WEEK 52 2014
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First Post,
17 March 2002
|
Twelve
Years Ago, This Week 2002 |
Eleven
Years
Ago, This Week, 2003 |
Ten Years
Ago, this
week, 2004 |
Nine Years
Ago, this
week, 2005 |
Eight Years
Ago, This Week, 2006
|
Seven Years
Ago, This Week, 2007
|
Six Years
Ago, This Week, 2008
|
Five Years
Ago, This Week, 2009
|
Four Years
Ago,
This Week, 2010
|
Three Years
Ago,
This Week,
2011
|
Two Years
Ago,
This Week,
2012 |
One Year
Ago,
This Week,
2013 |
Wednesday 31 December
2014
Wednesday - New Years Eve.
I
went over to my friends R&S, where we had dinner and cookies,
opened a few presents (they were out of town at Christmas) and watched
a MythBusters marathon until midnight.
It was very cold out at midnight, but the number of firecrackers and noisemakers seemed to be greater than the last few years.
Since my neighborhood is usually pretty noisy I accepted an invitation to stay over for the night.
The Year in Books - 2014
Books-2014, A Brief Evaluation:
- Book of the Year, Fiction: #25: The Martian, by Andy Weir.
- Second Place Fiction: #3: The Sweetness At The Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley.
- Book of the year, Non-fiction: #31: Mobile Learning For All, Accessibility for the iPad, by Luis F. Perez.
- Second Place, Non-Fiction: #2: iOS Programming: The Big Nerd
Ranch Guide, 3rd Edition, by Conway & Hillegass.
- Hardest Book: Nothing really stands out. The iOS books, #2, #20, and #34 were technical, but not really 'hard'. It's hard remembering alll the contents.
- Worst Book:
None this year. Some were dull, or short, and some suffered from the
era they were written in, but none that were actively evil or insulting
to the reader.
The Year in Books, A Historical Listing:
- The Year in Books, 2014 (53)
- The Year in Books, 2013 (53)
- The Year in Books, 2012 (101)
- The Year in Books, 2011 (151)
-
The Year in Books, 2010 (98)
- The Year in
Books, 2009 (84)
- The Year
in Books, 2008 (54)
- The
Year in Books, 2007 (64)
- The
Year in Books, 2006 (53)
- The Year
in Books,
2005 (50)
Grand Total: 761 for the last ten years....
Tuesday
- Cold and overcast in the morning, but no snow. No sleet. No rain. The postman is probably happy, but I'm a bit disappointed.
Checking
the weather report: the 80% chance of snow for later in the day has
turned to 0%. I thought it was weird that they were predicting snow and a high pressure, which usually forces storms away.
We
had a couple of gusts of wind - not much, and that was it. They weren't
strong enough to blow over the empty garbage cans out in front of
the house.
Worked on the app, mostly fixing stuff on the Settings scene. This took most of the day. Like the Work
scene, I'm not entirely happy with it under the hood, but everything
works pretty well now. I need to fix the score counter (again), then we
are essentially done with the logic and flow for the base
(gesture-driven) version. I need to get the art from S, and redo things
with the correct art and sizes and vocals, in standard and retina.
She
needs to review the functionality of the app as it. Maybe we can put it
on her iPad this week, and she can come up with a punch list of items
that need fixing. Fresh eyes and all that.
And, as I said
before, do the assistive tech stuff for the physically handicapped
segment of our (currently hypothetical) user base.
The cats enjoying their Christmas eve present from
S - oat grass!
Monday
- Cold overnight, down into the 20's. They are predicting a huge storm by late Tues/Weds, with snow accumulating on the desert floor. It's been a while since we had a good snow in the valley, I'm looking forward to it.
Not much else going on.
Back to programming. The day was reasonably productive: I fixed a bug I'd found, then added some functionality that S had asked for, in the program flow. One success a day is actually pretty good progress, two is unusual.
I
need to go back to the Settings page and update that to show the
Left|Right orientation within the sample display, and (maybe, see below) the
sample animations.
At that point the initial gesture-driven version is done, and I'll need to get the artwork from S for the standard and retina versions.
After which it remains to create versions to add in the assistive learning stuff, tap and switches.
This
means the sample animations will be for five levels and three different modes, so
we're up 15 in all. This is probably getting to be too much to "inline"
in the code, perhaps the external video option is the way to go.
Update: It occurs to me, since there are two orientations, we are up to 30 sample animations...
Okay, maybe it's not the most creative icon, but the artwork is Sheryl's bailiwick, I'm just the code monkey.
Sunday
- Still pretty cool out.
My friends returned on Saturday evening. The traffic from the Bay Area was pretty heavy, about 7 hours of driving they said.
I
haven't done a "Found CD" in a while, here's one that I saw at the
college, over near the athletic fields when I went over to reset my
school password a couple of weeks ago.
The image is a bit light-struck, but I think it's
Fresh Palm Fronds by
Tone In Georgia.
Saturday 27 December
2014
Saturday - Did a few chores, a bit of shopping.
I finished Book #53, The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfield. This was the sequel to The Risen Empire, which was Book #78 in 2009.
Oddly,
like the Reynold's book it has the protagonist fighting AI and
(cyborged) human enemies and only 'plausible' slower-than-light
starships (but then begin to flirt with scenarios full of weird science
created by the god-like AI's). And, like them,
it ends rather inconclusively.
Friday
- Laid around, watched TV at my friends house, and my house. I suppose I should be working, but hey, it's Christmas.
Thursday 25 December
2014
Thursday
- Christmas Day. A MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!
A Christmas Cactus (though, technically, a Joshua Tree isn't a cactus).
I
went over to my friends out in Antelope Acres for dinner, L&A and
all their boys. A delicious meal, German brats and sauerkraut and
whatnot. Apparently Grandma was of German descent, and it's their
family tradition at Christmas.
Wednesday 24 December
2014
Wednesday - Christmas Eve.
I spent this with my friends R&C. We had a delicious turkey dinner, and played UNO and Hearts with the kids....
Tuesday
- Quiet around here. I spent a few hours at my friends house, feeding dogs and fish.
The
new barker breakers seem to be working well. Of course I thought that
last year, and someone in the neighborhood disagreed and reported them
the county Animal Control.
The new barker breakers are powerful, rechargeable, digital, and "level up" if the dog keeps barking after a zap...
I finished Book #52, Absolution Gap,
the third in the Alastair Reynolds series. It was OK, but after the
first book there really wasn't a lot of development. For a story that
covers about 500 years that's a bit of a negative.
Monday
- Not much to say. Winding down for the holidays I guess.
I've
agreed to dogsit for friends going out of town, so I'll be over at
their house for a couple of hours, morning and evening. Two inside
dogs, two outside dogs, cats and fish.
Sunday
- An OK day. I did a few chores, cleaned up a bit.
I had a Christmas card come back - I'd addressed it to myself.
Sheesh. So, a new envelope and stamp, and off it goes, again. I seem to
screw up somehow every year - no address, wrong address, no stamp, etc.
I'm up to about 25 cards sent, and about five or six received (er, not counting the mis-addressed letter). Pretty
normal year for me.
I'd invited my brother B
down, but he emailed back to say that my brother M
was going up to visit him. Huh.
It
must have been around Christmas 2000, over 10 years ago, that my friend
Tim sold his house in Lancaster and moved back south. Time does fly...
I finished Book #51 for the year, Redemption Ark, by Alastair Reynolds.
Apart from TV there isn't much to do in the evenings around here.
