There is a new build of the Cocoa version of YAPT available. It now uses Objective-C rather than AppleScript internally (actually I’m still setting First Responder via AppleScript on application launch). See the YAPT page for more info and download. Here is a screen shot of the latest build with some data for Francium displayed.
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I need to get fit. Been a real sluggard recently. Not good. I’ve always been tall, slim and naturally fit without having to work at it. Funny how this changes as you get older! Well, I’m still tall! It’s time to put in some work and get rid of the “beer” belly. It’s more like a junk food belly but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well.
I’ve posted about this before, but walking is really good exercise. So I plan to do a few miles a day and get fit. I might do some jogging as well, although it’s hard on the knees. I went for a 2.5 mile walk in the grounds of Stormont tonight with the ever brilliant Roger Taylor playing on the iPod. I’ll do another few miles tomorrow, either at Stormont or down beside the sea at Carnalea (see picture in header at top of this page). I’m sure you will be on the edge of your seats to read about how I get on [1]. I think I’ll go the cricket training on Monday and Thursday nights from now to the end of the season as well. I don’t think I’ll be able to play as I’m away in the USA for a few weekends in August, or have other stuff to do on Saturdays. I plan to play next season though. It’s a good incentive to get fit.
The new Nike+ iPod Sports Kit looks good [2]. I was ordering a set of JBL On Time Speakers for use with my iPod as a bedroom alarm clock (they have a built in FM radio as well) and I had a £20 money off voucher for use on the Apple Store. The Nike+ iPod Sports Kit costs £19 so I stuck one on the order and therefore will get it for free 🙂 I’ll need to get a pair of the Nike running shoes to fit the sensor into and some of the iPod ready clothing. There is a Nike Store a few blocks from where I’m staying in San Francisco in August whilst I’m at Apple WWDC. It’d be daft to go all that distance and not go shopping! The black Nike Air Zoom Moire shoes look just the ticket (see picture below). Once I get the kit I’ll be able to plan and follow a fitness regime using the iPod to record the progress and visualise it on the Nike+ website. Both of the iPod products mentions here, along with all the others, show how much of a platform iPod has become. it’s no longer just a music player. Having said that it is the best portable music player available. The other stuff is a nice bonus that doesn’t detract from the core functionality.
[1] About 100 people read this site every day, on average. Sometimes it spikes to a few hundred. Amazing!
[2] Review of Nike+ iPod Sports Kit available.
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I’ve created a sub-page of the soapbox for YAPT. There will always be a link to this sub-page in the side bar on the right. This sub page will have a link to the latest version of YAPT. It will say when the latest build was posted and the archive will contain the latest post date as well.
So who’s won my podcast war. Or, to put it another way, which podcasts do I look forward to? There are five that I listen too. Here they are in order of preference, but I do like them all.
2) Science Talk: The Podcast of Scientific American
4) Seed’s Science + Culture Podcasts
I’ve recently added the TED Talks video podcasts as well. They look good but as always time will tell.
Watched the 1984 version of Dune on DVD today (it’s a holiday in Northern Ireland). If ever a film needed an extra hour added its this one. It’s not often you hear people asking for scenes to be added to a film. I don’t think it would be possible to understand the film if you haven’t read the book. Urban legend says that the first cut of the movie was 5 hours long. Interviews in the DVD Extras reveal that David Lynch wanted to release a 3-hour version in theatres but the producers wanted a 2-hour cut. Lynch was correct I think. It’s interesting in this era of long films that in the 1980’s it was deemed that a 3-hour release would be too long. Hopefully one day we will see a restored David Lynch Director’s Cut.
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As I said in a previous post I was switching the development of YAPT from REALbasic to Xcode. This was due to an overall slowness in the GUI in the REALbasic version. There was an irritating delay in activation and deactivating the buttons for each element when switching the application to and from the front on screen. Also the About… dialog box was sluggish in displaying. Add in the fact that REALbasic can’t create Universal Binaries for Intel based Macs yet.
