Google Wave Invite – A Haiku Contest!

Google Wave is “a personal communication and collaboration tool”.

Google Wave is designed as the next generation of Internet communication. It is written in Java using OpenJDK and its web interface uses the Google Web Toolkit. Google Wave works like previous messaging systems like email and Usenet, but instead of sending a message along with its entire thread of previous messages, or requiring all responses to be stored in each user’s inbox for context, message documents (referred to as waves) that contain complete threads of multimedia messages (blips) are perpetually stored on a central server. Waves are shared with collaborators who can be added to or removed from the wave at any point during a wave’s existence.

Via Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave

Like many Google products they are not publicly available for what can seam like years! Google Wave has been sending invites for a while now and I have been given a second batch. So the last time I announced on Twitter that I had some to giveaway I got more responses than I could deal with. So this time I asked my Twitter followers how I should decide to pass these invites along. Well it came down to a haiku contest.

A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively. Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku.

I have 9 Invited to give away, so if you are interested leave a haiku in the comments and I will pick at random 9 winners on Friday the 13th (spooky).

Feel free to enter multiple times but make sure your entries are different.

Aptana 2.0 != PHP

Aptana… What can I say? It has been a love hate relationship, from poor initial 64bit support. Its lack of efficient FTP support. Its wavering pro features that eventually trickled down to the community version, and then removing the pro version altogether.

I have been using Aptana for years, and have had a lot of frustration over its development. It seemed that every update caused an issue with something I needed or was working before the latest update. But when it came to PHP in my mind it was an excellent tool.

Aptana as you may or may not know is based off of the open source project Eclipse. And like many other applications based on Eclipse (Flex, Zend Studio, and more). But Aptana developed their own PHP Plug-in that was very good, and with version 1.5 of Aptana I think people saw a great improvement.

Now Aptana is toting there IDE as the “Leading IDE for Web APP Development” that could be true, just as long as you are not planning to release a web app based on PHP.

Version 2 was released about a week ago along with the news that if you wanted PHP support that you would have to use the PDT plug-in. This made people upset and disappointed.

To be fair Aptana has not completely ditched PHP, they are now contributing to the PDT project. The only problem is that the PDT project was the reason many people used Aptana in the first pace. It is slow, bloated, and not as easy to use as Aptana’s own PHP plug-in.

So where does that leave us? Well if you look in the discussions many people are voicing outrage and that PDT or Aptana no longer tools they wish to support. Many alternatives have been suggested, many are not free. Coda, Netbeans, and Textmate.

But remember i said that Aptana is now contributing to the PDT project? Well they may have made a poor decision in removing PHP support so soon. Without having something significant accomplished for the PDT project like restoring some of the same functionality that the Aptana PHP plug-in had. If they only waited to announce this migration and released the new PDT with an improvement then I think there reputation might have been spared, the php community is not a YoYo and it is on the way down and may not return back.

Fifty People, One Question

Benjamin Reece’s videos from ask yourself are simply inspiring. The simple honesty from complete strangers is something I love about these videos.

Links:

• http://www.vimeo.com/deltree/videos
• http://vimeo.com/askyourself

What happened to the gallery?

What happened to the gallery?

Well to say it short, I have not had time to update the gallery. My new photos are all in my photo blog www.thewonderingphotographer.com But for the past week or two I have not had time to post new images there. I can assure you that as soon as I do the photo blog will be filled to the gills with new images!

Give the gift of a DNA Portrait

I came across this site today and after looking at all the press around the DNA Portrait I may be the only person in the world seeing this for the first time.

A Canadian company knows as DNA11 offers creative and unique pieces of art centered on your genes and unique features.

You can get DNA Portraits, Fingerprints Portraits, as well as Kiss Portraits in any imaginable colour combination you would like as well as a wide verity of framing and mounting options.

Check them out: DNA11

We Were Promised Jetpacks

We Were Promised Jetpacks formed in Edinburgh, in 2003. The band played their first gig at their school’s ‘battle of the bands’ competition, which they won. The four-piece eventually relocated to Glasgow:

“There was a time when we first moved to Glasgow (we grew up and went to school in Edinburgh, then three of us moved to Glasgow and one of us to Stirling) and started playing proper gigs in proper venues. Playing in Edinburgh before was weird as we were underage, so ended up playing some odd nights. Which was cool, but when we moved to Glasgow we were of drinking age and we started playing places like Sleazy’s and whatnot. We felt like a proper band.”

In September 2008, the band supported Frightened Rabbit during their tour for The Midnight Organ Fight.

The band signed to Fat Cat Records after the label listened to some MySpace friends of Frightened Rabbit.

On June 15, 2009, the band released their debut album, These Four Walls, and performed the album in full at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Via: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Were_Promised_Jetpacks

Links:

• http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks
• http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artistInfo.php?id=131

Dr. Dre Beats Tour

I have been using the same old pair of Sony monitor headphones for 7 years now, in that time I have broken both adjustment pieces. If you were to take a look you would see Super Glue and Tape, a sad attempt to keep them together. I have gone through 3 pairs of apple iPod headphones (not the best) wither the cables broke or they simple died.

I started to look at headphones and ideally wanted to avoid ear buds. Since I am a bike commuter I cannot ware monitor headphones and a helmet at the same time. So I began to look at
Shure, Bose, Sennheiser and Monster for headphones. It was not new to me that Dr Dre has a set of headphones called Beats. When I compared the price of all for brands (about $160-200cnd) I found it hard to tell what would be a good fit for me. I settled on the Monster Bears for couple of reasons. I don’t need a mic which some only came in, and I wanted a cable that would not brake or get tangled (I heard it took 10 years to develop the cables).

That said, they sound great. There noise isolation is very good and when you take them out event with the volume cranked you can barely hear them.

They sound really good on my iPod and they sound even better on my harman/kardon receiver.

Get some

Jupiter One

Jupiter One is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2003. Inspired by a wide range of influences, they create upbeat indie pop songs, with a grounding in futuristic-sounding New Wave-style synth sounds. Their self-titled debut album was released by Cordless Recordings in 2007.

K Ishibashi and Zac Colwell are the founding members of the group. Other members are K’s wife Mocha, a Japanese-born keyboardist and violinist, drummer Dave Heilman, and bassist Pat “Panda” Dougherty.

Links:

• http://www.jupiterone.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_One
• http://www.myspace.com/jupiterone

The Rexall Edmonton Indy 2009

It’s that time of year again when the Rexall Edmonton Indy rolls into town. It’s easy to tell, streets are blocked off, signs go up advertising parking for $20 and you can hear the cars from miles away.

Should be some nice weather, luckily they missed last weekend’s 140 km/h winds that did a lot of damage to trees and buildings.

I hope everyone enjoys the noise, and the excitement!

http://www.edmontonindy.com/