On the iPhone/iPod, I can only recommend Tweetie 2, currently the best client I know. The best thing about it is that it always remembers where you are in reading your tweets or following a link, etc., so leaving the application is a no-brainer, you can relaunch it and one second later you are back where you left it. This, support for retweets and getting a lot of information on other people on Twitter makes it a really great app; you can even change your personal information from Tweetie.

On Android, I am not a great of Twidroid, and Twitta kept crashing on the HTC Magic after an OS update. Recently a colleague mentioned Swift, which has a nice UI and is very promising. Update: Seesmic is better. Update 2: Twicca is even better.

MacOSX: Tweetie is a very good one, really. I do not know the iPhone version.

iPhone/iPod Touch: I like SimplyTweet a lot. Even the Lite version is good enough for all my needs.

For both platforms, I used to enjoy Nambu too, but it is a bit complicated.

On Android, I like Twitta. It is pretty basic but good enough; on the other hand, I haven’t been able to launch it on my phone for a couple of weeks, but it is not due to the software. Forget about Twidroid, which is going commercial real soon anyway.

EAFP stands for “it’s Easier to Ask Forgiveness than Permission”. LBYL stands for “Look Before You Leap”. Each one matches a different style of programming and have apparently been made popular by the Python language. In Python, it’s easier to ask forgiveness by assuming the things you are doing will work right, and catch any mishappening after. As I understand it, it is the basis for using exceptions in that language.

In “Look Before You Leap” mode, you will check for every problem before using a variable or doing something, and that soon becomes a real burden on your program.

This is best explained by Alex Martelli in an email to the python-users list. I found the reference on a web page entitled Code like a Pythonista, which I highly recommend if you are a Python developer. I am sure there are things you will learn there. While you are at it, please read the History of Python blog, which is very insightful.

PS: yes, the title of this article sucks. Hopefully it will appear in the first result page of a search for [eafp lbyl] ;-)

Au fait, j’aime bien le thème Cutline pour Wordpress, ce qui donne un air de nouveauté à la présentation du site.

Voir les 24 autres posters

First, get Vmware Fusion (oh, I should add that typing FusionFriendsOct08 at checkout gets you 15% discount until the end of this month, so by the time you read this it will probably be too late). Install it.

Then, get an ISO image of Ubuntu. 8.10 is out very soon, but I got 8.04 — I assume the upgrade will be easy anyway. I wasn’t able to find a network install CD image, which used to be very small on Debian, but the mirror was very close to my DSL line, so it only took a dozen minutes or so to get the 700 MB image. Yay, fast internet.

Create a new Vmware image by pointing the “operating system installation disk image file” to the ISO image that you just downloaded. Don’t even mount the ISO on your Mac. Vmware will figure out by itself that it is Ubuntu, and will propose you an Easy Install path where all you have to do is type a password for the initial account. The login name is taken from your MacOSX login, isn’t life sweet?

Vmware will proceed with the installation without even asking you anything. After 10 minutes, you have a running Ubuntu system. Everything is just working and you didn’t have to burn a CD or perform arcane choices.

Dans cet endroit assez dégagé, on captait très bien les satellites et ma position était indiquée très précisément. Malheureusement, au bout d’un certain temps, c’était la réception 3G qui n’allait plus, jusqu’au moment où Google Maps for Mobile a décidé de jeter l’éponge. Finalement je me suis dit qu’une bonne carte au 1/25000 avec une boussole faisait aussi bien l’affaire et ne nécessitait pas de recharger les accumulateurs tous les deux jours.

Il restait un bon appareil photo pour garder des souvenirs.