Friday, October 26, 2012
Light Flow for Android

"Lightflow" is an app for Android devices that have multicolour LEDs. I don't know how it is on devices other than mine, but on my Sony tablet, by default there's no way to manage which notifications from which apps turn the LED on, or the colours for every notification. Lightflow allows you to do all of the above. You can assign pup-up or LED notifications for a rather long list of supported apps. This is something that I find very very helpful.

Oh, and the support team for this app seems to do a pretty great job too. I requested support for "FreeNote" [about which I wrote here] to be added, and in the next release it was there. 

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Monday, October 22, 2012
FreeNote for Android

Looking at the Android app market, it seems to me like just about every developer has at some point or the other created their own "Note" app. There are more of them than one would believe... and I can say with confidence that I've tried every single one by now. =) I was looking for a rather specific feature: The ability to handwrite / draw and type in the same page, in a well formatted nicely organized manner.
And finally I've found it. The one note app to rule them all. =D It's called "FreeNote", and I get the feeling that it will soon take over preparing breakfast for you too. You can handwrite, type, insert videos, images, to-do lists and just about anything else you can imagine. Everything about this app is customizable and there are so many features and functions that I'm not even sure I've used all of them yet. Oh, and by the way the to-do lists come with the possibility of having dates and alarms [that are now supported by Light Flow... I'll write about that later...]. So if you're an Android user, do check it out. ;)

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The Day the Earth Stood Still

And here's another really really good, really really underrated sci-fi. The Day the Earth Stood Still.

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Sunday, October 21, 2012
Introduction to the Clojure Programming Language

Last week I attended an afterhours introductory lecture to the Clojure programming language [at the ETH as usual]. Currently my only knowledge of Clojure comes from a few Channel 9 talks, and this lecture gave me a better idea of what the language is all about. Now I'm finding myself getting more interested and looking for a reason to use it.

For anyone who might be interested, here you can find the lecture slides. 

There's a Clojure online REPL here. And interestingly enough there's even an Android version of the REPL available for free here.

P.S.: I now have a Clojure page on Verse.

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The Man From Earth

Last night we watched a movie by the name "The Man From Earth", about which I had heard absolutely nothing before and I think Oliv had more or less accidentally come across it. Well, it turned out to be one of those movies that's going to stay with me permanently. A fascinating idea, and some serious food for thought... apparently this movie is being compared to K-PAX, I can see why.

Great idea, great cast, great everything. I gave it 5 out of 5. If you haven't seen it yet... you probably should.

By the way, make sure to read the Wikipedia article about the movie. Some very interesting facts in there.

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Sunday, October 14, 2012
A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book 5

Couple of nights ago I finished reading "A Dance with Dragons", book 5 of "A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin. Meaning that now I have to wait till next year [supposedly] to get my hands on the next book. Too much of a bloody cliff hanger.... *sigh*

Well, it's been quite a trip. It's an amazing universe GRRM has created, with characters that are believable and understandable, and plots and events that are impossible to predicts. Everything can happen, everyone can die... and apparently everyone does die... =P Heroes make disastrous mistakes and the most brilliant set ups go gloriously wrong, and then the devil saves the day..... And you can't put the bloody book down. =)

Oh, and regarding the TV series... as great as the series are, they're not nearly as good as the books, so if you're a fan of the TV series just go and read the books... Especially in the more recent episodes the TV series has been deviating more and more from the books, somehow annihilating some interesting aspects of the story line.

So, now I'm going to go about finally finishing Codex Alera [which I've been stretching as much as I could! =P]. And after that... we'll see.

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Doctor Who: P.S.

Well, as if the last episode of Doctor Who and the final goodbye of the Ponds didn't cause me enough grief already... Here's 4.3 minutes of unshot scenes by Chris Chibnall. This is what happens after Amy and Rory are gone... again, *sniff*....

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Saturday, October 13, 2012
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

A friend was asking me today if I finally read "Inheritance", the last book in the "Inheritance Cycle" by Christopher Paolini, and what I thought about it. I remembered I never wrote anything about it...

So yes, I read Inheritance some months ago and actually like it quite a bit too. As I wrote here before, the trilogy was not exactly among my favourites. But the 4th instalment really did save the whole thing. Even though the very end left me somewhat unsatisfied, but the 4th book was able to give a new depth and direction to the cycle.

I truly enjoyed reading the 4th book, and now I'm hoping that Christopher Paolini will, as he said, at some point go back to Alagaesia and show us a bit more about the future of the main characters. I don't want to give spoilers here since a couple of friends are going to read the book soon, but lets just say that I would like Eragon to reconsider his choice of residence location eventually. ;)

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Friday, October 12, 2012
Back to Thunderbird

After about a decade and a half of using various other mail clients, the latest one of which was Windows Live Mail, I'm back to using Thunderbird again. Throughout the years I've checked back on the development of Thunderbird, but every time I gave it a try, I came across various usability issues... until now. Right now Thunderbird looks like it's finally baked properly and ready to be served.

My biggest reason for switching to Thunderbird now, is the large collection of pretty useful plugins that allow things like integration with Google calendar, Google contacts, Google reader and so on that are pretty important to me.

The only thing I'm not currently enjoying about Thunderbird is that the client still doesn't have 2 line preview for emails... and apparently due to a million and one technical reasons, on one hand the devs don't like to work on this issue and on the other hand no one has been able to write a plugin to fix this. Smallest silliest thing.... oh well. Everything else is good, so for now I think I'll be sticking to Thunderbird. =)

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012
WebPlatform.org

Not exactly a new idea, but I get the feeling this one could get interesting/useful.

"We are an open community of developers building resources for a better web, regardless of brand, browser or platform. Anyone can contribute and each person who does makes us stronger. Together we can continue to drive innovation on the Web to serve the greater good. It starts here, with you."

Check out WebPlatform.org.

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Sunday, October 07, 2012
A Dream Within a Dream

A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

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Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Music Played by Obsolete Electronics!

Is this awesome or what? =D 

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Monday, October 01, 2012
Doctor Who: Farewell Ponds!

"Hello old friend. And here we are, you and me, on the last page."

*sniff*

*sigh* 

Well, that was quite a sad and terribly abrupt end to the Pond story. Left me with teary eyes. =/ The story itself was pretty great of course. But still, I have a feeling that the end was a bit... "blah". More could have been said/done with the Ponds' final appearance. Not the saddest goodbye in the Who universe so far [that one was Rose's... always... at least for me...], but still pretty tragic. Why did they have to end up entirely out of reach anyway?

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Ahoo "Aasemoon" Pirsoleimani, 1998-2014