Sam Iles's Blog

Alas, the end is nigh! As I blog to you now I find myself on the eve of the day which shall mark the ending of our Advent Countdown 2010! What sadness! Anyway. Let’s continue, shall we?

Book: The Google Story by David Vise. This book was one of the first books on the subject of Google. It presents a fantastic account of the founding of Google. All the way from when Larry met Sergey to the effort that went into building servers and hiring a chef and the struggle with advertising. Well worth a read to anyone who is a fan of the tech industry. Check it.

Movie: Dreamgirls. This movie is great! It’s a musical type thing, with Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson. There are some great songs in here. Did I mention there’s Beyoncé?

Song: Dreamgirls. This is the title track from the aforementioned movie. Very good.

Random: Gunnar Optiks. Now, I don’t have these yet but I am getting them. They are, put simply, specially tinted glasses which make certain tasks easier. For example, they sell versions for TV console gaming and ones for use with a computer. I want the computer ones, not the gaming ones. They make everything a slightly different colour and less bright (I don’t know science) and are supposed to be fantastic for anyone staring a computer screen for prolonged lengths of time. Much of my day is taken up with staring at a black text on white screen full of tiny code (incidentally, why don’t any of the big IDEs have font size settings?) and I think these glasses will really help. I am buying them on the recommendation of Stepto and I trust him greatly. If you do a lot of computer stuff – get these. Check their site out.

Tomorrow is the 24th of December! That’s Christmas Eve to us that celebrate the birth of Santa and that means that Christmas Day is just one day after. How terribly exciting. But, you know what’s more exciting than Christmas? That’s right, Day 23 of my Advent Countdown. Let’s continue, shall we?

Book: I’ve completely forgotten to blog about this one. Consider it nearly last, but certainly not least. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. This is one of the best selling business books of all time but is great for just people in general. I actually read it in Year 8 of secondary school after getting into a conversation with a PE teacher who recommended it to me. It explains seven habits which Covey believes will make you a better, happier person. It really is jolly incredible and I cannot recommend enough that you read it. Covey has also written several other books which are great, too. But, the 7 Habits are the place to start. If you plan on doing big things with your life, I would venture that this book will make it easier. Check it, please, check it out. If you read one book from these 25 posts, let it be this one.

Movie: I, Robot. Now, I have no idea what the name could possibly mean, but it is about robots. Specifically, robots taking over the world. It’s all jolly good fun (minus the copious amounts of death and terror).

Song: Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars. I sure do love this song. Have a listen.

Random: Blogging. Sure, you’re reading a blog right now but do you have one? If not, let me suggest that you do. It’s jolly good fun. I understand Wordpress.com to be a good service (I self host, but that isn’t for most). Have a go, it is fun.

Twenty-two of twenty-five! How excellent! It really is almost Christmas…

Book: The Guilty by Jason Pinter. Pinter is an American crime novelist who I am a big fan of and this, his first novel, really is superb. It centres around a young journalist called Henry Parker who repeatedly gets himself into bother… I suggest you read it! And, talking of Jason Pinter, he is conducting a little game on Twitter right now whereby he is donating one dollar American to a excellent charity called ‘Reading is Fundamental’ which aims to promote literacy in children for every additional follower he gets through midnight on December 31st. I have also agreed to take part in such a scheme ($1 per follower) and I therefore suggest you follow both him and I to keep the dollars happening. Also, if you have Twitter, why not join in? You can set an upper limit, or choose the amount the want to give per follower (you could even do a different charity, I guess.) Think about it…

Movie: Whilst not strictly a movie, last night I watched Beyoncé’s ‘I Am… Yours‘ concert which was performed in front of a very small audience at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. It is so, so good. The first act is all slow songs with an acoustic set. It really is special. And, the second app is a lot faster where Beyoncé tells her story and sings all the fast songs. It is so, so good and really is a must watch if you get the chance. It’s on TV every now and then or you can be cool and buy the DVD (which includes two CDs with all the songs)…

Song: You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette. Beyoncé worked this into the performance of ‘If I Were a Boy’ in the Wynn performance and it reminded me of what a great song it is. The opening lines are so good.

Random: Here an interesting thought regarding the use of police horses in the recent student protests and how they are, perhaps, the silent victims of it all. An interesting link to the Animal Aid website regarding this, I feel: LINK.

Book: Pride and Prejudice. What an awesome book. This one, however, is less about the book itself, but more about Austen herself. Seriously people, just read some Austen. It is a fine example of literature.

Movie: Severance. I watched this last night and it’s very good. It’s about a group of colleagues who go to a Eastern Europe facility on a team building exercise. But, the catch is that there are murders there. Very gory UK horror film. It’s on the BBC iPlayer right now, for free. See here.

Song: Girlfriend by Chris Brown. There was a time when everyone hated Chris Brown. Then, his incredible third album was released and the people were all ‘OK, we like you now’. And, whilst he certainly isn’t the nicest person in the world, one can’t deny that Girlfriend from his third album really is a great song. Go have a listen, won’t you?

