Day One 2 is out. I think it's a well rounded app although my first experience wasn't completely smooth. Still worth buying.

After a quick think, being happy with Day One Classic, I bought it assuming that the previous version won't be maintained for much longer even though I'm a very light user.

Everything imported well and quickly. The previous version synced to iCloud but now you must create an account and sync through that. This isn't explained in the interface so I was tapping on the sync preference wondering why no options popped up. Until you sign in it is unable to sync.

The app asks for your location permissions even when not using the app. This is a pet peeve of mine because I'm aware of the additional power consumption this brings. In addition I don't like being followed. When declined any feature that depends on location is still enabled but just won't do anything when tapped. Going into the system settings reveals a third preferred option of only using location when using the app. I prefer being in control of things like this.

Day One doesn't explain what is new in the app although it is instantly apparent that you can have multiple journals. Not sure why I would want this though, because I'm mostly using it to record how long ago it's been since certain events happened (light user).

Conclusion

It's clear this is a premium iOS app and all of the above niggles can be easily addressed. I have removed the classic version as a sign of confidence.

#ios

The UK government had setup the Independent Commision on Freedom of Information with an eye to review the Freedom Of Information Act:

Last year, the government set up a commission to review the law, composed mostly of people who had expressed scepticism or concern about the scope of the FOIA, and with a clear brief to add restrictions to its workings.

Not my definition of independent.

#aside #technology

Jack Arnott writes for Eurogamer in the Football Manager 2016 review:

Anything beyond that, though, and, once again, I'm stumped. It won't tell you whether you've lost because you were closing down too much, or too little. Or because your defensive line was too high, or too low. Would Prozone analysis have helped me tame those pesky Shrews? Not without a hireable in-game performance analyst. This is no panacea for those, like me, who crave some FM feedback.

[...]

Despite a couple of neat additions, Football Manager 2016 is an iterative release that's sadly short on big new ideas.

None of this directly applies to this review or the quality of the game but is a bit more generalist rambling on my part -- I feel SI is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It's difficult to make a game that is seen as holding realism above all other values and then see it being criticsed for lack of feedback.

The hypothetical version that sorts this out would be surely used by all real world managers as this gives them the winning formula for winning their own leagues! The marketing of FM being used by real world managers only strangthens this conflicted ideal in my mind.

With all features already in the game the developer might be making enourmous investments now to advance the simulation just that little bit, unable to make great leaps as there is no great leap to make.

I used to think that making Football Manager light was the solution to create a more playable game but as people expect "all of the realism with less options" I don't think that is ever going to work either.

As long as it keeps selling though they would be silly to overhaul it, as it would alienate the existing fanbase.

I'm hoping there will sometime be an approximation of the FM lineage but with fun and passion as the core values under a different name, perhaps with fantasy clubs and players, silly things happening, no numbers and passion for the athmosphere of football.

#games

If your website has mod_rewrite enabled but the URL's generated by SilverStripe still contain 'index.php' then SilverStripe is unable to detect mod_rewrite. Adding the following line to /mysite/_config.php will address the issue (Thanks DsX):

Director::setBaseURL('/'); // fixed index.php in the URL's

#aside #silverstripe

I was suffering from lack of concentration later in the workday, until I stumbled upon the Pomodoro focusing technique. I've been a lot more productive and in a better mood since I started using this two weeks ago:

The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are known as "pomodori", the plural of the Italian word pomodoro for "tomato".

The method is based on the idea that frequent breaks can improve mental agility.

I created an AutoHotkey script that uses timers and a global hot-key I set for WinAmp to automatically stop and start the music after instructing me to work / have a break. It works really well for me.

#link #projects

From 2007, but a great video full of advice, and a fantastic example of pechakucha 20x20 presentation style.

#life #link

Steve Gibson pointed me to a guide to setting your desired privacy level in Windows 10. This version of Microsoft's operating system follows the 'always socially connected' footsteps of smartphones and therefore makes privacy assumptions. Using this guide you can check if they match your expectations.

#link #windows

This morning I integrated our PowerShell processes into FogBugz by writing a small module that submits occurrences of all errors to BugzScout. You might want to do something similar so I did this write-up.

Broadly it works similar to BugzScoutLogWriter that I developed previously for integration with SilverStripe CMS. In this case however, we need to do the following things:

1. Set the script to stop on all errors so they can be trapped instead of ending the execution of the script.
2. Capture the error details and submit them to FogBugz
3. Have an error occur. ;)

I've published the code in a Gist for you a have a look. I include the function in every script I use.

#powershell

Hide Trackbacks is a WordPress plugin that hides pingbacks and trackbacks from your website comments.

I've updated the plugin to indicate it works correctly with WordPress 4.2.

#hidetrackbacks #link #wordpress