Want more details on this? Check out Brett’s Arduino Reaction Game in the projects section.

Once enabled, you get access to a staggering amount of icons! To be exact, 469 symbols, ranging from smiley faces to weather icons, flags, animal faces, (clean) hand gestures, and much more. Here’s what they all look like, screen-grabbed right on my iPhone after I put them all in an email. FYI, scaling has occurred, these are not perfect.

Diagram listing all Emoji for iPhone v2.2.1

The trick here is that while these icons look fantastic on the iPhone, when sent in SMS text messages and emails, the beautiful pictures you see above are sent as Unicode characters, as they came through to me via my Gmail:

…

These characters are part of the Private Use Area of Unicode. Which is why, if you’re viewing this page on a browser not running on an iDevice, you will see a whole slew of question marks or boxes with little letters in them, followed by the copyright, registered trademark and trademark symbols.

Doing some more research, it turns out a bug has been filed on OpenRadar outlining how Apple’s implementation isn’t even that compatible with NTT DoCoMo’s de-facto standard on ‘Pictographs’, even though it would seem they’ve implemented every single icon in that standard.

I’m not expert, but it seems that pre-Unicode, Japan standardised on Shift-JIS, a modification to ASCII that would allow the storage and display of the Japanese Hiragana and Katakana characters that make up Japanese written language. This was pressed forward into the design and manufacture of the Japanese handsets, and even into the operator’s networks, and for the time being, this means both NTT DoCoMo, the biggest telco in Japan, and Softbank, the telco serving iPhones in Japan.

NTT DoCoMo created the defacto standard on emoji on Japanese mobile phones, and have outlined the character encodings for both Shift-JIS and Unicode. Every handset in Japan supports this standard.

When the iPhone was first released, it apparently was criticised in Japan for not supporting the sending and receiving of emoji glyphs. Eventually Apple got around to it, but according to rdar://6402446, iPhone Firmware 2.2 currently implements the encoding of emoji using Unicode characters in the private use area, but not the same private use characters as the NTT DoCoMo Pictographs standard.

So it would seem that, to cut a long story short, Apple’s emoji are directly incompatible with every other handset in the world.

According to Apple, Softbank doesn’t even do translation for iPhone SMS to other Japanese handsets. It will however, translate emoji in emails, but only if you have a Softbank email address and SIM.

And because the rest of the world doesn’t have handsets that work with emoji, that’s why Apple only enables the emoji keyboard for phones with Softbank SIMs.

Still, it wouldn’t be too difficult to write a script to support emoji characters in your web app, supporting both NTT DoCoMo Unicode and Apple Emoji Unicode. Apple have done a nice job with their icons. Interesting times.

Sources:

• OpenRadar rdar://6402446: iPhone implement emoji incompatibly
• Apple KB TS2450: iPhone: Troubleshooting Emoji issues

So floppy disks are totally redundant. Very few new computers are coming with floppy drives. Ask a five-year-old kid what each of these things is:

In my totally unscientific research, I asked a mother of a six-year-old if her little boy would know what these three things were:

CDs: Yes.
Memory Card: Yes.
Floppy Disk: Probably not.

So what did software developers do? Look for a new replacement.

The past

Microsoft Office X for Mac (2001) has used a ZIP disk:

NeoOffice 2.x for Mac took me a while to figure out… Something akin to the Windows and OSX icon for Removable Drive?

Why did they have to confuse me?

The Steam Train Comparison

My reaction to this confusion was ‘why change it?’

In New Zealand, and as it turns out, Italy and Sweden, our road signs that say ‘railway level crossing’ look like this:

(courtesy ltsa.govt.nz)

But hold on, that’s a STEAM train! These trains are not around any more except for in museums and… children’s books. Of course, we all know that this sign is a train. Digging further, it turns out here in New Zealand we have a sign for ‘light rail level crossing’:

(courtesy ltsa.govt.nz)

What the hang is that… I guess it kinda looks like a train, but it’s electric, but it could be a tram.. huh… *SMACK!* Your car just got hit by an oncoming TRAIN. Talk about confusing and potentially fatal. Luckily, I’ve only got my learner driver’s licence, and I haven’t ever seen this sign in use.

