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Alan Horkan's Journal
Below are the 25 most recent journal entries.
[ << Previous 25 ]
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2011.04.24 00.32
Developing MComix. Part 1: A rose by any other name...
Comix is a comic and image viewer program written using Python and GTK. I was interested in making a few changes to the project. I am getting back into programming, learning a more about PyGTK and hopefully making some improvements the program will fit better on a small screen netbook. Unfortunately Comix is unmaintained, the developer of the project seems to be unavailable and has not made any updates since 2009. (You can discover this for yourself by checking the Comix website particularly by checking the Sourceforge page for Comix and taking a look at the last date on the Changelog, and various reports in the bug tracker. It may still be possible to get in contact with him but the project is not active.)
I was pleased to discover MComix a fork of Comix, continuing on from Comix version 4.0.4. It isn't clear what the M in MComix stands for but from the picture in the about dialog I think "Monkey Comix" is a fairly safe guess.
(Later I also discovered another fork of Comix by HellHover which incorporates many of the patches submitted to Comix. It is more like a spork than a fork, as it keeps close to the original.)
The attitude and prompt reponse from the MComix developers was encouraging so I got to work putting together a few changes and sending in a patch (after a discussion clarifying that MComix is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2).
Freedom to change the source code and even fork the project is a great power to have but it comes with responsibility. Getting others to help is not easy, you want people to submit code, help with translations, or get a project packaged nicely for different operating systems, and generally help with the work of maintaining a project, so even though forking is possible it is not something you want to do unless absolutely necessary. Knowing it would take some time and effort to make changes it is a great relief to know there is a good chance others will accept the change help maintain it. Putting a lot of work into a patch and having it go to waste, is a big disappointment and severly discourages anyone from contributing to a project.
The patches took less time to write and test than the email explaining the rationale for the changes. Developers often like to do things their own way, and a without a proper explanation, patches might not be accepted. As a fork of Comix I was optimistic the developers would be more accepting of change but I wasn't going to take any chances.
The first - and to my mind most important - change was relatively simple but something I would strongly recommend to any program, especially a fork: separate out the name of the program. I set a constant and called it "APPNAME" and replaced the word MComix, so that if the name ever needs to be changed again or even changed back to Comix it can be done with only a few small changes.
The long and winding history of Mosiac, Netscape, Mozilla, m/b, Phoenix, Firebird, Firefox, Iceweasel, is a particularly extreme example of the many name changes a project can go through. If someone doesn't like the name the can easily change it without needing to fork the project. Making it a little bit easier for others to customize and fork the code gives them one less reason why they would need to, and they can continue to pool their efforts on the things they do agree on.
The patch also contained changes to help with internationalisation (i18n) and localisation (l10n).
There was also a small change to the command line arguments.
When the patch was accepted I was very satisfied and confident the developers were the kind of people I would enjoy working with further. Answers to a few other questions in my email confirmed our interests were different but mutually beneficial. Straight away I was thinking about the next changes I might make.
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2011.04.06 01.51
Peazip: Convert CBR to ZIP
I had a tshirt with the slogan "More people have read this shirt than have read your blog" and I am always a little surprised when someone does read my writings on the web. I was pleased to see that someone thought my batch file to repack from CBR to CBZ might be useful for people who want to read comics on mobile devices.
I was thinking about rewriting the batch file to work with programs other than 7-zip and I rediscovered Peazip a program I had not tried in years. The user interface is still a bit rough in places but it includes a very useful tool for Convert archives from different formats. It is a convenient way to convert files from CBR to ZIP which I think some users will prefer to using a DOS batch file. There does not seem any way to automatically rename the ZIP files to CBZ, so for I prefer to keep using the batch file. (The Convert tool in Peazip will unpack all the files and then repack all files, which can take up a lot of disk space with temporary files, so be careful if you try to convert many files at once.)
