Why do people want to watch videos on their iPods? Maybe I should rephrase that. Do people really want to watch videos on their iPods? Or is that just what Steve Jobs wants people to want? I had the same question when I saw that you could buy films and TV programs to watch on… Continue reading Tiny Videos
Month: October 2005
Hacking URLs
How do you surf the web? Chances are that you’re like most people and you just click on links to move from page to page. Seems that most people don’t use the location bar in their browser. That’s the text box near the top of your browser window that contains the URL (or, in plain… Continue reading Hacking URLs
Neologism
Is Lloyd the first person use the word “pingosphere”? I’ve never seen it before. Oh wait, Google has one previous usage. Does anyone else just think of penguins when they read it?
BBC Licence Fee
The UK press is predictably angry about the BBC’s request for an increase in the licence fee. When you’re reading stories about this you should bear in mind that papers like the Sun are slightly biased as they are owned one of the BBC’s broadcasting rivals. Many of them seem to be reporting this as… Continue reading BBC Licence Fee
Crystal Palace
Yesterday the crisps crew spent a very pleasant couple of hours wandering around Crystal Palace. The photo shows one of the Victorian dinosaur models which were, for me at least, the highlight of the afternoon. More photos follow soon.
Databases and Metadata
Following on from my previous post let’s take a closer look at the kinds of metadata that you might put into a database and how an Object-Relational Mapping layer (like Class::DBI, ActiveRecord or Hibernate) might make use of it. We’ll start with the most obvious stuff and work our way down to less common features.… Continue reading Databases and Metadata
Sky Pixies Made Bush Do It
The White House has denied that George Bush invaded Iraq because god told him to. These allegations will be broadcast in the forthcoming BBC programme Israel and the Arabs: Elusive Peace. Is just me, or is anyone else slightly bothered that we’re living in a world where a story claiming that the “leader of the… Continue reading Sky Pixies Made Bush Do It
On Databases
Last week David Heinemeier Hansson wrote a rather controversial piece about the use of stored procedures, triggers and relational constraints in databases. Later in the week Alex Bunardzic backed him up. What they both seem to be saying is that because we now have powerful tools to represent our data models in code[1] then there… Continue reading On Databases
Unsynchronicity
Seems I’m doomed to just miss seeing anyone connected to Buffy when they come to London. Last year I wrote about how I failed to see Alyson Hannigan arriving at the theatre for a performance of When Harry Met Sally. Yesterday I went into the HMV shop on Oxford St to find that Joss Whedon… Continue reading Unsynchronicity
Strange and Norrell
Ov er the last couple of weeks I’ve been reading Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It’s a good book, but far too big. Every day as I was trying to read it on a rush hour tube I couldn’t help wondering why it needed to be over a thousand pages long. It’s divided… Continue reading Strange and Norrell