Monthly Archive for September, 2008

We arrived in Paris on Sunday evening, and spent Monday sightseeing in the city. We hit up a number of monuments, that I will list later once I can spell them correctly. We visited a small church in Belleville where I lived for a time as a child. I remembered some parts of it, but much had changed.

We spent yesterday in Versailles, which was really lovely, and today back in Paris and travelling out the countryside where we are now. Tomorrow we’ll be exploring the country village I spent 6 months growing up in. A lot can (and has) changed in 15 years, it would seem. It is quite strange, walking back in memories many years old. I keep expecting my mind to go *bang* and all these memories start coming back, like Jason Bourne. Not that I’ve lost any memories perse, but you know what I’m saying.

Maija and I and the fetus leave tomorrow for Paris. We’re quite excited. I used to live in Paris when I was a wee little lad, and have not been back since. We’ll also be going out to the Champagne region where I also lived, to visit the tiny village I spent time growing up in. It’s a bit odd to think about, but I’m excited to see all the places that are slowely drifting out of my memory.

After that, we’re in Toronto for a month. If you’re in Toronto, I insist we catch up.

Truth be told, I kinda like the iPhone. I’ve thought about buying one. Shocking? Haha, perhaps. I don’t want to like it really, because I don’t like Apple, but it’s a nice looking/functioning product. A good package. (My thoughts on Google Chrome are similar… nice, functional, but surely fueled by an evil empire.)

Anyway, one thing keeping me away from the iPhone is the slowly growing list of concerns surrounding it’s security and (more importantly to me) it’s openness and extensibility. Or lack thereof, it seems.

A number of sites are linking the recent story about an app Apple blocked. Here’s a summation by quotation.

Competition is like a rising tide – it generally lifts all boats. Healthy competition sparks innovation, which helps users, which drives sales. It’s a winning situation for all involved, and that includes Apple.

…

I wouldn’t invest in or develop an iPhone app because Apple could decide not to approve it, and if they don’t approve it you can’t sell it. You can’t even give it away. You don’t find out if you’ve been approved until the last step, after you’ve fully invested, so you could lose, totally, if Apple says no.

…

Simply put, Apple is stifling competition. That’s bad, but much worse is the fact that this stifling occurs at random, making it impossible for developers to determine just what will be allowed on the iPhone.

…

Consider this possibility. Next year Apple announces an app that does what your previously authorized iPhone app does. You have competition, so another competitor, even if it is the platform vendor, isn’t that big a deal, right? Well what if they de-authorize your app because it duplicates functionality of theirs? Think you could live with that?

What’s going on here?

Today I finally got a reply from Apple about the status of Podcaster.

Apple Rep says: Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.

That’s right folks, it duplicates the functionality of the desktop version of iTunes. Therefore, it was denied from sale in the app store. Although my app does allow you to listen to podcasts (like iTunes), it also allows you to download them directly to device and that is something Apple does not offer.

Podcaster is an application that lets you download podcasts. This application was denied permission for sale, by Apple, because “it competes.” Antitrust, anyone? Remind anyone of Microsoft? At least they ALLOWED competing browsers on the OS. What worries me the most is that this is not the first red paint on the Apple canvas.

Sources:
Developer of rejected app
A bridge too far…
Why iPhone is an unreliable platform

Maija and I went to a wedding today, for a friend of ours who has moved to Jyvaskyla. He’s the brother of one of Maija’s best friends, so it was a special day, and a really beautiful wedding. We hope to spend more time with them once we’re back from Toronto. The ceremony was held in the Lutheran church of Jyvaskyla building, and the reception in a hotel not far from here.

The highlight of the day was surely seeing how happy they were with each other, they were so gorgeous… but, in close second place was the genius pianist who provided entertainment! Right off the bat it was obvious the guy was talented, and had a good repertoire. For the first part of the wedding reception he played the themes from a number of films, and other general feel good music, with a few classical pieces thrown in. And then, out of nowhere, he busts out the Super Mario Brothers theme music. And I’m not talking about a little tribute, 45 seconds of Mario level 1 kind of thing… oh no. He played a good 3 minutes of dungeon level, underwater level, etc. It was superb! I gave a brief clap of appreciation as soon as he started, but when he was done fully half the room were cheering and clapping for him! What a legend. Every wedding I go to that does not feature video game theme music will pale in comparison.

For your listening pleasure, Mr Kōji Kondō’s finest works.

The holy grail of volume extension must surely be the system partition. The big C.
I normally use GParted to extend partitions (including the system partition), which is a truly marvelous tool, but requires a reboot onto a bootable CD (or USB key) for the most part. I had need just now to extend a system partition on a machine I don’t have physical access to, and so can’t put in a bootable disk. The Windows Diskpart tool won’t extend system partitions. BUT… I just came across a little tool for extending volumes offered by Dell, and it can extend the system partition just fine. Doing this poses some risk I’m sure, so always always make sure you’ve got backups. Also, if your page file is on the partition you want to extend, I’d move it elsewhere first. Otherwise, you’re good to go.

Thanks Dell!

Yesterday marked our 3 year wedding anniversary. I love my wife!
It also nearly marks the fact that we’ve been living in Finland for a year now. Crazy.
And it marks almost the halfway point to our child being released from manufacturing. Thrilling!

Life is grand.

We’re off to Paris in 2 weeks, and then Toronto for a month. Can’t wait :)

I’ve finally finished laying down the next installment of my regular trance and progressive series:

Download it here.

The third installment in my Beatitudes series comes at a slight delay since the others. I’ll blame the summer, and a lazy attitude. I’ve picked another 10 beautiful tracks from the last few months, sure to keep you happy as the autumn approaches, or the spring advances, depending on where you live. Trance music is alive and well around the world, and here’s another 55 minutes of proof.

Hawk – Out of Nowhere (Joonas Hahmo remix)
Paul Keeley – A Sort of Homecoming (Michael Cassette remix)
The Jay Lumen Vibe – Siren
Adam Nickey – Shift (Tom Cloud remix)
Embrace – Embrace (Ferry Fix mix)
Arnej – They Always Comes Back
Mohawk – Celestia (Noel Sanger remix)
Prospekt – Electrofly (Nitrous Oxide mix)
Mirco de Govia – Evolution Part 2 (Stoneface & Terminal remix)
Envio – For You (the Blizzard remix)

Download it here.