Don't You Just hate It...

Got an email from a customer yesterday describing a hanging application, a database client. They were able to replicate the problem on two computers. When I went to investigate today, guess what? Yes of course, the problem has completely vanished and is not reproducible at all. I know something went wrong yesterday because there are errors in the PostgreSQL logs, but there's nothing that leads to the next clue. Dead end.

Don't you just hate it when computer problems mysteriously fix themselves? You just know they are going to come back later.

Nexus One

Nexus One is an Android phone. Nothing wrong with that unless you are a programmer who likes to choose the languages in which you code. Last time I checked Java was still the only official choice. Other options were mentioned but it always seemed to require jumping through hoops. If I wanted to learn Java I would have done so years ago. No thanks.

As a programmer, if I were in the market for an expensive gadget, the Nokia N900 is far more appealing.

Prorogued Again

So for the second time in a year, the Canadian Parliment has been prorogued. All parlimentary business is suspended until March. Why? Oh, no particular reason other than because the Prime Minister can. Hey, if you got a power, why not abuse it regularly? I fail to see how this will get Mr. Harper that majority government he so desparately wants, come the next election, but the opposition parties are wimps and likely won't force an election anyway.

Politicians! Can we just keel haul the lot of them?

Dakar 2010

The 2010 Dakar Rally is under way and I have yet to see any video of it in English. What is curious that two successive Italian broadcasts of the daily highlights have appeared as torrents already. Worse comes to worse, I'll just watch the Italian version so as not to miss the action. It is amazing how much of my entertainment now depends on the generosity of others. ^_^

Doctor Who: The End Of Time Part 2

Well, that's it! The conclusion of The End Of Time marks the end of the tenth Doctor. The story had a few good twists. The man that knocks four times, which fore tells the Doctor's death, was different than expected. The regeneration process was nicely drawn out to allow the Doctor to collect his "reward" as he reconnects with some of his companions. It was brilliant!

The story filled in more of the fate of the Time Lords whom the Doctor implied were dead in previous stories, but he was dissembling to cover up what he had done. War with the Daleks has changed the Time Lords from the non-interfering, do-gooders portrayed in the original series. I hope we will see more of them in future stories as they make a formidable enemy for the Doctor.

It was all very well done and a fitting conclusion to the tenth incarnation. I'm looking forward to the eleventh Doctor and the new production team.

BZFlag Results

The BZFlag game today needed more players. Three people showed up but considering I invited thirteen, it really wasn't a great turnout. Paul and I started shortly after 3pm and played for two hours before Al joined the game. He only played for maybe 15 minutes before Real Life called him away again. By the that time, both Paul and I were burned out so we packed it in for the day.

Paul and I were using cat and mouse tactics which flat out wouldn't work if we had more players in the melee. With a small number of players, using the automatic team assignment algorithm isn't the best plan. When Al joined he was assigned to my team since I was weaker. Problem was that I wasn't that much worst the Paul, so the balance was way off in a two against one battle. If we had continued playing, it would have been better for Al to manually select his team. Just another thing to consider when I setup the next game, assuming there will be one.

I would rate today's game moderately successful. It was fun but it could have been better.

New Year's Day Incident

By some combination of driving skill and some luck, I escaped what I shall euphemistically refer to as "The New Year's Day Incident." On the one hand, I hope I didn't use up all my luck for 2010 already. On the other hand, the rest of 2010 can only get better now.