Ice Cream Sandwich, yum, yum, yum

For about a month my Galaxy S2 runs Android 4. And I gotta say, I like Ice Cream Sandwich.

Sure, it’s not really all that different, but there’s a lot of small stuff that makes the user experience more pleasant. Thanks to an seemingly overall better performance Ice Cream Sandwich can afford adding a little eye candy like window transitions without sacrificing speed. And I really like the new system settings menu.

Under the hood there is still a lot more than we see now. The problem with this simply is that we’re not seeing enough applications using the Android 4 API, which of course provides programmers with access to all the new features.

So it’s been a month, and while enjoying the benefits of the update I also ran into a problem. And of course the problem was my application StoryTeller.

I’m not your average programmer…

No, really, I’m not.

While it is certainly true that I have spent most of my working life as some sort of web programmer I actually see myself as a server guy. I love tinkering with servers, networks and security.
On the other hand I really like programming. I guess you have to if you’ve learned all the following languages to a certain degree:

• QBasic
• Turbo Pascal
• Assembler
• Delphi
• C
• C++
• C#
• Java
• Bash Script
• PHP

Some of these languages I still use. I earn my money with PHP. But I develop an Android application in Java and there’s a ton of Bash Scripts in charge of building EasyLFS. And sometimes some code digging requires basic recollection of how to write C.

The importance of Version Control Systems

Code is an important asset to every company. Thus it is only in the company’s interest to protect their code base as good as possible.
While this sounds like an introduction you would expect in an article about proper backups or access control I think it is equally fitting for this article about Version Control Systems (VCS).

Those who work on the code are only human, and as humans we sometimes make mistakes. This can be because we don’t quite know what we are doing, but it can equally be a case of “shit happens”. And if “shit happens” you want to be able to respond quickly and undo whatever has been been done. Preferably without having to run down to the basement to get the tape with last (possibly full) backup. Of course a VCS cannot cover all kinds of situations, but it can help in a lot of ways to improve development and help out in case something goes wrong.

Finally my TV does all the stuff I want

Well, to be exact it’s not my TV that does all the stuff I want, but the devices attached to it.
I don’t have one of those fancy SmartTV thingies, just a plain old 32″ Philips flat screen TV which doesn’t do much else than displaying the stuff coming from what’s connected to it. And that’s where the actual magic happens.

A while ago I took the first step by purchasing a Philips BluRay player with DLNA support. This enabled me to stream movies from my computer to the TV, through the BluRay player, but better than not at all. After all, when I buy DVDs the first thing I do is put them into my computer and rip the movies onto my hard drive, thus enabling me to watch my movies without having to use the DVD. As I watch like to watch movies more than once I hope this will help preserve the physical media. Yes, I know that by doing so I am circumventing the built in copy protection, but if you have a problem with that, well, fuck you! I neither offer my movies on the Internet, nor do I give copies to friends. I just want to preserve the disc as I prefer to buy movies just once. Also, I paid for it, so it’s mine. Again, if you have a problem with that I suggest you get yourself a rope and a chair.

Badly translated book and movie titles made in Germany

Pretty much every book or movie released in Germany is translated into German.
While in general I have no problem with this, even though I prefer the English version of movies, which luckily are almost always included on the DVD, I do have a problem with what happens to titles when they are being translated.

In this post I want to highlight a few of my favorites “title rapes”, mostly picked from books, but usually equally applicable if there is a film adaptation. As I mostly read Stephen King the list will probably be limited to his works (with one exception). This of course is also due to the fact that now have a Kindle and I buy my Kindle books in English.

On the code again

Yes, I have gotten back into programming. As usual the reason is that I have searched for something I want but couldn’t find anything satisfying.

While I’m not much of a programmer, the only languages I can consider myself fluent in are PHP and Bash scripting, I do occasionally like to fire up an IDE in order to solve a problem. And with modern programming languages being so similar it doesn’t really matter if I’m writing a Bash script or use PHP, C, C# or Java. Usually the main difference is the vocabulary.

This time I’m having another go at Java as I am writing an application for my Android phone.

Plans, not resolutions, for 2012

Happy New Year.

If we are to believe this Maya prophecy mankind’s last year has begun. So, here’s to it: We’re all gonna die!!!
Now that that’s out of the way we can get to the matter at hand, my plans for 2012. I say plans, as I am sticking to my New Year’s resolution of 2000 of not making any more New Year’s resolutions. I don’t really like to make up any crazy plans about how I want to change my life for the better and end up not doing what I set out to do.
This year, however, is a little bit different. Maybe because it’s because we’re all gonna die, but I actually think that it’s just that I feel that there’s a lot of loose ends that have to be tied up, and it’s finally time to get going.

The problems with suspending your computer

Suspend-to-RAM and Suspend-to-Disk may seem useful when you don’t want to use your computer but you want to speed up start-up. While especially Suspend-to-RAM can get you to a running system quickly, with all the stuff open as you left it when you suspended your computer, there are certain problems with suspension, especially on mobile devices like notebooks and netbooks.

The big problem both types of suspension share is that they can effectively bypass encryption, which should be standard on a mobile device. My notebook has an encrypted root partition, and after a couple of tests I have now also encrypted my swap partition. Yes, until about 1 hour ago I have been working with an unencrypted swap partition, setup 1 (see below), and have now switched to setup 2 (again, see below).

Roasts, and more…

I like Roasts. Both culinary and comedic. But this article is not supposed to be about my indulgences at the last family BBQ, but about the recent broadcasts of the celebrity roasts on Comedy Central Germany.

The roasts were presented by Desiree Nick, who is known for having a sharp tongue, but in the light of what is being said at these roasts she still seems kinda nice. And her overacting and exaggerated facial contortions don’t really make her presentation more enjoyable. After the previews I actually thought she’d be the right choice for this, but after seeing her in action I am a little disappointed on how this worked out.

Comedy Withdrawal

It’s been 1.5 months since I moved back to Germany, and 2 months since my last performance at the TakeOut Comedy Club, giving a great opening performance for the very funny Wali Collins.
Since then I haven’t been on stage, but I feel that soon it’s time to get back into performing.