Things Happened

When we last heard from Doug, he had reached his goal weight, resigned from his old job and was very happy in his personal life with his girlfriend...

Well all of this is the same except it's all different:

• Still at my goal weight (well within the +- 2kg because of Xmas)
  
• I resigned again from my old job.. well my new one, but it's a resignation.
  
• I'm very happy with my girlfriend, but it's not the same one
  

I'll elaborate on the last 2 points

After 2 months with Ignia I realised that it wasn't the right place for me. The role/company and I weren't a good fit. I resigned, worked out 3 of my 4 weeks notice and did some short term contract work. As a result my first real task for the new year is to find a new job. I'm planning on looking at contract at first, also working on a few projects of my own. It's a bit scary, the market isn't the best right now, I'm sure I'll find something reasonably quickly, but I hate job hunting.

On the personal side... I broke up with Jean in mid to late September. It wasn't fun for either of us, it kind of dragged out a little after that too... I've still got a draft blog post about it, but I wrote that just for me. She and I are still friends, or at least on good terms.

Well the other side of that I met Helena (and just let me clarify that this happened after I broke up with Jean). I'll be posting more on her later (and the trip to NSW between Xmas and New Year, meeting her friends and family) it's going great, she's fantastic! It's getting on for a couple of months now, but it feels both longer and shorter... I hope that makes some sense

Anyhow: Welcome to 2009, I'm hoping this will be a great year for all

"I'm a PC" probably

Clearly I'm somewhat biased. I make my living in the Microsoft ecosystem (as it were) I've worked at Microsoft and I've spent quite a bit of my recreational time playing with Microsoft technology. Yes I do have an Apple iPhone (and I also like the G1 Google phone BTW) but it's lead me to look into the other camp.

As I mentioned earlier I'm starting a new job soon. I'm hoping they'll let me spec out a new laptop (will clarify this soon) and I specced out a Dell Studio 17" and a Mac Powerbook 17".

My criteria is simple that it's got to be reasonably powerful (I'll be doing development work on it) and reasonably light (I'll be carrying it on my bike). Actually the first is pretty easy to do as most reasonable spec laptops can do that, and the second also isn't too hard, but the Dell is a bit heavier, the Mac wins in the screen as well (why won't Dell offer high res LED?) but the Dell can have 2 internal hard drives. But the killer is the cost Mac: $3,799 Dell:$2,277 (also worth noting that apple charges $350 to go to the 2.6Gz processor and Dell $295)

Anyhow, that actually wasn't the point of this post (I think we all knew that Apple would cost more) and I'm still thinking of a refurbished mac mini so I can try some iPhone development, as all my attempts to put OSX on a wintel laptop have failed

I've watched in bemusement at the Gates/Seinfeld adds... I just didn't get the point. But now Microsoft have hit at the "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" adds from apple with their "A PC isn't a stereotype" series


"Nice" I thought; but the thing that really got me was the tag line at about 1:28 "Windows Life without walls" particularly after reading this post on Engadget this morning.

The "walled garden" of iPhone development is mentioned, the application restrictions and the (seemingly) adhoc way the rules are applied to app-store apps. It still seems too closed and I just have trouble understanding why.

I mean sure I can see why they don't want to distribute apps related to "malicious" "illegal" "porn" "privacy" "bandwidth hog" would be shut out (although as one commenter said "it's got a built in porn app: Safari") I'm still at a loss as to why they'd shut out some bits of the system, in particular not being able to access the calendar pragmatically, a particular shame as one of the more popular classes of apps for windows mobile are replacement PIMs.

Why not let someone have a replacement calendar or email app?

I know I've written on this before but it was the "Life without walls" tag from Microsoft I think is particularly clever.

ps I forgot to say, I'm still happy with my phone particularly now it's jail broken and I've got some workarounds for some of my previous limitations

Endings and a coincidence in time

Well it's been a big-ish week for me, and as a result 2 things are coming/have come to an end.

First off: a little more than a month ago I reached my goal weight of 95kg (down from 123kg)! I was pretty stoked about it, nearly 30kg from the official weigh-ins. Took me a while, however then it was on to the maintenance program, 4 weeks stepping down to no Jenny Craig days a week (had a week off for a conference in Sydney). The point of this is that I've done my last week of Jenny and now just weigh in once a month to keep on track.

So no more Jenny Craig...

Second: (and I'll get to the point a bit faster) I quit my job with Unisys yesterday. Basically I was approached by another company and offered a position as Architect (lead .Net/technical guy) I'm pretty excited, and a little nervous. I'm expecting it to be a challenge, but in a good way. They are also pretty keen for me to get more involved in the general technical community... that's going to be the biggest challenge, time-wise.

I actually feel pretty bad about leaving Unisys, but I felt that this is a move that will be good for me to make...

The new company is smaller but growing and has a bunch of interesting projects I'll be involved in. Some custom development (including packaged software) and some integration pieces. Quite a variety. I'm looking forward to it.

