That’s Entertainment
Paul Weller

A police car and a screaming siren -
A pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete -
A baby wailing and stray dog howling -
The screech of brakes and lamplights blinking –

That’s entertainment.

A smash of glass and the rumble of boots -
An electric train and a ripped up ‘phone booth -
Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tom cat -
Lights going out and a kick in the balls –

That’s entertainment.

Days of speed and slow time Mondays -
Pissing down with rain on a boring Wednesday -
Watching the news and not eating your tea -
A freezing cold flat and damp on the walls –

That’s entertainment.

Waking up at 6 a.m. on a cool warm morning -
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol -
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard -
Watching the tele and thinking about your holidays –

That’s entertainment.

Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettes -
Cuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfume -
A hot summers’ day and sticky black tarmac -
Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were faraway –

That’s entertainment.

Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight -
Two lovers missing the tranquillity of solitude -
Getting a cab and travelling on buses -
Reading the graffiti about slashed seat affairs –

That’s entertainment.

Albums: Sound Affects

See Also: Paul Weller Official Website

“When two events happen simultaneously pertaining to the same object of inquiry, we must always pay strict attention.”

– Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks

I had a scary moment of the holiday period. I started becoming ill on Boxing day, just the usual trivial stuff – nose and throat, and by New Years Eve it had settled in good and proper. Now, I’m not someone who subscribes to Manflu and I tend to handle illness relatively well. However, by New Years Day it was well and truly getting on my proverbials…

New Years Eve had been a late night, going to bed about 4am, and then New Years Day involved going out for a walk. So by 9.30pm I was well and truly knackered – soaked in the bath and early night.

I woke at about 2am to the smell of some kind of burning. It wasn’t the smell that had woken me, it was just there. As I woke I noticed that the whole room was misty/smokey. I jumped out of bed and rushed into the kids room. I checked all the rooms upstairs – everything ok apart from the smoke.

My rationale at the moment of time was that I didn’t think there was a big roaring fire, just some kind of small simmering type fire, or more likely, something bigger outside that was filtering in through the windows.

Anyway, I rushed downstairs and systematically checked all the rooms – everything ok – except for the smoke. I looked outside, but there was nothing obvious. By the time I returned to the kitchen Victoria was there wondering what was up. She wasn’t at all panicked by some smoke, more likely by my irrational behaviour.

[Paraphrasing a strange conversation that followed...]

“What’s up?”
“The whole house is filled with smoke or mist or something,” I said.
“Go and look in the mirror,”

I looked in the mirror, and my eyes were filled with yuk! A few minutes of vigorous washing later, and everything had returned to normal.

So the smoke turned out to be my cold coming out of my eyes, or a possible reaction to the bubble bath!

The smell – Victoria had lit an incense thingy when we’d got in on New Years Day to attempt to remove the smell of the stale house.

I didn’t sleep anymore that night…

Needless to say, Victoria bought extra smoke alarms and stuff over the weekend…

I didn’t take copious notes like many other people did; there were a large number of people sat there typing in to their Mac Books, almost verbatim anything said!

Anyway, here are a few items I scribbled down that may be of interest.

The first two sessions I took were “Effective iPhone App Development” by Lawrence Coopet.

Data Storage
1. When storing config/session states, be careful about writing lots of objects into a dictionary as individual items. Create a session object and write that instead and don’t just write everything to NSUserDefaults.
2. Think about where you store this data… Archive and implement NSCoding.
3. Use SQLite
4. Use CoreData
5. Store sensitive data in the KeyChain. This has the benefit of being able to share between projects – company data – application data.

When Caching data, make sure you place it in the correct place and never hard code your paths to this data.
All the paths are stored in NSPathUtilities.

NSTemporaryDirectory – this will always be cleared and will never be backed up.
NSCacheDirectory – this is saved, can be cleared, but will never be backed up.
NSDocumentsDirectory – never cleared, always backed up.

Choosing the right place for your data will determine how much iTunes has to backup when syncing your device.

