June 28, 2002
Another one!

First Enron, then WorldCom, now Xerox. Who next?

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 04:10 PM
Open source web application servers.

Open-source servers today discusses a number of interesting web app platforms.

I use Apache and Tomcat at work. Java is my company's platform of choice, and we are doing a lot of servlet stuff. Seems to work beautifully. Small footprint too - WebSphere is a monster.

JBoss and Enhydra I will look at further - I'm just reading up on J2EE now. (Java for the Web with Servlets, JSP, and EJB. Good. A big book, but that's 'cos it covers a lot.)

I have mentioned Zope before.

(Via Daily Python URL)

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 01:29 PM
A woman is special

At wigu.com.

A woman is special... no matter how much she weigh,
Without women i'd get fat and drink cold beer all day!

Women are the only reason... a man has manners at all,
Without a woman alive I'd never make a telephone call!!

Women act pretty, but don't be misled...
There's a demon that lives inside of her head,
And crushing men's souls is how it is fed,
And it will not stop until we are dead.

(Via iamcal)

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:08 PM
Ultimate Soccer Showdown

Bored by the World Cup? I know I am. Get your own back.

Other funny sites - Shake your Tic Taks and Where's Waldo?

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 12:23 PM
Hawkin's Bazaar

Hawkin's Bazaar is a superb looking online shop for toys and games.

Great stuff for kids!

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 12:12 PM
The case for static types

The case for static types at developerWorks is an interesting counterpoint to Cameron Laird and Kathryn Soraiz's article.

I'm beginning to think that the thing that I dislike most about Java is not the static typing. I think it is mainly down to the fact that you cannot override the built-in operators ('+', '-' and so forth).

This, combined with the fact that the common data structures (Vectors, Hashtables and so on) are not built-ins, but come as part of the standard library. It seems to me that 80% plus of my code involves these data structures. Due to the fact that every operation requires an explicit method call, the code is very verbose. They don't call Java 'Object Oriented COBOL' for nothing!

In Python (You knew I was going to get on to Python, didn't you!) you can override operators, and high level data strictures are built-in. So you can iterate through any sequence with a simple:

for item in sequence:
item.whatever()

Lists and files are both sequences, so both can be iterated with this syntax. And because you can override operators, you can make sequences of your own simply by overriding a couple of methods, and then process them with this syntax. Beautiful.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 11:50 AM
June 27, 2002
A History of Teapots

A History of Teapots.

It's, er, a history of teapots. No, really.

Safe for work. Very safe for work.

Posted to The Internet by Simon Brunning at 04:58 PM
Eclipse on c.l.py

This thread indicates that there is some interest in a Python plugin for Eclipse. I wonder if anything will come of it.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:37 PM
Cyber-fridge.

Introducing the GRD-267DTU, the fridge of the future.

Quite, quite mad.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 01:22 PM
Britney exposed

Some people have far too much time on their hands.

(Via The Ultimate Insult)

More Britney madness.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:36 PM
Stargate Eclipse - iSeries Development Update

The dawn of Eclipse.

My boss and I attended the Stargate event at IBM yesterday. There we were shown the new version of the WebSphere Development Studio Client. This comes in a bewildering variety of versions, and consists of an equally bewildering array of subcomponents. All of the versions of WDSc, and all of the subcomponents were referred to by acronym, and all the acronyms began with W, and we were thoroughly confused.

But anyway, the long and the short of it is that if you are an iSeries shop, you get the lot.

The new version of WDSc is based in the Eclipse framework. As anyone who has used Eclipse will know, it is just beautiful.

Eclipse is basically a framework for building IDEs, and other things. It ships with a plug in which makes it into a Java IDE, which as I said, is superb. Tools vendors other than IBM are also basing tools on Eclipse.

WDSc consists of a number of plug-ins to Eclipse to enable iSeries development. It has tools to navigate libraries and objects on the iSeries - think of a cross between PDM and Windows Explorer, but with filtering options more powerful than either. You can edit and compile RPG, DDS and so on, with any one of several powerful editors. SEU is ancient history now.

