Oh Lord, Say it ain't so!!

TheJacksonChannel.com - News - Sen. Lott Sounds Off On Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Photos

Where to start on this one ?

• The USA and its allies need to show the world that there is an alternative to barbarism
  
• You don't save lives (American or other) by turning a candidate "beacon of democracy in the Middle East" into another recruiting ground for terrorists
  
• There is plenty of evidence that some prisoners should never have been brought in - they can't tell the interrogators anything, because they don't know anything
  
• In every conflict it easy to vilify the opponents, make them less than human. The Geneva Convention was an attempt to halt this animal instinct.
  
• Are you telling me that those photographs show part of an interrogation ? They were(Mainly) a bunch of people out of control.
  
• Are ther any real interrogators there?
  

Poor leadership.

So what does that make Linux?

The Fishbowl: The Mac is a Harsh Mistress

Or daren't I ask ?

Events and Business Processes

Sean McGrarth makes the following point: E-BUSINESS IN THE ENTERPRISE - When modelling business processes, upside down is the right way up:

"In this model, the programmer drives the business process onward, dictating the tempo which applications must follow. There are numerous terms used to describe this approach but my favorite is 'temporally coupled'. Applications must work in lock-step with each other for business process to function as they should.

This is a point solution. Why? Because it only works well when all the applications underfoot are under your control and (preferably) on the same physical network. Under those conditions, temporal coupling is manageable. Costly but manageable. The more general case of course is where not all the applications are under your control and not all on your local network. Web Services on an Extranet or the Internet for example.

To handle the general case of Web Services owned and hosted by other organizations, with the varying quality of service that that entails, programmers need to take a different approach to pan-application business process modelling. Instead of driving business processes programmatically, they need to deal with the fact that they are no longer completely in control. Web Services respond at different rates, they may not be up all the time, they will produce garbled data because somebody changes something without telling you and so on."

This seems natural to me; the ability to centrally model a process, even within a single company, is often an exercise in wishful thinking. Better to describe interconnecting patterns of behaviour and synthesise a view of how the parts work together.

Unless I misinterpret, it seems to me that UML Activity diagrams with Events can be used to model and view the results; what is the best mix of technologies underneath ? And can we generate these (or parts of these) from the UML diagrams?

Peace Pilgrim

Steps Toward Inner Peace by Peace Pilgrim via Crossroads Dispatches

I have only had a chance to skim the "booklet" but this paragraph hit home in our present circumstances:

MAGIC FORMULAS: There is a magic formula for resolving conflicts. It is this: Have as your objective the resolving of the conflict, not the gaining of advantage. There is a magic formula for avoiding conflicts. It is this: Be concerned that you do not offend, not that you are not offended.

Must return for another look.......

Honest

This is good stuff: great for being open about mistakes, fantastic that it could be aired on a blog, mature response from his colleagues:Anil Dash: Moving Forward.

Well done.

XP as a philosophy of life

Sounds like an XP view of life:Ian Bicking 21.5.2004

More sexist nonsense

Women in Technology," as if there aren't already enough of them. And it's never the nice ones. It's all these relentless power bitches amped up on C++ and Java.

Disappointing economy with the truth

I'm disappointed if this is true:Amazon's Bezos: He omitted a crucial piece of data -- they weren't his to give up.

What Andrew Tanenbaum really thinks

A very interesting article:Some notes on the "Who wrote Linux" Kerfuffle

• He still believes the microkernel is the way to go
  
• OS kernels are (relatively) easy to do
  
• the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, or more precisely, its president, don't come out at all well. But then none of their articles have been very good so far
  

Well worth the read.

I don't want to live there/here

online.effbot.org

Python on Nokia phones

Looks like a good kickoff:Python workshop

I'll be interested in seeing if this starts a trend for other mobile manufacturers.

