Alastair Campbell quits.

Anyone think that it's a coincidence that this news comes out in the middle of the Hutton enquiry? No, me neither.

Oooh! Oooh! Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is going to be released in early October! This is a must-have for GBA owners - the original Advance Wars is fantastic - I still play it regularly, and reviews of Advance Wars 2 look good.

Update: Wing Commander: Prophecy looks pretty sexy, too, and that's out already...

Update 9th September: It seems the Yanks have had Advance Wars 2 since June. Bah!

After the US/Canadian blackout, we knew it could easily happen here. And now it has.

I was stuck on a tube just outside Tooting Broadway for well over an hour. Power came back after half an hour or so, but my train's radio didn't work, and it took a long time to confirm that it was safe to move.

It wasn't too bad - the emergency lights worked OK, and I had a seat and plenty to read. From Tooting, I walked. Via the Traf, naturally. ;-)

Update: It least I wasn't nearly killed.

All that rigid type safety and data hiding is like wearing army boots on the beach: nothing can bite your toes, but golly don't it feel good to just toss 'em and run barefoot.

Tom Coates writes about Weblog Culture for the Grauniad.

Weblog readers often segue frictionlessly into being weblog writers, they build up relationships with each other through their sites, they link to and promote people they respect, and they continually fact-check one another. The end result is a culture in which good, insightful articles and writers build up links, respect and visibility - each weblog given context by its membership of the community.

But as more weblogs appear, these cultural connections are becoming strained. Groups like the highly politicised "warblogger" community have all but split from the contextualising influence of other sites.

Does this actually matter? Perhaps it does - after all, someone might stumble onto one of these sites via a Google search, and believe the utter rubbish that they are reading.

But I've always felt that one of the important things about blogging is the freedom you have to say whatever the hell you like. I write about what I find interesting, rather than about what I think other people will find interesting. The size of the Internet means that there are inevitably other people whose interests overlap mine sufficiently that they read me, and that's great. But I don't actively try to be interesting.

Some of you may have noticed.

But, then again, there is a difference between writing stuff that isn't very interesting, as I do, and writing stuff that isn't true. If I blog it, it's because I believe that it's true. I'm wrong often enough, but not deliberately so.

I'm sure that the warbloggers believe what they write too, though. So what exactly is the problem here?

At the end of the day, you have always to be a bit sceptical about what you read, and take account of the source. This is especially true of what you find on the 'net, yes, but it's true of everything you read - newspapers, books, whatever. And it's true of other media, too - I'm thinking about TV here.

David is learning Python. He's posted some of his observations, many of which are very interesting - see Python first impressions, Python data hiding and Trust me: I'm a programmer.

Clearly, David is also aware of the problems with using floating point values to hold financial values, since he's found Ng Pheng Siong's Money class. I recommended that he look at FixedPoint instead, since it's pretty much the de facto standard.

But there's one thing that both modules get wrong. As Ka-Ping Yee pointed out on Python-Dev, it's important that any fixed point numeric type be immutable. Both FixedPoint and Ng Pheng Siong's BigDecimal are mutable. For one thing, this means that they cannot safely be used as dictionary keys. But there are other reasons for favouring immutability - simplicity, inherent thread safety, and safe object sharing spring to mind.

I don't know if there is any movement towards including FixedPoint, or something like it, in Python's standard library in version 2.4. I certainly hope so.

Richard Herring seems to have caught a four year old's sense of humor pretty well - Your house is bum.

In Dynamic languages and virtual machines, Jon Udell discusses Perl and Python implementations on Java's JVM and .NET's CLI.

"Back when .Net was Microsoft's shiny new replacement for boring old Java, the Redmond rhetoricians used to make a couple of points with which I heartily agreed. First, your platform ought not be joined at the hip to a programming language. Different people use different languages for different reasons; it's wise to accommodate them all. Second, dynamic (aka scripting) languages were going to be a .Net priority.

But when ActiveState tried the experiment, it didn't go well. The CLI is, by design, not friendly to dynamic languages."

Looks like Jython is not going to be knocked the number one spot any time soon.

Via the Python Daily URL.

Steve is looking for sample programmer aptitude tests. Any suggestions?

This one is funny, but Steve is looking for real ones.

Configuring Automatic Log Ons for Windows NT.

You probably shoudn't do this. But it's nice to know how. ;-)

I nearly used this hack. I was automating a process involving an application which only seemed to work properly if you rebooted before using it!

In the end, though, soving a bunch more RAM into the box seems to have done the trick.

Ladder theory. And I thought I was cynical.

Not a single woman who wasn't a bitch has ever complained about misogyny at this site. I can prove this on an abacus. ;-)

Via Tao of the Machine.