There are also some powerful tools for developing Java based web applications possibly involving iSeries components, though not necessarily. The tools for building JSPs, beans of various types (including EJBs) and so on are powerful. There are also tools to building wrappers around iSeries based RPG modules and turning them into beans and/or web services.

All great stuff, and for iSeries development it is going to be wonderful.

It is missing one crucial set of tools, though, as far as I am concerned. There are no tools for refactoring RPG. All these clever tools which IBM provide are meant to work on nice modular systems, where your presentation and business logic are nicely separated. Our legacy system isn't like this - it consists of large programs (5000 to 15000 lines) with the business and presentation logic thoroughly mixed. There are no separate callable modules implementing business functions, and that is what much of the new tooling requires.

Now, obviously there is no way to automate the modularise of a large program - it is inevitably a manual job, and a big one. But there are tools which can help - or there could be.

The Java development tools which ship with Eclipse include a number of powerful refactoring tools. For example, you can highlight a block of code and extract into a separate function (method). All inputs to and outputs from the selected code are automatically worked out, and turned into parameters (arguments). If large RPG systems are to be modernised, this is the sort of tool which we need.

I brought this up at the event. IBM have no plans to build this sort of thing into WDSc. Eclipse is totally modular and extensible, though, so anyone could do it. It was suggested that this might be an opportunity for my company! We are not a tools vendor, though, so it isn't going to happen. There were a number of tools vendors present, though, and a couple were interested enough in the idea to come and talk to me...

The latest version of WebFacing was also demoed - on which more later.

Update: Eclipse Forces Developers Across the Java Divide at the iSeries Network.

Update 02 July 2002: See Welcome to the Dawn of Eclipse by Phil Coulthard and George Farr, the guys who presented Stargate. Plenty of screenshots, and lots about the RPG tooling.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 11:50 AM
The peace proposal which makes peace impossible

I can see that Arafat has to go before there can be any chance of peace, but surely Sharon has to go too.

Arafat colludes with the terrorists, and Sharon is a war criminal.

But the real problem, as David Aaronovitch points out, is that the President's proposal gives an effective veto to peace to just about everybody. The suicide bombers don't want peace. If bombing serves to block the peace process, then this will only encourage more bombings.

Robert Fisk is also well worth reading. He is somewhat knee-jerk anti-American and anti-Israeli, so you have to factor that into your reading, but he understands the Palestinians better than just about anyone. And most of the time he is quite justified in his anti-American and anti-Israeli writing.

On a lighter note...

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 10:36 AM
June 25, 2002
Eclipse 2.0 Gold Master Candidate online

According to the Master Schedule, Eclipse 2.0 will be online on Friday. GM2 is already up, so they seem to be on schedule.

The GMn drops seem to be pretty much like release candidates.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 04:25 PM
Else clauses in Python

Python supports 'else' clauses on 'for', 'while' and 'try' blocks, as well as on 'if' blocks. The effbot demonstrates their use.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:16 PM
Web usability is improving

Web usability is finally improving, according to useit.com. But only by 4%. ;-)

Another 15 years, and all web sites will be 100% usable. Yeah, right.

What improvements there are can only have been spurred on by the likes of Mark Pilgrim.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 01:53 PM
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Why is it that CEOs are never from an IT background?

AWS thinks that it is because IT people are IT centered, rather than people and business centered. This probably used to be true, but I think that it is less true now.

See also this SlashDot thread - Project Management For Programmers?

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:43 PM
Stargate Eclipse - iSeries Development Update

Tomorrow, I'm going to IBM's Stargate Eclipse - iSeries Development Update event. Should be interesting.

No updates tomorrow. ;-)

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 01:38 PM
Evolution Is Biologically Impossible

So far as I can make out, this guy put some ink in water, and the carbon didn't defuse. So Evolution is impossible. Evolution Is Biologically Impossible. Sheesh.

He's talking bollocks, naturally.

Posted to Rants by Simon Brunning at 01:34 PM
June 24, 2002
Python related blogs

Python owns us lists some Python related web logs, kindly including my own modest effort.

