Six Degrees - Weblog

We found something while developing Six Degrees...

I won't leave you in suspense; we found a development process that really works, the best that anyone on the team has experienced. The process that we use is a combination of adherance to the Joel Test and Extreme Programming (XP). Those two things plus our past experience and our willingness to adjust the process make what we have going now pretty powerful....

The next Faculty Review of the department in which I work takes place tomorrow. Faculty Reviews are conducted quinquennially and address Teaching, Research, Management, and Resource issues. They also undertake to identify, in collaboration with the department, likely developments during the next five years to get these onto the Faculty radar.

As a member of academic staff the main questions we need to ask ourselves to prepare for the review boil down to: "what are your tasks and how do you know you are doing a good job?" At first sight these seem simple enough questions. I'm pondering them now. It helps when I write these things down. Given that my answers don't need to be treated as confidential I might follow-up this post with them. However, I'm sure that the Faculty Review process and recommendations are confidential so please don't expect me to comment upon them.

O'Reilly Network: Windows XP from a Mac Perspective

Author's note: This is not an objective analysis of Windows XP. Instead, this article reflects a view of Microsoft's latest OS compared to my experiences with Mac OS X and Windows 98. Even though Mac OS X is my preferred operating system, I work in Windows too. Over the last few months I had grown really tired of Windows 98 and its oddities, so I placed my hopes in XP that it might deliver a better computing environment. Here's what happened...

XML.com: Second Generation Web Services

Claim: The next generation of web services will use individual data objects as endpoints. Software component boundaries will be invisible and irrelevant.

Otherwise known as "REST and be thankful!" ;-)

From three years ago - BBC News | UK | St Valentine remembered

If St Valentine's day proves nothing else it is that love can thrive in the unlikeliest of places.

And it does not come much more unlikely than a monastery in one of Scotland's most deprived inner city areas.

But friars at the church of Blessed St John Duns Scotus in Glasgow's Gorbals area have held a special Valentine's service on Sunday, putting on display what are thought to be the martyr's bones.

And they are hoping the relics could help make Glasgow Europe's city of love.

In fact, Glasgow has proclaimed itslef to be 'City of Love' and you can check out the Glasgow City Council - Web Cameras in George Square to see the huge fairground ferris wheel that's at the centre of the celebrations. If you look carefully, web cam #1 shows the red heart at the centre of the wheel Aah! ;-)

David Davies' Radio Weblog

You must take a look at Greg Smith's latest project [1]. He's working in an area that interests me greatly, Filemaker <-> Manila via RSS. He's done some terrific work on this latest site combining multiple FMP database search results using RSS as a common output format. What's particularly nice is the thought he's put into this demo web site with a well thought-out interface with explanatory notes. One tip, try searching fro 'smith' to get started. Check it out!

[1] Filemaker Pro Web Service : featuring FMPro Radio Userland & Manila

via hbwt - ZDNet: Story: How schools are tricked into using PCs--when Macs are better.

As you might expect this article provoked a flurry of messages in the talkback forum. Some of the most specious arguments supporting the use of PCs are based on the belief that "... school children should be taught on PCs because they are harder and less reliable than Macs. You acquire more understanding of computers and computing from solving these foulups than anything else, which can then be applied to any platform or application."

D'uh!

Update: Prompted by Brian's comments, Seth has come up with a perfect analogy that exposes the absurdity of the above claim.

The Register: SGI stays with MIPS at high-end

SGI has refreshed its high-end 64-bit MIPS line of high-end graphics servers, workstations and supercomputers with - a faster 64-bit MIPS line-up.

The SGI press release - SGI - Newsroom: SGI Introduces Faster Microprocessor Across Product Lines

via bbum's Radio Weblog - Web Entourage: Mac OS Scripting Solutions | BlogApp for Mac OS X

BlogApp for Mac OS X is here! Web Entourage is happy to announce a great new shareware application entitled BlogApp (download BlogApp). With great features like Edit Last Post and Spell Check as you type, BlogApp brings the most powerful method of posting to your weblog, and it's only on Mac OS X.

Hmm! Looks interesting. Will need to see if it works with Conversant's Blogger API. YADA-YADA! - Yet Another Displacement Activity - Yet Another Distraction Alas!

David B like my coining of the term 'RUG-rats' for fledgling Radio User Groups and their members. Calling them RUGs would have been the obvious choice but ever on the lookout for some tongue in cheek humour, I thought RUG-rats seems to be a perfect choice. For me it conjures up the vision of all us newbies still crawling around learning about Radio before we can stand on our own two feet ;-)

I wonder if there are any other Scottish Radio users out there?

On my way to/from work I walk past an art gallery with a large picture window. When the art gallery is open an indigo blue iMac sits in the corner in full view of passers-by. it looks cool and lends the gallery a certain air of sophistication!

When the gallary is closed, the iMac is 'hidden' from view by a 'shield' made from a cardboard box - presumably an attempt to make the corner look unattractive and unobtrusive and to deter smash and grab thieves. The delicious irony is that the cardboard packaging was used originally to ship a Dell PC and has "Dell' in huge letters written all over it B-} Even though I see this every day I leave work I can't help but chuckle at the sheer absurdity of it all!