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http://listen.grooveshark.com/

http://bognasse.labrute.fr/

Cool little flash fighting game. Lots of weapons and different techniques and stuff. What’s funny is that the combats are resolved by the computer, you don’t have to actually fight.

From the Boston Globe

I HAZ A FUNNY (Eddie Izzard - Learning French 6:30)

DA FUNNY HAZ FUNNY CLOZ (Eddie Izzard - Evil Giraffe - 2:06)

IZ LANGAJ IZ DIFRENT (Eddie Izzard - Being Bilingual 3:24)

Interesting talk by Bruce Sterling about Interaction design, future vs science-fiction vs technology.

The first couple of minutes are a bit buzzword heavy, but it sets the pace and context for his message.

Bruce Sterling from Innovationsforum on Vimeo.

I’ve started using Django at work and I’m completely seduced. I don’t know much python but it’s very easy to use and setup. I’ve got it running on my OS X machine without too much hassle by using the instructions in the Django Book.

Django is a MVC framework (forcing the use of a clean Model/View/Controller pattern) that was developed to solve real world problems with web development. It is very robust, efficient and stable.

The four most prominent advantages to using Django are:

databases are abstracted

This allows you to define your models in a very efficient python format. It also allows for Django to manage field types commonly used in web development (URLs, email, etc.) It also enables very efficient automagical form generation from your models. Django will automatically creates your tables in the database of your choice (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MSSql, Oracle, etc.) and manage connections and SQL queries.

automatic admin sites

Once your models are defined and your database created, you can enable very easily an admin site. “Very easily” is an understatement. This is simply awesome. No more spending hours to validate fields and modifying your admins each time you add or modify a table. Django does it all for you. the admin sites generated are very robust and usable. Django will add little widgets for specific data types (ex: calendar selectors for date) and do all the dirty validation work. If you set your models correctly you can stop worrying about weird data bugs caused by bugs in your hand-made admin. A whole lot of problems and headaches simply disappeared. The admins generated are extendable, you can use the admin engine to override and customize the admin. You don’t need to start from scratch.

URL are abstracted

This takes some time to get used to. Files are not served directly like what I’m used to. In django, URLs are mapped to functions. In a easy-to-use format, you specify what function serves content to what URL pattern. This is great because you can easily make pretty urls (in fact it would be harder not to have pretty urls) for your website, it’s also easier to manage parameters that way. My experience with pretty URLs have not been good. URLRewrites are server specifics and often added as an afterthought. In django you have to map your URL first.

a robust and easy-to-use template system

The MVC pattern really shines here. The template system is simple and very easy to work with. You can keep integration and design almost completely separated from the database and it simplifies the sharing of HTML code like nothing else I’ve see.

The only disadvantage I see about Django vs my usual PHP/MySQL approach is that it changes the hosting parameters completely. I’ll start using it for my personal use that’s for sure, we’re already setup for using it at work, but I won’t be able to easily develop sites for anyone on any server. Python and Django are needed, and some configs have to be enabled on the server. This will eventually make me look around for a new host.

I’ve been playing Fall From Heaven, working and then some, being out of shape and helping a friend with a Wordpress website.

My bike is ready to help me address the out of shape issue. I hope riding to work and back won’t kill me. I’ve never been so easily out of breath, I also have headaches. Last summer I had a hammock accident and hurt my back real bad, I spent at least two weeks sitting on cushions and couldn’t used my bike for the rest of summer. As biking is the only exercise I get I really need those 5-6 months of riding around the city at full speed.

I’ve been trying real hard to stop smoking, that will help too.

Christine pointed me to a system to make random album covers. It’s a lot of fun and I’m always surprised by the quality of the results. It was good to practice my text layout skills in Photoshop. Here’s what I ended up making:

I really love the History of Siberia and the Maga Dam ones. But they’re all pretty good, you can feel what kind of band and music it would be. I’d probably listen to Schnottwill, it’s so naïve and witty. I used to love Maga Dam when I was 17, but can’t stand them anymore. Have you listened to the latest Siege of Messolonghi? I can’t stand it, there’s too much pseudo world music influence in it.