Compusential

Computer dead again? WHY!?!

frozenace — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:24:47 +0000

Last week, my desktop computer finally decided to play up again, after 2 years of trouble-free service. This time, it’s my motherboard again, or I hope so (since I bid on another second-hand Asus Striker Mainboard on eBay) to resurrect the computer.

It might have made more sense to just buy a new desktop computer and try to restore my RAID arrays, which is pretty much impossible if the RAID controller isn’t the same as your current board.

No wonder NVIDIA don’t make any more motherboard chipsets, since their partners keep on messing up and then wondering why Intel won’t grant them another licence to mess around with their CPUs (http://www.intelsinsides.com/page/home.html)

A fun experience from my days back at the big NV was when we had to fly out 5am from London Heathrow to Paris for the big annual marketing meeting. At this said meeting, we sat from 9am all the way to 11pm topped with a near darkness ride through the Champs-Élysées and some meagre French food. To all my previous colleagues from the Bangalore marketing team, I felt really sorry that when asking for a vegetarian food option, the waiter cheekily came up with the answer ‘Wee have French Fries’.

Close to my current office at Line Industries, at least they have a proper French bistro called L’eau a la bouche, where you can have a massive selection of hearty meats/cheeses/olives etc. What you shouldn’t try is counting on fast service, a toasted baguette will set you back by at least 30 minutes, a marvelous achievement considering that there are at least 10 headless chicken walking around the store.

Stop start stop start stop… Life in London never stops.

frozenace — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:08:00 +0000

It is with some sadness to announce that I’m leaving Line Industries for another developer job in the City of London. I have been enjoying the last 21 months working on their CMS PubliSite and wish them well for the future.

This picture was taken with a Leica Summilux 50 pre-asph about 1.5 years ago by a busy Oxford Street traffic light.

Friend’s macbook broken, components inaccessible… I need iScrewDriver

frozenace — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:19:31 +0000

My friend’s Apple Macbook died, so she has to buy a new hard drive… Apple Store recommended this one… looks pretty good value. However, why does Apple have to make their components so inaccessible… now what I need is iScrewDriver…

Summer in the Summer Palace, Beijing, 2009

frozenace — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:24:23 +0000

Great intro to Linq… am I too late to the party.

frozenace — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:45:02 +0000

Just found a great Introduction to Linq in C# here:

http://dotnetslackers.com/articles/csharp/IntroducingLINQ1.aspx

It’s pretty easy to work through, wow, I need to spend more time on filling up my brain cells. Learning more stuff while scanning negatives using my Nikon Coolscan v is pretty cool.

THe following shot was scanned and cropped to 1600px width and comes from the recent London Regent Street Taste of Spain event at which I volunteered for as a City Guide. It is Spain’s lucky year, Nadal winning Wimbledon and their National Team winning the World cup. Still, Germany made it in 3rd place… Mehr Glück beim nächsten Mal.

Starcraft 2 finally comes out 27th July 2010…

frozenace — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:01:05 +0000

After such a long wait, it is time for the next Blizzard Entertainment blockbuster game. Remember the times when you tore your friends base apart with Protoss carriers or took out a base with nukes… now that’s all coming back in glorious graphics on 27th July…

Don’t forget to pre-book at Amazon.

When Windows Vista WLAN strikes

frozenace — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:29:21 +0000

I have just been fighting with the Wireless LAN on my desktop PC after a hard restart. Well, I tried everything from adding special entries in the registry to re-installing the device.

My colleagues at work have also been having this problem recently, possibly due to Windows updates. However, what I found was that you just need to go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services and scroll down to the option named ‘WLAN Auto Config’ and restart that service and voila, my network adapter can detect wireless networks again.

The girl in the tube, Green Park, London

frozenace — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:15:48 +0000

Girl in the tube, Green Park, London. Leica MP, Summicron 35 asph Neopan 400CN

Kirin Ichiban neben der Pflanze

frozenace — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:13:29 +0000

Vor einigen Monaten war ich mit meiner Freundin bei Anita’s Vintage Fair im Londoner Battersea Arts Centre (kurz BAC), und habe nebenbei diese Aufnahme gemacht. Kirin Ichiban ist ein leichtes kohlensäurearmes Bier aus Japan und hat in diesem Moment auch sehr gut zu dieser Atmosphäre gepasst, vor allem das Bierglasdesign ist sehr elegant und transparent. Der benutzte Film war glaube ich Fuji Neopan 400CN (Prozess C-41) mit meinem Summilux 50 Asph Objektiv.

The virtuous cycle between competence and confidence

frozenace — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:39:38 +0000

One day while sitting in a Waterstones bookshop by Trafalgar square, I noticed this mini book series called Lessons Learned by the Harvard Business school press. I picked up the one titled ‘Making your career’ and in it, a lady named Gill Rider describes that “If you are competent in something, you will feel and exude confidence”.

Specifically, in her case study she describes how she worked on a large client project that had gone wrong at the last minute and the negative impact it had on her confidence. The cycle between confidence and competence works both ways. If you are not confident, then people perceive you as lacking competence.

One of the most inspiring blog posts I have read in a while is Brent Ozar’s Rock Stars, Normal People, and You, where he describes his process, struggles and efforts to get him where he is today. I believe that lots of Software Engineers, Web Developers etc could learn to invest in their soft skills, networking on LinkedIn or contributing to their community of choice.