Oz Warren

I started creating my own personal Web pages back in the mid 90's; how long ago that seems now. I remember thinking at the time that this WWW thing wouldn't be popular with the masses. I based that assumption on the fact that most of the websites around then had been created by university science teams and similarly geeky organisations, and there wasn't much in the way of 'exciting' content. I'll hold my hands up now - I was wrong! In fact, I've become so dependent on the Web as a tool, I don't know what I'd do if it suddenly disappeared.

These pages contain an eclectic mix of information. You'll find pictures and prose about various subjects that interest me. As is often the case with personal sites, the pages collected together here create a snapshot in time, so I apologise for any out of date content. I do try and update content and add new items as time allows.

I was having problems with authentication for Polterballz when I first added the GameKit code to my project (using Steffen Itterheim's excellent GameKitHelper class). I would run the app from xCode in developer mode on the iPhone, but whenever I tried to sign in with my Game Center credentials when calling [gkHelper authenticateLocal], GC reported that the account had not being used before and I should set it up. The problem was caused by me using my usual account and my rush to get things done (leading to my failure to RTFM!). 

So far I'm really enjoying OS X 10.7 Lion. It's doesn't completely redefine the already excellent Apple desktop interface, but it is a step forward in evolutionary terms. Mission control is a real boon if you're someone who uses lots of applications at the same tiime and is able to work in different mental spaces. Being able to effortlessly swipe between collections of programs is delightful. The scrolling reversall was very odd at first, but a few days of practice have got me used to the idea. It's not quite 100% embedded, but it's getting there.

Ask a politician four different questions and you get the same answer four times. Here's Ed Milliband giving a masterclass in meaningless drivel:

By the way, the poor synchronisation was on the original snippet that I borrowed for this.

In a fairly obvious (and desperate?) move to make up some ground on Apple iOS and Google Android, Nokia have launched an app development 'competition' with a £25,000 prize. Developers have been asked to put forward their ideas at a workshop in Birmingham on the 30th June 2011, with the aim of stimulating innovative app development for the Nokia Ovi store. 

I've finally decided that I won't be buying any more copies of Motorcycle News (MCN). I've been a regular reader since the mid nineties (when I came back to biking in a serious way) and have always tolerated their sensationalist approach to journalism and their occasional descent into lunacy in order to get at the genuinely interesting content. So why now?

A number of things have influenced me, some small and some less so:

At last I got a copy of the pictures from the Nurburgring (thanks Nick). Here are some of me going round:

It appears that Kenny Milne had a very, very interesting upbringing...

What is happening to us? I thought we were supposed to be reducing the mad, bad extremes of health and safety intervention. This is a Christmas card for Pete's sake. Do we honestly need to be protected from it? I should add that this was not a musical card or anything sophisticated, it simply had a separate, elevated figure glued to the front.

If you have a Garmin GPS of some description, there's a great online tool available called Garmin Connect, which allows you to share tracks via the web.