2008-03-26
Is it Tuesday Already?
Today was running the Pink dolphins use sticks and stones to impress the ladies story just as I was drifting up towards conscience this morning. My first thought was that it was all part of some weird dream. I mean, pink dolphins? What was I drinking last night? Once I was sure I was really sure that I was hearing what I was hearing, I got all confused about the date. Tuesday already? Where did the weekend go? Please, Today,...
Today was running the Pink dolphins use sticks and stones to impress the ladies story just as I was drifting up towards conscience this morning. My first thought was that it was all part of some weird dream. I mean, pink dolphins? What was I drinking last night? Once I was sure I was really sure that I was hearing what I was hearing, I got all confused about the date. Tuesday already? Where did the weekend go? Please, Today,...
[18:36 | Simon Brunning]
Biggest UK space impact found
Ullapool? Funny - I thought it would have been Birmingham. That's the biggest hole I know of...
Ullapool? Funny - I thought it would have been Birmingham. That's the biggest hole I know of...
[08:08 | Simon Brunning]
Camille in London
Camille in London - I do not want to miss this. Camille is fabulous. I think I'm in love: Anyone else up for it?
Camille in London - I do not want to miss this. Camille is fabulous. I think I'm in love: Anyone else up for it?
[08:02 | Simon Brunning]
Smoke and Mirrors
This old post of mine has an old-style Guardian URL in one of its comments. Click on it, and you'll end up at a new style URL. Not much to see, I'll admit, but I'm pleased - Matt and I made that happen.
This old post of mine has an old-style Guardian URL in one of its comments. Click on it, and you'll end up at a new style URL. Not much to see, I'll admit, but I'm pleased - Matt and I made that happen.
[05:57 | Simon Brunning]
Miss Bimbo
Miss Bimbo is indeed a dreadful thing - "yea lol our choice 2 go on this site they should leave it alone hehe". That the land of Shakespeare and the King James bible should sink so low... Still, I'm not too worried. My eldest spent most of the weekend buried in Wesnoth.
Miss Bimbo is indeed a dreadful thing - "yea lol our choice 2 go on this site they should leave it alone hehe". That the land of Shakespeare and the King James bible should sink so low... Still, I'm not too worried. My eldest spent most of the weekend buried in Wesnoth.
[04:26 | Simon Brunning]
2008-03-25
Book Lamp
Automated book recommendation. Can it recommend a book that's not at all like The Da Vinci Code? BTW, have you spotted The Shakespeare Secret? How blatantly fucking cynical can you get?
Automated book recommendation. Can it recommend a book that's not at all like The Da Vinci Code? BTW, have you spotted The Shakespeare Secret? How blatantly fucking cynical can you get?
[11:30 | Simon Brunning]
I'm not dead yet!
The Death of the Relational Database (via Media Influencer). Sigh. I've been hearing about the death of the RDBMS for nearly twenty years. And the recurring problem with this thesis is not that the RDBMS is perfect, but that everything else is worse. Until someone comes up with an idea for a persistance mechanism that's better then an RDBMS across large parts of the problem space that the RDBMS solves, this is just idle hand-waving.
The Death of the Relational Database (via Media Influencer). Sigh. I've been hearing about the death of the RDBMS for nearly twenty years. And the recurring problem with this thesis is not that the RDBMS is perfect, but that everything else is worse. Until someone comes up with an idea for a persistance mechanism that's better then an RDBMS across large parts of the problem space that the RDBMS solves, this is just idle hand-waving.
[08:52 | Simon Brunning]
The Stroustrup Effect
"There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone." - Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of C++. This effect had now moved on to the electric kettle. The new model in the office has multiple reservoirs so that you can fill it yet boil only enough water for one cup. Great idea. Trouble is, we had to...
"There's an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone." - Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of C++. This effect had now moved on to the electric kettle. The new model in the office has multiple reservoirs so that you can fill it yet boil only enough water for one cup. Great idea. Trouble is, we had to...