The biggest advantage of the batch file is that it does more than just repack from CBR to CBZ. I continue to modify it in other ways to better clean up the Comic files as I repack them, such as removing signature or banner images added by scanners. It is tricky to come up with a pattern that works all the time so I only included a simple example before, but the following patterns catch a lot of the tags and banner images:
MOVE z*.* ..\
MOVE xx*.* ..\
MOVE *tag*.* ..\
MOVE *team*.* ..\
The banner images can take up quite a bit of space, more than 1MB in rare cases, so removing them often saves more space than anything else such as special compression tricks. Instead of adding a large image file the batch file could be changed to add a small text file containing comments by adding the following command before recompressing:
echo "Repacked by 7-zip" > Comment.txt
Tidying up file names is another thing that could be added to the batch file.
As I said earlier I am glad at someone found the batch script useful, hopefully Peazip will be useful too.
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2011.02.01 01.56
Comics: Convert CBR to CBZ
Comics are great. I'd gotten out of the habit but I still enjoy picking up a good Batman story now and again, but other than that it is hard to know what to pick. The painted comics of Alex Ross (Kingdom Come) are beautiful, the stories of Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan) are compelling.
Can you judge a book by it's cover? If it is a graphic design book, or art book I think you can and with comics I often do choose on that basis (and all too often get caught out when the interior art is entirely different from the cover). In the long run though it is stories and the writers that keep me coming back and if I particularly like the style of the artist that is a bonus.
Chatting with the local equivalent of Comic Book Guy is one way to get ideas of what to try but picking a book off a shelf and having a look is usually the best way. The internet has provided us with an even bigger bookshelf to flick through, and there are groups who scan the latest comic books and package them up for easy sampling, usually a series of JPEG image files packaged together as a single convenient archive. Very often this archive they are packaged in use RAR compression CBR (Comic Book RAR archive), but other times the container uses Zip compression CBZ (Comic Book Zip archive). The essential difference is that Zip is free and RAR is proprietary.
I wanted to convert these CBR files to CBZ. I could do that by unpacking and repacking the files on a case by case basis but that is repetative and uninteresting. Instead I decided to make things more complicated and come up with a more general automated solution. That solution might be of use to others, especially those who do not know how to write MSDOS batch files, so I'm sharing it. On the internet there is almost always someone else who has the same idea as you, and I was able to find something very close: Andrew Armstrong had already written a Mass Zip, RAR to 7Zip Recompression Batch File and all I needed to do was make some small adjustments so that it would to convert RAR files and CBR files into CBZ files. It took me far less time to make my changes than it to write them up and explain them, the hard work was already done. If you want details of what exactly is happening you should read his detailed description, otherwise skip to the end.
The script requires the excellent free compression program 7-zip and you must have it installed. To keep things simple we assume 7-zip is installed in the default location C:\Program Files\7-zip\7z and we do not try to check. If for example you were using a German version of Microsoft Windows 7-zip might be installed in a program called "Programme" rather than "Program Files" or if you wanted to use a portable flash drive and use Portable 7-zip you would also need to change the program before it would work. (We could try to avoid the first problem by checking to see if %ProgramFiles% is C:\Program Files as expected.
Another known issue the sometimes causes the script to fail is when file path names are too long. Microsoft Windows limits file names to 260 characters in length. The script creates a temporary folder based on the name of the CBR and if there is a subfolder inside the CBR the filename can sometimes be too long.
As this script is intended to be used to unpack not just any generic RAR file but a Comic Book Archive there are other changes we can include. Creators of Comic Book archives compress a whole folder instead of picking out just the picture files they want, and all sorts of other things get included by mistake. Microsoft Windows includes a hidden file called Thumbs.db which stores thumbnail images of your files. We can safely delete this, Windows will recreate it if the comic book archive is ever unpacked and it is needed. To do this I added the line DEL /F /S /Q Thumbs.db (which is short for DELete by Force, in all Subdirectories, and do it Quietly without reporting any errors).
The scanners who create Comic Book archives often like to include a banner image saying who they are and often with a message such as reminding readers that if they like the comic they should buy it too. These files are often given a file name starting with 'Z' so that it will appear last in the sequence so I added another line to delete any file that starts with the letter 'Z' DEL /F /S /Q z*.*. If the banner image has a different name this won't work but it is an example of what you can do to fit the generic scripts to better fit that task.
