February 09, 2012

Technology » 11 Year Old Game Development: Happy Cats

Happy CatsEver since my daughter decided that she wanted to develop an iPhone game, she's been wracking her brain for ideas. Then after she comes up with an idea, there is a rapid-fire question and answer period with Dad (me). Here's her idea for "Happy Cats".

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Posted by Hammer at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2012

Technology » The Cloud Brought Me Back Down

macmini.jpgIn 2005 I wrote an article How Do Normal People Survive With One, in which I outline all the benefits of running multiple computers. In just over six years, it seems that everything has changed...

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Posted by Hammer at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2012

Stories from Others » Christmas Morning Flasher

woman-stretchingThis is one of the lesser-told stories from my Dad. Early one Christmas morning, my Mom and Dad went out for a walk along their street. It was December 1968, three months after they were married.

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Posted by Hammer at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2011

My Life is a Stereo » Lavender Blue

lavender blue coverIn the fall of 1985, I was listening to a cassette tape of Misplaced Childhood by Marillion. I'm pretty sure I stretched the tape by playing it so much.

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Posted by Hammer at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2011

Nostalgia » They Call Me Beef

hello my name is.pngChildhood nicknames are a wonder. They range from insightful to cruel, from flattering to confusing and beyond. They can be based on the person's real name, their hair color (or some other physical feature), their favorite sport... the list goes on. There is one nickname I never could figure out, though...

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Posted by Hammer at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2011

My Life is a Stereo » On Every Street

empty streetI'm usually living in the present (or these days, the future), so it isn't often that I'll reminisce about a past relationship. Sometimes a song will remind me of a specific time or event...

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Posted by Hammer at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2011

Current Events » Someone Saved My Life Tonight

accident tapeI was driving home after a game of curling tonight, traveling the same route I always take home, around 11:30 pm. I was sitting at the first controlled intersection, waiting on the red light to turn green...

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Posted by Hammer at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2011

Camping » Sand Sharks, Alligators and Penguins

alligatorThis is the sixth summer of sand sculpting for me. How time flies. The weather was awesome this year, the sand was clean, the wind was perfect - and inspiration came easily.

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Posted by Hammer at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)

July 23, 2011

My Life is a Stereo » Just One Day

I stumbled upon this song "Just One Day" by RJ Chevalier and really liked it. However, it didn't include the lyrics. Here's my attempt at transcribing them...

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Posted by Hammer at 12:36 AM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2011

Interesting Links » Vote For The Song A Day Album Tracks!

songatron.jpgJonathan Mann is asking for our help - he wants people to listen to the 30 tracks he created in June and vote for the ones that should be included on his album: http://vote.songatron.com/

I encourage you to vote when you have more than just a couple minutes, since it will take time to listen to the tracks. I think at least half an hour is needed since you probably want to listen to a minute or so of each track. It's pretty fun, try it out!

Voting is only open until the end of July 31, 2011.

Posted by Hammer at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2011

Technology » Welcoming The Cloud

cloud_computing.pngI just figured out that I am suddenly in favour of "cloud computing". I have switched my opinion 180 degrees on this just today. Here is my revelation...

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Posted by Hammer at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2011

My Life is a Stereo » Song A Day Streaming Entertainment

songaday_mann.jpgI first heard about Jonathan Mann some time in the summer of 2009, around the time that his video for Bing Goes The Internet was spreading from geek to geek.

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Posted by Hammer at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2011

Finance » Canada's Federal Budget Versus Political Party

federal_defecit_conservative_liberal_2010.gifLeading up to another Canadian federal election, I thought it would be interesting to update the graph that I made in 2009 showing Canada's federal deficit against the ruling political party.

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Posted by Hammer at 06:17 PM | Comments (6)

April 24, 2011

Current Thoughts » Canadian Subsidy Directory Spam

canadian_business_directory.jpgSome spammers will just never die, sadly. Incredibly, I've been receiving roughly the same spam email from this company yearly since about 2005, as far as I can recall. I say that because I've deleted email from then long ago. The first year or two I tried to contact the company to be removed from their mailing list, but it never worked. So here's what I'm going to do this year...

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Posted by Hammer at 08:42 PM | Comments (2)

April 10, 2011

Technology » My History of Programming

matrix_languages.gifI started programming computers in the summer of 1983, so I'm closing in on 28 years of programming. It has been an interesting journey so far - programming for fun, then for school, then for work - and now back to fun again...

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Posted by Hammer at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)