December 2011
1 post
Consider this.
For many years, we have been making better cameras.
Like, waaaaay better. In your phone.
My first digital camera was a 2.1 megapixel, four-AA-battery, HP-branded behemoth. You could have smashed a badger to death with it with enough run-up.
Bought another one later on about two years later. Two AA batteries. 3-point-something megapixels.
And they were all right. Not great, but all right.
Now?...
September 2011
1 post
Cloud rolling
Because I am ostensibly in the “tech community”, I am informed that I should be thinking about cloud computing.
And so here I am. Let the thinking commence.
First, a bit of background. I’m sitting in a coffee shop (which for my friends will be no surprise at all) and typing on an old Bluetooth keyboard paired to my smartphone.
The keyboard is larger than the display. Last...
July 2011
1 post
Tethered
Hand to God, I love Sky.
Absolutely over-a-barrel love ‘em, because God *damn* if they didn’t help me figure something out.
Primarily, due to their ludicrous procedures and an inability to listen to the customer, we’re stuck without landline or broadband until next week because they decommissioned my line and made it un-transfer-able.
Fucking stupid.
HOWEVER! It has helped me...
June 2011
1 post
Dude, Where's My Content?
With a deep and seething self-hate and rage, it has now occurred to me.
I have lost a shit-ton of stuff. Not physical matter, you understand, but content. Photos mainly, but I’m sure there’s some music, and dear lord if there isn’t ever a bunch of documents that have gone walkies.
In a vague sense of fortune, I know what’s to blame and that (primarily) is endless data...
April 2011
2 posts
Mobile Powerhouse
Don’t be fooled.
You’d be amazed how much toothpaste you can squeeze out of an “empty” tube.
And so it is with computers.
I have an entry-level, base-configuration machine with 4GB of RAM. But it’s fucking FLYING.
Currently, half a gig of that is handed over wholesale to a virtual machine (which is running in the same window space as my native OS (which is...
Nothing to see here.
For those that are interested (of which, I understand there will be few):
===BEGIN PGP FINGERPRINT===
inverse vagabond hamlet outfielder crowfoot bookseller alone escapade enlist graduate dogsled speculate guidance speculate crackdown equation playhouse pyramid tonic therapist
76F271A142170B565A674AD670D6405493BCE4DF
===END PGP FINGERPRINT===
That there is my public key if you’re...
March 2011
1 post
Downsizing
So. I’ve cut down the amount of apps on my smartphone.
Culled most of them, in fact. I’m now down to three home screens, and that could be shrunk to two if I just munged the last two together.
Front screen - no folders, just my top 20 apps.
Second screen - all folders, grouped by verb.
That’s it. With a hat-tip to @rands and @mrgan for the idea. I had had two folders full...
February 2011
1 post
Stubbing My Toe. For Science. Or Something.
We live in a two-bedroom flat on the second floor.
We have three large storage cupboards, known as The Airing Cupboard (albeit just a cupboard with air in it), The Shed and Under The Stairs.
I know.
We’re a riot.
Anyway. We still have a Metric Shit-ton™ of our boxes and moving stuff in there from our old place. Just never got round to unpacking all the books &c. that move with...
January 2011
3 posts
Panic (disco optional)
Good evening.
I am typing this with new fingers.
Those of you still reading probably deserve an explanation.
This very night, perhaps the veriest of all recent nights (although tomorrow could be verier), I crashed and burned. Not in an automotive way. That would have required a car.
No.
What happened was that I suffered one of my major panic attacks.
A what now?
Yes. Not the...
A Friend, Hotel Safes And Instant Coffee
Sometimes I am spoiled to have excruciatingly talented friends.
The sumbitches.
Actually, no. That would be to do them an injustice. They’re talented, granted. But are they successful in making awesome stuff just because they’re talented?
No. They’re talented and fucking committed.
They work hard at something not because they’re good at it, but because they want to...
My Massive Head (And Why That's A Problem)
I do have a large head. The brain, not so much, but it does have its moments.
That’s a problem. Especially when it comes to headphones. In-ears are OK, but headband ones tend to squeeze my head over a period of an hour plus.
That’s a problem.
Plus size headphones? Anyone?
November 2010
1 post
Heisenberg Clock
One day, I will create a clock with hands of identical lengths so that you can’t just look at it and know what time it is.
You’d have to look back at it another time to be able to tell what the time really is.
So yeah.
Just an idea. But, given my sense of chronic inertia, it’ll probably not come to anything anyway.
October 2010
1 post
September 2010
1 post
Shit. It’s really quiet here.
May 2010
3 posts
We are moving house.
Or, more precisely, moving flat. From our tiny one-bedroom flat into a purpose-built two-bedroom apartment in a dedicated building.
In short, the sort of apartment one might see in the Ikea catalogue or an ident for a home style channel.
All of which is cool. Beyond cool. We’ll have a big kitchen with plenty of space for cooking. A separate office for us to study....
Today, I asked a lady in a building for some small paper rectangles. I then gave these rectangles to another lady in another building and wrote my name lots of times in joined-up handwriting.
The grown-ups tell me that this means I get to change where I live.
I think it is a ploy to get me to give away small paper rectangles.
The case continues.
Facebook
Yeah, so…
About that. It’s been lovely. I mean, it was, you know? Back in the old days?
It kept me up to date with my friends, their events, photos from them.
But Facebook’s all got a bit too meta. Notifications about applications, quizzes and fucking farms. Nothing personal, but really.
I was getting fed up. It wasn’t so much about what my friends were doing any...
March 2010
2 posts
WatchA long photo.
February 2010
1 post
OK, OK, so two Brits, one Swede and a Dutchwoman drink Indian beer, eat Indonesian food and commentate on the awkward gait of women staggering drunk through the Bay area of Cardiff wearing small clothes and unsafe shoes.
No, seriously. That’s what I did last night.
I know. I expected a punchline too.