One change I have made might seem surprising. I have set the Zip compression to level zero, which is no compression at all (-mx=0). I could save a small amount of space by using the maximum amount of compression but this would take longer to pack the files, and more importantly it would make it slower each and every time you want to unpack and read the files. The Zip archive convenient container to make things easier to organize, and JPEG files are already quite heavily compressed.
If you want to try it out for your self, copy the commands below into a text file, change the name to cbr2cbz.bat or similar, put it in a folder with some CBR or RAR files and away you go.
@ECHO OFF
REM Based on
REM Mass Zip, RAR to 7Zip Recompression Batch File by Andrew Armstrong
REM http://aarmstrong.org/tutorials/mass-zip-rar-to-7zip-recompression-batch-file
REM
REM Find all .cbr and .rar files in the current directory, recompress them into .cbz and .zip files - but do not delete the originals.
ECHO Searching for CBR and RAR files to recompress into CBZ (Comic Book Zip) archives.
for %%F in (*.cbr *.rar) do (
ECHO Found %%F to recompress...
REM Extract...
"C:\Program Files\7-zip\7z" x "%%F" -o"%%F contents"
REM Does the directory exist? has 7zip created it correctly?
IF EXIST "%%F contents" (
REM Change directory, create zip of contents of directory...
CD "%%F contents"
REM remove banners
DEL /F /S /Q z*.*
REM Delete Thumbnail files.
DEL /F /S /Q Thumbs.db
REM compression level is 0, store only.
"C:\Program Files\7-zip\7z" a -tzip "../%%~nF.cbz" * -mx=0
CD ..
REM Delete the temporary extraction folder
RMDIR "%%F contents" /S /Q
ECHO Recompressed %%F to %%~nF.zip
)
)
ECHO Search ended.
PAUSE
CLS
EXIT
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2008.10.06 01.01
Trinity Climbing Wall Route Grades
September 2008 the climbing wall in Trinity was stripped bare and professionals were brought in from the UK to set all new routes.
A guide list crudely written in chunky black marker was taped to the side of a locker showing the approximate gradings for the routes. The list was later removed, possibly vandalised giving me an extra push to type up the following list.
Please note, gradings are subjective[1]. Wall A is the route nearest the entrance, and wall N is the slab routes at the far corner of the room.
Wall A
Grey 5+
Orange 6B
Green 6B+
Wall B
Blue 6B
Red 6A
Wall C[2]
White 6B
Grey 7A+
Green 6A+
Wall D
Yellow 6C
Red 6B+
Wall E
Green 6A+
Orange 7B
Wall F
Blue 6A+
Red 6C+
Grey 7A
Wall G
White 6A
Green 6C
Blue 6B
Wall H
Black 5+
Orange 6C+
Wall I
White 6A
Yellow 6B+
Wall J
Green 6C
Black 6B
Blue 7A
Wall K
White 6A
Red 6B
Orange 6B+
Wall L
Yellow 6B
Green 6A+
Grey 6B+
Wall M[3]
Red 5+
Blue 5+
White 4+
Wall N
Yellow 5
Orange 5
Grey 6B+
[1] The red route on Wall B seems unusually easy for a 6A but perhaps not easy enough to consider it as 5, hard to know.
[2] Additional black holds have been added to allow for bouldering practice on Wall C.
[3] To help build stamina climb the Red, White, and Blue consecutively. This wall has been sometimes called The French Connection Part 2 . Before the routes were reset there was also another section of wall with Red, White, and Blue routes which were dubbed The French Connection , I'm not sure who came up with the name but it was Brendan Holland who first mentioned it to me.
Climb safely.
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2008.08.17 13.06
Nokia Fail.
"Out of memory please delete messages".
Have megabytes of memory on the phone card and yet I'm being asked to delete messages, WTF?
Fail.
The backup and archiving options are less than ideal either. Sigh.
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2008.07.03 16.36
Word of warning: Eee PC Linux Recovery DVD
New Toys:
A coworker bought himself an Asus Eee PC 700 for a modest €300. After the initial surprise of how small and light it is I got to play around with it for a while.
