Planet Shengsters

• The EveryBlock source code
  The everyblock source code – good to read, if nothing else
  (tags: python django coding reference local everyblock map)
• pypants
  Just how good is your code? Is it briefs or is it pants? (in this case pants is a good thing!)
  (tags: tools review coding python quality codereview)
• Welcome to Aviary
  Stick any url after http://aviary.com (e.g. http://aviary.com/http://www.offmessage.com)
  (tags: web tools flash capture screengrab browser render)
• Upgrade Complete!
  Meta game – upgrade the game as you play
  (tags: flash games)

The painting featured on the cover of The Stone Roses is titled Bye Bye Badman, as is one of the songs on the record. Both the song and the painting are about the May 1968 riots in Paris, which explains why the tri-colours of the French flag are featured on the cover.

I did not know that.

• Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List | Newsweek Books | Newsweek.com
  Newsweeks collection of lots of top-100 lists combined into one.
  (tags: books)

I have a new project.

I have been wittering about La Roux for a while and now - finally - the eponymous album is released. OK, it's not actually out until Monday but there's this thing called the Internet...

So, having seen the savaging that the Little Boots LP took a few weeks ago, it might have been whispered that the kooky 80s lady synth pop revival championed by Radio 1 et al at the end of 2008 might be over before it has really begun. However, there is a lot here to shout about, not least Elly's soaring (others might say strident but I disagree) voice and the apparent return of the well-crafted song. The arrangements are deliberately simplistic (think 1981/82 Depeche Mode) but none the worse for that; a whole host of remixers have pounced on the space left around the vocals and created some amazing club tracks which have clearly helped to keep La Roux from the 'sharks' for the moment.

Apart from the singles 'Quicksand', 'In For The Kill' and out-now 'Bulletproof', the stand out track (and if it were me, obvious next single) is 'Tigerlily', even with the hammy vampiric spoken-word middle eight (from Elly's dad, apparently). But the rest is not filler; 'Fascination' has a fantastic earworm chorus hook and if we don't see 'Armour Love' given the South London dubstep treatment in the next six months I'll eat my blog. Definitely worth investigating.

• Jazkarta cooks up a new Plone site for Oxfam America | Jazkarta Blog
  Really interesting list of add on products that were used in the Oxfam America site
  (tags: coding plone reference python product oxfam jazkarta)

• Resource Expert Droid
  Very handy looking utility for analyzing HTTP response headers.
  (tags: web http rest testing caching)

• Conflicting Z-Index in IE6 at Advanced CSS Design Resources – last-child.com
  Another guide to the z-index bug in IE6
  (tags: web css ie bugs coding debugging z-index)
• IE z-index bug
  How to deal with the dreaded z-index bug in IE6
  (tags: web css ie bugs coding debugging z-index)
• Archetypes: Fields, Widgets and Validators
  The latest reference for Archetypes widgets, fields and validators
  (tags: reference plone archetypes coding python zope field widget validator)
• RED: Resource Expert Droid
  Extraordinarily useful tool to analyse the HTTP responses from web servers – caching, partial content, encoding, expiry, the lot
  (tags: coding tools testing http rest cache validator)

• Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment » Nieman Journalism Lab
  Fascinating article on how to do crowdsourcing
  (tags: python opensource crowdsourcing journalism)

On Sunday Theo really did start walking. Taking a leaf from Freyja's book - who chose Caroline's baby shower to start walking - he decided Adrian's cricket game in Victoria Park was just the place to get going.

Here he is in action:


He's starting to say a few things now too. He's got a good line in animal noises - he moos, quacks, buzzes and makes monkey noises. And says 'Daddy'. Of course.

For dulwichmum, who lamented the loss of her boy's fat knees....

Theo still has big, chubby, baby legs (I was actually quite alarmed when I first saw this photo).

But I looked through old baby videos of Freyja today and wondered where the time had gone.

Now then my lovely readers. I am going to take a break from writing this here blog. For at least a month. I'm sorry. It has to be done.Two reasons. One: I am broke. I lost my income recently when our lodger ran off with some woman he met from the Internet, so I need to write some sort of trashy fiction under an assumed name to get some money coming in. Or sell Ian's used panties to Japanese

• Annabel Croft: Why I have come to rely on homeopathic medicine - Telegraph
  Dangerous nonsense.
  (tags: woo homeopathy)

Yes, it was as weird as it sounds:

"No, it's too reflective; I'm going to have to move your grapes."

