The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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Since I first noticed Ruby on Rails last year, I've been interested to follow it's development.
Even though I haven't spent much time playing with the framework, I've been interested to follow the commentary from it's founder, David Heinemeier Hansson. Sometimes, in my opinion, David goes a bit over the top in promoting Rails. Perhaps this is one reason why there has been such a negative response from some quarters of the J2EE community.
However, I was pleased to read David's recent response to criticism. I thought it was well argued and served to improve understanding rather than provoke a slanging match.
Anyway, I'll continue watching with interest.
Tasmania's victory yesterday in the final of the ING Cup (the Australian domestic one-day competition) had a special significance for me.
As I said to my son last night, "You know how I told you that Tasmania won their previous title 26 years ago... well Grandad and I were there."
So when I called Dad later in the evening he beat me to it: "Do you remember that day at the TCA in 1979?". We reminisced briefly and agreed that we remembered many excited Tasmanians, but I had to admit that I didn't remember too many of the players.
Today I looked up the scorecard and it makes interesting reading. For example, one DC Boon batted number 7 for Tasmania; he would have been 18 then.
Anyway, good on you Tassie!
I've written about anti-social habits on trains before.
As I write this, the entire population of the train carriage that I'm travelling on cannot help but be distracted by a persistent, unbelievably enormous, loud snoring sound, repeating - as snores tend to do - ad infinitum. Every now and again I am tempted to think it has stopped but it is always a false cessation; when the racket resumes it invariably sounds even more tortuous.
As I said, it is UNBELIEVABLY LOUD!!!
Thankfully the train has just emerged from the Woy Woy tunnel and in a few minutes I'll be alighting at Gosford station.
I thought people talking on mobile phones were annoying. Unforgivable too. Unlike the snorer in my midst, at least they can choose to be considerate. So part of me is almost prepared to forgive the snorer.
However, despite the fact that snorers tend to be blissfully unaware of the embarrassing noise they are making, I'm finding it hard to excuse this bloke. Did I mention how loud he is?
Then again, I guess I should consider that I often have a snooze on the train. Mmm... I wonder if I ever embarrass myself noisily in my slumber?
A few months ago I owned up to the fact that, whilst I appreciated it's usefulness, Vim was a tool that I had in no way mastered. Brian agreed with me that Vim is not intuitive but advised that it is worth learning because of it's extreme power.
This morning I was faced with the essentially simple task of changing all 7,064 lines of a text file so that, where there were 16 lots of a particular field, there were now 60 of them. This is where the power of Vim, and a recent tip from Alan, came to my aid.
By using Vim's substitute command, in it's :%s form, the task was a piece of cake! This may seem trivial to those who already feel well and truly at home with Vim and it's commands. But for me the experience was a powerful example of how useful Vim is.
So now I am further encouraged to progress along the path towards becoming a Vim Master. As Steve Oualline says from the outset in his book, Vi IMproved - Vim(PDF):
The Vim editor is one of the most powerful text editors around. It is also extremely efficient, enabling the user to edit files with a minimum of keystrokes. This power and functionality comes at a cost, however: When getting started, users face a steep learning curve.For me, it's onwards up the curve...
My friend Robert forwarded me this quote from Albert Einstein:
"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."Wise and worth reflecting on, I think.
The Shark, that's Greg Norman for the uninitiated, turns 50 today. Despite the fact he only won two majors, I still have the utmost admiration for him as a golfer.
I have fond memories of watching him live in the 1989 British Open at Royal Troon where he had an amazing six successive birdies to start his final round. Simply awesome to witness. He finished with a 64 to get into a play-off which, in a manner totally consistent with Greg Norman golfing folklore, he blew on the final hole!
Anyway Greg, many happy returns!
So you're four years old and want some more entertainment...
Delivering the billions of dollars of aid to the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh is a complex challenge, not only logistically but politically, as Jonathan Holmes made clear tonight in an excellent Four Corners report.
In typical Four Corners fashion the programme went behind the news headlines and posed the difficult questions. In this case the answers are far from clear.
Only time will tell how successful the rebuilding process is and how transparently and accountably the donor countries and NGOs can assist. In their way is the ongoing war between the Indonesian military and Aceh separatists, a battle which is already 30 years old, as well as the notorious corruption within official ranks.
