| Moving on |
[Apr. 19th, 2012|10:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Radiohead: Street Spirit (Fade Out) | ] |
I've started at a rather large (by NZ standards) software company - we are 180 strong. First time I've worked with so many people and first time in the financial industry - though not my first brush with big corp. There's a lot to get used to! |
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| Insomnia |
[Feb. 23rd, 2012|02:26 am] |
It has been 65 days since I wrote here. How sparse my writing without South Africa to complain about! I liken this to when I got married and found that I no longer wrote hundreds of poems, mostly because a) I'd been writing them for my future wife or b) I'd written them because I was without my future wife.
Sadly, South Africa has not grown mellow and settled into soft middle age like me in my absence. It has, predictably, gotten even worse. If that entertains you, surf on over to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92) frankvw - he does a far better job than I ever did. Only, I tried to always be extremely concise and he does no such thing.
But hang on, what is all this about soft middle age? It has been nothing of the sort! In a year we have spent just about everything we ever saved on relocating, arrived, moved twice, I've gotten a great job and now I am looking for something else again. Again I am confronted with Ruby work being rare in Auckland and again sharpening up my C# skills, like a super hero with a cape near a jet engine (badadish!) C# is such a good language, such a pity about the politics! Its so easy on Linux: type a bit in Vim, "gmcs" it, run it. Visual Studio should be that quick. Oh it is, if you can bring yourself to use the Windows "command line".
Which brings me to insomnia. I just wrote part of a C# test which I had to interrupt after the first section because it was getting to 10pm and I was getting tired. Now my "sleeping" is all C#, and muddled ideas of starting a programmer's club called "the Guild" at the local library. And its too hot and there are noises. |
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| Just Now |
[Dec. 28th, 2011|11:06 pm] |
In South Africa, "just now" means "shortly", but it also means "a few minutes ago". As in: I saw something happen just now. Or: I'll do that just now.
I find it quite difficult to stop saying it, and is there anything in other Englishes with the same meaning? Especially the retrospective sense? |
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| Pie Problem |
[Oct. 2nd, 2011|09:04 pm] |
If I eat one more piece of pie, I'll die!
If I can't have one more piece of pie, I'll die!
So since it's all decided I must die,
I might as well have one more piece of pie.
MMM-OOOH-MY!
Chomp-Gulp-'Bye.
- Shel Silverstein |
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| Compute! top 20 Computer Games of 1988 |
[Sep. 22nd, 2011|08:12 pm] |
In alphabetical order:
Balance of power
Beach Head
California Games
Chessmaster 2000
F-15 Strike Eagle
Flight Simulator
Gettysburg - The Turning Point
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Impossible Mission
Mean 18
M.U.L.E.
Pinball Construction Set
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Reach for the Stars
Shanghai
Silent Service
Starflight
Ultima
Worms?
Zork |
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| The day the (programming) magic died |
[Sep. 21st, 2011|09:41 pm] |
Here it is: http://www.archive.org/stream/1988-05-compute-magazine/Compute_Issue_096_1988_May#page/n5/mode/2up
That seems to be the great turning point where programming stopped being cool. They stopped putting type-in programs in the mags. The focus went from really using your computer to just consuming programs, as products you buy in a package. The end of the "expert user".
For about 10 years before that, those magazines were all about the amazing stuff you yourself could program your computer to do, after that they became opinion pieces and product brochures.
Lament! For the lost treasure of coding!
(But now, thank goodness we have Linux) |
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