The first development version of the Xcode Universal Binary version of YAPT is now available. It’s much snappier in use and uses the Cocoa framework and Applescript. Only Hydrogen and Helium do anything at present. I plan to finish the interface using these two elements and then add information for the other elements once I’m happy with the layout etc. I’d be interested in any comments. This switch to using Xcode and Cocoa means that YAPT will be Macintosh only. There will not me a Windows or Linux version. There are plenty of other Periodic Table applications for those platforms anyway. Actually there are several for Macintosh as well but I don’t like them 🙂
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I’ve been on a bit of a John Wyndham binge lately. Sparked off by rereading The Chrysalids. Fuelled by The Midwich Cuckoos. Just finished The Kraken Wakes. It was really good. If anything it was too short as the end seemed a bit rushed and maybe has a bit of a deus ex machina quality to it. The story itself was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I did expect sea monsters à la those encountered by Captain Nemo 🙂
It’s not like that at all. The story is told as a retrospective account of events by a pair of journalists who are husband and wife. Due to their position they have access to important characters and events. I like the way it’s done, apart from the rushed ending. Like in The Chrysalids I want to know what happened next! The character interactions towards the end of the book reminded me a lot of Adam Roberts’ The Snow. Wyndham’s book was first though I’m sure many others have used similar themes. I’m starting to think of Wyndham in the same terms as H.G. Wells. I’ve got The Day of the Triffids sitting here and three other books of his on order. I think I’ll take a break though and read Oxygen by Nick Lane as I’ve been wanting to get into that for a while.
This is good. There are videos of the lectures given earlier this year, by Professor Richard A. Muller of UC Berkeley, for the course Physics for Future Presidents. Basically physics overviews of the important stuff you should know if you are not going to be a physicist but are going to be a CEO, Judge, politician, etc.
There are other UC Berkeley lectures available on iTunes U as well. You can watch videos as well.
Someone took this picture of me in 1983 on my Honda XR250 coming over a jump on a track we used to use for off road motorcycling. It’s a bit blurry but I like it. You can see the “R-Plate” on the front fork as it was less than a year after I did my motorcycle test. They track we had was very good. We dug out berms at the corners, had both right hand and left hand turns, smooth straights, hairpins, 2 jumps and the straight up to the jump in the picture was very bumpy. This made the jump safer as you couldn’t hit it too fast. In the end the track was so good it attracted bikers from far and wide and the council closed it down after complaints about the noise 🙁
Still, it was fun for that summer in 1983.
The Hot Puppies are good. You can listen to some tracks and watch some videos at their website. The live Shoot Em in the Head video is good. Their debut album is on iTMS as well, although it’s not officially out until later in July. They have an excellent crisp sound. You can hear the vocals really well as they are not drowned out by the instruments. Good stuff. Early Queen recordings made a point of making sure the vocal mix was “crystal”. It’s something all bands should try to do. Well assuming they can actually sing, of course.
I needed a new chair to use at my desk. After much research I settled for a Herman Miller Mirra. It’s good. Still tweaking the various settings but so far it’s very comfortable and should help prevent back issues due to spending a lot of time at the desk writing, typing and computing in general. Click picture for larger view.
Another blast from the past. The Hot Space album from Queen. I love this album (except for Under Pressure which will surprise most people). I’ve loved it since it came out and has been my favourite Queen album since 1982. Most people hated it at the time. Even my Queen loving friends. Funnily enough most, if not all of them now love it as well. The 3 tracks at the start of Side A – Staying Power, Dancer and Back Chat are brilliant when played together like a single long track.
This album has provided me with many hours of pleasure since it was released 24 years ago. Including another hour earlier today.
I was at the Milton Keynes Bowl concert in 1982 that was part of the tour that promoted this album. This was recorded for The Tube on Channel 4 television and has since been released as Queen on Fire – Live at the Bowl. I was right at the front on the right hand side of the stage.
Vacuuming is a pain right? To quote Homer Simpson, “Can’t somebody else do it?”. Well failing that how about a robot? Enter the iRobot Roomba. Set it down in a room. Press clean button. Close the door. Come back later and it’s done 🙂
Of course it doesn’t do behind furniture (unless you move it out of the way first), doesn’t do stairs and can’t get right into corners, so you still need to do real vacuuming periodically. But for sheer geek value it’s pretty cool. Plus it does a really good job in the areas it does reach. I still have to get into the extras like timed cleaning, automatic return to power station etc. For my other vacuuming needs I have a Dyson DC15 All Floors with the The Ball. That’s pretty cool as well. Can’t believe I’m posting about vacuum cleaners. What’s the world coming to?
