First of of all I’d just like to point out that this post is about more than one thing and therefore not an oxymoron.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been playing around with the now blazingly fast Prototype 1.5.1 and Scriptaculous 1.7.1 EMCAScript libraries, experimenting with the object-oriented concepts of PHP 5.2 in conjunction with JSON, XSD, XML, XSL, XSLT and PITR/WAL features of Postgres 8.4.7
At work in the same time frame we’ve made the jump from CVS to Subversion for version control of our projects. We’ve also finally got basic LDAP up-and-running for centralized contact management and tied it into colleagues software (variously Outlook, Entourage, Thunderbird or Mail.app) although it’s still using a Berkeley DB back-end and not PostgreSQL as would be preferable as it not available to Debian stable installs as yet. I’ve implemented a quick-and-dirty PHP bridging workaround instead.
For our calendaring system we’re still throwing .ics files at a WebDAV server as Apple’s iCal won’t support CalDAV protocols until version 3 is released with Leopard. Forcing people to use something else (like Sunbird) isn’t exactly inline with the agnostic approach we’re trying to take.
Not only a great Jackie Chan film but also a question we’re asked many, many times every day on the Internet.
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon revisiting openID and the whole concept of single-sign-on authentication systems. This approach is different from the doomed systems previously pushed by Microsoft (Passport), Yahoo! (BBAuth), et alia in which a single organisation wanted control of your online identity (and preferably your credit card details too) by instead opening up a totally decentralised system to fully embrace open source software ideals.
Despite the feeling with some that 2007 will be the “year of identity” I just can’t see it. This isn’t anything I could see a lot of my friends using, let alone my mother. For a start, you need a URI to tie your identity to. The person that can get something simple, secure, accessible to Joe Punchclock and expandable to maybe even include a notion of “trust” could be in a very enviable position.
Needless to say I’m thinking about it . . . a lot.
You know the kind of emails I’m talking about. We all get them. From a friend (or indeed friends if you’re unlucky) who just has to forward every single piece of idiotic viral email they receive on to everybody else. No matter if it’s urban legend, something everyone has seen three time before, novelty Excel spreadsheet or pleading letter from some quadriplegic goatless boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen.
Well this evening I actually got one passed onto me that I enjoyed. It was about “America’s Toughest Sheriff” Joe Arpaio.
I got home from work this evening to find the usual mound of flyers, pizza menus and a few pieces of mail for the completely wrong address. Nothing out of the ordinary there – at least my junk direct mail amounts to next-to-nothing after opting out with both the DMA and the Royal Mail.
But buried among the dross was a sample packet of chocolate digestives from McVities! Result!
A friend of mine gave me the use of his Hearts season ticket to go and watch the Dundee United match yesteray while he was away on holiday.
Words simply can’t express how bad this game was (and this is coming from someone who has seen the ‘mighty’ Halifax Town play). A game completely ruined beyond repair by an inconsistent referee who dismissed a player from either side in the first half and failed to exert any amount of control on the game.
After 90 minutes – and with Hearts on the end of a 0-4 thrashing – the pitch was littered with hats, scarves and even season tickets from fans who have simply had enough with players (and I use the term loosely) who look like they didn’t care. I’m not sure who the Hearts manager is at the moment but I doubt he’ll be there next week.
It’s been kind of quiet on the rumour front of late which I find somewhat annoying. I usually rely on Crazy Apple Rumors to distract me until something juicy does actually crop up.
I can now however keep myself amused with my very own rumours thanks to applegazette.
Last night I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle on Channel 4 which I’ve been looking forward to all week. I’ve been waiting for something to follow up the points raised in the novel State of Fear without the inconvenience of being tied to a plot. Despite the questionable advisability of pissing Michael Crichton off there was the inevitable shooting down and point-blank refusal of the ideas presented in his book.
The whole mankind CO2 climate change argument has been presented like a Michael Moore documentary, dangerously one-sided and dismissive of any evidence to the contrary. Hijcked by the neo-Marxist, anti-globalisation brigade it has been repeatedly drilled into us by the mainstream media until it’s automatically simply true.
Since finishing the QI book (based on the brilliant BBC television series of the same name) I’ve started to notice just how many things that are part of an assumed collective wisdom are just plain wrong.
And that includes men.
I was annoyed when it was announced that the ladies prize money would match that of the men at Wimbledon this year. If women want equality, then how about playing the same number of sets?
Some women (and I stress the word ’some’) still expect me to give up my seat on public transport just because they happen to be female. You can’t have it both ways ladies. I’m not downright selfish – I have no problem with doing so for pregnant women or the elderly or infirm of either gender.
This rant was bought to you by International Womens Day.
A few things became apparent while watching the matches of the last 16 teams in this years Champions League competition over the last two evenings.
- Liverpool are never easy to watch in Europe. How Riise didn’t have at least two goals be half-time is beyond me. As is why he doesn’t perform to the same level in the Premiership.
- Not being content with looking like one of the long-lost Marx Brothers, Ricardo Carvalho persists in defending like one too.
- If you don’t take your chances in front of goal then it’s more than likely that you’ll come to regret it (Arsenal, Barcelona).
- The jury is still out on Andrei Shevchenko. Maybe it’ll happen for him next season (if he’s still at Chelsea of course).
- The less glamouros matches are used to train novice camera men. The coverage of the AC Milan vs. Celtic match was simply abysmal.
But the main point I took from a the games is that a yellow card for diving in the penalty area in order to try and get your team a penalty kick is clearly not a sufficient deterrent. Step up Cristiano Ronaldo and Arjen Robben. I don’t deny that they are supremely talented footballers but they are also frankly, a disgrace to the game. Both fell to earth theatrically in clear attempts to con the referee and this time both were deservedly booked as there was obviously no contact between them and the defending player. I’m not sure what the answer is. A retrospective red card on video evidence? The threat of castration?
On the train back to my mums last night I was experimenting with the onboard wifi and discovered that GNER provide a mini current location map on their payment screen. My curiosity piqued, I played around with the parameters used by the DLL generated image until I managed to get a large scale image and combined it with the Reload Every Firefox extension to give me a indication of where I was on my journey – all for free.
Try it out for yourself next time you’re on a wifi enabled GNER route at the following URL:
http://www.gnerwifi.train/icomera/map/Map.dll?Render&width=800&height=576