Archive for January, 2009

Tiny Change We Can Believe In

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

It has irked me for a long time that although the President of the United States wields great power over the rest of the world, only US citizens get to vote. To be brutally honest it irked me a lot more when Bush II was in power, but I approve ...

The C++ Boost Libraries Part 3 – string algorithms

Monday, January 19th, 2009

One of the many, many legitimate criticisms that could be leveled at C++ is that string handling is abysmal. Sure std::string can hold some chars for you, but there is a distinct lack of utility functions to actually do anything with those characters. Enter the Boost String Algorithm library, or ...

The C++ Boost Libraries (Part 2 – boost::assign)

Sunday, January 18th, 2009

We are still only in the low lands of boost territory but already we are coming across useful discoveries. Today's stop is boost::assign, one of those clever little pieces of code that makes life easier for everyone. Often you just want to load up a container with some small amount ...

Game Review : Battlestar Galactica

Friday, January 16th, 2009

If you are getting a bunch of guys together to play a board game, you may as well make it a nerdy one. Battlestar Gallactica (BSG) is the board game version of the recent TV show of the same name, and is the best game tie-ins that I have ever ...

The C++ Boost Libraries (Part 1 – Introduction)

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Although I like to think of myself of a jack-of-all-programming-trades, I must admit that I am mainly a C++ man. I have dabbled in the seductive dark side of Java and C#, but still prefer the mad poetry that C++ code can generate. A few years ago, C++ was showing ...

Book Review : A Wanderer’s Tale

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

The summer holidays are the one time of year when it is acceptable to stuff your face with cheap food and drink, and stuff your brain with cheap paperback novels. As with the food, you tend to have a good time during the consumption of the books but regret it ...

Replacing a MacBook Hard Drive

Monday, January 5th, 2009

My first-generation MacBook laptop had only one problem - its first generation 60 gig hard disk. Actually it used to have two problems, but I installed more memory in it ages ago. 60 gigs doesn't go far in today's world of movies and huge software packages, so I felt it ...