Maybe Python on Pocket PC will be updated

More on freedom 0

Simon Phipps gives a comprehensive guide to the many recent posts on freedom 0:
http://www.webmink.net/minkblog.htm

Was the Blackdown Java for Linux open source?
And why are users trapped by having to use THE professional?
And if you provide reasonable quality free(beer) software on all platforms, software which has a compliance suite why would there be an open source version? If Sun radical ly changes the Java license (and it is legal) an open source version will happen (unless a better language platform comes along )

Sexist nonsense

The less advertising this sort of nonsense gets the better:Proof that Girls are evil

Intro to Social Software

on social software

Work towards a target

Well done, Suw:Chocolate and Vodka :: Cruel and unusual punishment

But perhaps a target is needed to increase motivation ?

This weekend I got out for a lovely bike ride, and did 20 miles in preparation for our London to Brighton cycle ride , due on 20th June. Suw is welcome to join us for this event!!

And everyone is free to sponsor me !!
Keith's BHF Sponsorship Page (only just created - may not work yet)

"It's the community, stupid!"

Ted Leung on the air : Code, community and money

Well, I don't know whether Mark is "starting " to get this! Anyway I would re-order Ted's heading as Community, Code, Money! Perhaps Ideas should be in their ahead of Code.

Dave Winer, Userland: Open Source?????

Scripting News: 5/17/2004

Congratulations to Dave and Userland on a bold decision. My interpretation of Dave's blog has been that it is very much against Open Source, along the lines of "how do I survive/eat/prosper/do new things?"

Still, here we see, courtesy of a blog , some of the rationale for their decision. And it makes sense to me ( so it must be a good idea). "This is no longer core to us, but could be useful to others, so let it free!!"

(Reminds me of "Master and Commander" when they have to leave the carefully gathered samples behind to get back to their ship quickly - "Open the cages!")

So, when else does it make sense to open source things?

Mark Pilgrim on Freedom 0

Read this:Freedom 0 [dive into mark]

It is difficult to highlight a few points as there are so many good ones.

Once again the moral is - know what you really(, really) want from you software.

Movable Type: it's the whole feature set

Dan Bricklin emphasisies a really good point here:

The thing to learn here is that the choice of how you differentiate between users for pricing is a key element in a product's feature-set. You had better be pretty clear about the philosophy behind that differentiation and change it at your peril. Reactions to the new Movable Type licensing scheme

Movable Type Controversy

Never used it myself, but many peole do. My main interest is that somehow people look at this situation and draw conclusions about Open Source software. Which is odd because I don't think MT is open source!

Here is what I regard as a well resoned look at the siruation for MT:
Brad Choate: Movable Type 3.0

His take seems to be that people who want to continue to use MT free ( including the new version) can do with pretty much the same restrictions as before. Maybe those who had to pay now have to pay more? Not sure: MT for use by more than one person and more than 3 blogs have to pay, any commercial activities ditto. Sure sounds like they should pay for something.

I have seen some talk about people who have contributed add-ons to MT being a bit sore about the situation. This is more understandable, but unfortunately, read the license !!

Anyway , folks , please don't infer any Open Source generalisations from this episode.

Interesting Resources for Software Development

These are new to me:

• Articles, Resources on Software Architecture, Software Development Process
  

I'm particularly interested in the RUP Anti-paterns at present; comments to follow.

SDO : needs looking into

Specifications: Service Data Objects, WorkManager, and Timers

E-mail blog from wireless iPaq

Hope this works.

The Pocket IE rendering of the blogger.com posting page is unusable :-(

I wonder if it was better before the blogger facelift ?

EU is getting more Stalinistic

Two problems:

• The EU political system is does not work properly. It is currently operating around the level of England before its Civil War - perhaps one day the EU Parliment will be properly elected and actually have some power. The Council of Ministers is too powerful, and goodness knows why it can overrule parliament. And why does the Commission have the power to advance Policy ?
  
• Software patents: by all means protect innovation, but the future (especially of increased employment) lies with growing smaller firms, not big ones defending their eroding competitiveness
  Software Patent News
  

Turning Japanese, I really think so

Respect ! Martin Fowler has his blog translated into Japanese !!

