August 30, 2002
Python roundup

A number of interesting Python bits and bobs.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:57 PM
Show me the evidence

I'm all for war on Iraq - but only if I see the evidence that Saddam is a threat.

David Aaronovitch is often a thought provoking read. He's not a knee-jerk pacifist - war is sometimes necessary. But the justification for an attack on Iraq has not been made public - or does not exist.

Will Blair go along with Bush? Opposition in the U.K. is mounting.

Not that Bush really cares about U.K. opinion, or anyone else's, for that matter, with the exception of his domestic audience.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:05 PM
Adding Subprocedures to a Service Program

This ILE business isn't simple. I know a lot of bright people who have had real problems moving across from RPGIII to RPGIV and ILE. So you can imagine the problems that not-so-bright people like me have had.

It's not the RPGIV part that's the problem, on the whole. RPGIV is just RPGIII dragged kicking and screaming into the nineteen-eighties. The thing that people have real problems with is ILE.

You can find a lot of good stuff in Who Knew You Could Do That with RPG IV? A Sorcerer's Guide. The first four chapters are essential reading for RPG programmers.

Adding Subprocedures to a Service Program is a nice little tutorial on binder language. You can use this to avoid the need for mass recompilation when you change a service program. It's knowing things like this which mean the difference between ILE being useful and being a complete nightmare.

Update (Frday) 13th of July: Reader Feedback and Insights: Binder Language clears up a few bits and bobs.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 09:18 AM
August 29, 2002
The Color Schemer

The Color Schemer is a superb tool for creating harmonious colour schemes.

Via Mark McEahern.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 02:21 PM
August 28, 2002
The problem with Web Services

A New Direction for Web Services points out web services' Achilles heel - protocols.

Tools vendors have not, on the whole, implemented loose binding, because it's hard. So you need to write specific code for each protocol, so much of the hypothetical advantage of the web service approach is lost.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:15 PM
Why women make better managers

Why women make better managers

Women are more willing to explore compromise and to solicit other people's opinions. Is she kidding?

Via Babu.

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:02 PM
August 27, 2002
Unix utilities for Windows

I know about cygwin, but it's usually a lot more than you need. Unxutils has most of the tools that you really need, and it's just a 2 meg zip file.

Links to other good Windows utilities on the Unxutils page:

Posted to Software by Simon Brunning at 05:55 PM
Effective Javadoc

Java theory and practice: I have to document THAT?

Put your hands up, this is the code police. We know that you haven't been including package descriptions in your Javadocs. Are you going to come quietly, or do I have to wear earplugs?

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 05:16 PM
Time to open-source OS/400?

Open Source OS/400: A Crazy Idea for Crazy Times

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 04:29 PM
Modern maths

Modern Mathematics paper 1

Received via email - providence unknown.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:14 PM
Catholics, look away now

Stained glass in Turin Cathedral

Reminds me of a joke.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:10 PM
Cal's been at work again

City Creator

Via iamcal.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 01:56 PM
Exploding purple dogs

Not quite sure what to make of this.

Via b3ta.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:53 PM
Piet

Piet is a programming language in which programs look like abstract paintings.

See also Ook!, a programming language designed for orang-utans:

  • A programming language should be writable and readable by orang-utans.

  • To this end, the syntax should be simple, easy to remember, and not mention the word "monkey".

  • Bananas are good.

Java - who needs it?

Via iamcal.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:23 PM
Teenager hit by meteorite

"This does not happen very often in Northallerton."

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:48 PM
Unwanted Internet fame

When bright ideas bite back

It's a good thang that I don't have any good ideas, isn't it.

Posted to The Internet by Simon Brunning at 12:44 PM
August 23, 2002
V5R2 DB2 UDB enhancements

Sigh. I know that I've written about DB2 UDB enhancements at V5R2 again and again and again, but here is Port of Entry by Kent Milligan. This one is definitive.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 02:16 PM
Object-relational data binding using Castor

Get started with Castor JDO - the basics of working with Castor JDO, an open source data-binding framework in 100 percent pure Java.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 02:09 PM
PDF generation

Cameron Laird and Kathryn Soraiz's Yes You Can talks about generating PDF, specifically from Python.

