bubbling enthusiasm for $arbitrary_topic
Really getting into this Python thing. Sean is a great tutor, so as long as we can manage to find the time to meet up on IRC and go through stuff I think I'll continue to make good progress. I've also become involved in a LearnToProgram Python wiki, where I will post up transcripts of the lessons and any relevant code. Hopefully that will function both as a source of motivation and a good place for me to store my notes and code.
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After Tim Henman's amazing match against Mark Philippoussis, I was really looking forward to today's match against Mario Ancic. Henman sparkled on the court against the Australian, but today, well, the sparkle had gone. Ancic is like an octopus – honestly, that man was returning balls that shorter, less gangly men would have missed. He played by far the better game, a point that Henman made himself in the interview afterwards.
So, for another year the Wimbledon Dream is over and again, tomorrow, the press will lay into Henman without ever once admitting that Henman's been our best player for the last decade, that he's played his best tennis this year, and that he is worthy of our respect and admiration. Instead, they judge his whole career on how he performs at Wimbledon, which is a ludicrous attitude. Personally I'd like to see anyone who has a go at Henman try to put one past Super Mario. Not so easy, eh?
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I've always felt that not being able to program was one of my biggest failings. I learnt Basic when I was 9, on the ZX80 and then the ZX81. By the time we got a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, I'd peaked and it was pretty much all downhill from there.
There was a brief resurgence in 1990 when I was at Uni and we had a compulsory programming module, (which I aced), but after that I was reduced to fiddling ineffectually with things like ActionScript in Flash or mangling the odd bit of Perl or ASP. I used to say I ‘coded’ HTML, but let’s face it, HTML isn’t really proper programming, no more so than coding up an old WordStar document was programming.
Since going to NotCon04, and since getting SuwBot, my desire to learn to program has returned, and so I’ve started learning Python, the language that SuwBot was built in.
Having made this decision last week, I was lucky enough to meet online Lion Kimbro, a guy who has what I can only describe as an amazingly contagious enthusiasm for Python and a preternatural ability to get you to do stuff you didn’t think you could do before you even have time to think to yourself that you can’t do it.
My friend Sean has also been helping me by helping me hack SuwBot’s code, by guiding me through what I had to do and why. Sean is also a very patient tutor, able to explain stuff clearly and concisely. It’s a pity he’s so busy – I’d happily monopolise his time in order to get my head round Python more quickly. (Then again, maybe it’s a good thing he’s so busy – otherwise I’d never get any work done!)
Whilst I will admit that I am Mistress of the Failed Project, I view this not so much as a project, not so much as something that has an end or which must be completed, but as an ongoing process that may come and go, but which now started will never fizzle out.
But then, languages are like that, and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from learning Welsh, it’s that the key to learning any language is to have fluent people who are willing to hold your hand as you take those baby steps, who will encourage you and pick you up when you fall over, and heap praise upon you when you do something right.
Thankfully, I am surrounded by people like that.
Today Sean and I hacked about in SuwBot, and got her to kiss as well as hug. She can also cope with long commands, such as ‘Hug sbp until he gasps for breath’, and the shorter, more succinct ‘Hug me’. I also managed to load SuwBot into another channel all by myself. (Aren’t I clever?!)
All that is, of course, totally useless, but it’s fun to play with. Hopefully, before long, I will be able to get her to do more complicated things.
Watch this space.
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Best tennis I've ever seen from Tim Henman at Wimbledon this evening. Well, for the first two sets anyway. Got a bit iffy at times during the second two, but pulled of the fourth set tie-break to go through to the quarter finals. He seems to be playing with much more confidence, and is going for shots that he would have left alone last year. It's so good to see Tim doing well – fingers crossed he keeps it up!
If Tim gets to the final this year, which I hope he does, I shall be so disappointed not to be able to watch it. I'll be in Vienna at BlogWalk next Sunday instead. And it's really not the same on video.
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After a flurry of reinstallations, I am now ready for the beginning of the working week tomorrow. I think I have all the software I use on a daily basis reinstalled, and the stuff that isn't I either still have on CD somewhere, on is lurking in my downloads folder, or can be scraped off my old OS, which is still extant on my other drive.
My computer appears to be much more stable now than it was, and hopefully it will stay that way. I had got to the point where I was crashing about half a dozen times a day, and it was taking three or four attempts to start up, so it's nice that that no longer happens. So far I've noticed no bugs with the new OS but I'm still bedding in, so we'll see how it pans out.