My point is why change something that works?  Luckily, developers have caught on that the floppy disk is an international symbol:

The Present

OpenOffice 3.0 Beta has a floppy disk:

And thankfully, Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac has switched back to a floppy disk:

Here’s the cincher: Google Docs, a web application that doesn’t even have access to your local computer still uses the floppy disk for its save button:

Curious and Curiouser

Looking for further examples, I dug around. It turns out many applications don’t even have save buttons any more. Apple’s iWork doesn’t have a save button in any of their applications tool bars; you can’t even customise the tool bar to put one there either! I guess these applications are expecting you to memorise the more universal shortcut of Command+S or Ctrl+S

Conclusion

I think that we should stick with the floppy disk. It’s recognisable by all us old timers, but I think that young ones who haven’t seen a floppy disk will still know that it means ‘Save’.

But then again, isn’t just using the keyboard a lot quicker?

On saturday, Glutbook wouldn’t power up. It made loud fan noises, but no apple chime After trying to use the Apple website to self diagnose and repair, I bundled it up in my bag, and took it down to MagnumMac, hoping that the service department would be open.

Nope. Not available till Monday, and I wouldn’t get a verdict till then. Paying for ‘same day’ service and checking Glutbook into what could either be a hospital or a morgue, I left feeling worried about having to shell out to replace it. Talking to my friends, they said it sounded like a fried logic board; that’s basically the motherboard of the laptop — the bit that everything plugs into, except on a laptop, things don’t really plug in so much as are soldered permanently onto it. If it fails, you replace the lot.

Monday rolls around, and I get the call — Glutbook died. Probably from overheating due to a faulty fan. NZD$1500+ to repair it. Crap. Oh well, at least the hard drive, the RAM, and the two batteries I had for it are still good (stay tuned).

I ask to be transferred to sales, and I discuss a replacement over the phone, discuss finance, and end up calling the financiers to get pre-approved, which surprisingly happens over the phone — none of this two-hour waiting crap. I tell my boss the sob story and ask if I can go sort it out and get a replacement.

I really wanted the Black 13″ MacBook 2.0GHZ, but after discussing it with my friends, I was essentially paying $400 for 40gb in a matte black shell, so I asked for the one below it, which comes in white. Oh well, I thought, the HDD is user serviceable on the MacBook, unlike the iBook — if it’s not a big deal, I can put a bigger hard drive in it later. But they were out of stock! Screw it, and as my friend Matthew said on the phone, once you go black, you’ll never go back.

So in order to introduce, here’s my first post on this blog made on GlutBlack. She’s great — class act all the way! I love it’s solid keyboard, the integrated iSight camera, the magsafe power connector, and the immense improvement in speed over Glutbook. I can totally recommend the MacBook range to anyone who thinks it will suit their needs. I mean, I didn’t need an aluminium MacBook Pro, what with me mostly reading and editing text and working on the odd Fireworks PNG file.

I had a short problem upgrading the firmware to 2.0; it ‘bricked’ the device. After a bit of wiki reading and obtaining advice from djwillis on efnet#gp2xdev my SD card wasn’t playing well with the firmware upgrade software. I’m now the happy owner of a Linux-powered entertainment device! HUZZAH!

I’ve installed Quake 1, a Sega Master System emulator, a Mega Drive (Genesis) emulator, and can’t wait to see what else I can get running on this thing!

Here’s Glutbook, my 12″ iBook mac laptop sporting some new cult-of-mac jamming adhesives!

• Technorati sticker, obtained at WE05 Sydney (thanks Tantek!)
• “OBEY with caution – Blind Acceptance can be hazardous”, bought years ago in an Obey sticker pack I only just remembered I had
• Rad Rad Robotank from Strong Bad Email #139: Portrait, custom printed for NZD$15 at a sign printer here in Wellington called Asign. Supplied a EPS and it was printed and laser cut ready for sticking on in less than half a day! Awesome!

