As I type my MacBook Pro is downloading and compiling the necessary source code for ImageMagick. I'm building some Ruby on Rails-based software that requires file uploads and I'm using MacPorts to install the necessary code. My processor is getting a chance to stretch its legs.

At home I'm ripping and encoding Sex and the City episodes for Maggie. Each episode takes about 90 minutes to process on our Ubuntu server and this morning I queued up three ISO files with 6 episodes each, so it should be crunching away for just over 24 hours solid.

As a geek I get a certain sense of satisfaction when I actually push my machines. Because I don't play PC games and my laptop is used for web development that doesn't happen all the time.

I've always reasoned to myself that I liked programming because I'm smarter than a computer but it's infinitely faster than me. By combining our "skill sets" we can achieve great things. Maxing out the CPU makes me feel like the computer is living up to its end of the bargain.

Does anyone else feel that way?

Edit: Almost 24 hours at full throttle:

Q: What's the hardest part about rollerblading?

A: Telling your parents you're gay.

We got a new Transformers. Indiana Jones came back. They're currently filming G.I. Joe as a feature length film. Now I hear that Top Gun might be getting a sequel.

Today may well be the happiest day of my life.

Yesterday it filtered through that Wordpress had released an iPhone application. This is me testing it out.

So far my only compliant is that an ampersand is not rendered correctly in category list, but that's obviously easy enough for them to fix in v1.1.

I tried blogging using Safari on the iPhone and it worked but was a little clunky. The interface just wasn't built for this resolution, even with the great scaling available.

This afternoon I picked up a latte from Epic on the way through West Perth. I was pretty late getting into the office today and really missed my caffeine hit. Ever since Epic was featured on Today Tonight a few weeks back they've been consistently busy, even during periods where you'd expect the opposite, like at 2PM in the afternoon. It's like that band that you liked before everyone else, except when other people started lsitening to them it's not like you had to wait longer to hear their tunes.

Anyway, I grabbed my docket and wandered over the road to Joe's Pie and Baked Good Emporium to get some bread rolls to compliment my office-bound soup. It took about 6 or 7 minutes round-trip.

My coffee was still not ready! I got chatting and found out that Epic was broken into last night. Their doors were levered off and the bolts circumvented. Apparently the crooks only took some cash and because they didn't trash the place it meant the Epic crew were serving coffee. However, their second machine was down for repairs so things really weren't going Epic's way.

I asked them to let me know if they found out who burgled them and I'd round up a posse to deliver some tough justice. Vigilante style.

At least the barista told me a funny joke to pass the time:

Q: What's yellow and sits in the corner?

A: A naughty bulldozer.

If you are able to laugh when you're down then how bad can life really be?