[07:59 | Simon Brunning]
2008-03-17
The Atheist Delusion
Wow - The Guardian is having a bit of an anti-atheist moment. In The Atheist Delusion (see Godless evangelicals for a précis with comments enabled), John Grey says For Dawkins and Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Martin Amis, Michel Onfray, Philip Pullman and others, religion in general is a poison that has fuelled violence and oppression throughout history, right up to the present day and These writers come from a generation schooled to think of religion as a throwback to an...
Wow - The Guardian is having a bit of an anti-atheist moment. In The Atheist Delusion (see Godless evangelicals for a précis with comments enabled), John Grey says For Dawkins and Hitchens, Daniel Dennett and Martin Amis, Michel Onfray, Philip Pullman and others, religion in general is a poison that has fuelled violence and oppression throughout history, right up to the present day and These writers come from a generation schooled to think of religion as a throwback to an...
[09:30 | Simon Brunning]
2008-03-14
Best Firefox extension ever
Tourettes Machine. Not safe for work - but who wants to play safe?
Tourettes Machine. Not safe for work - but who wants to play safe?
[08:31 | Simon Brunning]
2008-02-05
Job Application Customer Service
I’m bringing back a long neglected feature, bad customer service. Although a quick search tells me I haven’t mentioned this as much on line as in real life, where friends and casual acquaintances who get me on a bad day are liable to receive a long and bitter tirade. Back in September when I was last looking for a job in a moment of weakness I applied for a position at a global IT company that is rather fond of...
I’m bringing back a long neglected feature, bad customer service. Although a quick search tells me I haven’t mentioned this as much on line as in real life, where friends and casual acquaintances who get me on a bad day are liable to receive a long and bitter tirade. Back in September when I was last looking for a job in a moment of weakness I applied for a position at a global IT company that is rather fond of...
[03:05 | Andy Todd]
2008-02-02
February Sydney Python Meetup
Checking my calendar it would appear that one month of the new year already gone. Which must mean that this Thursday, the 7th of February, 2008 from 6:30pm, there will be a social gathering of Sydney Python Users Group and any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel, at the...
Checking my calendar it would appear that one month of the new year already gone. Which must mean that this Thursday, the 7th of February, 2008 from 6:30pm, there will be a social gathering of Sydney Python Users Group and any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel, at the...
[18:26 | Andy Todd]
2008-01-19
Gerald release 0.2.2
I have packaged and released version 0.2.2 of gerald. You can find all of the details on the project page but in a nutshell the changes from the last release are; A serious bug in the packaging script has been fixed and the distributed archive is now complete and valid. Bug reports, patches and test cases to the usual email address please. Or just a message to let me know you are using the code would be nice.
I have packaged and released version 0.2.2 of gerald. You can find all of the details on the project page but in a nutshell the changes from the last release are; A serious bug in the packaging script has been fixed and the distributed archive is now complete and valid. Bug reports, patches and test cases to the usual email address please. Or just a message to let me know you are using the code would be nice.
[16:11 | Andy Todd]
2008-01-07
Desktop Software isn’t Dead
I started a new job a couple of months ago. Sadly the IT policies are a little restrictive, they won’t even let me use my own mouse with the company supplied computer. So I’ve gone rogue. I bought a new MacBook (black, naturally) in December and thanks to the power of VMWare I’m using it pretty much full time at work. Which has had an interesting effect on my approach to the software I use. Over the past couple of...
I started a new job a couple of months ago. Sadly the IT policies are a little restrictive, they won’t even let me use my own mouse with the company supplied computer. So I’ve gone rogue. I bought a new MacBook (black, naturally) in December and thanks to the power of VMWare I’m using it pretty much full time at work. Which has had an interesting effect on my approach to the software I use. Over the past couple of...
[06:00 | Andy Todd]
2008-01-02
January Sydney Python Meeting
Most of the country may be on holiday but some of us are working hard and we’re thirsty. This Thursday, the 3rd of January, 2008 from 6:30pm, there will be a social gathering of the Sydney Python Users Group and any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel, Cnr York...
Most of the country may be on holiday but some of us are working hard and we’re thirsty. This Thursday, the 3rd of January, 2008 from 6:30pm, there will be a social gathering of the Sydney Python Users Group and any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel, Cnr York...
