Just some waffle
29/05/08 21:32
Im really quite tired today, our daughter had a bad night yesterday and so slept very little, which of course meant that we didnt get to sleep either. Its easy to say take it in turns but just lately she seems to have developed a cry that can penetrate brick walls, doors and the sound barrier, which makes it difficult for the other partner to pretend nothing is happening, at least until exhaustion kicks in.
We're not sure why shes getting so upset just lately though, as we have kept to the same rhythm for a couple of weeks now, our best guess is teeth. Hopefully tonight will be better and she'll get some rest, hope so at least as Im not too sure how long I will last today.
On the tech side I havent done too much today to be honest, Ive been working from home via Citrix, occasionally pitching in to help look after Ellie and trying not to fall asleep on the keyboard. I did update my MBP and my wife's MB to 10.5.3 in the wee hours of this morning though and at the moment all seems good, although earlier mine seemed a bit sluggish.
I also came across Quake: Enemy Territory today and it looks quite good, plus they have a mac version and from the screens it seems that it could even replace BF2. The problem is that I cant find anywhere here that sells it and ordering it online from the UK or US seems a bit drastic and none of the online services like direct2drive have a mac option which is a bit sad. I guess its just a sign though that despite the drastic increase in market share that macs/Apple are gaining it still has little traction as a gaming platform. Guess I will just have to do some digging in some of the local resellers or go the Amazon route.
We're not sure why shes getting so upset just lately though, as we have kept to the same rhythm for a couple of weeks now, our best guess is teeth. Hopefully tonight will be better and she'll get some rest, hope so at least as Im not too sure how long I will last today.
On the tech side I havent done too much today to be honest, Ive been working from home via Citrix, occasionally pitching in to help look after Ellie and trying not to fall asleep on the keyboard. I did update my MBP and my wife's MB to 10.5.3 in the wee hours of this morning though and at the moment all seems good, although earlier mine seemed a bit sluggish.
I also came across Quake: Enemy Territory today and it looks quite good, plus they have a mac version and from the screens it seems that it could even replace BF2. The problem is that I cant find anywhere here that sells it and ordering it online from the UK or US seems a bit drastic and none of the online services like direct2drive have a mac option which is a bit sad. I guess its just a sign though that despite the drastic increase in market share that macs/Apple are gaining it still has little traction as a gaming platform. Guess I will just have to do some digging in some of the local resellers or go the Amazon route.
Interesting Company Name
27/05/08 21:36
I photographed this with my mobile on my way to work yesterday - interesting name for a company but you would think that they would have paused to consider what it means in English right? :)
Land of Nod
14/05/08 21:45
Hi, its been a while since I posted something here but thats mainly because I havent done too much techie stuff to post about. Instead just lately we have been trying to teach my daughter to go to bed at 8pm instead of midnight and to fall asleep by herself without needing us to rock her.
The rocking started quite soon, when she was roughly a couple of weeks old but it was because she developed colic and the rocking was the only thing that seemed to help her relax and sleep, so although it was an evil of sorts, it was a necessary evil and we knew kind of what we were getting ourselves into.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago now we decided to try and tackle the bedtime issue first, so we didnt stress about the rocking, we just started setting up a system for her to get used to, starting with a bath, change of cloths, last feed and then some rocking.
It took 2 or 3 days but seemed to work out ok and now around 7ish she starts rubbing her eyes and getting a little fussy, so we start the bath etc and things seemed to be working out fine. The only hiccoughs in the whole thing is the fact that she was waking in the night and needed to be rocked asleep again but sometimes she wouldnt sleep for another two hours.
At first we were worried that we might have left it a bit too long as she 6 months old now but we did some research and found out some things that helped and some that definitely need to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
One of the things that we came across was the cry it out method, at first we didnt like the idea of this approach, although it seemed to pop up on pretty much every site, so we tried other things such as the patting and shushing etc but all of these failed miserably.
Two nights ago now, we decided to give the CIO method a try but to use the gentler kind where you check on the baby every 5 minutes ago (although it has been suggested that this is more to ease the parents minds than the baby's).
The first night was really a test of nerves, we followed the usual bedtime routine but after her last feed and burp we kissed her good night and put her into her cot and left the room. From that moment she went absolutely ballistic with her crying and screaming, it was really quite hard for both of us but we stuck to our guns and just went in to see her every 2-5 minutes or so.
After half an hour it didnt look like we would have much luck, so we tried starting her musical mobile, this distracted her for a bit but not too long and the crying continued. Almost an hour later and I was saying to my wife that maybe this approach wouldnt work and we should just go and get her to sleep and try something else tomorrow when the crying stopped. We waited a minute and still nothing, total silence, so we snuck to the room and put our heads round the door and she was sleeping peacefully! It was a relief I can tell you :)
Unfortunately she woke up again at midnight but we kept to the same routine and just kissed her, told her that everything was ok but otherwise let her be and after 15 minutes she was asleep again.
The next night, we followed the same routine, bath, feed, bed but this time we also turned off the night light (its still light enough here at 8pm that theres a dim light coming through the window). Again she started to cry when we left the room but not as much or as intensely as before but still a fair bit. So we switched the mobile on again and continued our 5 minutes visits and then to our surprise after about 15-20 minutes the crying started to subside and after another 10 minutes she was sound asleep. :)
So, so far so good, we just need to keep this up now and see if she will master falling asleep by herself but it really looks promising so far, so keep your fingers crossed for us.
