Available Imagination postings

Archimedes memories

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:34:04 +0100

Almost bought tears to my eyes ...

Brings back memories of trying to do animation in Render Bender and writing parallax star fields in Assembler!

Linq To SQL Wish List

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 22:44:13 +0100

I really like using Linq, it is an elegant query language that can be applied to in-memory objects as well as translated into SQL dialects behind the scenes. What this gives is a common means of expressing filters, orderings, groupings and aggregations throughout your code. I have battled with massive reports using the CROSS JOIN with LEFT OUTER JOIN pattern in SQL, passing stacks of parameters into the stored procedure to get the report results out. Admittedly, it could be tweaked to make it run pretty fast, but it was sheer hell to maintain.

Linq allows queries to be composed at runtime and built to arbitrary levels of complexity, as needed by the consumer of the code. This is a win situation compared to versioning strings of SQL that are not type-checked and prone to error. However, if we go down the Linq route we also need an ORM solution to go with it. Currently there are four choices:

Subsonic
Linq to SQL
The Entity Framework V1
Nhibernate with Linq to Nhibernate

I like Linq to SQL because it is lightweight, the documentation is fairly complete and I've invested time learning it. It has some missing features, though, and now Microsoft are deprecating it in favour of the Entity Framework V2.

Please don't do this! Improve what is already a good product with some simple additions:

Add a many-to-many association
Add the two other patterns of inheritance: Class Table Inheritance and Concrete Class Table Inheritance
Improve the CreateDatabase() method and extend the MetaModel to include database default values (newid() for example) and a PostCreateDatabase hook for inserting any custom SQL
Add a versioning feature to the mapping source which can deal with migrations from one version to another.

Currently Linq to Sql works well for DB-first design, as long as you automate the process as follows:

Introspect the db with sqlmetal to create a .dbml file
Patch the dbml file with changes using MSBuild Community Tasks for instance
Run the second half of the sqlmetal process to generate the code

This means that you don't end up with nice clean POCO code, however. I would prefer, in a DDD way, to start with some POCO's and then create mappings using a fluent interface, and then have some SQL DDL's created. Maybe this is possible now. I just don't want to plough through the horrid NHibernate documentation and the EF looks like a mess that won't be sorted out until VS 2010 hits the streets. Subsonic is an option but Rob Conery seems awfully busy at the moment!

Thurstaston Day Trip

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:03:38 +0100

Had fun taking photographs around the church where the owner of the White Star Line ended up being buried.

Other Worldly Transport

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:43:19 +0100

There's something unreal about the way this Russian Sea Plane floats just above the water. Like something from a Philip K Dick novel. That would be some way to cross an ocean!

Fun with Libyan Domain Names

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:22:10 +0100

Heard [here] (http://www.torchbox.com/blog/libyan_domain_names.html) that domains ending in .ly where available from the Libyan Registrar so thought I might investigate. Libyan Spider seemed like the most respectable agent, although at $149.50/year, they are not cheap.

It was quite a lot of fun searching all the short words ending in 'ly', and believe me, there are quite a few left! I ended up going for:

and

app.ly

If you are interested in lightening me of one of these domains, then feel free to comment!

PopcornHour Review

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:30:05 +0100

I think it would be fair to say that BitTorrent has already begun to radically change the viewing and spending habits of the connected world. I know how much I hate watching adverts and having my attention disrupted by non-public service channels. I also dislike having my viewing schedule dictated by television station controllers. Broadcasters are starting to awaken to this, and the BBC seems to be leading the way with its iPlayer offering. However, the content available on this conduit isn't exactly premium viewing.

So, along comes an interesting company by the name of Syabas with a product that will potentially change the way you enjoy your living room. The PopcornHour is a small box, maybe twice the size of an external hard drive. It gets delivered from China for about £100, but comes without an internal hard drive. The model I received at the end of last year accepts an old-fashioned PATA hard drive, whilst the newer A110 model takes the better-performing SATA types. You don't need to get a hard drive if you have some fancy Network Attached Storage on your home network, but I don't think you get all the extra applications without the internal drive.

