April 26, 2005
iPod shuffle
Something I leant last week: iPods in shuffle mode rock.I'm probably the last person on earth to discover how to do this. Create playlists containing all the tracks you don't want to listen to, e.g. audiobooks, podcasts. Then create a smart playlist containing "Playlist is not audiobooks", "Playlist is not podcasts" etc. Stick the iPod in shuffle mode, select your smart playlist, and enjoy!
This works particularly well on long car journeys with an iTrip, which you can buy from everythingipod.co.uk, but which are illegal to use in the UK.
I'm back
Did you miss me?
I escaped last week to Center Parcs in the Lake District (Oasis Whinfell) for five days of badminton, squash, swimming and cycling. I return fitter, healthier, or as one person commented, looking distinctly haggard.
I was last at Whinfell some time around 1997 with a bunch of my contemporaries from UEA. The place really hasn't changed much at all - apart from being bought by Center Parcs. What I like about it is there's lots of opportunity to do healthy things and it's nearly impossible to get a mobile phone signal. The result is almost complete mental rest combined with a physical makeover. A perfect antidote to the usual working week.
April 14, 2005
Everything that is old is new again
Sylvain announces the Lepido project newsgroup is up and running. A CVS repository won't be far behind. Meanwhile, I'm working on a mod_perl site, a third-party bunch of code that needs to be integrated into one of our projects. I'm overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia, as the names of these tools from yesteryear are bandied about.
mod_perl? CVS? newsgroups? At what point did they become has-beens? I look at them and think "Rails, SVN, mailing lists".
Ironically I'm actually looking forward to spending time in the brave new past embodied in these tools. I remember when newsgroups were incredibly high signal-to-noise, and the de facto method for group communication. Now my mail client looks much like what happened to news when the spammers arrived. I remember small but perfectly formed mod_perl webapps that were lightweight, elegant and blazingly fast. And faithful reliable CVS - ah. Hmm. Ok, maybe things weren't so good in the old days ;-)
Anyway, Mac folk wanting to join the NNTP party could do a lot worse than grab Unison, from those fine folks at Panic.
April 12, 2005
ADSL hardware
The ADSL marketplace seems to be awash with dodgy hardware.
In our quest for for workable kit, we've rolled out a D-Link, a Netgear, and a Zoom modem at Jeremy's place. The D-Link stopped connecting after a firmware upgrade (which was required to enable proper routing). The Netgear would slow down progressively during the day, and required a reboot each morning, often taking many minutes to connect.
Now it seems the Zoom modem we got is a hardware revision ahead of the same kit we rolled out at David's, and does not support port redirection.
Jeremy is still fighting with D-Link over a refund, and we lost £10 on the refund for the Netgear kit due to some extremely dubious terms and conditions of sale. I imagine we'll have similar problems with the Zoom modem. I recommend everyone becomes well-acquainted with the sale of goods act before taking on the high street vendors (who I have a lot of sympathy for - it seems like ADSL modems are something of a lottery on which they can only lose).
April 11, 2005
via Jeremy: My Unitarian Jihad
via Jeremy:My Unitarian Jihad Name is: The Rail Gun of Patience.
April 10, 2005
Badminton and Squash
A new approach to sport this week - we skipped the Saturday morning badminton (it had been a long week), and went for 80 minutes of doubles instead. So score lines are pretty meaningless as we swapped partners after each game. I do feel obliged to point out I was always on the winning team though ;-)
After that, the plan was 40 minutes of squash. Sadly my squash partner - Martin The Late, we shall call him - failed to arrive until the end. I spent 40 minutes warming up for a game I lost 10-8 ... but after 2hrs of sport (not to mention 10+ miles of cycling today), I didn't feel too bad about it.
I need to fit a game or two in later in the week. I'm really feeling the difference in my health already, and it helps deal with the challenges in the rest of my life. Onward and upward!
Modern communications
One of the most striking things for me about the pope's death was the use of modern technologies to communicate with the people.
Firstly, news of his death was sent via text message to journalists. Secondly, the Roman authorities sent texts to everyone in Italy with a mobile, telling them they'd stopped traffic going into Rome:
X enorme afflusso, da mercoledi h.22 chiuso accesso code x saluto Papa. Venerdi x funerali stop traffico Roma; area S. Pietro piena:schermi in piazze e Torvergata.
