29/07/2007 - Sunday

Fan

Last Saturday (the 21st) I bought a new fan for the processor in my computer. I had to buy a new one as the existing one was playing up, slowing to half speed most of the time and sometimes going slow enough that I could read the label as it spun round. It was also running slower than usual when it was being "normal" resulting in more noise (it got real noisy the slower it spun) and a higher processor temperature.

Before the fan started playing up I was seeing typical idle temperatures of 40-43c for the processor and 38-40c for the motherboard, and full load temperatures of 55-60c for the processor and 42c for the motherboard. Once the fan started playing up the idle processor temperature went up to 45c minimum, with the temperature rising the slower the fan spun, and a full load temperature of 60-65c.

With the new fan the temperatures are much lower. Idle temperatures give 35-38c for the processor and 30-32c for the motherboard, and full load temperatures of 50-53c for the processor and 30-32c for the motherboard (I sometimes forget to check the motherboard as I've been monitoring the processor more as that's where the fan is).

The new fan is also slightly louder than the old fan, with a rating of 28dB (decibels). I'm not entirely sure what the rating of the old fan is as I haven't been able to find specs for the exact model I had (I could only find slightly similar), but I would guess that it was around 20dB (as that's what the similar one is). It also has a much higher airflow with 21 CFM (cubic feet per minute) compared to 5 CFM for the old one (similar model again). I think it's also spinning around 600 RPM faster (4600 RPM), although I can't remember what the old one was spinning at, especially as during its last few weeks it had stopped reporting the speed it was going at correctly (sometimes it would show a speed, othertimes it would just be 0). It's also a thicker fan, just less than double the old fans depth.

All in all I'm very happy with the new fan as it's making my computer run quite a bit cooler, plus I've got used to the slightly louder noise.

Healtheriser

In other news, I'm still working on the Healtheriser. I had the idea to change the way that logins are handled before I get stuck in with the rest of the code, considering that I'm currently the only person using the website. The change is to allow multiple OpenID logins to use the same user account. When you login for the very first time you'll be given the option of creating a new user account or linking your OpenID login to an existing OpenID login. If you create a new user account then you'll be able to login like normal and use the website. If you decide to link to another OpenID login then you will be able to login to that user account without actually using that OpenID login that was used to create it (if that makes sense). It's useful if you have multiple OpenID logins and don't want to always remember which one you used when creating your user account (I know that OpenID is all about a single login, but you can get OpenID logins from using AIM or having a livejournal blog, plus you can aggregate your OpenID login from a different website).

It has taken a few days to get most of it done as I changed the main login code to handle linked accounts but I forgot to change my mocked (faked) login code in the tests, so I was expecting the results from the real login code, but the mocked login code was giving different results as it hadn't been changed. It took me a little while to realise that that was the problem and I was able to fix it pretty soon afterwards. I've also been doing it using TDD (Test Driven Development) for the first time, where I write a failing test with the results that I expect, make sure that it fails, then write the real code to produce the correct results. Doing it this way has actually made me write a few bits better than I would have done if I was just writing the main code straight away.

I highly doubt that I'm doing the TDD the correct way though, but it's working fine for me at the moment. I've been doing it all from the integration tests (test stories) so that I know all the things work from the users point of view. I haven't done many other tests though, like testing the model and testing that each action works correctly. Once I finish the changes to the login I'll read up on the other testing again as I can't remember the flow of it now (tut tut, but I'll get there eventually), and hopefully I'll have some solid tests in place. My current code to test ratio is 1:0.9, so I do have a lot more testing to do!

26/07/2007 - Thursday

In my last post I said that I hadn't laughed as hard in a while as I did while watching The 40 Year Old Virgin. Well tonight I laughed even harder while watching Wild Hogs. When you bring together four great and funny actors as the main characters, along with Ray Liotta and other known actors as the remaining characters, you just know you're going to have an excellent movie. I laughed pretty much all the way through.

23/07/2007 - Monday

I've watched a few movies recently that I've been meaning to write about, so I might as well do that now. I'll start with Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. This was OK for a movie, but once you try to compare it to the books it goes downhill pretty quickly and you pick the movie totally apart. It felt far too rushed for me, like I was being pushed through the movie rather than walking along with it. Quite a lot of the good bits were cut out of the movie, and several parts were changed probably to make it more "dramatic". It was good to watch, but just try not to think too much of the books.

The next movie is 28 Weeks Later. I thought this was pretty good, although quite a lot of the lines between the main characters are whispered, which makes them a bit hard to hear, then followed by action, which leaves you deafened after straining to hear the whispers. I didn't think that it was as bloody as the first one (28 Days Later), but the characters are better in this one. The ending of it is great though.

Finally, there's The 40 Year Old Virgin. I thought that this was a hilarious comedy that kept me laughing from the beginning all the way to the end. I haven't laughed at a movie this hard for a while, so it was refreshing. I thought that the jokes were well planned out, and the various scenes that he ended up in were great. I'm glad that I watched it.

19/07/2007 - Thursday

Here's a brief video of my Ruby on Rails editor. I quickly add a new template, then add an autocompletion entry for it. I create a new action using the 'def' template, then render a partial using the newly added template (via the autocompletion). After that I open the index view, then go back to the controller.

The editor also stores the last project, the open files, and the last opened file, and these are restored when the program is opened (or when the project is opened). It also remembers what folders are opened and restores them as well.

13/07/2007 - Friday

Time flies when you don't have much to show for it. Since my last post I've been working on my editor and got it to a stage where I'm now using it. There are still a few bits that I want to add in (like code templates) and a few other bits that I might think about adding in (although they're not needed for my use and I don't see anyone else ever using the program), but other than that it's going good, despite a few bugs I've found and fixed.

I also started on the Healtheriser website again now that the editor is useable. The first thing I ended up doing was sorting out a bug that got introduced after updating the software running the website. I made it harder for myself as I misunderstood the solution for the problem, so I made a lot of changes just to realise after that I only had to rename two files. So I took the time to revert the changes I had done and just renamed the two files. I think I'll write some more tests for the existing stuff before I get started on newer bits. The weight entry is pretty clean as I was using it a lot, but I would like to have the tests there just to be sure. Plus it helps me get better at writing the tests.

I watched the entire series of Threshold yesterday. It's a pity it got cancelled at the thirteenth episode as it was a great series that was throughly enjoyable, plus it left it wide open as to whether they won or lost. While watching all thirteen episodes I didn't once check to see how long there was left of an episode, which is very rare for me! Plus the nine hours and 19 minutes of watching only felt like three hours, which kinda shows how into the series I was!

I also decided to sign up to Twitter for fun. I added a bit to the sidebar that will show the five latest updates. I'll attempt to update it as often as I remember, but I'll probably end up forgetting about it. At least you can do updates through Google Talk so I can just start that and then send an IM to the Twitter bot and it'll add the update for me. Saves having to add another bookmark and remembering to visit it each time, in which I have a pretty poor track record!

03/07/2007

I just finished watching Transformers. It's an excellent movie with excellent CG. The plot isn't so hot, but what the plot lacks the CG makes up for (like the US Government people suddenly going from hating the Autobots to working with them without any plot reason for them to work with them). The slow-mo fights scenes made it all exciting. There could have been more fighting between them, and I'd gladly watch four hours of the Transformers fighting! This is a movie that will get a lot of playing when it comes out on DVD.