I went for a 500GB Western Digital, which is excellent in terms of quantity of media that it can store. Unfortunately a bug exists in combination with that drive, so don't buy it! Details here. A better buy might be one of these. Don't worry if you do pair the errant drive with the PopcornHour, there is a preference to stop the remote from repeating itself, which is annoying, but does solve the problem.

So, what does it do? Everything!!! You can watch virtually any format of media on it, from .mkv to quicktimes, from DIVX avi's to DVD backups. You name it, it seems to play it. It even has an interface to watch YouTube and other online video sources. It plugs into any television via SCART or HDMI, so it works nicely with the new LCD high definition screens starting to creep into our lives. Perhaps the biggest boon is that it has a scheduled BitTorrent daemon running, so you can queue up your .torrent files and let it happily chug through them overnight, without having to leave your laptop turned on. What would be nice is an unrar utility built in, to unpack the compressed downloads that are so prevalent.

The really cool bit is that Syabas keep adding features. Every month or two a new firmware update is released, which packs even more utility and bugfixes into the small box beneath your telly! The latest update includes the Transmission web client for visual pleasure. However, it does seem to be a bit slow at the moment, compared to the previous, but still present, BTPD. I'm sure this will be fixed in the next update though!

So here are some pros and cons:

PROS

Plays everything you can throw at it
Relatively cheap
Commitment to future updates from Syabas
Makes BitTorrent a pleasure rather than a file download nightmare
You've got one before any of your friends!

CONS

No wireless networking built in
Interface is a bit cludgy
Requires a bit of technical know-how to get going
Remote is painful with my chosen hard drive
USB ports at the front of the box

In conclusion, get one!

New Blog

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:11:37 +0100

For me it has been a bit of an off and on relationship with the world of blogging. I really enjoy writing, but find it hard to think of things that I want to share with the world! Jack has an excellent blog, full of journalistic content presented in a minimalist style. His writing is the first thing I check for when using Google Reader. One of his posts eventually led me to a really minimal blog which stuck out for it's elegant layout, intelligent navigation and a complete absence of crud.

Full credit must go to Jonas for releasing his WordPress theme to the world under a GPL license. I was using DasBlog which had more than a whiff of ASP.NET to it, but served a purpose when I had a DiscountASP.NET server account without any cheap SQL access. Now, with my pleasant 1 & 1 hosted server I've looked towards Django to provide coding pleasure and here is the result! The code is inspired by, but not lifted from Django Basic Apps and the templates and styling are heavily influenced by Jonas' html and css.

I realise that both those bits of work are released under different licenses which means I should distribute the derived code freely. If anyone is interested, then I would be happy to put together a Google Code project to share it, although I cannot vouch for the quality of the code!!

Anyway, I'm back!

P.S. As soon as Sophie gets back from holiday I should have a nice brand spanking new logo!

Camouflage

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:33:46 +0100

A short film I helped work on while at Sherbet. I really enjoyed that period of work and look back with fondness at what was done there:

Full film here.

Student Videos

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:23:10 +0100

Some short videos that we did at Sunderland University. Embarrassing but funny!

Seasonal Rants are the best

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:38:42 +0100

Jack journalistically describes a protracted interaction with our wonderful friends at City-Link!

Virgin Trains - The Horror Worsens

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:17:10 +0100

It's Christmas, I want to go home to see my family. The media points out that there are terrible timetable delays to look forward to. I fear the "turn up at Euston and not get a seat, or even get on the train, because of overcrowding" scenario. I therefore try and make a seat reservation at www.virgintrains.com for travel tomorrow. I see things have changed, a new website design with a new fare matrix.

Bottom line: it used to be possible to buy a saver return on the website which meant as long as you picked the outward day of travel, you could return on any subsequent day within a month of the outward journey date. Things have changed ...

A Half Saver Return is now offered, which basically means that you are pinned down to a return date too. The added benefit of a £5 penalty to change this date comes for free. If anyone from Virgin ever reads this, then let me tell you: YOU ARE #£*&!

