Monthly Archives: May 2012

Technology — No Comments
14
May 12

MacBook noob

I’ve always wanted a MacBook. It used to be out of my price range. Now that I can afford one, I’m thinking it’s not worth the price. Maybe when I have money to spare, then I’ll get one.

I recently upgraded the hard disk on a MacBook; learning heaps in the process. Unlike RAM, the MacBook is not so picky with hard disk. However, you should ensure that the power requirement of the new drive does not exceed that of the existing drive. I ran into just such an issue the previous time I replaced a hard disk. The higher power demand of the replacement drive means that the laptop is unable to supply enough power to the tv tuner card. A lesson learned, the hard way. I was worried about the thickness of the new drive, but that turned out to be a non-issue. If it is ridiculously tight going in, check that it is installed the right way up. It should just slide in easily. Don’t force it in or you’ll have a fun time removing the stuck drive.

Mac OS requires the drive to be using a GUID Partition Table (GPT). I have never even heard of GPT before that. A blank drive formatted with a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table will be treated as read-only by Mac OS. Strangely, Apple’s Disk Utility application was unable to convert the drive to GPT. I had to convert the drive by connecting it to a Windows machine, and using the diskpart utility to do the job. Once in the correct format, the rest of the Mac OS installation process was a breeze.

BootCamp makes it easy to install Windows on a MacBook. Start by installing Mac OS onto the entire drive. Then, use BootCamp to allocate the desired amount of disk space for Windows. When installing Windows, make sure to give the partition a quick format. BootCamp does not format the Windows partition correctly. I also tried using custom partition arrangements but that didn’t went well; having multiple FAT partitions makes Windows unbootable.

Life — 4 Comments
08
May 12

Cost of living in London

I’m planning to move to London next year. It is common knowledge that London is expensive. What I need to know is exactly how much it will cost me.

The two biggest expenditure will be rent and transportation. Choosing where to live will largely be based on these two variables. The Olympics isn’t helping; as rent prices seem inflated at the moment. Hopefully, the prices will return to more reasonable levels soon after the games are over. Initial research also revealed a couple of unexpected expenses—council tax and tv license.

There’s also the initial cost involved with relocating, such as short-term accommodation, shipping of personal belongings, and furnishing the flat. Some of these information are hard to come by.

London, like any big city, is doable provided you have a decent paying job. Things cost more, but their jobs also pay more. Otherwise, people will be leaving in droves.

Music — No Comments
07
May 12

SingStar has spoken

I should keep my day job. Randy would probably say I was pitchy, amongst other things.

I’ve always thought I would have done better than I did. This could possibly be explained the same way as why your recorded voice sounds strange. How you hear yourself is not how others hear you. The sound waves transmitted through the air sound different than the sound waves that travel through your bones. This is probably also the same reason why others can’t hear me at times, even when I sound perfectly fine to myself. Feels to me like the world is hearing a low-fidelity version of me. Understanding this difference could just be what is needed to address those voice issues.

Photography — No Comments
06
May 12

Digital lomography

Lomography is started by Lomographische AG in Austria, who markets the Lomo LC-A, Diana, and Holga cameras, amongst others. Their cameras are generally of low-fidelity, and inexpensive construction. All the cameras are film based, and the company has stated that it does not intend to produce digital cameras in the near future. Then, what is digital lomography?

What I really like about lomography is their “Don’t Think, Just Shoot!” motto, and their Ten Golden Rules.

  1. Take your camera everywhere you go.
  2. Use it anytime – day and night.
  3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it.
  4. Try the shot from the hip.
  5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
  6. Don’t think.
  7. Be fast.
  8. You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film.
  9. Afterwards either.
  10. Don’t worry about any rules.

However, films are expensive. Digital cameras eliminate that. By combining digital cameras and the don’t think, just shoot mentality, you get to enjoy lomography without the deep pockets.

Most digital cameras nowadays produce high quality images. I happen to like the low-fidelity feel that the lomo cameras have. The lower quality cameras on mobile phones, together with an app like Instagram make great lomo cameras in my opinion.

Technology — No Comments
04
May 12

Continuous deployment

Those two words are firmly etched into my brain. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been tasked to convert the build and release processes at work to a continuous deployment model. The end goal, from code being committed to source repository to it being available on the production server in less than a day. This for a product that currently takes up to 6 hrs to build, 60 man-week to test, and not to mention the numerous other steps necessary to get it to a releasable state. But boy, I love a challenge.

The past few months have so far been spent learning Jenkins, JIRA, MSBuild, MSDeploy, and NCover amongst others. It’s very satisfying to be ticking off the task list one after the other. I’ve just implemented the automated test and reporting infrastructure. Next, it’s time to do away with the legacy issue tracker. See you HelpDesk, hello JIRA!