Simply replace [code] with another subject.

Learning [code] was my way of solving a problem. If your problem can be solved by [code], then learn it. If not, don't.  Don't learn [code] just because you think you should learn [code].  Don't let anyone make you learn [code] if it isn't going to help you solve a problem.

Now go and reform the education system so that we teach our children how to choose the right tool to solve a problem, and not how to pass tests.

What do you think?

What are the pros and cons?

Some ideas for you…

• have lots of easily identifiable public art sculptures that can act as meeting spaces.
• number the squares in the square so that people can find a square stand in it and tell their friends to meet them at that square. could be the basis of some rather interesting games too…
• street furniture that can be tweeted to provide identifiable meeting places

Blog in Blog: breakdown of versions in the wild

Looking at the download statistics for my WordPress Plugin Blog-in-Blog, (over 15,000 downloads so far whooo!) I see that WordPress is now giving me a breakdown of which versions are still out and running in the wild.  This is interesting.  Most people are using a more up-to-date version – but only just.

I wonder if the picture reflects a quarter of internet users who are always (perhaps obsessively) updating their plugins; a quarter who regularly update their plugins, and the rest who may or may not update plugins.

There’s actually probably a hundred and one reasons why people aren’t using the latest version. If it’s because you are having issues with a new version, then let me know and I will fix it!

What would students do with open data from academic institutions?

What would academics do with open data from academic institutions?

What would administration staff do with open data from academic institutions?

In each case the answer  will be different.

Students will probably want to see where courses are held, and what other extra curricular activities the institution offers or is close to. They may also want to compare their progress against their peers at other universities while they are there. This last idea could provide positive reinforcement in provision of quality teaching.

Academics are primarily interested in a couple of linked questions.  What Is new in my field?  How much stuff have I published in my field and how does that  contribute to the research counts of my department?

Administration staff would probably want to smooth the wheels of tracking a student’s progress through the university.  Which course they are on, who is paying their fees and when, any other status of the system. Not sure if there is any way in which they will want to share information openly? there must be something they wished that they could know easily…

After about 2000 miles on the Dahon Vitesse D7, it was time to get a new bike. The Dahon had it’s fair share of problems. The frame split where the seat post frame tube met the cross tube – luckily within warranty, so a new frame was fitted. The wheels on the Dahon where very poor.  On average a spoke broke on the rear wheel every three to four weeks.  Eventually I had the rear wheel rebuilt with new spokes.

Of course there was all the usual stuff with chains wearing and the like… but that is normal for a bike that does 8 miles a day four day’s a week. So the Dahon is being retired to ‘second bike’ for use in emergencies.

So, what about the new bike?

I am now a proud owner of a Birdy Touring bike.

This bike has 24 gears, nicely distributed from very low (hill climbing will be so much easier!) to pretty high. One of the things that I found with the Dahon was that there was not enough high end in the gears, and I was quickly at top speed, with a feeling that I could have gone further. The new bike has by contrast a massive high end in the gears. I topped 42 mph on the flat – with a tail wind!

It has full suspension using a combination of elastomer (rear) and spring/elastomer (front). And on a canal tow-path trip which varied from very uneven brick to muddy pools, it coped well.

It is fully kitted out with mudguards and Pannier racks (front and back).

And of course it folds.

I went to collect a book I had reserved at my local Wolverhampton Library, and as I had the item issued, I was offered a free tea bag.

Bemused; politely; I said no, thank you, I don’t drink tea.

P.S. Wolverhampton Libraries, why can’t I reserve a book on-line if it is NOT on loan? quite often I would prefer you to send the book to my local library if it is in the Central Library on the shelf. And I know your system could do it!

Feature requirements:

• Should only move a file if it has been edited. (we assume that the filesize will have changed by at least 1 byte!)
• Should not just sit there copying all the time.
• Should find out about all files in the specified directory.
• Should report when it updated the file and which file was updated
• First run should copy all files to the destination directory. (assumes I have updated my working copy from svn)

So after several attempts, here is a more polished version which stores the filename and the last size of the file in a ‘bash hash’. OK bash doesn’t have hashes (mores the pity) but reading around on the web I found this post with a comment from Scott Mcdermott which does the job nicely (once I had stripped offending characters from the file names).