The coincidence in time is that I started Jenny Craig around the same time I started with Unisys... well about a month after. Much the same time as I started dancing, but I've got no plans to give that up.

I'm still loving dancing at Gilkisons; although, I lack a bit of confidence. I love the waltz the most: when it's working it's just wonderful; Tango feels odd; Quick Step scares me (too many people moving too fast); the others are all good, fun and not too stressful, also I don't stuff them up too often (I hope)

Actually (switching back to my original topic) I think the last year and a half has been about re-inventing myself a little, but mostly physically... here's hoping the next bit will reinvigorate my career. Actually on that line I'm thinking of starting a technical blog... just need to think of something to write

oh and the personal life is going great, thanks for asking ;)

More iPhone: file copying and viewing

One of my main gripes with the iPhone (not including lack of A2DP) was that I couldn't just copy files onto it and view them using the built in viewers.

By this I mean syncing a folder to the iPhone, or reserving some space on it to function like a USB drive. Then browsing and viewing them on the phone, or just transferring them to another PC. I know Apple wouldn't let you add media to the iPod library this way, but everything else would be fine; and that's all I was after.

I think a folder sync option would be best: then iTunes/Apple could restrict the types of files and also (if required) convert them.

But we can't have that so I searched the App Store on iTunes.

For the browsing on the iPhone side of things I tried the "Files" app, it was good but an absolute pain to load the files. It ran a WebDAV client and so you had to be on the same network as your phone and also be able to see the IP address. I just couldn't do this at work, and even at home it was a bit of a pain. Also "Files" cost about $10

Later I found "MobileFinder" It supports ftp and has (in my opinion) a nicer interface. It also lets you move, copy and delete files and also extract and add files to/from zip archives. The only thing I found frustrating was that it still required my phone and computer to be on the same network. At least FTP is far more stable than WebDAV.

My phone is jailbroken so I was looking around the file system and cound that /User/Applications/B6D14231-4837-47D8-9C84-706666D99EE4/Documents contains the root of the MobileFinder storage. Later I found about DiskAid that lets you browse your phone over the USB link and copy files.

So anyway my final solution is to have MobileFinder ($2.50 on the app store) on my iPhone and DiskAid (free) on my computer. Both Windows and Mac are supported. and No jailbreaking is required

After you have installed both, open up DiskAid, choose to browse from the "Root Folder" go to /User/Applications/B6D14231-4837-47D8-9C84-706666D99EE4/Documents and copy your files over.

Browse in MobileFinder to view them :)

Links:
http://www.pixiotech.com/Site/MobileFinder.html
http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/

My iPhone

Well despite everything I said (off line) about the problems with the iPhone I got one. two things lead to this happening:

1. my mate Steve lent me his iPod touch (upgraded to v2.0 software)


2. my old phone had become unreliable... hardware glitches

Playing with the iPod Touch was amazing, I loved the web browser, the apps were very cool and (most importantly) I discovered that I liked the keyboard. Honestly that last one really surprised me. I'd thought it was the tactile feedback over the flat touch screen that was the thing I liked... actually it was just that on the windows mobile devices I needed to use a stylus and that (for me) is the deal breaker.

Anyhow... as I said my phone (Dopod c730) had become unreliable, I'd reflashed the firmware and so on but it still was flaky so I figured it was a hardware problem and switched back to my iMate k-jam (brick of a thing). My contract with Optus was up so I decided to get a new phone. Here were the features I wanted:

• Make calls


• messaging: text and email (plus the occasional picture message)


• Synchronise with Outlook


• web browsing


• music


• GPS


• File viewing


• other random apps as I feel like it (some games)

I decided to have a look at everything: Nokia, Sony Ericson, Windows Mobile and the iPhone. I went into the store thinking I'd get a GPS equipped Nokia or the Samsung i780. In the end I made an impulse decision to get the iPhone. Why? Well apparently the GPS on the nokia sucked and it was going to take ages to get the Samsung and the iPhone was there (plus it was cool and shiny) also it was cheaper! 500MB of data and you can only get that on an iPhone plan

OK... So... I've had it for about a week now and what are my thoughts? (BTW I did do my research and knew of most of the limitations)

Not having copy and paste haven't really bothered me, but I thought it would.

The lack of MMS, recording video and attaching anything to an existing email are a theoretical pain: they haven't really bothered me yet, but it annoys me that you can't do then (yes I do know you can email a picture to someone, but if I was replying to an email and wanted to attach a pic... no luck, also attach more than one picture to an email, no can do)

A "synchronise this folder to my phone" with a filter on the file types (ie nothing with DRM potential, if they must) is a glaring omission, particularly as it has viewers for all the office document types and PDF and so on... also no upload to the web. BTW the "Files" app $10 in the app store gets around this to a degree but it's a bit fiddly to set up. Although at work today I had files I wanted to put on my phone and the only way I could do it was to ftp them to a server from my PC and download them to my phone using a terminal emulator and command line ftp!!! All this because I can't put the phone onto the work network and I can't save attachments.