I know some mac-zealots (namely Kodiak) are gonna hate me for doing it. But that was part of the fun

Everyone in my department (apart from the course co-ordinator) owns a PSP. So I figured I should make the most of it and bite the bullet myself. Mind you, it wasn’t cheap :/ Anyway, I got the PSP value pack, a USB cable, a 1GB Memory Stick Duo and the game Mercury, and I have GTA Liberty City Stories preordered.

I also bought a UMD Movie of Steamboy, which is a great anime film — you should see it if you get the chance. But I don’t think that the PSP is a great delivery platform for a two-hour movie, unless you’re stuck on a plane and are sick of playing video games.

Also, hooray for Homebrew! After upgrading from 1.52 to 2.0 and then downgrading to 1.50, I got a Genesis/Megadrive emulator running on there!

And OMG PHEAR LUMINES. That game, once you get into it, is intense. You go into it all relaxed and you come out of it all tense and powered up. I love that game.

I like Sydney. It’s a nice place.

I got up comparatively late today: 8:30ish. I grabbed my windows lappy and my new WE05 messenger bag (all attendees got one) and went walking deeper into town. I passed many many electronics stores, all of which contained the same old crap. Then I spy this tacky looking camera store with neon lights and stuff, and I think what the hey, let’s check it out. I get in there and it’s not half bad. Actually, it’s pretty good: they have Apple stuff.

I had brought ~NZD$2000 with me to Australia, planning to buy a powerbook of some description, but a work payment didn’t come through as planned, so I only had half of the money I needed. But I digress. I had NZD$2000 and there was the opportunity to buy a mactop, like I’ve been planning for a while now. Duty free. Yum.

So I’m looking at this iBook G4 14″ deal and I’m thinking back to seeing Tantek’s laptop and how small that was, and I say to myself “hey, if it’s good enough for Tantek, it’s good enough for me!” So I commit.

The people at CCC Camera House are really friendly I say I’ve only got NZD and the the staff talk among themselves, and eventually come back and say they’ll accept my NZD, eliminating the need for me to go to a money changer. They try to ring it up on their system, but the exchange rate is out of date, and they can’t remember how they are supposed to enter the details so that I get charged the correct amount. But eventually they figure it out, and I leave with my iBook and a Targus laptop folder-style bag, with a mile-wide smile.

I love my Mac.

. . .

Before I came over to Sydney, my Mum recommended I catch a ferry to check out Sydney from a harbour view. So I figured I’d catch the train to the other side of the harbour, find the ferry terminal and catch one back to Darling Harbour, which is within walking distance of Wake Up. Oops.

After figuring out which train I should catch, how to buy a subway ticket, finding the correct platform, and getting on, I miss Milsons Point, my stop. The guard announcing the stops is just mumbling the next stop, and I’m too busy admiring the scenery. So eventually figure out I’ve missed my stop, and I resign myself to stay till the end of the line, seeing more of Sydney than I originally planned.

Sydney is huge. It’s the biggest city I’ve ever been to (but that’s not saying much, being the only city I’ve visited outside of New Zealand).

I get all the way to Hornsby, the end of the line. I hop off to grab some refreshments from the platform stand and get back on the train. I hadn’t seen a guard the whole trip — they don’t check tickets like they do in Wellington, as they have turnstiles at most of the stops. The train departs, and I hop off at Milson’s Point, and travel down the hill to the ferry terminal.

Then it hits me — I’m below the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Out comes the camera. Oh wait, there’s the Opera House — I didn’t know it was there! Snap snap snap. Oh wait, there’s Luna Park! click click click. On the ferry I get, and eventually I get back to Darling Harbour.

I don’t have a map, but that’s OK, I think I’ve got my bearings. I know that Paddy’s Market is between me and Wake Up, and I know some landmarks that will tell me I’ve gone too far in either direction. I find Paddy’s Market, and decide to scout it out. Disappointing is all I can say — so much crap, so many stalls with the same crap. I did find some gems, like a place that sells imitation iPod skins, a place that specialises in socks, and I was very surprised to find a pet store in one corner too!

