April 2009
12 posts
2 tags
Gadget.
The iPhone is pretty much the ultimate gadget. But it’s not just a gadget, it’s a game changer.
The release of the iPhone initiated a paradigm shift in internet connectivity. All of a sudden, there’s this device that is universally useful - it’s a phone, a full-featured internet browser, a GPS, a games console, a book reader, an email and text client, a camera… the list goes on. And, in the short...
Multilingual.
Well, I think the time has come for me to learn a new programming language. We’re having a bit of a slow month at work, so I have my boss’ blessing to use some of this time to learn some new skills.
So, I’ve narrowed the list of things I want to learn down to four things:
Ruby On Rails
JSP
iPhone development
Adobe Flex
I’m leaning towards RoR, as it seems...
3 tags
Hooligans.
So, apparently Britain isn’t a good place for kids.
I can believe it. All it takes is a cursory look around any British town centre to see the state of Britain’s youth. Surly kids in hoodies looking threatening, teenage mothers everywhere, teenage shoplifters being carted away in police vans, all the reports of teenage drug dealers, burglars, muggers, car thieves… not to mention...
4 tags
Ambition.
Sometimes I think I’m ideologically incompatible with the US. Many people here want to be millionaires, have the biggest houses, biggest cars and so on. I don’t. Never have, really.
My ambition is different. It’s about comfort, rather than “bigger, better, faster, more”. And my preferred route to this level of comfort is that I want to get good enough at something...
4 tags
Space.
Boris Johnson, the Mayor Of London, is my favourite politician.
OK, he’s a Tory, which means I should hate him on principle, but he has two redeeming features. Firstly, his scruffy, foppish demeanour and overstated, plummy, upper-crust accent is a parody of a politician, more like a character who should be appearing on “Little Britain”, and I think we need more people like that in...
2 tags
Relics.
We hear all the time about the chaos the music industry is going through in light of downloading. Well, I’ve thought of a way that the record industry can save itself.
Bring back vinyl.
I have come to the conclusion that maybe the CD’s days are numbered. If people want music for their iPod, car stereo, etc, they can download the MP3. If they want it in a physical format, they can buy...
4 tags
Efficiency.
I’ve always been a proponent of the philosophy of “doing more with less”. Not sure why, it’s some kind of deep-seated thing that probably goes back to my earlier days of using computers.
Every time you hear about a new computer game these days, the computer requirements for it have gone through the roof - you need this speed processor, that speed graphics card, and so on....
2 tags
Pastime.
Having had some time away from the music industry, and listening to stories of those who are still involved, I’ve had a chance to see some aspects of it for what they really are.
For me, the phrase, “music business” is an oxymoron. Music isn’t a business, it’s an artform. It’s something special that happens when you let a person, or group of people, with...
3 tags
Clumsy.
Please, Apple. Please release an external keyboard for the iPhone.
For someone like me, with big sausage fingers, the on-screen keypad doesn’t always cut it. I tap away clumsily, having to rely on the built-in predictive text features in order to be intelligible. I believe the iPhone 3.0 software supports a wider range of external devices than the current firmware, so, please, do it. Also,...
3 tags
Simplified.
I have a problem with many of the current web frameworks out there. They obscure the nuts and bolts of web development too much, basically.
For me, this began with all the additional stuff that Microsoft shoved in when they created ASP.NET - sure, things like the DataGrid are powerful and stuff, but they’ve taken a degree of control away from the programmer. If I want to display a table of...
3 tags
Effort.
I need more of it. Or, as they say on the internet, “I no haz it”.
Let’s face it, I work in social media. I’m just a humble backroom programmer, but I need to be involved. If everyone from Barack Obama to Paris Hilton is in on this stuff, I suppose I should be too. It’s the f**king future.
So, here I shall present my new blog. Here you’ll find various musings...