The 2008 Vice-Presidential debate. Video summary
From Saturday Night Live.
General
You couldn’t make this stuff up #1
Priceless.
Metadata found on Microsoft’s creative copy used in its ‘I’m a PC’ ad reveals that the graphics were actually produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. After the details were published on the Flickr photo sharing site, Microsoft scrambled to polish off the embarrassing details last night
From: AppleInsider | Microsoft’s ‘I’m a PC’ campaign created with Macs
An Introduction to Regular Expressions
Drew McCormack has just posted a 13 page PDF tutorial on regular expressions.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn about regular expressions, here’s your chance, because I’m attaching to this post a chapter on regular expressions that I wrote recently for a Master’s level Python course. Although it targets the Python language, the regular expression syntax is virtually the same across the board, so anything you learn should translate pretty well to other languages and tools.
Testing audio integration
Whilst I’m testing blog features I might as well test audio integration between Ecto. iTunes and WordPress hosted blogs. Here is a short piece of music, called Europa, that I created using GarageBand..
‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE!
From the Mudflats Blog in Alaska. Heartening news of an anti Palin rally in Anchorage. Quote from the site:
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn’t honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn’t happen here.
[From ‘Alaska Women Reject Palin’ Rally is HUGE! « Mudflats]
Tip of the hat to Gia via Twitter.
Testing Lightbox plugin
Implementing Lightbox style image handling. Shown below are some test images. Go on. Click them.
Click pictures for larger view
The plan
I like to set goals. I’m not that keen on keeping to them, but I like setting them as targets and frameworks to work with. I’ve got a set of personal and work related goals that want to work to over the next few years. Sort of my own personal Soviet style 5-year plan.
Work Stuff
Become the go-to guy for VMware VI3 questions and also for Mac OS X integration into Windows environments. Also be the person people search out when they have questions about current and new technology.
Personal Stuff
Learn mathematics. Using this selection of self study books:
Click picture for larger view
I want to be able to read Penrose’s The Road to Reality and understand the mathematics in it.
Do several Open University courses to finish a BSc I’m doing with them:
SXN390 Science in Society Project
Do the Open University MSc Science and Society. As long as they let me in. [Update: They did!] I’ve pulled out a few courses recently and they have a rule that stops you registering for new courses. Which is fair enough. They don’t get paid by the government if people don’t complete the courses. In any event I’ll be doing something in the science communication field (including many more posts here on the Soapbox) as we need to fight the hoards of superstitious nut jobs. We can’t cede any of the ground won in the last 400 years with rationality and the scientific method.
Continue to work on some science fiction stories I’m writing. One is set in a space opera scale universe and the other is set in the Frank Herbert Hellstrom’s Hive universe.
Music – I’ve got about dozen songs in various stages of work (all have full lyrics). I want to continue to work on them and maybe package them together as an actual album. That’d be cool 🙂
Write a cricket match scoring system for Macintosh and iPhone using Cocoa. Unless someone else develops on that meets my needs first. I’d be happy if they did. Programming projects always bore the tits of me after the initial requirements specification and design are done! [Update: I’ve also had an idea for an app that uses the Twitter API]
We’ll see how I get on…
Try not to get the donut in the face
I think planning a project is ultimately a little like throwing a donut at the moon. You can never actually hit the target, plus you’ll be lucky if you aren’t hit in the face on the way down.
From Task Times, The Planning Fallacy, and a Magical 20% on 43 Folders.
London’s new skyline
The BBC is showing a new series called Britain from Above. The first programme had a section showing some new skyscrapers that are proposed for central London. I like the look of them all, with the possible exception of the pyramid shaped one. All are shown in the video below.
Christened the wok
I used my new wok earlier. It was as quick to cook something myself than it would have been to jump in the car and drive to the take-away. Plus it tasted better, was healthier and probably cheaper as well. Only took 10 minutes to clear up afterwards. First use of the wok was as follows:
Sliced chicken breast quick fried in groundnut oil (with teaspoon of mixed Chinese spices in a some water to flavour)
Diced pineapple
Sliced fresh red, green and yellow peppers
About 9 mL of pineapple juice (for sweetness)
Tablespoon of Rice Vinegar (for sourness)
Served on rice (Uncle Ben’s Egg Fried Rice from Microwave this time) with fresh quartered tomatoes and a big glass of cider. It was really nice 🙂
View wok on Amazon UK
Chinese Food Made Easy
The new BBC TV show called Chinese Food Made Easy looks interesting. I love Chinese food. Probably be better, healthier and cheaper to cook my own. Don’t know if I have the time though. Looking forward to the new show.
Update: It was good show. Looked gorgeous on BBC HD. I’m going to do more cooking. Just ordered a Le Creuset wok 🙂
Internet speed bump
VirginMedia sent me a letter a while back saying that my cable internet connection would be increased to 10Mbps at some stage in over the summer. Looks like it’s been done. I don’t know when it happened but in the last day or so I’ve noticed much faster downloads. I’ve just done a speed test using Speedtest.net. Here are the results:
Yeah. 10Mpbs download and 512kbps upload.
UK NHS 60 years old today
Worth celebrating. Universal health care, free at the point of delivery. An essential part of a civilised country I think. Worth noting, despite the impression given by certain people, that the Conservative Party have been in charge of the service for a lot of that time.
Planet Earth calling
Apparently Mugabe has invited Morgan Tsvangirai to his inauguration ceremony for Zimbabwe president. What planet is Mugabe on? The man must live in a bubble of reality distortion. When is the world going to intervene in Zimbabwe like they did in Iraq? Answer: never, as it was really only the USA and the UK who did that and they don’t have the troops or the will to do it in Zimbabwe.
Switched back to MacBook Pro
I switched back to using my MacBook Pro 17 inch today after a few months using a MacBook Air. I’m not going to be travelling quite so much for a while so don’t need an ultra portable Mac for day to day use. The MacBook Pro is noticeably quicker. Plus the screen is magnificent 🙂
One of my friends is going back to university in Scotland to do a Masters degree in something to do with hearing (she works in this area). She needs a computer for this. I’m telling her to get a Mac with a Windows install in a virtual machine. Best of both worlds. I’m going to set up the MacBook Air this way and lend it to her for a month to see if she likes using a Mac. Then she can buy a Mac or a Windows laptop in an informed decision.
Bought Delicious Library 2
I ranted about the new version of Delicious Library before. There is an update available that fixes the Amazon (null) problem. I also heard from their support dudes that the new window layout isn’t popular and they will be looking at it again for a future version. So I paid my upgrade fee.
The Police & KT Tunstall live in Belfast
Went to see The Police and KT Tunstall at Stormont last night. It was brilliant. KT Tunstall is excellent live. Especially Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, which she does mostly solo using echo loops. The Police were excellent as well. They played several tracks that I didn’t recognise that were really heavy and good. The famous singles that everyone knows were good as well.
Here are some pictures (taken on an iPhone). BTW the concert was on the back cricket square at Stormont. This is shown in this picture from 2005.
Click Pictures for larger view