• OneMoreLevel.com – Fat Slice
  Quite enjoyable little puzzler – worth a 5 minute diversion, anyway
  (tags: flash games)
• Tales of the Rampant Coyote: The Black Triangle
  ..or "how do you explain that that really simple thing on your screen is absolutely awesome and worth the month it took you"
  (tags: coding business agile iteration1)

The record industry may well be dead (or so they say), but there are some fine ideas being tested out at the moment…

Mos Def is selling t-shirts that come with download codes for his latest album, while The Flaming Lips are selling gig tickets that come with a download code for a ‘bootleg’ taken from the mixing desk on the night you went (quoted from their latest mailer):

the bundle will come with a ticket to see the band live along with an exclusive online digital EP that will contain 3 songs from the upcoming record – “Convinced of The Hex,” “The Impulse,” and “Silver Trembling Hands” plus three additional rare b-side tracks that we’ve selected. In addition to the ep, the bundle includes a digital download bootleg of the same show that you attend, which will be available after the show.

I have to say the Lips idea is awesome – I’m always on the look out for bootlegs, and to get one from the night I was there? well…

Do we need a single place where all the UK’s TV VOD is aggregated?

Following the demise of Kangaroo, rumours abound as to the imminent entry to the UK of would-be aggregators such as Hulu and YouTube .

Meanwhile I’m really enjoying the work of 123webTV, Tanktop TV and Teev.co.uk (and doubtless others), all of whom enable discovery of all 4oD, iPlayer and ITV Player content by aggregating not content but metadata.

• Download Speedball 2 – Brutal Deluxe | abandonia
  Just one screenshot and I am transported back to University. Marvellous.
  (tags: games dosbox spedball2)
• LESS – Leaner CSS
  Neat little Ruby thing that gives CSS a more developer like feel – variables, operations, macros and a more natural (for developers) selector syntax. Shame about the Ruby bit, of course, but an interesting application nonetheless. Kind of like I want CSS to be natively, really.
  (tags: coding design css tools framework)

Theo took his first little steps today - just two, in the kitchen, this evening before bed time.

• SWFUpload jQuery Plugin : Adam Royle
  Very neat little implementation of a jQuery plugin for SWFUpload, tying it beautifully into the jQuery way of doing things. Well useful.
  (tags: coding javascript jquery swfupload flash upload file)
• Django and multiple methods per url pattern
  Nicely. A nice way to handle HTTP verbs in Django – another step along the ReSTful road.
  (tags: coding python django rest reference)

• FAST GAMES – Little Wheel
  Intriguing, rather arty, puzzler.
  (tags: flash games)

There are some things in life to which you want to be first.

Oh my God, I've loved this weekend, getting up and finding an inbox full of ghost stories two days running, having to restrain myself until my coffee was made and Esme was silenced with enough breakfast to let me read them in peace. Thank you for your stories: thank you for making my morning coffee-with-Internet so much better than usual.I envy those of you that have had very real ghostly

The epitomy of restraint:

"I don't really like Krispy Kreme donuts. Apart from the plain ones. With the icing"

• neo4j open source graph database »
  Graph database for java, stores, well, graphs.
  (tags: software framework java database graph)
• Cryptographic Right Answers
  A long list of good practice in use of cryptography.
  (tags: security crypto)

• RepRap: Blog: RepRap wins at Bath University
  I didn’t have to say much. When asked what was interesting about the project I said “It’s going to change the world”. She was taken aback a little, so I rammed it home: “Honest.” I said. I was then asked to summarise the work in two sentences. I looked at the ceiling for a while. “Currently we ship consumer items from the other side of the planet because we do not have the ability to make things for ourselves. The RepRap project seeks to put manufacturing power into the hands of the people by delivering a manufacturing technology which can self-replicate.”
  (tags: reprap)
• Astrogator’s Logs » Blog Archive » “Keeping an Open Mind Is a Virtue, but not so Open that Your Brains Fall Out.”
  Excellent response to the popular loony buddhist stuff that seems to be floating around futurism. Well, ok, it's mostly George Dvorsky, but still.
  (tags: futurism buddhism woo religion science)
• Barbecuing Burgers
  Looks like the best possible recipe and technique for making and cooking burgers on the BBQ.
  (tags: food)
• YouTube - How to Cut a Mango
  How to slice a mango. Mangoes are really surprisingly hard to cut up, and can get really messy.
  (tags: food)

I had an unusual thought for a blog post while I was making coffee this morning. I thought: I'll write about the houses I've lived in that were supposed to be haunted. I love a good ghost story, and I can ask my readers what ghosts they've seen and yes yes it'll be brilliant. The first blog I read this morning with my coffee was ELOHSSANATAHW and bugger me, her new blog post was on exactly the

• Home | OpenCalais
  Pass it any text and get semantic information back. Free API for low volumes. Nice tight integration with Drupal.
  (tags: tools api webservice analysis semantic metadata calais rdf)

• Hemlock
  XMPP and Flash framework for multiuser applications.
  (tags: web flash xmpp jabber framework)

For a moment there I was a bit worried about the new service from 118800, whereby they provide directory enquiries (of a sort) for mobile numbers as well as land lines.

