10 posts tagged “computer”

What do you love most about your job?

1. Problem solving. Although it's all in the field of nerdy computer things, I do like being given a problem then working out the best way to solve it. Or the best way with the time available, which are not always the same thing.
2. People. I work with several people who I love dearly and learn a lot from.
3. Learning. In the space of less than two years, I have learned a LOT and keep learning. It's great, and I attribute that to both the people I work with (especially my mentor, Eduardo, whose coding style is so easy to follow) and the fact that the company is too small for pre-defined roles to really stick on any given project. I was hired to do CSS and JavaScript, but spread out into SQL Server, ASP.Net, XML and other technologies just because I could and extra hands were needed.

Parties, dinners, pageants and more. How does technology help you survive the hustle and bustle of the holidays?
Sponsored by Best Buy.

If I get invited somewhere I've never been, Google Maps on my iPhone shows me the way. If I get bored, Facebook and NetNewsWire on my iPhone give me something to do. If I want to take a photo, my iPhone lets me snap one without carrying several devices. iPhone iPhone iPhone. Sorry, but that, my laptop and my Xbox 360 are my favourite widgets right now.

Just over a week since we waited in line to order them, Jess and I finally got our iPhone 3Gs. Or rather, I went and got them while she got her hair cut as I was so impatient.

Within the space of half an hour, the sales assistant at the AT&T store had set up our account, transfered our numbers from T-Mobile and activated the phones, then I was out the door and shuffling home as fast as I could to play with mine.

I think I was playing for like five hours, before taking a nap.

For all the hype, for all the waiting, I am actually impressed. It effectively renders FOUR of my existing devices obsolete. It plays music every bit as well as my iPod (being, essentially, the latest generation). It can make calls, send text messages, take photos and do almost everything a phone can (MMS remains oddly absent). I can play games that look better than anything on my Nintendo DS, albeit with more limited control options. And, oddly, I feel it's going to reduce my time on my laptop, too - between the built-in apps and those you can already download from the new app store, I can surf, email, blog, manage photos, watch YouTube videos and generally piddle away time.

And in case you want to know, the applications downloaded so far...

- AIM
- Aqua Forest
- De Blob
- Facebook
- Last.fm
- MySpace Mobile
- NetNewsWire
- Remote
- Super Monkey Ball

It's been a good week.

With the launch out of the way, work has been less hectic. There were still bits and pieces to do on the sites we launched - some post-launch bug fixes, new features and responses to feedback. Other than that, I got to move onto my other project which - while also bearing an ever-looming deadline - I am comfortable about.

Tuesday was Jess' birthday so we went to our favourite Mexican place. As it was a special occasion, we had cocktails and dessert... and I'm very glad we did. Despite it being a girly drink, I love pina colada; and the weird ice cream things we had for dessert were very tasty. Jess really wanted to go to a Thai place, but given the distance, this was a perfect substitute.

Yesterday, I left work just after 5.30pm and got home around 6.15pm, despite having to take a detour to drop off our rent cheque. Considering last week I didn't leave work/get home until around the same time the following morning, it was nice. Jess was staying late at work, though, so I didn't know what to do with myself.

I did very little. I made myself a very simple and meat-free dinner, watched a whole disc of Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law then got into bed and played Solitaire on my swanky new phone. Somehow, I held off the sleepiness washing over me until Jess was home and in bed.

She had to get up early again this morning, leaving me to bum around. I spent my morning devouring another disc of Harvey Birdman, dicking around on the computer (it's amazing how much time you can waste looking at online galleries, Wikipedia entries and Amazon) and playing more Solitaire and Bubble Breaker.

My lunch was a bit more interesting - Jess had brought me home some steak, mashed potatoes and broccoli last night so I reheated that and downed it with copious amounts of Diet Coke. My dessert was Dairy Milk from our stash of imported chocolate.

I'm about to get a shower then head to meet Jess after work so we can pick up the last of her birthday presents. Despite two consecutive weeks of one of us working the weekend, things are calming down as the weather slowly (oh so slowly) picks up.

This week's calmer Dale is soundtracked by...

- One Cell In The Sea by A Fine Frenzy
- Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev
- Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
- Logic Will Break Your Heart by The Stills

I've said it before, but the recording industry is run by a bunch of backwards cowboys.

The Recording Industry Association Of America are up to their usual tricks, suing Arizona resident Jeffrey Howell for being a dirty, rotten pirate. His crime? Copying his 2,000 CDs to his computer. 2,000 CDs he bought. Legally.

The outcome of this case worries me. As someone who owns a lot of CDs (although not 2,000), I would not have been able to move to the US had I had to bring them all over the ocean with me to listen to them. Being able to copy them all to a hard drive that fit into my minimal luggage was a godsend; and being able to have my entire collection on my iPod is vital to me.

Our good friends at the RIAA are trying to suggest that even that is a horrible violation of copyright law. This baffles me for many reasons, but not least because one of their main four members - Sony BMG - is, as I said in a previous post, a subsidiary of one of the major manufacturers of a variety of devices that allow for the copying and playback of copyrighted music.

I cannot vouch for Jeffrey Howell, but I don't make my music collection available using file sharing software. I share a handful of songs using this blog, but almost always telling people to buy the albums they come from (and my playlist tool features Amazon links for every song for that reason). And they're trying to suggest I and others like me are common criminals.

One forum I visit said the RIAA might as well just subpoena the millions of people who own iPods. I would write to them to recommend this, but they and several of their members make it very difficult to contact them online.

