WOKING

Arkell v Pressdram

2006-05-27T20:31:00.000+01:00

Today, Dave Sant is revising for his Law finals. That means a lot of tapping and frowning.. but there was one bit of chuckling, over this:

"I respectfully refer you to the reply in Arkell v. Pressdram

Must try to drop it casually into conversation...

hehehe "Peak of Inflated Expectations" - "Trough of Disillusionment" - "Plateau of Productivity"

2006-04-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

Today, I read about Gartner's Hype Cycle for new technologies here.

I thought that was mighty funny.

This image from Gartner scares me a bit - but you get the idea.

2006-04-19T18:08:00.000+01:00

Tories are not that desperate..

2006-04-19T17:41:00.000+01:00

I followed the link from that article about class below to "renewal" magazine; in this article: 'Putting class back into British politics', I quite liked this point:

"Time will tell whether Cameron can get his bandwagon rolling in way that locks dissenting voices into lasting silence. What can’t yet be detected in the Tory Party is the utter desperation Labour had after 1992 to do anything to win again. The reasons for this are important. Thatcherism saw its task as the dismantling of the apparatus of social democracy. Trade unions were attacked along with local government. Nationalised industries were sold off along with council houses. Life for the left was painful. Where and how has New Labour made life uncomfortable for the real forces of Conservatism? The ban on fox hunting is probably as bad as its gets."

I think he means:
* The tories won't tolerate Cameron's 'triangulation' move to the left, in the way that labour tolerated Blair's move to the right.
* It's not analogous because the tories are not as desperate as labour was in the early 90s, because.....
* because life for a tory under new labour isn't bad, and nothing that worries them is happening.

I think this is an interesting point - one I hadn't heard before. I'd been thinking that labour party tolerated Blair because they were desperate for power, because they wanted power per se, rather than because they were watching terrifying things happening.

Class and stuff

2006-04-19T17:29:00.000+01:00

Dave sent me this link today:

This nation of shoppers needs to talk about class, Neal Lawson, The Guardian

I agree that crap jobs as contract cleaners and in call centres are on the rise - replacing traditional manufacturing. Ie , the bad jobs are getting worse. I agree that there's a new super rich elite of bankers spraying champaigne, who are immute to taxes and revolting. But, I'm not sure what the evicence is for his claim that the middle class is shrinking. Are mangement jobs and public sector etc shrinking ?

I agree that it is blindingly obvious that class does exist, and is a problem (or, lack of social mobility is a problem). But he also, I think, wants to say that class is somehow the solution; I found this statement intriguing but sadly totally opaque:

"The alternative is to recognise class as part of the answer to how we change our world together....The emerging hourglass economy creates not just a swelling lump of poorly-paid service workers, but also a shrinking and insecure middle class, the effective organisation of which demands the rebirth of a trade unionism... "

Does he mean that the shrinking middle class are going to realise that they're shrinking, start their own trade unions, and that this would stop the alleged shrinkage? Or, does he mean the middle class is going to suddenly ride to the rescue of the contract cleaners by joining their unions? I don't get this at all - I'm not saying I don't agree - I'm not yet at the agree or disagree point - still at the 'whasat?' point...

lookeylikey

2006-03-24T00:33:00.000Z

.. it's all in the mullet...

All star cast on question time

2006-03-23T23:53:00.000Z

What an all star cast! Boris Johnson doing his charming messy hair thing, Tony Benn in full flow, complete with "when I met Lloyd George...", and everyone having to admit defeat to the formiddably clever and sensible Shami Chakrabarti.

.. oh and then, Mr Toad from the CBI...

Originally, I thought that the proposal to stop Blair selling peerages by having the state fund political parties was quite sensible. But Shami pointed out that state funding of politics is just plain chilling - our big 3 weren't founded by 'the state', but by ideas. None of the other panelists could do anything but concede and nod and try to somehow make out that that's what they'd meant all along....

I also thought Boris was quite brave to admit he'd made a mistake voting for the war, and David Laws was quite brave to be un-liberal on jilbabs at school.

So, the BBC have finally got around to making the videos available - click on the little video button on the right. They don't seem to have quite got the editing right though - there's about 3 minutes of other stuff before the program.. which just happens to be a Tory party political.. which is probably against the BBC's charter.. but there we go, it's a good start..

Questions for the LibDem candidates for Oxford East

2006-03-22T16:23:00.000Z

In the Lib party in Oxford East, we're having an election to decide who will be our candidate to run in the real election.. (it's all very democratic you know...) I've been electronically canvassed by two of the candidates.