Nude scenes rise after watershed.

I wonder if the BBC will be putting "Reading the Decades" online soon? ;-)

Diamond Geezer links to a useful 118 number consumer guide, and adds a few comments of his own. Useful.

It's one of those moments when one can feel really proud to be British. They seem to be getting rare these days - the last one I can remember was when Gordon Brown wrote off hundreds of millions of Third World debt.

Anyway, Danny O'Brien's coverage is excellent - freeing the bbc.

The secret life of GetWindowText, via Joel.

I've been fiddling with GetWindowText myself recently. This explains a lot.

Right, that's it, I'm off for an extended bank holiday weekend. I'll be back on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, this means I'll be missing National Slackers Day, to which I feel I could have contributed very positively. But there you are.

Much of the time I'll be at the Blues at the Mills festival, either watching or helping out. I'll be by the bandstand on Saturday afternoon, and all over the place on Sunday and Monday.

Have a good weekend, all...

Lunchtime pint driving danger

Well, we always used to say that a pint at lunchtime counted double, didn't we, Steve? Seems we were right.

First you kill Chemical Ali, then you capture him! Good job!

Tulna's engagement party. It's going to be the wedding of the century!

Oh yes, and congratulations to my brother Daniel on his engagement to Abbey. Obviously she sees you as a project, mate - a bit of a fixer-upper.

Sobig is biggest virus of all. Nasty.

I've not had any of these at all. This is odd, 'cos the anti-virus software we use quarantines email viruses, but the emails themselves do get through. I suppose that out security guys must have done something clever with the firewall or something, to strip this virus out before it even hits our email server.

Following up yesterday's What's better about Ruby than Python?, Hans Nowak identifies some more Ruby jewels.

Jeffrey Shell's Ruby/Python comparison posting to c.l.py is also worth a look - Jeffrey obviously knows Ruby pretty well, and he identifies both strengths and weaknesses as compared to Python.

Again, there are ideas here that Python might benefit from stealing, but nothing to tempt me away from Python. All this name, $name, @name, and @@name business appals me.

Oliver Steele's excellent post, Test versus Type, explores at some length the argument that test driven development makes static typing unnecessary at best, positively injurious at worst.

I leave with you with a quotation from Quinn Dunkan:

"The static people talk about rigorously enforced interfaces, correctness proofs, contracts, etc. The dynamic people talk about rigorously enforced testing and say that types only catch a small portion of possible errors. The static people retort that they don't trust tests to cover everything or not have bugs and why write tests for stuff the compiler should test for you, so you shouldn't rely on only tests, and besides static types don't catch a small portion, but a large portion of errors. The dynamic people say no program or test is perfect and static typing is not worth the cost in language complexity and design difficulty for the gain in eliminating a few tests that would have been easy to write anyway, since static types catch a small portion of errors, not a large portion. The static people say static types don't add that much language complexity, and it's not design "difficulty" but an essential part of the process, and they catch a large portion, not a small portion. The dynamic people say they add enormous complexity, and they catch a small portion, and point out that the static people have bad breath. The static people assert that the dynamic people must be too stupid to cope with a real language and rigorous requirements, and are ugly besides.

This is when both sides start throwing rocks."

Via Ted Leung.

I'm off to Ozer for us tea. I'll have several large lumps of meat, please.

Opinions seem as mixed as the meze. I'll tell you what I think in the morning.

Protect yourself from alien abduction - make yourself a thought screen helmet. And make one for your children too - children are "abducted by aliens for the alien purpose of creating a new race of alien/human hybrids".

May also protect you against MK-ULTRA.

Now, we all know that these aliens are being led by The King, so for extra security, install The Elvis Detector.

There is a thread over on c.l.py on this subject.

It's generating orders of magnitude more heat than light. Jeremy Dillworth's post, though, is well worth a read. Certainly nothing here is going to convince me to switch over, but there are ideas here that Python could steal.

Python's way of defining static and class methods is nasty, I have to admit. The Python developers are looking at fixing this, but for the moment, Ruby is prettier here.

Ruby's operator overloading syntax also looks very nice.

Laundry Guide to Common Care Symbols

Via GromBlog.

Slammer worm crashed Ohio nuke plant net

They use Windows to run nuclear power stations? That's insane.

A keyboard cleaning meme spread around the office today, for some reason. And I fell for it.

So, just like everyone else, I liberally sprayed my keyboard with Foamclene, and scrubbed away at the case and keyboard.

Unlike everyone else, though, my keyboard hasn't worked since. Sigh. Serves me right, I suppose, for having a bloody Microsoft keyboard.

