On the one side there are those who laugh and proclaim “Nice one son! Stick it to ‘em!” while on the other we find those who tut and shake their heads. They declare that he should have “maintained his professionalism” and “If he didn’t like working with the public then he should have sought a different career”.

To the latter I say fuck that. The guy had worked the airlines for twenty years so no doubt had his fair share of tossers. Every person has their limit. The incident with that awful woman was his, and he went postal. Good. If it makes just one rude, arrogant, selfish arsehole more aware that they make the flying experience unpleasant for the rest of us, then it will have been worth it.

I also hope the passenger that caused the injury to Steven and disobeyed his instructions is charged. They did commit a felony, after all.

We all deserve one “I’m outta here” moment. Mine was in 1999 in a hospital in London. After three weeks of hell, trying to please a woman who would not be pleased, I said enough was enough. I walked out with a flourish…only to reenter the office moments later when I realised I hadn’t taken my jacket. This did, however, allow me to see the look on my boss’s face for a second time – she’d thought I’d come back to say sorry! Not bloody likely.

Unfortunately my exit didn’t involve beer or an escape chute.

Now, I’m not one to pay much attention at weddings. Generally they are very formulaic and a bit crap. It certainly takes a special wedding to stick in my mind and – dare I say it – make me actually feel some emotions.

By emotions I don’t necessarily mean grit-in-the-eye-moments. No, just in one way or another I can “feel the love”. I don’t just mean between the bride and groom, but from everyone there as well.

I can think of three weddings that I feel genuinely moved me:

1. My own wedding, naturally. But then that’s expected, right?
2. Brendan and Catherine in 2001. This was in England on the Wirral. We had a great weekend and it was at a wonderful location with some great people
3. The recent splicing of Ryan and Jessica

I don’t think it’s necessarily how much money is spent to put on the event, but I suppose that helps. I think it’s more about what it clearly means to those involved, those who make the effort to attend and put the effort into the celebration. The three mentioned above certainly hit the spot for me in that regard.

Firstrade are one such site that allows you to do all that stuff I’ve just said I know nothing about including management of your IRA accounts. No, I don’t know what one of those is either.

What I do know is that I love doing stuff online on the move, and Firstrade allows mobile trading. Now you’re talking; although I would have to have a clue what I was doing before I even attempted it. I’ll stick to hoarding my cash under the mattress*

*I don’t hoard cash under the mattress – I never have enough left to hoard in the first place.

Satan's spawn and destroyer of worlds... and President Obama

God hates fags, apparently. Quite right too – they give you lung cancer. Oh, hang on you mean “fags” as in homosexuals? Does S/He? Really?

If you believe Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church gang of nasty, hate filled bags of vileness, then yes, God hates “fags”… and Canadians… and Mexicans… and America. Oh, ok he hates just about everyone and everything.

Well that’s nice. But hang on. Let’s go back to homosexuals. God hates them, right? But if you believe in God, then you accept that God created us all and everything in the Universe. Apart from the bigger question of who the fuck created God in the first place (an argument by which all religion instantly collapses), this means that God created homosexuals. Let’s repeat that: God created homosexuals.

So why did God create homosexuals? If they’re so evil, why do they exist? Are they in some way “flawed” humans? But didn’t God create us in His own image? Right, so we’re made from God, by God and flawed.. so is God flawed then? Bit of a shit god if he can’t make straight humans without the odd bender slipping through the net. Talk about crap quality control. He wouldn’t last 10 minutes assembling iPhones in a Chinese factory.

Of course, it could just be that people like Fred Phelps (and many “normal” religions – they don’t escape criticism) are just angry, bitter fuckwits who have too much time on their hands. Oh, and in answer to this post’s title – yes, they appear to be mad. Pretty, pretty mad.

Why is this commercial annoying and stupid? Because if the brothers actually let the other pay, they’d save ALL of the cost of the transaction. What’s better? Getting 3% back on a $75 purchase, or just keeping all of the $75?

This trip was with Glenn, CP, Clark, Michelle and Ranger the dog. The aim was to climb Mt San Grogornio in the San Grogornio Wilderness area via the Fish Creek trail. We would be camping at Mine Shaft Flat on the first night then continue up to the summit before returning back to the cars.

Getting to the trail was a wondrous journey on unpaved and at times rocky trails. Upon arrival we all geared up and hit the trail. Weather was bright and sunny but not too hot. After a few hours climbing (and a pass-check with some rangers) we arrived at our campground for the night. We pitched up, collected water and had dinner. I was tired so it wasn’t long after 9pm before I turned in (to my Eureka Spitfire 1 tent).

