I’ve written a review of Chris Date’s book Database in Depth. All in all I thought it was rather good – tho’ in places it reminded me a bit too much of some of my college higher maths lectures. I’ve got a bit behind on book reviews. I have a large pile of books here.… Continue reading Book Review: Database in Depth
Author: Dave Cross
Blackwells vs Foyles
I’ve been meaning to mention this for about a year. I remember it every time I go shopping for books on Charing Cross Road, but then forget it by the time I get to a computer. What happened to Blackwell’s computer books department? When Blackwell’s first opened their branch on Charing Cross Road (some time… Continue reading Blackwells vs Foyles
Bone Densitometry
Back St. George’s this morning. This time for a bone densitometry examination. This is just a safety measure as the steroids I’m on can reduce the calcium in your bones and lead to osteoporosis. I’m on a calcium supplement to counter that but it’s always good to know for sure.
Mariah Bloody Carey
I was in Oxford St this afternoon trying to get some christmas shopping done. A lot of the presents I buy are CDs and DVDs so I buy a lot in Virgin, HMV and shops like that. I went into HMV with rather a long list of things I wanted o buy. But about two… Continue reading Mariah Bloody Carey
The McCarroll-Cross Productivity Indicator
In my opinion one of the best and most important talks at last Saturday’s London Perl Workshop was the first talk in the beginners track where Greg McCarroll talked about “Rediscovering the Joys of Perl”. Greg introduced a couple of quick hacks that he had written to make his life better. He went on to… Continue reading The McCarroll-Cross Productivity Indicator
Press Plagiarism of Blogs
Over at Guido Fawkes Blog they’ve announced the winners of their Press Plagiarist of the Year Awards which points out print journalists who have “borrowed” ideas from blogs without crediting their source. The winner was Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright who turned postings from The Policemans’ Blog into a two page article and somehow… Continue reading Press Plagiarism of Blogs
Basic Password Handling
This afternoon I signed up to a new web-based application from a very well-known media company. I gave them my email address and the password that I wanted to use and a few minutes later I got an email from them confirming my registration. That was fine. But then I noticed that the email from… Continue reading Basic Password Handling
Templating Systems
I’ve been thinking about templating systems a lot recently. By templating systems I mean technologies that allow you to mix some data with some fixed text to produce some kind of output. One obvious use is in creating dynamic web pages where, for example, you would create a row in a table for each item… Continue reading Templating Systems
It’s A Different World
Someone posted to Digg a link to this story on the BBC about the excuses that people give for being caught without a TV licence. This lead to a huge discussion along the lines of “d00d, they pay for TV over there – that’s teh suck!”. A few brave souls have tried to explain the… Continue reading It’s A Different World
Social Dilemmas
It’s always the same isn’t it? You wait all year for a decent geek night out and then two come along at once. So where shall I go on December 12th? London 2.0 or the Backstage meet-up. Decisions, decisions…