OH MY HAT!!!

[link]





I'm gonna buy a Mini Mac. Factory optionals are Internal Bluetooth, Wireless Ethernet and a DVD Writer... and you get MacOS X. I'd definately get 512mb RAM with it instead of 256mb RAM that comes default.

The only dissapointment is that it takes about 6 months (i'm guessing) for it to be available worldwide.

Seriously, the Mini Mac is the first computer that i've seen that solves every single issue with todays computing. Its small, its quiet, it does everything I need, its not an eyesore. Internal bluetooth is a brilliant idea. If I could buy it today I would.

On the software side of things, its comes with everything I need except MS Office (but you can buy that). I hardly play many games anymore so computer games arnt an issue.

Went to watch my first soccer game the other day.... Kaiser Chiefs vs Santos at the FNB Stadium Soweto (Soccer City). Great event, had a blast on a vuvulezu (sp?). 5 of us went to see the stadium and the crowed. The stadium looks smaller than it is... supposdly it holds 80,000 people... looks more like 40,000. An intresting crowed with a lot of reefer being smoked at that match.

Between the vuvulezus, the car hooter (dont know how they got that in the stadium) and the school bell.... (yes, a school bell... the one you shake, not the electric one) the idea is to make AS MUCH noise as possible when the ref makes dodgy decisions. Let him know your disgust. Other than that, I was impressed at the synchronisation of the different parts of the crowed with certain tunes and songs they were orchestrating. Very wierd... It seemed as though one chap (on his vuvulezu (fog horn)) would start some tune, then everyone would alternate at a different pitch. Very odd. Had to be there.

Merry Christmas!!

The top 20 IT mistakes to avoid

20 Rules of Software Engineering

Fundermental Rules of Software Engineering

Software Engineering Facts

Service Oriented Architecture - Headspace

The above link details about SOA and what it really means. It seems focused on the enterprise or business. I'm certain that SOA is not exclusively limited to the limited domain of problems that he clearly identifies, except if one sticks to the principles he briefs and sticks to the approaches he recommends, I am certain that you wouldnt come across unnecessary hurdles.

How Far the Mighty Have Fallen
Opec may look at trading oil in euro
Economic War Against the World

The U.S. national debt is 7 trillion dollars, 13 trillion if you add State, municipal and consumer debt and 18 trillion if the Bush economic 'plan' is fully enacted. The entirety of the third world's debt is just about two trillion dollars.

Oil is traded in dollars. Instead of converting between say ZAR and USD or EURO and USD, accumulating monetary exchange fees, money sits inside US banks in USD to be transfered to/from oil companies as oil changes hands. If Opec decides to change there preferred currency from USD to EURO, money moves out of US banks into foreign banks. This is compounded by the fact that any major run on the US currency will cause foreign countries to move their treasuries holdings from USD to some foreign currency. Taiwan (approx $57 billion of Treasuries), Japan (approx $740 billion of Treasuries).

Another point of intrest is how an economic war plays out.

Some intresting notes from comp.java.* documented and sorted on the following site.
Java Glossary

Java Gotchas

The Economist describes it as it is - America's next president [link].

Went to see Diamonds and Dust last night. An amazing musical covering south african music from the 1940s till modern times. A great performance only emphasises the hidden jewels that are african music.

The Barnyard Theatre

A great long weekend in the Drakensburg. Completely relaxed, ready for a great week and a long push towards December.

Absinthe... evil stuff. I found a good article [link] on Absinthe and an informative faq [link].

Won my first game of chess today.

An amazing defeat of Gumpifoo on Red Hot Pawn [link]. My user name is trix1234 not tim12s. (I entered the wrong email address for authorisation, so I couldnt complete the signup). If you want a game, give me an invite... but I warn you, I make about 3-5 moves a day, gotta work, gotta work.

Next up, the defeat of Septic Fly that scourge that is trying to invade my kingdom.

Well done to Richard, Chris and Patrick who won this last friday.

We played 3 games of poker (winner takes all) with a double blind for every player that leaves the game.

Game 1 was exclusively Texas Holden (won by Richard).
Game 2 was dealers choice amongst Texas, Omaha and 5 card draw (won by Chris).
Game 3 was again dealers choice amongst Texas, Omaha and 5 card draw (won by Patric).

