Safety Apr 24 2006
Ah, guarenteed Premiership football next season after tonight’s victory. Sweet.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, football, fulham
Fragile Development Apr 24 2006
Today I did a bit of modelling - data modelling that is. I started my five-day UML course, as I’m attempting to learn the deadly art of analysis. It was actually quite interesting - after Getting Real recently (must get round to finishing that book) I was starting to dispense more with documentation/design diagrams and all that in favour of writing the damn code. However there are times when I need to crystallize my thoughts, gather design details, and really plan more complex concepts. It seems after today that UML, and design analysis, is a good way of doing that. In many ways, the course I’m doing (which is actually object-oriented design and analysis, specialising in UML) does tie in with a few agile concepts - in particular, the idea of smaller iterations of development, and an especially agile process for coping with design/requirement changes. On top of this, the idea of use cases defining functionality, doubling up nicely as easy scenarios for testing, ties in with test-driven development. So while I initially poo-poo’d heavy-handed design, analysis, and UML, I’m finding it refreshing to look at a project from a far more architectural point-of-view - especially when the model-view-controller pattern was brought up as being a Good Thing ™ - something I’ve spent a lot of my spare time working on recently. Over-all: interesting stuff, and expect a few more thought provoking posts (with hopefully even more amusing titles).
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, uml, design, analysis, coding, programming, unit-testing
Icy Cold Apr 22 2006
Holy shit, how’d this one sneak up on us? Somehow we’ve been teleported back in time forty-five years to the Cold War. Russia supplying anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. I thought either naivety or a simple good-nature explained Russia’s involvement with Iran to help them with nuclear technology (they proclaimed that it was only going to be used for nuclear energy, and therefore peaceful purposes), however anti-aircraft missiles aren’t really dual-purpose and the intention is surely pretty clear. It’s quite an antagonistic move, and certainly one that doesn’t help the diplomatic process.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, politics, usa, russia, “middle east”, iran, war, “cold war”
More classic House Apr 20 2006
Another great episode of House tonight - and another classic House quip:
Henry: I assume you’ve been in love?
House: Is that the one that makes your pants feel funny?
Glad to see it’s been picked up for another series.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, house, tv
Intriguing Apr 18 2006
Catching up on some of the weekends tidbits, I noticed RSSBus - this looks quite interesting, and reading through the whitepaper brings up some intriguing ideas - however until I can play with the actual product, I’m not sure how useful it’ll actually end up being. Not sure I count as an “early adopter” or “influencer” either ;-)
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, rssbus, rss, “web services”, ws
Easter Apr 18 2006
I had an excellent Easter weekend away up north in Lincolnshire visiting relatives - and it was really enjoyable. Some photos from the weekend are up here and here. Anyway, Andie and I stayed at my grandmothers for the weekend, and spent the Saturday and Sunday visiting with various relatives I haven’t seen in a long while - and it made me realise I should make more time to see them more often. Sometimes they drive me nuts, often in fact - but it’s fun to see them and after-all, it’s family :-)
Came back Sunday, and yesterday had a nice relaxing day - back to work today though, feels like a bit of a drag as you’d expect. However, it’s only a four-day week, and I’m already looking forward to the weekend again!
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, easter, family, relatives, holiday
scanR Apr 18 2006
This is pretty cool, with my 2-megapixel Sony K750i, who needs a scanner now? I might have to give it a go a little later, let’s see how I get on.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, scanr, scanning, “camera phone”, “sony k750i”
Photo overload Apr 13 2006
I’ve just stuck a load of photo’s I’ve been collating over recent weeks up on Flickr, in a photo uploading binge. As always, check out my photos here, or subscribe to the photostream here. Enjoy.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, photos
Review time Apr 12 2006
Ok listen up boys and girls, review time. I planned over the last few weeks to write reviews on a few things, however I haven’t yet gotten round to it - so here’s a start. They aren’t huge reviews, they are more like bitesize reviews to get straight to the point ;-)
The Vines - Vision Valley
The latest effort from Australia’s “The Vines” falls short. In a big way. When I say short, I could be referring to the track length. I got to about track six, when I suddenly realised maybe I’d been sent some kind of pre-order promotional CD by mistake - the longest track so far was 2m42s in length, with a number of the songs the wrong side of two minutes. Don’t get me wrong - if the music is awesome, it could be 30 seconds long, and I’d be happy to just stick it on repeat (The Hives are an excellent example of this) - but in this case, once I hit the end of the album, I was still disappointed. With the exception of perhaps the opening track, “Anysound” and the excellent “Gross Out”, the album was a big anti-climax for someone like me, a big fan of their previous work. Even with the “epic” last track, “Spaceship” at just over 6 minutes, the album only just tips 31 minutes, and all told, it’s 31 minutes that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Overall? “Get Free”? If you can get this album for free, then it’s worth a cursory glance for the short but sweet “Gross Out”, but otherwise allow yourself three extra minutes and listen to The Hives’ last album, Tyrannosaurus Hives - more energetic, more interesting, more fun.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, reviews, music, “the vines”, “vision valley”, “the hives”
It's got a name Apr 12 2006
Give It A Name is back on again this year, and seeing as I mentioned it in my last post, I thought I’d give a quick shout out to say I’m going to be at both days, Earl’s Court London, this year. It’s just over two weeks away, and thanks to the brilliant “Kill Your Own”, I think I’m looking forward to seeing Hundred Reasons the most. Billy Talent come a close second, and LostProphets, Taking Back Sunday, and MCR all feature too - it’s going to be an awesome two days.
Technorati Tags: el, eldiablo, “give it a name”, “hundred reasons”, “billy talent”, “lostprophets”, “taking back sunday”, “my chemical romance”
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