So here is the full code of the deployment assistant:

#!/bin/bash
# script to deploy code from SOURCEDIR to DELIVERDIR 

PROJECTNAME="blog-in-blog"
SOURCEDIR=blog-in-blog/trunk
DELIVERDIR=/var/www/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/blog-in-blog/
FILENAMES=blog-in-blog/trunk/*
LASTFILESIZE=0
COUNTER=1

echo "======================================================"
echo -e "delivering changes \n\tin \033[1m$SOURCEDIR\033[0m \n\tto \033[1m$DELIVERDIR\033[0m"
echo "======================================================"		

if [ -z $1 ]
then
	echo "usage$  $0 "
	exit 1
fi

hash_insert ()
{
	local name=$1 key=$2 val=$3
	eval __hash_${name}_${key}=$val
}

hash_find ()
{
	local name=$1 key=$2
	local var=__hash_${name}_${key}
	echo -n ${!var}
}

while true
do
	for FILE in $FILENAMES
	do
		FILESIZE=$(stat -c%s "$FILE")

		#tidy up file to avoid problems in variable name
		FILE=`basename $FILE`
		FILEORIG=$FILE
		FILE=`echo "$FILE" | sed 's/[\.\_-]//g'`

		LASTFILESIZE=`hash_find fileHash $FILE`
		#echo "filesize:"$FILESIZE
		#echo "lastfilesize:"$LASTFILESIZE
		if [ "$FILESIZE" != "$LASTFILESIZE" ]
		then
			echo "--- $COUNTER ---------------------------------------"
			date
			echo -e "deploying \033[1m$FILEORIG\033[0m from project $PROJECTNAME"
			echo "Size was $LASTFILESIZE bytes, now $FILESIZE bytes."
			cp $SOURCEDIR/$FILEORIG $DELIVERDIR
			hash_insert fileHash $FILE $FILESIZE
			UPDATE=1
		elif [ "$UPDATE" -ne "1" ]
		then
			UPDATE=0
		fi
	done

	if [ "$UPDATE" = 1 ]
	then
		echo "======================================================"
		let COUNTER+=1
		UPDATE=0
	fi

	sleep $1
done
#ends

Basically I wanted to be able to use my DV camera to take single frames, which could then be rolled into a finished video.

A little shell script follows, which does just what I need, using dvgrab and ffplay.

#!/bin/bash
# script to take a shot with DV camera

count=1
calldir=`pwd`
wrapdir='wraps'

function help_me
{
echo -e "HELP!"
echo -e "h - shows this help!"
echo -e "s - takes a shot"
echo -e "p - shows a preview of all the shots so far"
echo -e "w - writes the shots to a wrap file in ./$wrapdir"
echo -e "q - quits\n"
}

help_me

if [ ! -d $calldir/$wrapdir ] ; then
mkdir $calldir/$wrapdir || exit
fi

while [ "$ans" != "q" ]
do

echo -e "I'm waiting for instructions:(h|s|p|w|q)"
read -sn1 ans

if [ "$ans" = "h" ] ; then

help_me

elif [ "$ans" = "s" ] ; then

echo -e "grabbing a frame"
dvgrab --every 25 --duration 1 2>/dev/null
echo -e "grabbed $count\n\a"

count=$(($count+1))

elif [ "$ans" = "p" ] ; then

echo -e "Preview"
cat $calldir/*.dv | ffplay -
echo -e "Preview ended"

elif [ "$ans" = "w" ] ; then

echo -e "Wrapping up"
echo -e "Creating in in $calldir/$wrapdir"
echo -e "Enter filename for wrap:"

read filename

cd $calldir/$wrapdir || exit

cat $calldir/*.dv | dvgrab -stdin --format dv2 $filename 2>/dev/null

clear

# reset count after wrapping file
count=1

echo -e "Tidying up last wrap: deleting $calldir/*.dv"
rm $calldir/*.dv

echo -e "Preview wrap"
ffplay $calldir/$wrapdir/$filename*
echo -e "Preview wrap ended"

cd $calldir || exit

elif [ "$ans" = "q" ] ; then

echo -e "Quitting...\n"
exit

fi

done

A Day In The Life.