Anybody no anyone else who has a translated blog?

Flee.....

Cincinnati's premier Cicada information source

Zope too hard?

Ian Bicking

I think I got into the "then starts getting hard again" phase.

Good question

"The question now becomes, will that commoditization result in innovation?", from
Ted Leung : Will IT matter more after it's commoditized?

Geneva..... what's that?

ZNet | Iraq | Smoke Them

Blogger Facelift

Blogger Relaunch

Looks good - wish they supported skins or somesuch - I don't want to cut and paste stuff just to get a new look - maybe I'm missing something.

Amen

Lawrence Lessig: mama's day

Broadcast this to all troops.... and West Virginia

All Men Are Created Equal

Making America .....

Seen via GT:Making America Our Own Again - A speech I'd like to hear: David Weinberger

A couple of things strike me: "Gosh, couldn't see a Brit saying that". But perhaps some did in the 18th/19th centuries?

Similarly, was there a period in Republican Rome when its citizen's thought they could improve the world?

The route from "Let us help you", via "We know best", to "We're better than you" is short and easy

I applaud David for what he has written, and I hope that his vision of a better world comes to pass, though I think it would be better if a growing team of nations lead this improvement.

You're a ruttish half-faced hedge-pig

Davtri.com :: Elizabethan Insulter

Very educational for students of Elisabethan history !!

IRC chat rooms: how come I miss the fun ones?

The NYT's mighty authority and credibility are brought to bear on IRC:

I frequent #joiito, #python, #deryni_destinations, and no one has tried to sell me anything !! I'm missing out.

Fortunately others are taking a more serious line!! Mighty English/Welsh prose. Great stuff ; that'll show 'em!!

Does it all come down to greed?

SAS workers won when greed lost

So, according to this article, SAS were very fortunate ( by luck or judgment) not to go public at the height of the dot.com boom. Now, however:

Yet now Goodnight is in something of a jam. SAS is in terrific shape to take off in a resurgent tech industry — but to really soar and reach its potential, SAS should go public, industry observers say.

And here is one of those industry observers:"True greatness requires a grand plan fueled with equal amounts of paranoia and greed",.......The demands of Wall Street would drive Goodnight and SAS harder and would give SAS the cash and stock to pay for expansion. "He can and should set his sights much higher,"

And although the article ends by saying lets see what happens this time, the whole tone is that of the conventional Wall Street inspired view that all companies need large buckets of cash and the continual threat of takeover to stretch themselves.

I challenge this view: why can't a firm grow organically? Why can't it reward and motivate its best people without gross dot.com sums of money? Is it only greed and fear which motivate companies to try really hard (too hard)? Or do private companies just bumble along being dumb, fat and happy ? Or do they do well with enlightened leadership and staff who feel they are working in a great environment.

I think that across the world there are plenty of companies run privately and run well. And no I'm not saying that is right for every company - but let's not brainlessly accept the Wall Street view of life.

Gentoo remix

Now I have a working Gentoo system, it is time to improve it ( or break it)!

Thanks to some advice on the forums I reset some flags to better describe the procesor I have (Duron on this system). Then , recompiled the system - truly amazing to watch it grind thru so many packages. Took a long time, and have yet to confirm any speed improvements, but it is geeky cool nonetheless!!

Also, tweaked the XF86Config - just like old times. But this worked really well - the resulution has improved, and the text is sharper than my old Linux system and my Windows XP system.

Just got to get sound working!!!!

"I'm cycling in the rain, I'm.....

I am in training for a charity bike ride from London to Brighton on June 20th. My neighbour and I went for a ride on (Bank Holiday) Monday. The day was grey and cool, but that is fine. But after 5 miles a light drizzle of rain started. After 12 mile it started to rain hard, but we pushed on for a while. Then we decided that this was needless, and so started back. We got colder, and tired, and made an error of judegement by taking the most direct route home - this , of course, proved to be an extremely hilly road.

