Having a moan along to 'Creep' by Radiohead

The lament of mothers everywhere: Suffering from a complete and utter lack of TIME.

I cannot believe how insanely busy I've been recently. I've barely had a moment this week where I've just got to sit still and breathe let alone attempt to get some coding practice in. Every spare minute isn't spent merely multi-tasking, oh no. it's spent attempting to be super woman/ mother/ mentalist by combining activities that shouldn't really be combined. I had to call my mother FROM THE LOO (sorry mum) whilst simultaneously attempting an urgent bank transfer on the laptop, whilst I could hear Reuben kicking off downstairs and the baby wailing his head off in the cot. That's just how busy I've been. Having to call people FROM THE LOO (I have to capitalise it just to emphasise the wrongness). It's just been impossible to get anything I want to do, done. This small boy herding gig can be hard sometimes.

Ed's had a lot of social engagements recently, so the time I'd normally spend getting a bit of headspace to myself has been negligible this week. I think that's why when I convinced him to take the boys to the CO-OP round the corner this afternoon so I could have a little lie down, it turned into a three hour sleep marathon. Did not mean to do that. I feel a strange combination of groggy and wired as a result. 

In promising developments: I have a job interview on the horizon and my practical driving test is booked. Freedom? bring it.    

This week I swear I will not be calling anyone FROM THE LOO.     

Crashing into 'Another brick in the wall' by Pink Floyd

Hello wall.

SMACK. That's me, crashing to a massive halt. This is a big old big brick wall in my way this time, a huge insurmountable wall that makes all my previous technical difficulties look like a sunny summer day in the Surrey countryside. Let this be a salutary lesson to you all, do your research before flinging yourself head-first into things. I had been going through this Mac refurbishment process on a step by step basis. I would follow the next logical stage of the process without giving much thought to what could possibly be coming next.

Turns out I have upgraded the Macbook as far as it will go. To run Xcode (The software developers kit that Apple provide you with to develop Apps) you need to have OS Lion installed. To run Lion, you need an Intel core 2 duo processor. I only have an Intel core duo. Turns out that little 2 is very important! This basically means I cannot develop Apple Apps on the piece of crap Macbook as a processor isn't something that's easily upgradable without a handy soldering iron. DOOOOOOOOOM. The end of days. Very sad times.

I was very sulky and despondent about this on Saturday, just where do I go from here? After sleeping on it I reaslised the answer was staring me in the face, or at least keeping my lap very warm. My Acer netbook, my gloriously named 'Aspire one Happy' (and it does keep me happy, it's orange) as well as running Windows, also can operate on an Android platform. Why don't I attempt to build an Android App initially instead? After doing some tentative research I've found Android Apps are built with Java, a programming language I have a basic acquaintance with, AND I will still be able to utilise the piece of crap Mac for the job in meantime as it will run an Android software developers kit quite happily. Hurrah. And why don't I treat myself to a better spec Mac when I eventually have more capital and then build the iPhone App?

So in summary: All is not lost, the Appymum project is still go, go, go. It will initially just be on a different platform that was originally envisaged. Secondly, if I want a better spec Mac (and that all essential thing to function in a capitalist society. I think its called money)  got to gets me back to work ASAP. Whether this will be for my current employers or not remains to be determined...

 


  
    

RAWHING along to "WAR, what is it good for?"

Wow. What a fortnight

I’m so sorry this hasn't been kept up-to-date. I’ve been collapsing with exhaustion any spare minute I’ve had these past 12 days, it’s been absolutely mental!

My time spent not blogging has instead involved (as well as the usual small boy herding): 5 slogs up to Central London, a visit to the Royal Opera house, lots of lovely meals out and coffees with friends, a fabulous free day out at Legoland Windsor and battling with my piece of crap Mac. Good god have I been at war with my piece of crap Mac. But it’s all fine now, we are friends again. I ordered the upgrade of the operating system as I realised Tiger couldn’t run the Mac App store, and I need the Mac App store to download the applications I need to develop. Doh. I am thrilled with just how cheap as chips Mac’s OS’s are in comparison to Windows by the way, but I suppose if you charge a hefty premium for the hardware, SOMETHING has to be cheaper. The OS Snow Leopard disk arrived and I was super happy until I realised I did not have the required RAM. ARGHH. My Mac was running at 512mb and I needed at least 2GB worth of memory and I wasn’t sure my piece of crap Mac was going to be able to cope with 2GB, It might burn out with that kind of memory! Nevertheless, I thought I’d risk it and ordered myself a twin set of 1GB memory modules. This is normally the point I cry “DAAAAAAAAAD” down the phone and get my father to come over to sort the hardware out for me, but that was going to be problematic as he lives near Walsall. I live in South London. That’s a big old distance. I decided, what the hell, unless I can upgrade the RAM, the Mac will be pretty useless to me, so I might as well try to swap the memory modules myself and not freak out whether or not I was going to break it.

