Over the past few years though, it’s become very difficult to resist the attractiveness of iOS development. The major barrier to entry for all of us Web-focused developers is most often Objective-C. Objective-C is a different world to me, but it’s super exciting and I’ve got “build and release an iOS app” on my Someday list. I’ll be bookmarking this series as a starting point for when that day finally arrives. – Jonathan Christopher on Monday by Noon
+1, bookmarked.
The time has come for you to plan your very own conspiracy. Not against your boss or your company, but against yourself. Against your inner critic who keeps telling you that you can’t make it outside the game of Monopoly that the world handed you. Who keeps telling you that you’re crazy to think you can. – AJ
Not sure if this is new or not but I haven’t notice it before so here goes:
A couple of months ago, Apple added the “Purchased” option to the iTunes store. That option gives you a list of all the apps and books you’ve purchased in the past and gives you an easy way to download those again (for example when you change computers).
Now, Apple has added Music to the Purchased-tab. It show you a list of all the music you’ve purchased through iTunes (either sorted by track or by album) and allows you to download them per track, per album or all music at once.
I seem to remember that getting the music you purchased from iTunes back after a crash used to be a pain in the backside but with this feature that is no longer the case.
Instapaper is a service I use heavily for “read it later” reading and links. (If you’ve never heard in Instapaper, check it out. Right now. Stop reading this and make an account, you’ll like it.)
With my iPad stolen, I have quite literally been robbed of my Instapaper device. That’s basically all I used my iPad for: Instapaper, RSS and email. And I’m missing it more than I had expected.
Marco (creator of Instapaper) writes that the cheapest version of Amazone’s Kindle is in fact such a device.
Since buying a new iPad right now is off the table (both budget wise and with the iPad 3 coming out this year), this Kindle things looks pretty tempting.
One of my favorite podcasts is Enough, with Patrick Rhone and Mike Hurley and they’ve just posted their 100th episode. This episode is over 3 times longer than their usual altercations, but they have number of interesting people on the show who all discuss their favorite event/product/app/moment of 2011 and look forward to 2012 as well.
Enough is part of the 70 Decibels podcasting network, which Myke has launched in the fall of 2011. They sport some quality shows and are a join to listen to. I particularly like The Bro Show, which Myke does with Terry. (I love hearing British accents)
Keep it up guys, you’re doing a 5-by-5 job! 
We’re writing Friday, January 6th. I got invited to a Nikon product announcement at Nikon’s Belgian HQ. It started at 18h and since I didn’t feel like racing to Brussels from after work, I decided to work from our offices in Brussels the entire day. Up at 5h30, in the train at 6h30 and at my desk at 7h15 (what can I say, I’m a morning person).
After work I met up with Filip near the train station and we headed to the press event. (more on that later, that’s not what this post is about)
We left Nikon HQ around 20h30 and decided to go out for a quick snack. Together with Bert, Stacy, Tom, Pieter and Filip we parked near the station in Zaventem and had dinner at a pita place. A good hour later, a dinner and lots of laughs later we headed back to the cars and went our separate ways.
I opened the car door to get my backpack and the goodie-bag Nikon gave us but immediately noticed that my bag wasn’t where I left it. I got to my knees to check if it had slipped under the seat and that’s when Filip (who opened the driver side door) noticed that the window on my side was smashed…. (the small window at the front of the door). Filip rushed to the trunk to check his photo-gear, thank god that was all still there. But my backpack (my beloved Timbuk2 bag) and a camera that Filip got from Nikon to test were both gone.
So we called the cops. They took our statement (both our first time in a police vehicle), checked the car and told us to send them the serial number for the stuff that got stolen.
What was in my bag? My work laptop, my iPad (3G, 32GB), 3 notebooks (school, work, projects), my Bose headphones, my digipass rsa thingy form work and last but not least: my house keys. (work laptop was encrypted, iPad had a long password/wipe-after-4-attempts settings on it so my data is safe)
I wasn’t sure who had a spare key to my apartment (my key had broken about 3 months ago, I was using my sister’s spare key and hadn’t given her a new one yet) which meant that I couldn’t get into my own place. So I crashed at Filip (and Sara)’s place for the night. When I got there, I called my dad to let him know what had happened and he told me that my mom had a spare key as welL. What a relief.
Saturday morning I took an early train to Leuven, stopped by my mom’s work to pick up the key and rushed home. Everything was still there. Don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to be back home. Calling the landlord on monday to see when/if we can get the locks replaced.
Writing this on sunday evening, I’m doing better. But Friday evening I was shocked. Really shocked. Nothing like this has every happened to me before…I want to thank Filip and Sara for the hospitality and support, love you guys!
It’s coming round to the time of year when I get the urge to do a clean install of whatever computer/laptop/phone I’m using. Not sure why. In one way to transition into the new year with a clean slate, but also sort of fire-drill.
