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
Be Prepared
Today was the day I gave my talk on Enterprise Perl at the LinuxWorldExpo conference. As always when speaking at these conferences I was well prepared. I had my talk on my laptop and a copy on a USB memory key. Also, as my laptop is looking a bit long in the tooth and isn’t… Continue reading Be Prepared
New London Transport Fares
It’s time for the Evening Standard‘s annual “outrage at the transport fare increases” issue. This year’s issue must have been particularly difficult to write as for most people the fares will have actually gone down. Let’s explain this simply so that even Standard journalists can understand. Transport for London want everyone to use their Oyster… Continue reading New London Transport Fares
Beyond Java
Is Java dead? Or dying? O’Reilly have just published a book called Beyond Java and the blurb includes this: If you are agree with the book’s premise–that Java’s reign is coming to an end–then this book will help you start to build your skills accordingly I don’t follow the Java community at all, so I’m… Continue reading Beyond Java
Software Upgrade
Last night I upgraded this site so it’s now running on Movable Type version 3.2. Everything seemed to go fine, but if you see anything weird on the site over the next couple of weeks please let me know.