Silence!

Well, following my previous blog entry I thought the "Silent Programmer" name was rather appropriate... notice the change in the title above.

Again, its been sometime since my last post, but this time there is a proper excuse...



But it came off today and to celebrate my 'one (hand) becoming two again" freedom, I have decided to blog in honour of that.

Time to change a name

It has been suggested that the sub-title of my blog is slightly mis-leading...

"if you could suck my life into the internet it would look like this..."

I've been hearing certain groanings that I don't blog enough and therefore, according to this text, my life would be pretty dull... i.e. no blog posts therefore my life looks like .

But that does tend to exclude a primary factor in this case...laziness...yes, I've just been too lazy (substitute for 'busy ') to blog anything...shocking I know, but I'm gonna try again to change that.

So in order to avoid any embarrassment on my part, especially quips about being dull and boring, I'm inviting some new suggestions for this blog title. Can anyone suggest a better name? Seriously!

Lightning Strikes!

Ever wondered what happens when lightning strikes your car?

Will it still work?

Do the tyres melt?

Does the airbag fry?

Does the petrol tank explode?

Top Gear, that great car review show in the UK, have started posting mini reviews on YouTube. And of course, they just had to find out the answer! Take a look for yourself, its an awesome experiment. Was pretty impressed the car still worked fine afterwards!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6XGKZxYxA

And if you thought that 20-year males were the stereotype most prone to pulling donuts in their a small convertibles, then think again! These 80 year old grannies showed them a thing or two!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAVCcHFam7Q

Hong Kong's first budget long haul airline

Hong Kong's first budget airline, Oasis, has finally got off the ground with an inaugural flight to London.

I'm quite excited about this as it means I'll be able to get to and from London for a lot cheaper than normal - a seriously big bonus when you work as a volunteer!

Wikipedia entry

Hong Kong's first budget long haul airline

Hong Kong's first budget airline, Oasis, has finally got off the ground with an inaugural flight to London.

I'm quite excited about this as it means I'll be able to get to and from London for a lot cheaper than normal - a seriously big bonus when you work as a volunteer!

Wikipedia entry

New York City Children

A friend of mine recently sent me this short 3 min video about a project to photograph a child from every country - but they are all living in New York.

Those of you that know me, know that I love anything multi-cultural, crossing borders and boundaries, bringing people from many nations together. So I love the motivation behind this project:

"The mission of New York City Children is to gather and nuture an inclusive community of children and create opportunities for them to meet and learn about each other and form friendships"

You'll also probably know that I really enjoy portait photography. I love taking shots of friends that reveal just one or two aspects of their character... and there's some really neat about the characters of the children captured in this sequence.

I'm not sure how many nations he's covered yet, I couldn't find a website apart from www.goodmagazine.com (which produced the short documentary) but it has no search feature! If anyone finds it, please let me know :o)

Links

• video
• www.goodmagazine.com

A new way to search my blog

The astute readers amongst you will no doubt have noticed the new "Search my blog / web" panel that has appeared on my blog. The geeks amongst you will notice that I have replaced the standard Google search box with a rather new spiced up jazzy Google AJAX widget... AJAX is a bit of a buzz word in the programming world at the moment and I was keen to get in on the action. So I borrowed this code from the nice people over at Google - thanks to Mark Lucovsky for his post and demonstration here)

Actually he's also enhanced the demo blog with some rather funky map and video searches too. Definately worth checking out and I may well play around with those in due course too!

For those of you that are "not really into that computer programming nonsense" but love to reap the benefits of long hard hours spent by coders. Click the following links and see what happens...

Sri Lanka | Fire | My car is dead | Elephant Orphanage ... and yes ... it's magic!


Programming Links:

• Google AJAX Search API
• Google AJAX Search Blog
  

Earthquake in Hong Kong

Well according to the South China Morning Post (that's a 'newspaper' for the uninitated - one of those classic daily money making schemes - SCMP for short) we had an earthquake last night measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale at 7.53pm to be precise.

Not that I actually noticed it though. I vaguely remember a slight jolt but was out having dinner at the time and was otherwise occupied! :o) And I also had a cold so wasn't really that with it at the time.

So...all this to say that, after having searched through the archives of the mother of all reliable news (aka the BBC - take that with a pinch of salt) in vain the story is nowhere to be found, so I can't even prove it to you. Alas...I fear Hong Kong could disappear into the sea and the whole of the Western World would never know.

** here endeth the sarcasm for the day. exit stage left.

Update: Matt blogged about the quake too and found a news article!

Gazing on Christ

I've started reading a book recently called "Looking Through the Glass" by Kris Lundgaard, recommended to me by a friend of mine at church.

I'm still only in the first chapter but have read this quote over and over again this past week (its on page 11 by the way, if you happen to have the book) ...

Gazing on Christ will give rest, satisfaction and peace to our souls. Our minds tend to be full of countless perplexed thoughts - fears, cares, dangers, distresses, passions and lusts throw us into disorder, darkness, and confusion. But when our best thoughts are fixed on Jesus, our hearts will be kept holy, serene, and spiritual. For "to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6 NKJV) . Reflecting on Christ takes our minds off things below - things that aren't worth comparing to the great worth, beauty, and glory of what we see in Christ (compare Philippians 3:7-11). When we take our eyes off Christ, we become strangers to heavenly life, and live without the spiritual refreshment and satisfaction that God offers in his gospel.

Time to 'stay grounded in steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted." (Colossians 1:21-23, The Message)

Alex Eating Mr Green Man!

Oh dear! Alex paid us a visit in the office the other day and proceeded to 'get to know' all of our toys by eating them! Here is Mr Green Man meeting Alex for the first time...head first! Mr Orange Man and Mr Blue Man have already dived for cover!

I've been in the UK for the past month and now that I'm back here in Hong Kong it's no surprise to see how much Alex has changed. Babies have a habit of doing that! It's very cool to see this little man growing up. He's got such a good baby-attitude, like not being too grumpy when his mum can't pick him up, but happy to sit and play (well most of the time I see him anyway!)

Its just in this case that 'playing' involved the attempted incapactation of a dearly-beloved toy. You'll be pleased to here that he pulled through and is currently undergoing rehabilitation at a secret location!