PIM limitations: No way to send contacts via bluetooth or sms or email. No way to send anything except one picture. Can't send appointments or see who else was invited to an appointment either. can create an appointment, but not invite a contact.

Actually the thing I miss the most is stereo bluetooth. I knew it wouldn't be there. I like to listen to music while I cycle and have a Motorola S9. It was great, pause/play, next/previous track, volume control, all with my phone safely in my backpack... take calls too... even a wired remote with those 5 controls (plus one for answer call) would probably do.

It seems that most of the 3rd party accessories don't work. I spent hours walking around town trying stereo bluetooth ipod adapters, but no go. I also took back an iTrip for hte radio thing as it was pretty unreliable and couldn't charge the phone.

I'm still just getting used to the iPod functions. Actually this makes me feel really stupid. I keep bumping into stuff that doesn't work the way I expect it to. The hardest was making a play list on the fly... I've got it working now, but it took me ages. Also itunes just rubs me up the wrong way... hard to explain, but it just does.

I just haven't gotten used to iTunes. It really really irritates me. I can't quite put my finger on it, so I'm putting that down to lack of familiarity. Also why can't I sync with 2 PCs? All my music is from ripped CDs. I have work and home PCs with music and podcasts I'd like to copy but I get "You can only sync an iPhone with one iTunes library..." all the iTunes are authorised with the one account (as is my phone) so what gives?

Oh and the battery life (compared to my old phone) is fine, I can last a day if I turn wi-fi off and I sync during the day at work so I'm OK with it.

In spite of the negatives; the UI is gorgeous and must have good support for the apps as they are generally consistent and look nice. The browser is fantastic (I can live without flash) I'm also keen to give some development a go, but for that I'd need a mac and try as I might I can't get a stable Mac VM or install OSX on one of my laptops. So that won't be happening any time soon ...

All up part of me says "just go back to Windows Mobile" but I'd miss the browser and keyboard (no, seriously I would)

I really miss the openness of the Microsoft world. So many things on the iPhone/iTunes seem designed for revenue and making you work the way they want you to. Rather then the way you want to; or have I just gotten used to the Microsoft way of doing things? Why is apple so closed about the "why" of somethings eg:

• Why no mms


• Why no Stereo Bluetooth!!


• Why no attaching thigns to emails


• Why no file browsing? (I could store files on my old suffle why not here?)


• Why limit the PIM? This is a great PDA!

Dr Horrible

Damn funny and, perhaps, a little childish. A coworker introduced me to Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

It was a project from Jos Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) written and financed by him and produced during the writer's strike (or so I'm lead to believe)

any how...

Very funny: probably my favourite bit was:
PENNY: But you know, everything happens-
BILLY: Don't say 'for a reason'.
PENNY: No, I was just going to say, everything happens.
BILLY: Not to me.

(Billy is Dr Horrible)

or even Captain Hammer's line (the hero...sort of)
It's curtains for you Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains

OK very silly... but the world needs that :)

Oh and because it's got Neil Patrick Harris as Dr Horrible, I'd say it's... Legendary

99.1

Well it's been a long effort, but here I am at my original goal 99kg.

About a year ago I'd had my first heart break since my separation, I was moping, eating too much and doing not much else. I think I watched ever episode or every series of Buffy, Angel and The West Wing. I also put on weight, I got up to about 124kg.

Then a few things happened: I got a trial membership at a gym, joined up at Jenny Craig and took up ball room dancing. The gym was too hard to schedule, but I've kept to the other 2. Now after all this time I've finally hit my original goal of 99kg double digits!!

It might seem like a long time to loose 25kg, but it's averaging about 500g a week and that's moderate, but fine. I hit an extended plateau trying to get past 110. Not sure if it was a coincidence that it was around the time of my first few months with Jean. Then I went to the USA and then Xmas and New Year... Anyway since I started up again in January I've lost about 14kg! About 1kg a week.

When I hit 105 I revised my goal to 95, just to make sure I keep well away from 100.

I'm now leaner than I've been since the kids were born and I'm about to schedule a full workover from my cardiologist, just to see how I'm doing.

I'm still with Jean and I'm still dancing... My rumba and cha cha cha are going quite well, but my waltz is crap, but it's my favourite dance. Still hate tango, but I'm working up my courage for practicing the quickstep. I've also decided to consolidate the moves I've learnt at Silver level rather than go on to Gold. One of the advantages of being a guy is that they always need extras to make up the numbers.

BTW 99.1 is the official Jenny Craig weight, I've been bouncing under 100 for a couple of weeks now in my "post loo/pre shower" weigh in. Oh and the official weight last week was 100.1 so close, less than half a cup of water over the mark.

I also had a look at the before and after photos on my file, I had no idea how big I was, but it's an improvement :D