I fly back to Wellington in about 12 hours, which is too soon. I’d like to explore Sydney some more. I’d like to make some more friends, and grow the ones I just made at the conference.

I’m really looking forward to WE06 — I can’t wait!

I’m working part time at 3months.com now, and tomorrow is my last day at the DRC. I love working at 3months: the attitude of the workplace is relaxed but focused; everyone is enjoying their work. I start full time this Monday (3rd Oct). They’ve already got me working on a fun but rushed PHP project. I was working three days a week at DRC, and Wednesday and Thursday at 3months.

I’m so glad I’m not working two part time daytime jobs any more — three Mondays a week is lethal to your mind. I personally believe in sticking your focus to one a project a week at work, using the natural downtime on the fringes of the weekend: use Friday to ‘swap to disk’ for the weekend, and Monday to load the week’s project back into memory. The brain isn’t too good at swapping.

3months also issued me a laptop as my main work computer. This is awesome because I’ll be able to blog from the conference, and maybe even tap into the subconciousness of the lecture attendees, AKA the conference IRC room. Oh, and maybe do some work…

My mum is off to Brisbane to live with her new squeeze. She’s flying out of Palmerston North on the 15th, so I’ll be up there to see her off. She is saving up for my brother Stuart and I to visit her for Christmas. Sydney will my first overseas experience, so I’m looking forward to following it up quickly with a visit to Brisbane.

Speaking of holidays, I’m off to see the Guru, the wonderful Guru of Bob, erm, GuruBob down in Mosgiel (near Dunedin) for New Years: Bob has offered for me to crash at his place for a few days. I’ve never been more south than Christchurch, so seeing some of Otago with a born-and-bred Dunedinite’s point of view sounds like fun Maybe even see Bob fly his new RC Plane…

So yeah, my next post will probably be in Sydney! I’m taking my camera, and will be trying to find buildings from The Matrix on Saturday… w00ta! (is that Australian for “w00t”…? )

But hey, I’ve got some cool stuff to tell you about, so bear with me.

— — —

First of all, I bought me a small portable metal bible about two weeks ago. The cheesily entitled Battlezone Bible, Yeah, it’s cheesy, but it’s an ESV. I love it — best translation ever. Not to mention it fits in my trenchcoat inner chest pocket nicely. I would catch the bus just so I could read it. It reads so beautifully. And just carrying the bible with you everywhere is a constant reminder of the presence of God. I can read on my breaks, or any spare moment I get.

— — —

Secondly, the IRD love me right now, but it wasn’t so shiny-happy-people until Thursday. I hadn’t filed my taxes for about 3 years, and the IRD got pissed and basically made a default assessment of about NZD$10,000 and sent me bills. But they bounced (because I hadn’t changed my address with them), and so the IRD talked to my employer and forced them to take NZD~$250 a fortnight out of my paychecks. The payclerk told me what was going on and I was all “WTF!!?!”. So I got an accountant and told them to sort this damn crap out. And they did, for a nominal fee of course. So on Thursday night, I come home from Thursday Night Curry to find an envelope by my door. I open it up: “Hi we’re the IRD, here’s a cheque for ~$3400!” And I was all like SW00t! So I paid my accountant (about $1400 :P, but hey, better than $10,000), and paid my bills…

…and bought a BRAND NEW IPOD! W000000T!

A 60GB Color iPod. I tell you, I seriously missed having one. When you’ve got music and podcasts to listen to on the way, I’ve found that I actually WANT to walk places. Roll on summer! Dang, I need to get fit…

I’ve also missed Craig Patchett and Adam Curry in the morning. I’m re-subscribed my podcast catcher (iTunes now, was FeedDemon) to the Daily Source Code, the Radio Adventures of Dr Floyd, and several others, including many Godcast Network channels. I also started listening to Rachel’s Choice which is done by potentially the youngest podcaster in the world, Rachel Patchett of age 8, who chooses a track of christian music and a bible verse to share each week. (a side note: Wellington christian band The Lads were featured on Rachel’s Choice back in June. For those not in the know, The Lads are probably the most popular christian group in New Zealand)

— — —

So now I’m in this quandry: I can catch the bus and read my bible and listen to music, or I can listen to podcasts and walk to work. *shakes fist angrily at quandry!* Never mind, I will be going full time at 3months, which is only a five minute walk away from my house… at least I can still read on my breaks. Oh well.