The custom version of Xandros (née Corel Linux) provided by Asus could hardly look more like Windows XP. The choice of this less popular distribution made life that little bit more awkward when I was struggling to get Citrix installed. When 3rd party software fails I'd be inclined to blame the 3rd party namely Citrix but since it works in Windows my coworker is more inclined to blame Linux and he threatened to buy the Eee PC with Windows next time since his children were already monopolising his new toy.
The very small tight keyboard layout with an undersized shift key got annoying fast, kept inadvertently hitting the up button. The smaller return key (or should I say "enter") is annoying but to be fair I'm used to it being two rows high and it isn't an unusual design choice (seen it on American keyboards layouts). I'm left wondering as to why designers do not elminate the Caps Lock key and the Function keys (F1, F2, etc.) and why it has both a Delete and Backspace key if space is at a premium.
Word of Warning:
In the limited time I had to play around with the Eee PC it was fun but I wanted to play with it more so I tried using the Linux Recovery DVD on a spare computer. I was hoping perhaps it was a Live DVD and I'd be able to setup a test Eee PC playground. I'm glad I used a spare machine since the *Recovery* disc overwrote something on the local hard drive. Don't try this at home. Having read the documentation further the smarter move would have been to get the Software Developer Kit (SDK) from the Asus website http://support.asus.com.tw/download/
and instructions are provided explaining how to setup the Eee PC inside VMWare. Although I didn't find it in my brief search I wouldn't be surprised to soon find a VMWare Player with all this already setup for you.
The Asus Eee PC has really grabbed a lot of attention (or was it the OLPC that started it all) and sparked a whole line of so-called "netbooks" but it will be interesting to see if they can capitalise on their first mover advantage, or hold on to a prestige position like Apple do. It is an impressive machine and I was almost tempted but little annoyances soon focussed my thoughts to more fun things I could do with the money.
In any case the software is what grabs me and I'm pleasantly surprised to see Linux in the mainstream.
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2007.12.11 01.37
Brevity: Mournes 2007 Climbing Trip Report in Twenty Words
Climbing trip report in twenty words*.
Trinity. Mournes. Soup. Drink.
Flooding. Fire brigade. Four dinners. Mulled wine. Drink.
Pidgeon Rock. Climbing! Hot Ribena. Orange Monster. Drink. Porterhouse. Home.
* twenty unique words is close enough.
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2007.11.04 21.12
Bad haiku
sad but true
a knocking on the window
hope it was you
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2007.10.19 23.29
Can't stop the signal
TV-links may be gone (for now) but there are alternatives such as
TV RSS, and
All U C. Efforts to close down TV Links will likely raise the profile of these and other alternatives even higher.
What you might not realise is that streaming is supposed to be a convenience, downloading but in the background and playing at the same time and then disposing of the files when finished. Which would be fine if you aren't interrupted or do not want to watch the stream again, but a horrific waste of bandwidth if you are forced to download it all again. Having said that the convenience provided by this need breed of website is very impressive and hints at how much more the World Wide Web might yet surprise us.
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2007.06.12 22.48
Climbing in Dalkey Quarry
The weather wasn't in our favour. Just as I left the house I said I hoped the weather would hold it changed from sunshine to rain. By the time we got to Dalkey things had improved but we did get another brief shower and things were generally overcast so things finished up earlier than they could have done enough if the brilliant sunshine of the morning had only lasted into the evening but we still did pretty well. The long days make it a great time of year for climbing if you can get adequate weather otherwise.
As we were gathering we passed John Mehegan who headed much more quickly to the quarry to climb with friends. Jenny, Rachel, Lena, Hamish, and Brian still wearing a sharp suit (and a pink striped tie) formed a separate group. Soon as he finished off work Luke was hot on our heels, and arrived not too long after us.
Although there was talk of climbing Thrust, a route on the upper cliffs, we ended up at Paradise Lost or "base camp" as Brian called it as so many climbing days begin there. Rachel started to lead Levitation, and Brian joked he would race her. Despite Rachel taking an early lead Brian was soon speeding the adjacent route Mahjongg.