At some point I'm going to have to bite the bullet and wipe what was my c: but it can wait for a while. One thing I haven't done but must do is start transfering files back onto my new c: from the box I had moved them to. Took 12 hours to move all the 'My Documents' folder, and that was even after housekeeping. I think I'll be moving it back slowly, folder at a time, over the coming weeks.
Only two outstanding issues: CD burning software (lost the CD that came with my CD/DVD drive) and the dratted monitor problem. Although each is an inconvenience, neither are killers.
So, thank you Gerard for coming down and helping me out. I really do appreciate it.
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Ok, I now have a computer with Win2k on it, and it's running just fine. I have my essentials installed, and just have to finish up installing other software tomorrow.
The only thing that isn't working properly is the display. I have two monitors running off an ATI Radeon 9200 card, but they will run only in either 'clone' or 'extended desktop' modes, i.e. either both monitors show the same thing, or they stretch my desktop out over 2048 px. I want to have one monitor running my desktop, and the other one acting simply as extra screen real estate. I do not want my desktop and start bar stretched over two monitors. It does horrible things to Johnny Depp.
One of my friends and I did a net meeting and he ferreted through my settings, but we had no luck trying to fix it. Where you should get two monitors showing in the Display Properties/Setting tab, I just get the one. ATI seems to know I have two monitors, thought, but yet they don't show up.
Anyone have any clues? Please?
Tell you what is weird is letting someone else control your mouse and desktop. It's like having a ghost in the machine.
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Getting ready for the Great Clean Re-Install tomorrow. Backing up like nobody's business. It takes a long time to move so much stuff via wifi to another box.
I will have the laptop, so even if the worst should happen I will be able to get online, but I am hoping the the worst will not happen. Please, gods and little fishes, don't let the worst happen!
So please feel free to send healing vibes to my computer, or failing that, a shiny new G5 to me.
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If you didn't just watch the England – Portugal match, this post will make no sense to you. But we wuz screwd. That was a fair goal, seen by the linesman and given by the linesman but denied by the ref. But why? What was wrong with it? Seemed like a perfectly good goal to me, no one got fouled, what the hell was wrong with it?
The ref was patently biased – all the yellow cards were for the Brits, yet the Portuguese were hardly angels. As the guy on the BBC said, “There were times when it felt like we were playing against twelve men, and one of them was Swiss.” That pretty much sums it up, really. Ref should be fired for screwing up like that.
And then, extra time… oh gods, how painful to watch. But we evened up 2-2. Then penalties. Ooh, bad. Bad badness.
*sigh*
We wuz screwd.
And Rooney's ankle is hurt, possibly broken if what I hear is right. Bad news. Very bad news.
DISCLAIMER: I only like international tournaments. I am not usually a footie fan. Honest, guv.
On the other hand, Goran Ivanisevic got through in Wimbledon, which is great new. I love Goran. Last year I watched Wimbledon obsessively, and blogged it thwack by thwack. This year, I don't have time to catch but the occasional game, which is a pity, but that's life.
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James blogs and IRCs from his seat on a Lufthansa flight from Munich to the LA, thus joining the *other* mile high club. Due to lack of power points near his seat, he spends an hour in the loo charging his laptop batteries.
“Ooh, don't eat the prawns…”
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I haven't posted about my Search for Gainful Employment lately, mainly because there's not been huge amounts to say. I've been doing some design work which has taken up much of my time, but, as you'll know if you've been reading this blog a while, what I really want to do is get back into writing for a living.
I used to work as music hack, writing mainly for the Melody Maker and trade rags. Those two years spent hanging out with bands and roadies were two of the best years of my life, if you don't take into account the fact that I earned sweet fa the whole time. You really can't live of £4k pa in London and so I had to call it a day.
Since then I think I've become a much better writer, something I put down at least in part to the fact that I'm blogging almost every day. I've certainly become more adept at networking, spotting stories and pitching.
So I'm chuffed as a small horse to say that today The Guardian have accepted a short item from me about… well, you'll have to wait and see. It will be published in the Online section either next Thursday, or the week after, and will also be available online.
This is my first proper byline for quite a while, and I have to admit, it feels good. I've worked on this pretty solidly since I got the commission at the end of last week, and I'm very pleased with the way that the piece has come out. I hope that, when you get a chance to read it, you will agree.
So, that's it. That's my 'Sekrit Projekt'. Hopefully, just the first of many.
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