Canada by Numbers

2011-05-01T23:20:00.001+01:00

"How much of Canada can someone see in a week?"

Canada is a big country, especially when compared to the small but dense island I come from. That didn't stop thingomy and I rising to the challenge.

Over the course of a crazy 7 days, we packed in Niagra, Toronto, Montréal and the city of Québec. All this, and the weather still wasn't on our side.

If you've never been to Canada, allow me to take you on a quick tour...

Niagra: A mini Las Vegas with hotels, casinos and a giant water feature.

Toronto: Canada's answer to London. Big, clean and visually impressive. For some reason, the citizens seem to think they're American instead of Canadian.

Montréal: Since I live here, I'm biased.

Québec City: Stunning architecture. It's like someone took an old and beautiful European city, and air lifted it to Canada. It seems so out of place in this country, yet perfectly suited to be the capital of what was once New France.

I definitely want to return to Toronto and visit it properly in the near future. It seems like the kind of city where you have to scratch beneath the surface to discover its true essence, which is pretty much how my home town of London is.

Of course, for me, Montréal wins out. It's Canada's best kept secret, and I think the people of Montréal would like to keep it that way.

King of Limbs v1.1?

2011-03-20T20:33:00.003Z

"Appreciating the latest Radiohead album, I think it could have been a lot better. Here's one (controversial?) idea."

Like a few others, I was somewhat mystified with Radiohead’s latest album. It felt to me to be too short, and I didn’t quite think the track order felt right.

Feeling it’s more of an EP than an album in its own right, I realise that in between In Rainbows and their latest offering (or, I’d say latest tease), we’ve been gifted two singles. Namely: ‘These Are My Twisted Words’ and ‘Harry Patch (In Memory of)’.

Both are really great songs, and if we add them to King of Limbs, and rearrange things a little, we can arrive at the following:

1. Bloom
2. Separator
3. Morning Mr Magpie
4. Little By Little
5. Lotus Flower
6. These Are My Twisted Words
7. Feral
8. Codex
9. Give Up The Ghost
10. Harry Patch (In Memory of)

Try it out or yourselves, and see what you think!

I've Been Busy Micro Blogging

2011-02-24T02:34:00.000Z

Blogging is so 20th century, don't you think? These days, it's easier to write a few words as a Twitter update.

Free Land?

2008-12-24T17:33:00.002Z

The interweb tells me I have now claimed small plot of land by a stream, near the Laphroaig distillery on Islay. It's amazing what people will give you in return for your name and address :)

BBC iPlayer, DLL Hell, Tears and Sweat

2008-12-24T00:27:00.001Z

The first entry in this blog; right, I’d better make it good. I’ll skip the mic check.

I'm sure you've come across the majesty of the BBC iPlayer? It provides two options for viewing their programmes. Either you can install their download service, or you can watch them streamed through your web browser.

Being an impatient person when it comes to waiting for downloads, It’s been my preference to go for the streaming option.

Now streaming video content is hardly anything new, but since the early days of YouTube, I’ve been plagued by the problem of the monitor switching its self off half way though that Salad Fingers episode. Even worse, the computer sometimes hibernates if I don’t wiggle the mouse every so often.

It’s true that I could just disable these options in the Power Options control panel, but I shouldn’t have to! I like the fact that if I leave my computer on over night, it powers down by its self. But, I also want this eco-friendly behaviour to cease when I’m streaming stuff from the iPlayer.

Then it hit me; I can program! Can’t I just write something to solve this little inconvenience? It’s also a good bet that if it’s bugging me, there’s at least ten other people out there in Beeb* land who are in the same boat, and could benefit from a tool like this as well.

My first consideration for this simple application was which programming language to use. I started by considering C# and .NET.

My opinions on .NET are pretty much sum up to that “it’s a nice idea… in theory”. It gives you a choice of languages for the same architecture in a way that Java doesn’t (although, this has been changing). Visual Basic is a good language for beginners and RAD (Rapid Application Development), and C# is at least as powerful as Java.

As a language, I really like C#, and I thought that seeing as I was writing an application which would be accessing the Windows API, using .NET with C# would be a logical choice. I should have stayed in bed.

My first head on encounter with Windows Registry left me feeling quite proud of myself. I’d managed to work out where Windows stored its power settings, and managed to even write and read my own program’s settings. Yes, proud I was, but, what’s that they say about pride coming before a rope-less bungee jump?

When I finally took a look at the settings power setting contained within the registry, I discovered that they were stored as a binary blob. Now, binary-blobbish is not a language I can speak, and so I familiarised myself with the brick wall I’d just hit.

Eventually, I had a revelation; a revelation that probably would have come earlier if I’d sat down and thought about the problem before I’d began gleefully bashing away at the keyboard. The revelation? Why don’t I just have the program send a system event like a mouse nudge or a key-press to keep the computer awake?

So simple was this idea, I thought I’d been saved from more registry hell. Instead, I’d be thrown out of registry hell and into DLL hell. To be honest, I never was much of a systems level programmer; I used to think that ‘forking’ was something you did with another consenting adult.

(for those of a technical/masochistic persuasion, accessing a .dll library from C# involves a strange import statement, followed by a declaration of prototype functions to bind to these unmanaged library elements. You will also need a couple of drams of whiskey, and someone to comfort you when it all goes wrong.)

During all this, my flat-mate wandered in. Noticing the drying blood on my laptop keyboard, and the head injuries, he asked me if I’d just gott dumped. I corrected his appraisal of the situation, to which he asked me the obvious question: “Why aren’t you doing this in Java?”

Now, Java is a language I know and love. But, I had made the assumption that it wouldn’t be very good with accessing things from the Windows API. In response to my defeatism, he blessed me with three magical words: The Robot Class.

This class from the Java API allows you to generate system input events, such as a mouse nudge. Just what I was looking for! Back within my comfort zone, I stopped crying. It only took me ten minutes to have the program I wanted. “Tonight I will sleep well!”, I thought to myself.

So, what did I gain from my experience as a headless but well intentioned chicken? Well, I now have this theory which explains why resources for learning .NET technologies are often difficult to come by when you have a specific issue that needs resolving.

My hypothesis goes as follows: Companies spend vast amounts of money sending their employees on the much coveted Microsoft Certification courses. It’s my understanding that they cost a bomb, and owning one can increase your chances of employment within the industry significantly.

With so much money at stake, is it in Microsoft’s interests to make it easy to learn their technologies for free?

Furthermore, Imagine that you’d been on one of these courses. You’d slaved away to pass their exams, and maybe even had to sell three internal organs to cover the costs. Would you want to part with this hard earned knowledge with some noob on an internet forum? Wouldn’t you feel a little defensive, and maybe even a little smug that you were better than the average Joe (or Josephine) programmer?

So, in the end, I’m a little more cynical, but also a little wiser. And, the head wounds are healing nicely.

(The application I was attempting to make is available to download here)

*The ‘Beeb’ is an affectionate nickname for the BBC.

Heliomass' Satellite Blog

Canada by Numbers

King of Limbs v1.1?

I've Been Busy Micro Blogging

Free Land?

BBC iPlayer, DLL Hell, Tears and Sweat