His list includes links to Babu, Andrew Todd, Kevin Altis and Patrick O'Brien, all of which will be regular reading for me in future.

Hmmm. Link oriented, eh? Fair enough, but that wasn't the plan...

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:45 PM
Python - it is rocket science...

Space shuttle engineers use Python to streamline mission design.

"We achieve immediate functioning code so much faster in Python than in any other language that it's staggering," says Friedrich. "Java and C++, for example, have much more baggage you have to understand just to get a functioning piece of software."

(Via SumErgoCogito)

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:33 PM
Microsoft bids to control your PC and the Internet

Palladium is Microsoft's attempt to gain full control for once and for all.

Amongst other things "Palladium won't run unauthorized programs". And Microsoft get to decide which programs are authorized. Yeah, right.

Still, they aren't getting it all their own way - further coverage of Peru's OSS laws, which I've mentioned before.

Posted to Rants by Simon Brunning at 01:09 PM
HeroMachine

So you have made yourself as a South Park character? Now make yourself as a Superhero!

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 12:59 PM
June 21, 2002
Python interfaces and object adaptation

PEPs 245 (Python interface syntax) and 246 (Object adaptation) are both a little mind stretching, but would be really good additions to Python, I think.

Or perhaps they are too mind bending?

And remember - there is no PSU.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:33 PM
London Bloggers Tube Map

The London Bloggers Tube Map - who blogs where in London.

Via iamcal. No one else in Colliers Wood. ;-)

Some other interesting weblogs that I've come across recently:


Posted to Blogs by Simon Brunning at 01:40 PM
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About. Sounds like a perfectly normal male-female relationship to me.

I like one of the FAQs particularly - Why don't you and Margret get married?. "I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but if you don't have a funeral, you're still dead, OK?"

Via iamcal.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:21 PM
Asteroid near-miss

"Its arrival would come, literally, as a bolt from the blue".

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 09:40 AM
June 20, 2002
Suicidal Chipmunk

Suicidal Chipmunk?

Via Elegant Hack.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 05:09 PM
Strangelets from outer space attacking Earth

Strange.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 04:25 PM
AutoMouse

AutoMouse is a utility for automatically driving mouse and keyboard driven programs.

This could be incredibly helpful.

Automated testing is a central part of Extreme programming, and is a great idea even if you don't adopt the whole XP methodology. There are some great tools to help you automate a lot of stuff, but not GUIs. And GUIs are most of what I'm doing at the moment.

Also, part of out integration build process involves a tool which isn't scriptable - it can't be driven from the command line, not via COM. AutoMouse might just just the the answer to automating our integration build.

Posted to Software by Simon Brunning at 03:23 PM
The truth behind programming languages

Brainfuck, Mueller: "I wasn't aware of the existence of Perl". ;-)

More about Brainfuck.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 03:07 PM
Board Game Geek

If you are a gamer, Board Game Geek is another site worth the occasional visit.

I'm not real a gamer. Not any more - I can't seem to find the time. But I dad a lot of fun gaming in the old days, and I'm still interested in what goes on.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 01:38 PM
Satire at its finest

This isn't new, but I wasn't blogging when I first saw it. God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:30 PM
Korean striker's Italian coup earns him the sack

Miserable bastards.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:28 PM
Simplifying Tasks

A perfect example of IBM's idea of Simplifying Tasks. (Read the instructions.)

Via CamWorld.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:59 PM
RPGIV enhancements at V5R2

RPGIV enhancements at V5R2.

No changes to SEU, surprise surprise.

%DEC and %INT (character to numeric conversion) should have been in from the start, IMHO. I've had to write them more than once. (At different sites, I hasten to add!)

The field lists now supported by the database I/O opcodes (CHAIN and friends) sound interesting. No more level checks?

But what might be the biggest thing is the continued Java integration.

Nothing else earth shattering.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 09:20 AM
June 19, 2002
Thunderbirds are Go!

Thunderbirds are Go!

