Some people lust for months, years or even decades over a Leica camera due to the huge expense involved in buying into that system. The idea of getting a Leica occurred to me in town on Saturday and today, Tuesday, it was finally in my hands. What’s more, it took just a minute to convince Hilary about the Leica idea. Most spouses would resist the Leica move, put up huge roadblocks or threaten all manner of dire consequences but — all credit to Hilary — she was the main facilitator in the Leica acquisition!

Here it is…

Ain’t it a beaut’? And, in fitting with the high-end Leica brand, the case is made from 100% natural silk yarn. Hilary has made a few of these iPhone “socks” at this stage (a strawberry, teddy bear, etc) which you can see if you’re on Ravelry (she’s ‘hilser’) or an early one in this Venture Beat article. If they wasn’t so labour-intensive I’d convince her to set up an Etsy shop… especially for the Leica version as Leica-owners probably have more money than sense and that’s exactly the sort of people you want as customers

Thanks Hilary, you’re an absolute gem and a very talented lady. I love you!

Sugru is awesomeness disguised as plasticine/playdoe/Mála/exercise putty. It’s a sticky putty substance that air-dries into a solid, hard (non-tacky) surface that remains stuck to whatever you stuck it to. If you can’t think of a million uses for something like this (shame on you!) then the Sugru blog has some ideas.

My immediate idea was to fix the ergonomics of my Sony a200 DLSR. You see, camera manufacturers think that cheap cameras should only be bought by people with small hands and the rest of us can just upgrade to their pro range of cameras. Or, you could sugru-ify your entry-level camera! I decided to improve the finger grip (particularly around the little finger) and fill out the palm rest to provide a bit more stability — I’m even more concerned about the ergonomics since my wrist is only out of a cast since last week.

Problem #1: Not enough support for the little finger

Problem #2: Space between the camera and palm

Stage 1: The hand grip

Stage 2: The palm rest
I left enough space to ensure that the battery and card compartment doors still worked.

“But… but… why did you use those colours? Didn’t you just ugly up your camera?”

Well, I could have used black but there’s no point in hacking something unless everyone notices it. I’m sure it’ll make a good ice-breaker at a photo walk (it also makes it damn obvious which camera is mine!).

Bonus Hack #1: The AF/MF button is waaayy too fiddling for a cold, dark night in the middle of a field.
I added a blob of sugru and made the grip surface using a cocktail stick

Bonus Hack #2: Replaced the missing feet off my laptop battery

In all, I used 20g of green sugru and another 10g of orange… so there’s still plenty left in my 75g multipack. I’ll be testing the durability of my hack over the coming weeks to see if the sugru starts to come apart, detach or get very marked but so far I’m really pleased. In fact, I think I might add a further piece around the thumb grip and base of my hand.

Another thought: After 2-3 manic days doing too much, Hilary asked me if I was ready to go back to work on Monday (after my gallbladder operation last week). My response, as always, was:

“If I start work on a Monday morning all bright-eyed and
bushy-tailed then I know I’ve wasted my weekend. If I’m completely
fucking exhausted, I know I’ve done my best to cram 7-days of life
into a 2-day weekend. I’ve lived“

First stop was Cork’s English Market which was pretty much a trial-by-fire for me. Firstly, I had to find something to photograph and I tried to recall photos I’d liked from more exprienced street photographers. Also, there was no hiding and discretely snapping away — everyone could see exactly what/who you were photographing and I get pretty self-conscious photographing other people. I ended up mostly focusing of the food or engaging in some meta-photography — photographing photographers taking photographs.

Once out on the Grand Parade I was feeling a lot more comfortable and could start using subjects/styles I was more comfortable with. In this case, slow-shutter speed and panning with the traffic.

Lastly, I indulged in some more meta-photography as everyone was lined up along the bridge to see the last of the Lee Swimmers home.

I shot about 180 photos (making me very conservative compared to others), edited it down to 75, and I’ve published 30 on my Smugmug gallery. I’ll be sharing them on the photoblog during the week.

Two earlier second generation drugs, terfenadine (Seldane) and astemizole (Hismanal), in rare cases, caused dangerous heart rhythm abnormalities, particularly in high doses or in people who have liver disease or are taking certain other medications or ingesting grapefruit juice…  Allegra, Zyrtec, and Claritin do not appear to pose any of the dangers associated with Seldane. Until more is known, anyone who takes a second-generation antihistamine [such as Zyrtec or Claritin], though, should probably avoid or use with caution combinations with grapefruit juice…

Not exactly the cure I was looking for.

There does seem to be anecdotal evidence that grapefruits can prevent hayfever but nothing I couldn’t find about how or why, so perhaps I’m a unique case. Anyway, if you’re a hayfever sufferer and your eyes are watering to the point of distraction, try drinking a bit of grapefruit juice. After all, whatever doesn’t kill you might cure you!

P.S. remember, I’m not a Doctor — not even a pretend one, so don’t blame me if it all goes tragically wrong.

I have gallstones, as did my wife, and there’s a 1 in 5 chance that you will suffer from them during your lifetime. Basically, these little deposits can be a small as a grain of sand (mine are quite small) and happily sit in your gallbladder without generating any symptoms. However, when they do cause problems it often feels like this iconic scene from Alien:

Ultimately, the only real cure for gallstones is to have your gallbladder removed. However, in the meantime, you’re going to need to control your diet to avoid these devastating attacks and prepare for surgery (I believe surgeons won’t operate if the gallbladder is inflamed). Here’s some ideas for a gallstone-attack-avoidance diet:

The aim

A low fat diet which minimises the occurrence of gallstone attacks. Typically, you need to restrict yourself to items with less than 5g fat per 100g serving (i.e., < 5% fat). Do not be confused by product labelling which gives the fat content of a smaller serving or the percentage of your daily fat allowance — both will get you into trouble. Always check the label!

