Thoughts of a Psych/Code Monkey/Guitarist

Yes, it's that time of year again - final of the Australian Open, time to be entertained by Federer as he wins again :) - It's good to see that Mauresmo has won her first slam, even though the situation was rather Bradbury-esque (as in the skater, not the writer). Holidays have FINALLY started :D - time to start doing all those things I've been putting off...well, that and the TopCoder Open for 2006 has started - 5 weeks of designing :p - Ah, chances of me getting through to the final is very low, but as long as I pass review 3 times I'll be happy :D Ooh, another idea that probably won't be made but should: RFID driveway gates! I don't have a gate across my driveway, but I'm sure people who do could get tired of having to get out of the car to open & close them all the time...so why not get the gate to do it automagically? Easy done - put an RFID tag in the back & front of your car (or, any car you want to be able to get through the gate), such that ...

Yes! I now am in possession of a KEYBOARD :D :D - Thanks very much to Bodie for providing the keybaord, and his dad for fixing it. Sooooo fun, 100 different instrument sounds plus 30 drum beats and all these weird effects, surely will come handy when recording :) {in fact, a sample is at my music site - check the song "End of Story"} So nice to be able to record piano (or rock organ, or harmonica, or bagpipes, or.... :p). Oh, and the Boulevard of Broken dreams has randomly become popular again, reaching #69 in the soundclick charts, and getting about 5 plays a day :) On the other side of things, programming has been in full steam over the holidays, during our 'summer scholarship' = getting paid to come in most days and practice algorithm competitions. I think i'd prefer to have a bit more free time (missed out on beach soccer :( ) but it's nevertheless enjoyable and getting paid is nothing to sneeze at. Ooh, and on the computing front, I will also be spending...

Just a quick post...having watched the cricket this week and last, I've been wondering whether anyone else noticed the similarity: Andrew Symonds and Gorillaz :)

Hope everyone a great New Years :) - Movie night was fun, I've now seen Shrek 2 and Saw, the latter was suprisingly good, I'll have to see the sequel at some stage, even if the rest of my family don't think they can stomach it.Anyway, to make this blog more than just a what-I-did-today saga, I'll be adding a few things, starting today with an idea that I was wondering what people thought of: R2R (right-to-reply) for SMS messaging: Bascially, after any SMS is sent, the receiver has a certain amount of time (maybe 30s, not sure) to reply a single message, possibly with tighter length constraints, back to the person who sent them the original message. This way: People who don't like using much credit / have no credit can reply to messages that need replying to. {like..."Can you pick me up?"} You could feasibly have a phone with no credit and use it for communication - big benefit of this will be for parents who can give their kids phones with NO cred...