Author: francis

Posts

Posted a note on the Today noticeboard saying that I was tired of the blanket coverage of WoMaD on the news and wanted the incompetent, innumerate education secretary to be grilled on why my kid’s school has been forced to make all of the classroom assistants redundant as well as one teacher. It won’t do, making all those promises about education and then breaking them. It’s not there now … probably got moderated out of sight. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/h2/h2.cgi?board=today (hey, the beeb are using Perl – I thought they were wall to wall MSft).

Stuff

Recently discovered http://www.kuro5hin.org/, and I really like it.

I’m thinking of writing an article on Java vs. Lisp after reading a Paul Graham article http://www.paulgraham.com/javacover.html. Not that I disagree with him, just that I think the Java crew are standing on the shoulders of giants because of all of the libraries and the open source movement. I think that Lisp would be by far the best for new problems because it isn’t so low level, but with Java you just assemble components.

No work on Jisp, too tired after my holiday.

I really admired the site http://evilempire.ath.cx/, have a look. He has a fresh view on most things, if a bit angry. I sent a mail expressing my opinion and taking the opportunity to indulge in some sarcasm about children’s names.

Paddling

Ran a 3* session at West Kirkby Marine Lake yesterday, did about half of the syllabus. People have a lot of trouble with the hanging draw, and I still don’t know why it’s there, except that it’s probably someone’s pet stroke. The youngsters need to work on their strokes, standard not high enough. Off to Nomads tonight to run a session for the paddlepower beginners.

Ah well, back to work I suppose.

Lambing

We aren’t doing as well as we hoped so 3 of my IT colleagues were sacrificed to keep the shareholders happy. One of them is the best manager I have ever worked for. We didn’t know he was going until the rumour mill told us late in the afternoon. I’ve seen better-handled road accidents. We still don’t know who we are reporting to, what the priorities are, who is responsible for pastoral care blah blah.

Holidays

Whit week just gone I went with the canoe camping club to their Mordiford (nr. Hereford) meet. Had a good week paddling and training people. Paddled the white water section of the Lugg (North of Leominister), which was a little low, but had some good play waves on the old Victorian weirs. The new weirs were very scary and we portaged round them. Symonds Yat is becoming a bit of a joke, with only one decent surf wave below the island. Hopefully now it’s been bought by the BCU someone can sort it out. There’s rumours that there’ll be a fucking committee to manage it, when all is needed is allowing the local paddlers access to build the fish gates up in low water.

Dance Show

Deborah was in a dance show organised by her dance school. It was surprisingly good, the last one was very worthy but naff. I was very proud of her but we were on the wrong side of the stage to see her properly. The video will doubtless follow.

Irritable bowels

Lovely. I know you want to read this. I lost a day at work because of pains in my guts (meaning I had no sleep) and Rosie made me go to the doctor. I’ve got/had a mild dose of IBS, not the runs just the pain. It’s responded well to treatment and I’m OK now. It was lucky I got it sorted before my holiday. I’m toning down the spice in my diet. I missed an initiation from my teacher because I felt I needed to sort things out at home as well.

Ah well, back to the SOS.

Paul Graham’s been at it again, contrasting hacking (writing “good” software)with painting. Very interesting article <Ahref=“http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html”>http://www.paulgraham.com/hp.html

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Also found some useful stuff on <Ahref=“http://www.uiweb.com/issues/issue08.htm”>http://www.uiweb.com/issues/issue08.htm – good design comes from giving people choices and working through them; “bad” ideas are good.

Forms again

I can’t get one of our internal servers to use the servlet so I gave up and went back to port 9000 with some alacrity after wasting a day on it.