I can understand fare increases, over-inflated as they are, but the constant reduction in ease of travel is a disgrace. The train system of this country is not RyanAir; it is a public service for the population to travel around the country for business, pleasure and family reunions. It should be easy to use, flexible and affordable. Tying people down to deciding on times and days of travels weeks ahead of time is not on. Things happen: the Underground fails to get people to mainline train stations on a daily basis, MerseyTravel staff go on strike, the Liverpool tunnels close unexpectedly for maintenance. It is virtually impossible to ensure you can get to Euston for any set time without either hiring a taxi or getting there hours in advance. I suppose this is an argument against the penalty for missing an Advance ticket booking, but the decrement of the availability to buy full saver returns on the website hints that eventually all tickets will be in the discount airline style. That is, unless you can afford the high-priced Open tickets.

I have previously written to two Department of Transport secretaries on ticketing issues and they have both said that only the saver and open return tickets are regulated. Please regulate that they are available on the website to purchase, or please get rid of Virgin.

Rant over.

Moviedrome Reminiscing

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:14:41 +0100

Been a while since I posted, so thought I'd share a link that I found to a site listing all of the films shown in the Moviedrome slot that used to be on Sunday evenings on BBC 2. The selection is an excellent one and I really enjoyed scanning through and remembering watching nearly all of them from 1988 to 1993. Not totally sure that the list is complete as I'm certain I recall Alex Cox introducing The Wages Of Fear too. It was an excellent format with a quick introduction giving the historical context and things to watch out for, and then the film was shown in its entirety without adverts (God bless the BBC).

The slot was scheduled on a Sunday evening and sometimes the films would run past midnight, but my mother, another film buff, was more than happy to let me stay up and watch the films with her, despite an imminent school day. A quick search yields some of these intros and I definitely intend to watch them before any I watch any of the movies again. Bring back Alex Cox!

Notes From Vietnam

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:28:46 +0100

It's a rainy day in Hue so I thought I'd get down a few notes while I've got nothing better to do ...

Travelling in Vietnam by myself has so far been a varied and interesting experience mixed with lows and extreme highs. To spoil the ending, the best part of it by far has been interacting (ie. talking, smoking, drinking, bartering, clinging on to while riding scooters, joking) with the Vietnamese people (they (I hate using that word) call themselves Vietnami). The warmth, friendliness and genuine smiles just cannot be matched by any other culture that I have encountered (not that many in reality ...). The smile itself is an act of greeting and once that has been established the usual starter questions are 'Where you come from?', 'How long you stay in Hue/Hoi An/Doc Let/Sai Gon?', 'You travel alone?', 'Michael Owen?'.

The Vietnami have good English vocabulary but some of the pronunciations can be hilarious - I met a ceevill(sic) engineer who was travelling back from Nha Trang (said Na Tran) after having been there for the Miss Earth beauty contest. I'm not sure if he was the official photographer or had just taken lots of photos, but Miss Sweden was his definite favourite! He had a wife and child in Hoi-An and the whole trip seemed innocent enough. A sudden connection was made in my head though. Two Russian Lesbians from Vladivostok who were staying in my previous residence (Ki-Em - very good for honeymoons) had mentioned that they were keen to visit Nha Trang that day and I suddenly realised why!

Another hilarious conversation arose in a Sai Gon park one boiling hot afternoon. I was speaking to Tuan (a he) and Tham (a she) and discussing life in Sai Gon/Ho Chi Min City and Tuan mentioned that, at university, he had entered and won a beauty contest. I said he was a very handsome man (in truth he looked like he had seen better days) and he returned the compliment and proceeded to give me his mobile number in a completely heterosexual way! I got Tham's number too! The pattern seems to be start talking , and people literally queue up to have a chat - wanting to practice their English. I spoke to an old lady who had perfect English and French - it seems that the older people possess good French as a vestige from the colonial days. Indeed a lot of French tourists are here and in some restaurants the lingua franca is French.

The downside of the interaction can be the hawking of goods and services in tourist trap areas. On every corner is a cyclo-rider intent on giving you an hour's tour on his vehicle or, if you sit down for a rest, a selection of postage stamps collections and old coins in ring binders will be offered for your perusal. I soon got the hang of fending off this menace though. A friendly smile, a shake of the head, and a raising of the palm seems to elicit an equally friendly relief of the sales pitch. Another technique that works well particularly well at train stations is just offer the chap who won't leave you alone a cigarette and have one with him. The conversation will soon drift to football! A funny faux-pas to make is to offer a cigarette to a lady. They almost crease themselves laughing at the impossibility of accepting one! Vietnami men do not like their women to smoke, apparently.

