I actually have two blogs and three small web subsites, so maintaining a link between them, and making it easy for reader to discover them all is not easy.
So I needed a simple portal, allowing access to each of them from a central web page.
I have used Komposer for it ease of use and its ability to build small pages within minutes, without having to master the HTML markup language.
The portal is here :
Several of my friends/colleagues and I have a smartphone, of different brands.
Most of us are very happy with it, but one of us (no name please) is displeased with the way it handles its applications, and where they are stored. Hid phone is one of the latest (maybe the latest at this time) Android based smartphone.
After having installed many applications he found that his main memory was nearly filled with apps and files. Now he want to get rid of it and buy the ap<biip>e i<biiip>e model. He is great at buy new phone models and new apps and spending a whole lot of money onto it (just my opinion anyway).
I started working with computers in 1987. Those were the days of the 8086 based PC-XT with a for the time wonderful 512 kb of main memory. If you could not afford a 20 of 40 Mb hard disk then you had to cope with one or two 360 kb floppy drives. More “advanced” PC-AT were out of reach for a student. Later I got a 128k Mac, with its err… 128kb of memory and a single floppy drive. Later again, and for a few years my main machine has been a Psion Series 5 palmtop with 8 Mb of memory, which were used for running the multitasking system, the applications and store the application data.
All these machine had something in common: their quite terse memory and disk resources. Not many people could cope with this nowadays but mind you we worked very well with those machines. How come?
First, there was no internet, or it was just the beginning outside the university, and multimedia was for high end computers and workstations.
Second, applications were very expensive, and free software were not widespread.
Last, but not least, we applied some basic mecanisms to cope with sparse resources. Those are still applied nowadays – at least I still do apply them; the fifth one appeared with web applications.
- one and only one application for a function
- any application not used at least twice a day is to be discarded
- any application where most functions are not used must be discarded
- no games, or at most one or two tiny games
- for web intensive applications prefer the browser based version to its native version (only apply sinc a few years)
- keep only small, but efficient apps
- one acronym : KISS ( for “Keep It Stupid Simple” )
My actual phone main memory and storage are not cluttered, even if I have tried many more applications than I should have. Simply applying the above principles keep my phone, my netbook and myself away from clutter.
In my last post I told about some of my projects.
Well I should have put one more onto my list, but I had this in mind for such a long time that I haven’t even thought about it: I’ve wanted to learn playing the didgeridoo for a very long time, but never found any.
I have built a few with rolled cardboard – the type you put rolled plans in, others made with emty springles tubes, tried to make one with PVC tube.
The results were varied, from a mere sound down to no sound at all.
Today at lunch time I went to a music store to buy new chords for my guitar. While wandering in the store I found a few didgeridoos stored within a bunch of drums. One had its tip near the mouth piece broken, next was made of some sort of plastic, so I had to choose between the three that were left.
I finally bought this one
This side is quite nice, but I particularly like the other side :
It sounds great , but I have a lot to learn.
I’ve been away from blogging and anything personnaly productive for weeks, although 9/17 work started about a month ago.
Of course now it is harder to start blogging and doing other personal business again but I really enjoyed these personal holidays.
This back to work time is a time to set up attainable goals and try to achieve them at best.
My top thress goals are easily realistic :
- First, keep smiling and stay positive, whatever happens, and bring all this into this blog.
- Second is more personal, and should be first on my list : meditate eveyday. This one needs to fulfill my thrid goal:
- Third goal : wakeup at 5:30, so that I can meditate in the calmness of early mornings, just before the first bird singing outside.
Then come more everyday life goals :
- learn to fly RC aircrafts again
- work and play my bass
- loose weight. Oh nothing really; only about 20 kg
Then I still have this business idea to work on.
Others goals are too technical to be completely described here, or just whatifs.
Goals, projects, what-ifs, all things that make one work onto oneself and evolve.
I moved three weeks ago.
That was hard, very hard for me and also for my brother . I can’t be thankful enough for the help he’s given me.
The evening of the day following the move, half my boxes were already unpacked and at least the kitchen was usable. This house is furnished, so all my previous furniture is useless. Half of them went to my cousin’s, the remaining pieces will be sold.
The first room upstairs has become my bedroom, and the second one is big enough to be split into two so each of my kids will have their own bedroom. Before that they will share the space.
This move gives me the most wonderful changes in my life in the 4 last years and a half:
- I can’t hear the washing machine from my bed. My nights are much more pleasant, more “relaxed”
- My kitchen is large enough to serve as a dining room, and is a stair away from bed/couch. Meals are now real events in my days. No more potatoe couching during breakfast or dinner.
- I’m away from the street. No more improvised car or bike race will wake me up. Instead of these annoyances I can hear birds, which is much more pleasant in late evenings and at wakeup.
Now I’m on holiday so I have time to finish unpacking and to put things into their place.
I took a whole week off. This was firstly to take care of my children during their spring holidays, but also to get some rest.
We effectively had a lot of fun last week, playing, watching a few movies, going out for walks, visitting my parents, etc.
This time spent away from everyday life turmoil brought great benefits: my nights were whole sleep nights, with no insomnia at all andI even managed not to think about work too often.
In spite of a small tireness which remained I quickly felt relaxed and quiet.
No wonder why I felt well at work this morning…
So from time to time, and if you have the opportunity, why not take a few days off and spend this time with yourself and with your family?
My time has recently been filled up with a few but important and urgent topics.
So I’ve had to make choices, and this blog was not in the top of the list.
I have managed to feed my list of topics, and written a few drafts, though.
So, patience, for this blog is not abandonned
Well, good news do happen sometimes.
- I have found a small house to rent and I will move there by the end of June. At last each of my two kids will have his own room. As a little extra, the monthly rent will be the same as here.
- My divorce has been definitively settled.
- Err… this is the weekend, no?
Add to these that a project I’m very attached to is nearly finalized and ready to start, and my moral has raised a huge lot.
My horizon gets clearer now.
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