Random: Flux. Flux is a Mac program by UK indie development company The Escapers. It’s for web design and really is, in my opinion, a Dreamweaver killer. It is so full featured with full HTML5 support and an amazing WYSIWYG editor (if that’s your thing). It is also very, very cheap compared to Dreamweaver. Go get it if you make websites!

Hello! It’s almost Christmas!

Book: The New Hedgehog Book by Dr Pat Morris. So, I love this book. It is so good. If you like animals and wildlife and the like, you will love this witty, informative book by the world’s leading hedgehog expert. Check it out.

Movie: I watched Shaun of the Dead last night for the first time. It was great. Funny and very entertaining zombie comedy (I believe the portmanteau is zomedy). Go watch it!

Song: Hot by Avril Lavigne. Super catchy happy fun time song (it’s good).

Random: I thought I’d share this with you, because it looks awesome: vegan cruise! I know. It’s a basically a cruise, where all the meals are vegan and vegan things happen and so on. Seems like fun, I want to go. If veganism isn’t your thing, but themed cruises are, check out Mac Mania. It’s cruises for Mac people. Leo Laporte is usually there, as is Andy Ihnatko and so on. I really want to go on one of these, too. There’s lectures and classes about stuff and a lot more. They do one (sometimes two) each year.

Why, hello there! I’m trapped in my house due to copious amounts of snow, so here, have a blog post:

Book: Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen Linzmayer. This book is like the Apple Bible. It’s the definitive history of Apple. Based on interviews with the key people and general knowledge, this book explains it all perfectly, along with great quotations and small facts dotted throughout. This second edition was published in 2004, so is a little out of date as you can imagine (for example, towards the end the book says that it is unclear whether or not the iPod will be a success, and there is no mention of an iPhone or Apple TV). But, it is the first 25 years of Apple’s history that are most interesting anyway. This is must read for any Apple fanboy. Check it.

Movie: Eagle Eye. This movie is a great thriller. “In Eagle Eye, an elaborate murder plot and its evil conspirator ensnare a pair of innocent people.” But, with lots and lots of twists. You will enjoy it.

Song: Mean by Taylor Swift. This song is from Taylor’s new album and really is awesome! I suggest a listen…

Random: The Economist. Being a magazine, this doesn’t really fit into the book category, so I’m putting it here. The Economist sounds like a boring magazine, but it really isn’t. The articles are great and usually little to do with economics. They usually focus on global politics, global warming, business, that kind of thing. I use their iPad app which allows you to either subscribe to the full magazine or just read the editor’s highlights for free (which is what I do). The editors highlights consist of five or so articles from each edition of the magazine which are the main cover articles. They are always interesting (and often spark blog post ideas for this site). If you have the iPad app, well worth a free download. If you don’t have the iPad, try to pick up just one copy of the magazine from your local newsagent – it’s great.

Snow! So much snow. It started at 9pm last night and is fast approaching 2 feet of snow now. Let it snow, eh? Anyway, moving on:

Book: Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin. This book will appeal to only a very small subset of my users, I expect. It’s about writing cleaner, better more efficient code. It’s about choosing proper names, writing good functions, handling errors well, writing good comments and making code future proof. Recently, I’ve been working on code which I wrote four years ago and haven’t looked at since – and it’s bad. I didn’t use to comment properly and I wrote differently and this code really shows it. I would suggest you get this book if you have been coding for years or are new at it. The information inside really is invaluable. It is also a MUST for anyone who writes code which they will end up sharing. If you are writing code and will be sharing it with people in your company you need this – especially if you can’t readily talk to those people (i.e. a virtual company). I’ve always said that if I owned a software company with staff, this book would be required reading for continued employment. And, at just £15 on Amazon.co.uk, it’s a bargain. Buy this people!

Movie: Night at the Museum 1 and 2. So, Ben Stiller is the night watchman at a big American museum. The twist: all the exhibits come to life at night! It’s pretty silly, but happens to be very funny. Number two is also good and worth a watch. Try it out…

Song: Wait Til You See My Smile by Alicia Keys. I love Alicia Keys and this song from her most recent album is one of my favourites. You really should have a listen, very relaxing: listen.

Random: Poetry. A few posts ago, I suggested to you that reading books was a fantastic thing to do. I didn’t really discuss poetry specifically, but it just happens to be a truly wonderful thing. My favourite poets include Frost, Poe, Owen, Larking, among others. Below are a selection of some of my favourite poems for your enjoyment. Please read them, please? Especially The Raven and If.

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe If by Rudyard Kipling The Pasture by Robert Frost Fire and Ice by Robert Frost Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

Book: The Secret Life of Tress by Colin Tudge. “Seriously, Sam, a book about trees?”, I hear you say. Yes, trees. This book is fascinating and an absolute treasure of a book. It’s about trees and everything there is to know about them. They really are very, very remarkable. Check it.

Movie: The Tuxedo with Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan! Super high tech suit! Kung Fu! YAAAAAY!

Song: Forever by Chris Brown. For some reason, this song always reminds me of summer and was, for a period of time, the most listened to song on my iPod. I do heart it.

Random: This iPhone app called Word Lens is the kind of thing I would expect to read in a science fiction novel, but it’s real, and is available in the app store right now. You should go watch the video on their website. It is awesome.

I apologise for the shortness of this post, too…