— — —

Oh yeah, and now that I’m rich, I’ve bought flight tickets and am fully paid up for WE05! YAY! A very HUGE THANKS to all of you who gave your support, I really appreciate all the help you’ve gave!

Turns out it’s called Radio Data System (RDS), and does more than display text on the radio’s display. It can transmit the current time, so that your RDS enabled car stereo will remain sync’d, monitor other frequencies for traffic reports, and even turn the volume up if an emergency broadcast is detected…

Pretty neat huh? There aren’t many stations in New Zealand that support it, but I found what could be a partial or complete list on the Wood Electronics site.

After some initial oversights (Didn’t have any USB keyboards), I got it up and going with my existing CRT monitor, mouse and keyboard. First things I learnt: Home and End go to the top and bottom of your document, not the start and end of the current line. Just to clarify:

But I should get used to all that. I guess I wish I had a real Mac keyboard, but I did find DoubleCommand, which I have yet to try, but looks promising.

I did however, try Quicksilver! I really like this tool — it lets you do things you might do quite often all from the keyboard, things like start applications, upload files. If I was going to replace my Windows box with the Mac as my desktop machine, I’m sure Quicksilver would definetely become handy It’s like a command prompt on de-obfuscation pills!

The main reason we have the Mac is for testing websites in Safari and IE5Mac. Safari is quite good, but as many of my web designing and developing friends out there will likely know, the bane of our existances is Internet Explorer, and IE5Mac triplely so. So I stand to learn a lot about the inadequacies of crappy browsers… as if IE6Win wasn’t enough…

Webfroot is looking smart in Safari — the one-liner doesn’t render correctly, but hey, can’t win them all. Haven’t tried looking at inner.geek yet… will do that tomorrow.

Getting to know the ins and outs of a highly polished, well thought out operating system is an exciting prospect. I’ve tried several KDE and Gnome installations over the years, and they don’t have squat on MacOSX.

If I wasn’t saving to go to WE05, I’d be all like saving hard core for a Mac… I have been dreaming of a Mactop to call my own for a while now…

Can anyone out there recommend good freeware apps a Windows Poweruser “switching” to OSX should look at?

Monday:
I finally spring into action fixing an old computer for a family — it’s an HP Pavillion 4404 (404 not being a good omen). Try to install Windows 98 SE on there, it works. Download drivers for the HP from their website. When I install them, they don’t take hold, and a driver for the video card is missing That’s not gonna work… Off to MysteryMovieMonday… the world’s most disturbing movie Visitor Q is shown… when it is over, everyone is glad.

Tuesday:
Time for another attempt at this HP. Use the crappy “system restore” CDs which basically factory-fresh the operating system. Try to install Windows 98SE over the top — wrong! I need a Windows 98 SE Update disk… :P. I go to my church cell group (for the uninitiated, bible study group)

Wednesday:
My iPod was being stupid just before I went to work — it didn’t copy the playlists across, probably because it was full. There is lag between docking and windows suddenly recognising it. I was late for work, and got impatient. I removed the iPod from the dock and accidently dropped it on the floor.

DO’H!. I reset the iPod and it went into a perpeptual reset cycle — apple logo, file error icon, reset, apple logo, file error icon, etc. I left it in my dock and went to work iPodless.

I call my Dad and get him to send me my thumb drive. I am getting paid to tutor my friend Bevan in CSS tonight. I get home late and I don’t want to touch the stupid HP.

Thursday:
Tried to get the iPod working before work, No good. Actually, having the iPod in the dock crashes WinXP during boot-up. Weird. Boot up without the iPod, then try to dock the iPod — Windows hard-resets. WTF?

