Chewed Pencil

Michael Jackson hits the top of iTunes!

tomasmcguinness — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:11:01 GMT

The passing of Michael Jackson is marked with his risk through the ranks of iTunes sales and he’s managed to become the top artist on Amazon MP3.

One way to pay tribute to a fantastic artist ;)

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1

tomasmcguinness — Tue, 19 May 2009 22:48:36 GMT

I’ve just downloaded the new beta 1 of Visual Studio 2010 along with the 64bit version of the associated .Net 4.0.

I’m hoping to put down my thoughts on the new beta along with my first impressions of the various new features. But until then, here are few screenshots.

Installation

New home screen looks very clean

New project dialog

Windows 7 – download in progress

tomasmcguinness — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:53:29 GMT

My first post of 2009 is quite an exciting one for me! Last night, Steve Ballmer announced the (almost) general availability of the first beta of Windows 7! I’ve been waiting to get my hands on a build of this for a long time.

I did manage to get my hands on the PDC build (6800) over a bit torrent, but I only burned that to DVD on Monday. When I heard the rumours that an official beta was coming I decided I’d sit back and wait for that, rather than risk the installation of a unverified OS! This morning I logged into my MSDN account and there it was, Windows 7 Beta 1 X86. I started the download, a whopping 2.4GB, and headed out the door for work. When I got home however, the MSDN download assistant reported the download had been interrupted at 216 MB ;(

I’ve resumed the download and it’s running now, telling me I have to wait about an hour. My broadband is zipping along at about 600 kbps which is cool! Apologies to anyone I know who has crappy broadband!

I’ve got a piano lesson tonight so I think I’ll be waiting till later this evening to try and installation. I think I’ll dual boot my old Dell laptop and give it a whirl. Then I'll install it on my old Toshiba Table to see if the pen experience has changed much.

I’ll be sure to post my findings and feelings!

On a side note: Ballmer also announced the finished version of the Windows Live Essentials suite (download here), but the PhotoSync feature in Windows Live Photo Gallery doesn’t appear to be working yet! I’m not too impressed by this!

I’m on twitter

tomasmcguinness — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:03:00 GMT

To my four loyal readers, you can now follow me on twitter. It’s a nifty little service – my username is tomasmcguinness. I try to update frequently enough, when my iPhone isn’t timing out!

Out with the old - really, out with the old!

tomasmcguinness — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:15:13 GMT

In the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner, the movie painted a very decrepit picture of the future with Los Angeles a mix of aging, crumbling structures set amongst the glittering new constructions on the year 2020. Ridley himself is quoted as having said that in the future, things get old. But there is a very good reason that things get old in the future - we allow it.

I've just moved into a new apartment here in London, which is located in the famous East End. The apartment itself is located within a redevelopment of an what was originally a match-stick factory. The building has stood for over 120 years and it's likely to stand for another couple of hundred since, as the saying goes, people built things back then that would last. I have no complaints on this front since the building and it's grounds are beautiful and breath-taking - it would be a shame to have it knocked down and the land reused. What am I worried about is our lack for foresight when it comes to what we preserve.

In the 21st century, lots of attention is being paid to the conservation of energy. We are encouraged to fit insulation, install the latest triple glazing, use energy saving light blubs...the list goes on. This is very important. Not just from a more global save the planet perspective, but from an personal economic standpoint in this climate of rising energy costs. But take my apartment - Whilst the outer walls themselves are almost 2 foot thick, the window is the original one installed in the 1880s. This is the single glazed, old-school glass.

To me, this seems counter productive. The outside of the building is listed and that's fine, we must preserve what we can, but leaving old, effectively, environmentally unfriendly windows makes no sense to me at all. The technology exists to build windows that would almost, to the casual eye, look identical, but which would unilize the latest energy saving technology. It must make more sense to simply delist the windows and allow people to upgrade their windows, saving themselves money and the world, oil. I'm beginning to get worried at this very human need to clutch to the past and preserve the past - even at the cost of the future.

Energy, Human Nature, Preservation