Clearly the rebuilding process will take years but very senior spokesmen within the Indonesian government and military insist that there will be no need for foreign assistance three months after the tsunami. And peace talks between the warring factions show no signs of success.
As Holmes concluded, the hopes of a generation of Aceh children could be jeopardised for the want of men with guns finding a way to peace.
Update (10th Feb): Alas, the war continues as TNI kills five more separatists.
I was very pleased to read this morning that the world's seven richest countries have agreed that up to $100 billion in debts from 37 of the world's poorest countries should be written off.
That's a step in the right direction to relieving poverty.
From Keith Donald's description of the Spring Framework without the hype of terms like IoC and Dependency Injection:
In essence, the Spring container ... configures and connects the objects (or components, or services - pick your term there) that makeup the internals of your application in a loosely-coupled manner via well-defined interfaces.Having just started working on a project that makes good use of Spring, I appreciated reading this.
I take my hat off to Bill Bryson.
Having thoroughly enjoyed reading several of his travel books in the past, including the one on Australia in which he ponders the merits of cricketers batting with what look like mattresses strapped to their legs (or words to that effect), I have now started on his A Short History of Nearly Everything.
After the introduction I am well and truly hooked and I'm sure I'll be transfixed until I complete his engaging tome.
Bryson's achievement is remarkable. Unlike admirable scientists such as Paul Davies, who have managed to translate science into plain and fascinating English for the general public, Bryson freely admits to starting from a much lower base. Three years of research and patient asking (and re-asking) questions of eminent scientists around the globe resulted in this book.
I can't wait to finish reading it. Just the thought is alluring: the illumination of science via Bill Bryson's prose. Many years ago I was awarded a Bachelor of Science but I'm sure that I'll learn many things from this book, both on the scientific front and about good writing style. Bryson certainly has that!
Yes, last Sunday night Lleyton Hewitt almost did it. And, when he was 3-0 up in the third set, it looked as though he would become the first Aussie since Mark Edmonson 29 years ago to win the Australian Open. But Marat Safin lifted his game to another level and triumphed in four sets.
So, yes that one did get away from Hewitt and we're left with the hope that he goes one better next year.
But the tennis is not my motivation for writing this. Earlier the same day I had more personal stake in another sporting "close, but not close enough" result. The best Under 13 cricket team that the Central Coast could muster played their semi-final of the NSWDCA Gee Shield competition.
As their coach, I was pleased when they bowled Parramatta out for 116, albeit on a very slow outfield. However, I was not so happy when they slumped to 5 for 23 in reply, especially considering that two of those wickets were due to very poor run outs.
Things looked grim at afternoon tea time as I did my best to instill a positive attitude in the minds of the not out batsmen and those to follow. "Forget what has gone before. We need another 93 runs in 35 overs. That's less than three an over with five wickets in hand. You can do it!" And respond the boys did. As I counted down the runs required for victory the boys kept scoring at the required rate.
Belief was gradually being restored. And the target was getting closer and closer. 79 to get. 69 to get. 59 to get and the batsmen who were not out at tea were still at the crease. I could feel that my team was starting to get back to a dominant position in the match. Then a wicket fell. Another fighting partnership ensued, adding a further 16 runs to the total. 43 to get with 4 wickets in hand. Hope remained.
But then disaster struck. Two wickets fell in quick succession; the second another run out. Only two wickets remained and another 41 runs were needed.
Again, things looked grim.
But the Central Coast was not done yet. Some lusty hitting from the lower order once again turned the course of the match. The score mounted and the tension built. With three overs remaining 13 tantalising runs were required for a fighting victory.
It was not to be. When the number 9 batsman struck the ball that led to his dismissal he was convinced it was going for six. However, it landed in the hands of deep mid-wicket. The last wicket fell shortly afterwards and Central Coast had finished ten runs short, all out for 106. Sure, we were disappointed. But, from a position where the team seemed down and out at the tea interval and the opposition was already celebrating, it was a spirited fight-back which showed a lot of character.
Despite that semi-final getting away, I'm proud of the team's achievements. They've qualified for the semi-final for four seasons in succession and won two premierships, the 2002-03 Creak Shield and the 2003-04 Cawsey Shield.
Well done, team!