It lead me to Etymon™ PJ Classic, though, an open source Java library for PDF generation.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:54 PM
National Slacker Day

Today is the UK's National Slacker Day! If only I'd known, I wouldn't have worked so bloody hard this morning. ;-)

Via Metafilter.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:48 PM
Fear and Loathing in Ulster

From football stadiums to hospitals, daily life in Ulster remains blighted by historic hatred, an interesting piece by David McKittrick in today's Independent.

The peace process is working - so far as the number of murders go, the figures speak for themselves. But there is a long way to go...

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 09:19 AM
August 22, 2002
The Call of Cuddly Cthulhu

Tales of the Plush Cthulhu.

Via Metafilter.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:12 PM
Passport to the Pub

A guide to British pub etiquette

Perfectly serious, and very thorough. All visitors to the UK should read it!

Via iamcal.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:07 PM
Because I said so!

It's OK to say "Because I said so!" to your child, according to the 'experts'.

Thank Christ for that!

I have to say, though, that I don't usually give too much credance to the so-called experts. Children are not all alike, and general rules don't always apply.

The only experts on Freja and Ella are my ex, Cath, and me.

Posted to Parenting by Simon Brunning at 11:53 AM
August 21, 2002
Python South-East UK booze-up page

See the Python South-East UK booze-up page for the date and venue of the next meeting. All welcome!

(Source, such as it is, here and here).

If you can suggest any better venues, please do. If you can suggest code improvements, likewise. ;-)

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 04:44 PM
Using Tomcat in Production

Interesting discussion on Slashdot - Who is Using Tomcat or Jetty in Production?

No one recommending Websphere, I notice.

We are using Tomcat for our latest product, but we haven't rolled out to our largest clients yet...

If we end up with scalability issues, there are some alternative J2EE servers mentioned here which we can look at.

I've been looking at JBoss anyhow. Tomcat gives you Servlets and JSPs, but not EJBs. JBoss gives you the whole J2EE stack.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 09:38 AM
August 20, 2002
Shock finding...

British scientists have found even modest amounts of alcohol will make the opposite sex appear better-looking.

This is why I disapprove of tee-total women.

Hmmm. I have just realized that I can't think of a single culture that doesn't either:

  1. Arrange marriages, or...

  2. Permit women to drink alcohol.

Coincidence? I think not. Any culture which forbade women from drinking but didn't arrange marriages would die out due to lack of childbirth.

Via Off on a Tangent.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:18 PM
Python South-East UK booze ups

Hopefully, last week's meeting will become a regular occurrence.

With that in mind, I modestly present boozeup.py, a function for generating the dates of our meetings. (The next is on the 12th of September.)

Needs a bit of testing, and I'll also wrap it up in a CGI, along with a venue generator. For this, I need 12 suggested venues, with a URL for each. A couple more near Paddington, perhaps one in Reading and another in Oxford, one in South London near the ReportLab boys, that sort of thing.

The last meeting was a blast. Chris Miles and I ended up going to Cubana and drinking cocktails. I was a bit woolly on Friday, I must say.

So, I only need 10 venues really - Cubana is a must, and I know South London pubs rather too well.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:02 PM
Urbanoids

Urbanoids - you wern't planning on working this afternoon, were you?

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 01:46 PM
Launcher X

Launcher X is in beta.

Aesthetics aside, there are few differences between Launcher X and Launcher III.

One nice thing though - applications copied to card are kept in a different directory to other files. When the card is scanned, it happens much faster than Launcher III can manage. Launcher III had to trawl through 30 MB of ebooks!

One thing I would have Really liked to see - when moving an application to a memory card, optionally allow prefs and databases to be moved too. If they were, they should be copied back to the handheld when the application is launched, just as the application itself is.

Posted to PDAs by Simon Brunning at 01:33 PM
August 19, 2002
DB2 UDB for iSeries enhancements at V5R2 - yet more

Yet more new information about DBG2 UDB for iSeries enhancements at V5R2.

This is on top of the earlier stuff. V5R2 is looking like a huge release for DB2 - possibly the biggest since the initial System/38 release all those years ago.

Scalar subselects are the kind of thing that don't look too exciting. Until you need them, that is, at which point you really need them.

Savepoints also look really handy, as do external UDTFs. UDTFs, User Defined Data Tables, allow you to treat the output of a program as an SQL table.

Temporary tables are somewhat useful - nothing you can't do by creating tables in QTEMP, but these will work cross-platform.