One of the keys is 'stuck down', not physically, but electronically. I have no idea which key it is. I've taken the bloody thing to pieces, and pulled all the keys off. Following Dan's advice, I've sprayed the thing with WD-40, too, but that just made everything oily. And there was me thinking that WD-40 or duct tape will fix anything. (It made us all pretty high, though.)

One other substance was tried - blood. I managed to gash my finger pulling the keys off. But this offering didn't help either.

Don't try this at home, folks.

Want to be Bill or Gareth Gates?

Nearly a quarter of teenagers in the poll want to "work with computers", and a third say it is for the excitement and the money. Bwahahahaha!

Campbell: I did not add 45-min claim.

Mark is stuck building a VB6 project at the moment. I took the piss out of him for a while, but by now I'm feeling really sorry for him.

He's currently having problems with 'event cascading', whatever that is.

"Right, I'm going to delete and re-write all the routines which are giving me gyp," he's just said. Well, shouted, mostly.

Java Programmers Unite: Say NO To Python

Jokes apart, I don't think that increasing programmer productivity would increase unemployment, at least not in the long term. I think that part of the problem is that too many company boards have had their fingers burned by large IT projects delivering very poor ROIs. The more IT delivers value for money, the more people will be willing to spend.

At least, that's what I'd like to think. Perhaps we are all doomed.

WyPy implements a basic Wiki in 23 lines of the ugliest Python code I've ever seen. Clever, though, and it works fine.

Via the still-RSS-free Daily Python URL.

It's not fair! Why don't I get this kind of reader?

A nice little tip from Gerhard Häring - Running Python from a Windows network.

A while back, I bought 24 series 1 on DVD. I've just finished watching it.

Despite the rave reviews, I never watched in on TV. It was as much a lifestyle choice as a TV series, and I just didn't feel ready to make the commitment.

I kept quiet about watching it, too, 'cos I just knew that some smart arse would drop hints and spoil if for me if I let it out. Or is that just 24's paranoia getting to me?

Anyway. Fab series. Restores ones faith in the possibility of decent television.

Series 2 any good?

I didn't think England were keen on winning these days. Still, well done, lads.

Interesting obituary of Idi Amin. Lots of stuff about his early years I didn't know about.

Not, I think I can safely say, a nice chap. It's only a shame he didn't see some sort of justice before dying. Let's just hope he died in pain, eh?

And let's hope Mugabe doesn't last much longer, too. Or this lot.

Here's mine:

Via Charles Miller.

I spent much of yesterday, and much of today, putting things into boxes. Mostly books.

I leavened this by occasionally taking things out of boxes, and putting them into other boxes.

There was also a fair amount of putting things into black plastic bin liners, some destined for the bin, and some for the charity shop.

Any clothes that I haven’t worn for six months went, for example. Since that period spanned one of the coldest winters I can remember, and certainly the hottest summer, everything I need was worn recently. If I ain’t worn it in six months, I almost certainly never will. (Those who know me realise that this means that I now have very little clothing.) Just an example of the harsher than usual de-cluttering I’ve imposed on myself this move.

Sigh. I hate moving. I’m off down the pub.

Anyone London based and at a loose end on the bank holiday weekend might like to consider my Dad's blues festival.

There, I've said it now, Dad. OK? ;-)

It's pretty good, actually. If you have kids, the bandstand on Saturday is great. The girls and I will be there.

Python & Java: a Side-by-Side Comparison

Not the first Java vs. Python comparison around, but one of the better ones, I think.

New head of CPS had cannabis conviction

0.1 grams? When he was 18? Not exactly Pablo Escobar, was he? Who cares?

The idea of surfing over a coffee at Starbucks is an attractive one - but not at the prices they are charging.

One day, though, WiFi may be free. Charging for online usage would be like charging for salt and pepper.

BadMagicNumber's A Java bug worthy of your vote is one very good reason not to use Java 1.4.1. Apparently, one you have 2036 files open, subsequent file opens will actually delete the file that you were trying to open!

Jail threat over racist word

It could be argued, I suppose, that this is the thin end of the wedge, and that freedom of speech might end up being unacceptably curtailed.

It could be argued, but not by me. I think the bastard deserves everything he's getting.

Soon, we're going to be the World's Greatest Superpower simply by our ability to crush our foes beneath our exceedingly ample asses.

And Atkins won't help.

Marc-Andre Lemburg has announced a new version of his essential Python package, mxBase. It works under Python 2.3 now.

This package includes mxDateTime - every date/time tool you'll ever need, and then some. Superb.

Marc-Andre has also released a new version of mxODBC, a Python ODBC Interface. This is also excellent, but be aware, commercial use of this is not free.

Hans Nowak has written an excellent article, 10 Python pitfalls.

Points 2, 3, 7 and 8 apply to Java as well as to Python.

