Tar-pitting My Output

Frequent visitors will have noticed that I haven't actually been writing much lately (i.e., I've been posting some news, adding background information to the Wiki and pushing out the odd rant, but there hasn't been a decent article in months), and that's attributable to three main factors I thought I'd summarize here while the sun bakes the asphalt outside:

Of late I've felt an increasing need to look at stuff outside the mobile/telco industry, which is getting almost like the parody I wrote last year. Besides having brought a lot of work home, most of it is stuff that my Disclaimer prevents me from digressing upon - and, as it happens, right now that also means I can't comment on a lot of pointed issues making the rounds in the press, or gush about this mobile initiative or other.

Which, in a way, is a shame, because UMTS is now ubiquitous (I'm not going to get into the "3G coverage in Portugal" argument again, fix your own damn network), HSDPA availability is only a matter of time and there is a lot to say about the way vendors are stepping over themselves (and shooting their and their opponent's feet) regarding Wi-Fi and WiMax.

For instance (and just to pick an example at the consumer level, one that should be obvious to anybody walking into a computer store), I could write an entire book on how Wi-Fi vendors are making a mess of "enhanced" 802.11g (calling it "plus", "pre-N", "108Mbps", etc.), and how the industry clearly hasn't learned their lesson with the 802.11a fiasco (and please, don't mention the 5GHz EU ruling, it won't bring 802.11a back from Neverland).

Besides the (sadly recurring) forest fires and heat, the way the entire country shifts into low gear until September makes the work-home transition all the more jarring (a bit like hitting a brick wall, actually).

Tired, entirely too hot and caught in this sort of subliminal country-wide siesta, the prospect of spending time on a computer becomes about as exciting as watching grass grow, except when doing small Zen-like bits of code for displaying GPS data on Google Earth or (I confess) playing a couple of rounds of Q3 (for which I had to dig up these notes).

Incidentally, there seems to be a problem running Q3 on recent builds of Tiger - the audio is played at a higher rate, making the game sound like a cartoon. Any fixes are welcome.

Which means I end up outside more often packing my camera - something I've progressively been investing more and more free time in, although not with a lot of public output (incidentally, check out pfig's stuff, which has a few hidden nuggets).

You know, spending time with people and stuff. It may come as a surprise to some people, but I actually have one.

(If your eyes are straying to the comment link right now and you're preparing a witty remark on this topic, keep in mind that you don't know Jack.)

This last bit has recently involved a lot of traipsing around the country to watch movies, attend weddings, dinner parties (and, sadly, the odd funeral).

Coupled with the other two, it's a deal-breaker - it's always been there, but the time requirements have dilated as a result of Summer heat, and as much as I like puttering about the site and messing around with technology on my free time, people are a lot more fun.

Well, most of the ones I hang around with, anyway.