We got home, but only just. I think we went beyond our current level of fitness. It really was the most miserable cycle I have ever done !!

Got home, showered, had lunch; in the afternoon the sun came out, and it was a beautiful spring day !!

Gentoo bloggin

After a lot of time, I have got Gentoo working on my Duron system. Back to the old days of laborious setup (XF86 etc.) but the spped seems a lot better and the Internet performance is great!

Not sure I will do any of my other machines with it. Still plenty of things to play with - if they give any further speed improvements, perhaps I will!!

Dan Bricklin on making money through open source

I know this has been discused before, but this pulls a lot of strands together:Thinking about software licensing for a small ISV and the issue of open source

I work for a big company, but aspire to work/own a small one.

As always, applying this thinking internally to a BigCo is also worth some thought.

Udell and Cuningham on Business Processes

Jon Udell: Refactoring the business

Java and Classpaths

Classpaths are a pain - not sure I would argue Python is better just becouse of that !

Keith Devens .com - Weblog: Why Python is better than Java - April 26, 2004

There are other reasons. Buth then python has its import statement.....

Python Import Woes

imports were always the thing I got wrong when I was learning Python - also when I go back to Python after a break!

Victor Ng's Weblog: python's import is broken

Given how nice most of Python is in terms of ease of use, this sticks out like a sore thumb

Live from my sofa

Yea, wireless is working on the iPaq on the sofa in the bosom of my family.

Missed opportunity: Winchester Mini-Blogcon

I have to say I have not seen this sight: You don't see that every day. Even though I live 12 minutes walk from that very spot !

Maybe there are enough folks for a Winchester Mini-blogcon ?

Miguel de Icaza on Longhorn

This makes somber reading:Miguel de Icaza

I think that Miguel is correct that the combinations of technlogies, with dominant position, distribution etc. are what makes this dangerous.

I think it is all too easy to be over impressed by these strategies however. Linux and the ilk have been successful by doing the basics well. The big strategies often don't deliver the benefits that are touted.

A new kind of operating system

I think this is an advance on a notion that Tim O'Reily espoused about the Linux killer apps:Three Species of Operating Systems

Rather the current OS is just part of a much larger OS.

Open Source Projects and Optimistic Concuurency

Ben Hyde provides this analysis:Ascription is an anathema to any enthusiasm: Optimistic Concurrency

Here is a good quote:
I've convinced myself that open systems and optomistic[sic] concurrency are very similar ideas. Open systems make a choice to be optomistic[sic] about the coordination problem. They assume that the system will rarely suffer from rivalry or conflict. Open systems presume that when it does arise, the conflict can be resolved after the fact

I think this is true. I also believe comments about an open systems reaction to a problem ( making it less open) is also true ; I think the reactions of governments (esp. US and UK) to introduce new legislation at the expense of democratic principles is an example.

Ouch - broken Shells

Economist.com | Shell.

Surely this is a good trend for business if not, short-term, for Shell. Greater transparency will keep standards higher. Perhaps it will alter the criteria by which managers and executives are chosen.

Testing trackback and cincom blogs

does it work ?

Yes it does ! Thanks to Haloscan and Cincom Blogs!

Now I just have to remember the real trackback I wanted to do

Learning Seaside

We are out in front - give up now!

Ditch smalltalk already, ok? had a disconcerting tone to it, and the comments are a bit tetchy.

It is almost certainly true that J2ME has more market share than Mobile Smalltalk. Does it have momentum ? Does Smalltalk have a sustainable and marketable advantage ? Is Sun's financial health a factor?

Only time will tell, but let us not be too complacent 'cos we are out in front .....allegedly

Here comes Zope

Open-Source Developers Form Group To Push Zope in the UK

I enjoyed setting up a Zope site; the Squishdot tool was great, for instance.

There was some churn around templates at that time, I seem to recall, and adding Python code seemed to be a lot more difficult. In other words, I hit a bit of a wall and stopped.

Time to take another look ?

It had better be a big bar....

