OK, i haven’t posted in ages, but what can I say, life is keeping me busy. Recovering from a bit of minor surgery, followed by a long Easter break, followed by stomach flu, consumed the past few weeks.
But, more importantly than all that, I changed jobs at the end of January, and am now spending most of my work time (not to mention free time) programming with Ruby on Rails!
Ah, ruby. I’ve used python for a variety of side projects over the past few years, and I’ve long held the opinion that the two languages are largely equal, but in the short time since I started using ruby full-time, I’ll admit that I’ve started acquiring a definite ruby bias. Things like ruby’s block syntax, for instance, don’t really have a corresponding language feature in python (at least, not anything quite as succinct).
Above all though, I’m mainly happy to be back in the world of dynamic languages. At my last job, I spent two years using C++, which taught me a lot: mainly that I don’t like C++. In fact, I’ve started to get the feeling that using C++ at all, when other options are available, is in many cases a textbook example of premature optimization. You end up consuming lots more programmer-hours (which means greater expense, and later releases) chasing the chimera of an end-product which “runs faster” than a similar program written in a dynamic language would run. I put “runs faster” in quotes because in reality, most software is I/O-bound most of the time (either waiting for user input, or waiting for disk or network traffic), so the amount of time that your particular program is actually running is probably pretty small (and getting smaller as CPU speeds increase), no matter what language it’s written in.
In London on business this week, first time in England. Here are some observations:
This whole cars-driving-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road thing is really disconcerting. I thought it would be easy to deal with! Notions about traffic, and which way cars will be coming from, seem to be more ingrained than I thought.
Hyde Park is really bloody dark at night. And the gates are closed. I believe these two facts are related.
England has some great chips (which I’ll not yet call ‘crisps’), such as the “Walkers Sensations Vintage Cheddar & Red Onion Chutney flavour crisps” I’m eating right now.
My fellow Americans are just as conspicuous in England as they are in Sweden, with the loud talking and whatnot.
I feel nervous sitting in a pub by myself for any length of time, for fear of being that conspicuous. I keep to myself, consume my consumables, and leave quickly.
Shops are open until 7! or 8! Marvellous! (<- note olde englyshe spelling)
It’s tempting, when I see the small numbers (compared to Swedish currency) on price-tags in shops, to think I’m looking at dollar amounts. If only.
English taxis are much bigger on the inside than you’d think just by looking at them. I think this is the true origin of the Tardis.
Whoever’s doing up my hotel room wants me cold. Last night before going to bed it was just 20 degrees C in here. I cranked it up to 23 but was cold all night. Coming back from work today, I found that the heat was off, the window was open, and it was down to 16. Brrr.
The curse of “reality TV” seems to afflict England at least as much as Sweden. Based on casual channel-flipping a few times the past few nights, it seems like at least 2 of the 5 channels on the hotel TV are showing some sort of “reality TV” at any given time.
A surprising number of bathroom sinks here feature double faucets, one for hot and one for cold. This invariably leads to comically waving hands back and forth, Mr-Bean-style, to get the right mix of temperatures.
I miss my family. This is the first time I’ve been away from my kids longer than, say, a long workday followed by an evening out! Dang.
I’m going to resist the urge to blog about the iPhone by instead blogging about a man named Jonathan Coulton, who could just as well be me in an alternate universe. Jonathan has a burgeoning career as an internet troubadour going on, with an impressive online song catalog, most of which turned up during a one-year period from September 2005 to September 2006, in which time he recorded a song a week, every week. Some people sure do have spare time!
I just heard about JoCo (as his fans call him) from my old friend and collaborator Paul Hagstrom about a week ago, and I have to tell you that the nuthole household has been revolutionized by the power of JoCo’s music. Finally, music that both my children, my wife, and I all think is entertaining, catchy, and rewarding to listen to! JoCo’s songs wander across all sorts of genres, and many of them are obvious homages to one well-known group or another; most of them are also very, very funny. Some of my personal faves:
And those are just the best 50% or so of what I’ve listened to SO FAR! I’m sure by the time I’ve listened to all the songs, I’ll have over 30 “faves”. Oh well.
So, why do I think that JoCo is actually an alternate version of myself? For one thing, similar dashing good looks:
<=>
separated at birth?
Then, there are the startling similarities in our musical histories. A little background info is in order. Consider this narrative, which I did not write but which pretty well describes a chunk of my teen years:
I played quad drums in the high school marching band, which was fun, but did not attract any girls (even when I played my tender quad arrangement of “Flight of the Bumblebee”). I switched to guitar and wrote a series of sweet and sad songs about being a teenager and having a vague feeling of overwhelming sadness and sweetness. This worked only marginally better.
Now consider this direct quote from Jonathan’s bio page:
I played snare drum in the high school marching band, which was fun, but did not attract any girls (even when I played my tender snare drum arrangement of “You’ve Got a Friend”). I switched to guitar and wrote a series of sweet and sad songs about being a teenager and having a vague feeling of overwhelming sadness and sweetness. This worked only marginally better.
The discerning reader may notice a number of similarities between these two life stories.
In any case, I hereby declare Jonathon Coulton an honorary Nuthole Boltmaster (the first ever!) and send the rest of you off on your way to pay tribute.
OK, obligatory bloggage about yesterday’s big product announcement. I’ll just say that iWant an iPhone. That’s all I have to say about that for now.
Some people, upon hearing Darksided, wonder what the hell the lyrics are all about, and who the crazy screaming woman is. Though it’s already mentioned on the Band of None website, for the sake of completion here I’ll tell you to go here for a full exposition.
To my continual surprise, I find that I’m involved in the first teetering baby-steps of a new band. Early days, but we do have a name (“Band of None”), a website, and a first single: “Darksided”.
I don’t know how to categorize our music so far. Industrial? Techno? Rock? Somewhere around there. Please poke around the website, have a listen, and let us know what you think.
