!#%@#^@#$%@#% Decimal.
So the other evening was spent tracking down a damnable thing. in Python 2.4, the win32 implementation of Decimal (new in Python 2.4) doesn’t support multiplying a Decimal value by an integer. And that really bit hard.
Turns out, the whole reason I was dealing with Decimal was because of a terrible assumption I made. Somewhere in a recent version of the python MySQL drivers, they slipped in a return value type of Decimal for floats… damnit. Freakin’ bit me in the butt. Turns out that Django with MySQL on my MacOS X box was giving me back a Decimal python type when the python value was retrieved from a django FloatField. Win32, however, was returning a float.
Grrrr…
In the end, I did a terrible thing - I put in an OS specific check in my code to convert the bloody thing to float so that it would at least be consistent. decimal.Decimal includes a handy .__float__() method.
Woo Hoo!!! Great new tonight! My new toy is on it’s way. I’ve cleaned out space in my fridge and talked it up with the guys - so I’m all set to go!
Oh - and with the new machine, I’m going to make the switch to Postgres. Wish me well!
In addition to a little shooting of planes, I have also been reading a bit. I found a copy of V for Vendetta (Vertigo Comics) at Queen Anne Ave Books and brought it home the other day. Just finished it yesterday too. I enjoyed the movie they made from the comics, and as you might imagine the comic was more indepth and had a slightly different plot. The movie rendition did it fair justice I think. It’s one that I think I’ll buy at some point - if nothing else than for the dialogue, which I thought was exquisite.
Vertigo also has my attention with Y: The Last Man. It’s a pretty engrossing tale that Leah has caught me up into. I’m not through with the first book, but it won’t be long. And then I guess there’s 6 more to go.
Some time ago I’d become caught in Books of Magic, and have all those novels buried in my shelves. Just looking at the Vertigo site tonight let me know there were a couple more that I hadn’t yet collected… hmmm…
Cool!
I wasn’t sure when I got the XBox 360 if any of the older games that I had would even play. The answer is “yeah”, and more apparently coming online. Tonight I tossed in an old favorite - Crimson Skies - for a little flying about and shooting of planes. One of my favorite styles of game, actually. Secret Weapons over Normandy is another in that venue, and really well done too boot. And of course the Starwars “combat flight simulator” games of which I have several. Fly the space ship… I do wish there was an updated XWing vs. Tie Fighter game available for the XBox. I used to love to fly those little tie fighters.
Ok, you’ve to admit - while its gratiutous, it’s damn cool: Google’s ambiant display visualization of worldwide queries
Hey Cool! There’s an article that was just posted to IBM DeveloperWorks about using the Django web framework. It’s written with developing/deploying on a unix based environment, but has a great general walkthrough of the pieces and parts of using Django.
Nice work Ian!
9 days or so - thats when Apple is estimating that I’ll get my new MacBook Pro (I still think the name “MacBook Pro” is kinda stupid).
I’ve been agonizing over which to get - the MacBook or the MacBook Pro, and I finally came down on the site of the Pro. The extra $400 is buying me pixels and pixel pushing when it comes right down to it. I’ve been living in a 1024×768 world for several years now on my day-to-day programming/fiddling/whatever machine. Time to get some more real estate on the screen, not to mention a huge leap in processing power. From a 533Mhz G3 to a 2.16Ghz Intel core duo. I rather expect a stunning increase in speed with this move.
I also ventured very close to getting one of those 20″ iMacs - they’re very, very nice machines. I wish the cabling was a little better situated (like a usb port on the side or front for the usb keyfob that has replaced the ubiquitous floppy disk), but it’s an incredible value for a desktop machine. And the screen… well, it’s not a 30″ display, but it’s darned nice. Way more than you can comfortably do *in* a laptop.
The new laptop is a 15″ (17″ is just too big of a laptop for me), so my new default resolution is going to be 1440×900. The MacBook was 1280×800. And there’s a video card difference - the pro version is certainly capable of driving another screen without any issue at all.
Well, it should ship in a few days, and then it’ll be a little easier to track. Until it ships, I’m not counting it rolling really. There’s no telling when a parts backlog somewhere will screw up the production line, and I wouldn’t expect the online store thingy to really be 100% accurate with build and ship timings.
And that concludes my wild spending for the summer - been planning this for a while. WWDC ticket, ADC Select membership, and a new laptop. It’ll take a while to replenish my “geek toys” fund, but it’s definitely worth it.
Heh - and I get a copy of Comic Life with it. That’ll be fun to play with…
Good lord, what’s wrong with me? For whatever reason, words for common things are just completely escaping me. It’s really beginning to get slightly infuriating - It’s that tip of the tongue thing - you feel like it’s just right there, you can describe things about it, but you just can’t say the damn word. Like some backchannel in my brain just isn’t making the connection.
And then, every now and than, someone says it - and it’s like *BANG* “YES! That’s It!”.
What’s up with that?
It’s been one of those highly focused weeks. Really highly focused - and yes, that means probably far more sedentary as a result as well. But events this week have really been keeping me popping. Not in a bad way, just real attentive.
I’ve reminded myself several times this week to keep flexible to view points that would otherwise be foreign, and not to make snap judgements. I’m also in a longer running project that is just going to take time to get all completed - and I’m reminded of a mantra that Ralph Caruso used to use at MU: “Inch by inch, life’s a sinch”. (Ralph was the CIO for the Unversity system - while I didn’t work directly for him, he was always great for asking a question or subtley steering me around a bit). I’ve converted that mantra into “small wins, constant movement” with this project. And that has been working really well for me.
Ed Mahon - now there’s a different story. I would never work for that man again for any amount of money.