Everything is cheap here, very cheap. The difficulty is knowing the price of things, which only comes from being ripped off the first time. A packet of Vietnami-brand cigarettes (White Horse, Hero, Craven-A (as smoked in Liverpool)) is 10,000 Dong (about 30p) while the American Brands are 17,000 Dong (just over 50p). Beer is about 10,000 Dong for a bottle and fresh beer, which is actually very good, is 3,000 Dong (10p!!!!). The other thing which is very cheap, is 4 star accomodation! I can't stop myself from reserving myself into the poshest hotel in every city I visit. It's a bad habit, but this seems like one of the few countries in the world where it is an affordable option. You are looking at roughly 75 pounds/night for the highest end, although the Majestic did hit a 100. It was worth it though for the cocktails on the top floor balcony, overlooking the Sai Gon River. Very Graham Greene/The Quiet American.

As to the issue of travelling alone. I'm enjoying it a lot. The bad bits are occasional bouts of boredom with one's own thoughts and the Western perception that a man travelling alone is something slightly strange. The uncomfortable moment comes at breakfast time in these swanky hotels when all the Amercian and English middle-age types and honeymooners are gorging on their Continental servings of bacon, omelettes, croissants and coffee. They avoid my friendly waves and smiles and I imagine, in my deepest mode of paranoia, that they think I am a sex tourist, here to indulge dark cravings for the things of beauty that are Vietnami women. Or perhaps they think I just look a bit scruffy for this type of place!

Talking of sex tourists, I have seen a few Northern English men in their 50's/60's walking hand-in-hand with some stunning 20 year old beauties. Just another aspect of globalisation I suppose.

The benefits of single travel are fairly numerous. No need to make any decisions until you have to. The ability to stay in posh places without having to justify the cost to anyone else. The potential for serendipity to kick in is greater. More able to meet unlikely people (such as a bunch of sailors gambling on the slow train from Hoi-An to Hue). The inclination to meet Vietnami people is greater, if simply for the conversation. In fact, I suppose subconsciously, I have been veering away from trying to find other Western travellers to hang out with, preferring the more difficult task of speaking to Non-English speakers.

Now, the food ... The reason I came really, apart from the Socialism! It gets better the further North you go. Sai Gon was all Pho Ga and Pho Bo. Hue and Hoi-An both have their speciality dishes. Cao Lau (porky crouton soup) and Banh Bao (White Roses - soft dumplings) where omnipresent in every Hoi-An eatery and where very good. The Hoi-An fish was about as fresh as I've ever eaten. Hue offers the Banh Khoai (Song Que style pancake mixed with a very peanuty sauce and unripe banana!) and other dishes that I intend to devour tonight. I am resolving to eat more street food too, served on the pavement and seeming to be the most popular amongst the locals. Trouble is the rain keeps falling. Apparently it's drier in the North, where I'm heading next (Sa Pa). The more remote accomodation seem to offer breakfast, lunch and dinner as part of the deal. The Ki-Em place was of this ilk and the food there was, while simple, incredibly tasty and beautifully presented. It was a compromise between Western dishes and Vietnamese ingredients, but it worked very well and I spent four days happily stuffing my face there and then swimming in the beautiful ocean.

A few travel tips:

Dollars are accepted everywhere except train stations and are easier to convert into mental pounds (divide by 2), but you tend to get change in Dong and some less scrupulous cigarette vendors/ taxi drivers will use a less favourable exchange rate. Also $1 is the smallest denominator available. Better to operate in Dong and give the exact amount where possible.
Carry a wallet where you can conceal the vast majority of your dosh in a zipped section. Every time you pay for something, the seller will have a good peer in your wallet, and if it's visibly stuffed with $20 bills your bartering edge has definitely been lost.
Don't buy cigarettes from train station platforms - they are all fake!
Talk football. Most people, including the girls, seem to know the names of their favourite teams full squad, along with transfer histories. West Ham is surprisingly popular!