The rocking started quite soon, when she was roughly a couple of weeks old but it was because she developed colic and the rocking was the only thing that seemed to help her relax and sleep, so although it was an evil of sorts, it was a necessary evil and we knew kind of what we were getting ourselves into.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago now we decided to try and tackle the bedtime issue first, so we didnt stress about the rocking, we just started setting up a system for her to get used to, starting with a bath, change of cloths, last feed and then some rocking.
It took 2 or 3 days but seemed to work out ok and now around 7ish she starts rubbing her eyes and getting a little fussy, so we start the bath etc and things seemed to be working out fine. The only hiccoughs in the whole thing is the fact that she was waking in the night and needed to be rocked asleep again but sometimes she wouldnt sleep for another two hours.
At first we were worried that we might have left it a bit too long as she 6 months old now but we did some research and found out some things that helped and some that definitely need to be taken with a large pinch of salt.
One of the things that we came across was the cry it out method, at first we didnt like the idea of this approach, although it seemed to pop up on pretty much every site, so we tried other things such as the patting and shushing etc but all of these failed miserably.
Two nights ago now, we decided to give the CIO method a try but to use the gentler kind where you check on the baby every 5 minutes ago (although it has been suggested that this is more to ease the parents minds than the baby's).
The first night was really a test of nerves, we followed the usual bedtime routine but after her last feed and burp we kissed her good night and put her into her cot and left the room. From that moment she went absolutely ballistic with her crying and screaming, it was really quite hard for both of us but we stuck to our guns and just went in to see her every 2-5 minutes or so.
After half an hour it didnt look like we would have much luck, so we tried starting her musical mobile, this distracted her for a bit but not too long and the crying continued. Almost an hour later and I was saying to my wife that maybe this approach wouldnt work and we should just go and get her to sleep and try something else tomorrow when the crying stopped. We waited a minute and still nothing, total silence, so we snuck to the room and put our heads round the door and she was sleeping peacefully! It was a relief I can tell you :)
Unfortunately she woke up again at midnight but we kept to the same routine and just kissed her, told her that everything was ok but otherwise let her be and after 15 minutes she was asleep again.
The next night, we followed the same routine, bath, feed, bed but this time we also turned off the night light (its still light enough here at 8pm that theres a dim light coming through the window). Again she started to cry when we left the room but not as much or as intensely as before but still a fair bit. So we switched the mobile on again and continued our 5 minutes visits and then to our surprise after about 15-20 minutes the crying started to subside and after another 10 minutes she was sound asleep. :)
So, so far so good, we just need to keep this up now and see if she will master falling asleep by herself but it really looks promising so far, so keep your fingers crossed for us.
Waffle
04/04/08 22:03
Nothing new today Im afraid, Ive been too busy at work the past couple of days to even contemplate messing around with anything on the MBP.
I also just finished watching Ashes to Ashes series 1, which wasnt bad but Life on Mars was much more... profound or at least it had a bigger impact on me than ashes to ashes. Still I enjoyed it and Im looking forward to series 2 when it comes out next year.
Today is also the day that BSG series 4 starts finally, so Im looking forward to that.
Anyway in the world of computers Ive downloaded the Bento demo but havent managed to install it yet, though Im curious to see what it can do.
You know, theres one application that I would like to see on the Mac and Im not sure if it exists or not, perhaps it does but I would like to see an app that would scan my movies folder for any films in there and then would just display that movies poster as a big thumbnail (as opposed to the 1st frame of the movie), clicking on the movie would "zoom" the post to a large size and display the details for it and then pressing play would start it.
I guess basically what I am talking about is the way that the original frontrow worked but with a touch more functionality. I much preferred seeing all of the films posters than the way it currently works and furthermore, the current version doesnt always display all of a films info which is a shame.
Still if something like this existed as a standalone app that would just pick up on any folder(s) that you told it too, would go to the net to retrieve info and would work in fullscreen with the apple remote (or via remote buddy), I would be a happy person indeed.
I also just finished watching Ashes to Ashes series 1, which wasnt bad but Life on Mars was much more... profound or at least it had a bigger impact on me than ashes to ashes. Still I enjoyed it and Im looking forward to series 2 when it comes out next year.
Today is also the day that BSG series 4 starts finally, so Im looking forward to that.
Anyway in the world of computers Ive downloaded the Bento demo but havent managed to install it yet, though Im curious to see what it can do.
You know, theres one application that I would like to see on the Mac and Im not sure if it exists or not, perhaps it does but I would like to see an app that would scan my movies folder for any films in there and then would just display that movies poster as a big thumbnail (as opposed to the 1st frame of the movie), clicking on the movie would "zoom" the post to a large size and display the details for it and then pressing play would start it.
I guess basically what I am talking about is the way that the original frontrow worked but with a touch more functionality. I much preferred seeing all of the films posters than the way it currently works and furthermore, the current version doesnt always display all of a films info which is a shame.
Still if something like this existed as a standalone app that would just pick up on any folder(s) that you told it too, would go to the net to retrieve info and would work in fullscreen with the apple remote (or via remote buddy), I would be a happy person indeed.