News and Blog

It's hot
07:13pm BST, 11 May 2008 (permalink)

The weather is proving to be lovely and warm this weekend. A lot of outdoor activities have been involved combined with an appropriate amount of thirst quenching. Saturday saw us undertake a moderate walk followed by a pub lunch. Sunday has so far involved cycling into Cambridge for flume related frolics before coming home to a lovely BBQ chicken Sunday Lunch.

We popped out to the pub after lunch to watch the dying embers of the premier league but much as I tried to muster up chanting for Wigan in their match against united I still couldn't find it in my heart to cheer against Bolton's valiant show against the ruskiesChelsea. I'm sure I'll asked to endure the Champions league game in a week or so but it's not so bad following this football malarky, they generally seem to server beer in the places you can watch it.

I've only had a passing eye on the weeks geek news but I did notice slashdot talking about Microsoft's latest censoring of IM conversations. Having said that I'm not sure I can have full confidence in any of the IM service providers. Luckily if you keep away from the official clients you can ensure that what conversation happens between you stays that way. It pays to be paranoid some times ;-)

Stuff
08:44pm BST, 9 May 2008 (permalink)

I'm currently down in Cambridge having enjoyed a lovely BBQ with Fliss while my parents are down in London. It looks like the weather will be nice this weekend which bodes well for our relocation plans.

The week has thrown up a few frustrations at work but it's all part of the mix that is software engineering. I've actually written more perl in the last week than C (which isn't bad thing, just odd). I'm keen to implement a nice flexible architecture for the product but it's meeting the inevitability of deadlines. The trouble with architectural decisions is there is a degree of fortune telling involved in guessing what direction your likely to take. That may imply putting work into code for current releases that doesn't realise an immediate benefit for the next release. The compromise (which is pretty much engineering) is a layer of abstraction so any mechanism that may be re-factored can be done as single whole and not searching for cookie cutter code across a myriad of inter-working binaries. I hate cut and paste code, it shall all die ;-)

RMS
04:09pm BST, 6 May 2008 (permalink)

I saw rms last week. I've always had a lot of respect for the guy but I think the talk last week has elevated him to the level of one of my technology heroes.

I got to the Renolds building and it took some poking around trying to find a door that wasn't locked. After I gained entry I went up to the supposed meeting room only to find it empty. It seemed the organisers had seen sense and moved the talk to one of the main lecture halls. It was a good job to because after taking my seat the hall filled up to standing room only.

rms started his talk discussing the four essential freedoms and the reasons for them. One of the things I admire about rms is his consistency (which is often confused with obstinacy) and time and again he would refer to the four freedoms when answering questions from the audience. He is quite clear that software that isn't free (as in speech) is a tool for subjugation of the user rather than empowering them. During the description of why users should prefer to run free software he mentioned a number of examples of programs that act against their "owners" interests, Windows being a leading example of such behaviour.

He followed up with a history of the GNU project and how it went from an idea to fully free system in the space of nice years. Ironically while the first combination of GNU/Linux was a fully free system distributions have been on the slow slide away from freedom since. The issue of convenience isn't an concern for rms, he applies his philosophy regardless of any inconvenience it puts him at, as can be witnessed by his removal of wireless networking from his new laptop. This led to a discussion about the proper description of systems as GNU/Linux systems which has been the source of many a on-line flame war. I have to say the opportunity to hear him explain his position in considered logical steps without the staccato effect of on-line "debate" was refreshing. The issue of credit is secondary to the message of the GNU project and letting people know why they can install a free operating systems on their systems. There is a fundamental difference between the philosophies of the Free Software Movement and the Open Source movement even if a lot of the code is the same.

He touched on a number of other topics including why he doesn't care about the software installed on his microwave (yet) and is only just starting to care about what software runs on a mobile phone (which he doesn't own anyway). Someone else asked the question I was planning to about if you could write free software for a "cloud" service to which his answer was a simple (paraphrased) "yes, but why would you trust the server". The more interesting digression covered why education should only be using Free Software.

Apart from the already discussed issues of freedom it simply makes no sense to run closed software in an educational environment. If a pupil has questions about how things work a teacher needs to be able to point the pupil at the actual source code, something that at that age they are likely to read and pull apart and play with. Certainly if I get to the stage of having kids they will be given machines running free software even if they don't show any interest in whats going on under the hood.

One thing rms was careful to do was be precise in his answers which was useful when people kept asking the same question in subtly different ways. He also wasn't keen to over-stretch the analogy to other areas (embedded devices and bio-tech being two areas). Overall the talk was very interesting even if I was already fairly familiar with the subject matter. rms is an engaging speaker who comes across very differently from the impression I had formed of him based on the various bios and flame wars I'd read on the 'net. It was certainly a very worthwhile evening.

New Machine
05:43pm BST, 2 May 2008 (permalink)

I've now got my new machine up and running and once the couple of hundred of GB have transfered across from the old one (which takes a surprisingly long time, even on a LAN). Setting up the dual head was not without it's frustrations. It does actually work out of the box but I was getting nothing out of the second DVI port. I did however notice there was a difference on the two DVI to SVGA connectors I had, one which fitted and one that didn't. A quick trip to wikipedia later and I realised my mistake. The D in DVI-D meant there was no chance it could drive my Widescreen TFT monitor with an SVGA adapter. Luckily the local PC World had a quite reasonable Samsung Syncmaster 2032BW which is now my main monitor.

The new desk layout means I've been experimenting with desktop layout. Given the monitor to my left is no longer at eye height I'm using it for status displays (build window, logs, IM clients and the like). For super bonus points if I could figure out a way to make every window dragged to the left toggle the "Visible on all workspaces" property my setup would be almost perfect.

Score Draw
06:28pm BST, 30 Apr 2008 (permalink)

When we arrived back in Manchester we found CityLink had excelled in their efficiency and attempted to deliver the new PC. Luckily their depot was open until 8 and based in conveniently close in Trafford Park. While I grabbed that I made a half hearted attempt to locate a GTAIV but even the behemoth of ASDA Wallmart had sold all of it's stock. Instead I consoled myself with a quick blast on the new Call of Duty 4 maps. Amusingly they where offering double points on them this week which Will suspected was a "please play us and not GTA this week" gambit.

The new maps are a mixed bunch but certainly will add a lot of variety to the multi-player game. "Creek" is a massive open air level which is designed with snipers in mind and possibly my favourite so far. The re-done "Broadcast" and "China Town" both offer maze like urban warrens which saw me wiped out many times over, they are going to take some learning. I haven't had a chance to play the "Kill House" yet, but if it's anything like "Container" it will be insane.

I've spent today working while setting up my new PC on the spare monitor. It took me a while however to figure out the TFT monitor (Fliss' spare from when her laptop had no working screen) was powered via a plug in the VGA socket. The setup should hopefully be finished by tomorrow which is the one downside of building everything from scratch. However it builds stuff pretty quickly and it should be a nicely customised setup once finished.

Fliss surprised me this afternoon when she got back from a quick shopping trip. Somehow she had managed to find a spare copy of GTA IV. I would like to mention at this point I love Fliss very much :-D