My advice, come to Vietnam, it's really good!

Excellent Jogger's Mash Up!

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:10:40 +0100

Gmaps Pedometer is undoubtedly the most useful application of Google Maps I have come across. You can calculate the distance you have just jogged and plot your route on a pretty map. Saves carrying a pedometer or a GPS! Simple to use, click "Start Recording" and then Double-Click for each of the vertices of your route. Brilliant!

URLDecoder SQL CLR UDF

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:04:42 +0100

Annoyingly the SQL CLR engine does not allow the use of the System.Web assembly and consequently you cannot use the very helpful HttpServerUtility.UrlDecode member in your User Defined Functions. Here is a quick hack which does something similar. Useful if you are in a rush!

using System;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

public partial class UserDefinedFunctions
{
    [Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction]
    public static SqlString URLDecode(SqlString URL)
    {
       string[]Encoders=new string[]{" ","%20","!","%21","\"","%22","#","%23","$","%24",
           "%","%25","&","%26","'","%27","(","%28",")","%29","*","%2a","+","%2b",",","%2c",
           "-","%2d",".","%2e","/","%2f",":","%3a",";","%3b","<","%3c","=","%3d",">","%3e",
           "?","%3f","@","%40","[","%5b","\\","%5c","]","%5d","^","%5e","_","%5f","`","%60",
           "{","%7b","|","%7c","}","%7d","~","%7e","","%7f","€","%80","","%81","‚","%82",
           "ƒ","%83","„","%84","…","%85","†","%86","‡","%87","ˆ","%88","‰","%89","Š","%8a",
           "‹","%8b","Œ","%8c","","%8d","Ž","%8e","","%8f","","%90","‘","%91","’","%92",
           "“","%93","”","%94","•","%95","–","%96","—","%97","˜","%98","™","%99","š",
           "%9a","›","%9b","œ","%9c","","%9d","ž","%9e","Ÿ","%9f","","%a0","¡","%a1",
           "¢","%a2","£","%a3","","%a4","¥","%a5","|","%a6","§","%a7","¨","%a8","©","%a9",
           "ª","%aa","«","%ab","¬","%ac","¯","%ad","®","%ae","¯","%af","°","%b0","±",
           "%b1","²","%b2","³","%b3","´","%b4","µ","%b5","¶","%b6","·","%b7","¸","%b8",
           "¹","%b9","º","%ba","»","%bb","¼","%bc","½","%bd","¾","%be","¿","%bf","À",
           "%c0","Á","%c1","Â","%c2","Ã","%c3","Ä","%c4","Å","%c5","Æ","%c6","Ç","%c7",
           "È","%c8","É","%c9","Ê","%ca","Ë","%cb","Ì","%cc","Í","%cd","Î","%ce","Ï",
           "%cf","Ð","%d0","Ñ","%d1","Ò","%d2","Ó","%d3","Ô","%d4","Õ","%d5","Ö","%d6",
           "","%d7","Ø","%d8","Ù","%d9","Ú","%da","Û","%db","Ü","%dc","Ý","%dd","Þ",
           "%de","ß","%df","à","%e0","á","%e1","â","%e2","ã","%e3","ä","%e4","å","%e5",
           "æ","%e6","ç","%e7","è","%e8","é","%e9","ê","%ea","ë","%eb","ì","%ec","í",
           "%ed","î","%ee","ï","%ef","ð","%f0","ñ","%f1","ò","%f2","ó","%f3","ô","%f4",
           "õ","%f5","ö","%f6","÷","%f7","ø","%f8","ù","%f9","ú","%fa","û","%fb","ü",
           "%fc","ý","%fd","þ","%fe","ÿ","%ff"};

        string URLString = URL.ToString();
        for (int i =1;i<Encoders.Length;i+=2)
        {
            if (URLString.Contains(Encoders[i]))
            {
                URLString = URLString.Replace(Encoders[i],Encoders[i-1]);
            }
            else if (URLString.Contains(Encoders[i].ToUpper()))
            {
                URLString = URLString.Replace(Encoders[i].ToUpper(),Encoders[i-1]);
            }
        }
        return new SqlString(URLString.ToString());
    }
};

Virgin Trains motto must be "Be Evil"

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:27:43 +0100

From time to time I write a letter to my local MP when something really bothers me. Here is the transcript of my latest correspondence:

Dear Jeremy Corbyn,

I am a resident of London, having lived here for the last 7 years. I originally come from Birkenhead on the Wirral, but work in the capital as a Software Developer. I regularly travel back up North on the Virgin Train service to visit my family and have done so about 6 times a year for the last 7 years. I do not own a car and have no intention of doing so.

