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Having just got back from Ely, I should probably write up about Chepstow. As small festivals go, I was really impressed. As festivals go it was wonderfully laid back, but still had some brilliant ideas in terms of the way it was organised. I was particularly impressed by the way they allocated camping space for each of the performing sides (something I've never seen at any other festival), so you didn't have to worry about sending someone up in advanced to bag the space. You could just turn up find your area and pitch your tent as you arrived. The general layout of the festival seemed to work quite nicely too. The daytime morris performances were all in town while the evening entertainment was all up near the campsite at the racecourse. This meant you didn't get the situation like you do somewhere like Sidmouth where your not sure whether to stay in town for the concerts or wonder up to the Bulverton for the ceilidh and yet you don't spend the whole weekend stuck on the campsite like you do with Towersey. The procession was really well thought out as well. Rather than having the traditional long procession through the town, which ends up tiring out everyone who takes part and because sides generally keep stopping to do figures for the audience tend to bottleneck, they had a really short one on the bridge over the River Wye so that you processed from England into Wales and they spaced you out, so the team in front had nearly finished before the next one started. Because I was out with Thrales, I missed the Friday night acts, so I'm not sure what they were like, but from what people were saying the highlight were 3 Daft Monkeys. On the Saturday, I spent most of the evening in the Moondance ceilidh. I'd never heard them before, but was very impressed by the energy they had and how original they were. I'm not generally a funk fan, but when you put traditional folk tunes on top of it, it just seems to just work somehow and also given that a lot of ceilidh bands I've seen seem to either stick with the traditional folk or go down a more rock based path, it was quite nice to have something different for a change. Also, as the funk gives the rhythm a greater focus it really suited Roger Watson's calling style in the same way Boka Halat do. Will definitely be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Wild Hunt aren't as into Ceilidh's as Gogs, so I failed to drag any of them along (although a few of them did turn up later), which in some ways also made a nice change as if I go with a large group of people I know I tend to dance with them most of the time (admittedly that's because I like dancing with them), but this was a wonderful opportunity to dance with complete strangers all evening. Admittedly, there were lots of familiar faces from IVFDF there as there was a large contingent of Exeter Folksoc (although I don't really know any of them) and at one point I was apparently even face to face with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ladyofastolat and kingpellinor, although the internet being what it is, I had no idea it was them. After the ceilidh finished I wondered over to see Seth Lakeman. Although he seems to be a fairly household name, I'd never heard him. He's certainly very talented and has immense amounts of stage presence, but it just felt like he was trying to hard to be mainstream pop and as such he didn't sound as original as he probably could. That said, although I wouldn't actively go and seek him out, but if I was at a festival where he was playing and there wasn't anything else that caught my eye I would be quite happy to listen to him again. Stayed over on Sunday evening too, although the festival had finished so there was no more entertainment, but it did give an opportunity to wonder around the castle, which is well worth a look, as although it's in ruins you can still go up some of the towers and along parts of the walls. To top it all off, even though we were in Wales, it didn't rain until we'd finished dancing. In short, if I get invited back to Chepstow with any side, I'll probably be there like a shot. | |
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 Photo © r0uzi, cc-by-sa. | |
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http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0282.html 
Many GMs ignore weather when running their games. Everything seems to happen on a perpetually fine late spring day when it's never too cold or too hot.
This is a mistake. Just think of all the combat penalties you can heap on players fighting on slippery ground, with wet hair flicking into their eyes,
lightning temporarily blinding them, and water getting onto their bowstrings or into their electrically powered weapons.
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King Arthur's Arms Pub, Tintagel, Cornwall. 21:18
It was another day of driving to various places today, venturing from Plymouth west into Cornwall. We decided we didn't want to spend time going
too far west since we need to head east again soon to fit in places later in our journey. So we found some spots in the Lonely Planet worth
visiting on the coast not too far from Plymouth.
But first we packed our bags and headed down for breakfast. The cereal choice was limited to honey-nut corn flakes, wheat chex, and Weet-a-Bix.
We both chose the latter and ate them while the same lady who had checked us in last night cooked up eggs for us and mushrooms and grilled tomatoes
for me. I also grabbed a fresh banana from the fruit bowl.