I wonder what other countries have the ability to send messages to all their citizens, and what countries have used it?
April 8, 2005
Testing 1-2-3
In preparation for (finally!) adding myself to Planet Apache, I've just set up categorised feeds. This excellent tutorial on MovableType customisations was a big help.
Here's the link: index_planet.rdf.
Update: renamed from apache to planet, to better reflect what I mean ... a very slightly sanitised version of my feed without some of the more unsocial posts. I'm mindful of Thom's correct distinction between social and apache-related feeds, so I'll try to keep a fair balance.
There's no place like home
Back in Norwich after four days madcap dashing round London, catching up with David, Gianugo, Jeremy, Thom, Pier, Arjé, and of course some customers.
I do love the buzz of London, but it's with a fair degree of relief that I stepped off the train at Norwich. Now if someone could move Norwich to the outskirts of London, I could have the best of both worlds...
April 4, 2005
Agile
"Iterative design and development works. Keeping iterations small, automating the heck out of everything (making that automation important), and delaying decisions works"
April 3, 2005
There's life in the old dog yet!
After yesterday's mortifying loss at badminton, today was something of a relief.
The original plan was to play badminton at 8.20am, but due to scheduling conflicts with my hangover, I ended up playing badminton with John and then squash directly after with Martin.
I won badminton two games to one, and squash four games to two. This is the first time I've played squash in maybe two years - Martin was suitably shocked. So was I, for that matter.
I'm now going to go soak in the shower until my muscles stop screaming. I'll pay a terrible price for this in the morning.
Another slice of life
Is this another late night drunken blog post? I think it might ... not be.
Despite my grandiose gardening plans, I ended up heading to "The Local" to meet up with David, Elise and their sister-in-law, Jo. They were in town house-hunting, so we snatched a couple of hours to have lunch and chat. I skipped the lunch bit but thoroughly enjoyed the chat bit.
From there, I met up with John, Martin, Nicola, and eventually a host of other people, culminating in a trip to Optic. I spent the best part of two hours dancing myself silly, before heading for home.
There's a lot I want to say about how bleak our lives have become when the only meaningful social interactions are through these modern-day dens of iniquity, binge-drinking refuges where the humble chat-up line is seemingly reduced to "ooh, I'm drunk! You're such a bad influence on me". But that would be to reduce to bitter ranting what was otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable night. For all I cared, I could have been the only person dancing for most of the night. I enjoyed the chance to let loose and work out some of the things that are troubling me whilst having my senses pounded by music, perfume, smoke and mirrors.
Tomorrow promises to be a riot. Another badminton game at 08.20am, and a game of squash at 4pm. In between, the gardening that got delayed. I wonder if I'll still be standing by the end of it?
April 2, 2005
Badminton and beverages
The first bottle from the batch of Virgin Wine that turned up yesterday was a delicious merlot. The description was "plums and chocolate", and bizarrely that's exactly what it was like. I was a little unsure how they'd mix, but it's safe to say they mixed very well. Unlike the combination of wine last night with badminton this morning - I lost 14-10, 14-9. Definitely not my finest hour.
On the plus side, I've been up three hours already and I still have the entire day ahead of me. The slight headache has subsided. It's beautifully warm and sunny outside, and I've got a truckload of endorphins running round my body. Raaaarrrrrr!
April 1, 2005
There may be sunshine, and blue skies
This means war. War on my exuberant and wayward garden, that is. I've a long list of things to do - mow the lawn, hack back the ever-present ivy, chop about 5ft of growth from the top of the conifer hedge, and cutting the sumac tree down to size as it's starting to split at the base.
I've been waiting for several weeks for enough of a dry, warm spell to let the grass dry out - it's in shade most of the year except late summer, so tends to get waterlogged. If I chop it at the right time and keep it chopped, it generally stays dry enough to barbecue on. Yes, this does mean the return of the legendary (infamous?) Savory BBQ. Watch this space for a date.
So, without further ado, time to dust down the mower and the secateurs and attack the rampant vegetation. Wish me luck...