Trailer Trash

Every once in a while, a film trailer comes along that I can’t seem to stop myself watching repeatedly. I like trailers in general, which is definitely part of the problem, but some of them really grab hold of me. Two good examples of this are the final theatrical trailer for the recent Star Trek reboot, and one of the trailers for The Two Tower... Read more
15 Mar 2010 / 2 minute read / cinephile

...And Another Couple Of Things

Something I forgot to mention in my last post was my trying to look at the iPad from a developer’s perspective. I talked before about a programming side project that I’ve had bouncing around in my head for a while. Previously, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if it was a website, an application, or some combination of the two. Then again I could s... Read more
07 Feb 2010 / 3 minute read / geek

That iPad thing

Originally, right after I got around the watching the keynote presentation which launched the iPad, I was going to write a blog post about how disappointed I was. I thought they’d screwed the pooch and I, for one, was seriously underwhelmed. Needless to say, I didn’t quite get around to writing it. Since then I’ve read all the criticism by the ... Read more
03 Feb 2010 / 2 minute read / geek

The Goldilocks Dilema

Daddy Bear’s porridge is too expensive. Baby Bear’s porridge is underpowered. Mummy Bear’s porridge is just right… but has a monitor in it. Hhhmmm… perhaps I should explain… It’s reached that time. My computer is starting to show it’s age. In small ways, mostly. It stalls occasionally, but with gradually increasing frequency. Every now and t... Read more
09 Dec 2009 / 5 minute read / geek

Just Can't Recommend Highly Enough

Today I finished “The Girl Who Played With Fire”, translated by Reg Keeland from the swedish book of the same name by Stieg Larsson. It’s the sequel to ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (which is called “Men Who Hate Women” in the original swedish), and I really can’t recommend the pair of them highly enough (as you might have guessed from the t... Read more
20 Sep 2009 / 1 minute read / bibliophile

The right kind of holiday

It has been, by my count, at least 18 months since I last had a holiday (aside from one weekend spent in Cardiff). It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to feel that I really need a one. But what kind of holiday? Having stopped to think about it, I’ve realised that most of the holidays I’ve taken have been of the package type. With the s... Read more
06 Sep 2009 / 2 minute read / globe-trotter

Web Frameworks, Desktop Application and My Newly Melted Brain

Let’s get the preliminaries out of the way: Hello, long time no see, how have you been? Etc… So, whilst writing up my PhD (experiments finally finished!) and working three days a week (going fully full time at the end of September!) I have a fair bit on my plate at the moment. So obviously I’ve also started cooking up a side project… I don’t... Read more
31 Aug 2009 / 4 minute read / hacker

Spending to make...

While it’s a fairly common and reasonably accurate maxim that you have to spend money to make money, I find myself wondering if the same is true of energy. To reword and disentangle the metaphor: Can you save energy by using energy? Here’s a my train of thought: You have curtains in your house. It’s possible to fit a motorised unit and automate... Read more
26 Feb 2009 / 1 minute read / geek

Call by the what now?

Some not work related computery bits and pieces have been percolating around my head for some time now. I think we should talk about them for a while. That is: I’ll talk. You listen. I’m probably going to write a couple of more techy blogs, all loosely interrelated. I am going somewhere with them, but I’m not entirely certain as to how much of ... Read more
24 Feb 2009 / 2 minute read / hacker

Serendipitous Nostalgia

Today I was walking home from work and absent-mindedly listening to music, when I noticed that that my supposedly shuffled iPod was displaying a definite preference for one band in particular. A band I haven’t really spared a seconds thought in some years. As I walked I hatched a plot a write a blog post regarding the nostalgia this inspired. So... Read more
13 Jan 2009 / 3 minute read / audiophile