That was possibly the worst night I have ever had. Despite my pitch not looking too slopey, and after clearing away rocks, I ended up sliding around on my sleeping pad and feeling a particular rock sticking into my hip whenever I turned over.

Next morning after a hard lesson in where not to pitch a tent and a fitful sleep I arose – a monster of my former self. I had long ago in the night decided that I wasn’t going to continue up to the mountain summit. Nope, I was knackered and felt like crap. I was going back to the cars. I informed the others of my decision as we packed up camp. We hiked up out of the campground and at a trail intersection parted our ways.

I had a very pleasant stroll down the mountain. The solitude was amazing, and again the weather perfect. After a couple of hours I was back at the parking lot where I ate lunch and had a snooze. I was expecting the others a couple of hours after my return. This, however, turned into a mammoth test of patience. As each subsequent hour ticked by there was no sign of them. I was getting worried. I even asked other hikers as they came off the trail whether they’d seen my party. Nope.

It wasn’t until a whopping 6 hours after my return to the car park that they came into view – tired and thirsty. The hike up the mountain had taken longer than they’d thought it would. I was just glad they came back as I was making plans to still Glenn’s truck if they didn’t show soon!

At least during my wait I caught up with some podcasts. All of the backlog I had!

Oh, and throughout the trip I didn’t have to crap in a hole, so it wasn’t all bad.

Aside from the copious validation errors, they often heavily rely on images for links and navigation. Any web developer with half a brain knows that to use images as navigation is a big no-no.

Sites purporting to help you get cable specials are little better. This Time Warner Cable reseller has image overload to go along with the validation errors. It would never pass muster for accessibility. Some more white space between element wouldn’t go amiss either. As I’ve previously mentioned, the smiling ‘chat online now’ woman is probably not an accurate reflection of the help you’d get if you asked them some questions. And why are they wearing a headset for online IM?

The specials page at My TV Options is also a hoot when you dig behind the scenes. Massive imagery on that page, my favorite being some large text that declares “We have found 1 current promotion in your area”. This text is actually an image, which I’m guessing is displayed whatever area I’m in. Aside from the fact they don’t know what area I’m in, using images when text will do is rather silly. That’s something you learn in web development 101.

I suppose you could argue that if you get a good deal then things like a crappy site aren’t an issue. This may be so, but doing a good site needn’t cost more and in fact can be quicker to develop that one with a complex image layout. It’s just a matter of hiring someone who knows what they’re doing.

My rates are reasonable.

So, after getting some books from Amazon I started. After much reading I got as far as working through some simple apps using Apple’s Xcode and iPhone simulator. Then we went on vacation to New England… and it all went to pot.

Upon our return I didn’t pick up my book or crank up Xcode. I just left it and slowly started forgetting all I had learned.

All is not lost though – with the renewed interest in the iPhone due to its fourth generation launch, I am once again bitten by the iPhone development bug. It hasn’t taken me too long to get back to where I was, and I’m impressed with the stuff I still remember. In fact, by learning it all a second time, some of it that wasn’t quite clear to me the first time now makes more sense.

Don’t get me wrong, developing for iPhone is a steep learning curve and it will be some time before I’m an iTunes App Store millionaire. However, I am excited at the prospect of getting something published on the app store.

Of course, I was behind the times when I first started learning this stuff last year. Now with iOS4, the new iPhone and the iPad I’m slipping even further.

That’s why I shall never be a millionaire!

Resources I’ve found useful

• Learn C on the Mac by Dave Mark
• Learn Objective-C on the Mac by Mark Dalrymple and Scott Knaster
• Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Jeff LaMarche and David Mark
• Apple’s own documentation is AWESOME, as is Xcode development software. It’s all free if you regsiter

At least DirecTV seem ok compared to Time Warner Cable. Jenn’s had nothing but grief with them since they provided her dad’s service. We were certainly glad to see the back of them.

Anyway, to save money you could check out directsattv.com DirecTV service rates or timewarner.com cable TV service rates. However, being the cynic I am, only time will really tell whether these guys actually save you money in the long run. The first website linked to above call themselves “an authorized DirecTV dealer”. They do appear to have some pretty sweet deals on just now, but if they can sell them at that low a price and make a profit, then is DirecTV itself taking us all for a ride? Or is there a catch somewhere? Aha, no! It turns out there is info you should know about TV pricing.

That’s alright then.

It is a great piece of kit, and although not exactly necessary, it certainly is great fun to use. I shall write more on it later, and probably using my MacBook. In the meantime, I’ll say to those who say it’s “just a big iPod touch” that yes it is. And you say it like that’s a bad thing?