These are the questions I've sent them:

National things:
---------------

If elected to parliament:

1. How would you vote (were there to be a vote) on taking action in Iran?

2. What would you do to enforce the Equal Pay Act?

3. Would you join a coalition with Labour? If so, what would be your conditions?

4. Would you join a coalition with the Tories? If so, what would be your conditions?

(I know 3./4. have been "banned" by the party - but it's an important question - if not *the* important question - and we have a right to expect an answer.)

Oxford things:
--------------

If elected:

1. What would you do to help young people in Oxford's deprived estates?

2. What would you do about the University's new Animal Lab / the protesters?

Unit Tests should test Units... so.. abandon private or what?

2006-03-22T15:13:00.000Z

In Evil Unit Tests, Paul Wheaton says that you should be picking on little independent units - it's supposed to be "unit" testing isnt' it! Tests that involve lots of pieces of the puzzle are really 'functional' tests - JUnit or no JUnit.

He says that functional tests aren't really as useful - they have fingers in too many pies - they tend to break as a result of changes some distance away.

I think I'm writing tests at the whole range of granularities, but it hadn't occurred to me that coarse ones might really be "functional" rather than "unit".

I think the not-being-able-to-test-private-methods thing might encourage (force?) people to write overly coarse grained ones too.

See the bit at thevery bottom - "I took out the keyword 'private',. In order to achieve testability, he's had to promote a method to package access. I have been doing that too, but feeling guilty about it..

a bit nifty..

2006-03-21T00:04:00.000Z

So.. the Google Maps API turned out to be well nifty.

I'm not a big fan of JavaScript (I remember the full horror of coding for Netscape 4.7..) That said, I read the docs, got a key, pasted the thing, it worked, it took minutes - can't complain. No getting, no xml parsing, all happens by magic. Nifty.

Posting javascript in blogger is another matter..!

I'm mulling over a "where is my polling station" mashup for the May elections.

Bumper sticker

2006-01-03T11:52:00.000Z

..arrived this morning.

Judge rules against ID

2005-12-20T18:00:00.000Z

Intelligent Design NOT to be taught in Pennsylvania after all - federal judge overrules.

previous post

a chocolate orange would have done..

2005-12-01T12:57:00.000Z

Where do you draw the line between being phenomenally rude, ungrateful, antisocial and Scrooge-like and acknowledging that most of us don't really need anything at all?

I know families who have found solutions. These are some consolation but, ultimately, a pathetic avoidance of the issue. Set a £5 limit (then you risk ending up buying something even tattier and more plasticky that really, truly, no one wants...

...The latest attempt to solve the problem comes in the form of the saintly 'Good Gifts' charity donation, which means you can give a goat to someone in Somalia... More from Observer

I couldn't agree more. Christmas presents for grown ups suck - clearly I don't need anything, nor do my family now we're all over 18.

I too considered giving my mum a goat, but fell out with the plan. Agree with Viv Groskop that it's a bit cheeky to give someone else's present(money) to charity, rather than your own. But to be honest, the main reason was that I just didn't quite have the strength to pull it off on christmas day when everyone else produced things in wrapping paper..

30,000 women lose job due to pregnancy.

2005-11-20T21:44:00.000Z

Maternity pay will shortly be extended from 6 to 9 months, with the right to turn part of it into paternity pay.

This is great news for those working for large companies or with strong trade unions.

But many employers are not complying with their *existing* statutory duties.

The Equal Opportunities Commission / Citizens Advice Bureau found that:

..each year 30,000 women are dismissed, made redundant or treated so badly that they decide to leave their job as a result of their pregnancy.

New maternity rights are all very well, but the problem is enforcement. CAB says that employers can get away with non compliance:

..in the knowledge that the Employment Tribunal process – the only means of enforcing most employment rights, - is unduly legalistic and adversarial, and thus extremely daunting, especially to pregnant women, new and lone parents, very young and elderly workers... etc

Every year, about one-third of all Employment Tribunal claims are withdrawn by the claimant before the case reaches a hearing, and research by the Department of Trade and Industry has found that in 51 per cent of such cases this is because the claimant considers there to be too much stress, difficulty, fuss or expense involved in continuing.

More from CAB briefing

Junit on private methods

2005-11-10T17:48:00.000Z

Sometimes, I want to write JUnit tests for private methods. I think it's legitimate to want to do this - especially if I'm writing the test first.

The options according to Bill Venners are:

1. Promote them to protected.
No, I agree with Bill that this is definitely *dirty*.

2. Use that 'PrivateAccessor.invoke' thing from junit-addons.
I don't like this. For one, I can't remember the syntax, for two, I can't bare to look at it it's so ugly. Passing method names as strings - Urrrch.