Waiting around Alan (me) did some basic climbing and traversing not much more than a metre from the ground, but it felt good to be out there and getting some climbing done again. I probably should have lead Paradise Lost but I was disinterested in leading it again, still convinced it would be much more enjoyable to solo the route with no rope at all and without the hassle and weight of a rack of gear. Alternatively I might have had time to climbing Levitation before Luke arrived had I been a bit more enthusiastic.
Luke soloed Paradise Lost as a quick warm up, then lead a climb nearby to the left called Fragile. Fragile is so close to Paradise Lost it was at times hard to know if we were really climbing a different. Alan seconded Fragile, making a conspicuous effort to keep left, deliberately avoiding the easy line in an attempt to make it a little more challenging but for the most part it was really wasn't difficult.
After a pondering our options and asking for suggestions Luke decided to tackle E-route. The clouds had dissipated enough let through a little sunshine and light the upper half of the route. As Alan began the climb a gentle drip drip of rain began. This brief shower was more than a little off putting, but Alan was able to get started thanks to suggestions from Philip and Dennis and the rest of the climb was good fun from there.
Enthusiasm and energy varied and it would have been so much better to go out earlier on my day off but it was a good evenings climbing and I'm glad I made the effort to get out there and just do it.
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2007.05.13 17.16
Trinity Ball Weekend Dalkey Quarry
Geoff Quigley, Luke Stratford, and Alan Horkan (me) went rock climbing in Dalkey Quarry.
Geoff started by leading a route called Delectissimo, seconded by Luke.
Next Luke lead Jameson Ten and Geoff took his turn to follow and seconded the route.
Then Alan made his first and long overdue lead climb on Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost is one of the easiest routes in the Quarry, climbed by practically every beginner who has ever climbed in Dalkey. Things get a little more complicated without the luxury of a top rope to fall back on and with the extra weight of a full climbing rack jingling like a one man band. The achievement of a first lead climb was somewhat diminished by Luke ("Safetly Officer") climbing solo up alongside Alan without any ropes at all but the important lesson was placing gear correctly and setting anchors more than the actual climb itself. Now that I've done my first lead climb I now need make sure to do my next before too long.
Not sure if Luke and Geoff climbed anything else as I had to go to work. Been a long day, and I've been extremely hungry. Better get some sleep, work again tomorrow.
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2007.05.05 23.40
Could've, would've, should've.
Airplane tickets are cheap, cheap enough that going to another country might just be cheaper than visiting parts of Ireland. The cheapest airlines are run much like a bus service only with much more pointless harassment in dubious attempts at security. While I was student I pondered how when I paid off my loans and I had a bit of money I could find cheap flights and do a bit of city hopping. One too many times I've said two of the places I'd always wanted to visit are Anchorage and Edinburgh, and when I mentioned it most recently I was told why don't you just go? Always good to have someone in your life to push you to do the things you have always wanted to do anyway.
March 19th, 20th, 21st, Saturday through Monday, I will be in Edinburgh. I had flights nominally cost two cent, but the actual cost including various taxes comes to more like €60 (think that was actually for two return tickets). Less than the cost of one single Trinity Ball ticket and it is going to be great. I shopped around a bit for a good deal but indecision served me well and when I checked again the prices had dropped even lower, an understanding boss and a flexible timetable certainly helped.
Cannot recall if anyone I know is living in Edinburgh at the moment but if you are do give me a shout. Never been to Scotland before, let alone Edinburgh. Suggestions welcome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh
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2007.04.09 23.33
Not suitable for children under 36 months
This month I celebrated(?) my (twenty?)seventh birthday. My big sister bought me a toy called a "Test Tube Alien". I was very careful with the sharp scissors as I did not want to cut myself on the sharp edges of the plastic pack. :P
If you think paper cuts are annoying try cutting yourself on a plastic blister pack, the packaging is more dangerous than most toys.