Targetting iPhone OS
1. You should ALWAYS set your Base SDK to the most current OS version – ie. currently 3.1.2 – regardless of which OS you are considering deploying to.
2. Set you Deployment Target to the minimum OS you want your app to run on.
3. You should check for presence of OS features in your code. eg use NSClassFromString and respondsToSelector. However do this at the start of your app and set flags accordingly so that you are not taking speed hits during normal app operation. checking straight global C functions is very quick.
eg if ( UISaveVideoAtPathToSavedPhotoAlbum )

Application Flow
1. Stay focused!
2. The best system is generally – List View – Info View – Detail View. Allow the user to choose to drill down on data rather than forcing too much information on them in one go.
3. Always use the 1 screen 1 controller model.
4. Make sure you are not hardcoding references back to other objects in your application. Using the Model Controller View model your controller talks back to your model but your model should never talk directly to your controller. Your controller talks to you view but your view should never talk back to your controller. And you should never every have your view talk directly to your model. If parent communication needs to take place, then implement delegates. This way you can avoid App specific communication paths.
5. Use Delegates
6. Use Notifications through NSNotificationCentre

Memory Management
1. Make use of the measurement tools regularly – checking for leaks and generally memory usage.
2. Under Snow Leopard make use of XCode Static Analysis – it’s a fantastic tool. (BTW: It really is!)
3. Use the 1 controller 1 nib model.

Application Life Cycle
Compatibility
1. Prefix your classnames with your own token to avoid namespace collisions. eg UI, NS etc…
2. Avoid underscores at the start of method names – these are reserved to Apple.

Proper Code Paths
1. Follow correct code paths. eg. You implement drawRect and call setNeedsDisplay. NEVER call drawRect.

Interruptions
Make sure you handle applicationWillResignActive, applicationDidResumeActive, and applicationWillTerminate.

Concurrency
1. Make sure you use the Async API for Networking and Reachability.
2. Use NSTimer – don’t sit around in threads counting down!
3. Use NSOperation and NSOperationQue. Subclass NSOperation and override main.
4. Keep object access confined to one thread.
5. Design out the need to use locking/signalling/syncing
6. Avoid performSelectorInBackground and detachNewThreadSelector – if you are using these then you are doing it wrong. Use NSOperation.

Most of you will be aware of the Film by Frank Darabont. Some of you may even be aware that it is based on the short story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King.

I love the short story and I love the film. So when I noticed the other day that there was a play on in London, and that it was only running until the end of November, then I figured I should go watch it while I had the opportunity of being up there.

Firstly, I enjoyed watching it. It wasn’t great, it was ok.
I wonder if I am just not attuned to theatre. I don’t mind musical theatre, I get that, but the difference between plays and films seems to be vast. In this case, everything seems to be said in a shout.

The play is apparently based on the book and not the film – plenty of copyright issues here I guess. The problem is that Frank Darabont did a magnificent job of adapting the book, that it was always going to be hard to stray away from that. So the first think the writers did to differentiate the play from the film was to go back to the original source and have Red as a red-haired white man of Irish ethnicity – right? Wrong! Red is a Morgan Freeman wannabe… and it doesn’t work. His voice is gravelly, and fast, and loud. Morgan Freeman is controlled, slow, and soothing. I can’t read the book anymore without hearing Morgan Freeman narrating for me.

The version of Red’s voice-over, that makes the hairs stand up when delivered in the film…

There’s a con like me in every prison
in America, I guess. I’m the guy who
can get it for you. Cigarettes, a
bag of reefer if you’re partial, a
bottle of brandy to celebrate your
kid’s high school graduation. Damn
near anything, within reason.

In the play, this is the opening lines… rushed, shouted, gravelly, and disappointing…

All in all my concerns with the play were that even though the writers were apparently trying to steer clear of the film, they kept coming back to it. Many of the characters seemed liked they were poor versions of the film characters. In fact Tommy was almost identical that I wondered if they had just lifted the original actor.

In the film many of the characters we amalgamation of multiple characters – Brooks and The Warden in particular. In the play – yep you guessed it – amalgamations. Warden Norton – looked the same, if a little more portly!

I hated Andy Dufresne in the play ( Kevin Anderson). He’s cocky, too forward, almost having a controlled route through his time at the shank. But he still has this kind of Tim Robbins look-a-like thing going on.

So in the end, the play can’t make it’s mind up – be the film, be the book, or be neither. There are some very odd changes and additions that had no earthly right being there.
To be honest, I think the play is really cashing in on the film and not a decent theatrical version of the book. The writers have tried to avoid the obvious copyright issues without dropping things that their audience of film fans might take issues with. I mean, the whole thing starts with the name right? Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption…

I think my favourite part was when the cast sing as Tommy is hanging in his cell… that was a wonderful moment, and almost worth the entrance fee alone.