3. Put my tests inside the classes they test
No, that will make them too big, and I don't like scrollbars either.

4. Deny that I want to test them after all.
This is my boss Leigh's view. But I am unconvinced....

Here are some arguments for it:

Argument 1: if something is interesting and complex enough to be worthy of testing, then it should be moved into a new class and become public. (This is the JUnit official line too.)

But what about this:


public class ISSN{

    public ISSN(String issn){
        validate(issn);
        // other stuff
    }

    private void validate (String issn) throws Exception{

        removeHyphen(issn);
        doChecksum(issn);
    }

    private void doChecksum(String issn) throws Exception{

        // tricky looping and chopping stuff here
        // only 8 lines though
    }
    ....

- doChecksum does not belong in its own class, and does not need to be more public. But I do really want to test it. Not testing it will make me worry.

Argument 2: A complete enough suite of tests on public/protected/package scoped methods will end up testing all paths through the code anyway.

- True, BUT:
1. It's harder work to set up the test.
What about this:


public class ISSN{
    public ISSN(String issn, SomethingInconvenientToCreate foo){
        validate(issn);
        // other stuff
    }
    ...

2. It's harder to understand the test later.
I am a simple creature - i want tests for foo() to be called testfoo...(), and in them, I want to see calls to foo().. What's wrong with that? Life is hard enough.

The solution: ?? Hmm..

1. Sun magically deal with it.
2. Put tests inside testee classes - but get IDE to hide them. Ie, eclipse & co. magically deal with it.
3. ???

Slashing and chopping and planting

2005-11-10T17:41:00.000Z

I've been doing some gardening in this churchyard restoration project in East Oxford recently.

I would highly recommend it to anyone wondering how to escape telly on Saturday afternoons. Hacking at ivy is a good option if you're feeling guilty about not going to the gym. Bulb planting is nice and calm if you're worn out with that.

2-4 pm every Saturday.

No long term commitment required. No God stuff. Spades provided.

I even got a piece of home made cake last time - rocking.

Women earn 17.2% less

2005-11-10T13:31:00.000Z

...in the year to April 2005, women working full-time earned on average 17.2% less than their male colleagues more

previous post

Our bugs are not so bad after all..

2005-11-03T09:33:00.000Z

powergen bill for £59,000. This kind of thing makes me feel so much better about all the embarassing bugs I've been responsible for...

freaky

2005-10-27T21:24:00.000+01:00

Suppose a 6-foot tall man is walking around the world. How much further does his head travel than his feet?

(reminder: circumference = 2 pi r)

The European Constitution, digested

2005-10-26T17:45:00.000+01:00

"...The Constitution and law adopted by the Union institutions in exercising Competence conferred upon it by the Constitution shall have Primacy over the law of the Member States, though Member States shall be free to ratify their own internment Procedures for Asylum Seekers..."

;)

more

boring loop counters #2

2005-10-24T17:34:00.000+01:00

I am now bored with the shipping forcast.

From now on, personalities will be based on lyrics from popular tunes of the 90s.. in the right order.

for(int hip=0; hip<hop.length; hip++){
        Something hooray = hop[hip];
 for(int ho=0; ho<...

hip hop hooray, naughty by nature - listen

There should be a numeracy test

2005-10-19T16:41:00.000+01:00

"There should be a numeracy test," said Ann Widdecombe crisply. "If you can read an opinion poll, why are you voting for anyone except Ken Clarke?" more

...it still is not clear who is taking part or when the winner will be declared or who will decide it....

2005-09-28T22:44:00.000+01:00

Rare comedy in grauniad leader: ;)

The Conservative party has spent six months getting itself into a tangle and yesterday, with a bit of tugging from MPs and activists, pulled the knots even tighter. After devoting itself to a contest about how to run a contest, the party has settled on the strangest outcome it could find.

MPs and activists have both voted for new rules but not in sufficient numbers to implement them, which means they are stuck with a system they do not want.

This simply adds to the sense of a race without logic, one in which it still is not clear who is taking part or when the winner will be declared or who will decide it.
more

Power to the people

2005-09-23T12:19:00.000+01:00

Today, the Globe's application for a 3am license extension was turned down, due to the case against it made by the local residents.

The best thing about the whole thing was meeting more of our neighbours and all having something in common. Community rocks.

for(int germanBight=0; germanBight
2005-09-16T15:01:00.000+01:00
Death to boring loop counters.

Henceforth all the unloved variables formely known as "i" and "n" shall be given personalities from the Shipping Forecast.