Passwords revealed by sweet deal

Amazing !!

Iranian Politicians Blog

Mohammad Ali Abtahi - Weblog

Interesting!

Site Updates

Added a Creative Commons license tag!

Also a BlogRoll - thanks to BlogRolling

And thanks to
Suw
for this one.

Time for a new MPV

Thanks to Gary Turnerfor this pointer:New VW Camper

We were thinking of a new MPV; this could be it !

Praise for Python

Python Page:

"I have recently begun learning and coding in Python. This is a wonderful language with a lot of killer features. It's object oriented from the ground up, easily extendable, massively usable and runs fast. The Python tag line is "Batteries Included", which is very true. Coming from a pretty broad background, which includes languages such as Perl, C, Java, PHP, ASP, Visual Basic, Cold Fusion, Tcl and Objective C, I am flat out amazed by what this language is capable of doing."

Wish I could use it at work !

Carpe Diem

WebMink: my heart certainly goes out to Simon and his family. He accurately describes the kinds of fears that go through parents' minds.

It occured to me that I was glad that my chidren were a biy older, so that cot death was no longer an issue. But then Simon's relation was beyond that age, and only yesterday I found myself checking on our 15 year-old son after he returned from a party: was he really that tired or... ( He was that tired !)

I realise the truth of what my mother said a few years ago: " I worry about my grandchildren - actually I still worry about you as well". So we will never be totally free of this worry - and that is a good thing. We must make the most of life - we are certainly luckier than other ages, and other parts of the world today, where long life is a luxury.

Funny, but probably true...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Terry Jones: Tony really must try harder

Fudge Factor: #14: April 1, 2004.

Don't think this is April Fools

Good to see a new issue. Even more intersting to read the interviews with Steffan O'Sullivan and Ann Dupuis. Fudge going OGL is certainly intersting, and Ann seems to be very enthusiastic about it, whereas Steffan appeared to be focussed elsewhere.

Just hope the Deryni Fudge rules come out soon!

Smalltalk VM rather than Java for Embedded?

Now this looks interesting:Resilient: Making Embedded Systems Serviceable at Smalltalk Solutions 2004.

A group of people with a deep Java background have rejected a JVM for the embedded market, and instead gone with a Smalltalk based one. There are some charts on the web, but no detailed rationale. Will keep an eye on this one.

Review of Python Blogging Tools

Py - The Online Python Zine looks at Kaa and Firedrop

Near-Time Flow

Looks cool:Near-Time

Only for OS X ?

New Python Wiki

Ian Bicking has been busy:Webware Wiki

Freedom of Choice

Interesting topic for debate Do we want choices? over at the Smalltalk Tidbits blog.

Having recently taken a look at Cincom Smalltalk, I was definitely left rather overwhelmed by what seemed to be a lot of overlapping concepts. I think there are several different cases:

• There really are too many concepts, no mater how well they are explained
  
• A subset of concepts are useful at a users level of sophistication. So typically a newbie needs far fewer concepts to get started
  
• A subset of concepts are useful for a particular task. For instance, are ther differering needs for grouping classes during development versus packaging for deployment
  

I can't find the reference now, but I am pretty sure that the Cincom Smalltalk documentation warns folks away from one concept - could be an idication that it is in the 1st category.

Documentation such as turorials can help with the 2nd and 3rd categories, but obviously tool support is invaluable; many tools have a normal and advanced set of menus, though this can be rather unsophisticated.

Seiko's Ink Link

Another day, another gadget.

Got the Ink Link working, both with PC and iPAQ. Great for capturing sketches, doodles, written notes etc. With the iPAQ it is also meant to recognise handwriting - will try that later.

It is also meant to change ink color, on the screen, not the paper. But doesn't do that for me yet.

I can think of all sorts of useful things that Seiko could add to this, but I got this as an end-of-line, bargain. Will this live on ?

Great pocket PC software

I am still in love with my new gadget - the iPAQ 5550.

