Douglas F Shearer - Other posts

iPhoto 09 Auto Face Detection

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:16:13 +0000

Works on Lego Minifigs too…

Made me laugh so hard.

2008 in Review

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:28:19 +0000

Just like I did for 2007 and 2006, I bring you my review of the year, in the form of one of those annoying round-robin email type question things. Yeah!.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Learned to drive.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Didn’t make any this year. Next year’s will be to properly beast it on the bike.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not that I noticed.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

5. What countries did you visit?

France, Spain, Ireland, Holland and Malaysia.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

No knee injuries, no big crashes.

7. What date(s) from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

22 August; passed my driving test (1st attempt, 1 minor).

14th July; seeing the Tour de France on Hautacam.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Learning to drive (this will get old).

My three (minor) race wins deserve a mention too.

9. What was your biggest failure?

My second knee injury, killed my season after only three races. Crashing the week before Drumlanrig, and not racing due to recovery.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

See above.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Another year with a lot of purchases; possibly the new TV or my SIDs.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Mine… learning to drive snore

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Royal Mail, again. Oh, and the RBS business team for being slooow.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Bikes.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Driving.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want Is You

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier.

ii. thinner or fatter? The same, as always!

iii. richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Racing.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Not riding.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Mum’s for Christmas day, Dad’s for Boxing day.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

Clients, nailing down specs for work. Again.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Yeah, she ’s lovely. :o) Again!

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

That’s a bit rude! But since you ask, none. Again, woo!

24. What was your favorite TV program?

The Big Bang Theory.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nah, I’m pretty mellow with everyone. Same again.

26. What was the new best book you read?

The Rider – Tim Krabbe and Sam Garrett.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The Juno Soundtrack.

28. What did you want and get?

A TV, a new race frame. A Magnus dog.

29. What did you want and not get?

A badger. I did see a fair few though.

30. What was your favorite new film of this year?

No Country for Old Men.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 23, and I have no idea what I did.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A badger.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

It was the closest thing to hand when I wanted to put clothes on. Same as last year.

34. What kept you sane?

The bike. Same as last year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Um………none come to mind. Again.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

That the long-term unemployed are finally getting a boot in the backside.

37. Who did you miss?

Umm…

38. Who was the best new person you met?

Kamal, what a coding legend.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:

Take an umbrella.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

“I got soul but I’m not a soldier”

Broken Comments

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:34:23 +0000

It has come to my attention that a change to my comments system made two months ago didn’t go so well.

I had intended for all spam comments to be deleted immediately. This was happening, but a bug caused all good comments to be saved, but marked as spam.

Fixed now. Apologies to all those affected, I’ll reply as soon as I can.

Splitting Up

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:19:55 +0000

This year I have been thoroughly put off from blogging about things in case I alienate readers, who are interested in one subject, by talking about another. Obviously those people with an interest in competitive cycle racing and ruby love this blog, but the others are sort of left with a bitter-sweet taste on reception of my RSS feed.

So, I’ve decided to solve this by having three categories, each with an RSS feed. If you are interested in my posts, but only one subject, you can now pinpoint what you want with one of the following three categories…

Bike (RSS)

Riding, racing, kit and general cycle related babble.

Coding (RSS)

Ruby on Rails, and anything else coding or web related.

Other (RSS)

Personal stuff, holidays, photos, etc.

Everything

If you enjoy all of my stuff, then my entire blog is still available at it’s old URL and RSS. Service as usual as far as that is concerned.

So now you can look forward to lots more high-quality posts in a subject of your choosing, without being put off by all my other stuff.

Now Driving

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:59:22 +0000

To finish off a top week where I won a race, I passed my driving test today! One minor.

It took me six years (from turning 17) to get round to even getting my provisional licence, and three months (with one out of the country) to learn and pass.

Thanks very much to my instructor, Scott at Lemon Squeezy, for the great tuition.

2007 In Review

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:56:42 +0000

Just like I did last year , I bring you my review of the year, in the form of one of those annoying round-robin email type question things. Yeah!.

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?

Took part in a stage race.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

No idea if I made any for this year, doubt I will for next.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not that I can think of.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nope.

5. What countries did you visit?

Cyprus, Czech Republic, Poland.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

More focussed training, along with getting to races south of the border. So, the same as this year.

7. What date(s) from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

24th June 2007 – The day team Macchiato rocked the Etape Caledonia!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

5th place in the Drumlanrig SXC. I’ve had higher placings, but this one felt especially satisfying.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not finishing the Glentress SXC due to illness, and the string of injuries that have blighted my training plans since August.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

August – Trapped nerve in back.

