use Perl

I have penguins with chicks in my back yard.

(Yes, I love this job.)

Best Obituary Ever. That is all.

So this week, as well as various tasks involving a shovel and a mountain of snow I've banged out an electronic logbook and a system for ordering and accounting for beverages.

The trouble, as there must be some, is that Class::DBI, Template, DateTime, CGI, CGI::Ajax and Log::Log4perl (not forgetting sqlite) make this far too easy, so I spend all of my time and energy writing HTML and CSS for prettiness.

You know you've been a little too heroic with a one liner when you realise you should have used more modules:

perl -MDateTime -wne'next if $_ lt "2006 04"; m{2006 (\d+) (\d+) \d+ \d+ \d+\.\d+ (-?\d+.\d+)} or next; my $dt = DateTime->new(year=>2006, month=>$1, day => $2); my $t = +$3; my $d = $days{$dt->day_of_year} = $days{$dt->day_of_year} || {}; $d->{min} = min($dt->{min}, $t); $d->{max} = max($d->{max}, $t); $d->{sum} += $t; $d->{cnt}++; sub min {$_[0] ? ($_[0] < $_[1] ? $_[0] : $_[1]) : $_[1]}; sub max {$_[0] ? ($_[0] > $_[1] ? $_[0] : $_[1]) : $_[1]}; END {foreach (sort {$a <=> $b} keys %days) {print "$_,$days{$_}{min},$days{$_}{max},".($days{$_}{sum}/$days{$_}{cnt})."\n"}}' < mawson.data

Thankfully it worked

I've been playing with the microsoft downloads of MS VC++ and have finally fiddled my way to compiling and installing DateTime (there isn't a PPM as one of the Infinate tests fails).

And, it wasn't so bad:

I installed three MS things: The full platform SDK (available as an ISO download), the free Visual C toolkit, and the dot net redistributable - although I'm not certain I really needed that.

Add in an ActiveState perl then perl Makefile.PL. Then edit the Makefile to use libcmt.lib rather than msvcrt.lib, and make, make install. All rather too simple...

http://p6.hostingprod.com/@ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2006/001232.html

Er, no. Web2.0: for all your blog searching photosharing social
nerdworking needs. Find out who's out to get you, out to get people
like you, where they are and WHAT THEY'RE BUYING.

I predict that none of the following will become global superstars or
last beyond the next media droolfest:

Goowy: Portal meets calendar, one less ! than Yahoo.
  Email: "Through a fun and unique interface"
  Leveraging web technologies to make you live2.0.
http://classic.goowy.com/index.aspx

Kaboodle: price compare WITH YOUR FRIENDS!
  Shopping: made social
  Soapstone hippos and Halter Tops - Memes you can shop for!
http://www.kaboodle.com/

Loomia: podcasts in YOUR EARS in YOUR FACE
  Radio you never knew you needed to hear.
  Media seach that google will do better.
http://www.loomia.com/

Meetro: people you don't know are near you!
  Stalking with a technical twist.
  No spyware! No adware! No purpose! No point!
http://www.meetro.com/

Riya: blackmail was never so much fun!
  Pictures of friends, pictures of foes, never forget to frame a face again!
  Orwell in your own home.
http://www.riya.com/

Sphere: "in stealth mode"
  Searching blogs because you need to waste time in a timely fashion.
http://www.sphere.com/

Tailrank: power to the law!
  Blogs you won't read but ordered by us

Wink: nudge nudge THEY'RE LYING TO YOU but we won't because you don't.
  See what paranoics like YOU are fearing TODAY.
http://www.wink.com

Writely: what you see is what we web
  Trust us, they're your thoughts!
  Tell your friends, force them into our clunky interface.
http://www.writely.com

Bubbleshare: You have bubbles, they want bubbles, share your bubbles!
  Photo store and share because someone has to.
  Not that anyone else thought of this, no.
http://www.bubbleshare.com

Dogster: Dogs need Blogs too!
  No, they really don't.
http://www.dogster.com/

Flock: because firefox, oh, yeah, SIMPSONS ALREADY DID IT
http://www.flock.com/

So the world is about to end: hard core technology information giant O'Reilly goes all Cosmopolitian. Promises future articles on Hand Creams at your Keyboard and Summer romance with my iPod and his zServer cluster.

In other news, I've arrived in Antarctica, but broken my leg. Hopping about on snow in a blizzard puts subtle confusions in other people's perl into perspective... Halley.pm is in formation, and davorg will soon have to change his slides.

The plan

Some Science

I have another new toy (this is like Christmas), the initial results are pleasing pictures but much room for improvement remains.

Cleve Hill Captured

Journal transitioning to http://the.earth.li/~alex/halley/halley.rss

So, Better Living through Biscuits. A new plan for social reform bringing forth benefits of time and convenience for all. The principle is simple, but highly effective. Biscuits (as you might have predicted) are to be deployed for the improvement of the Common Good...

Consider: At the airport waiting for boarding to be announced. Aside hundreds of others you slump patiently in your seats. The plane is called. The mass leaps forth to stay in line for minutes, to stand and queue a little more.

Consider: Your flight has landed. You arrive in the baggage hall. You crowd still and silent around still silent conveyers. Jerking into motion, you still stand, craning glances past a forest of necks as clattering nothing passes your position. A bag! Yours? You cannot see, cannot be sure. Too late! Not yours but his as he presses past, grabbing, grunting and swinging his precious piece against your leaden legs. Patiently bruised you stand your ground while brown bags bang their tattered way around.

Better: Sit and stay away from the door. Relax until the line grows short. Join the end at the line's beginning and get a biscuit.

Better: Stand back until you spy your case. Approach the belt at a gentle pace. Leave a good amount of space and get a biscuit.

And, of course, I've been busy: Firstly, and most importantly, I now have a place to live in Cambridge. I am therefore a happier bunny and more able to concentrate on getting finished up here properly. Currently this involves a hideous Heisenbug, a BBQ at the weekend, a pub here and a walk in the country there. This week's weather has been pretty good, with clear evenings and dramatic sunsets behind the Malverns.

On the down side my dentist is being useless, not only going on holiday directly after I first went to see him but rescheduling my appointments once he'd come back two weeks further into the future, making it unlikely that my teeth will be through with him before I have to move on. Grrrr.