A few unbelievable hands made for some intresting losses.

If I'm also correct, in the last game I didnt win a single hand... but otherwise, some good chinese food, a few good hands and a great evening. I seem to be on this hectic loosing streak so i'm going to have to sort that out.

Whens the next poker evening?

Im keen to play a game of Omaha Hi Lo and 5 card draw (dealer chooses) and then in another game, Texas Holden and 5 card stud (dealer chooses) with the same number of chips as we played on this weekend.

gtg

I have someones Queen.

Got any Red Hot Pawn [link] lately?

Its quite a good chess site. Chess, unlike GO, is an easy game that can be played quickly over a cup of coffee or one move at a time, one per day. I prefer GO as there is more stragegy involved. Or at least, the strategy is less dense and flows more naturally between grand conflict (the board) and smaller battles (ko fights) to battlefield victories (capture) but a lost war (game over, you LOSE).

Okay... maybe I shouldnt emphasise the LOSE bit... GO is a chinese game mastered by the japanese and eventually, after hundreds of years, the chinese have gotten reasonably good at it.

The South African GO Association [link]. They... (we) meet every tuesday (i've been absent for quite some time now) in Melville on 4th street at some coffee shop from about 8pm till 12pm.

Once you've got your mind wrapped around GO it becomes the game of choice... but maybe a bit too long to play at work over the day. 1 move an hour and you wouldnt even be near to finishing.

So you've got hiccups...

1. Try drinking water backwards.
2. A large spoon of peanut butter.
3. 1 or 2 shots of Tabasco...

The Tabasco hurts... but the pain is worth it after 2 days of hiccups.

After a bit of a games discussion...

Games I regret not having played,

1. Syndicate
2. Sam and Max
3. Day of the Tentacle
4. Dungeon Keeper
5. Diablo

Games I regret not having finished,

1. Wolf 3d
2. Alone in the Dark

Maybe regret is too strong a word... "would have liked to" might be more appropriate.

Some very intresting reads regarding science fiction and related topics.

Is Science Fiction about to go Blind?

The Singularity by Vernor Vinge

Matrioshka Brains by Robert J. Bradbury

Been playing around with RELAX NG XML Schemas (as opposed to W3C XML Schema Definitions). RELAX NG is a practical solution to the problems that are not solved by XSDs. RELAX NG is an OASIS standard being put forward for ISO standardisation and as such, there are many implementations. Point 3 and 4 below are intresting reads regarding XML+XSD schemas and the various issues with XSD.



(1) RELAX NG Compact Syntax Tutorial
(2) RELAX NG - Refinement of values
xsd:integer { minInclusive="5" maxExclusive="10" }
xsd:string { minLength="4" maxLength="17" }
xsd:string { pattern="[A-Z]\d[A-Z]\s+\d[A-Z]\d" }

(3) RELAX NG better than W3C XML Schemas
(4) RELAX NG vs W3C XML Schema
(5) RELAX NG Jing ANT

Time to shell out alot of money for a new PC. August 2.

I just got my LAKS Memory 128mb watch back (link). Myself and a friend bought one a couple of months back.

The USB connector degraded with general use. It was interesting and convincing that there are issues with the way the tension during the connection of the watch to a computer. For both watches the quality of the USB cable degraded to prevent the USB function. The failure of both watches occurred within a couple of weeks of each other and about 8 months of general use (which can only show a common flaw).

Given that it failed, I can only say that the service provided by LAKS was unquestioning and impressive. I recommend them as a company. They gave us both a new watch and I can only hope that its functionality won’t degrade as it did before. The watch’s connectors do look as though they have been improved upon.

I must say that its usefulness is indescribable and I would recommend it to anyone that works with computers. You'd typically not have a memory stick available when you need it... with a memory watch you've always got disk storage available. I've did away with the FDD about 5 years ago. The only hassles I’ve had have been during a clean operating system install. Until recently I used to have a 4x/8x non bootable SCSI CDROM drive. With the internet available everywhere... Email has always been preferable to 1.44 FDD... but once in a while there is a 20mb file or a whole lot of 'stuff' that needs to be moved. While a rewritable CD is accommodating, it is still a bit too large to carry around (I’m lazy and not willing to put up with the hassle.)