September – Fever (Glandular fever re-occurence?)

October – Trapped nerve again.

December – Ligament damage in knee.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My Bianchi, though there have been a lot of great things.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

James, he graduated!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Royal Mail, again. Oh, and the RBS business team for being slooow.

14. Where did most of your money go?

The bikes, one bike, and most of another two.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

The Etape, see above.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?

Radiohead – Reckonner

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier.

ii. thinner or fatter? The same, as always!

iii. richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Racing, taken more photographs. Same as last year.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Sleeping in.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Mum’s for Christmas day, Dad’s for Boxing day.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?

Clients, nailing down specs for work. Again.

22. Did you fall in love in 2007?

Yeah, she ’s lovely. :o) Again!

23. How many one night stands in this last year?

That’s a bit rude! But since you ask, none. Again, woo!

24. What was your favorite TV program?

That 70s Show.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Nah, I’m pretty mellow with everyone. Same again.

26. What was the new best book you read?

The Death Of Marco Pantani – Matt Rendell.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?

The new Radiohead album! Not much of a discover, but it rules.

28. What did you want and get?

A fancy road bike!

29. What did you want and not get?

A badger. I did see a fair few though.

30. What was your favorite new film of this year?

Lives of Others.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 22, and I have no idea what I did.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A badger.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?

It was the closest thing to hand when I wanted to put clothes on. Same as last year.

34. What kept you sane?

The bike. Same as last year.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Um………none come to mind. Again.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?

The fact that other people get so worked up over it?!? Again.

37. Who did you miss?

Umm…

38. Who was the best new person you met?

My fellow ZoeCity developers.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007:

Say hello!

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

“Whoa whoa, we’re halfway there!”

My Gmail Doesn't Support IMAP Yet

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:19:06 +0000

IMAP still not supported on your GMail account?

To get it you must set your language to English US in GMAIL settings. The POP tab will change to include IMAP when you save and go back to settings.

Gleaned from the Gmail supports IMAP announce post comments.

Enjoy!

Christmas Starts

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:11:09 +0000

Sainsburys had Lindt Christmas chocolates in store today.

At least they didn’t have the decorations up.

It’s just too early.

On Tennis

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 16:25:34 +0000

Wimbledon is on at the moment. No, not the Wombles, the tennis! There are a few things about tennis that annoy me, let me list them…

The Scoring

0, 15, 30, 40, A. EH? Last time I checked numbers went 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! Then there is the whole match break, game break thing. Why not just make it best of 5?

My solution to this:

Keep the same rules as to when the ball is in/out etc.
One point for each opponent foul.
Best of 25 (Any odd number).
First server decided by a coin toss.

So why the complicated scoring? Without looking into it, it seems to be a class thing. All the ‘upper-class’ games such as tennis, rugby and cricket have non-simple scoring systems. Football on the other hand, is as simple as it can get. Football being a game for the masses.

The Weather

Why stop play when it’s raining? Are you a girl? Wait, half of you ARE girls (though some of those are questonable).

I just don’t understand this one. The rain starts, the covers go on. What’s wrong with a little bit of mud, would make for some interesting pitch gymnastics.

If you’re that worried about it, go back indoors all the time.

The Real Reason

A tennis game runs for an indeterminate amount of time. Thus if it’s being televised, it will more than likely cut into whatever is following it in the schedule.

And yes, that is quite often the cycling. We got 45 minutes of the Paris-Roubaix this year, because some frenchman no-one had ever heard of was playing some other similarly famous frenchman in a qualifying round of some random tournament. Meh!

I therefor propose a second scoring system:

Time limited to an hour.
First server determined by a coin toss.
No breaks or time-wasting allowed.

This would make for a far more TV-friendly game. It would fit into a TV schedule, and be a lot faster than the pace of the game as it currently is.

Rant over.

RSS Feed Address Changes

Douglas F Shearer noreply@douglasfshearer.com — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:55:00 +0000

As part of an attempt to save some bandwidth, and to prevent disruption further down the line, I am now serving my RSS feeds using Feedburner.

The new addresses for my feeds are:

Blog posts: http://feeds.feedburner.com/douglasfshearer/blog
Comments: http://feeds.feedburner.com/douglasfshearer/comments
Gallery: http://feeds.feedburner.com/douglasfshearer/gallery

I have deprecated my original feed from about 4 years ago, it now only displays a message with the new feed addresses. This will happen very soon with the current addresses from my blogging app, as I play around with the architecture.