Things to avoid

• Any Butter
• Oil – if you need a little oil for frying use spray-on oil which is very efficient and actually contains an oil/water mix
• Chocolate
• Fatty meats such as duck and lamb
• Cream
• Cheese
• Some curry sauces (too creamy)
• Cheesy pasta sauces / Italian dishes such as lasagne
• Replace full-fat milk with semi-skimmed or skimmed (I seem to be fine on semi-skimmed milk)
• Breakfast / Energy bars
• Crisps
• Nuts

Main Courses

• Meat: Chicken, lean mined beef, white fish, pork rashers or ham with all the fat trimmed off
• Pasta sauces: Most tomato-based sauces contain very little fat (the “light” sauces are actually light on sugar). Make your own creamy pasta sauce with light or extra light Philadephia and some semi-skimmed milk —just remember to add plenty of herbs to taste!
• Stir fry: Most asian sauces are fine
• Spicy foods: Chilli and some curry sauces are fine (but not those which are based on coconut milk)
• Rice, potatoes and pasta will form the bulk of the meal
• Add plenty of interesting veg too!

Dessert / Treats / Snacks

• Yoghurt
• Yoghurt drinks like Yop!
• Low-fat flavoured milk
• Weight-watchers desserts (mousse things with < 5% fat)
• Jacobs Low-fat fig rolls
• Jaffa Cakes
• Toast and jam (no butter!)
• Fruit: anything and everything except avocados
• Fruit smoothies like Innocent drinks (just watch out for anything with cream or ice cream)
• Jelly sweets
• Mints
• Low-fat “diet” bars like Alpen and Fitnesse bars (a great way to sneak a little chocolate in!)
• Starbucks “skinny” muffins (and a no-fat banana & choc chip muffin recipe Hilary found) but beware because the regular muffins ruined a perfectly good Friday!

Enter Sanyo’s eneloop batteries. Here’s why eneloops need to be the standard batteries available in all shops (the government should really mandate them like energy-saving lightbulbs):

• The batteries are ready-to-use when you buy them.  No initial charge required, just use them like regular alkaline batteries
• They can be recharged up to 1000 times, just like regular rechargeable batteries
• They use standard NiMH rechargers.  No new equipment required
• They have considerably better self-discharge rates. Unlike NiMH rechargeables, eneloops hold their charge so I can leave them in the car for a few months and still expect them to work
• They function much better than NiMH batteries in cold temperatures, which is particularly important at the moment!
• They come in standard AA and AAA sizes with compatible voltages

4xAA eneloops

eneloops seem to cost a little bit more than standard NiMH rechargables, and they don’t carry quite as much charge (2000mAh vs 2500mAh) but they hold on to it for longer.  Altogether, I can’t find a reason to favour NiMH rechargables over eneloops.

Amazon.co.uk stock them but won’t ship to Ireland so I bought mine from batterycity.ie.

Footnote: I’ve just discovered that Duracell are finally bringing to same technology to the Energizer range, so look out for Energizer ActiveCharge batteries coming to a supermarket near you!

This got me thinking about software development as a career choice for me:

• Other than wanting to be a fast jet pilot (eyesight too short, legs too long), I’ve never considered a career in anything other than software.
• I have no desire to leave the software development industry.
• I enjoy programming to an extent that I do it in my spare time (but it’s not all I do in my spare time).
• I don’t enjoy sitting down for 8 hours a day. I need fresh air and a walk a few times a day.
• I’m currently employed by a huge software company, at a low level position, doing not very interesting work
• I don’t see much of a career path within those types of organisations which have the potential to support a family
• I am very excited by the potential to create small businesses based on software. The costs and lead-in times have never been shorter although you still need to actually sell the product.
• I program because I want the end result to exist. I don’t particularly care whether it is me or someone else that develops it, just so long as the product exists.
• Since I’m motivated by the result, I often get very frustrated when the actual development gets in the way. If the documentation is lacking, or a piece of code isn’t working as expected, I get annoyed.
• Since I care about the result, I’ve become extremely disillusioned with convoluted architectures. My experience is that they cause more problems than they actually solve and rarely live up to the expectations.
• If I had the money to hire a designer and programmer to implement my ideas, I would. I don’t care about the code that much.
• I don’t know a great deal about low-level details of hardware or software. I generally don’t care about algorithmic complexity until I have to care about it.
• I prefer clean, obvious, well-commented code to “smart” or “clever” code. I’ve found that extremely smart people (up in the genius IQ range) tend to make terrible software engineers.
• I am surprised by the lack of outside programming interest by my colleagues. They don’t code at home, buy programming books, or learn new technologies on their own initiative.
• I despise restrictive development practices and micro-management (either by people or systems). Trust and respect me. Don’t build in systems and “process” that prevents me from doing my job.
• I don’t like being treated like a hammer (“Hammer, go hit that nail”). If there’s no creativity then the enjoyment is lost too.
• I cannot stand technology that doesn’t actually help anyone (particularly expensive, broken technology that is sold to the unsuspecting user)

“Never tell a Ranger there’s something he can’t do – it’ll only make him do it bigger, better and with an ongoing sense of interest” — The Unit

At the moment I’m fairly intent on doing anything someone says not to, and especially anything that I can’t physically do. I can’t sleep because I’m thinking that I need to be climbing mountains to take photographs (which of course I can’t because my left foot is giving me too much pain so I couldn’t even drive to the mountain).  Suddenly, writing telecoms management software doesn’t add enough meaning to my life.  Now I need to accomplish everything that my injuries are preventing me from doing.  You never know what you had until you lose it, eh?