Still finding plenty of good softare:

• PC Informant 5:Although it appears to replace the built in Pocket PC tools ( calndar, contacts etc.) it really does add some nice stuff: looks good, uses screen real estate efficienly, loads of new views, great search ability ("When am I meeting X?"), great filtering, templates etc.etc.
  
• Full Screen Keyboard: Not for everyone, but as an ex-Psion user this appeals to me!
  
• Pocket Plus: from the same folks as the keyboard, this has a nice set of things: really closes applications, displays various monitors on the today screen, allows you to tailor a list of application buttons to appear on Today, full screen Pocket Explorer and multiple web pages at a time.......
  
• Resco Explorer: Another replacement for a built-in app, but allows encryption, zip, drag and drop, and probably a load of other things I haven't found yet. The reason I actually got it, was the ability to associate file types with applications !!
  
• Sprite Backup Premium: Does what it says!! Also comes with Space Detective, to tidy up those irritating temp files.
  
• Pocket Mindmap: Yes !! Really !! Mindmapping on a Pocket PC!!! Handles the small screen well, with zooming, folding etc. Also the ability to view the map as a hierarchy. Has a partner tool to convert to and from Mind Manager formats on your PC. Great stuff!
  

Freeview and the power of waiting

In our neighbourhood has very weak TV reception, and some of the channels require a wideband aerial for digital tv. A couple of weeks ago, I phoned around for a new aerial and was aghast at the prices.

Well, doing nothing turned out to be the right thing to do - the local transmitter is now broadcasting in the frequncy band for our aerial.

So, somethings do come to he who waits!!

Broadband

Finally, got broadband, so surfing should be faster. Still not everything is quick; just hitting the next bottleneck I suppose. But i is gneerally a lot faster, the always on is good, and the occasional setup toime is fine.

Visual Works on Pocket PC

I have to say I found getting the VW environment to work on my iPAQ 5550 very cool. It is not a usable development environment, at least on my resolution, but it is just mind blowing that it runs at all!

I assume this is meant to be a platform for applications, rather than app. development, at least for now.

Very cool!

Blog improvements

Thanks to Haloscan we now have Comments and Trackback on this Blog.

Not sure I understand the Trackback mechanisms though!

Spring is here!

Must be : I mowed the lawn

Lovely Day

The weather was a lovely spring day; I was able to work at home, so whilst I couldn't fully enjoy it, at least I could wander round the garden when todays deadline for administrivia threatened to overwhelm me. Able to watch my wife weeding the flower bed.

Broadband will be installed next week, so that will spur me to get Wi-Fi going too. Surfing the web on the patio is getting closer.

Took #2 son swimming - after a slow start he is coming along well..

Smalltalk Objection Handling

Objection handling is a standard part of sales preparation. Can it be applied to Smalltalk ?

Here is the start of a list of possible objections to using Smalltalk and some answers. The idea is for the Smalltalk community to provide the answers, pointers to examples etc.:

• No one uses it any more
  
  
  
  • Yes they do, may be not as many as use Java or Visual Basic. To find a Smalltalk community take a look at:
    
    
    
    • Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk, comp.lang.smalltalk.advocacy etc.
      
    • Blogs: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/userblogs as a staarting point
      
    • These companies: http://www.whysmalltalk.com/production/index.htm
      
    
    
  
  
• You can't do web pages in it
  
  
  
  • Yes , you can ! And blogs! See the cincom reference above for an example. Example code can be found .....
    
  
  
• The image is bloated
  
  
  
  • Not by comparison with, say, a JDK or .NET environment. The well known Smalltalk application bottomFeeder is only approx. 7M. It is upgradeable and can have other Smalltalk plugins loaded.
    
  
  
• There is no equivalent to Java Applets
  

  [I'll be looking at the Cincom Web Tutorial on this
  

• It is hard to call other languages
  

  See examples ...
  

• It is hard to call from other languages
  

  See examples ....
  

