Long time since I updated, mostly cause I've been too lazy/busy to actually write something thoughtful down. Then I reminded myself that this blogging thing doesn't need to be thoughtful - it can be, though, which I definitely prefer, but I'll use this post as a dumping ground for some of the things that have been bouncing in the back of my head for a while.
I got a 20 gig iPod when the Apple Store at Regent Street opened (sheesh, that's months ago, already), but never really got around to hack/customize it properly. I just dumped all my MP3s in it, and started creating on-the-go playlists, saving them, and that was it. Yesterday I created a few smart playlists, and the one I really liked is called "Last week's good stuff", with 3 rules: must have been played on the last 7 days, must be rated 3 stars or more, and must have a play count greater than 3. Surprising how accurate it is, after you get used to rating songs (that's triple-click & scroll on the iPod, a somewhat hidden feature I might add). Also, a portable music player is just so perfect to take to...
Something boring as a gym. I joined one in November, but the first time I've been there after that was last Sunday. Ran for an hour on a threadmill, 7 miles and 700 calories burned it said. Please tell me this is not true. NOT TRUE! It takes me 20 minutes or less to consume 1500 calories, and all that sweat just to get rid of half of it? Aw, crap. It's going to take a really long time to burn all that...
Curry. I've been shoving loads of chicken tikka masala down my throat every day or two. I loved the spices, colours, and it's as different as it gets from the typical brazilian cuisine, and even though I thought I was not that keen on hot food (as capsacin is not my favourite substance), most of the curry I've tried so far has been pretty good. Capsacin, of course, leads to another substance cherished by geeks everywhere, namely...
Caffeine. After my initial scepticism about it, I noticed there's some very good coffee in the UK. Starbucks, even, makes a very decent Caramel Macchiato - with enough sugar (even though there's no such thing as "enough sugar" for me) and cinnamon, it's easily my favourite hot drink. Though at GBP 2.75 for a large cup, it's a bit pricey. Something that's definitely not pricey here, though, are...
Mobile phones. I got a Nokia 6630, in all its 3G glory, from Vodafone. Not the best operator around, but I had no problems so far. The phone is absolutely lovely. Decent keypad, great camera (for a mobile, anyway), quick interface, and, of course...
Python for Series 60. It's not really that comfortable coding with T9 predictive text, but the bluetooth console kicks ass. Basically, you type something on what looks like the usual Python interpreter many of us know and love, and it gets executed on the phone. A simple Hello World type thing using the native API wrappers takes 2 lines of code, which compared to what I got using J2ME so far, looks like what's going to be a huge fight. Oh, and I imported the whole ThoughtWorks address book from (urgh, argh, ick) Lotus Notes using a bit of CSV scripting voodoo. Took me a few hours to figure out the whole process, but it's easy to synchronize flawlessly now. I wonder if dumping all those CSVs to the iPod would work, which would give me a backup memory for my address book, in case the phone dies (or gets nicked). But enough with the small stuff. Now for the big ones, that take long to...
Build. It seems Sam Newman, Cedric Beust and Vincent Massol decided to start a crusade against bad project builds, and it's being enlightening to read their posts and cross different bits of information from each. I'm trying to keep track of all the thoughts in my head, and time allowing, I'll try to dump them here later. Enough digression, though, that's it for now.
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