Via Off On A Tangent.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 05:34 PM
LordCo

LordCo - for all your Christian fundamentalist consumer needs.

Your only source for Corpus Christies, Pre-Blessed Breakfast Cereal. "Now, it's important for you, as good Christian parents, to know that this is not entirely your fault. It's those blaspheming, heathen, bastard children that your little angels have to suffer through school with. Is it any wonder that it takes you all night to beat the love of Jesus back into them?"

Also available: Preyboy magazine, GI Jesus, Hungry Hungry Lions, Burning Bush Vaginal Cream, the PsalmPilot, and many, many more.

If I have offended anyone with this post, well, Richard Dawkins would have done worse.

(Via Pagan Prattle, via ESR's Armed and Dangerous. On which more later...)

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:01 PM
Testing

Hmmm. A quiet news day today.

Anyway, there is a discussion about testing at Slashdot Developers.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 12:44 PM
June 18, 2002
Weblogs give a voice to Iranian women

Web gives a voice to Iranian women - even the BBC is talking about weblogs now.

A rather more important use of weblogs than mine...

Posted to Blogs by Simon Brunning at 03:45 PM
Eclipse: An IDE for Tomorrow?

Eclipse: An IDE for Tomorrow? at Midrange Computing talks about the way IBM is building the new WebSphere Studio Tools around Eclipse.

It explains what Eclipse is, and lists the new Websphere tools which will plug into it.

What has happened to eclipse.org? It seems to be dead at the moment.

Update: eclipse.org is back.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 01:47 PM
AlltheWeb

According to News.com, AlltheWeb has now indexed more pages than Google.

"However, the number of pages in an index is only one indicator of a search engine's power. Others include how often it is updated, how easy it is to use and how quickly its results are generated", they say. Even more important, I think, is how good the links are. From Google you get quality rather than quantity - the link that I want is usually on the first page.

Besides, AlltheWeb doesn't support Elmer Fudd.

Posted to The Internet by Simon Brunning at 01:40 PM
TrayIt!

TrayIt! is a useful little gadget allowing you to minimise apps to the taskbar.

Free as in beer, but not as in speech.

Posted to Software by Simon Brunning at 01:28 PM
A computer with common sense?

Nah, it'll never happen. I've yet to meet a computer programmer with common sense.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 01:06 PM
This can't be true

Guinness is NOT Good For You? Rubbish! Steak, egg and chips in a glass, is Guinness!

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:59 PM
15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense

15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense at Scientific American.

Worth a read.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 12:37 PM
Code Migration and Modernization

PEP 290, the Code Migration and Modernization guide, is up.

The key in dict thing is really nice.

See also PEP 8, the official Python style guide.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 12:30 PM
Teleportation for real

See the BBC and Slashdot.

They can only teleport light at the moment. Not as useless as it sounds - if they can teleport some light from Kylie's bedroom, say...

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 12:24 PM
Python PS2 and GameCube ports?

Groovey!

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 12:21 PM
Why software is so bad...

Why software is so bad...

Ironic that this is on MSNBC. ;-)

So, litigation is the answer, eh? Bloody Americans. Still, it's true that software is currently a long way from being an engineering discipline, but that it could be. It would be a huge culture shift, though.

'Correct by construction' - there aren't any languages which make it hard to write bad code, I'm afraid. "Real programmers can write assembly code in any language." There are languages which make it easy to write good code, though.

(Via Techdirt)

Update: Slashdot is covering this. Interesting comments this time.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 12:13 PM
Start NT programs from the iSeries

Start NT programs from the iSeries at Search 400 is a useful technique.

Not that I'd use VB, naturally. The NT side if things can all be done with Python - sockets are built in, COM support comes as part of win32all, and py2exe allows you to run your scripts as NT services.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 09:04 AM
June 17, 2002
The Philosophy of Kissing

The Philosophy of Kissing. Fab. "Nietzscheian kiss: She/he who does not kiss you, makes your lust stronger."

Also on Trygve Lode's site - The Unnatural Enquirer, and a link to the online Purity Test.

(Via Metafilter.)