Essentially they search for the person you want, and if they find a mobile number for them they text that mobile, asking the recipient to contact you (and you pay a quid for the pleasure).

My first thought was an irrational one, along the lines of “but my mobile number’s private, how dare they intrude?”  On further analysis though…

• I can just ignore the text (if I ever received one)
• I doubt any directory of mobile numbers will ever have my number in it
• Anyone wanting to contact me has exactly two clicks to find me anyway

What is more interesting is the fact that it is unthinkable that the system might give out your mobile number. We seem to have finally got to a place where who knows our number is actually something that we control, rather than the service providers. Compare that to the horror of domestic land lines (TPS or not) and it’s a giant leap forward.

(Oh, and as @dtt101 pointed out, that “make the text dark” button was clearly the result of weeks of design arguments. Classy!)

• My Own Hat: The Pinball Principle
  "The developer ends up responsible for not just managing their own development practises, but managing their clients through the process also."
  (tags: agile coding business)

Dean Ryan leaves Gloucester. Given 7 years of big budgets, big name players and no silverware (not forgetting the  countless drubbings in crunch games) it’s no surprise. I guess the utter embarrassment at the hands of the Blues at the end of last season was the final nail.

The only question is… can Redpath do better?

• Styling buttons to look like links | Natalie Downe
  (tags: web rest buttons css html)

I found out today that Nick Griffin has a glass eye. It's the one foreign body he's ok with.

Then I remembered that Gordon Brown is blind in one eye.

Tony Blair of course has a mad eye, as picked up on by Steve Bell .

Charles Kennedy's eyes were not always in focus.

John Major had a roving eye.

David Blunkett: blind since birth.

David Cameron: blind ambition.

Any more?

After ten minutes' slow trundling through small and unimpressive fish, listening to piped ambient music - because the ocean sounds just like choirs, pianos and tubular bells - we arrive at the sharks. Esme has been asking for the sharks since our arrival. She has forgotten that the point of the trip was to show her a live octopus, which is good, because we can't find one. If pressed, I shall buy

On Sunday Channel 4 issued a press release explaining that the 4oD Archive will soon be joining 30 day Catch-Up on Channel4.com and that the 4oD Application will be closing.

The National Press loved the story which was very generous of them.

But, in explaining to their readers the appeal of being able to watch programmes from the Channel 4 archive on demand, which programmes did they single out as being noteworthy?

The Sun keeps it simple, plumping for Father Ted, Teachers and Shameless.

The Telegraph also goes for Father Ted but is strictly in it for the laughs, adding Drop the Dead Donkey and (controversial!) Brass Eye.

The Mirror chooses Trigger Happy TV, Drop the Dead Donkey and - hey, hey - Queer as Folk. Nice. I shall be endorsing The Mirror from here on in because they reckon we have "leapfrogged iPlayer". Just like that. LOL. I'd like to thank God, my agent, the tech team ...

BBC News (ok so not a Newspaper but Online it sort of is) is looking forward to catching up on Shameless, Ali G and, yep, Father Ted. Who can blame them? They need a laugh. Oh wait - and Queer As Folk, Teachers, Brass Eye, Trigger Happy TV and "axed soap" Brookside! Have they not got work to do?

The Daily Mail. Father Ted and Shameless get the standard mention but The Mail's pretty focused on reliving "the first lesbian kiss being broadcast before the 9pm watershed". It's that episode of Brookie! You'd expect nothing less. The user Comments quickly get on to the heated and irrelevant topic of why honest tax-paying Daily Mail readers should have to pay a license fee. Disgrace!

The Guardian covered the story first out of everyone. Thank you The Guardian. They plump for Brass Eye, The Camomile Lawn (ah .. clever) and, like everyone else, Father Ted. Unsated, they also reference Queer As Folk, Shameless, Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Ali G, Teachers, Location Location Location and Grand Designs. Get in, square-eyed Guardianistas! Best and most poe-faced user Comment concerns "the myth of free Television online". The author worries that it takes more electricity to watch TV on a laptop than on a TV ...