After checking out, we packed the car and went for a walk over to the Hoe to see the views from the park over the harbour and out to sea. The weather
today had turned cold and windy, and we both needed jumpers and jackets to keep warm under the cloudy grey sky. The view however was very good; it
was easy to see why the English wanted to build a seaside holiday resort here.
As we watched the uninviting cold ocean and the seaside walls, boat moorings, and ice cream stalls, we saw a group of men emerge up a set of stone steps,
jog around on the road for a bit, go down another set of steps to the water and some rocks below, and plunge straight in! They waded through the
water to the base of the steps where we'd first seen them running up. As we watched in amazement, they began another lap. We figured they must have been army
personnel from the nearby base in the walled fortress near the Barbican district. Some training run!
The Hoe contained a monument to Francis Drake, who also left from Plymouth on his famous
round-the-world journey of discovery in 1577, and a view of a nearby
lighthouse, striped in horizontal bands of red and white. We didn't spend too long here though, both because of the cold wind and because the car was in
a spot where it would be fined after 10:00. So we walked back and drove off just before that happened.
( picturesque fishing villages and King Arthur! ) | |
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I've just made myself a delicious lunch by taking leftovers from last night's dinner and adding:
- sultanas (i.e. dried grapes)
- chopped dried apricots
- cinnamon
- cumin
- coriander seed
- turmeric
- pinch of salt
- habanero sauce
and then nuking it for a minute. So guess what was in the leftovers?
( the answer ) | |
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Arepas in the grill, more coffee brewing (well, maybe not 'brewing' , it is an espresso machine but hey). Only glitch is the house full of strangers sleeping in corners, courtesy of ![[info]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) jamesknight's sub-tenant. Lesson in Gospel Oak in a little while, lesson in Stoke Newington a little later, a few things to do around the house, probably Reptile tonight. Sue's birthday drinks and Departure were all good last night. Took a few pictures at Sue's do in Garlic and Shots, but none at Departure. Had fun, though. The news headlines are still as depressing as ever. The world doesn't look too bad outside, though. Here we go. | |
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Yes, it's that time of year again, end of financial year. Important times:
- Timestamp on downloaded e-tax software install file from Australian Tax Office: 14:55.
- Timestamp on my completed and submitted tax return: 15:20
- Timestamp on wife's completed and submitted tax return: 15:41
Both tax returns completed in 46 minutes from downloading the e-tax software! Yay! This makes keeping a detailed spreadsheet of income and expenses throughout the year worthwhile. | |
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Six years ago today, Fin and I stood together and pledged our futures to one another. I'm still so glad we did so. I love you, sweetheart. Here's to many more. ♥ | |
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Some of the newer dSLR cameras have either intervalometers in them (e.g. the Nikon D5000) or, like the GH1 footage below, they allow movie mode to run with one shot every second (thereby eliminating the need to assemble the video from a sequence of stills, as the camera just produces a .MOV or .MP4 file directly). I love time-lapse movies; must try this myself sometime: Click here for the high-res version (can't embed this directly) | |
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How we're generating documentation in telepathy-doc.
There are three kinds of docs: facing developer (like a tutorial... what tool?), facing user ("how do I format my USB key"... Mallard), and the stuff you format from the API (gtk-doc).
Developer docs
HIG, GTK Drawing Manual, ... etc
Example code, descriptive prose, i18n, multi-programming-language examples (how??), link to the API references
telepathy-doc
DocBook, gnome-doc-tools, svg figures, and a ton of Python to play with the xml. DocBook purists don't like this (would rather do it in DocBook).
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From today's Sydney Morning Herald:
While sales of PND units are on the wane, the smartphone market has remained on a growth trajectory in spite of the choppy economic climate.
"A key reason for this is that the majority of the Australian market are on two-year contracts and with mobile penetration well over 100 per cent we can't see people abandoning their mobiles," said Mark Novosel, mobile analyst at market researcher IDC.
Mobile phone market penetration is "well over 100%"? Does this mean people who don't exist have mobile phones? And not just a few, but lots of them, considering it's "well over"?
