’ve managed to turn a five minute game into an hour long session without realising it. I haven’t even got into my franchise mode yet – a sure fire way to lose yourself in a time warp.

I was a little misty eyed at trading in my copy of Madden 2001 before I’d managed a good run of seasons with my carefully built team.

This year I wont make the same mistake. And due to the fact that my girlfriend has found a sudden interest in Madden, I could get a couple of mates round and have the lot of us whiling those winter nights away in the virtual NFL.

The only thing that disappoints me so far is the in game music… compared to last year it just doesn’t have the same sense of attitude. I suppose this is a minor gripe, but I cant help but think that “Leave ’em in the dirt!” from Madden 2001 psyched you up more for a game than the fairly drab instrumentals featured in Madden 2002.