[05:59 | Andy Todd]
2007-12-03
Indexing isn’t hard
I found this blog post via Reddit and was happy to see the positive benefits the author is getting from profiling his SQL and indexing his database. He could have avoided the slow running query in the first place by following Andy’s simple rules of indexing; If your database doesn’t do it automatically, add indexes to all of your primary key columns Add indexes to all of your natural key columns Add indexes to all of your foreign key columns...
I found this blog post via Reddit and was happy to see the positive benefits the author is getting from profiling his SQL and indexing his database. He could have avoided the slow running query in the first place by following Andy’s simple rules of indexing; If your database doesn’t do it automatically, add indexes to all of your primary key columns Add indexes to all of your natural key columns Add indexes to all of your foreign key columns...
[16:45 | Andy Todd]
2007-11-29
December Sydney Python Meeting
On Thursday the 6th of December, 2007 from 6:30PM, there will be a social gathering of the Sydney Python Users Group. Any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. are welcomed, nay encouraged, to attend. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc. are allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel at the corner of York and King Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000. I’m...
On Thursday the 6th of December, 2007 from 6:30PM, there will be a social gathering of the Sydney Python Users Group. Any individuals interested in discussing Python, Web, Ruby, Perl etc. are welcomed, nay encouraged, to attend. Laptops, code review, show and tell etc. are allowed and encouraged. We meet in the ground floor area next to P.J. O’Briens Pub internal entrance in the Grace Hotel at the corner of York and King Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2000. I’m...
[06:37 | Andy Todd]
2007-11-18
Enable PHP on Mac OSX 10.5
Yes, I’ve got a new job (details will be forthcoming), but in the mean time I’ve got a shiny new Macbook (black, naturally) running Leopard. As part of setting it up I wanted to run some of my web pages locally and realised that PHP wasn’t enabled out of the box. Luckily it is really easy to set up. Just sign in to a terminal session as a user with admin privileges and; $ sudo vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and then uncomment...
Yes, I’ve got a new job (details will be forthcoming), but in the mean time I’ve got a shiny new Macbook (black, naturally) running Leopard. As part of setting it up I wanted to run some of my web pages locally and realised that PHP wasn’t enabled out of the box. Luckily it is really easy to set up. Just sign in to a terminal session as a user with admin privileges and; $ sudo vi /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and then uncomment...
[22:40 | Andy Todd]
2007-09-30
Gerald release 0.2.1
I have packaged and released version 0.2.1 of gerald. You can find all of the details on the project page but in a nutshell the changes from the last release are; Support for PostgreSQL The code now largely conforms to PEP 8, thanks to excessive application of pylint. Packaging improved thanks to cheesecake Bug reports, patches and test cases to the usual email address please. Or just a message to let me know you are using the code, that would...
I have packaged and released version 0.2.1 of gerald. You can find all of the details on the project page but in a nutshell the changes from the last release are; Support for PostgreSQL The code now largely conforms to PEP 8, thanks to excessive application of pylint. Packaging improved thanks to cheesecake Bug reports, patches and test cases to the usual email address please. Or just a message to let me know you are using the code, that would...
[01:01 | Andy Todd]
2007-09-20
Insanity
Today I’ve come across a new definition of insanity. It is this; Expecting an update of every row in a 13 million row table (which is subject to frequent updates) to complete in one pass without timing out. Of course, this wouldn’t be necessary if the system in question was running a version of PostgreSQL that was released after 2003. Damn those risk averse system administrators. I should probably explain. In versions of PostgreSQL before release 8 you cannot increase...
Today I’ve come across a new definition of insanity. It is this; Expecting an update of every row in a 13 million row table (which is subject to frequent updates) to complete in one pass without timing out. Of course, this wouldn’t be necessary if the system in question was running a version of PostgreSQL that was released after 2003. Damn those risk averse system administrators. I should probably explain. In versions of PostgreSQL before release 8 you cannot increase...