Lisp

Spending a lot of personal time on this but it beats TV. I managed to get my Java Lisp interpreter (Jisp) to compile but it doesn’t do anything useful yet. It’s interesting building a parser in Java because it doesn’t have goto so writing those state machines is quite hard – I have decided to use recursion instead, as long as the gotos go back to the beginning of the function it should work fine. It occurred to me that I could do something like SAX but it seemed a bit over the top. I’ve started using Eclipse, which I didn’t like originally, but I think that it works when you are writing stuff from scratch, a la open source, but JDeveloper is very good at the old beans and that kind of crap. http://francis.blog-city.com/download.cfm?F=jisp.zip

VIM and CLISP

I’ve abandoned Lisp Studio and started using CLISP and VIM. I like Vim a lot and it works very well matching braces etc. It’s charityware and works very well, I even got it going in KDE running on top of cygwin (after compiling with the GUI switched on). http://www.vim.org

Paddling

Well, light nights here again. Lots of work with the club, most Thursdays at Llangohllen. Did the upper section of the Tryweryn again last week (2 weeks on the trot). Still pretty sore but survived OK and worked on my skills. Still need to make the breakouts near the middle of the graveyard. One tip, get into the eddy behind the tree on river right before it speeds up so you can scout before the current takes you roaring down it.

There is also a route at the bridge with the diagonal wave (Mrs. Something’s bridge?) hard on river left that drops you into the nice eddy, rather than that tricky recirculating bastard on the right.

I must fit a new back rest to the Big EZ cos the old one broke, can only get Pyrhana ones but it should do.

Diary stuff

Didn’t get to Camelot because it wasn’t open. Went to Park Farm near Welshpool. Had a good day. My mother in law has just moved up from Cambridge into a rented house. It’s near the park and the kids like it there. About 15 mins walk from home, just far enough.

Well then, well then.

Paddling the River Nene (Peterborough)

Went with the Canoe Camping Club to a meet at Peterborough. Stayed at a very weird campsite called Yarwell Mill. Costs about £10 a night and only has one toilet block for 200+ caravans. Owners had a bit of an attitude problem. I felt I was paying them so they could do me a favour, a sellers’ market perhaps.The paddling was hard against the wind on the Friday. I was in a sea kayak and one of the kids in a new Piranha Pilot, which the club (pen pads) bought recently. Rosie was in an unladen open with the wind facing. Very hard day.Rosie thinks the pilots are good but I’m not convinced why a sea boat should have so much rocker.

We took Saturday off and went for a wander around Rutland Water, stopping toget some food and stuff at Oakham. Went to Lands End outlet store and spent small fortune on clothes for Deb. Nice meal in a little cafe near Boots (you have to know its there and dow a side entry).

Sunday we did half of the main paddle and got out.

Monday Rosie took Howard and Deb paddling for the morning and I chilled out.Jon went playing with the other kids and said he wanted a fishing rod. Nope. Too cruel.

Lisp

Finally got my hands on Paul Graham’s Ansi Common Lisp book. I’vebeen working with Lisp Studio (see earlier blog) and found a windows version of the Harvard Common Lisp interpreter (which has much more helpful error messages). Also been using good ‘ole Emacs. Paul has also made the text of hisOn Lisp available <Ahref=“http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html”>http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisptext.html. I love Lisp,even after a short exposure to it. A lot of the ideas in object orientation aresimply to shoe horn the stuff Lisp has always had. I was working my way through one of the examples and wanted to sort a slightly odd data structure. No problem, just call the system sort with your own inline function that does the comparison for you. I know this can be done in other languages but in Lisp it iseasy and you don’t have to name the function or anything. It just fucking works.

I’ve started looking at building a Lisp interpreter in Java, I found a C example but its full of horrible C- and Unix-isms like setjmp if you get anerror. It’s odd but the C version is only 900 lines of code. Have a look at ithttp://www.civilised.com, there’s also a.ps of a document describing how it was built. Of course, once initialised, it loads a lot of Lisp definitions to get you the rest of the functions. To get asimilar Java thing will take a lot more effort (and you can’t use crap like setjmp to handle errors either). I think Java’s exception handling will work well underneath but hey, it was ripped out of Lisp in the first place methinks. I really hate it when the C code has #defines for == and other standard operators, tho’, totally daft cleverdick stuff. (You can tell I used tohack C for a living, don’t get me started on what makes good and bad style).