I have lunch with Bevan, and he borrows my Designing with Web Standards book. We pop into Dymocks and I see a copy of The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea, mastermind behind CSS Zen Garden. I buy it

That night, I had borrowed the Win98 -> Win98SE upgrade CD from work and start it installing… then it bluescreens… Need to system restore from CD again. SE is no longer an option. I go to Curry. After a restore, I just try to install IE6. It starts installing, but for some reason, it says at the end that it didn’t work properly, and leaves Win98 borked beyond repair, needing another system restore from CD. Something doesn’t want this machine updated Then the computer spontaniously turns off — the power supply overheated… ARGH. I go to bed.

Friday:
I get my USB thumb drive; Dad has posted it to me. Yay! Zen of CSS Design is pretty awesome, and written really well, but in an interesting style. It looks at the different Zen Garden submissions and pulling out tidbits of design and css wisdom from them, in a very logical and well thought out order. Maybe I’ll write more about that later…

Camera cost me NZD$449, and the metal mini-tripod was NZD$21.95, both from Photo Warehouse in Wakefield St., and they threw in a free carry case I had the manager, so he was real nice and cool. The benefit of buying from a store is you can do a little barteration: put them up against their competitors, get them to throw things in for free.

So hopefully you’ll see more photos in my flickr photostream, and not crappy 128×128 pics from my Alcatel 735 (more like alca-smell!)

Andrew Kepple is dropping by this evening — I think we’re gonna do some collaboranimutation… more on that next post!

Here’s that timelapse (715kb 640×480 QuickTime file)

CPU Type: AMD Athlon XP, 1250 MHz (6.25 x 200)
Motherboard Name: Asus A7V333 (5 PCI, 1 AGP Pro, 3 DIMM)
Motherboard Chipset: VIA VT8367 Apollo KT333
System Memory: 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
Video Adapter: nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 (Leadtek WinFast A250 LE) (64 MB) (DirectX 8.1)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
Game: Half-Life 2 Retail Collectors Edition

So the game suggested:
800×600
Model Detail: Medium
Texture Detail: Medium
Water: Simple Reflection
Shadow Detail: High
AA: None
Filtering: Trilinear
Shader Detail: High
Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

This game kicks serious ass. This is one game you will have to play! Kick ass! I know my setup isn’t the best around, but it’s extremely playable at recommended settings And it’s mightily more playable than Doom 3 I’ll try and run a benchmark sometime and see how I get on.

The story is great The character animation is phenomenal! The gameplay so far has been exciting! And Headshots with the pistol! Headcrabs! Airboats! And so much more!

Yay!

You gotta focus on the positive sides of things. My Podcast on Webfroot is going really well. You should tune in, listen to it, and send me your feedback! If you send in a recording of your comments on the show, I’ll play it on the next episode! If you’ve got content and/or music that you think I should play, send that in to me too! Come party together on the show It’s all about having fun!

Oh, and don’t forget the Wellington Firefox Party!

I scored much less swag. I got t-shirts: “Joystick Junkie”, “Esc”, and “You are Dumb 2.0”. So good!

Photos on [ webfroot gallery | flickr ]

I’m still enjoying my time at Dev-Zone. Christmas looks like it’s going to be fun. I’m going to Otaki for a few days, then heading up to the Bay for a day or two, then come back on the 28th Dec with Sheree. Keep an eye on the moblog Oh, it has an RSS 2.0 feed too…

The Garmin eTrex was $280 plus P&P on TradeMe. Not a bad price when you consider that they are $400 including GST from Dick Smith.

So anyway, it’s pretty quick at figuring out when I’ve stopped walking. It also loses it’s signal along Lambton Quay, with all the buildings and all. It’s quite cool. So Geocaching, here I come!

Also, some Canterbarians (people from Christchurch) who also do geocaching are negotiating with the Department of Conservation about being able to hide and seek geocaches on DOC land. DOC has said that the geocachers had to form an incorporated society. So they did. The New Zealand Recreational GPS Society Incorporated. I might join – could be a bit of fun

Also, for more that you can do with your GPS, check out GeoDashing, MinuteWar and also The Degree Confluence Project.