• There is no strong typing
  

  There is much debate about this topic in language circles thse days, and many would cite the lack of stong type checking at all times as a benefit. Many of the benefits of strong typing can be countered by "test-first" strategies.
  

To be continued....

Getting into Smalltalk

After over a decade away I decided to see whre Smalltalk had got to in that time.

I originally thought that there would be little activity, but in fact there is quite a lot going on. VisualWorks ( and others) are still going and there is a Blog community here:
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/userblogs

The following post:
Smalltalk and Productivity
got me thinking about why so many people have reservations about Smalltalk and what the Smalltalk community could do about it.

To be continued ......

Mccarthyism?

Sandhill Trek: Good News - Bad News

When Democracy starts to break down ......

This worries me a lot these days, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Nice birthday...

Glenn Vanderburg's fortieth ( Happy Birthday) sounds wonderful.

I'll just say that mine wasn't like that.

Hutton Inquiry Report

BBC NEWS | Politics | BBC chairman quits over Hutton

So the BBC gets a great deal of criticism - on the evidence I heard this seems to be largely justified

But the lack of criticism of the government seems rather strange. Maybe Hutton didn't feel there was enough proof to make any particular recommendations.

Still it seems to me that the Government was able to influence outcomes, without leaving enough material to allow proper scrutiny.

I hope Lord Hutton is right in his conclusions, since there is a risk that certain undesirable behaviours may be reinforced by this outcome.

Plus the timoing of the release of this report may have influenced an important educatiuonal bill, and drawn attention away from what I feel is a fundamental constitutional problem, namely the confusion of UK representation versus England & Wales level statutes - how can we have such a muddle ?

Atom Ant

Well, I have just switched on syndication ! What fun!

Python's poplib

With the aid of the ever useful Python Cookbook I had a play at downloading e-mails from a POP server, using poplib. Thanks to Xavier Defrang for the base recipe.

A nice easy to use and common sense interface. Allows me to stay focussed on the overall application.

People and process: the right perspective

Here is a guy who seems to have the right view on software development: Why I don't care what Gerold Keefer Thinks

Do what works. Of course, it may be that in other environments then other processes work.

At work, we are looking at different culture for the small teams doing individual components, and leaving the larger level co-ordinating processes in a mor command and control frame of mind. Not that another culture at the higher level wouldn't work a priori, but that we have far less chance of getting that cultural change pushed through.

Good things that happened today

• Fixed garage door fairly easily
  
• Beautiful day to walk the dog
  
• Many members of the wider family came round for dinner
  
• My daughter first dance show went very well (and she didn't break her violin)
  

Pilates

Having hurt my back before Xmas, my physio has persuaded me to have a go at Pilates. Have had a couple of goes, but I can't say it has grabbed me as much as I thought it would. For instance, it seems rather unnatural by comparison with the simple yoga I have tired.

Still this could be just because it is a bit different - will keep persevering.

BlogThis! again

This is a slippery one - keeps moving about, but here it is: BLOGGER - Knowledge Base: What is BlogThis!

Works with Firebird

Back to Blogger

After a brief love in with Radio under WINE on Linux, looks like I'm back to Blogger. I liked Radio ( for instance, where are the style pull downs for Blogger ?) but a newer version of WINE broke Radio.

But it is also nice to be reminded of some of Blogger advantages - for instance, it works on any platform, I can get to it from which ever ( internet connected) computer I'm using, can use it behind a firewall ( eg from work) and the premium service is FREE!

It's pretty good to be back !!

More on Atkins Diet

Times Online This description actually missies out a step - there are 3 phases: 1) 20g, 2) 40g, and then 3) gradually add it back in until your weight starts to go up !!

I do think the eveils of too much ( and the wrong sortd ) of sugar are being overlooked in the wider debate - fats are not the big enemy.

It's official - Python is cool !

Python is an Agile language
I've always liked Python, and felt that"scripting language" demeaned it.

To show my age, I can remember (just) the discussion of device drivers having to be in assembler as C was too inefficient, and then C for applications as OO languages were not efficient enough.

