Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has something to say about weblogs. As you may have noticed, I have just read it and made some changes to the site layout ;-)
A nice article by Charles Petzold, author of various Windows programming books. Topics include IntelliSense, and how it negatively influences coding style, as well as rants about the code automatically generated by Visual Studio.
Based on my paper for ESC Boston, an EE Times article has been published. The article, titled Building Portable Systems in C++, is also available on Embedded.com. Unfortunately, the article only abstracts a small part of my paper, but at least it's my first publication in a major magazine ;-)
My days of marathon-running glory are, unfortunately, long over, and it shows. In a new personal record, my weight reached 90 kg in the last weeks. Time to do something about it, I decided. I have been running more or less ever since, but with inconsistent regularity. In addition, I spend long hours sitting in front of the computer. To make matters worse, my eating habits are not the best, also.
This time of the year, my motivation for outdoor sports activity is on an all-year low — caused mainly by the shorter days and by the really shitty cold and rainy wheather that we "enjoy" here in Austria. The summer was mostly rainy, intermitted by short periods of sunshine. And the autumn doesn't look any better. So on Monday I went shopping for a bike ergometer. While looking at the different models, the guy in the shop also showed me a model from Daum Electronic, a German manufacturer. The special thing about this model is its cockpit computer. It is powered by Linux. Upon power-on of the unit, one is greeted by a penguin and a "Linux powered" logo. The cockpit computer features an integrated MP3 player, as well as an Ethernet network interface. Nice possibilities, indeed.
Anyway, in the end I went with a cheaper model. Its cockpit computer has a serial interface, and there is Windows software available. Since my private life is Mac only, there is the possibility of some interesting evenings finding out what a serial-to-USB adapter and some programming can get out of this device.