At last, the tooth

Finally got it out of my head last Friday 25th. The pain stopped, what can I say? It took a couple of attempts with different calipers from the ones my original dentist used. Now I have a broken filling for repair. The biggest problem was the injections, particularly when one was administered directly into the hole where the tooth used to be and I didn’t expect it.

Treweryn tour (sundae)

Not much to report, did the usual tour down to Bala. A good day.

A surprise

A new sale of the product I work on has been taken away from us and given to another office on the other side of the world. I should be really annoyed but to be honest I’m bored to death with the bastard; let ‘em have it, maybe they’ll finally work out how to write software that actually meets the requirements and even has something approximating an architecture. After the dog’s breakfast they delivered last time I can’t wait.

Off to Camelot tomorrow with the kids, their school is closed because of the local elections.

Very interesting article on <Ahref=“http://www.paulgraham.com/hundred.html”>http://www.paulgraham.com/hundred.html

, I had a wander around the site. It inspired me to want to have a go at Lisp again. Got a nice IDE at <Ahref=“http://www.ufasoft.com/lisp/”>http://www.ufasoft.com/lisp/ (freefor non-commercial use). Found an online tutorial at <Ahref=“http://grimpeur.tamu.edu/~colin/lp/node1.html”>http://grimpeur.tamu.edu/~colin/lp/node1.html.

I suspect that I do a lot of what he talks about anyway. I use recursion alot, even in Oracle PL/SQL as well as Java and I tend to write things that are reusable and stuff them in libraries, o-o just makes this easier. I love the Lisp idea of being able to write macros that change runtime behaviours. Lisp seems much easier than Ruby. Like a lot of languages I think its simplicity is what makes it so powerful. Writing a language in itself is also good because it makes it easier to understand.

It was interesting that PG puts down his success and rapid software development down to using Lisp, which gives you the power to do prototypes quickly and then get them working. Java is very low-level and the power actually comes from all of the libraries supplied with it. PL/SQL is based on Ada and starts with better constructs (from a Pascal rather than C++ heritage) and much better database binding. For me Java should be calling PL/SQL procedures, I think this would be very fast and allow you to build anything on top of the procedures. Leave the data in the database, how radical.

Ah, maybe a little project for a Lisp interpreter in Java (probably find one in 5 secs on t’internet)…

This busted tooth, driving me nuts, can’t work properly. Gum has been bleeding today for some reason, had to try hard not to wave bloody mouth around the office. Yeuch. Will look into private health insurance cover tonight to see if I can expedite the rest of it.

Form again

Oracle forms has been driving me up the wall again, even with the newer version you still have to occasionally copy/delete/recreate/paste into triggers and program units that either won’t fire or make the form disappear. Something resized some canvases slightly and it now looks wrong on the web forms. I still like it better than any Java IDE because it lets you get on with developing the software. Been having fun making an autoquery function work, had to use the when-mouse-navigate trigger rather than post-item because of the restrictions on post-item. I really like all of the inheritance stuff.

Time

Time management is a total pain in the arse, working at about 50% because of the tooth and lack of sleep, priorities won’t stay still, can’t seem to get anything done. Just apply shoulder to the wheel of dharma, as usual.

Music.

Been listening to Pearl Jam. Couldn’t get into them at first but really like the singer’s voice. Mostly Riot Act This is such a happening tailpipe of a party, like sugar the guests are so refined (Bushleager).  I like their politics as well, they’re talking about giving their stuff away and just making money from gigging and had a row with Ticketmaster over the price of tickets – can’t see the Stones doing that, can you? Had a go at Faith No More (the Real Thing) again but still can’t quite get there. Interesting note perfect cover of old Black Sabbath tune but they apparently stopped playing it because it screwed their street cred. I remember the Sabs 1st time around, being so crusty, they were my favourite band before I discovered Free and the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Baby boom

Found out today that one of my colleagues from Oracle has just had a baby. Haven’t seen her for ages and didn’t even know she was pregnant! Good news, everyone home safe and well. My mate Andy’s wife had one about a week ago as; took the opportunity to nag him about smoking, very naughty of me, but if I can give up anyone can (12 years now).