I, like most people, work a normal Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 shift pattern and I try and visit my family for the whole weekend. Or at least, I did, until Virigin decided to axe one of its ticket types.

I used to be able to turn up at Euston station on a Friday evening and buy a Weekender ticket which would allow me to travel on the Friday evening and return on the Monday morning. This ticket was not restricted to certain trains and was purchasable on the day of travel. The last time I bought the ticket it cost apporoximately £72. I discovered today it no longer exists, having been vanished when the new timetables were introduced in June. The only information regarding this change I have encountered is a sign at the Euston ticket office.

Now for the really bad news. The replacement ticket which offers the same freedom is now the Standard Open Return which comes in at £189. The suggestion given to me by the customer sales representative was to buy a Advance Standard ticket, of which three types are available: A,B,C. Hope that's clear. The cheapest fares using this method that I could find for the following dates are:

Leaving	Ticket	Cost	Returning	Ticket	Cost
Friday 7 July 2006	Saver Single	£56.20	Monday 10 July 2006	Advance Standard B	£56.50
Friday 14 July 2006	Saver Single	£56.20	Monday 17 July 2006	Advance Standard B	£56.50
Friday 21 July 2006	Saver Single	£56.20	Monday 24 July 2006	Advance Standard B	£56.50
Friday 28 July 2006	Saver Single	£56.20	Monday 31 July 2006	Advance Standard B	£56.50

I'm sure you have spotted the pattern. Despite cheaper fares apparently existing, the realistic combined price of the same journey is £112.70. However, there are many disadvantages:

There was no Advance Standard B tickets available for the 06:27 train for any of the above Monday dates. This is the only train that would get me back to London in time for work. This means that I would in fact have to purchase the Saver Single and the Open Single for the return journey at £150.70 in total.
If I could use the Advance Standard B ticket I would have to make sure I got the correct train. Given that I depend on public transport before both starts of each journey, this is a risky proposition. If I miss the train and have to get another train, I would have to pay the difference to an Open Single plus a £10 charge. The Weekender did not have this restriction.
The tickets have to be bought in advance, meaning either a visit to Euston the day before or a painful navigation of the virgintrains.com website.
Being tied to specific trains limits your freedom to change your mind about travel arrangements.

I hope you can see that for £112.50 I get a much less enjoyable travel deal than I used to get for £72. Effectively a 56% price inflation. For £189 I can enjoy my previous freedom. Effectively a 162% price hike. The other option is to come home on the Sunday, day of engineering works, long delays and unpleasant journeys or to take time of work on the Monday so that I can travel at off-peak times. Fortunately, my employer understood my plight and gave me the flexibility to work on the later train back! However, listening to the grumbles on the train tonight, I suspect many people are very dissatisfied with this change and it is affecting their options in a big way. I can understand that business journeys during peak hours warrant a premium fare, but why should a leisure journey which overlaps with peak times on a Friday evening and a Monday morning be penalised. Surely, environmentally-friendly, family-reinforcing travel should be encouraged, not priced out of possiblity.

The other point I would like to raise is the lack of communication of this change. On visiting the Virgintrains website today, 7th July 2006, you would be forgiven for thinking the Weekender ticket never existed. There is no mention of it anywhere, less than a month after is was vanished. The only notice was a large sign next to a ticket window at Euston station. Apparently, the head of ticket sales told me, it was placed there 10 days before the change occurred.

