supersonic feet

The cool Git repository host and online interface, GitHub went officially live today. It does mean paying now for private repos, but I have no problem with that - it’s a great service and they’re adding cool features like comments on commits that can be pointed at specific lines of code.

I’ve been using GitHub for a few weeks on a personal project and so far it’s been very good. I’m sure I’d see more benefit from it when working with other developers on a project, but even as an external host for personal git repos it’s good for me.

It also has Lighthouse integration, which they’ve just made easier by handling it through the web interface rather than git post-commit hooks, although the 2 commits I’ve pushed since switching to that feature haven’t shown up in Lighthouse yet. I’ll wait a while and see if it’s just a lag on launch day.

Just upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 and let it go back to the default theme rather than the rubbish blank one I’ve been running until I can get around to doing a proper design.

Anyone in the UK has probably seen the adverts for online DVD rental service, LOVEFiLM recently. I saw an ad on a website pointing out that you can also rent console games, which could be cool at the right price (with the online rental services not time-limiting you) so started having a look at the site.

Browsing around I noticed the download-to-own option so checked it out. There’s a mix of straight downloads and those accompanied with a proper DVD copy. Except that the ‘proper’ DVD copy isn’t - you get the film in a LOVEFiLM envelope with none of the original packaging and (more importantly) none of the bonus features on the disc. Basically, you’re getting the film and nothing else, just the bonus of being able to download it while you wait for the physical copy to arrive so you can watch it the same day you order.

The downloading and watching straight away is cool, but with the physical copy not actually being the full retail release, you’d (or at least I would) still expect it to be a cheaper option than buying the full retail DVD. So Shaun of the Dead for £20? A 2-second search on Play.com shows I can have the proper DVD in a proper DVD case and with the extras on the disc for £6.99 including postage.

One day the film industry will realise that you don’t stop piracy by providing legal film downloads at higher cost with lower value to the customer. Until then, I think I’ll stick to waiting a couple of days for the postman for often a third of the cost (and those who pirate will keep on pirating and paying nothing).

With the hype over Web 2.0, it’s funny how many online advertisers are still using the same crass techniques of the web’s earlier years. Within a minute of each other, I just got hit by three of the most annoying advert types while checking two websites.

I loaded up an article on the Sky Sports website along with Blue’s News in separate tabs. Looking at Blue’s News first, there was an irritating buzzing noise.

“Oh look, it’s a Flash advert in the top right corner inviting me to zap a bug and win a laptop”. It’s at this point I could no longer care less about what gaming news goodness Blue might have to offer me and went to close the tab - as I do, a pop-under sneaks its way open. Marvellous. So they’ve irritated me enough with one ad that I’m closing the window without ever getting to the content of the site and now as I leave they find another way to motivate me in looking for a better site to read about upcoming computer games.

The pop-unders have actually been on Blue’s News for a while and I generally work around them, but today’s double-whammy just about does it.

OK, so that was an annoying website that stopped me in my tracks. Back to Sky Sports…

“Goodie, a floating Flash advert obscuring the article content” I think to myself (or is that just what the advertisers and webmasters expect us to think?). I was lucky this time and the ‘close’ link actually did get rid of the ad, but so often with these absolutely-positioned Flash ads the close link doesn’t work properly and you either have to reload the page in the hope the ad won’t show next time or just give up.

Given that both of these sites are driven by their content, why are they allowing adverts to hinder me in getting at that content so much? The Sky Sports one is the only that actually does prevent me reading the text, but the two on Blue’s News do just as good a job in making me leave as fast as possible. When it’s accepted (I’m pretty sure there’s actually proof, but can’t point to it now so I’ll not go that far) that people are much more likely to click on relevant text ads, why are we as site visitors still suffering with obtrusive, irritating advertising? Is there some mad majority of the population that actually responds favourably to having the content they’re trying to read obscured by an advert that they’ll actually change tack (from trying to read the content) to clicking the ad and then buying whatever it sells?

Well, it’s 4:34am and I’m just about to go to bed

Ken and I got back from work quite late (as has been the norm recently, though the still-secret site is very nearly ready to launch now) to find our apartment block’s fire alarm on. Strangely, no-one seemed to have evacuated the building or be taking the slightest interest. There’ve been a couple of false alarms already since we moved in, so we went inside and looked at the alarm (concierge had gone home for the night) - it was the stairway on the 13th floor going off.

There was no fire, but also no sign of anyone coming to turn the alarm off. After watching a bit of TV in our flat, we started looking for a number to call to get the alarm sorted - easier said than done. In the end I called 999 to check it with the fire department who said they’d already been out twice and there wasn’t much to be done without getting in touch with the building management (but no tenants seem to have an emergency number for them).

