I live in a basement suite that doesn’t have much for windows. It can still feel like winter, even on the longest day of the year, like yesterday.
While at Canadian Tire, I had a brainwave that I should fill up my kitchen window frame with some mirrors.
It works pretty well so far, and I am happy with how much more light is being let in.
Click the image to see a bigger version.
With last week’s announcement of the iCloud, Apple has disregarded the regular use of the term cloud, and used it for one their own products. For many people, including the mainstream media, Apple’s iCloud is their first exposure to the term cloud. This is unfortunate because cloud computing has been around for a while within the geek and tech communities. Non-tech people will now think that cloud computing is synonymous with the iCloud.
By today’s use of the term cloud, the iCloud is not cloud computing. Cloud computing is when data storage AND processing happens in the cloud. The iCloud is just a big hard-drive in the sky. No processing actually happens there. As the Buzz out loud crew stated, iCloud should actually be called iSync. Syncing is all that the iCloud does. The iCloud isn’t even in the same ballpark as cloud computing.
This is not the first time Apple has stolen a term like this. They pretty much redefined the term App, which used to just be short for application, but now it is synonymous with mobile application.
Since Apple has hijacked the cloud term from the geeks, we are going to have to regroup and come up with a new one. I can’t think of a term at the moment, but someone needs to come up with one soon.
I have been without internet access here at home for the last four days. It’s ok. I survived. Don’t panic. #firstworldproblem
My survival was mainly due to my phone’s 3G connection. I used 900MBs of data over the weekend, and now have about 60MB left for the next few weeks. also.. #firstworldproblem
The interesting part of the story is how Shaw messed up this weekend, and how they revealed that they really have no idea what is going on in their organization.
I first noticed that my internet was out when I got home from work on Thursday afternoon. I did all the usuals: bounced the router and modem, cleared the line of an static buildup. After that didn’t work, I checked the TV, and noticed that the cable was out as well. That is when I phoned up shaw. The first time I called, I was on hold for 45 minutes before I gave up. I started checking around to see if anyone else’s internet was down in the area. It turned out that my buddy Greg‘s internet was down as well. After hearing that his was down as well, I figured that I would just wait it out. His came back up in a few hours, and mine was still very dead. I called Shaw again, and after only 30 minutes on hold, I got through to someone.
The person over the phone confirmed that I was down, and said that all his techs were booked up until Monday.
After a weekend of tethered internet, the tech showed up on Monday evening. He quickly noticed that our cable connection was unplugged. The residents in our neighboring unit had their cable disconnected, and the tech that performed that accidentally unplugged ours at the same time!
The thing that baffles me is how shaw didn’t know that there was someone working at my address the day my internet went out. My conversation with shaw should have gone something like this:
“My internet and cable are both down.”
“Oh I see. One of our techs was working at your address today. Maybe they did something by accident. We’ll send someone right out to correct that.”
It is worrying that Shaw employees don’t have that information available to them.
</rant>
“Oh, the Methods You’ll Compose” is a nice poem that captures the meaning of Kent Beck’s Book, Implementation Patterns. The last line of the poem is “the reason you write code is to love your neighbor.” That even applies if your neighbor is your future self. I’ve watched this video a few times, and it puts me in a good frame of mind for coding.
So, I ruptured my achilles tendon during a rugby practice last Thursday night. Thanks to Canada’s healthcare system, I had it surgically repaired the next day.
The injury was actually a neat experience that I feel the need to document. I was scrummaging on a machine similar to the one pictured below. I hit the machine a few times, and was well warmed up. After one particular hit, I felt the sensation of being kicked in the back of the leg. Upon turning around and asking my teammates who kicked me, I soon realized that I had not been kicked, and something else was going on. I tried to walk, but my heel wouldn’t come off the ground, and it felt like my knee was going to fall forward over my ankle.
On the night of the injury, my foot was plantar-flexed and put into a cast. Without an achilles tendon, my foot was permanently dorsi-flexed, and I could not feel the bottom of the cast. That was another really weird sensation. Now that my achilles has been repaired, it is reasurring to be able to put pressure on the bottom of my cast.
Here is a video demonstrating the quick diagnosis of a ruptured achilles tendon:
Here is the surgery that I just had done:
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