Ubiquity
Mozilla Labs released version 0.1 of Ubiquity the other day. It's a Firefox extension that's somewhat akin to the Quicksilver app that many Mac owners will swear by. By invoking a hot-key and typing natural-language commands you can do all sorts of useful mashup-type things - really its easier to watch the video on that page than to explain.
It's still a very early version, but it's already pretty awesome, and I particularly like how easy it is to extend. So much so, that in my lunch break today I was able to knock together a quick script to allow posting to similarly-awesome multi-service posting site Ping.fm. If you have Ubiquity installed, you can add the "Ping" command by clicking here.
Update: Now supports different post types and titles for blog posts.
Update 2: Now split into multiple commands, to work around Ubiquity's parameter-parsing problems. Further updates will be posted to my new development blog instead of here.
Labels: development, ubiquity, web
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Monday, August 25, 2008
Washing Up In Film
Someone recently found this blog after searching for the above phrase.
For my money, Pedro Almodovar's Volver contains the best shot of someone doing the washing up in cinematic history.
This has nothing to do with the fact that it's Penelope Cruz performing the domestic chore in question, honest.
Labels: movies
link | 0 comment(s) | links to this postWednesday, August 20, 2008
Frankenbaby
Babies skulls aren't one piece of bone but consist of a number of plates that can slide and shift, primarily to allow them to squeeze through a particularly narrow exit on day one. Unfortunately, since babies tend to lie on their backs a lot, this can cause the rear of their heads to go a little bit... flat. Aidan's been going that way, and while it does normally go away on its own, but we thought we'd try one of those special cot pillows that are specially shaped to the curvature of the skull, in the hope that it would make him a bit more comfortable in his cot. Lo and behold, he went down with much less fussing last night, and we actually got a bit of sleep. He's still in growth-spurt mode, and he needed feeding twice in the night, but being able to put him back in his cot afterwards without half an hour of rocking is a godsend.
This morning he was keeping eye contact with me as I moved from side to side, and smiling when I pulled faces, so his wee brain's developing right enough. Getting a bit of feedback from him makes it all worthwhile.
Labels: diary
link | 3 comment(s) | links to this postTuesday, August 19, 2008
ZOMG
Exceptionally tired today. The wee man's going through a growth spurt, and has been since Friday. This is, apparently, normal at six weeks, and involves him demanding to be fed continually. He eats, falls asleep, wakes up, and screams to be fed again. It should only last for a few days, but it's exceptionally stressful, especially for his mum who has to actually feed him. Once fed he sleeps on her lap, but using these periods of respite to catch up on our own sleep is problematic since any attempt to move him into his cot wakes him up and the crying starts again.
Allegedly this happens just before a major phase in his development, and is him fuelling up for a few days where he will sleep a lot more while his body and brain make use of all the nutrients he's stuffed himself with. I. Can't. Wait.
Labels: diary
link | 0 comment(s) | links to this postSaturday, August 09, 2008
The Holy Trinity
As a new father there are many experiences and landmark moments in my son's life that I look forward to sharing. One of these is watching Star Wars for the first time. However, George Lucas' recent crimes against his own creation mean that, when the time comes, I will face certain uncomfortable choices. Obviously we'll be watching the original trilogy, but how does one approach the topic of the sub-par prequels with a small child? Do I simply not mention them, and deny all knowledge when he inevitably wonders about the "Episode IV" subtitle on A New Hope? He'll find out for himself sooner or later, though. Perhaps one should take a strictly prohibitive standpoint, but then there's the risk of him rebelling once he's a teenager and sneaking out to watch "The Phantom Menace" at a friend's house. I suppose I should just show them to him myself, after watching the originals, of course, but then I worry that, having been spoiled by the CGI-heavy kids movies of the early 21st century, he'll find stop-motion AT-AT walkers as hokey and unconvincing as my generation finds CGI Gungans. Even forgetting about the prequels for a moment, there's the question of which version of the classics to watch - the original cinema releases or the late-90's "special editions?" And what of the other spinoff media, including the new Clone Wars movie and whatever other cash-ins that Lucasfilm farts out in the coming years?
I dunno, it's a can of worms. Maybe it's better just to spare him the pain and confusion.
Now don't get me started on Indiana Jones. At least the Back To The Future movies are safe. But for how long?
Labels: movies
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