Python TV

well I have delved too deep into something and become hooked, its grave confession to make on a blog I know, but I have to admit this addition to the world…..I am addicted to Python…..(www.python.org)

The last time I did any software development it was still called "programming" and I used a BBC Micro to pass my A Levels with flying colours in the mid 80's, if I recall my "Theatre Ticket Booking System" helped reserve seats and using a visual representation of the theatres seating, it helped of course that the theatre in question had 10 rows of 20 seats……

Over the last week I have been using Python to create a simple gui that changes channels on my digital TV card in Linux workstation, this started with me trying top solve an annoyance I had with the local setup of Mplayer which displays the video output from the card……I thought that I could solve this issue while educating myself.

well with the help of an online tutorial and the PyGTK kit for creating GUI's I have the first version up and running, it only does 3 channels via a very simple GUI based on 3 buttons, although more are easy to add, plus it works very nicely and actually switches channels by passing parameters to Mplayer…….it was a lot easier than I expected and now I am hooked on python and the challenge of programming……….sorry software development……

Screen shot - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/TGeM9S9-Grs7DkQpbUwV0Q?feat=directlink

Formula Fun

is it me or has formula one become entertaining? Last year, apart from a few historically thrilling moments at end of the of the season in Brazil, was only exciting for about a sixth of each race in total, this year with rule changes and the ' credit crisis' withdrawal of Honda and re-birth of Brawn has brought racing back into the F1 fold......So far i have enjoyed every race and not fallen asleep once :-)

Even with the rain shortened race the enjoyment was there from the first to last lap.... Lewis Hamilton has had an awful start along with the whole Ferrari team, however the emergence of brawn has been a breath of fresh air.....maybe Bernie has had someone from another race series leaking him secrets ala Nigel Stepney.....

Swift Direction Change

Change of Directions are a hard thing to deal with, look at formula 1 cars or politicians as an example, F1 teams spend millions perfecting mechanical grip and aerodynamics to change their cars direction, politicians can NEVER change direction once they announce a policy or train of thought. I recently changed my career path after falling victim to the credit crunch, I worked for a very successful futures and options exchange who were forced to let staff go in the dismal economic climate. Once cast into the abyss of the job market I found it very tough to find opportunities however I struck lucky and found similar job at a telecoms company in London within weeks. The culture change, location change and sector change has lead to an interesting transition, I am enjoying my new position, however managing projects can be made into a smooth transition when moving companies as you can stick to tried and trusted methodologies to be successful, utilising standards such as Prince2.

However I have struggled with several aspects of the transition, the new hours, the new processes and procedures and of course learning the way the new people I have met operate. In fact all this change to cope with has resulted in not so much blogging, partaking less in my hobbies like Online Poker and an un-natural interest in Scooters, an item which I could use to reduce my travel hassles, change one aspect of your life and this seems to spurn changes to all the other aspects as well. Things are returning to normal but in the current economic turmoil who knows what change are around the corner.