I told them not to bother coming out again, but shortly after our buzzer went and they had come out - turns out they have to attend every single call no matter what :/

After apologising to the firemen for causing them the hassle and talking to them about an ‘emergency contact number’ that wasn’t being answered, I came back up to the flat. About two minutes later the phone rang - the fire service returning my call to say they’d found a number for the company managing the building. In the silliest turn of events yet, the company wouldn’t send someone out to turn off the alarm unless a resident of the building called them, so I was asked to call. I did and it took seconds for the woman on the phone to agree to send someone out (they just wanted a contact number!).

It was already gone 2am by this point and the phone rang again - the fireman I’d just spoken to down at reception with the 0800 number for the management company. I explained I’d just phoned them and that someone should be coming, so hopefully they wouldn’t have to return tonight.

Luckily (in this instance, but dangerously if there was a real fire), the alarm doesn’t really penetrate into the flat very well at all so as we were about to head for our beds. Oh no you don’t, the phone rings again - management co. calling as I’m now their only resident contact. A contractor’s on the way asap and may call to be let in.

I’ve waited until now and no-one’s shown up. Going on tonight’s luck the buzzer will go shortly after I get into bed, but the one plus point is that while I’ve been waiting I’ve got Parallels running with an openSUSE 10.2 guest OS (i.e. virtualised within Windows XP) on my main desktop PC, with full networking going so I can access the outside world from Linux while being run through Parallels. Ruby on Rails is installed and with that I’m calling it a night (or is it early morning now?).

PS: This post has been written from Linux running within Parallels as a bit of a test. Probably cooler for me doing it than anyone reading

This is the first time I’ve been able to get online outside of work since moving down to London almost a month ago. It’s taken quite a while to get a phone line and then ADSL connected in our flat, but they (Nildram) finally confirmed that we’d have a connection on Friday.

These things sometimes get done earlier anyway, so Ken plugged in his ADSL modem for a quick test late last night and there it was - an Internet connection. Our next problem (there’ve been many with this new flat) was that our wireless modem/router won’t pick up the ADSL line at all.

We’re currently using the wired router and Ken’s old Thinkpad to get wireless to the flat and are about to try and chain both modem/routers together to get a slightly more workable solution until we either fix the SMC or get a new wireless modem/router.

That’s about all this post was about - just happy to have a connection of any sort for now.

IMG_2061

It’s been a while since my last post. The flat did indeed go ahead and I’m into my second week working in London for a still top-secret company

I’ve added a few pictures of the flat (and the view from it) to flickr, so check ‘em out.

It could of course still go wrong in some cruel twist of fate, but Ken and I have pretty much got a flat sorted now. I went down to London on Tuesday night to spend the rest of the week flat-hunting and found one the next day that was pretty great. We’ve now got a holding deposit down on it and should get the rest tied up this week ready to move in next weekend.

On Wednesday afternoon, I arranged to view a couple of flats in a brand new block in Ilford. The first agent I spoke to about them didn’t call back for days though, so I ended up being shown the flats by another agent who was a bit keener. The first couple I saw (Ken, who I’m gonna be both working with and sharing the flat, had to be at work) were very nice, but slightly small and then we got to the third flat - on the 14th floor (last before the penthouses, lah-di-dah).

As the door opened sunlight was streaming through the flat in a quite corny, but pretty cool effect whereas the other two had needed the lights turning on. This is good to get sunlight coming through in the afternoon. The flat is quite a bit bigger than the others, with a good sized main bedroom and en-suite with its own balcony and a really long second bedroom. The living room is a good size as well, with open-plan kitchen at the back and sliding door out onto a bigger main balcony.

It took us until late Friday to sort out most of the details before putting down the deposit, but the flat looks great and should be good for the quick move I have to make for my new job as it’ll be fully-furnished and everything’s brand new. The location (although unfortunately technically in Essex) is pretty good for work - the train station’s a very short walk from the flat, with a 20-minute overground journey into Liverpool Street Station (so no boiling/packed tube) and then another 5-10 minute walk to the office. I’ve also found out after the fact that the area the flat’s in is supposedly the safest in London in terms of crime figures.

Pictures will follow when we move in as I currently only have a seriously dodgy video I took on my IXUS.

After installing the Windows Vista RC1 back in mid-September, I finally have sound working. Creative’s beta drivers for Vista haven’t been great from what I’ve read, but they’ve finally released drivers for Vista RC1 specifically and (after some jiggery) they do now work.

If anyone else is having trouble with these latest drivers, this may help: use WinRAR or similar to unzip the driver .exe file and then run setup.exe in the Drivers folder that gets extracted. Choose to overwrite existing drivers.

It gave the impression of doing nothing for a good few minutes, but it does actually work in the end (unless you get an actual error).

Writing this from Word 2007 beta on Windows Vista RC1 – how beta can it get?

So far Vista seems pretty good, though I’m having trouble installing updated graphics and sound drivers.