Hurrah, I'm back...

Ignoring my last one off post it has been over a year since I stopped blogging on a regular basis. The simple reason was an over reaction to the terms and conditions for my, back then new, job. Since then I have got to know the organisation much better and can now, I believe, blog safely. However, as always, things must change.

To prepare for my return to the blogosphere I have spent the last few days re-reading all my old posts. The first thing that I noticed is that there are a hell of a lot more of them then I thought there would be. My first entree was on the 7th December 2001, but after a further entree on the 10th there was nothing until the 25th April 2003. After that there were a couple of sporadic posts until the entree on 14th December 2003 when I began to hit my stride. A few things happened around that time that made me re-evaluate the way things were going and from then until a little over a year ago I was blogging with some form of regularity.

While I looked back over these years of blogging I realised how much I enjoy remembering those times in my life through what I posted. This only made the large gaps with no posts all the harder to stomach as those are now periods in my life that are in some small way a little lost. But I also began to remember previous online publishing adventures which have never been represented on this blog. This was because they were long dead, and also not appropriate to whatever the theme of the moment was for the blog, Java, Web, programming in general.

Now that I am planning on returning to blogging, but avoiding those things that my current employer would not be happy with me posting, the field for topic of conversation is wide open again. In that spirit, and also to ease myself back into this world, I plan to post some articles, reviews etc, from my past lives that I do not believe any of you will have read before. Please remember that while I may be no literary genius now, I am still a world away from when these articles were written. I do plan to edit them a little, removing some of the awful spelling mistakes, I do not plan to re-write them so please go easy on the criticism.

So good bye for a little while, and in the mean time I hand over this blog to my previous self. Enjoy.

Emotional whiplash...

The last time that I posted to this blog I was full of the excitement and anticipation that comes with preparing to start a new job. My head was full of the possibilities that it could bring. As is the way with these things, you cannot fully realise what something is going to be like before you experience it first hand, and starting a job is no different.

Handing in my notice was my first new experience during this period. I had been in that job since I graduated University, in fact a little while before that (but that, as they say, is another story for another day). This new experience was underwhelming in the least, work was busy and the last month past much as the five and half years before it had. I handed over what little knowledge I had that others didn't, we did the whole leaving drinks thing (which resulted in many great camera phone pictures) and that was that.

Then came the first day of the new job, with lots of people to meet, lots of administrative crap to deal with (not that there appears to be any less after 6 months) and a period of not much to do. Christmas it seems is a very slow time in any industry, except North Pole exports.

So now I am 6 months into the new job, facing my first mid-year review, and wondering where the time has gone. It has made me remember other new starts, school, University, placement year and my first job, all of which went equally as fast and equally as slow. You can never quite place the point at which the new became the current and then began to become the "same old, same old", but it always happens.

Routine comes easily when you are working away from home, as I have been each week since the middle of February. Back then I said goodbye to my friends, who understood that I would not have much time until I got on a job back in London. Back then I thought the job back in London would come a bit more quickly than this.

So 6 months have past. Sometimes it is hard to remember my old life, and at other times it feels like I am still on an extended holiday from it, waiting till I go back. Strange.

Change...

I've been putting off writing this post for a lot longer than I should have because writing things down often makes them seem more real and final. This is a silly notion, with very little basis in fact, but silly notions are not uncommon to me. Yet here I am writing this down, or rather writing a long and boring introduction to delay the inevitable even further, so bullet bitten here I go.

The 9th of December will be my last day at Simulacra.

A couple of years ago that is a phrase I thought I would never be writing, a year ago it was something that I hoped would not have to come. Finally 6 months ago I realised that my time had come. At the 5 year mark and I had one of the silliest notions I have possibly ever had. I realised that where I was in my life, then and there, was the reality of the answer to the most popular question to ask someone in an interview, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?".

Silly notion to be sure, but one that stuck with me, that I couldn't shake. Amongst the many reasons for my leaving the top most is that I needed a change, a new challenge, something quite different.

Just signed up for the new Google Analytics...

Interestingly, it took me a little while to find United Kingdom in the country select list, it was up in the G's so I guess they are ordering by ISO Country Code not the display name. Won't get the first reports for 12 hours so I'll let you know how good it is then. In the mean time sign up your site here.

Geeks love to gossip...

It's true, they are like the proverbial 1950's housewives chatting over the fence , holding forth about the latest rumors, whether Google has sold its soul or if Linux ever will be a viable alternative desktop OS.

The past few weeks us geeks have been in gossip heaven because of the few companies that understand this phenomenon and fuel it to their advantage. First we had Apple's announcement that they would soon be announcing something (that turned out to be the iPod nano), then the joint Google/Sun press conference and finally Apple's "One more thing..." press conference (which turned out to be the new iMac and the Video iPod). Other companies choose to fuel rumor mongering after the announcement by making it so bizzar that no one can quite understand what is going one (eBay's purchase of Skype). Finally there are those companies that just don't get it and make announcements that nobody is interested in (Microsoft/Real, Microsoft/Yahoo).

So looking back on the last few weeks, how did they all do?

Apple (nano announcement)

Rumors built about a new iPod, but few anticipated the storm of media attention that would brew up over the nano. I am constantly amazed at how Apple can keep such a big announcement under wraps and be ready to ship the next day. Unfortunately, while initially this gained them many points they ultimately lost a lot of these amidst problems with easily broken screens on their shiny new nano range. 8/10

Google/Sun

Never have I seen a single press conference announcement trigger such outlandish behavior. The rumors had this about anything from a Wi-Fi infrastructure partnership to GoogleOffice to GoogleOS (that one will never die it would appear). After setting the net alight with wildfire rumors Google's tactic of keeping schtum really backfired with a nothing announcement of a joint marketing and software distribution deal. "Joint marketing" is a phrase that will never get a Geek excited, unless (there you go Craig I didn't use "thanless"!) its Eidos and Playboy.

