Legacy (apps)

I made a conscious choice to develop my 10Centuries.org app (10cbazbt3.py) in Python 3.x. Python 3.x was introduced in 2008, 2.x updates ended in 2010; 3.x seemed a logical choice.

If only I'd read a little deeper.

Even developing a trivial Python app to run on Google's Android OS requires Python 2.7. That's requires. I don't have a Mac or a daily driver iPhone so cannot develop for OS X or iOS. An interesting recent development though (thanks for the tip @jmreekes) is that the iOS Pythonista app is being updated (parallel app development) to support Python 3.x.

Why do I care? Mine is a personal project, right? The very earliest stages of development, right?

Yeah, about that…

It's good when someone shows an interest in a thing one's created. But to be unable to use it because their workflow is based entirely around a deprecated version of the language one's working with…

It's understandable; when even Google continues to use it because to not would introduce massive compatibility/update issues, why rock the boat?

But there are further obstacles to overcome before my thing is anything other than a post-only 10C client:

  • Making sense of the API JSON so that a user can interact without the needing to read through pages of 'gibberish',
  • Cross-platform compatibility,
  • And other stuff…

Aaah… Dunno.

Hic

Right now I feel as if I've melted. I've been drinking wine; half a bottle of a rather nice Merlot. It's a 'Turner Road' or 'Turner's Road' or something, my vision's a bit blurry now too. I must also apologise in advance if this post makes more sense than the usual…

I say it's a 'rather nice' wine but, to be honest, it's not an objective statement based on what other people think, it's simply one I like. Don't get me wrong, I read reviews of red wines, Scottish single malt whiskies, preground coffees for my AeroPress, cars, computers, USB drives, NASs, dog and cat toys, TV stands… and occasionally even buy stuff rather than indulging myself with procrastination.

Other folks' opinions are of course important to me, but I'm my own man. I was my own man even as a boy. Family life is attempting to beat that out of me; resistance is futile…

I spent quite some time choosing mt prefect whisky: a Laphroaig 15-year-old; first tasted on a cruise down the River Nile, now available only as a special edition, far beyond my budget. If I had a big birthday coming up I could perhaps flutter my eyelashes in the hope someone'd buy me one. But even I shudder at that prospect despite my innate sense that' I'd be worth it.

So, this Merlot has achieved something a few hours of productive coding this weekend failed to. A sense of achievement.

No, I don't understand either.

Haircut

The mobile hairdresser paid a visit today. She tidied the girls' fringes and hair at the back, did something with my wife's and, rather odd this; dropped a load of greying hair on our kitchen floor after she'd cut mine.

I feel a lot less scruffy now. Maybe I should shave; back to a goatee?

Documenting

I decided early to add comments to the code I'm putting together for my early-alpha application for the 10Centuries.org social network.

I've now also begun to document the install and first run, the basic usage of the application, and spent more time cataloguing and resolving security, usability and efficiency issues.

In addition to a sense of directed purpose it's surprisingly absorbing.

Take a look here:

https://github.com/bazbt3/10cbazbt3

I still have 10Centuries invites available, if you're interested in clearing out your social networking cobwebs. The site's web interface kills my thing, easily!

Conversations tbere are heading healthily away from discussing the network and towards real-life stuff.

Does anyone like coffee?

Plumbers

3 plumbers were asked to quote for work – to replace 2 radiators. Here's a mercifully shortened tale of woe…

Dear Plumbers, how difficult can it be to:

  1. Visit when someone asks for a quotation?
  2. When a potential customer is visited, to prepare a quotation, estimate, something, in a reasonable time, i.e. not simply disappear?
  3. Do a good job when you get the work? And that's the key here; we got a crap 'un…

He changed the radiators, that much is true. The rest though, naah,' twas a bit crap.

