C# for Fun and Profit

I've spent a big chunk of today writing my new C# course. We are teaching it to our first year students next session for the first time. C# has replaced Java in my affections for the simple reason that I find it more useful. And I reckon it will be easier to teach. 

It is probably a bit sad to get worked up about how nice a programming language is. I've not actually got to the point where I stop people on the street and to them say things like "And it's got properties! Look at this code here! I can call the set method just by performing an assignment....". However, I fear that the time may be near.

I quite fancy making one of these. Just to get the reaction of the family when I get it out and start making home movies with it. It is worth watching the sample films (especially the last one) just for the super way that the guy has used backing music to really make the clips come alive. And now I want, want, want a copy of the "Take Care of My Cat" soundtrack.

Hull Boat Race

It's not just London where they have a boat race. Oh no.

(and why is it always Oxford and Cambridge in the final?)

Still No Programming - Firefly Instead

Another day of not writing programs. Did watch some Firefly though. Still quite enjoying it, but it does seem a bit of a missed oportunity. It is/was the next big thing from Jos Whedon, the man who brought you Buffy and Angel. It is supposed to have these much vaunted "story arcs" which run for several episodes (or even seasons). Like Babylon 5. However, in amongst your story arc episodes where the plot moves on (I call these "Luke, I am your father" events) you have to have a bunch of "fillers". And that is where Firefly falls down a bit.

In B5 they had to have fillers too, but theirs explored the future in an original and interesting way. In Firefly I've already seen a "train heist gone wrong" and an "accidental duel with bad guy" episode, both of which could have come out of any number of shows and had no futuristic consideration at all (apart from the fact that the train floated above the rails).

I'm sticking with it for now (and you should take a look too) because the cast and the production values are superb, and the characters and dialogue are well up to Whedon standards, but I just wish he'd got to grips with some SF issues, bearing in mind the thing is supposed to be set in the future. If you want to see it you'll probably have to track down the series on DVD, since the Fox Network did a very good job of "stealth promoting" the show and I think it ended up on at three in the morning or something.

No Programming!

I've done no programming today! But I have moved the lawn, mended the fence and showed number one son how to scrape rust of cars (there is always more rust than you think - even if you allow for this). I also found time to take my first photograph for The Spoke blog:



I call this one Kill Bill and Gas Bill. There may be more later. Now I'm going to watch some Firefly.

Recreational Programming with Bad Pixies

Things that you do for fun are supposed to be fun. Having finished mowing the lawn (or more specifically - looking at the lawn and going "Oh, that can wait until the weekend...") I went back to my nasty cursor problem. Ugh. No fun.

Sometimes when you are writing code you get the feeling that you are doing something which nobody else in the world can do. Except that they can. Then, when things get interesting, other nasties conspire to make the situation even worse.

Having discovered that I have to use an actual phone to make it go wrong properly, I'm now learning the joys of running code in the real device. There is a little pixie in my Smartphone (one day I'll roll out my theory that everything in life is actually controlled by tiny pixies running round and making things work - but that is for later). This pixie is a bad pixie. He (or perhaps she) can tell when I'm getting close to debugging the cause of the problem. And then he (or she) turns off the active sync connection so that the debug session drops dead and I have to restart everything. This has happened too many times to be coincidence (Oh, OK it has happened three times so far).

Bearing in mind that I am supposed to be enjoying doing this (ho ho) I've decided to back off from the problem for a little while and see what the subconscious comes up with (this is actually quite a good debugging technique - if you've got the time).