Depression and IT

August 18, 2011 – 12:50 am

So things have been somewhat rough at work, lately. Admittedly, this is not a new problem. It’s hard to stay focused, things keep getting missed, and a pile of things keep crashing down on top. It’s tough, because the line of work I’m in, doesn’t agree with certain medical conditions of which I’m prone to suffering.

From essentially as long as I remember, I’ve suffered from depression in one way or another. I’ve been through occasional bouts of denial, where I fool myself in thinking I’m over it, but it’s always there and some days I handle that better than others. This time last year, I was on medication for the first time in my life, but it only really helped in the beginning, and due to financial constraints early this year, I weened myself off it – my body had adjusted to the drugs, so they really didn’t have the same potency anymore. I currently stand before you unmedicated, which is not a course I’d recommend, but I feel I have a better handle on it right now which allows me that grace. I don’t think I can remain this way, however.

Depression isn’t as easy to fix, if you’re as prone to it as I am. It could be the cause of deep, personal trauma, a lifetime being stuck in particular thought patterns, or it could even be a genetic disposition where your brain is just chemically arranged in that way. Typically, it involves a two-prong approach – drugs and therapy – in the hopes that one (if not both) can tackle the cause. For me, both of these things seem to produce good results at first, but then my body and mind adjust to how I “normally” am. Due to family history, I’m inclined to think the cause is more physical than mental, but I wouldn’t rule it out entirely. It’s important to try have an open mind about these things if you suffer from depression.

It hasn’t been as crippling this year as it has previously in my life, and in some cases I can put a lid on it and soldier on. It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to manage, and I’m not sure what the answer is in dealing with that.

Work is suffering as a result, and my current employers aren’t the patient type. Ideally, time away from the stresses of my job would help me to regain focus, but it’s just not even remotely financially viable right now. I dodged the bullet at my last long-term workplace with this, I don’t think I can do the same again, and it’s hard to explain to future employers why there’s a year vacant in my resume.

How will posting this on the internet help? Dunno, but at least it’s one weight off my chest. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle tomorrow (hence writing this at 1AM), but I need to at least try.

By Jaymz | Posted in Everything/Nothing, Slice of Life | Comments (0)

Thoughts on the Galaxy S2 and Android – from an iPhone user

August 7, 2011 – 2:09 pm

So I’ve been using a Galaxy S2 for over two weeks now, and I feel I’ve gotten a lot more used to Android 2.3.3. The phone I’m using it on is blazingly fast, and while managing running apps is something that’s more integral with Android than with iOS 4.3 and 5.0, I feel I’ve gotten the hang of it.

The Galaxy S2 is fast. Faster than the iPhone 4 and the iPad, and most likely up there with the iPad 2. However, “FASTEST PHONE EVAR!!!!” is meaningless, when Apple are just a product cycle away, and are all but certain to have some A5 powered thing that’ll beat the pants off it. The real comparison is Android versus iOS, as the choice between the two platforms is something akin to the choice between Windows or Mac OS X – you go with what works for you.

So, in terms of features, is Android better than iOS? Probably. Is the Galaxy S2 hardware better than the iPhone 4, functionality wise? NO. Why? Well, for starters – battery life is pitiful compared to the iPhone 4. The Galaxy S2 might be thin and light, but when you have an OS like Android on it, which requires you to watch your phone’s resources like a hawk, and to hand manage what apps stay resident and what apps don’t, that thinness and light weight just make you want to give it up for a slightly bigger battery.

The Android market is brilliant, and I especially like the ability to select apps from the browser, and have the phone fetch it. Google also have the same functionality with rental movies and books in the US, but unfortunately I’m living in Australia, where shit that involves media takes fucking years to come out. Likewise with the Google Music beta, which sounds cool, but is limited to the US, and is likely to never come out here.

Music on the Galaxy S2 is downright painful. Samsung have their own proprietary app, which has cool features like syncing via wifi, but is lacking in basic functionality, like being able to transfer or play iTunes’s unprotected AAC audio format (M4A). You can do the old “copy the files onto the USB storage” method, like with almost any MP3 player which isn’t an iPod, but when you have 3,584 songs? What about playlists? Howabout if you feel like syncing only a certain genre? What if you put songs on from somewhere else, and want to sync it back to your original library? Or – shock horror – what if you’re still using iTunes?

The semi-answer to the above is to use something like Songbird or DoubleTwist. I’ve heard good things about Songbird, and bad things about DoubleTwist, yet in my experience, DoubleTwist is the only real answer for having a consistent music sync platform similar to what the iPhone has with iTunes, and Songbird is just a terrible, terrible shitty app in terms of the desktop client and the Android app. Songbird on the Mac feels like a bad GTK port – which is funny, as Songbird have cut development on Linux. DoubleTwist is the most like iTunes, and will even read your existing iTunes library on the PC and Mac, and is helpful in delineating what music is, and isn’t DRM protected. Coupled with the Android client, it’ll even play your DRM-free AAC files from iTunes, and display metadata correctly.

The ability to customise the phone is all manner of groovy pants. Widgets tend to be a wanky and obnoxious feature on the desktop, but on Android, it works brilliantly. The Samsung Galaxy S2 in particular, has some great widgets, such as adding “buddy icons” on a screen of a particular contact, which allows you to select the method you wish to contact them – either by phone, SMS, e-mail, IM, or GTalk. While we’re on that subject, there’s something about the native Google Talk app on the Android that just exudes brilliance. Being able to chat away in the desktop client, then in a Gmail/Google+ window, and then on the phone without missing a beat is great.

The notification system in Android is great, so great in fact that Apple has pretty much ripped it off in iOS5, but I’d like to be able to see more prominent notifications on the lock screen, like iOS 5 has. Maybe Android has this (I’m sure I’ve heard some rampant fanboy raving about this), but the Galaxy S2 doesn’t. It’d be nice to see what e-mail I received, rather than having to unlock the phone, enter my PIN, then log into mail. Having a Gmail app seperate to the standard e-mail app is great, as well – and in a particularly nice touch, Lotus Notes Traveller also has its own seperate e-mail client, and works a lot more reliably than it does on the iOS. Handy, if you’re forced to use Lotus Notes like I am.

All in all, it’s a great phone – but if you’re an iPhone 4 or 3GS user and are somewhat happy or committed to that platform, I can’t recommend jumping ship yet. If you’re an Android user, or use some other platform and the iPhone isn’t your thing, then the Galaxy S2 is a great alternative. It’s certainly not the iPhone killer that the press and the fanboys will want you to believe, but it’s certainly a worthy opponent.

By Jaymz | Posted in Android, Hardware, Tech | Comments (0)