Also in The Four Hundred this week - a summary of the state of play with WebSphere Development Studio Client (WDSc) and Eclipse for the iSeries, (no news here, but a nice summary anyway,) and an article explaining why companies should hire mediocre rather than talented people, which explains why I have a job.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 01:21 PM
August 16, 2002
This afternoons events in the restroom

I understand from some of you that my recent indecency related arrest in Thailand seems to have clouded your judgment to illegal acts.

Genuine, apparently, but I'm suspicious. Funny, though.

Via Sashinka.

Also funny - X4 Freight's "Financial situation".

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:24 PM
Women find it attractive...

Honest.

Via Metafilter.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:09 PM
On the choice of programming languages

What makes one really like some programming language?

Beyond technical details and empirical evaluations there is a religion-like feeling that one can get obsessed with. And I love the feeling. I just wish I could get rid of it.

This could be me...

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:04 PM
Bookworm
Book Worm Meter for Simon
Shut In 93%
..
7% Out Of The House
Intellectual 95%
..
5% Moron
High Attention Span 95%
..
5% Low Attention Span
Bookitude 96%
..
4% Book Burner
Book Worm 94.75%
..
5.25% Bug Stomper
Take your bookworm readings.

Via Cyn.

Also:

My Romance Meter

Optimist 35%
..
65% Cynic
Close 41%
..
59% Distant
Long Term 30%
..
70% Brief
What does my romance meter read?

Is it any wonder that I'm single?

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 12:56 PM
August 15, 2002
Source colouring in SEU

I don't have to use SEU very often any more, thank God. And soon, no one else will - either.

But nevertheless, this is a neat hack.

Update: the site seems to be down, so here's the google cache: http://google.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.400times.co.uk%2FFrameData%2FSEUCOLOR1.htm

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 03:07 PM
Single Sign-on Support in V5R2

Single Sign-on Support in V5R2. Very interesting...

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 02:56 PM
Python UK booze up

I'm off to the Python UK booze up after work this evening - see you there!

You'll know me by my tin of Spam. No, really.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 02:48 PM
The CLEAR op-code in RPG

"CLEAR" advantage over resetting work fields discusses the CLEAR op-code in RPG.

Doesn't mention the RESET op-code, which I use a lot. Or did - I haven't touched RPG in months, thank God. RESET allows you to customize what the fields in a structure get set to.

Also - Using date data-type fields in RPG-IV and A new and improved find command.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 02:25 PM
Don't bank on IDS

iSeries security pros know it, and the Tories know it.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:56 PM
UML modeling in Eclipse

Rational XDE is a plug-in for IBM's Eclipse based Websphere Studio allowing round-trip visual UML modeling.

It includes pattern wizards, database modeling, J2EE support, and loads of groovy stuff.

Very cool. But $3595! Don't think I'll be getting it...

There is a Visual Studio.NET version too.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 12:22 PM
The Future of 24/7 Computing

A low blow, as they admit, but funny.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 11:51 AM
August 14, 2002
I bloody knew it

Beer may be good for you.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 01:51 PM
Taller men are more sexually attractive

Why most men are taller than women.

Randy Newman was right. ;-)

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 01:07 PM
August 13, 2002
SuperWaba 3.0

SuperWaba 3.0 is out.

SuperWaba is a Java Virtual Machine for mobile devices.

MobileCreator 1.3 is an IDE for SuperWaba.

See also Galmast - an interesting looking strategy game for Palm.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 05:30 PM
Old thinking and new thinking

Who says these ex-hippies aren't high tech?

Also - He said I made him feel stupid.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 05:02 PM
Evo - alife framework

Evo looks rather interesting. Not a simple alife toy, (not that there is anything wrong with being a simple alife toy), but a rather sophisticated framework for building complex alife simulations.

Posted to Science and technology by Simon Brunning at 04:47 PM
iSeries Tools and the Power of X

iSeries Tools and the Power of X: Why FTP?

I'd not heard of this - using VNC to run iSeries based X Windows sessions. Wild! You can now use EMACS to edit iSeries files.

If Eclipse for the iSeries wasn't around, I'd be looking at using this.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 04:35 PM
The population of the world

Growing before your very eyes. Scary.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 04:24 PM
Bill Biggart's final photograph

This was Bill Biggart's final photograph. Very moving.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 04:19 PM
More cool online games

Acno's Energizer and friends.