We are seeing the end of this argument re: Python and other languages.

Paul Everitt's Weblog

Zope Dispatches

Zope in Europe; Zope looks really interesting, but I keep having problems getting into it. Other systems like CherryPy seem far easier to start with, but are probably not so powerful.

Long Lost Link - BlogThis!

Phew! This took some finding :
BLOGGER - News Archive BlogThis!

BlogSpot and Google

Google has bought BlogSpot.
Dan Gilmours scoop

I'm sure this will help Blogger move forward

Long time , no write

Hmm, this blog writing is not going well. Need a theme. Lot's of interesting Blogs around, so what is my angle ?

what am I interested in ?

Software. But this is a vast area. I like to play with Python, but so do a lot of other people.

Politics. But again there are many of those. Do I have a particular view, or topic I feel stongly about ?

History

Literature

Well, let's think about those and see what happens tomorrow.

Darn diet

I did the Atkins diet and lost 2 stone. I stopped and gained 2 stone; partly I gave up because my family were worried.

Now I can show them this:
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? (NY Times Reg required)

Time to try again ?

Thought provoking

Big Company Blues

So why can't we all work as a network of little guys ? Or at least small firms ?

I once heard it said that the UK had most people employed in large companies, Germany in medium size companies (5000 or so), whilst for Italy most were in small (20 or so) companies. Why is this? What are the figures for the USA ?

One factor has got to be the costs involved in running a business. For writing software you need a PC, maybe a modem and intelligence. To build an affordable car takes billions in plant, R&D etc.

So what about large software companies ? Why does this make sense ? When the power of the Brand is important, where the nature of the projects is such that you can spread the risk across a basket of them ( so a set of turn-key projects). What else ?

Back to work.......

Trying Radio Userland 8

Keith Mantell's Radio Weblog

Looks good: in addition to blogging, there's news, stories and various tools.

Windows and Mac only ( just like Blogger Pro at the moment ! )

Python GUIs

I'm experimenting with using Boa Constructor to develop a Python GUI. It uses wxPython which I have used direct before. I have got used to the Boa way of working ( I think) and am getting more productive. I'm interested to see if any required features get obscured - so far, so good.

Updating a web page

Using Quanta+ and gFTP to update a web site. The original was built using the MindManager mind mapping tool.

If the war goes on

I started to reread the Herman Hesses classic - will report after a few more chapters.

Wisdom

Read an interesting book called The Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert L Smith. I'm not a Quaker, but I must admit I found many of the topics rather appealling - so might others in these troubled times.

The chapter on Simplicity seemed particularly appropriate; can you watch all these cosmetic and fashion adverts without wincing ? All this vanity and waste when people are starving, lacking education etc. Don't get me wrong, some peole would always find a reason to be a terrorist, but there message of hate would die if there were no fertile soil in which it could grow. Let's work out how to reach out and make things better - don't just send money to charities (though that is a start), how can you use your skills and experience. How can you help closer to home as well ?

Back to the book - Chapter 1 discusses our need for silence, so we can hear the 'still small voice' within. Even if you are not religious, I still think we all have a need to regularly find piece and quiet to find something of ourselves and our real purpose. Don't just eat, work, buy .....

Other chapters deal with Concscience, Truth, Worhsip, Nonviolence ( also topical!), Service and Family.

If you are open to practical suggestions to improve your life, this is a great book whatever your religion.

Jogger

Just started to play with Jogger - using Jabber to add comments to a blog.

Jabber is cool - it's Open Source, Open Standard ( look no patents!), can monitor AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN, plus IRC etc. etc.

Lots of clients to choose from. And heaven for developers: add transports to other IM systems (Sametime anybody?) , write whole clients, add services to the server, run XML-RPC through firewals.

Recommended.

Ok, Old Years Resolution - write something (nearly) every day. Make it a habit !

There: conviction with a touch of realism !! I feel much better about this already.

Soon I will transform myself from a reader, to a communicator ( listen & speak - probably not in that order)