So I'm on my Summer break, there aren't any jobs going to keep me busy or earn me a little extra cash, so I have tried to better my skills and learn some more things which, hopefully, will serve me well for later life. These aren't solely development related, but mainly.

I've been doing a little spot of cooking. Basic dishes like Spaghetti Bolognese and also a not-so-normal Black bean, beansprout and bamboo shoot chicken. Both were quite enjoyable to make (and eat), as I haven't had that much experience with chicken. The only food tech lessons that I've remembered or really had were lessons in how to use a knife, chiefly how to cut an onion - a useful skill I think. I'm hoping that I won't be letting down my house-mates next year with bad dishes. Next things to learn are Cottage Pie and a good Roast Dinner. Cheap and filling meals, hopefully.

My development idea is gradually becoming a reality. Users can now create accounts for my list web app. As far as I am aware it works as I have intended it. Though the UX could do with a little more work.

I was a little concerned about how the data was being transmitted to and from my server. I didn't know if it was encrypted or if users could access other user's data, but it seems as though I have that sorted now. I had a slight issue with how to tell if a user was logged on, but through trial and error I think I have been successful and have prevented other users being able to access another user's list.

As yet there isn't a way to retrieve a password. I don't want to send their current one in plain text as I feel that is bad practice, yet I don't want to generate one and send that as plain text either, so I am unsure how to go about it. Any advice or pointers would be welcome on that!

Going back to Reading in a couple of weeks too. Very much looking forward to that. Even if I do have to learn how to cook quickly!

Thanks to twitter I got hold of a free eBook for jQuery, this got my creative juices going again. To pass the time at home I thought I'd try to make a website, which could be used on a mobile. So firstly I needed a problem to address. After a short while I thought that a shopping list would be a good place to begin to learn some aspects of web development. I had attempted a small amount of php and CSS before, but this time I planned to incorporate some Javascript.

Given that I see programming as, essentially down to syntax once the key skills and concepts have been learnt. Meaning that I would hopefully pick up all that I would need once I began.

Growing up I occasionally heard conversations with regard to the weekly shop about the list being forgotten and left at home or in the car. Not wanting to waste time or money the shopping would be fumbled through with some guesswork and common sense as to what the shopping list had on it. Others may have spent some time on the phone while some items on the list were relayed to them. This made me think. More and more people carry a 3G smart phone. These devices are handy to use on the go, with the web at your fingertips. So to put an end to walking around the supermarket guessing, phoning or getting an ear-full from someone on the phone discussing what they need to get or how it wasn't their fault that they forgot it - I decided I would expand on my 'skills' and produce an interactive web page, which required no refreshing, in order for the user experience to be smooth and easy.

Now, so far this is not a complete site, but has enough functionality for it to be useable; provided that the user doesn't have to reload the web page. I intend to expand upon it with adding a user login, to access their list, which would be stored on a database (updated using php).

Currently I'm not sure on a few things. Mainly: How to implement a login, how secure that would be. But mostly how to update a database in the background, without refreshing the page.

You can try it out here, I hope it's stable enough to use and try out. If you find some bugs I'd appreciate being told.

Also, if anyone would care to link a resource or just say how I could achieve the things I am unsure about, that'd be great!

A fair while ago I saw something on the internet saying that simply downloading a trailer for Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox 360 would give me a chance win 400 MS Points. Turns out it's only the first 5000 downloaders who got that. At the time of entering I thought that it couldn't hurt to try. So the other day I get an email (from Rockstar/GMR Marketing) stating that I'd won. I was quite taken a-back that a) I'd won and b) I'd forgotten about it. So I logged onto Xbox.com to redeem the code. Thinking I'd grab some indie games with them.  But no. I was told the code was invalid. Tried again, thinking I'd made a mistake, same thing. Next I tried on the Xbox, thinking it may be a browser issue or something. Invalid code.

I thought I'd use this opportunity to contact @XboxSupport on twitter to see if they could help out. Within moments I was contacted and asked for a few details. I must say I was impressed by the speed at which they responded in comparison to a recent query I asked @BTCare about. So then I noticed another couple of people had contacted regarding the same issue. The same time the next day I got another email from the company handing out the codes stating that my code had been re-activated. I can only assume that this was down to action from @XboxSupport as I hadn't contacted the company myself regarding the issue. Contacting @XboxSupport was both effortless and quick, along with seemingly productive; I haven't heard from @XboxSupport itself about the resolution. Very impressed. Good customer service Microsoft!

A fair while ago I saw something on the internet saying that simply downloading a trailer for Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox 360 would give me a chance win 400 MS Points. Turns out it's only the first 5000 downloaders who got that. At the time of entering I thought that it couldn't hurt to try. So the other day I get an email (from Rockstar/GMR Marketing) stating that I'd won. I was quite taken a-back that a) I'd won and b) I'd forgotten about it. So I logged onto Xbox.com to redeem the code. Thinking I'd grab some indie games with them.  But no. I was told the code was invalid. Tried again, thinking I'd made a mistake, same thing. Next I tried on the Xbox, thinking it may be a browser issue or something. Invalid code.

I thought I'd use this opportunity to contact @XboxSupport on twitter to see if they could help out. Within moments I was contacted and asked for a few details. I must say I was impressed by the speed at which they responded in comparison to a recent query I asked @BTCare about. So then I noticed another couple of people had contacted regarding the same issue. The same time the next day I got another email from the company handing out the codes stating that my code had been re-activated. I can only assume that this was down to action from @XboxSupport as I hadn't contacted the company myself regarding the issue. Contacting @XboxSupport was both effortless and quick, along with seemingly productive; I haven't heard from @XboxSupport itself about the resolution. Very impressed. Good customer service Microsoft!