First Post!

Hi, and welcome to my blog. Those of you who know me know that I have a variety of interests, and this blog should help keep you up to date. For those who are just getting to know me, some of the things you’re likely to find on my blog are the odd musings on technology, cars, films, and daily life. I'll also include some bits and pieces from my personal life as I am currently in the process of moving from Ireland to B.C., Canada to get married after almost 3 years of a long-distance relationship. To top that all off, I’ve just got involved in some work for a start-up company. So, things are busy, to say the least.


You may have noticed that I have of a strange looking car for my profile picture, so without further ado, let me introduce you to my car, Ted. Ted is a small, yellow sports car. More precisely, Ted is a Sylva Striker

and unfortunately has a rather dodgy engine. When working well, Ted is fun to drive, but now his heart lies in bits on a garage bench, awaiting a rebuild. As I've always been one to tinker with things, there is no way that I am going to rebuild Ted to the way he was before. When I'm done, Ted will be a little more fun and hopefully a little more reliable too. In future, I'll tell you more about Ted, why it is ultimately less damaging to the environment than a well known hybrid, and why it is so much fun, especially at very ordinary speeds.

As for my current computer stuff, I have been doing quite a lot of research into network filesystems and ways to make them work better over relatively high-latency networks. Basically, with some of my work, you'll be able to perform file searches and some other types of operations much quicker than is currently the norm. For now, I'm keeping the actual details top-secret, but don't worry, I'll let you know when there is something more interesting to look at.

Oh, on that note, I've been working on modifying a Unix tool called fdupes. It's a nifty little tool for finding duplicate files, but it is lacking in a number of areas. The author and maintainer hadn't been updating it for a long time, so I decided to make some changes of my own. They will make it much faster for large, but differing files, multiple filesystems, and also add a few useful features, such as looking for matches where both files have the same name, minimum file size, maximum file size, and a few other bits and pieces. It's not really a modification though, but more of a re-write, with all of the functionality of the original and much more besides.


Wow, you've gotten this far. So, I'll just finish with a few links to things I enjoy. I find that sometimes xkcd, can be quite funny/insightful/interesting. It misses from time to time, but that's nothing to be ashamed of (even the great Garry Larson didn't always get it right).


There is another site I quite like called b3ta. Some of the stuff that makes it onto that site is very funny indeed, but unfortunately, it can also be a tad inappropriate for work. Actually, on second thought, it's completely inappropriate for work, full of puerile humour and lots of in-jokes. So, it's just on my level :)

I've also been known to use a browser plugin called stumbleupon a bit too. It's a great way to find an interesting site or two. It can also be a huge time-sink, but what's one less hour's sleep?

I find The Register to be a fairly informative technology news site and it tends to have a bit better signal to noise than another of my favourites, Slashdot.org.

On a slightly more personal interest level, I'm into cars and currently live in Ireland, so I have been known to frequent a forum called Octane.ie. It'll be a good way for me to stay in touch with the automotive scene in Ireland while I'm sitting in front of a computer, drinking a hot coffee and watching the snow build up outside the window.

There are plenty of other places on the Net that I visit, some of which I'll out as time goes on.

Anyway, until next time, remember " Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning" - Rich Cook.

Regards,
Neil