Stuart Johnston

"A single worded poem comprised of four letters."

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:50:18 +0000

A Poem on the Underground Wall (Last.fm) by Simon & Garfunkel.

Beautiful track, easily my favourite of theirs.

The Daily

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:52:10 +0000

The Daily was launched yesterday, though the big story seems to be a sighting of an iPad 2 by Reuters.

The Daily looks interesting but Allen Weiner from Gartner nails the key issue for me:

Those on stage were naturally evasive about what “voice” The Daily will have. The answer of “that’s up to the editors” was clearly in deference to Murdoch’s presence on stage.

Why watching Fox News makes you stupid

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:51:11 +0000

Why watching Fox News makes you stupid:

via Crooks and Liars

Not sure whether it’s scary or just funny.

Please Don't Grow

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:45:35 +0000

by Foy Vance

Favourite track this week. Love the second half.

Available on his iTunes Live: London Sessions EP

Okay. Thank you.

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:59:48 +0000

Okay. Thank you.:

The Iraq Inquiry published the transcript of Sir Richard Dearlove’s (Head of MI6) evidence.

After redaction, all that’s left on page 42 is: “Okay. Thank you.”

Insightful stuff.

Full evidence

Google Reader reorganisation

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:54:07 +0000

Spring cleaning my feeds.

Out:

Techcrunch
AppleInsider
FeedMyApp
RubyCorner

In:

Goodbye OpenID

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 21:49:40 +0000

37signals are retiring their support for OpenID in May.

I only used OpenID for Basecamp and a handful of other sites so its no big loss - particularly since 1Password is so easy to use.

Sunset over Portstewart

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 16:42:56 +0000

Sunset over Portstewart

The Switch. Meh.

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 21:44:28 +0000

Watched The Switch tonight starring Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) and Jennifer Anniston.

Made the mistake of watching the trailer first. Looked really good but sadly all the good/funny bits where in the trailer. The actually movie was pretty dull and not that funny.

One to miss.

First Direct iPhone app

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:18:40 +0000

First Direct iPhone app:

Helpful and easy to use banking app from First Direct.

Continually impressed by these guys.

Carcassonne

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:43:29 +0000

Carcassonne:

Little bit addicted to this iPhone/iPad game at the moment.

Haven’t quite cracked the strategy yet but enjoying it nonetheless.

Chicken biryani

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:08:17 +0000

Chicken biryani:

Very favourite thing to eat at present.

At least when R makes it. My version isn’t quite as good.

Guardian iPhone app

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:50:00 +0000

Guardian iPhone app:

Just launched today.

Nice improvement over v1. I know some are irked at the new subscription model but given I’ve been reading the paper daily for over a year and have never bought a single copy so £3.99 seems only fair.

Love to see this on the iPad soon.

What Makes a Programming Language Good

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:39:44 +0000

What Makes a Programming Language Good:

Article on Ruby (via: technotalk)

running code on my platform was easy and surrounded with joy

Sparrow

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:38:00 +0000

Sparrow:

Thoroughly useful Gmail client for Mac OS X.

Still in beta but coming on leaps and bounds.

LogMeIn

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:01:13 +0000

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with various remote desktop tools.

I’ve tried iTeleport, Screens and LogMeIn.

Out of the office nothing quite beats LogMeIn. The ability to get at the computer from anywhere (on iPad, iPhone or from another desktop) is incredibly useful.

At home and in the office, iTeleport is quicker and easier to use as there is no password to enter. I also prefer the way it controls the mouse over Screens.

Coldwalking

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:51:45 +0000

From Angels in Drag by Steve Jones.

This beautiful song was randomly selected by my iPod tonight.

A wonderful way to spend a few minutes.

"4 letter words will not be heard, not up on this stage 2night."

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:31:00 +0000

“4 letter words will not be heard, not up on this stage 2night.”

- Prince, Joy in Repetition

Changing the timezone on Ubuntu

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:29:44 +0100

sudo rm /etc/localtime
sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime

Converting a number to an IP address in Ruby

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:23:00 +0100

def number_to_ip(number)
  number = number.to_i
  ip = ((number / (256 ** 3)) % 256).to_s + "."
  ip += ((number / (256 ** 2)) % 256).to_s + "."
  ip += ((number / (256)) % 256).to_s + "."
  ip += (number % 256).to_s
end