Archive for November, 2006
To Zune or not to Zune
At this stage everyone has heard of the new Zune media device from Microsoft. A bit of a buzz has been generated about yet another device aimed at the iPod generation. However, a greater buzz has surrounded the focus on DRM and the device. Many stories including imcompatibility of already purchased music with the device making end-users suffer have plagued the device's publicity. The story of Zune points that will be used to purchase music, is a little too detached from reality. It may have worked for Disneyland but consumers these days are far more concerned with actual monetary value. Some [...]
No such thing as any lunch?
We've all heard that there was no such thing as a free lunch but it is starting to look like there will soon be no such thing as lunch. A recent study has shown that the Irish lunch hour has been whittled away to a mere 38 minutes on average. The British are even guiltier suffering a mere 28 minutes of dining freedom. We have to stop and ask ourselves a few questions here. In Ireland, satisfaction with life is dropping rapidly due to increasing stress levels, property prices, trying to get a job outside of Dublin and many other factors. In response we recognise that we are one of the most [...]
ESB Hike to be Reviewed
The 19% increase granted to the ESB by the energy deregulator earlier this year is set to be reviewed due to a dramatic fall in the price of oil since the grant. However, early words are only indicating that a couple of percentage points will be dropped from the increase rather than abolishing the increase altogether. Sickening really, we may as well not even have a regulator in this country... source: The Irish Times Note: Irish Times article may require login
Java goes OpenSource under GPL
Looks like Java is set to go opensource under GPL in the near future. Could be very interesting for a language that has already reaped so many benefits from community process. Read more on Jonathan Schwartz's weblog
New Walkies
Treated myself to a new set of walkies over the weekend. I'm amazed at how much these things offer these days and at low prices. Anyway got a set of Uniden PMR 885 with a 8km range, headsets, vox, channel scanning and a host of other features.
Robot Cheese
Remember the scene from Pulp Fiction with Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta, the "Royale with cheese" car scene. Well here it is in full robotic glory. link: http://www.glyphjockey.com/2006/08/robot-theatre-royale-with-cheese.html
Take my breath away
Last night while driving home I was subjected to my first random breath test. While it was comforting to see Gardaí at midnight on a Saturday, while all hell is probably breaking loose in the city centre, out checking tax and insurance and random breath testing in the suburbs it's not that nice. Don't get me wrong now, I'm all for random breath testing, it's a great idea and if it saves a life or two along the way then it's worth any effort expended. However, I have a slight doubt about the randomness of my breath test. By the way I should also point out that my last drink previous to [...]
Things that make me smile
At what is nearly the end of a long day, the mind starts to wander in despondence, toward more loosely coupled topics. That's how, after many hours in the programming chair in front of two monitors, I discovered that I own the same car that Linus Torvalds does (or at least once did). We may share the same taste in cars and operating systems but sadly I think that Linus is still edging ahead on the success stakes. One day I'll catch up... :) source: WikiPedia.org
Fowler on Agile
Martin Fowler's take on agile methods and in particular "pair programming". As usual I agree with the man (aka the king of software patterns). link: Martin Fowler dot com
Google may be bad for your health
Just picked this up from Boing Boing (Cory Doctorow on the case). Australian medical researchers are suggesting that doctors may be well-advised to consult search engines such as Google when coming up with a diagnosis for a patient's illness. The content revealed by search engines is increasingly informative and coupled with the expert knowledge of clinical physicians may prove to be a winning solution for tricky assessements. Somehow though, it just doesn't seem right, paying a doctor fifty quid or so to do a Google search on your behalf... source: Boing Boing