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:07 PM
Weblogs

Weblogs (AKA blogs) are quite the in thing at the moment, so far as the internet goes.

A couple of good places to see what's going on in the blogging world: weblogs.com, where you can see what has been posted recently, and Daypop, where you can search weblogs, or see what everyone is linking to at the moment.

Google runs a weblog. Slashdot is a weblog really, I suppose, but individual weblogs like mine are the ones on the rise.

Some weblogs that I have come across recently which I like: Snarkey Bitch, Babu's, The Ultimate Insult, Off on a Tangent, Deadly Bloody Serious and SubAverage.

Posted to Blogs by Simon Brunning at 01:40 PM
Guidelines for UK Government websites

These draft guidelines are pretty good - HTML for content, CSS for layout, no browser specific tricks, ensure accessibility. Cool!

Via The Web Standards Project, via diveintomark.)

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 01:25 PM
Economics and open source

Joel's Strategy Letter V talks about why big companies produce open source software - what's in it for them?

And the thing is, there is always a reason, and that reason is never altruism. Which is no surprise.

The reason for IBM's conversion has been obvious to me for some time. They don't make a lot of money from hardware and software any more (the iSeries aside). They make money from services and consultancy.

It is worth pointing out, though, that Java isn't open source.

Update 18th June: Slashdot have picked this up. Lots of heat, not much light.

Posted to Open source by Simon Brunning at 12:49 PM
June 14, 2002
30 days to a more accessible weblog

diveintomark is running a series of articles, 30 days to a more accessible weblog.

I was a little worried that he was just going to keep up with the character sketches. Good they were, once you accept that making your site accessible is important, you don't need to keep on being told why. (I must say, SubAverage's parody was funny.)

Instead, Mark is going to give us some practical advice on how to make our sites more accessible. Good.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 03:33 PM
Guns Are Only Deadly If Used For Their Intended Purpose

Guns don't kill people. People kill people. At least, if they've got a gun, they do.

I think that we in the UK don't really get the whole US gun thing. It's not so much that we don't approve of gun ownership (though most don't). It's that we really don't get why people want a gun...

I wouldn't mind having a gun when people let their dogs off the leash in my local park, I must say. Why is it that a farmer is allowed to shoot a dog which is worrying his sheep, but I'm not allowed to shoot a dog which is worrying my children?

Posted to Rants by Simon Brunning at 01:16 PM
Design Pattern Matrix

Netobjectives' Design Pattern Matrix is a design pattern quick reference.

Worth a hard-copy, I reckon.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:04 PM
Developing for the J2EE Tomcat Platform

Developing for the J2EE Tomcat Platform is a J2EE tutorial from masslight.

This could not have come at a better time - Java Tools For Extreme Programming turns out to assume a lot more J2EE knowledge that I currently have.

(Via diveintomark)

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 12:57 PM
/CSS/ - a guide for the unglued

The CSS Panic Guide is a good set of CSS related links, covering what, how and why.

(Via MetaFilter)

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 12:42 PM
Sex Tips For Geeks

ESR's Sex Tips For Geeks. Is this serious? It certainly looks it.

(Via Scripting News)

Posted to by Simon Brunning at 12:38 PM
The Open Source Initiative

The Open Source Initiative is trying to make the case for open source in the commercial world.

Python's site is the first to carry its logo. ;-)

(Via Python Daily URL)

Posted to Open source by Simon Brunning at 12:33 PM
June 13, 2002
BEEP

The effbot likes BEEP (see July 9th.)

What is BEEP? Well, see Bird's-eye BEEP. It's an XML based peer-to-peer asyncronous message protocol framework. Enough buzzwords for you? I can't say that I know what it's for, though...

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 05:06 PM
The Christian Linux distribution

Is Jesux a joke, or what? Well, I think it's funny, anyway.

I'm pretty sure that it is a joke, but you never can tell...

(Via Babu.)

Update: Turns out that it is a joke. Sort of.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:28 PM
South Park Studio

Offend all your friends and family with South Park Studio!

You can also do this in Lego.