  • Rescheduled twice, from times that suited us to times that emphatically did not,
  • Flexible plastic piping to join up to the rigid copper stuff,
  • The cut ends from the copper pipes left by the side of the bed for me to stand on,
  • He obviously hadn't doors at home; Ruby dog got out, he'd left the front door open as far as it could possibly go. Twice,
  • Left the packaging materials for us to clear away,
  • The hall carpet is soaked,
  • Black gunk left in the bedroom carpet and outside, he mustn't have put a sheet down – or used the packaging materials,
  • Didn't bleed the air out of the system before he left,
  • When he returned to get heat into our home he spent more time telling me we had a crap system, that our new boiler wasn't working, that…

The worst bit though, when he told me he was on a course in London today & tomorrow. My wife mentioned afterwards that he'd spoken on his phone (loudspeaker of course) with a woman just around the corner about a job he was doing there today.

During his followup call later, after I'd got rid of him, he let me know that I could ring him today and if we were having problems he could look on Thursday. The thing is, consistency is all in attempting to spread positive feedback about a business. To tell me "I'm not being evasive" when telling me why he couldn't make it today; sorry mate, I'll be looking for tradesman review sites now.

So I spent time bleeding the system until it just worked.

2am.

Today for lunch I went around to the café and bought a spam & egg butty and blueberry muffin, and sat at my desk to eat them.

Feeling much better now.

Mothering

This Mothering Sunday (aka Mothers Day) we went to church – it was the Brownies' and Ladybirds' Flag parades too.

I thought about my dear departed mum and the sacrifices she and dad made to keep us comfortable and to support me until I started to work…

During the service the choir sang Psalm 127, and the temporary vicar asked us, with a smile, to follow along too – if we could.

Yeah, it's impossible without choral training and a safety net, so I simply traced the words with my index finger. I was lucky that I could read the words; I'd taken my reading glasses along this time!

So, here it is, Psalm 127, from the King James Version:

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

3 Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

I occasionally have dark thoughts about the results of my quivering arrows, but overall, in a non-spiritual sense, I've been blessed by my 2 girls.

The thing is, I don't really care if I've misinterpreted the Psalm; I took something good away from it.

Snow

It snowed in Rochdale today, and Rochdale ground to a near-halt. My drive to work, a journey that normally takes around 20 minutes, took 2 hours!

It happens every winter, every time it snows.

The utterly clueless idiots-behind-their-wheels appear to make my desire for a 4-wheel-drive car a near-irrelevance.

'Near' isn't total; that'll do for me.

Hello

print ("Hello World")

What’s the next step into my journey towards learning some Python programming language?

Creating an application to authorise, authenticate and then post to the 10Centuries social network.

Baby steps.

Yeah.

(I gave up on bash shell scripting early.)

Spacetime

I got married late in the third quarter of 2006, but this isn't about anniversaries, family, lazing about in a tropical paradise, no; it's about technology. Again.

I gave away a phone; I don't recall whether it was before or after my wedding, I just know when I got married I no longer had it as a daily driver, and I know what I replaced the phone with.

The chronology of all this isn't particularly important.

What is, is the fact that around 9 or 10 years after I stopped using the device, the lucky recipient sent his first SMS. Not first on that phone, but first ever.

Last week.

I'm someone who believes it's an absolute necessity to be always connected to the Internet, or at least a mobile network. Always able to communicate with family, friends, people who can do jobs for me, my girls' school, etc.; so it's not an overstatement mentioning it was quite the revelation.

A life without convenience.

I don't intend to change the way I approach my current state-of-the-art portable computing device on the strength of this new understanding of our modern life, but it's an interesting concept. A life without alerts, without beeps and blurps and bloops; it sounds relaxing.

But could I cope?

I'll probably never find out, not unless the power and phone grid fails.

Twentynine

February 29 (Wikipedia) is a date that appears only during years divisible by 4 (with an integer remainder!) – apart from those divisible by 100 (but not 400) no, don't stop reading…

There are a lot of interesting notable dates, people and legal facts mentioned on the Wikipedia page, so it's quite a scroll to get to…

In this modern age Bachelor's Day doesn't retain the same importance it once had. But if you're on the edge of popping the question to the subject of your undying love, it's a heck of a day to do it.

Gloves on standby!