I'm not sure that War on Terrorisn 2 is in good taste. But Paintball, Flashman and Alien Attack are nice.

Posted to Toys and games by Simon Brunning at 04:16 PM
Bizarre little site

idiotica.co.uk

I particularly like 'That Shallot'.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:09 PM
Python DB-API 2.0 driver for Microsoft ADO

The OPAL group have a preliminary version of an ADO module for Python.

The Database Row Module looks interesting, too...

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 04:04 PM
JTOpen

JTOpen is the open source version of IBM's Java toolbox for iSeries. JTOpen--The Right Tools for the Job is a nice introduction.

I am using JTOpen in my current project - mainly the JDBC driver.

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 04:00 PM
August 09, 2002
5K winners

Cool 5k web-pages, winners of the 5k competition.

I particulary like Scale Model of the Solar System, Wolfenstein 5K, remote control tank battle, 5kOS and city blossom. The winner, frutiger toy, is cool too.

Posted to Website construction by Simon Brunning at 04:16 PM
Barcode generator

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 04:05 PM
August 08, 2002
Go To Statement Considered Harmful

Edsger W. Dijkstra, the author if the seminal paper Go To Statement Considered Harmful, died yesterday.

Go To Statement Considered Harmful was the opening shot of the structured programming wars.

Edsger W. Dijkstra quotes:

"The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility, and among other things he avoids clever tricks like the plague" (from 1972 Turing Award Lecture)

"Program testing can best show the presence of errors but never their absence"

"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."

"If you don't know what your program is supposed to do, you'd better not start writing it."

"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offence."

"The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay."

"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim."

Posted to Software development by Simon Brunning at 01:46 PM
August 07, 2002
Java 3?

10 Reasons We Need Java 3.0.

Via SlashDot.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 01:29 PM
I am 42% Geek

I am 42% Geek

You probably work in computers, or a history deptartment at a college. You never really fit in with the "normal" crowd. But you have friends, and this is a good thing.

Take the Geek Test at fuali.com

(That isn't my picture, BTW.)

Update 16th August: Another one:

You are 31% geek
You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator.
Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend.

You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines!

Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals!

You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 09:28 AM
August 06, 2002
The cruft crisis

I'm at Cruft Force 3 going on 4, but then I have a fairly new PC.

Via iamcal.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:03 PM
Holocaust Deniers Change Tactics

Now deny World War II.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:54 PM
Weak, Soft and Phantom references in Java

Reference Objects and Garbage Collection By Monica Pawlan.

See also O'Reilly on the WeakHashMap class, and an implementation of SoftHashMap, which is missing from the Sun library.

Weak references exist in Python, but unfortunately soft references do not. Which is a shame, 'cos they are very useful for eliminating memory leaks from data caches.

Posted to Java by Simon Brunning at 01:51 PM
Missing girls 'spotted larking about'

Missing 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were spotted "in good spirits" on a main road the morning after they left their homes, police believe.

This is every parent's nightmare. It's at times like this that I wish I was a theist, so that I could prey for them.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 01:11 PM
August 05, 2002
Driving tips

An Educational Road Movie.

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 05:45 PM
BlogTree

Posted to Blogs by Simon Brunning at 02:51 PM
Why you will never win...

Does the girl in your life suspiciously win more than her share of your battles?

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 02:30 PM
The 200 worst films of all time

Metacritic's 200 lowest scores.

Divorce: The Musical? Good God!

Posted to Funny by Simon Brunning at 01:57 PM
Quixote

Quixote: a Python-Centric Web Application Framework is a nice intro to Quixote.

See also The MEMS Exchange Architecture.

Posted to Python by Simon Brunning at 01:17 PM
iSeries web servers

Which Web Server Is the Right One for You? is an interesting discussion of the various web servers which you can run on an iSeries.

IBM claim that Apache/Tomcat doesn't scale as well as WebSphere. Is this true?

Can you run JBoss on a '400?

Posted to iSeries by Simon Brunning at 01:07 PM
Hamas: enemies of peace

Hamas' brutal murders last week and this show why it is vital that they are not given a veto over any peace process - they don't want peace. What they want is the destruction of Israel by violent means.

Hamas claim that these murders were in retaliation for Salah Shehadeh's assassination, but no excuse is possible for the deliberate murder of civilians.

Posted to The Big Room by Simon Brunning at 11:24 AM