And where does this place people like me, who don't have one??
EDIT: The idea that they are counting phones sold per capita is a completely stupid way to define market penetration. Surely the only meaningful way to define market penetration is (number of people with product)/(potential market). Otherwise market penetration of CDs is probably a few thousand percent.
So if that's what they are doing, then they're simply producing bogusly inflated statistics to make themselves look good as an industry. What's more, given the market for mobile phones must now potentially include anyone over the age of 6, even if some people currently have more than one phone, it seems unlikely that it could make up for the younger fraction of the market.
In other words, I know what they're trying to say. It's just that they're doing it in a stupid way which bears no relation to real or meaningful statistics.
Not that this is a big surprise to anyone educated in mathematics who reads the mass media.
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Should post about Chepstow at some point, but that will have to wait as this weekend appears to be fast approaching. Given I haven't danced out since last weekend, it must be time to go out and do it again. Luckily Gogs are off to Ely Folk Festival on Saturday, so I can continue with my immensely varied lifestyle of filling all my free time with one thing. We'll be dancing around the town as follows: - 11.00: Procession around city centre back to Palace Green
- 11.45 - 12.30: Dancing in front of the Cathedral with Slubbing Billy and Coton Morris Men
- 12.30 - 1.15: Dancing outside Oliver Cromwell House with E&L Riot
- 1.15 - 2.00: Dancing in the High Street outside Starbucks with Hoxon Hundred
- 3.00 - 4.00: Dancing at the corner of the Market Square near Cheffins with Kings Morris and Crouch Vale
I think I've arranged things so I can go to the concert in the evening afterwards, but my brains gone blargh and although it remembers what arrangements I've made and where I am each weekend, it doesn't remember how the 2 pair up. | |
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from Positive Spam
date 9 July 2009 07:16
subject You look lovely today!
I just wanted to tell you that you're looking absolutely GORGEOUS today.
Take care, gorgeous.
P.S. Did I mention you have beautiful eyes?
xxx | |
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http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0281.html 
Passing notes to players is a convenient way of informing a player about something that their character knows, but which none of the other characters
know. This leaves it up to that player whether or not their character reveals this information - and how much of the information - to the rest of the party.
This makes for more realistic roleplaying.
It also incidentally ramps up the paranoia level of experienced gamers to incredible levels. Less experienced gamers may not realise this side-effect,
assuming that note-passing is a simple and logical way to communicate relevant information. If you have the right mix of gamers, this can cause
some interesting interactions.
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What the hell is he doing with that many fielders in the outfield to the number 9 and 10 batsmen??? | |
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Last Wednesday, I went to see Looking Glass House's performance of The Rover. The past 2 plays I've seen there have both been modern, so it was interesting to see something older (although, being entirely uncultured, I'd never heard of Aphra Behn before, so didn't actually know that in advance). The Cavaliers were brilliantly laddish. They were like the stereotypical hormonal English teenage boys on holiday together getting very drunk and chatting up anything female with 2 legs. Then there's the main female characters who rebel against their family dress up a gypsies and try and attract the men and a myriad of all sorts of other people. All in all, it's a bit like Old Kent Road on a Friday night, but in the 17th century, which makes it utterly brilliant and means that the comedy in it is still as fitting to society today as it was then. The performance itself was really well done. I was especially impressed with the way they started each act in the bar amongst the audience, so you actually became part of the carnival before crowds all "moved to the next street" (the main theatre) where we took our seats. It's on at the Southwark Playhouse until 18th July and is well worth a look. | |
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People don't usually answer this any more when I post it, but it's going round again. Go on, knock yourselves out.
Ask me a question....
AND
...tell me a secret.