Nothing in The Metro and Evening Standard that hasn't already been said. And?

And at The Times they're far too busy with real News to be bothered with such trifles. Or else their site search isn't very good. Not sure which.

In summary: British newspapers are mostly into comedy and homosexuality.

• flixel
  Oooh. The library behind some really lovely 2D platformers is made Open Source. Lovely, lovely.
  (tags: coding tools actionscript flash games library flex)

• 99designs » Leading Designer Marketplace for Logo Designs and More…
  Logo design marketplace
  (tags: web design logo graphics)

• Paste here: Installing Django, Solr, Varnish and Supervisord with Buildout
  Buildout recipe for Django, Solr, varnish et al. I still hate buildout, despite Plone's reliance on it. Useful to see such a complex set up though – maybe there are nuggets in there.
  (tags: reference buildout recipe)

Sometime around Christmas, I started mentioning the Dummy Fairy - in case you aren't aware, this is the fairy who comes and takes away dummies, leaving a present behind. At 3 and a half Freyja still has a dummy at night. This doesn't bother me - it is restricted to upstairs and she only uses it at night and when we're lounging around in bed on the weekends. I occasionally bring up the Dummy Fairy but haven't really pushed it. But today Freyja informed me that she wanted the Dummy Fairy to come tonight. In fact, she was absolutely insistent - so her 3 blue dummies have been left outside her bedroom door. I feel rather alarmed by the whole thing - I've realised that she is not the only one who has been reluctant to give up the dummy. Whether it's the fact that it is one more sign that she is less my baby, or I'm just nervous about if she is actually going to be able to sleep with out it, I'm not sure. A bit of both I suspect.

I kept saying that she didn't have to do it, and she could even get up and take them back if she changed her mind - the Dummy Fairy would understand. But she was pretty insistent, despite being obviously upset, and it was rather heartbreaking to listen to her saying 'I just wasn't to go to sleep' as she lay in her bed, dummy-less for the first time. I tucked her in and told her she was very brave - she obviously has a lot more willpower than her mother -I was ready to stuff that dummy back in her mouth at the first sign of her wavering.

It remains to be seen as to whether she will last the night. I'm fully expecting to go back up and find at least one dummy removed from the little pile.

• Airline Seating Charts – Best Airplane Seats – SeatGuru
  Find the best seats on the plane.
  (tags: tools fly seats travel airline aeroplane reference)

• The Translated Man by Chris Braak (Book) in Science Fiction & Fantasy
  "Only a drug-addicted detective and a young man with a gift for mathematics have the means to solve an enigmatic murder"
  (tags: books lulu)
• Testing WSGI Application with Urltest | Morethanseven
  Test tools for WSGI applications – uses webtest – "makes it easy to send test requests to that application, without starting up an HTTP server"
  (tags: coding python wsgi django testing tools)

Thank you to Fourstar, who posted this on his blog earlier this week as being a typical day in the Cornwell household. He has no idea how right he is. Except he does. He's been to this house plenty of times and found Ian filling a doorway in just this stance and this uniform, saying this kind of thing and looking exactly like this.In fact it was only last weekend that Ian found a thing wrong with

• Project Potpourri: Infocard: Useful Knots
  Printable wallet sized card of useful knots
  (tags: knots lifehacks)

So Big Brother 10 is here. Having glanced at the 'incarceration show' last night, it would appear that the usual fatuous characters have been selected, perhaps with a more international flavour, but ticking all the same boxes. As Meg Pickard succintly puts it:

Why would I want to watch the tedious antics of a bunch of people of limited intelligence and entertainment value who I neither know nor care about? I can do that every day on the bus.

Still, whilst they used to make a fortune out of charging people to gawp at the lunatics in Bedlam, Channel 4 must know the cash cow is on its last legs. I still think the best idea is to allow in anyone who desperately wants to be in the house, then switch the cameras and microphones off and leave quietly by the back exit. See how long they last; I'd pay to watch that.

Utter genius from Terence Kawaja.

The awful truth of the crunch facing conventional approaches to advertising and media .. sugar coated.

"Bye bye those big upfront buys .. Tech has taken us for a ride"

I just love this photo of Jacob and Freyja who suddenly appeared as Batman and his sidekick, while we were visiting on Sunday.

I still get a thrill seeing my kids playing with my friends kids - those same friends who I used to go out with for mad all night (and all day) parties...

