Entries tagged with "technology"

Her

It’s not often a film dives into the near future and presents a vision that is both technologically engaging but also fundamentally profound. Minority Report, for all it’s whizbang effects and cool transitions, presented a type of computer interface that anyone having played with Microsoft’s Kinect for more than thirty minutes will realise is a pipe dream. So it was with relief that Spike Jonze settled upon a much more natural channel of communication with his latest film, Her. Continue reading »

First Timer Builder, Long Time Architect

Within the world of web applications, and much more relevantly within PHP, there is an abundant choice of frameworks available for use. It almost goes without saying that any project begun nowadays has at its foundation some form of framework, if only to remove the tedious repetition every project involves (requests, routes, database, caching etc). Within this world of frameworks though, two groups continually push to create new frameworks. Continue reading »

Garmin Forerunner 305

For my 21st birthday this year I decided I really wanted to get into shape. I’d been doing a light amount of jogging since January the year before making use of Nike+ but I knew it wouldn’t do for what I had in mind. It was normally off (typically by a factor of a third or more) and was a hassle to use if you wanted to change music on the go. So I put down some coin and picked up a Garmin Forerunner 305 from Amazon. It wasn’t cheap at a smidge over £140 but it’s been one of the best gadgets I’ve ever bought. Continue reading »

Hard drive performance test

I store a lot of files. After ripping my audio, dvd and blu-ray collections to disc I have several terabytes of data that needs to be stored somewhere. For several years I made do with external hard-drives, working my way up through the sizes as they became economical. Last Christmas the excellent folks at 383 Project bought me a Drobo (2nd gen) + DroboShare. I’ve been using it for several months now and here is some quick and dirty data on performance through-put. Continue reading »

Control your Source, or else

If you’re a programmer, you should use some form of source control system. If you’re working on a project as part of a team, you must use source control. Let me reiterate that, if more than two people are working on the same codebase, that code should live under an SCM. No exceptions. Continue reading »

Apple-o-rama

An update on an old meme; list all of your Apple products.

  • MacBook Pro (2.53 core 2, 4GB DDR3)
  • Mac Mini (used solely for HDTV with Plex)
  • iPhone 4 16Gb (after passing on my 3G to brother)
  • iPad (64Gb Wi-fi)
  • AirPort Express
  • 500Gb Time Capsule
  • iPod Nano (8Gb, used for Nike+)

And to think, two years ago I couldn’t even stand the thought of touching an Apple product. There is no way in hell I’d ever go back to Windows as the market currently stands.

48 Hours with the iPad

Thursday afternoon my colleagues at 383 Project must have thought I was going insane, constantly hitting refresh on the Deliveries app to track the progress of my latest Apple purchase. Thirty seconds after getting home I had a lovely new 64Gb Wi-fi iPad in my hands. And I’m not letting it go for anything. Continue reading »

The iPad

The iPad has cometh to the shores of Blighty and it’s bloody astounding by any measure. Expect a full review forthwith but for now just bask in its glow.

Sent from my iPad.