[02:29 | Andy Todd]
2006-06-26
Moving House
Esteemed readers, this blog has moved. Please update your bookmarks and feed readers to point to http://www.halfcooked.com/blog instead of this page. I shan't be posting any more entries to this blog but rest assured that the archives are staying. As part of this move comments have been closed on all of my existing weblog entries. If you have any problems with the new location or just fancy a chat send me an email. My address is andy47 at halfcooked.com.
Esteemed readers, this blog has moved. Please update your bookmarks and feed readers to point to http://www.halfcooked.com/blog instead of this page. I shan't be posting any more entries to this blog but rest assured that the archives are staying. As part of this move comments have been closed on all of my existing weblog entries. If you have any problems with the new location or just fancy a chat send me an email. My address is andy47 at halfcooked.com.
[20:26 | Andy Todd]
2006-06-19
More Oracle XE on Ubuntu
I mentioned before that I'm running Oracle Express Edition under Ubuntu on my work laptop. It's a pleasure to install and work with, but I've had just one niggling problem. Oracle XE uses Application Express for administration and development, except that I couldn't get it to work. Thanks to this forum thread (sorry, you'll need a login to read it) I just needed to perform a simple chmod 666 to my $ORACLE_HOME/network/log/listener.log file and everything started working fine. Apparently the...
I mentioned before that I'm running Oracle Express Edition under Ubuntu on my work laptop. It's a pleasure to install and work with, but I've had just one niggling problem. Oracle XE uses Application Express for administration and development, except that I couldn't get it to work. Thanks to this forum thread (sorry, you'll need a login to read it) I just needed to perform a simple chmod 666 to my $ORACLE_HOME/network/log/listener.log file and everything started working fine. Apparently the...
[03:04 | Andy Todd]
2006-05-24
PythonCard 0.8.2
PythonCard is a GUI construction kit for building cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Release 0.8.2 includes over 50 sample applications and tools to help users build applications in Python, including codeEditor, findfiles, and resourceEditor (layout editor). New samples include a US-UK converter and a Sudoku solver. There are a new set of "convenience" functions to assist is creating pop-up menus and some commonly used custom dialogs (usage of these is demonstrated in the Sudoku sample,...
PythonCard is a GUI construction kit for building cross-platform desktop applications on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Release 0.8.2 includes over 50 sample applications and tools to help users build applications in Python, including codeEditor, findfiles, and resourceEditor (layout editor). New samples include a US-UK converter and a Sudoku solver. There are a new set of "convenience" functions to assist is creating pop-up menus and some commonly used custom dialogs (usage of these is demonstrated in the Sudoku sample,...
[04:25 | Andy Todd]
2006-05-03
Setting up User Directories under Apache2 on Ubuntu
My Powerbook is once more under the knife so I'm back playing around with Ubuntu on my work laptop. Whilst perusing this Windows to Ubuntu transition guide I discovered that I can turn on user directories quite easily. Of course the instructions are a little misleading and the top Google hit, this Ubuntu forum thread doesn't quite work for me either. Under Dapper and with Apache2 installed I had to; $ sudo a2enmod userdir $ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload $ cd...
My Powerbook is once more under the knife so I'm back playing around with Ubuntu on my work laptop. Whilst perusing this Windows to Ubuntu transition guide I discovered that I can turn on user directories quite easily. Of course the instructions are a little misleading and the top Google hit, this Ubuntu forum thread doesn't quite work for me either. Under Dapper and with Apache2 installed I had to; $ sudo a2enmod userdir $ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload $ cd...
[18:14 | Andy Todd]
2006-04-18
Producing a CSV file from a database table
Back in November, 2002 I wrote a little utility module to dump the entire contents of an Oracle table to a CSV file. Over the past month or so I've needed it again so I dusted that code off and made some enhancements. First I added support for MySQL and SQLite. As if that wasn't enough I then added an optional where clause parameter, so that you can dump some of the rows in the table. Then I added another...
Back in November, 2002 I wrote a little utility module to dump the entire contents of an Oracle table to a CSV file. Over the past month or so I've needed it again so I dusted that code off and made some enhancements. First I added support for MySQL and SQLite. As if that wasn't enough I then added an optional where clause parameter, so that you can dump some of the rows in the table. Then I added another...
[23:14 | Andy Todd]