The toy comes in a plastic "test tube" about the size of an ordinary slim-jim drinking glass, more like a sample jar you might see in a natural history museum than the what you might think of as a test tube. The container has a small opening at the top to allow liquids to be poured in or drained out. At first all you can see is the protective foam egg which you must rinse away to reveal the little plastic alien. Mine is apparently an evil alien by the name of Shako. Inside the alien head a little light emitting diodes flashed on and off inside his hard plastic head to show it is alive, and the colours change between orange, green, or red, depending on his state of health. The body appears to be some kind of compacted foam material and the water is supposed to gradually cause it to expand or "grow". There is a feeding solution which smelled of acetone, which I'm guessing forms a week acid to create a crude battery and help power the toy. I suppose the solution might also help dissolve the body of the creature and help it grow.
The average lifespan of this creature is supposed to be a fortnight but much shorter than that if neglected. Should I write again on the subject the title will most likely be be the obituary of Shako, or probably an "Alien Autopsy".
These seem like perfect toys for Buddhists parents reluctant to give real live pets to children.
The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Tube_Aliens
http://www.testtubealiens.com/
Mood:  amused
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2007.03.04 23.07
Best things in Life are free
"I'm not even supposed to be here today."
Dante Hicks, Clerks (1994).
Thrown in at the deep end on my first day but things went fairly well. Called up at short notice to fill in for a no-show I was kept plenty busy and things only quietened down as I was about to finish. Technically it wasn't my first day but after a week of training where I had a supervisor to help out if I got stuck or the shop got very busy, it was much more difficult ot work through on my own and muddle through through any problems, always thinking on your feet.
The job itself I should explain is managing a small video store, interent cafe, and tanning salon. Nice to be able to work only one job and be able to put three more jobs on my C.V. adding to my other eclectic jobs such as teaching arts and crafts to children, teaching computers to science students, snooker hall manager, working at an internet startup and working for a major distillery to name but a few.
People are generally in a good mood when they go to a video store, and it makes life so much better to be providing a service people do not need but choose to have. This is a far cry from call centre work, for a company that was not well liked, providing tech support that was at worst fire-fighting poorly designed products the customers inevitably had problems with or at best was helping teach customers enough to be able to make use of the service.
[Details left intentionally vague to protect me from the guilty, enough people already badmouthing the company and there are no shortage of unpleasant companies providing services customers think they need but do not particularly want at over inflated prices, so I think most people can relate.]
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2007.02.17 11.34
All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players
More Dublin International Film Festival and less time to write about it.
Started the day with The Good German starring George Clooney. Good film.
Ended the day with As you like it another brilliant treatment of Shakespeare by director Kenneth Branagh. This may yet be my favourite film of the festival, excellent film, see it soon as you get the chance.
Other commitments meant I didn't get to see Maggie Gyllenhaal starring in Sherrybaby but I expect she will make it to our cinema screens in due course. Princess, a Danish animated film (not to be confused with Princesses a Spanish language film also showing at the festival) was unfortunately cancelled due to delays sourcing the prints but may yet be shown towards the end of the festival, although I had bought tickets to see Princess it coincided with As you like it so events may yet work out in my favour. There are so many films to see I cannot possibly see them all but I will certainly try.
Sunshine by director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) had been cancelled before the festival even began and any reappearance seems highly unlikely from what little information I have gathered.
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2007.02.16 11.31
Dublin International Film Festival opening film Jindabyne
The Dublin International Film Festival opened with Jindabyne a film starring Gabriel Byrne and the Dubliner was there in person to introduce the film and open the festival. On the way in I spotted actor Patrick Bergin waiting in the lobby and although I'd be willing to bet there were a few other notable people in the crowd but he was the only other famous face I recognised.
The festival organisers made their obligatory thanks, then an attractive blonde spokeswoman from Jameson introduced the three winners of their short film competition, the top three can be seen on the JamesonFilm website. Michael Dwyer introduced Gabriel Bryne and he gave short introduction to the film, and the difficulty of getting it made as with so many independant films, explaining how funding had been dropped on three seperate occasions before the film eventually went ahead.