Another Oracle colleague’s wife is expecting and I emailed him how things were going, house sorted everything ready and then a pipe burst and fucked everything, all the decorating etc. etc. Not a happy bunny. If t’were me I’d get the insurance people to sort it all.

Fun

If you like radio comedy have a go at bb7 http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/ I also really enjoyed the Now Show http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/rams/sat1230.ram (this will go at the end of this week).

Blessings to you all.

Teething trouble

Ah well, the tooth extraction did not go well. After my dentist had swung on it for about 20 minutes and not got anywhere (except for a groovy crackling noise in my head) it shattered. I now have the stub of a dead tooth and a bruised and sore gum. Haven’t had a lot of sleep in the last few days with the pain. Ibuprofen and paracetamol together for the first couple of days. It’s beginning to heal up. I went and bought 96 max strength ibuprofen tablets.Paracetamol is quite toxic if you overdo it so I’ve been giving them a wide berth except when the ibuprofen needed some help.

Now I have to wait until a specialist can see me to take out the remains of the tooth, probably just as it settles down again. I reckon he’ll have to cut the gum to get in and then stitch it up. Then another week of misery. Ah well. This is what we all went through as babies but can’t remember. My dharma teacher said that you should take on the pain as part of the pain of all sentient beings, and use it to help you equalise yourself with them, but then take the medicine!

Kars

My car’s in for repair so I’m driving a Ford Ka(k) courtesy car. Don’t like it, very noisy, it sounds like the bearings on the back have gone hut it’s only done 4 1/2 k. Probably just a lack of sound insulation. It will cruise on the motorway quite happily but I have to have the CD really loud just to drown out the noise. All these criticisms apart, I would probably consider something like this if I lived in London because you can never get up to more than about 20 mph anyway and their size makes parking a dream. I’d still have to have a proper car for the weekends though.

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I seem to have spent the last couple of weeks tired out of my mind. I have been keeping up my buddhist practice and it has been hard. Today I had something of a breakthrough, although like all of these things it is essentially empty and you can’t break through to what isn’t there.

There is a fundamental view that we are conditioned by our ignorance of our buddha nature that causes the split between subject and object. This separation breeds fear, and the like/dislike/don’t care about the “other” which in turn breeds anger and the other mental defilements. I was fighting with my anger today (won’t go into why) and pushed hard at it. Pushing doesn’t work because if you suppress something you make it stronger so instead I imagined it being transformed into the base nature that it comprises of. The black anger was siffused with rivers of gold that changed it back into the open space behind it. So what happened? There was all of my fear hiding behind it. This was indescribably shattering and liberating, but like my teacher says, practice every day and don’t worry about what happens – the important thing is to be consistent. The practice is for the benifit of all sentient beings and if you feel better because of it then OK, but others still come first. This is why you dedicate the virtue you may have accumulated doing the practice to the benefit of others. That said, it still felt like I had been hit by a bus.

April dawns

Well, we’ve done a lot of things. Been to the Aztec exhibition at the Royal academy, very interesting, they had some serious insights into the world. Sad that their conclusions were so bloody. Did the tourist bus thing afterwards, which I’ve never done before. London is an interesting place. Had a conversation with a cabbie. Apparently central London is rubbish for secondary schools if you don’t have money. I am glad that I live in the North of England, near to beautiful Wales and its rivers.

Been getting into Pearl Jam (yeah, I know everyone else has already done this).

Bought some Sennheiser PMX60’s today. They are the neck mounted type. Very good. My old ‘phones are OK but the foam has gone and they were eating my ears. Not sure about the neck mount yet.