It seems to me that the difference between mutable and immutable objects, which is a crucial one, is not given due prominence in any of the tutorials that I've seen, either for Python or Java.

Update: According to the Java Language Specification, point 3 does not apply to Java, i.e. a = a + b is exactly the same as a += b in all cases. If I'm reading it right, that is. I haven't got time to try this out now, though.

Paul Carr, Can't spot a spoof? Meet Google...

It seems that Private Eye, amongst others, has been taken in more than once by online spoofs, such as Tom Watson's Teens!, or the excellent Thinkofthechildren.co.uk.

Via Tom Watson.

Using RSS in JSP pages offers a nice overview of RSS processing in Java.

Now I just have to think of a use for it. ;-)

For RSS processing with Python, see RSS for Python.

This is seriously sick. Sex symbol aged eight.

I'm lost for words, really. This kind of person doesn't need egging on.

Via Rececca Blood.

The effbot is posting a series of updates to his superb The Standard Python Library, covering modules added to the Python Standard Library since version 2.1.

Of particular interest (to me, at least): datetime and csv. I'm looking forward to his coverage of logging, sets, and especially itertools.

Microsoft are getting a lot of coverage at the BBC today - Worm blasts across the web and Microsoft fined $520m in patent case.

I can't pretend that the 2nd of these didn't make me smile.

IBM Announces New Release of WDSc, New Software Ships in September.

The new WDSc is based on Eclipse 2.1, which rocks. It's nice to see that IBM are keeping up to date.

The next time I have any iSeries work to do, I'll upgrade.

IBM gets AS/400 running on PSone, according to The Register.

Bollocks, say I.

Now, OS/400 on a PS/2 I do believe. It's based on the PowerPC architecture, and I've heard Frank Soltis talk about the posibility before.

Via an email from Jay.

I'm back at work after my week off, buried under a ton of email.

The highlight of the week so far as the girls were concerned was our visit to Whitehouse Farm. Feeding the sheep, goats and donkeys, having their bags of feed snatched by the goats, a picnic, holding baby rabbits and mice, ice cream and a huge slide, the girls loved it all. Highly recommended if you have kids and are in the area.

(BTW, is is only me who finds goats really scary? It's the eyes...)

The weather was easily good enough to take couple of trips to the beach. So we did. No sunburn, for a change, either. Wonderful stuff, factor 60.

And thank Christ I wasn't down south last week. I doubt I could have taken the heat. Sunday was bad enough.

Just a quick post - I'm on dial-up, and it's painfully slow.

It is obligatory, I think, to link to my mum's new website. Bless.

Pretty basic, yes. Since she will be maintaining it herself, and she's on page 7 of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page" (no, really), we didn't want to go too high tech.

I'm on holiday next week, in Newcastle, visiting my Mother. I'm taking my two girls, and my sister is taking her two girls.

Four small girls, between the ages of 2½ and 6½. Should be nice and quiet. ;-)

I'll be on the 'net now and again - I've promised to help my mum put a web site together. But probably not often, so Small Values will be quiet, which will probably be a relief to the lot of you.

Later...

Is Jail Babes some kind of a joke? It must be, surely?

Via Yorkshire Soul.

Barking, I say. Moon Song.

(Sound needed. It won't be the same without.)

Check out some of the other rathergood.com stuff, too.

In Open Source Flying, Matthew Langham contends that the way the air travel industry has changed over the years may be a good model for the way the IT industry is changing.

In the old days, if you wanted to fly, you went to your national carrier and payed whatever they demanded, and that was that. Just as now, 99% of businesses go to one of the big vendors (Microsoft, IBM, Sun, etc.) for their software.

These days, there are a number of low cost carriers fighting over you. The national carriers are still there, offering high price, high standard, high convenience travel, but they no longer own the skies.

Will the big vendors lose out? I can't say I see any sign of it yet, but it would be nice if he were correct. ;-)

Via Daily Python-URL.

Eyeing a post-Hubble Universe. Sad.

33% of NASA's results for 2% of its budget. Hubble:

• Improved the accuracy of estimates of the ang of the universe


• Prooved the existance of black holes


• Confirmed that quasars are galactic nuclei powered by black holes


• Showed that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating
  

My sister bought me some new, trendy (I gather) jeans for my birthday. I asked number-one-daughter Freja what she thought.

"They are nice jeans, Daddy, but they don't suit you," she said. She's not aware of the phrase mutton dressed as lamb, but if she had have been, I suspect that she would have used it.

Don't ask a child what they think unless you are prepared for the truth. They won't lie to save your feelings. ;-)

NullBlogException posted a list of Meetings and events in London.

I think I'll give one or more of these a bash. The Python booze-ups just ain't happening.