What is going on

HPIM0116,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

Sometimes I think this pot is my brain, always brewing and bubbling over with ideas. Lately I've been working on a Lotus Hannover clone that is writen in swing instead of SWT. I'm having a fun time getting the tabs to look similiar but I think I am almost there but sadly the weekend is almost over so I won't have to much time to work on it so for the next five days I'll be just like the pot bubbling over with ideas on how to make it look better. Ah I have to go do the dishes, I wish I had never chosen this image to use in my blog because now I'm hungry and I have to do the dishes and now I can't work on my clone.

Rock on,
G

Would you mess with this

HPIM0132,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

So the question must be would you mess with this thing? Sure she looks cute but imagine if she was pissed and you were the reason she was pissed. I know I would be gone if I saw Jenna angry, this is one woman I wouldn't mess with. That being said it is just a dog and a cute one at that.

Sonja and I house sat for this beast for the last two weeks and I have realized that I'm glad i don't have a pet because I am clearly not ready for the responsiblity of dealing with a pet on a full time basis. Sure it was fun to house sit for a littlbe bit but lets be honest I couldn't imagine having to come home everynight to feed her. I am so glad that I don't have kids right now because I am way to busy for kids. I know you would drop all the other stuff that you do for your children but I am far to selfish right now to drop everything that I'm doing for a child. Oh well I don't have to worry about that anytime soon.

My desk

My desk,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

This is where 9 hours of every day is spent. Staring at those two huge monitors, drinking my water, answering questions from other developers and doing some coding. This is the place that pays the bills but not the place I hate.

Road race in vic

Road race in vic,
originally uploaded by Glenn Saqui.

On may long weekend here in victoria we have a race that whips around the down core. Heres a photo of of the main pack busting a gut to catch the leader ride Roland Green from victoria

A pic of a road race in victoria

Friends have ugly websites what do you do?

One of Sonjas friends just started a business as a resaler for road bikes down in Australia and he sent all his friends the link to the page. I won't post it because it is uber ugly and I don't know how to break it to them. Sonja has heard an earful from me on this one because it must be one of the ugliest business websites out there. I think if you are going to be a bonafide business then you should look like one. If you can't make it look super nice then stick to something simple. We all know what one search engine did to bring people to them. All they did was keep a simple interface that just worked correctly. Build a website that is simple but very functional and people will come.

One of the biggest problems with their website is that the background is black and the text is white oh and the graphics take to long to load. So when they ask for you feedback what am I supposed to say? Ya I really like it (total lie), its uglier then your mom and she is super ugly (both true but very hurtful and all of a sudden I've been volunteered to help by sonja). Both choices I don't like so I guess I'll just smile and nod and agree to whatever then think.

Gmail Reader

So on the weekend I thought it would be fun to play around with Freetts, which is a text-to-speech synathizer. No knowing what type of application I thought I would right I started goofing off on the web. A person at work said that you can pop your gmail accound so the thought crossed my mind that I should look into it. So quickly my application for Freetts came about. I would write an application that would go to gmail and check to see if I have any new email and if I do read it out for me.

So I quickly got freetts to work with my code that would pop my gmail account. It doesn't sound as nice as I would like so I think I'll hold off on this for a while and think of maybe something else which I can use Freetts for. It was super easy to get Freetts to speak for me. The java code looks like the following:
private void speak(String text)
{
/* The VoiceManager manages all the voices for FreeTTS.
*/
VoiceManager voiceManager = VoiceManager.getInstance();
Voice voice = voiceManager.getVoice(voiceName);

/* Allocates the resources for the voice.
*/
voice.allocate();

/* Synthesize speech.
*/
voice.speak(text);

/* Clean up and leave.
*/
voice.deallocate();
}

Oh well it was fun to set up on my machine, I think the next I'll look at is the other way around speech-to-text and see what I can find in the java world.

G

Finally a good time

Well I went down to Seattle yesterday to race a high performance 800m. A long drive with some good friends to arrive at a school that was hosting the meet. The meet was the most low budget meet I think I have ever been to. No thats not true but based on the times the promoter was boasting to have coming to this meet I expected it to be a little more high profile. This was an all comers meet which means any tom, dick, or harry can run. Its a great way for the locals to get out and have fun at the track. I love to see these meets but I'm not writing a blog about all comer meets I'm blogging about this meet.

We get out of our car and there is, no kidding, 15 people at the track nothing else. Normally if you go to a track meet where people are chasing fast times there are lots a guys around. No luck yesterday. The race director approached us with the start list and man was it ever loaded with fast dudes. I was in this uber fast heat with the rabbit going through in 52 seconds for 400m and he would be stepping off the track at 600m. My coached freaked and moved me to the second heat, something about me not being that fit for that speed this early in the season. I grumbled and agreed to run in the second heat. Well they combined the heats so we were ready to roll.

I got out quickly and came around the corner in fourth, felt good through 200 and was in good place through 400. Split 54 high, just where I wanted to be. Got boxed in from 400 to 500m when I busted out of the box into lane 3 passed a couple of guys, hit 600m at 1.23 then started to roll, I hicked onto the lead pack and with 120m drop the hammer and picked up second place with a time of 1.52.9 the fourth time I have been under 1.53 so I was totally pummped.