Competing in a kayak slalom at Marple on Sunday. 1st time I’ve ever done this, should be a laugh.

Having a tooth out tomorrow morning – not looking forward to this. Last had teeth out when I was 9 or so and it was nasty and traumatic. I remember coming round from the gas and my mum wasn’t there. I called for her and frightened my sister who wouldn’t go. I remember being sick and scared was somehow my fault because my sister wouldn’t go. Funny how these things sometimes never leave. Must be karma.

Blessings upon you all, if anyone ever reads this!

Opinions

Well, I’m against this ridiculous war. Personally couldn’t care less about UN legality or whatever. Taking life is wrong, the deeper teachings say one should give up one’s own life rather than take another’s (it’s more subtle than this, but it’ll do here). What is needed in these situations is wisdom and I don’t see a lot of it.

Just think:

If I hit you then it’s OK for you to hit me, it legitimises it. The war “proves” all of the allegations of bias and mayhem that the Arab nations have been making against the west for all these years. It insults the dead and recruits more extremists. Education and attacking poverty are the only answers to terror. One life is too many, and no, before you start on that worn-out rubbish, I’m not defending Saddam, get a grip. Two wrongs do not make a right, never have, never will. I lack the vision to see where the ultimate good may lie, I’m only a simple human being and won’t pretend otherwise.

If it’s OK for “us” to effect regime change using violence then it’s OK for “them” to do the same to us. So watch out Tony, George, and co. you’re making terror legitimate. Have you thought about that?

Music

Listening to Fishbone, Truth and Soul is pretty accessible, The Reality of My Surroundings quite hard – I found Junkie’s Prayer very sad. If you believe the web guide to the band they haven’t got the success they deserve. I can half see it because they are so eclectic, still interesting.

23 Mar : Buddha season on BBC2

Not bad, I liked what Richard Gere said but noticed that he still has ego to call his foundation that helps displaced Tibetans the Gere Foundation. I suppose that the celeb name helps raise money. I can’t fault the motivation though and I’m glad someone with the power has helped others. I have heard that the foundation also helps the diaspora’s neighbours so that there isn’t any resentment. I wonder if the politicians in the UK and elsewhere have the sense to learn from this example?

23 Mar : Llangollen : Mile end mill

Borrowed a Perception Amp to try. Not what I’m looking for, a little more interesting than the Big EZ but not enough of a difference. Borrowed a Transformer and fell in love with it. Would like to try it with the medium end caps. Got talking to an owner who said the long end caps are like clown’s feet and very tippy. Fran, the manager, recons that it might be a bit long with the caps on for the famous summer rivers in England. Nose wouldn’t bury without the caps unless there was a lot of current.

22 Mar : Thornberry’s Movie

Took the kids to this. Very good, very moral, lots of jokes and of course the bad guys lose. Gentle entertainment.

16th March Outdoors show : NEC

First time to one of these events. It was interesting if very tiring. They had a pool with a waterfall so that the play boaters could compete. It looked good except that they kept being driven to the sides and running out of space. I wonder if we could put something like this at Merseysport in the Albert dock in Liverpool to add some interesting paddling. I may have a think about this.

I sat in various boats, still looking at Liquid Logic, but I really liked the Wavesport Transformer. It has different length end fittings depending upon what you want to do in the water. They guys from Pirahna wanted me to get their Sub 6 200 and dissed the Transformer.

15th March : Diary of an Action Man : Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Took Jon and a friend to this play. Very well done, some of the actors had disabilities and there was signing throughout but they did it so well that it worked and wasn’t a problem. The plot revolves around a small boy who wants his dad to come back home, his dad was a soldier and he has fantasies about him being action man. Well acted and put together without being worthy. I didn’t realise (but it’s obvious) that deaf people use mobile phones to communicate over distance using texts. One of the irritating blights of modern life actually has some kind of upside.