Update June 14th: Between us, we've done the Evo team!

Update March 18th, 2003: Main link updated - the buggers moved it! It's also had stuff added to it, though, so I'll let them off.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 03:42 PM
Platform dependent bugs

developerWorks' Java Zone has an interesting column - Platform-dependence "gotchas".

We have really got to do some cross platform testing!

See also Java optimization techniques.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 03:10 PM
Managing Software Engineers

Managing Software Engineers. One for Paul, my ever-suffering boss.

Like we are engineers. Yeah, right.

(Via Babu.)

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 02:26 PM
Confusing web sites

Web design 'causes confusion'.

Basically, the categories used by the site ought to match the categories that the users perceives, but usually don't.

Of course, this is the case with for all UI design, not just web site design.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 01:57 PM
Get to know some tools!

Get to know some tools!

If you don't like learning new things, then you are in the wrong business.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:45 PM
SimpleParse

If you need to parse complex text files, sooner or later re runs out. Either the whole thing becomes a hideous nightmare, or it can't do what you need at all.

When this happens, SimpleParse is probably what you need.

David Mertz has written about SimpleParse in his developerWorks article Parsing with the SimpleParse module. He explains EBNF, and gives an example, parsing smart ASCII.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:38 PM
Here be Dragons!

Jeff Epler posts FinalMethods, which uses metaclasses to enforce final methods in Python.

Just don't ask me how it works, OK?

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:24 PM
GNU Enterprise

A new version of the open source ERP GNU enterprise has been released.

"GNU Enterprise (GNUe) is a suite of tools and applications for solving the needs of the enterprise. From human resources, accounting, customer relationship management and project management to supply chain or e-commerce, GNUe can handle the needs of any business, large or small. If you are looking for a full-function ERP, GNUe is the package for you." (From What is GNUe?)

(Via Python Daily URL)

Posted to Open source by Simon Brunning at 12:25 PM
Large projects in Python

Domenic Merenda has compiled a list of Large projects developed in Python.

Includes IBM, HP, Microsoft and NASA. Not included in his list, Industrial Light & Magic use Python too.

Update 24 June 2002: Details of the NASA thing.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 12:19 PM
Introduction to CSS Layout

Introduction to CSS Layout, at O'Reilly.

(Via Babu)

This site is all laid out with CSS. It all seems to work fine. I'll get around to CSSizing the rest of my site, too. Eventually.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 12:14 PM
June 12, 2002
Heavy metal logos

At Metal Mockery.

I must sent this to Mark, my sister's SO.

Also at Metal Mockery:
Killer Axes
Be a Metalhead

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 05:25 PM
Sick

Fantasy death-row.

Sick, sick, sick.

Posted to The Internet by Simon Brunning at 05:19 PM
New release of omniORB

A new version of Duncan Grisby's CORBA ORB for C++ and Python, omniORB, has been released.

I saw Duncan speak at this year's Python UK conferance. He sold me on CORBA, I must say, but I haven't put it to use yet. I wouldn't be surprised if I used CORBA with Java first.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 03:32 PM
Professional Programmers

"VB is often the first language of the clueless". ;-)

Funny, but a bit harsh, I think. I know some good VB programmers.

Also, I agree with tk's post - I think that it's likely that good programmers want to get into open source, rather than that getting into open source will make you a good programmer.

Why? Because you are likely to be a good programmer if you are an enthusiast. And who gets into open source? Enthusiasts, that's who!

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:41 PM
Greenpeace will now oppose everything

It's all bad, it all needs to stop.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:40 PM
September the 11th - Big Ben a target?

Scary if true.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:30 PM
Software installation with Ant

A good introduction to Ant at O'Reilly onJava.

(Via Babu)

Java Tools For Extreme Programming finally turned up, after going to the wrong address at first. I'm not far into it yet - I'll write more when I am. Just going from the introduction, though, Ant looks wicked powerful. The source control (including VSS) and web application integration make it a must-learn.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 01:13 PM
Interesting blog...

Babu seems to share a lit of interests with me. I'll keep an eye on his blog in future.

