Terabyte Labs

I thought I’d make a list of some projects and tasks that I’d like to complete sometime in the future. It seems that right now I don’t have much more free time than I need to shop, cook, eat and sleep but if I write something down here hopefully it will give me a better idea of how to organise my time.

Website

• Create a new front page of the site and move the blog to the sub page. done
• Add more projects and content to the site. done
• Integrate my photo gallery to the site and upload all my digital photos. in progress
• Add a personal section including a CV.

Projects

• Finish Shyguy’s Cave of Death. done
• Finish the Word Dissociation Game.
• Start on a new Slick based project (maybe a multi-player rpg of some kind).
• Learn C++ by creating a Project Euler solution compendium. in progress

Other

• Sort out my finances.
• Save enough money to buy a PC.
• Tidy my room.

I’m sure there are more but I think that’s more than enough to get me started.

Code, Life, Random | No Comments »

Recently we’ve been hearing about new classes of stimulant drugs such as Modafinil which supposedly promote wakefulness rather than hyperactivity or euphoria. These kinds of drugs appear to be very effective at reducing sleepiness and improving concentration and memory without affecting sleep or having any side effects from withdrawal.

Modafinil and other drugs in its class are sold to help sufferers of Narcolepsy or ADHD but are widely used by people with no such conditions as a way of simply enhancing their general brain functions. Millions of us could benefit from holding better concentration while at work or at school. Or remembering things such as timetables or doing mental arithmetic.

There are few other non-medicinal self enhancement drugs that offer so much potential benefit to such a wide range of people. Caffeine seems to be the nation’s current brain fuel of choice but most people who take it regularly end up simply using it to abate the withdrawal symptoms of the caffeine taken the day before. The question therefore becomes, should people take drugs simply to better themselves? Should people be allowed to use them while taking or revising for exams? Should people be allowed to use them to gain advantages over colleagues at work? Why shouldn’t people be able to function at a higher level than they would naturally? After realising how much better they can be, why would anyone want to live a drug free life?

Personally I find it very difficult to concentrate throughout the day unless I’ve had at least 8 hours’ sleep. My job requires a high level of concentration and logical processing for which I need the highest level of alertness I can get. I would love to try a Modafinil some day just to see how much more code I can churn out in a day. What I’m not so sure about is do I want to need to take the drug every day in order to maintain the same productivity at work? Even if there’s no danger of physical or psychological dependence would I develop a functional dependence such that the drug effectively becomes a medicine rather than a self enhancement?

My theory is that if Modafinil came in a hot drink form, it would so conveniently replace coffee and tea that people would reject any attempts to limit its use by the government. Also it would probably need to be bitter in taste enough to discourage children from becoming dependent on it. Hmm I guess this is how consumption of caffeine and alcohol has worked for centuries. Isn’t it convenient to have traditional beverages to mask our widespread drug taking customs?

Life, Random, Work | 2 Comments »

Since its beginning, Google Maps has always been the best web mapping program out there. Everyone was amazed when Google introduced draggable maps that actually filled your screen rather than some tiny portion of your browser that was enclosed by ads. Then shortly after they wowed us again by introducing Satellite images. Then a great thing occurred on the 19th March 2005 when Great Britain was added to the Google World. Of course since then Google have done a fantastic job of improving the parts of the world covered, the road data in more countries, the improved driving directions, better local business listings, traffic info etc. But one thing that I’ve always thought was missing ever since I started to use Google Maps was being able to save customised data to your maps. The most obvious example is storing a collection of saved locations. Other programs have been able to do this long before Google Maps introduced it a few months ago. Finally, more recently we’ve seen the addition of stored routes along with detailed HTML descriptions and also the ability to share your custom mapping information publicly. This makes a welcome improvement as a lot more information can now be given by allowing people to write about their local area and share the information via a map. As an example, I’ve created a map showing the route I take to cycle to work.

But I believe there are still many improvements I’d like to see from Google maps. One thing is the ability to see the length or a route. At least that way I could actually see how fast I cycle when I go to work. It would also be nice to be able to list all the businesses on a particular street and see where they are. That way you could go browse the high street shops without having to walk along it.

The profusion of 3rd party programs based on the Google Maps API demonstrates the capabilities that the Google Maps technology has. I hope we haven’t seen the last of the new developments to this great program.

Tech | No Comments »

I’m normally pretty good with taking care of my stuff. In fact I don’t think I lost anything more valuable than a pen until a few months ago. I guess it started with potentially my most valuable possession of all – my wallet. I was returning on the train slightly dazed and weary and must have not made the effort to place my wallet back into my pocket after taking it out to put my train ticket in it. I got off the train without my wallet and didn’t realise until that evening. I canceled my debit card and requested a replacement the following morning. Fortunately no one had tried to charge anything on the card before then. I’m incredibly bad at getting things done (the number of things I’m putting off by writing this is testament to that) so I didn’t bother to replace my driver’s license, young person’s railcard or the wallet itself. The only thing I replaced was the oyster card which is pretty essential if you’re traveling around London all the time. About two weeks later I got a letter saying that my wallet was at Berko station. I picked it up and the only thing missing from it was the oyster card.

Next I was on a bus and left a carrier bag containing the lease for my house and my empty lunch container. Again nothing valuable lost.

Then I managed to leave my bag at the pub (my nice back rucksack this time) containing my trainers and a hat. Rang the pub later that night and a very unhelpful woman wasn’t even able to tell me whether they had it or not. A few days later at work the people I was with told they had it so again fortunately nothing valuable lost.

Next I managed to lose my rear bike light after using it exactly one time. Guess that fell out my coat pocket.

Next exactly one week after losing my bag at the pub I lost my bag at the pub again. This time I was well aware that I might lose but still left it unattended by the stairs at the pub and it had disappeared by the time I wanted to leave. This time the bag contained a hat, a book (a damn good one at that) and my front bike light which I’d used exactly zero times.

I really don’t know what’s changed in the past few months. I’m obviously not the kind of person to trust with keeping things safe but somehow this flaw of mine hasn’t been a problem at all in the past. I guess up till now I’ve just been incredibly lucky to find things where I expect them to be.

I’ve now got so many things to replace and it is going to be a pain to get them back. This isn’t just from losing things but replacing broken things or new things required for my house. On top of that I’ve been spending way too much money recently. I have to keep within the budget of my salary which isn’t easy when half of it is already taken up by rent. Anyway that’s for another post. Before then I still need to break down my outgoings to find out exactly what I’m spending on what.

PS: This rant may seem rather trivial given that I haven’t really lost anything of great value. Yesterday I learnt that the British teacher who was found dead in a bath tub in a Japanese apartment was actually the girlfriend of one of the editors of Bit-Tech (a site I visit often) and for some reason decreasing the degree of separation between yourself and someone else increases the empathy you feel for that person. I don’t expect anyone to feel any empathy for my losing my bag but still, at least it gives me something to blog about.

Life, Random | No Comments »