Jedis of t' Semantic Web

If Billy Connolly ruled the world...

2004-09-10T21:29:00.000+01:00

We would all have to write our blogs like this.

Colin's PC

2004-07-06T19:01:00.000+01:00

Finally Colin gets a PC case worthy of his greatness.

The Power of the Whinge

2004-07-01T11:06:00.000+01:00

So, on Monday I ordered some software from a web retailer. 24 hour lead time according to the website and overnight delivery. By Wednesday, the package hadn't arrived and the website was showing a 7 day lead time. So I called up to ask when I could expect my package - by this time I was more than a little annoyed, but I managed to stay calm and only whinge a little bit. Once I got off the phone with nothing more than a promise that they would send the software as soon as they got it, I resolved not to use that supplier again.

This morning (less than 24 hours after my call), the software arrived! The website still shows a 7 day lead time, so I guess this was a package that fell behind the radiator in the store room or something :-)

So now do I use that supplier again because they pulled out the stops and got me my software on time, or do I not use them again because they are not competent enough to run a website that can tell you accurately when you are going to get your software (without the need to whinge...)

DBXML Rocks!

2004-06-29T18:10:00.000+01:00

Started having a play with the Sleepycat DBXML database. First impression is how easy it is to get compiled and installed (under Linux). Second impression is how straightforward the API is to use (I'm using the Python bindings which were SWIG'd from the C++). Third impression is how well it handles throwing lots of little documents at it. Imported 10,000 small (~0.5-1K) documents in anything from 9-12 seconds and 10000 randomized queries on them takes 23 seconds (admittedly that was after adding an index to support the query).

Indexing can be specified at runtime so you can tailor the datastore to do just the amount of indexing you need. Queries are written in XPath and the database has support for namespaces (although I've not tried that yet). Query results can give you a string or a DOM tree. Queries can span all the documents in the database or you can do queries within single documents.

It doesn't have all of the user management and versioning features of a full-on document management system, but its a top XML bucket :)

Finally!

2004-06-29T18:09:00.000+01:00

Did work for the European Parliament about 15 months ago. Got paid today. Woohoo! :)

Blogging...

2004-06-16T21:13:00.000+01:00

Just had to blog this UF cartoon. Of course, it helps if you know the tune...

European Elections Approach

2004-06-09T07:57:00.000+01:00

Tomorrow is the UK elections for the European Parliament and (in many places) for local council positions. While the "election fever" has been somewhat subdued, there are still plenty of things to get riled about. Take for example the Liberal Democrat line which is principally "Vote for us to kick Tony Blair over Iraq" (I paraphrase, but only just...Smiling Charlie actually said "People are tired of Labour. They are angry with Tony Blair over Iraq." ().

Why would any intelligent voter do that in the European elections ? What role does your local council have in occupying a sovereign nation ?

By all means, kick TB and his blood-splattered cronies - but not in a vote for a democratic representitive in the EP. The EP has little to do with Britain's illegal war-mongering and your MEP will have no power to change that or see TB up for crimes against humanity. So ignore smiling Charlie Kennedy and vote on things that the MEPs do have responsiblity for, such as software patents, bureaucracy, green issues, farming issues, fishing issues...anything. Just make sure that you vote for something your MEP can represent you on. The same goes for local issues for councils.

Why Your Job Will Be Going To India

2004-05-24T12:47:00.000+01:00

According to this report on Slashdot Indian students were able to receive their exam results by SMS - over 100,000 SMS's per hour when the results went up. Compare and contrast with this report from the BBC, or this one.

With such piss-poor organisation in our education system, what are the chances of stemming the flow of outsourcing ?

Ah well, at least we make a better chicken tikka massala...

Who Killed Cock Robin ? DEFRA !

2004-05-24T09:36:00.000+01:00

Other blogs I read seem to be concerned with blue-tits and ducklings so this should bring a tear to the eye (or preferably a lump of rage to the throat) of those soft-hearted bloggers.

DEFRA ordered the slaughter of a nest of robin chicks (Real Audio stream). The robins decided that the local friendly garden centre (purveyours of bird-tables, bird food etc.) would be a good place to nest. The garden center let them nest there and then just a week or two before the chicks where ready to leave the nest applied to have the birds destroyed. Now, thats just plain callous. What is truly shocking is that the RSPB where not first asked about the best way to deal with the problem and the Departments for the Extermination of Rural Animals didn't apply their own rules that ensure that non-lethal options are followed before allowing the killing of wild animals.

Grrrr.....

Phrases You Don't Hear Any More But Should # 1

2004-05-20T22:00:00.000+01:00

You want the moon on a stick.

Panic at the input box

2004-05-20T21:15:00.000+01:00

Unable to think of anything that wasn't taken already:

cantbearsed.blogspot.com taken by a contract seeker who seemed to spend all the time blogging the jobs he was applying for...not realising that some other blogosphere denizen was constantly beating him to the job. Then stopped after getting a permie job.

cba.blogspot.com taken by a poster who posted once

in 2002

with a single post

which said:

hola

Blogger d00ds - have you heard of pruning ?

Grrrr

Anyway, thats my excuse for this lame title/URL and I shall stick to it.