The last link I gave for my QPR calendar was a bit wonky.
If you want to subscribe to the calendar with iCal, choose “Subscribe…” from the “Calendar” menu and enter the following URL:
Don’t just follow this link in your browser. Doing that would download the calendar events and import them into your iCal calendar. That’s not as good as subscribing, as you won’t automatically receive any updates.
You can also view it on the web here.
]]>If you want to subscribe to the calendar with iCal, choose “Subscribe…” from the “Calendar” menu and enter the following URL:
Don’t just follow this link in your browser. Doing that would download the calendar events and import them into your iCal calendar. That’s not as good as subscribing, as you won’t automatically receive any updates.
You can also view it on the web here.
]]>I’ve updated my public iCal calendar with next season’s QPR fixtures.
The calendar can be found here: http://bit.ly/RsycM.
No doubt there will be a few changes due to televised games and so on - I’ll try to keep it updated as & when these occur.
]]>The calendar can be found here: http://bit.ly/RsycM.
No doubt there will be a few changes due to televised games and so on - I’ll try to keep it updated as & when these occur.
]]>Last night, with a bit of trepidation, I let my eee 901 hackintosh upgrade itself to MacOS 10.5.7. I’d been putting it off for fear that I might end up with a non-bootable machine (I could have recovered from it, but it would have been a pain).
As luck would have it, it mostly worked ok.
]]>As luck would have it, it mostly worked ok.
After reboot, the main problem that I had was that the monitor settings had reverted to 1024 x 768, causing the top & bottom of the screen to be cut off. Since the Mac menubar is at the top, this was a bit of a snag, but luckily I know the layout of everything pretty well, and I also had the advantage of Spotlight. Hitting Cmd-Space brings up the spotlight search box (in the right place, interestingly, even though the menubar was in the wrong place), and typing the name of an application allows you to launch it.
After a bit of experimenting, I ended up just re-installed the kexts from the EEE-Utilities package put together by Gregory Cohen. This seems to have sorted everything out.
]]>Ah well, eventually I crumbled and renewed my season ticket… so here’s to another year of fun and frolics at QPR.
I can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed at the appointment of Jim Magilton. Not that I have anything against him at all, and Ipswich have played some attractive football in the last few years.
However, he does appear to have been sacked by the Ipswich chairman having only got them to roughly the same league position that we were in when Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa both, ahem, departed, from QPR. Which makes one wonder what exactly the QPR board are looking for in a manager.
]]>I can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed at the appointment of Jim Magilton. Not that I have anything against him at all, and Ipswich have played some attractive football in the last few years.
However, he does appear to have been sacked by the Ipswich chairman having only got them to roughly the same league position that we were in when Iain Dowie and Paulo Sousa both, ahem, departed, from QPR. Which makes one wonder what exactly the QPR board are looking for in a manager.
My fear is that they are looking for a yes man who will put up with the high levels of interference from the board that the previous three or four managers are alleged to have had. My fear is also that the fact that they met with Magilton four times has more to say about the number of other managers who were also interviewed, and who quite possibly rejected QPR (rather than the other way round). There are a lot of managers unemployed at the moment who have a better pedigree on paper - one wonders how many of them have said “QPR? You’d be mad to even contemplate it.”.
Hope springs eternal, however - so I’m going to do my best to trust the board, get behind the new manager, and behave like a loyal customer fan… and only put a modest bet on him being gone by Christmas.
This open letter to QPR from James Higgs echoes my sentiments about QPR at the moment.
Like him, I’m seriously considering not bothering to renew my season ticket.
]]>Like him, I’m seriously considering not bothering to renew my season ticket.
]]>Lauren Dempster asked a question (about a year and a half ago!) which got me going when I read it today:
http://www.laurendempster.com/2007/11/27/the-golden-compass
This was going to be a comment, but turned into a full-on rant!
The BBC news output is of an increasingly poor standard, if you ask me. Much of it is inane, self-obsessed, drivel or pointless “analysis” which actually amounts to stating the bleeding obvious.
For example, a news announcer gives a nice précis of a story. So far so good.
]]>http://www.laurendempster.com/2007/11/27/the-golden-compass
This was going to be a comment, but turned into a full-on rant!
The BBC news output is of an increasingly poor standard, if you ask me. Much of it is inane, self-obsessed, drivel or pointless “analysis” which actually amounts to stating the bleeding obvious.
For example, a news announcer gives a nice précis of a story. So far so good.
They then “go live” to a correspondent who is standing outside the venue describing how events are “unfolding”. Said correspondent then repeats the précis, often word for word, adding no additional information. As with most events, the unfolding generally takes the form of nothing much happening for long periods of time. Often, nothing more is going to happen anyway, because the “event” has already taken place.
