Computers can sometimes be evil piles of shite

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I’ve had to do not one but two factory restores on my tablet and I still need to manually faff with updating the firmware. I had to root it to solve a known issue in android ICS. When the JB update came available OTA, I couldn’t run the update because my tablet was rooted. The only way to do a stock restore was to flash the official ROM. That kinda sorta worked, but for some godforsaken reason, my lock screen disappeared and was replaced with a promo-type display. There were a few other weird behaviours as well, like the fact that some configuration settings would not stay put, no matter how many times you set them. Unacceptable. A full data wipe/restore did nothing to fix this either. So now I downloading yet another 1gb ROM to see if I can get my baby back into a usable state. Grrr.

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Best code comments

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Software developers are a whimsy bunch. Sometimes, the long hours and tiredness makes your brain go bye-bye. This is the result:

/**
* For the brave souls who get this far: You are the chosen ones,
* the valiant knights of programming who toil away, without rest,
* fixing our most awful code. To you, true saviors, kings of men,
* I say this: never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down,
* never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry,
* never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.
*/

// 
// Dear maintainer:
// 
// Once you are done trying to 'optimize' this routine,
// and have realized what a terrible mistake that was,
// please increment the following counter as a warning
// to the next guy:
// 
// total_hours_wasted_here = 42
// 

//When I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing
//Now, God only knows

stop(); // Hammertime!

//Dear future me. Please forgive me. 
//I can't even begin to express how sorry I am.  

//private instance variable for storing age
public static int age;

options.BatchSize = 300; //Madness? THIS IS SPARTA!

//I am not sure why this works but it fixes the problem. 

//This code sucks, you know it and I know it.  
//Move on and call me an idiot later.

// I am not responsible of this code.
// They made me write it, against my will.

// drunk, fix later

#define TRUE FALSE //Happy debugging suckers

I’m probably guilty of a few similar ones myself. Makes me giggle :)

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Quotes of the day

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From Neil Gaiman

A decade ago, I wrote:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

And almost half a decade ago I said,

…I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple. And it’s this.

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

gaiman
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Christmas & New Year’s pictures are up

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All pictures are here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/xmas_2012/

So, Katy’s birthday, Christmas and New Year’s have come and gone for another year. We ate too much (SO MUCH FOOOOOOD), drank too much (GIN and ESPRESSO MARTINIS) and were silly just enough. All in all, it was a good celebration. I got some cool t-shirts, a framed print, some smellies, a paella pan, a meat grinder and a new guitar case. Bean was really distraught on Christmas day when he thought that Santa hadn’t come during the night (because he hadn’t heard him) but his mood quickly brightened when he saw the mound of presents waiting for him. Stu got the best reaction ever though when Bean saw the remote-controlled digger Santa got for him.

The vacation was good, but I’m glad to be back at work so that I can take a vacation from my vacation :)

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New Year’s Eve antipasti

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I saw a picture online in a foodie magazine and it inspired me to make my own antipasti platter for new years. We had air-cured ham and bresaola (not show, it was put in a separate dish because Katy’s mum is Hindu), stuffed olives, smoked duck breast, marinated roasted red peppers, pickled onions, smoked sausage, gherkins and roasted artichoke hearts.

NUMMAY!

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[Recipe] Chocolate panettone bread & butter pudding

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panettone-pudding

INGREDIENTS:

for the egg custard

6 medium eggs + 1 yolk
500ml single cream
500ml full fat milk
180g castor sugar
1 Vanilla pod or 3 teaspoons vanilla essence

for the rest

200g melted butter
2oog castor sugar
300g dark chocolate broken into pieces or chocolate buttons
zest and juice of 1 large orange
And most importantly your Panattone.

1. First of all pre-heat your oven too 180c
2. slice your Panettone into medium sized wedges
3. Sprinkle half of the castor sugar over base of dish, and half of chocolate. Cover with slices of Panettone
4. Melt your butter in a bowl in a microwave or a pan on the stove
5. Pour your melted butter over your panettone base
6. Grate the zest of 1 large orange over your pudding
7. Then squeeze the Juice of the orange all over
8. Sprinkle the rest of the castor sugar and chocolate over the Panettone
9. For egg custard heat the milk and cream in a pan with 1 split Vanilla pod/vanilla essence
10. Beat your eggs + 1 yolk in a bowl with 180g of sugar, then pour over boiled milk&cream , continually whisking.
11. Sieve your egg custard then pour evenly over the panettone base
12. Press down the Panettone into the egg mix and leave to stand for at least 20 mins. place in pre-heated oven for 35 minutes until set
13. When its out of the oven, stick a knife in the centre, if no liquid comes to the surface then your pudding is ready
14. To finish off dust with icing sugar

Its now ready to serve :)

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