Lusting after material things is a bad thing. I can say that my iPod is great, but I didn’t NEED it. I wanted it, and the benefit of buying it was great, but was it just the next new toy?

You hear on webfroot how I want to get myself a GPS unit so I can go GeoCaching. My justification for buying a GPS is as follows:

I need to get fit. I know this, but not because of people who care about me telling me so. I’m getting a beer belly like my father, and that’s a scary thought to me. I used to do orienteering (the foot variety) but I gave it up when I became a christian because orienteering events where I lived were always on a Sunday morning. Geocaching is a cousin to orienteering – it deals with maps, terrain and getting places. My mum will tell you I’ve always liked maps from when I was a kid. I have never been a sport-playing person. I tried, but I was never good enough to join in with kids of my own age. Orienteering was good for me cos it was me versus me — I was only competing against my previous records. And now I’m a desk jockey, I need another (the only?) decent form of exercise. I believe GeoCaching is that exercise. And I can take my iPod with me

But then again, anyone can justify anything to themselves. And I’m not trying to justify myself to you.

Part of me is real guilty about desiring these material things. There is so much good that NZ$400 or NZ$700 could do for other less fortunate people than myself, the same money I could use to get a GPS or an iPod. Should I think more about other people than my own vanity or lust for gadgets or new cds to put on my iPod? Can you see my moral dillema?

The bible says in many places within its pages that one of the true signs of a christian is that person treating others as they themselves want to be treated. I know what I should do and it’s something I’ve been thinking of for a very long time. I want to do it but I don’t want to do it. I’m afraid of what it will mean and what I’ll become. But I’m excited of what will happen – what good it will do others and what good it will do me. Jesus tells the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18 to sell all his possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then why don’t I see other christians selling all their possessions? The bible isn’t condemning having possessions. It’s condemning not using your wealth lovingly.

This is a snapshot of how I feel. It’s a dump of my thoughts. Don’t take it as how I feel all the time. Please just try and see how I am being challenged. Thank you.

Also, today I went to union delegate training at my union at Dev-Zone, the Service and Food Workers Union. Yes, I do think this is a weird union for a web developer to be a part of, but the company is a service organisation, and I guess I do help out with IT support, and they have done a really good job of negotiating our contract, so I’m all go with them.
The training was to teach me how to be a better union delegate. I really had no idea of what it meant to be a union delegate, but I learnt that it means helping your fellow union brothers and sisters (my own words) with their work place issues, such as unfair treatment, dismissal issues, pay disputes and the like.

With my new hard drive installed, I’ve gone and installed Unreal Tournament 2003. If you haven’t played UT2k3 or it’s XBox counterpart Unreal Championship, you haven’t lived. And talking of 3D, UselessCreations has released a new version of their ever-so-popular Matrix Reloaded 3D screensaver. The new version is interactive; you can move the mouse to track around the code simulation. Also check out their Inside the Matrix screensaver,
featuring a low-polygon model of Neo flying round an infinite city of buildings which are dripping with the matrix code. Not as cool as the Matrix Reloaded 3D screensaver though.

Smileychris pointed me at Enhancer 017 for Winamp 2.x. As I had just installed Winamp and hadn’t yet turned on the Equaliser, installing this plugin instantly improved the quality of the sound output.

Miguel: did you know unreal 2 ?
Miguel: about
Glutnix: yeah i know its out
Miguel: cool
Glutnix: apparently it’s too short
Miguel: really??
Glutnix: i dunno – won’t run on my piece of crap system
Miguel: :S
Miguel: heheeh
Glutnix: how do you say crap in spanish?
Miguel: basura
Glutnix: my computer is a piece of basura
Miguel: but basura means trash too
Glutnix: that’s good
Glutnix: it’s trash too
Miguel: hehehe
Glutnix: basically it needs more ram, more cpu, and a 3d card
Miguel: My computer is a piece of crap.
Mi computadora es un pedazo de basura.
Glutnix: hehehe