I think I need a Suunto X9i. Supposedly they've done the interface really well in it. Think mobile phone menus as opposed to the usual watch interface. Let me give you the spiel, and a picture... The upgraded X9i wristop computer features a full GPS service, including compatibility with several digital mapping services around the world. (It works with Google Earth). The mapping software allows the wearer to plan routes, print customised maps, making route and waypoint programming simple and effective. The Suunto X9i keeps you updated on your position, speed and distance travelled to ensure that journeys are easy to navigate. The X9i also features an altimeter, barometer, digital compass, thermometer and all the usual timekeeping functions. This wristop computer is the ideal companion for the outdoor explorer.
Now,I ask you, is there any reason why I shouldn't have one for my birthday, Anna? Sweetie?

I have pretty much everything sorted out now... I can post, edit postings, save drafts, upload images and other media and publish postings I have saved earlier. This posting should have a WeeMee to the left, with a 5 pixel margin on the right. Fingers crossed...

Okay, so really interesting – this post was created in Microsoft Word. Now, its not as if I'm going to write the next great novel (think Peig or something similar), but I COULD, if I wanted to ;-)

So, in nine years of having a blog, with one exception I've never used another tool to edit my posts with the exception for the back end pages of the blog itself.  The exception is a little application that I wrote on my PDA about four or five years ago that allows me to post and edit entries.  Now, my PDA is a pain in the arse to get information into, but it can be done, albeit slowly.  The problem for me has always been that I needed to be live to make a posting to this system, or I would save it in a text document somewhere and post it later.
Recently, Microsoft brought out a program called Windows Live Writer (WLW) which is basically a WYSIWYG editor for creating posts on a blog system.  It was supposedly compliant with all sorts of standards, and it actually looked like a very interesting product.  So I downloaded it, and it didn't work of course.  My blog system is proprietary, a so-called "Roll Your Own" blog.  So yesterday I set about writing an entry point page for WLW to access my blog.  It worked, kinda, and there's still some to go.  The previous post and this one were created in WLW though, and I'm getting a hold on how it all comes together too.  I use an interface schema called the MetaWabLog API to give it access to my system, and it seems to be pretty basic and work up to a point.  The point in case being that the documentation on it all is horribly sketchy.  For example, the date "Sun, 1 Jan 2007 11:23 AM" should be a legitimate date as far as this program is concerned, but it doesn't seem to work properly. There are a bunch of little niggly things like that that I have yet to sort out.
So the point is, I had to create a non-standard interface to handle it all.  It was going to parse the expected input from WLW, using everything I knew to expect from the MetaWebLog API, and give me full control from any external app that uses this interface.  Shame it doesn't seem to work.  Some bits of it are good, but some are just a pain in the arse.  So, I have to have functions that clean up the code and change it so that it fits with my way of doing this.  This is nasty, and not the way that things are supposed to be done.  Case in point if the function below.
Now, I don't know about you, but that's not how I think things should be done.  And if you go with that logic, then one of two things needs to change.  Either the whole world has to change and do it my way, or I'm going to have to change some very basic functionality on this site.

So I've been struggling with giving up smoking for a few weeks now.  I thought I had it kicked about a week after I had my stroke, but I've only recently (circa 2 weeks ago) come off the patches.  Unfortunately, I was getting my nicotine from the patches instead of the cigarettes, and that's no way to give up an addiction to something.  I knew this of course, but it seemed like the least intrusive way of getting off smoking right after I had my stroke.  So it didn't work, and to be honest I'm not all that surprised.  So for the last week I've been smoking again, and that sucks.
On Saturday I went to the Allen Carr clinic and took his course.  If you don't know who I'm talking about, then click the link and take a look.  He wrote a very famous book about twenty years ago called "The Easy Way to Give Up Smoking".  I had never read the book until last week, but I decided on Thursday that the method he uses had promise, and I booked myself on one of his courses on Saturday morning.  It wasn't really him of course, because he died last year of lung cancer.  He wrote the book and setup the clinics after discovering a way to give up smoking that relies on nothing more than convincing yourself that you actually do want to give up smoking.  He then went on and did the same thing for alcoholics and drug addicts, which is pretty cool.  However, for some reason the medical profession seems to be quite distainful of his method.  I haven't figured out why yet, and I'm sure its just a case of professional jealousy, but its interesting all the same.
So, after attending the clinic on Saturday, I came out and didn't smoke again.  The session they do lasts for five hours and includes some hypnotherapy and Neuro-linguistic programming as well as the standard course.  All in all I'd have to say it was brilliant.  I came out of there without a desire to smoke, and the withdrawl effects have been slight and managable.  Yes, I was a complete bitch yesterday, and maybe today, but that's a hell of a lot better than I've felt before when giving up.
Anyway, its a gray day, and I'm a little bit tense, and I have to go back to the hospital tomorrow (only for blood tests, but its still shite), and the programming I've been doing over the last days has been irritating me no end.  More about that in the next installment.

I had a problem with my PC case recently.  Actually I've had it for months, but never managed to get around to fixing it.  The top of the case has a hinged door over the CD-ROM space, which has a slight design flaw in that the hinge is a little flimsy.  The photo below shows what I'm talking about.  The door is on the top of the front panel.  Anyway, the nice people at PCICase sent me out a whole new frontage to replace the one I had.  Instead of a door, I got the whole shiny new front panel.  Thanks guys :-)