If you're reading this and work for the RIAA, I would love to talk to you - as a fan of recorded music - to explain why your current strategy of vilifying music fans is only going to further the sales decline you're witnessing right now. You can cling desperately to the old world all you want, digital audio is the future and consumers aren't going to re-purchase their music digitally when there is no valid reason for them to do so.

Update: Turns out Howell is being sued for illegal filesharing after all, but the RIAA is still going off on this whole "ripping your CDs is illegal" thing.

What was your major or field of study in college? Did you wind up working in that field or using that degree? If not, what field have you wound up in? 
Submitted by sneuf. 

I didn't go to college. Or university. Or whatever you want to call it. I did a month of sixth form college at age 16 then left education to work. I'm possibly one of the least qualified people I know, but I've been working in the internet since long before many people had access to it in the UK.

I think I've done well because...

a) If I'm interested in something, I soak it up like a sponge (see also: pointless trivia about alternative music)
b) While I am lazy when a bunch of dreary forty year olds are prodding me through a course book, I am a lot more attentive when not-so-dreary people of indeterminate age are paying me
c) My small, girly hands - while ill-suited to manual labour, smarmily shaking hands with douchebags, etc. - are perfect for typing

My MacBook Pro is now running both Mac OS X 10.5.1 and Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic. I am, to paraphrase Microsoft's marketing, experiencing the WOW for the first time (in my current and previous jobs, I stuck with XP).

And indeed, Vista is WOW-inducing...

- Wow, this is a pain in the arse to install and set up.
- Wow, I remember these features when they came out for Mac OS X Tiger a few years ago.
- Wow, could they have anymore annoying little pop-up bubbles notifying me about every last freaking thing?

When I finally got the thing working, set up and up to date with the most recent system updates, Unreal Tournament III ran like shit off a shovel so that was good. I would recommend it for games if nothing else.

I understand why some people prefer Windows (well, not necessarily Vista, but older versions) - if you want to spend ages dicking around to get hardware working, you're very well catered to; and sure, there's some software you just can't get on other platforms (specifically the web development tools and games that convinced me to install Windows in the first place) but unless I absolutely have to, I don't think I'll boot into Vista too much.

Other than wrestling the beast, this weekend has been good. We got a lot of napping done, watched 1408 (a film starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, written by Stephen King: it was so-so) and some Venture Bros, and today met Jason, Brad and their friends Valerie and Karen at the cinema to see Juno.

I really, really enjoyed Juno. It was a cute film about a pregnant teen who decides to put the baby up for adoption. The entire cast was fantastic (especially Ellen Page as Juno, Michael Cera as Paulie and JK Simmons as Juno's dad), treading the line between laugh-out-loud funny and cry-into-your-popcorn soppy. There are lots of great one-liners, mostly from Ellen Page but The Office's Rainn Wilson packed a bunch in during his tiny cameo.

The soundtrack was also gorgeous, with 'Anyone Else But You' by The Moldy Peaches making two appearances - the second time performed by Ellen and Michael.

So two of my three favourite films this year starred Michael Cera. He's awesome.

Here's one for you... Musical: The Musical. One thousand Vietnamese children dressed in rags swarm the stage.

Wait, sorry, I mean: online friends lists. Is it really a faux pas to just remove someone from your friends list on a community web site without telling them when or why? I've removed several people from MySpace, Facebook and the like - some by mistake, others very much intentionally - and several of these deletees have then gotten in touch to ask why, usually hurt and offended by it.

To me, being hurt when you're removed from a digital list seems a little irrational, I've been removed from people's friends lists and it hasn't sent me spiralling into depression. Am I just too anti-social for the social web? Should I receive some form of internet ASBO?

On the flipside, is anyone else scared when they add co-workers to their friend lists? Do equally irrational thoughts like "What if they think my layout's crap?" or "What if they see how many times my status changes on Facebook when I'm supposed to be working?" snarl your guts up?

Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

What are three things you want to learn, and three things you can teach others to do? 
Submitted by bookishbiker.

Three things I want to learn...

1. How to play piano properly.
2. How to write PHP properly.
3. How to speak Spanish fluently.

I am a n00b at all three.

Three things I can teach people...

1. How to write CSS. I had to teach myself very quickly and am fairly adept despite this.
2. How to assemble a good team in Pokémon games. Being older than 15, I am not a scary dweeb who can tell you at which level Infernape learns the move Calm Mind or where to find a Magnazone in the wild. However, I've wasted enough time on them to know the relative strengths and weaknesses.
3. How to use a computer. I am fairly adept at most aspects of owning and using a computer - PC or Mac. My brother Gavin thinks he knows as much about computers as me, but he constantly got viruses or screwed his machine up to the point he had to reinstall Windows. The only time I reinstalled was when a new version of Windows came out and I upgraded.

If you could make a magic wish for a futuristic gadget or high-tech innovation, what would your item do? 
Submitted by Red Pen.

I just basically wish computers would actually get faster. I know the numbers everyone spouts get bigger and bigger each year, but seriously, has anyone actually seen their computer do the things it's supposed to without stuttering, choking or taking forever? Seriously?

I want a computer that...

- Boots when I turn it on, not minutes after
- Doesn't mysteriously choke up when I switch between applications or, and this has actually happened on my old work computer, take a minute to catch up with a sentence I just typed
- Lets me do more than one thing at once without having a meltdown

My Mac is closer to that ideal, but it's still a million miles from perfect.