Scott T: The Blog
"The time has come,"
Posted Sun, Jul 04, 2010 at 9:45pm by ScottTagged: everyday, uni
... the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax; Of cabbages and kings". -- Lewis Carol,. The Walrus and The Carpenter
Another four months gone already? I do wish I was able to post a bit more often, but time certainly flies with a full-time job and having to cook every night. As much as I don't miss the Uni work every evening and being in close proximity to 200 other students, I somewhat miss having meals provided as part of the accommodation. I have become quite attached to cooking a stir-fry for tea though, since they're easy to prepare, can be scaled up to ensure left-overs either for lunch or tea the next day, and taste great. I've made a few more 'involved' meals on occasion, but otherwise I like to stay simple. Now for the rundown of activity since Easter...
There's two major events - the first of which is the fact I've now got a full-time job. The major difference I've noticed when compared to Uni life is there's less spare time - mostly based on the fact that at Uni I could get away with hobbies and such when I should have been studying *cough*. On the other hand, the people I work with are great, so I'm happy.
Secondly, I graduated from Uni (with First Class Honors). Although last year was rather hectic - particularly towards the end - I guess it's all been worth it. Graduation ceremony was at the end of April - although the ceremony itself seemed rush, it was great to officially close the 4 years off. Here's a photo of me (or at least my internet-friendly photo stunt-double).
On the slightly less exciting news front, I've also left the world of a simple mobile phone behind. After four years and two Nokias (neither died - both of which still work fine), I've migrated to a smart-phone. The phone of choice is the HTC Desire, which is nearly a hardware identical to Google's Nexus One. Photo below shows the box (with 1:1 scale Desire on the front), with my old Nokia flip-phone sitting on top.
I wasn't really sure what to expect, despite having the Desire in my mind as an 'I want' back in January or February. The touchscreen keyboard is different to get used to (I do quite miss the tactile edge between keys), and the inbuilt dictionary is quite impressive. HTC Sense and their 'FriendStream' app allow easy aggregation of FB and Twitter status updates, while the seemingly border-less tie-in of Google services is great. Although pretty good out-of-the-box, the power is the Android Market (much like the iPhone's App Store). The difference is that entirely EVERYTHING about Android can be replaced via the Market - don't like the default SMS app? Change it. Don't like the keyboard? Try a different one.
A short list of some useful apps I've found:
- 3banana Notes && OI Shopping List - No note taking ability by default, so I use OI for shopping and other "todo" lists, and 3banana for everything else.
- Setting Profiles - Automatically change phone profiles, turn features on/off, etc based on rules (time, location, battery state, etc).
- Android Agenda Widget - Small widget for the homescreen for your calendar.
- Call Confirm - Confirm if you want to dial a number before doing so - particularly while learning about the phone, I had a few instances where 'dial' was not the operation I expected.
- ASTRO + ASTRO SMB - File browser for the local or remote windows file shares.
- My Tracks - Keep track of movement via GPS (usually only enabled on a long driving trip)
- Wapedia - Easy Wikipedia access - 'nuff said =P
Overall, I like the phone - quite a bit of power at your fingertips, along with a semi-decent camera (at least it's substantially better than my old phones - still not as good as a dedicated camera), plus it makes phone calls. Battery life with my usage patterns will get 2 days at a stretch (a far cry from the 1 week I'm used to), but that seems pretty normal for a smart-phone. Especially considering it stays connected to WiFi for most of the day.
On a closing note, I've also bought a coffee machine for myself - as a result, the latte art is slowly improving. I expect to get a rosetta sooner or later.
Also, the temperature has been getting pretty low here some nights (at least compared to what I'm used to, though not as cold as some of my friends have to put up with), resulting in the occasional morning of ice on the car. A novelty for me, if nothing else.
Comments
I am the Walrus. Goo-goo-joob.
A really good way of getting back that free time (and more!) is by not having a job. Where are you working? And can I have a job? ;P
Posted Mon, Jul 05, 2010 at 11:32am by Daniel Gustainis
Personally, I'd rather a job and income than live at home with free time all day, but that's just me. Am working as a programmer about 45min from Adelaide.
Posted Mon, Jul 05, 2010 at 10:41pm by Scott