Lots of good stuff on Python, programming, open source, computing, CSS, and even cricket!

Another blog of interest to Movable Type users is [the girlie matters] tips, tricks, and things to do to my site.

Posted to Blogs by Simon Brunning at 01:04 PM
Anti-open source 'whitepaper' devastated

Anti-open source 'whitepaper' devastated (at The Register) blasts AdTI's Mocrosoft-funded anti-OSS paper.

Posted to Open source by Simon Brunning at 12:08 PM
June 11, 2002
The Beijing Evening News falls for The Onion

Reuters is reporting that The Beijing Evening News has printed an article from The Onion, believing it to be true.

(Via K5)

Update: This is everywhere!

Update 14th June: The Beijing Evening News has now retracted the story, but clearly hasn't got the whole idea - "Some small American newspapers frequently fabricate offbeat news to trick people into noticing them, with the aim of making money, this is what the Onion does. According to congressional workers, the Onion is a publication that never ceases making up false reports," it writes. Sigh.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:58 PM
Elvis links

Elvis Detector
The First Church of Jesus Christ, Elvis
Elvis shot J.F.K.

"From: I could tell you@forward1.us.inter.net, but I'd have to kill you.@surecom.com
To: E-mail: nbonaparte@jokewallpaper.com
Subject: Elvis/Kennedy Similarities

I've been digging around in the online references and have found some startling similarities between John Kennedy and Elvis Presley. Let me illuminate you...

John Fitzgerald Kennedy has three names.
Elvis Aron Presley also has three names.
Both names are, amazingly, comprised of consonants AND vowels.

Kennedy was born in 1917, and died in 1963.
Elvis was born in 1935, and died in 1977.
All 4 years have EXACTLY 4 digits.

Kennedy was 'The President'.
Elvis was 'The King'.

Kennedy commanded a PT-Boat in the Pacific for the Navy.
Elvis drove a truck in West Germany for the Army.

Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.
Lincoln was the name of the President during the Civil War.
During the Civil War, there was Colonels.
'The Colonel' was the nick-name of Elvis's manager, Tom Parker.

Kennedy married a woman named Jacqueline Bouvier.
She later remarried a Greek named Onassis, one of the richest men in the world.
Elvis married a woman named Priscilla Beaulieu.
Their daughter married a geek named Jackson, one of the richest uh... PERSONs in the world. Jackson was also Greek... at heart. (i.e.: he liked little boys)

Kennedy approved the 'Bay of Pigs' invasion.
Elvis regularly invaded Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Kennedy's face is stamped into the American Half-Dollar.
Elvis's face is tatooed on some white-trash woman's fat ass in Mississippi.

And the most startling coincidence of all...

Kennedy died in DALLAS.
Elvis died on the TOILET."

From Elvis shot J.F.K. - brilliant!

And all this from the first page of links!

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 03:58 PM
The Osbournes

You've heard of The Sims? Now play The Osbournes!

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 02:17 PM
Iterators and Generators

One of the biggest changes in Python 2.2 so far as I was concerned was the introduction of iterators and simple generators.

These allow some very elegant solutions to problems involving the processing of generated sequences. David Mertz has an interesting article explaining Iterators and simple generators on the developerWorks site, and another explaining how to use them to implement very lightweight threads.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 12:09 PM
Python 2.3

The first version of AMK's What's New in Python 2.3 document is out.

AMK puts out one of these per Python release, and they contain everything that you need to know to upgrade. Well, they contain everything that I need to know, at any rate.

The new enumerate() Built-in Function looks dead handy, and the new optional argument for the strip methods is my feature request! Cool!

Universal newline support looks good too, thought I haven't had a problem with this myself. I'm pretty much +0 on the bool type.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 10:23 AM
RPG toolbox

400times has a review of Linoma Software's RPGToolBox.

SEU sucks. This looks like it will make it suck less hard.

But never mind that - check out the menu applet on the review page!