I have previously corresponded with Chris Smith on other issues regarding Virgin's ticketing practises and he has been a great servant in chasing up all the issues that I have raised. I hope you too can help me impress upon Virgin Trains the fact that their decisions have major effects on things other than just their bottom line profits

On a positive note, the tilting trains have reduced the journey time to two and a half hours, and this improvement is to be whole-heartedly commended.

Yours Sincerely

Donovan Hide

Addendum: It turns out that the Weekender ticket is still available to buy on the train if you ask the conductor. However, the fact that you cannot buy a saver ticket on the train would make this a risky proposition if the conductor is awkward. This chaos and confusion means that buying tickets is just one big stressful affair.

Euro Millions Scam?

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:59:00 +0100

My combinatorics are a bit rusty but I reckon the chances of the number selections being so similar is fairly remote. I might contact the National Lottery and ask for some number facts! Will report back their reply.

New home for allotment talk

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:27:15 +0100

I've been neglecting this blog of late, but promise to update soon with plenty of C# musings. In the meantime I'd like to draw your attention to the new location of my musings on allotments. Here you'll find myself and other plotholders tracking the progress of their plantings throughout the year. See you there!

Quiet week on the blogging front

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:18:35 +0100

I've neglected my blogging duties this week, mainly due to starting a new contract in Hertford. It has been interesting working again, equipped with all my recently acquired knowledge from studying the last few months. The work is extracting some useful information from a well known auction platform using their API. The power of web services is really highlighted when the possibility of automating processes based on real time information is explored. Automata that can provide a service ad infinitum (well at least until the API being used changes or becomes redundant) have an amazing possibility for generating a revenue. Of course, risk management becomes a real issue. You can't let a web service keep spending money on a loss making venture.

One of the fundamentals of risk management is diversification. Hence a pension fund spreads it's investments over different sectors of industry, over different markets of the world. Thus, any single event, such as a company going bankrupt, a market for a good drying up, or a country entering recession will have a marginal effect on the value of the sum of all those investments. An interesting phenomenon happening on the Internet that I didn't know about until recently is affiliate marketing. The idea, as far as I can gauge, is to spread the risk of the cost of advertising on the Internet. By opening up this market to third parties, you reduce the chance of your advertising department failing at great cost.

My eyes have been opened by the scale of Internet advertising and how big a player Google is. When you start to realise how closely tied in their search engine is to their keyword sensitive advertising engine, you can see how clever they have been. For every search you make an auction takes place between many affiliate marketers to get there advert shown to you on the right hand side of the page. Google applies feedback to the process, so that the ads that get clicked on most, get shown most, and for less cost. The theory is the Google user will be happier when he/she sees/uses more relevant advertising.

Why are affiliate marketers spending money on Google to advertise all these Internet brands? Hard cash incentives! For every purchase that someone makes as result of clicking on one of you ads, you will receive a generous reimbursement, especially if that person becomes a new signed up user with a verifiable account, address and credit card.

All of this is now extending to the blogging space with AdSense. A blog, in a way, is a great destination to go to from a search results page. It's human written content, current and easy for search engines to index. If someone finds a blog that interests them, then they will spend sometime there in a state of thought, rather than a quick clicking navigation and rapid scanning of the pages content. Perfect advertising real estate! Amazon have been on to this for a while. A great example of this is here where a well known Agile Methodologies author describes some of the books in his "signature" series and provides links to Amazon where you can buy them. Not only does Martin Fowler receive money from Amazon for driving the link, but also from the publisher for being the author! That website must pay for itself.

There's nothing wrong with making money from a blog and a writing career, but when you see behind the scenes how much of your eBay or Amazon cash is going to lots of other people you have never heard of, it is an eye opener.

Alex Tew is hiring

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:14:10 +0100

I have a great amount of respect for someone who has an idea that's so good that they can sit back and watch the money roll itself in. The Million Dollar Homepage is a great example. Good idea, great use of eBay and it's associated media machine and a simple self-explanatory, self-promoting domain name. I bet Alex nervously enjoyed this auction like no other! Behind all the hype though, it did actually take 6 months to sell all the pixels. Have a look at first posting here.

Anyway, in my everlasting quest to find permanent employment I found this advert. This sort of opportunity makes you want to learn a new language, choosing C# and .Net does limit your options to some degree.