The film is based on a short story by American author Raymond Carver called "so much water, so close to home". The story is a serious drama, dealing with a tragic death and the failing marriage of Stewart and Claire Kane played by Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. Mr. Bryne noted this was their third onscreen marriage, two of which were unhappy. Laura Linney was seen unhappily married in The Squid and the Whale the Surprise Film of the festival last year and it was noted that she had been a guest at the first Dublin International Film Festival. The story moves along at a leisurely pace setting up the characters and scene with care and attention. Stewart Kane and his friends go on a fishing trip only to find a dead body floating by the river. Shocked and stunned by the discovery they are at a loss as what should be done. They decide to leave the body in the water knowing it would deteriorate rapidly in the heat if they brought it ashore, and they use fishing line to tie down the body and prevent it from drifting away. Rather than head back report their find immediately they attempt to get back to normal and continue fishing as planned. On their return to town they receive little sympathy and are surprised by the harsh reaction they receive for not reporting the dead body immediately. The situation only adds to the strain already on Stewart and Claires marriage.
The story is dramatic and serious tragedy but with enough moments of light comendy not to be too oppressive. The acting is strong and subtle, the film has already having won several acting awards. After the film Gabriel Bryne was presented with a lifetime achievement award, the first of a new series of awards called Voltas (in honour of the first Irish cinema) given out by the festival.
April films official website for Jindabyne
http://www.april.com.au/jindabyne/
Wikipedia Page for the film Jindabyne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jindabyne_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382765/maindetails
P.S. The quality of photographs taken by camera phones is poor enough to begin with so if any experts know how to prevent Nokia phones from down-scaling photo's before sending I would really like to disable this intentionally crippled functionality or learn of other ways to get better quality pictures out of a camera phone. If I can figure out some way to do this you can expect more pictures to go with my writings.
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2007.02.07 23.51
Sunshine on a frosty day
Climbing in Dalkey Quarry with Jack, Jenny, Luke, Colin, Ursula, and Alan.
Routes climbed: Paradise Lost, and F Route
(and an icy scramble down a corner of the quarry)
Jack was not attacked by a ravenous mountain goat but a gremlin did steal his crabs (aka carabiner).
Coly was hugged by all. Not because anyone likes him, just because his legendary blue jacket is so warm.
Luke went back and reclimbed Paradise Lost successfully completing his first outdoor lead climb.
Alan "milkbottle" got (more) sun burnt, in Ireland in February, with frost, snow, and ice, on the ground.
Luke, Colin, Ursula, went to 'casa de Alan' (as Coly put it) and enjoyed a meal of Chili con Carne.
Many laughs were had, good climbing, excellent day.
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2007.02.04 23.34
Trinity Climbers in Glendalough
Summary:
Trinity Climbers trip to Glendalough, County Wicklow, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, February, 2007.
Another excellent trip, made especially pleasant by the blessing of fine weather.
Saturday: Acorn Buttress. Three routes. From right to left, Fascilis Descendus (HS 4b), Provo (VS 4c), and one other route (most likely Inferno).
Sunday: Expectancy. Two routes. An abseil route to the right us was also put to use by our group and several others passing by.
( Much more detailed description follows... )
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2007.01.27 20.05
Rice - Suitable for vegetarians
Thank you captain obvious. Believe it, the packet of rice I cooked this evening really does explain rice is suitable for vegetarians. It begs the question is there rice that is unsuitable for vegetarians?
Cooked dinner for the parents this evening, Thai Green Chicken Curry. Nothing fancy, three chicken breasts, sauce from a jar, and a little bit of sweetcorn. Diluted the sauce a bit thin with the milk I used to rinse out the jar and the other cooking juices but after a long time simmering it thickened back up nicely, and the sweetcorn made a nice difference without changing the flavour too much.
Next on the list is cooking some biscuits (no not cookies, biscuits) from our childhood favourite the Mr. Men Cookbook. Haven't done much cooking in years and although I'm as capable as ever progress is much much slower.
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2007.01.07 19.47
How could you not like Disney?
Some people might wonder why Disney gives me the creeps and why I am much slower to say favourable things about them or buy their products (including their takeover of Pixar, and aside even from the issue of the quality of their products). Sure dont they make cute cartoons and family films? Take a look at an example of them throwing their legal weight around in attempt to stifle freedom of expression and fair use so as to distract from hate speech. There are no shortage of examples of their litigiousness if you care to search, and their rabid protection of their copyrights is in stark contrast to their plundering of the Public Domain for inspiration.