All comments are screened and I will answer all questions in another post, but not state who asked the question. | |
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My practice plan for this week is mostly Chaconne, for next week mostly Walter's 'Sidereal Pieces', plus bits of technical finger-work. Try to get back into shape a little bit. The weather seems to be conducive to this. Hopefully not Thursday week! Currently reading 'What We Believe But Cannot Prove', a collection of very short essays by scientists, philosophers, writers and the like. Fascinating little book and the different takes on the question itself. God, mercifully, is not very much involved or invoked thus far, even though there are essays by Paul Davies and John Barrow. - Tags:books, guitar
- Music:me playing the scales from Bach's Chaconne
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Can anyone recommend for me an existing PHP/MySQL package to handle the following:
- User registration, with e-mail confirmation (and possibly some sort of CAPTCHA)
- User login/logout; option to "stay logged in on this computer" would be nice
- Session handling - with cookies is fine
- User-initiated password reset/password reminders to registered e-mails
I want to build a simple web app which requires these features, without reinventing the wheel. I'm hoping to find something I can install, and then add extra fields to the user table and extra tables to the database, and code up my own PHP to do stuff with the logins and session handling all sorted out for me. (It'll be on a Linux/Apache platform.)
I'm reasonably experienced at this stuff (I could do it from scratch myself if I had to), so ideally I'd like a database table structure dump and a handful of bare bones PHP pages which I can customise for look-and-feel and just stick into my own website directory structure. (As opposed to some sort of "web site wizard" install package for novices.) Ideally it'd be easy to hack around with (for example, to add my own extra registration fields by adding PHP code and SQL fields).
Thanks for any suggestions! | |
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'No fee degrees' university planWe need to make the education system biased towards people who live near Universities? Oh, sorry, I didn't realise. Yes, of course people who live in big cities are far more entitled to this level of education then those of us from the countryside. So, whatever happened to the idea of fair and equal access to education? Everytime there's a change to the funding system we seem to move further and further away from it. It's like the government are actively sitting down trying to think of new biases to add to the system. How about this for an idea: use income tax to subsidise the education system to allow access to regardless of wealth, location, etc. It's perfectly fair as those that have been through university tend to be paid more and it would help even up the wealth too. Oh, yes, I forgot, we couldn't possibly do that, the rich clearly need their money... | |
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"The burnout cycle" was devised by Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North - You start feeling like you need to prove yourself.
- So you work harder (putting more hours in rather than working smarter)
- So you ignore needs; erratic sleeping, eating disrupted, lack of social interaction
- panic and conflict: problems are dismissed, feel threatened, panicky and jittery
- Change values. Work is the only focus. Friends and family dismissed
- Deny problems. Cynical, intolerant, blaming colleagues and workload and lack of time.
- Withdrawal; no social life, often resort to drink and drugs and overeating or undereating; serious burnout begins.
- Odd behaviour. Changes in behaviour obvious; friends and family concerned. This is the "Is everything all right?" stage
- Depersonalise; feel worthless, no confidence, life feels mechanical and emotionless.
- Inner emptiness: empty, lonely, drink and drugs begin to be a real problem
- "Epic" depression; feel lost and not sure what to do; exhaustion; future feels bleak and dark
- Collapse.
Managers: should look out for burnout among their subordinates Teammates: among their teammates Workers: involve your manager, enforce work hours, take breaks; Private life: take time off; love your hobby; socialise. | |
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IntroductionAbout us: Tobias, Pedro Motivation
We are here today to help people start triaging. Best way to learn a project. Show best practices and common pitfalls. Identify, discuss and solve current problems. There are about 5 active triagers, but we get 800 bugs a week, 800 bugs get closed a week, and 7000 bugs are older than two years! Bug triaging
DescriptionBasically triage is QA, managing bugs. Also, it makes users and developers happy.
GNOME methodology
Bugzilla is the bug DB; mature product, old and clunky there is a mailing list, gnome-bugsquad at gnome.org #bugs on GIMPnet How do I triage bugs?
Join the mailing list; read the triage guide on live.gnome.org Write comments, ask on IRC or the mailing list You can't get bug changing rights at the beginning; you have to say on the bugs what should happen and the dev is supposed to do it. Then when you've done that a few times you should ask on #bugs and get rights. "Real triagers have more points than they are years old". (Note: marnanel has 17) What do you do when you're triaging?
Be nice, friendly, happy Answer early, often Method
Adjust metadata; ask for stack trace; analyse it; look for dupes (use SDF); rename bug to include function, filename, location. Watch out for modules that don't like being triaged. | |
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