Please apply….

Deadman Hill
This is a stretch of the B3078 along a ridge from Godshill The most likely origin of the name is that a gibbet was situated at one time near the junction with the Redlynch road but a more colourful local story tells how in the mid-eighteenth century a smuggler named David Smith, in return for the promise of a free pardon, betrayed his associates including the infamous Captain Diamond. But not all were apprehended and Smith was waylaid near Studley Head by some of Diamond’s crew who had evaded capture. He was dragged down into the valley east of Cunninger Bottom, now known as Deadman Bottom, where his tongue was cut out, he was cruelly beaten and finally hanged from a tree.

Original text taken from New Forest Walks…

I’ve just finished re-reading Harry Potter. In fact I’ve been reading the series to Rebekah over the last year. Anyway, there is a part toward the end of The Deathly Hallows, where Harry is squaring up to Voldemort, and Harry starts to question Voldemort’s assumptions on the true ownership of the Elder Wand, that in my head sounded very different to the words that were actually on the page.

This is what I heard…

I know what you’re thinking. “Did he take rightful possession of the wand?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. So it all comes down to this, doesn’t it. Does the wand in your hand know that its last master was disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the wand. And being as that is an Elder Wand: the most dangerous wand in the world, and is able to perform feats of magic that would normally be considered impossible, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

Will endeavour to post more over the coming weeks, even if some of it may be boring tech stuff.

I first read LOTR about 14 years ago after many false starts. I just could
never get into it. However while I was at SCi we started working on a LOTR
game so I figured I needed to read it. So I did. I remember enjoying it
but not be particularly blown away by it.

I’m listening to it now on audio book and it feels like pulling teeth. I
understand better now why I found it so hard to get into. It’s just so
dull. I always used to say that I found it verbose, that Tolkien liked to
describe too many sunsets. ( NOTE: I’m not sure he ever describes one,
it’s just a figure of speech. ) But now I think that he doesn’t even
describe them well. I still think he’s verbose but I now think that he is
not very flowery. I don’t find myself getting lost in the prose. So I find
myself coming back to the thought that the book needs a really good edit!

I’m not a person that gets hung up on language. I read a variety of
authors. Some are better storytellers than others. Some are better writers
than others.

I always considered Tolkien as a very good writer with a reasonable story.
Now I think I’m going to have to downgrade him to and OK writer with an OK
story! I just find myself now thinking that there is nothing in LOTR that
makes me want to read it again, therefore do I really want to spend the
next 40 hours of my life listening to the the next two books?

All that said, I aspire to be that OK!

Many of the poems and songs in LOTR are given in the common tongue as
translations from some other language, Elvish, Dwarven, etc… so why to
they all rhyme? Surely they would only rhyme in their original language?

A nice story here… Sincerely, John Hughes

So Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which runs for 153 minutes at the cinema, will only run for 146.88 minutes when you buy it on DVD. So you are losing 6 minutes!

You’re unlikely to notice as the whole film is being played fractionally faster, not that 6 minutes of action has been cut. Technically everything moves faster and the sound is a slightly higher pitch.

For the technical minded, it’s all to do with films being 24 fps and PAL DVD’S being coded to 25 fps to fit PALS 50hz refresh rate.

I believe it’s not an issue with HD though as HD TVs can adapt and therefore HD DVDs don’t need to be adjusted.

There you go… Todays random fact was brought to you…

While I was working at IBM I decided to try and fill my driving time with
audio books. I tested Mort and On Chesil Beach – one that I had previously read and one that I hadn’t. Anyway it went well, I found I could drive and take in the story without problem, the only issue was that as I was using my iPod Touch I didn’t like driving while wearing earphones.

So, for the gym I bought some new audiobooks. I found that it so helps with the concentration. I can focus on the book and go through the motions of the gym work without any issue at all.

With the new found success of audiobooks at the gym and decided to by a FM Transmitter for my iPhone which allows me to listen to the iPhone through my car stereo. This combined with the gym, means that I can now listen to books for an extra 14 hours a week! I can *read* a decent size book ( 500 pages ) in about 10 hours.

So far I have listened to Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse.