Banal Minutiae

Another long gap in between posts.

Well, I’ve been busy outside. I’ve now got most of the major plant work done on my yard. All that remains is laying my walkway on the side of my house, and whatever I decide to do with the stump area off my deck. I’ve got the trees handled, though.

Life is good right now.

Let’s talk a little bit today about fonts. Specifically, I want to talk about programmer’s fonts. Like a lot of full time programmers, I fall into that group that is always looking to for the best editor and best font. Recently, I saw this website pop up on Digg, and decided I’d weigh in with my two cents.

For years, I’ve been a fan of Bitstream Vera Sans Mono for my main programming font. I don’t remember where I originally stumbled upon it, but I think it was probably an old AxeMe thread. It’s served me well, and I’ve been happy with it. It was a giant step up from the Courier New (shudder), or even Lucida Console.

About a year ago, I decided I’d complicate my life, and discovered Anonymous, another brilliant monospaced font. I’m torn between the two, and switch back and forth between them.

In general, I was well satisfied. I’ve got an editor that supports my custom language with color coded syntax, does code folding, and even italicies my comments. I’ve also got a couple of nice, easy to read monospace fonts. But, like all good things, I had a wrench thrown into my happy space. I was reading up on Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, and it’s sweet Aero Glass visual style. One of the things mentioned was the new fonts, along with a link to a blog article detailing them. I clicked through, and ruined my happiness.

You see there were all the new Vista fonts, Consolas, Calibri, Candara, etc… in a single, tiny zip file to download. After glancing at the images of each one, I decided I needed to try them. In general, I keep my font list small (under a hundred total fonts), and if a font isn’t very useable, it’s gone. Well, these new fonts are most excellent. I’m particularly taken with two of them: Consolas and Calibri.

Calibri is a replacement for Verdana, a font I had been using as my main Windows XP font since I first discovered it. Calibri is slightly more pleasing to my eye, and very readable. I made it my default font on the spot.

Consolas is quite possibly the best monospaced font I have ever used, narrowly edging out both Anonymous and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, both of which are excellent fonts in their own right.

I have no idea why I prefer it, I just do.

Look’s like a beautiful day here today. Enjoy!

I’ve just finished a book called “History of the Pencil”, by Henry Petroski. Here’s an Amazon linky here.

It’s certainly better than his previous book “Everyday Things”, which is BORING! Anyway, this is obsessive compulsive information for those of us who are curious about everything. Why are pencils yellow? Why are they made from cedar? If you have the type of personality that asks questions like these, this book would interest you.

I mention this, because I’m currently looking for a book on pens. I’ve always had a love for writing instruments, and after reading this fascinating work on pencils, I wodered if there was a similar work on pens. I write with a Parker 51 fountain pen clone that I love, but most fountain pens died overnight as a result of the ball point pen gaining wide spread use. I’d like to see a definitive history on this subject. After all, there’s some serious technology in a pen.

I’ve also given some thought to paper. Why is it that ink bleeds heavily on certain papers, but not others? What’s different? Why do certain papers feel so much smoother than others?

Anyway, just some thoughts.

I took Friday off last week to get a good start on a large amount of yard work I needed to get done. I figured it was supposed to rain Saturday and Sunday, so I might as well get it done Friday.

Friday turned out to be a beautiful day, and I managed to get a lot done. Somehow, I managed to get all the usual Friday errands (grocery, Wal-Mart, gas) done, plus I went to Lowe’s to pick up some compost for the garden.  I also managed to get my laundry done. Not bad for wanting to get yard work done.

I managed to get my garden weeded and worked some new compost into the soil, plus I managed to get everything planted. Let’s hope this year is a bumper crop like two years ago. I managed to get sun burned pretty good Friday.

Saturday was dismal and cooler, but I did manage to get the jungle mowed, as well as pruning a tree in my front yard. Had some people over for dinner, and made a couple of T bones on the grill. Nice.

Sunday was rainy, and I didn’t really do a whole lot.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. I just hate being back here at work.