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2006.12.27 14.53
Software Development: Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Been taking some of free time to read through various mailing lists of projects which I am no longer involved (a project from which I was so rudely and unceremoniously and unilaterally banned). Not only are the same questions reoccurring but also the same condescending replies and complaints about the questions are reoccurring. Even if the people involved are not likely to read this I feel it is worth writing a little about the problems [and possibly make updates to this document in the future] so that others may learn from their all too obvious mistakes.
Question: Why do users keep asking the same questions?
Answer: Some users will always ask the same questions and never make any attempt to figure out the answer for themselves. It is easier and better to say nothing than respond rudely to these users, or failing that provide a short response that developers are aware of the issue. There are ways to reduce the number of questions asked but the sooner you accept the inevitable the better things will be for all involved.
Question: Why do developers keep asking why users keep asking the same questions?
Answer: Every question is an opportunity, questions often highlight various problems of some kind or another. Not all developers realise this. Many think they do but only understand it on a very superficial level.
If a project does not have good documentation and a clearly marked section for Frequently Asked Questions then developers should not be at all surprised when the same questions get asked over and over again. At the very least it is important to back link to previous discussions because it increases the chance of search engines leading users to the right answers.
If features of a program are difficult to find or understand then further testing and usability review may be needed. I know this sounds so obvious as to be patronising but all too often developers blame the user and fail to consider ways in which the software could be improved to make things even more obvious and questions avoided. If bug are known or features are missing long enough for the same questions to be asked frequently then once more it is worth expanding the list of Frequently Asked Questions or even creating a separate list of Known Bugs
Question: What to do? This isn't very encouraging!
Answer: Always try to create new contributors.
A collaborative system like a Wiki makes it easier to encourage users to help answer questions and write up the answers for future reference.
With more technical problems users should be encouraged to submit patches. Telling users to fork the project is not encouraging, not only that it is actively turning contributors away, and failing to instead of compromising and finding something mutually beneficial for them to work on.
Not all (not many in fact) users will be in a position to submit patches and even those who do may submit work that is more hassle than it is worth to maintain.
Expecting them to write patches with a very low chance of being accepted is not encouraging either. A project with clear goals where users get a sense of what is beyond the ordinary scope of the project can help reduce the number of unrealistic requests and proposals which would be too difficult to maintain.
I would hold up Inkscape and Abiword as projects which often do a good job of these tasks. Inkscape has been particularly successful in incrementally documenting problems, making it increasingly easier for the next brave soul to solve (case in point: better support for Macintosh users). Bullying unsuspecting users might amuse some but pointing people in the right direction is far more productive in the long run. There are far too many projects which fail to understand the need for maintainers to manage and guide as much as develop. Creating more contributors should create a self sustaining cycle and more active contributors should mean more time to work on the problems which really interest you.
Here's looking to the New Year and doing things a little differently, hopefully better.
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2006.12.06 15.22
Dead Horse
American Pie was a crude but funny and fresh take on a tired genre, teen sex comedies. The franchise was stretched out to three whole films, although the third film was thankfully better than the second and we all thought it was finished off nicely. Then came along the unwanted direct-to-video fourth installment "American Pie Band Camp" which barely managed to get two of the original cast to put in an appearance, although it did feature the lovely Arielle Kebbel.
Little did I know the horse was in for another flogging, a fifth American Pie title "The Naked Mile". It seems American Pie is trying to become a franchise and be like National Lampoons and churn out endless barely related sequels. Speaking of which National Lampoons are releasing a sequel to Van Wilder, with the Indian guy set in England.
It could be worse, someone might decide to make a sequel to the awful film Tenacious D, The pick of Destiny. A terrible film which forces me to reevaluate how I ever found Jack Black amusing but still only the second worst film featuring Tenacious D. The prize of worst film featuring Tenacious D still goes to the Pauly Shore film Biodome, blink and you'll miss them but Tenacious D do make an appearance.
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