I spent yesterday lying around in the sun, in Highbury Fields. The weather has been glorious lately, which goes a long way towards explaining why this blog has been neglected for almost a fortnight. As I sat on the grass yesterday, from time to time I noticed a vibration in my shorts pocket. I thought it was my phone, then I remembered I'd lost it and the new phone isn't on vibrate setting yet.I

• Extending the Django Admin Interface : Tom Smith’s: theOTHERblog
  How to extend the Django admin interface.
  (tags: python coding django reference admin)
• httplib2 – Google Code
  Better HTTP library for python
  (tags: coding tools python http)

• Lifehacker - Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads - Lifehacker Pack 2009
  Really good list of windows software, if you are unfortunate enough to have to run Windows.
  (tags: windows)
• The City & The City: an interview with China Miéville
  Great interview with China Miéville, one of my all time favourite authors.
  (tags: books)

• Humongous Earthworms | forgetomori
  HUGE earthworms. oh yes.
  (tags: science worms)
• httplib2 - Google Code
  Pythonic HTTP Library that apparently doesn't suck
  (tags: python web http)
• THE FREEDOM NETWORK AUDIO PORTAL - Free & Easy Access to worldwide Broadcasts on Economics, Social Security, Policy and Strategy
  A metric assload of mp3s about economics, by some of the worlds leading economists.
  (tags: economics podcasts)

i tweeted this over the weekend, but having been singing it to myself since i discovered it, i felt it deserved a wider airing:

Pregnant Women are Smug from Erika Lindhome on Vimeo.

It's the work of garfunkel and oates who are a couple of jobbing actresses united by a sense of a humour. Their Worst song medley is also worth a listen. enjoy.

• Twitter and Copyright — “Twitterlogical: The Misunderstanding of Ownership”, by Brock Shinen, Esq.
  Tweets are not copyrightable (in the US at least), as you would expect.
  (tags: law copyright twitter)
• Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » Homeopathy: If you use it, chances are you don’t know what it really is
  Most people who use homeopathic medicines think they contain something other than water.
  (tags: homeopathy medicine woo)
• Security Fix - Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension
  I'm here to report a small side effect from installing this service pack that I was not aware of until just a few days ago: Apparently, the .NET update automatically installs its own Firefox add-on that is difficult — if not dangerous — to remove, once installed.

Annoyances.org, which lists various aspects of Windows that are, well, annoying, says "this update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for Web sites to easily and quietly install software on your PC."

Why We Believe Medical Myths | World of Psychology

Interesting trip through lots of myths that people believe in spite of the evidence. Two interesting ones that almost everyone believes (including me until now): there is no evidence that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day, and no evidence that sugar consumption makes kids hyperactive.

(tags: psychology medicine myths)

Awesome #BGT overheard just now:

"Come on, Susan Boyle's on next..."
"...I've just got to watch these potatoes."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, sums up the state of Saturday night television.

I smelled a Man Scent that I really liked a few days ago: in Korres, that wonderful shop full of toiletries from Greece that look and smell incredible.Ian has never been an aftershave man, for which I am terribly grateful. All men's scents remind me of cheap drunken secondary-school fumbles in 1988. But this, this smells of saffron and amber and cardamom and agarwood. Like incense, but not in a

I'll be the first to admit that I let my children watch too much TV. However, as part of my Work in Progress toward being a Better Mother, I have a range of (the usual) activities that I spring on them throughout the day. So we go to the library or the park, we bake cakes and biscuits, we read and draw and paint and dance. Then I feel slightly less of a Bad Mother when I do turn on CBeebies.

A lot of things we can do together, but the problem I've found with having a baby who isn't young enough to be entertained by just watching yet isn't quite old enough to join in, is that you just can't quite keep both your children happy at the same time.

Freyja particularly likes doing the crafty things - anything involving glue and she's happy. But entertaining Theo while I do this stuff with Freyja is not easy. He's just not quite at the arts & crafts stage - he does like to fish the chalk out from Freyja's easel, but that's because he likes eating it, not drawing with it. I usually end up giving him a range of toys to play with and singing various nursery rhymes, while simutaneously helping Freyja and looking interested in what she is doing, while keeping half an eye on what Theo has found on the kitchen floor, while stopping Freyja pouring the entire contents of the bag of glitter on the table, while clapping when Theo shows me how he can now stand, while cutting more pictures out of the catalogue....

Of course, what happens is that I give neither of them my full attention. And then I turn the telly on so I can have break. Like I said, it is Work in Progress...

Finally a creative use for the hundreds of Mini Boden catalogues I seem to get through the post:


We had a lot of fun doing this. I enjoyed it as much as Freyja did. Maybe even a little bit more...