strangely entangled

I’m doing a lot of web development work these days, and I have to say that I’m really digging Django. It’s a Python-based web application toolkit that makes it very simple to throw together a database-backed website, along the same lines as Ruby on Rails.

I tried RoR for awhile, but something about the framework (or maybe it was the language itself) didn’t click with me. I did some development work in Python a few years ago, so Django is a natural fit.

My favourite feature so far has to be the built-in admin interface. Depending on your application, you might not even have to write a full web app – just define some database models, activate the admin interface,  and you have a full web interface to your data, with automatic history logging.

How sweet is that?

Today has been one of those days. If it were summer, I’d just give up and go to the beach. Unfortunately, it’s a typical Vancouver day out. That means it’s dismal, gray and dull.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of broken systems and software this morning. On days like this, I find myself missing physics. You know something isn’t right when you’ve decided to install OpenBSD in VMware for “fun”.

The reason I haven’t posted anything in the past week is that I’m just getting over what I describe as “SARS-Lite”. I haven’t been sick in nearly 9 years, and this cold hit me pretty hard.

Now that I’m on the mend, I have a few plans for this website. For starters, I’m still settling on a theme. I could build one from scratch, and eventually I probably will. But for the time being I’m going the prebuilt route. So expect the look to change a bit over time as I experiment.

I’ve still got to put together a proper review of the ScotteVest jacket. I’m thinking I might throw a little video together and upload it sometime next week. Overall I’m happy with the purchase, but I don’t think I’ll buy from them again. I think that the quality of the product is highly overstated. Little things like zippers feel fragile, and the overall construction is mediocre. Still, it does look good, and apparently in Vancouver that counts for something.

Other news: I picked up a Canon ZR800 camcorder awhile ago to record podcasts with. I was on a budget, and the main attraction of this device was the mic input jack. These jacks are sorely lacking on many of today’s camcorders, and are a necessity for any kind of serious work as the built-in microphones usually pick up a lot of noise.

I ordered a pair of stereo lapel microphones from Giant Squid Audio Lab, and received them a few days ago. They sound great! The only problem is, they don’t work with the Canon! I’ve discovered that you must use powered microphones with the ZR800, something the manual fails to mention. I’m a bit annoyed, because Canon went out of its way to make the jack look like a standard mic jack on a laptop. I suppose I should have known better though.

In any case, now I’ve got my eye on a  Samson Zoom H2 audio recorder. The H2 can act as a microphone amplifier, allowing me to use the lapel mics with my Canon camcorder. It can also record audio on its own, at 24-bit resolution. Much higher than the 16-bit audio that my camcorder supports. I’ve found a Vancouver store that carries them, so there will likely be one on my desk by the end of next week.