I first read this book when it came out years ago. I lost my copy a few years ago when I lent it to a mate and never got it back (Brian – you own me a pint!). I bought a new copy from Amazon UK recently as the release of the remake of the Omen film gave me the urge to read it again. It’s brilliant. It tells the story of the antichrist growing up on Earth after there is a mix up at the maternity clinic. Rather than being raised as the son of an American diplomat, he ends up in Lower Tadfield in middle England. He therefore doesn’t get the required demonic education…
There are several strands to the book that are expertly tied together at the end. Good stuff. It also contains a very interesting insight in the music of Queen and car stereos!
Al Gore’s follow up talk at the TED conference on climate change is available to watch via video podcast from the iTMS. Well worth watching. The video of Sir Ken Robinson’s talk is very good as well. In fact, I’d recommend subscribing to the podcasts via iTMS and watching them all.
I was at the inaugural one day cricket international last week between Ireland and England. It was held at Stormont which is about 5 minutes walk from my house 🙂 I’ve posted about Stormont before here.The atmosphere was excellent. There where about 7000 people there, including a contingent of the English Barmy Army. When I was playing cricket it was Stormont that I played at. I’ll be back to play again, if not this year then certainly next year.
Steve Harmison can bowl a bit. Very quick! Here are some pictures taken on the day.
It’s been a while since I posted about YAPT. I said I was going to release early and often. Not much has happened on the often front…
I’ve decided to develop this using Cocoa rather than REALbasic. This means that there will not be a Windows or a Linux version. I’m doing this for fun and recreation, and as such I want to use the Xcode and Cocoa so I learn how to use them.
As mentioned in a previous post, I got a copy of John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos to read. I finished it a few days ago. It was very good. I still like The Chrysalids better. Still worth reading both though. I’ll probably grab the rest of Wyndham’s novels and read them.
Got the MacBook today. Some first impressions:
• It’s black. Really black. The references to Hotblack Desiato’s ship are fully justified. The case seems to absorb all light. I like it 🙂
• The magnetic screen closure. Good strong magnet.
• Screen angle. I can push the screen pack as far as I need. It certainly goes back as far as I ever used the PBG4 display.
• Screen covering. Glossy. Like a mirror when the backlight is off. Seems fine so far in use but all I’ve done is run the initial set-up and allowed it to download all the latest updates.
• Screen size. Nice and wide. It looks a bit to small in height though. 1280 x 800 in size. Be interesting to see if the 800 is limiting.
• Screen image. Very crisp. Very nice colours.
• Keyboard feel. Typed a few paragraphs to test it. Good feel in that test. Again time will tell. I’m not writing this message on it.
• Keys. It looks like the characters on the keys are offset to the right. In reality they are in the centre of the keys. This is a bit distracting. Probably get used to it.
• Keyboard position. The keyboard is sunken into the case. Hopefully it won’t touch the screen with the lid closed. Can’t close it to check as the software update is in progress.
• Heat. It’s been on for about an hour. The palm rests are room at temperature. There is a warm (not hot yet) bit on the left hand side near the power input and about 2 inches in radius. Goes over to the 2-W-S-Z-alt keys. Not hot. Just warmer than the rest. The right had side of the case feels cool to touch. Bottom is warm in the same area as described above on the left. Middle and right side is cool. Hopefully it’ll stay that way in real use.
• Weight. About the same as my PBG4.
• Fit and finish. Excellent. It’s really well made. Too me it’s like the offspring of a Titanium PowerBook and a Pismo G3. I really like it.
So far: Very nice indeed.
The Def Leppard song Wasted, from their debut album On Through The Night, has always been one of my favourite rock songs. Probably due to the the context of my life when it was released. Lots of good stuff happening like parties etc. 😉 I bought the album on tape originally. I think it’s still lying in a box somewhere. I’ve been checking the iTMS periodically waiting for it to appear there so I could download it. I know I could have went a got the CD – but I didn’t. Anyway, I noticed tonight that it was available on iTMS UK. Happy days. Listening to it as I type this. An excellent album. Wasted is the best track though. I never liked any of their stuff after this. Went a bit “American rock” for my tastes. Still, they did release a damn fine album as a debut.