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 10:11 AM
June 10, 2002
The BDFL speaks

Linux Magazine's interview with Guido is on-line.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 06:23 PM
June 07, 2002
New release of win32all

Mark Hammond has released a new version of win32all.

Downloads available for Python versions 2.1 and 2.2.

I have installed it and tried it. (Some pretty simple COM-driving-Excel stuff.) It seems to work.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 03:52 PM
Zope News

Zope News is very irregular, but the June edition is out.

Zope is pretty cool, but also pretty daunting. I have used a couple of pre-built products (ZWiki and Squishdot) with great success, but I've not tried building anything of my own.

I like the Steve Alexander haiku:

Guido's good ideas
Like new buds in the Spring
cause Jim to refactor

A proper haiku, with a seasonal reference and everything.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:28 PM
Eclipse community projects and plugins

There is a new community projects and plugins page on the Eclipse site.

Jalopy and CheckStyle look interesting on the Java side. Still nothing Python related though. :-(

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 01:17 PM
Pre-human civilization?

K5 has an interesting story about the discovery of what might be 120 million year old stone maps, with links.

Fascinating stuff, but I'm not even going to begin to believe it until I hear about it from some more reliable sources. Anywhere but the Internet, for a start!

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 01:04 PM
Homer

The Homer Simpson Soundboard.

Mmm... beer.

Update 11th June: Another one.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:54 PM
Are your beliefs self consistent?

Try Battlefield God and find out.

I took two hits, and bit no bullets.

There are some other philosophical games here too.

Posted to The Internet by Simon Brunning at 12:48 PM
Monopoly playing pieces

The Straight Dope has, uh, the straight dope on the significance of the Monopoly playing pieces.

I usually play the battleship.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 12:12 PM
June 06, 2002
Soccer-mad US crazed over World Cup.

World Cup... World Cup, that's... racing?

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 05:05 PM
Robocode

IBM alphaWorks' Robocode is sweeping the net.

Basically, the idea is that you write the code for a program which controls a virtual robot. An armed-to-the-teeth robot. Looks like excellent fun. I must give it a go.

See also this article on developing Robocode with Eclipse.

It's not the only game in town, though - see also intergalactics. I'm generally more of a strategy man anyway, so this looks even more interesting, if rather harder.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 04:31 PM
Cascading Style Sheets, Promise vs. Reality

To CSS, or not to CSS? Interesting article on Digital Web.

(Via diveintomark)

Since starting to use Moveable Type, I've had a good look at CSS. I bought the O'Reilly book, 'cos it's always the first thing that I do if I'm interested in a new technical area - see if O'Reilly have a book on the subject, and buy it if they do. I've not been disappointed yet.

I think that CSS is the way forward. So does Mark Pilgrim.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 04:12 PM
Conceptual Models of a Program?

Very interesting discussion on Slashdot Developers.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 02:42 PM
wxPython tutorial

IBM's developerWorks has a wxPython for newbies tutorial. Has had for some time, in fact, but I've never seen it.

They also have a Tkinter tutorial. I've written some Tkinter GUI stuff, but the consensus on c.l.py seems to be that wxPython is the way to go.

See also Python GUI toolkits.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:16 PM
Using Swing with Jython

Useless Python has an article on Jython and Swing.

Other good tutorials and code snippets here too. Worth exploring if you have some time while you are waiting for the Python Cookbook.

(Or you could always look at the cookbook online.)

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:09 PM
The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Who are these loonies?

Other loonies here and here.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:48 PM
Free game of the day

Uncle Bear runs a cool free game of the day site.

In fact, if you are into RPGs, (the games, that is, not the iSeries programming language, nor the big gun things) then his whole site is worth a look.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 01:42 PM
Moon Software

Moon Software are offering some cool little Windows utilities for free download.

I particulary like FileTarget.

Posted to Software by Simon Brunning at 01:40 PM
Mozilla 1.0 released...

Get Mozilla 1.0 here.

This should end up as the 2nd most prevalent browser fairly quickly, I think.

Update: Even the BBC is covering this!

Update 7th June: Reviews.

Posted to Software by Simon Brunning at 01:32 PM