When the memory modules arrived I looked up exactly how the hell one goes around changing memory modules. It can’t be too complicated right? Right?! My first challenge was getting into the correct compartment which proved to be a total ballache. Apple are very helpful with their online ‘how-to’ guides, but they didn’t factor in my limited equipment of a dinner knife and a magic screwdriver. Both of which proved useless. Getting the battery out to get to the correct compartment was easy enough, what was impossible was trying to get the L bracket off that sealed the compartment.  I lamented this fact down the phone to Eddie who suggested I use the screwdriver out of his spectacle repair kit which worked perfectly, thank god for marrying a dude in glasses. Then it was just a simple matter of switching them memory modules over. The old ones slipped out easily enough, but getting the new ones to install was a complete mission. It took ten attempts to get the Mac to recognise them, but recognise them it eventually did once I started to get impatient and jammed them in there REALLY HARD. I’m learning that’s the trick with my Mac, it likes a bit of rough.

Finally with the new RAM capacity in place, getting Snow Leopard to install should be an absolute piece of cake right? Wrong. That took about 4 days, 4 DAYS to get the bloody machine to accept the new operating system. Tears were shed, tantrums were thrown and that was just the Mac. In the end it turned out the PRAM needed resetting… No I’m not entirely sure what this is either, but as of yesterday, I’m FINALLY all good to go. Watch this space! 

Waking with good intentions to 'Heaven' by Emeli Sande

Open to suggestions! I’m very suggestible.

I’m currently working on my top ten list of all-time favourite iPhone Apps, but I want to see what recommendations you guys have. Please feel free to send your suggestions my way either via comments, twitter or facebook. It’s all very much welcomed.

I’m having a little wobble at the moment, nothing too serious or dramatic (or remotely App related – although an App that helps you when having a ‘bit of a wobble’, a cup of tea of Apps if you will, now there’s an idea) it’s more of a confidence wobble in how I’m presenting myself professionally, what am I missing in comparison to others?  I’m normally a fairly laidback individual when you disregard the constant, overarching need for a project that’s going to drive me INSANE, but it is hard to see others (using others in the generic sense, not one individual) continually get something that you really wanted. I keep getting bypassed and I don’t know why, I am never given a reason why. I’d like to think I’m a magnanimous individual and I genuinely derive joy from other people’s pleasure, but to be slightly envious is to be human I guess, and I’m very much that. I have no idea why I get so worked up about the whole job situation other than the obvious financial issues. I’d hazard a guess and say it’s probably status related. Stay at home mothers and ones with part-time jobs are sent very confusing messages by the media (I need to learn to ignore the ‘Daily Mail’, I KNOW). Society tells you this is the most important role of your life but it’s NOT ENOUGH to just bring up children into functional, competent, pleasant adults any more. You’re expected to be CEO of a FTSE 100 company as well. How did we come to this?!

Anyway.

Appymum project: All systems are go go go! I have now set myself up a computer work station that consists of the Macbook, the monitor and my Acer netbook. I’ve taken over the kitchen table with a veritable spaghetti junction of leads and cables, so I have a feeling I may have to relocate to the bedroom to a) keep the equipment away from the curious fingers of the children and b) not piss anyone else off (We share our house with Ed’s very tolerant brother who already puts up with a tremendous amount of mess and junk from us, I feel terrible adding to it!). But even if I do relocate upstairs it doesn’t matter, as point is, I can now get this show well and truly rolling. After Kam’s ballet class on Saturday, I’m starting my steep learning curve that will be ‘Objective C’, I promise to keep this blog updated every torturous step of the way, hell, then we can all be App developers! Wouldn’t that be nice? You could all suffer with me!