Interestingly I do wonder if the rushed release of Google Reader (which was the most unready for release Google Beta I've seen) was in part a reaction to the boredom surrounding the Sun joint press conference? 4/10

Apple (iMac and Video iPod announcement)

Rebounding from the iPod nano screen problems Apple offered up their mysterious "One more thing..." press invite. This was designed to really get the rumors flying, and it did. This time there were no disappointments and after telling us for four years that no one wants to watch programmes on a small screen Steve Jobs announced a new iPod "and yes, it plays video". Lots of people saw this coming, they also saw the updated iMac coming however the "One more thing..." of the title was the tie up with Disney (previously, for a short time and while wearing a different hat, sworn enemies of Jobs) to allow the purchase of TV episodes of 5 series, including Desperate Housewives and Lost for $1.99 each.

As always I recommend watching the stream of the announcement as Steve Jobs is still the best at this stuff. 9/10

Microsoft/Real

Apparently Microsoft and Real have settled their dispute and are teaming, in some strange Power Ranger style combo, to defeat the evil Apple and its all destroying iTunes/iPod weapon. No one listened, no one cared. 2/10

Microsoft/Yahoo

To stem the losses on its western flank (Google, Apple is definitely the eastern flank) Microsoft called on old enemies to make a stand with them. M$ and Yahoo announced that in a landmark deal they would allow MSN Messenger and Yahoo "whatever its called" talk to each other. The rest of the world went "woo hoo, I use Gaim ". 1/10

eBay buying Skype

eBay bought Skype for $2.6billion ... no one seems to know why ... but they are still talking about it! 7/10

But the silly season is not yet done. There is another Apple announcement set for the 19th October, could be new PowerMacs, could be a new semi-pro iPhoto who knows...

Google's RSS Reader...

Google Reader is the newest addition to Google Labs. Fantastic AJAX interface, very like GMail, in which you can see the design ideas that could remain consistent all through Google interfaces.

However the most important aspect of this the ability to add any metadata tag/labels to each post as you like. This is very much in the Folksonomy vain. This is only a very small feature of Reader but quite a sea change for Google to include it....of course I cannot see any way in which these tags are used???? Database of Intentions then :)

4th annual 24x24...

This Saturday my friends and I will be doing 24x24 for the 4th year. Watching 24 Season 4 in real time. This year obviously starts at 7am, which is going to be quite hard. The last time we had to start in the morning, Season 2 starting at 8am, we made the mistake of staying up far to late the night before. It was very hard to make it all the way through.

That will be a nice end to a manic few weeks. Yesterday we delivered the most recent piece of work to one of our main clients, MLA (the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council). We've been building an Institutions Server, a central database of institution contact details. It has several Web Services and an OAI Harvesting interface so that the data can be shared between several other MLA websites. The Institutions Server, while a relatively small project, will have quite a reach within this sector so I am very excited to see it finally out there and being used.

We have also started up the developer research days again, now that things are calming down. This is based on Google's model of ring fencing some time for everyone to do work that interests them but that might not prove to be commercial to the company. Each developer is supposed to do one day each month on something, although this tailed off for while during our busy period. Over the last few years we have ended up with some very commercial code out of these days, and it is always nice to take a break from the usual projects for something a little different.

Now that the Institutions Server has been delivered I will finally get round to mine next week. Still firming up what I will do, but looking forward to it a lot.

So that's what I've been up to recently and what's coming. Finally there are a few websites that I wanted to let you all know about.

1) The Clerks 2 Production Diaries

Much like the King Kong and Superman production diary videos, just with a lot more swearing and the wonderful Kevin Smith view on the world.

2) The DARPA Grand Challenge - or the modern Wacky Races

With $2 million up for the autonomous vehicle which completed the 140+ Mile course the quickest the competition this year looks a lot better than last, during which the furthest anyone got was a little over 7 miles. The event itself is on the 8th when the link above will cover everything. Unfortunately my favourite team, the Blue Team, who in a moment of madness decided that they would do it with a motorbike instead of a car, look like they won't make it through he qualifiers. But do go to their website and check out the videos of the riderless bike!

Lost post damnit!!!

I hate it when I loose a post...and Bloggers "Recover post" option didn't work.... damnit!!!

New flat, new broadband, more work...

I have spent the day working from home and I plan to do the same tomorrow. This is a rare occurrence for me, I don't particularly like working from home it feels lonely. But when I have a report to produce and only two days to do it in the lack of distractions is good.

At least I have the option to work at home now that I have finally got broadband back. Not only is it back but it's 8Mb! Makes more of a difference than I thought it would. I've also finally got wireless networking all sorted out, so when I am working here at least I can do it from the comfort of whichever part of the flat takes my fancy.

Aside from all of that, not much else to report, even with my exceedingly long absence from these pages. More soon...

Black coffee with milk, the new trendy London drink...

You may scoff, but this is it. This is the new coffee drink that all the London trendies will be drinking through the fall season, then it will sweep the nation. The big coffee shop chain will, of course, have to give it their own trademarked names. Starbucks will probably call it "Blackuccino" or something equally stupid.

Still doubting me, well try and order a black coffee anywhere in London and 9 times out of 10 you will get the Blackuccino. I have tried asking for a "black coffee, no milk" but I either get a blank stare in response, or the minimum wage flunky behind the counter latches onto the word 'milk' and takes it as a reinforcement of the idea that I couldn't possible have been asking for a black coffee, because no-one drinks those.

At least once the Blackuccino has a name they will know when I am not ordering that!