To fill in the gaps, the correspondent is asked to speculate on why/what/how “it” happened. They happily do this with minimal recourse to factual information (as they have none at this point). Quite often this speculation will end with a reiteration of the précis.
No better informed than we were when we started, we now return to the studio, and cut to an “expert” who has joined the announcer. They are then asked to comment, generally resulting in further reiteration and inane speculation. They have minimal actual knowledge because nobody actually knows what’s going on.
Aaaargh!
This is all bad enough, but it becomes much, much worse when the story is about the media itself, and exponentially worse again if it is about the BBC. Ross & Grant anyone?
Then there’s the use of phrases like “stepping up” and “the pressure is mounting” or “is under increasing pressure”. These are typically used to indicate that something is still happening, or even just that the media are still talking about something that happened a while ago. So they will say “Gordon Brown is under increasing pressure today as revelations about the donuts-for-honours scandal continue to emerge” - when what they actually mean is “Remember that thing yesterday about the bloke with the donuts, well, we’re still talking about it because nothing else has happened”.
Most of this isn’t unique to the BBC of course, but I’m certain that the BBC is getting worse.
And as for the “arts” slots on the Today programme - give me strength!
Right, calm down, deep breaths…
]]>Dear Apple, this is what I want:
Optional extras:
Optional extras:
As you may have noticed, I’ve got an eee901, which I’ve turned into a Hackintosh (I’ve installed OS X on it). I’ve previously mentioned that I found it a bit sluggish - but no more!
I finally got round to upgrading the default 16Gb SSD drive to a much faster 64Gb one made by Runcore. By hell does it make a difference! The machine feels substantially quicker, and I very rarely hit the spinning beach ball these days (which happened all the time, previously).
If you’ve got one of these machines, I’d seriously recommend upgrading the SSD, regardless of the operating system you’re using. If my experience is anything to go by, you won’t be dissapointed.
]]>I finally got round to upgrading the default 16Gb SSD drive to a much faster 64Gb one made by Runcore. By hell does it make a difference! The machine feels substantially quicker, and I very rarely hit the spinning beach ball these days (which happened all the time, previously).
If you’ve got one of these machines, I’d seriously recommend upgrading the SSD, regardless of the operating system you’re using. If my experience is anything to go by, you won’t be dissapointed.
]]>The thing that’s depressed me most about the response to the recent budget in the UK is the same thing that depresses me at election time (or for that matter when reading most of the commentary in most of the British press).
It’s the fact that there appears to be such a lack of empathy amongst the general population. Most people’s perspective, be they rich or poor, seems to be so narrowly focussed on themselves.
The media plays its part, by endlessly focussing the debate on individuals, asking people how they think this or that policy will effect them. The media isn’t to blame though, it’s just not helping.
Rather than just moaning (I’m good at that), I came up with a crazy idea.
]]>It’s the fact that there appears to be such a lack of empathy amongst the general population. Most people’s perspective, be they rich or poor, seems to be so narrowly focussed on themselves.
The media plays its part, by endlessly focussing the debate on individuals, asking people how they think this or that policy will effect them. The media isn’t to blame though, it’s just not helping.
Rather than just moaning (I’m good at that), I came up with a crazy idea.
The next time you’re going to vote, forget about yourself. I’ll say that again, just in case you got confused. Forget about yourself. Don’t vote for your own interests.
Think of the two people that you know who probably need a lucky break most right now. Then work out what would really help them, and vote accordingly.
I’m not saying you should imagine your way into the mind of a homeless person sleeping under Waterloo bridge (unless you happen to know one). Just pick a friend, family member, someone you see on the bus each morning, whatever. Someone “normal” like you. You don’t have to be an angel - just try to be honest and pick people who need the help.
Picking two people gives a bit of balance - maybe they’ll need different things, so you might have to compromise a bit.
Perhaps you’ll still end up voting for selfish policies, but at least you’ll be doing it for someone else, and not for yourself. Who knows though, maybe the act of thinking about others will give you a bit more perspective.Don’t forget, you need not worry about yourself whilst doing this - your friends and neighbours will be looking out for you. Just worry about them.
Of course I realise that there’s a danger of this ending up with little cartels of people voting to preserve each other’s interests (sounds awfully familiar, come to think of it). Taken to extremes, it could get parochial and insular, nationalistic even. Ok, fine, don’t take it to extremes - obviously (like, duh…). Maybe pick someone from, oh, the next town or something!
You never know, maybe, just maybe, thinking about other people might turn out to be habit forming.
PS.
If you’re one of those shit-for-brains people who doesn’t vote because “they’re all the same, nothing I do will change anything” etc etc, then this counts double for you. If you look hard enough, you will find a policy that someone is proposing which will help someone who you know. If you can’t find one, you’re not looking hard enough. Put aside your own cynicism, and vote for them.
