Halfapenguin.com

So its finally happened...barbie has developed a doll i actually want.

I may not want a pink laptop...although i have a pink and white iphone... but still very geek chic methinks...

Found via
Nicole Kobie

Most of you probably heard about my poor car and its accident before christmas... but don't know what the results were...

I'll post a longer entry in the morning but here are the photos of the car in the yard.

Getting myself on the news...they asked to interview someone for their opinion so i gave it...

This is the home of stonewall, and one of the founding centers of the US gay rights movement and it is tragic that such cowardice happened here.

I missed off Egypt,

visited 15 states (6.66%)
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So now its been corrected.

Although i remember Terry Pratchett talking about using the death of kings and use of their successors to use the transfer of monarchy from person to person as a method of faster than light travel since one became king instantly on the death of the old king, without any waiting time caused by an actual signal being sent....

Personally i like my idea of a long stick as a better and more humane idea...

Found via Shaken By Sound

I've been to these countries in the world... i'm feeling like i need to travel a whole lot more...

visited 15 states (6.66%)
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Even inside the US of A i'm pretty behind on visiting new places...

visited 11 states (22%)
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I've noticed that its been a while since i've written on here. I haven't entirely appeared out of the woodwork just yet, but i'll be writing more often and putting up a new version of the Halfapenguin software in the next few weeks.

There was a missed post from feburary, it didn't seem to post, probably because i suspect i was trying to bug test the live-journal interface (doesn't allow i-frames)...

I need to write something to fix this in an upcoming patch for the software.

So here is the reposted article.

This is the third attempt at writing this entry, since safari has been logging me out midway through writing.

I was thinking about how i really want to do a proper road trip at some point, and while i don't have the time right now, i thought i'd make a rough plan with the help of the Great and Powerful Google.

After working out i'd like to head to San Francisco and chose places i'd like to visit along the way, this is what it gave me.

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Admittedly its nearly all southern places, but then i can always do a northern road trip in the future :)

I told google to avoid all highways, since it means i can see the little places as well as the big places, which is part of the reason for the trip.

I'd want to stay in each of the places on my list, so this would be about a 3 week trip, so not really practical on the amount of holiday i'm given... maybe i could work this into the idea of being a roving developer...

Aside from the time however i'm more concerned about the carbon footprint such a trip woud generate. If i took my current car, thats about 250 gallons of gas and thats being optimistic... so i'd want a carbon neutral car... anyone mind lending me their Tesla?

Realistically tho, until the technology allows me to do this trip without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels, i'm going to have to wait at least a few years...but when the car is available, i'll be heading to San Francisco... anybody want to come with?

However given i'd probably want to get back to where i started, i'd probably do the extra special see as much as humanly possible trip, which would be something like this...

View Larger Map

For those of you wondering about spokane, i'm still waiting for my breakfast in spokane from 4 years ago...

So i'd probably end up needing a bit more time for this trip... still i'd love to do something like this... roll on fuel cell green supplied cars :)

So more than 4 years after first looking at Django, and thinking it was better than a bread knife that toasts your bread while it is sliced... it still seems less popular than its slightly younger and scruffier sibling, Ruby on Rails.

I have to say there is a touch of betamax feeling here, i'm a python programmer at heart, and Ruby itself seems to be messy and inelegant, combine with it more than a few misgivings about the way rails does things, i felt sure that Django would eventually emerge supreme, as the better thought out and more sophisticated framework. That happy day has yet to come, and given that RoR seems to be in vogue in the job hunting circles, i may need to swallow my pride.

In the past i have experimented with RoR, i've even got somewhere with it, but still it did not appeal to me. This time i am going to try to go in with a clean(ish) slate, an entire 1.0 of difference separates this RoR from the old version, and its just possible i may find a new framework awaits me.

In an effort to record my RoR experiences, i'm going to attempt to do semi-regular blog postings on the subject. Also to try to prevent my prejudices sneaking in, i'm going to set myself some ground rules...

• I will try to be as forgiving of RoR as i am of Django's little foybles (they do exist)


• I will work on improving my Ruby skills, and endevour to be able to at least examine the Rails source


• I will attempt to keep up with the latest news in the RoR community


• Once i have become re-familiar with RoR, i will use it to develop on of my upcoming projects. its the only way to get good at something is to use it


• I will find a use for blocks... people rave about them...popular opinion may not always be right but see whats doable

I found this on the Perez Hilton Blog (its not on my blogroll, please don't disown me), and i think while the comedy responses are good, this says what needs to be said about marriage equality.

If you can't see the embedded link, you can go to the youtube page here

I missed this while it ran in the uk, but thanks to newsnight i found out about the ethical man expedition in America.

This is the first video blog posting (no embed link at the moment)

Click here

Next week involves testing the Chevy Volt, and why does GM think that their electric car will suffice against the likes of the tesla model s?

So this is a new advert for the palm pre...(found via appleinsider)

It looks like if you know how to use it, its very capable, i have to say i have some issues with the multitasking abilities of the iphone, i'm always doing several things at once and the switching could be a little more elegant, even if there was a special home screen of currently "running" applications on the first page...

While i'm pretty tied into the iphone with purchases, i'd be tempted if the pre starts making a strong presence..

Even if i stay with apple, having decent competition might start spuring them on with new technologies and opening up some ideas (A girl can dream... even if its probably in vain).

I found this from radiac.net

This may be one of the neatest pieces of technology developed in the past 10 years. If someone brings it to market, it'll be such a progression it'll be a new epoch in usability...

For the direct link go here

For those of you haven't heard the Bad News™ , George Bush on his way out signed a executive order that allowed for a "right of conscience" a.k.a. "fundies allowed to act like morons while pretending to be doctors" instruction. The effect of this was to allow a Pharmacist, Doctor, Nurse, or Janitor to refuse to do something medically required for the patient (like birth control for example) and the employer not be allowed to fire them provided it was for a religious reason.

Aside from the temptation of inventing a "teaist" religion where my religion required me to drop whatever i was doing to have a cup of tea any time i felt like it...this was one of the worst abuses of an executive order (and yet more evidence for the need of ending this legal nightmare forever).

However thankfully as of Friday, said executive order has been rescinded by the current president (Obama isn't perfect, but does anyone get tired of calling Bush "the former president")

Its a simulator for showing the damage different Nuclear strikes would affect an area (and what the average affect would be at each distance).

Interestingly it does put a bit of a damper on the entire premise of Spooks Code 9 (a terrible spin off of a great show). It would take a Tsar class bomb in order to make the South of England uninhabitable.