Twice recently I've encountered the belief that weathering a lightning storm in a car is a good idea because the rubber tyres insulate it from the ground. I disagree.
I now understand this 'dependency Hell' thing of which people occasionally speak. I have been there.
The package I wanted on my laptop wasn't in Debian Etch (Stable). I tried a site full of backports but although they had the package, they hadn't put it in their lists, so I couldn't resolve the dependencies. I tried to build it from source, but again got stuck somewhere along a huge chain of building dependencies. In the end, I decided to risk all and upgrade the distribution.
I'm now running Debian Sid (Unstable). After all, what's the worst that could happen?
The package I wanted on my laptop wasn't in Debian Etch (Stable). I tried a site full of backports but although they had the package, they hadn't put it in their lists, so I couldn't resolve the dependencies. I tried to build it from source, but again got stuck somewhere along a huge chain of building dependencies. In the end, I decided to risk all and upgrade the distribution.
I'm now running Debian Sid (Unstable). After all, what's the worst that could happen?
The other day I went to a meet of my local Linux User Group. They've been meeting monthly since the beginning of the year, but this was the first time I'd been able to make it. Within an hour, I was labelled a 'Python Zealot'. Jokingly, but he's got a point.
I'm practising C#. If anyone feels qualified to test a .NET function library providing classes representing real-valued vectors and matrices a hand would be appreciated. Perhaps someone even needs such a thing: it implements most of the operators (mathematical sense) that I could think of.
I ought to sort out web pages for some of these projects. Just not sure which domain to put them in (and hence which 'persona' to use).
I ought to sort out web pages for some of these projects. Just not sure which domain to put them in (and hence which 'persona' to use).
My mouse is playing up. It makes phantom left clicks every now and again. I've tried to open it to have a look at the switches (like that'll help), but some bugger glued it together and I think if I apply any more force I'll tear it to pieces. We don't have any spare optical mice in the office.
I don't want to go back to a ball mouse!
I don't want to go back to a ball mouse!
Our office connection comes from Tiscali. It's a relic from the era of us reselling their ADSL, and I don't quite know why we haven't replaced it.
I keep starting posts and then thinking the better of them. What do you people actually want to read? Do you want to hear why I think Python is such a great language? Do you want the chance to comment on the rules for my potential PnPRPG based on the Fallout CRPGs?
Who are you folks, anyway? And why are you here?
(I make no apologies for shamelessly seeking affirmation: if Gordon can do it, then so can I :-p )
Who are you folks, anyway? And why are you here?
(I make no apologies for shamelessly seeking affirmation: if Gordon can do it, then so can I :-p )
I saw this over at the humour page of the documentation for the Python scrpiting/programming language. (Yes, you heard me, the documentation has a 'humour' page. And that's not even why I love the language.) I thought some of you might like it.
I think I'm off to go and cross-post it everywhere else I can think of.
I think I'm off to go and cross-post it everywhere else I can think of.
I can't decide whether it's a good idea.
The sidebar gadget may disappear after a while. After all, the challenge of getting it to work is now mostly passed (like the moblog).
The sidebar gadget may disappear after a while. After all, the challenge of getting it to work is now mostly passed (like the moblog).
If I open Twitter's RSS feed for 'me & friends' in a web browser, it's got a Channel item which contains some general details and lots of Item children that contain the posts.
If I open the same URL with PHP4's CURL functions (or normal fopen(), for that matter, but I've since set allow_url_fopen false) the page appears perfectly formed except all the Items are missing.
Works fine for the feed here.
Weird.
If I open the same URL with PHP4's CURL functions (or normal fopen(), for that matter, but I've since set allow_url_fopen false) the page appears perfectly formed except all the Items are missing.
Works fine for the feed here.
Weird.
Why do people say that? (And no, besides Octavian in HBO/BBC's Rome, I don't have examples to hand).
There are plenty of negatives that are provably true, and plenty more whose negations are provably false.
There are plenty of negatives that are provably true, and plenty more whose negations are provably false.
Anyone else finding that lower-case 'f's here are followed too closely by the subsequent two characters? It's something I only get on my laptop (Iceweasel on Debian Etch); to be honest I'm not even sure what font this is...
This stream of random thought is offered by way of recompense to the less technical readers I [used to] have, in case the last post or two have made less sense to them.
I've tried so hard.
I've tried really big web applications. I've tried giving them loads of data. I've run them on virtual machines with a processor time-share and laughably small dedicated RAM; the kind of rig that's in mortal danger if you need more than one MySQL connection at a time. I've even cheated and done the testing over the internet, hoping the latency there would skew my figures.
I've tried really big web applications. I've tried giving them loads of data. I've run them on virtual machines with a processor time-share and laughably small dedicated RAM; the kind of rig that's in mortal danger if you need more than one MySQL connection at a time. I've even cheated and done the testing over the internet, hoping the latency there would skew my figures.
Having got the wireless networking on my laptop working (by the looks), at the beginning of the week I bought a couple of new interface cards for my router.
Bearing in mind I may ignore you all when I get home and see what Fowler's says, what's the general feeling on using 'a'/'an' before acronyms and initialisms? Would you rather treat the abbreviation as a pronounceable word (i.e. 'an RSS feed', since 'R' begins with a vowel sound) or do you like to consider the words that are represented ('a RSS feed' because 'Really' begins with a consonant sound)?
Or do you just use the same each time regardless?
Or do you just use the same each time regardless?
So I managed it, and it didn't work quite like I expected. If you're interested, here's how.
Sidebar