]]>I’ve just updated the blurb a bit on this group: http://www.elegantchaos.com/uk-mac-dev
After the excellent NSConference, I’m hoping that we can get a few more members on the list, and encourage a few more folks along to our monthly meetings.
]]>After the excellent NSConference, I’m hoping that we can get a few more members on the list, and encourage a few more folks along to our monthly meetings.
]]>Another excellent day, with some good sessions (core animation looks cool), and a fun finale.
I must confess to being a little bit weary now, and glad to be sitting at home. Tim & Scotty and the others must be knackered - I hope they have the chance to get thoroughly rat-arsed tonight.
]]>I must confess to being a little bit weary now, and glad to be sitting at home. Tim & Scotty and the others must be knackered - I hope they have the chance to get thoroughly rat-arsed tonight.
]]>I had a conversation last night which reminded me of this sneaking suspicion I have about Extreme Programming - which I may have blogged before (but I can’t find my own post if I did!).
Basically it revolves around the fact that I’d be far less likely to want to work with a programmer who had absolutely no knowledge of or interest in XP, unit testing, refactoring etc.
Conversely, I’d be instinctively keen to work with someone who is interested in it, or already doing it. To the extent that I suspect I wouldn’t really care whether we actually DID it at all.
Which leads me to wonder just how much the actual process matters, and how much it’s just a filter to use in order to select the right people to work with.
]]>Basically it revolves around the fact that I’d be far less likely to want to work with a programmer who had absolutely no knowledge of or interest in XP, unit testing, refactoring etc.
Conversely, I’d be instinctively keen to work with someone who is interested in it, or already doing it. To the extent that I suspect I wouldn’t really care whether we actually DID it at all.
Which leads me to wonder just how much the actual process matters, and how much it’s just a filter to use in order to select the right people to work with.
]]>Inspired by Andre Pang’s presentation at NSConference, and pointed out to me by Alasdair Allan…
http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html
No really, it is funny, honest.
I’ll get my coat.
]]>http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html
No really, it is funny, honest.
I’ll get my coat.
]]>In recent years Apple has started doing something that I regard as pretty dumb - tying versions of XCode to a particular system, and/or not supporting older XCode versions on newer systems. XCode 3.0 required Leopard, and I suspect that the next big XCode update will go the same way.
What’s even more annoying is that the distributed build system is tied to your system, architecture and xcode version. I can see why the version of the tool chain used by each node in a distributed build needs to match, but Apple should really spend some time making this stuff work a lot better.
]]>What’s even more annoying is that the distributed build system is tied to your system, architecture and xcode version. I can see why the version of the tool chain used by each node in a distributed build needs to match, but Apple should really spend some time making this stuff work a lot better.
The IDE should really be far more de-coupled from the tool chain, and I really ought to be able to participate in a shared build system running on a number of system versions (for that matter the IDE is a horrible monolithic lump which should really be broken down into smaller components and updated in a far more agile way, but that’s another topic).
The main reason why the Xcode thing is such an issue for me, is that it’s a really big barrier stopping me doing early testing of system updates. One way or another I’ve been getting pre-release systems from Apple for the last 20 years or so. Until fairly recently, I was very happy (keen, even) to live on the edge. Maybe not for alphas, but certainly by the time the system got to beta I’d typically install it and live on it for my main development machine. Crashes and glitches notwithstanding, I wanted to know what was coming, try it out, and give feedback on it whilst there was still time to change stuff.
Now, however, access to pre-release builds is next to useless for me. I simply can’t live on pre-release systems, since I immediately lose access to the other 5-10 macs that are normally happy to help out with my builds (and believe me, I need them to help compile Football Manager, which contains a lot of code!). For the amount of time & effort it takes to install a new system, it’s barely worth it just to click around for half an hour to see what’s changed, before switching back to my “real” system.
I can’t believe I’m the only person who has this problem, and it seems to me that the quality of the feedback that Apple receives must suffer as a consequence.
]]>First day of the conference proper - and an eclectic mix of excellent sessions.
A lot of stuff wasn’t directly relevant to the day job, but as always with these events it’s fantastic to just get the time & space to think about the issues, and to be pointed in some new directions. What wasn’t relevant today may well become the future.
Plus, of course, the ability to simply meet and hang out with a bunch of like-minded geeks is priceless.
]]>A lot of stuff wasn’t directly relevant to the day job, but as always with these events it’s fantastic to just get the time & space to think about the issues, and to be pointed in some new directions. What wasn’t relevant today may well become the future.
Plus, of course, the ability to simply meet and hang out with a bunch of like-minded geeks is priceless.
]]>