We all have backup systems in place, have everything synced up to a cloud in some data center in North Carolina and have our computer environment all worked out. But ever now and then I like to do it throw it all out and gradually add the things I’m missing. Why? To make sure all my backup strategies and systems work, to forcefully remind myself that I don’t need all this. To keep me on my toes.
So this morning I checked verified my Backblaze backup, copied my profile to an external drive just to make sure, copied my display calibration profile (always forgot those in the past).
Then I plugged in a firewire disk with a OS 10.7 Lion install image on it and took the plunge.
30 minutes later, a fresh install and a fresh start.
The fact that I love London should not be a secret to anyone who knows me or who reads this blog.
So when Filip and Sara proposed to spend new year’s eve in London to watch the fireworks, I happily joined them. We left all met in Ghent around noon in Saturday and in 2 cars we headed for the Eurotunnel in Calais. A 35 minute train-ride later to the island and another 2 hours in the car and we had arrived in London.
We parked close to the London Bridge underground station and started walking towards the Thames. As we approached the Millennium Bridge, I proposed that we cross that bridge and continue on the other side. Crossing the Millennium bridge, with Tate Modern at my back and walking towards St Paul’s cathedral feels like “coming home” in London for me. Whenever we/I stayed in London, we slept at a hostel near St Paul’s and we would often venture out late at night to wander around the city. Crossing the bridge and seeing the cathedral would mean I had arrived back “home”.
We headed towards Leicester square for a quick take-away dinner and went towards Victoria Embankment, opposite from the London Eye, where we waited to for the fireworks. If you thought we were crazy for driving to London… This is where it really get’s crazy: we waited for 6 hours. From 18h until midnight. At 18h there was plenty of room left so we sat down on the curb. By 20h things started to get crowded and everyone was asked to stand up (for safety reasons and such). At 22h a BBC Radio 1 DJ started playing some tunes a get the party started and by then the place was packed and the police had closed of the area so no more people could enter the viewing area. 6 hours is a long time but all in all, it wasn’t bad. It was pretty warm (10° and no wind, that’s pretty weird for December 31st) and dry (except for a few 2/3 minutes light rain showers) so no complaining there.
But when are you going to get the fireworks? Yes yes, here we go.
Wauw. Really impressive. Wauw.
After the fireworks, the crowd thinned pretty quickly and we wandered throughout the city and back to the car. We caught the train back to Calais at 5h20 GMT, were back in Belgium around 7h30 CET and arrived back in Leuven with the from Ghent at 10h. While I slept a fair bit in the car, I was still exhausted. Exhausted but happy to have spent new year’s eve in the city that stole my heart and with a couple of good friends.
I couldn’t have thought of a better way to start 2012.
About 8 weeks ago, somewhere in the beginning of November, I went for a run. It was my first time out running since the Brussels marathon in October and it felt great. I skipped a day and went out again. And again the day after.
And that’s when it went wrong. After about 20 minutes of running, I got a stabbing pain on the outside of my right knee. So much so that walking up and down stairs made me limp quite a bit (especially descending was painful). I waited it out and about 3 days later the pain was gone…So I waited another week and tried to run again but no avail. Struck with pain again I applied lots of ice and rested for 3 weeks. And then I tried again (stubborn, I know). You know where this ends…
I’ve done different sports all my life and I think I can tell fairly well when pain is either fatigue, strain or injury. This clearly was the later. Next up: see a doctor about it.
But I didn’t want to take this to my usual doctor, I wanted someone specialized in sports. The good news was that the doctor we used to go to when I was still living with my parents is specialized in just that. So much so that he advises and works with some of the athletes on Belgium’s national triathlon and running squad. Sounds good right? It took a while to get an appointment with him but it was well worth it.
As I’m writing this, I just got back home from my doctor’s appointment and the verdict is in. When I told him when that my knee hurt, he finished my sentence with “On the right outside? And it hurts more walking down stairs than up?” I knew I had come to the right place.
So allow me to introduce you to the Iliotobial band syndrome:
ITBS is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial band is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front while walking. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed.
What now? 9 rounds for physiotherapy to start with (calling for a first appointment tomorrow) and lots of exercises. Wether I’ll be able up and running again (pun intend) in time to resume my training for the Paris marathon (April 15th 2012) is not sure and even unlikely but I’m keeping a positive attitude.
Yes I can.
I find it funny/sad that stuff we would have considered basic necessity [important game info being included in the manual, etc] in the early 2000s [for fucks sake, fallout 2 had a 150+ page manual] are now replaced by lens flare. – Via Reddit
(Yes, I did just quote reddit.)
I’ve been playing the latest installment of Battlefield on my XBOX360 for a couple of weeks now and I’m having lots of fun with it. But it’s indeed baffling that such a huge game (especially the multiplayer part with the it’s different unlocks, weapons, maps, options,…) is largely undocumented.
