How hot is it?

It is so hot that all the have gone south, and everyone has Windows open.

SORBS Sucks

SORBS is an anti-spam list that some email providers use. If you’re on their list, and you try send to someone behind a SORBS enabled server, your message will bounce.

Trying to get unlisted from SORBS is a very frustrating affair. Which I won’t get into.

The SORBS site has a few statements on it that will make you think. For example:

Warning:Whilst the Distributed Denial of Service attacks continue on SORBS it is impossible to retest your machines.

Note: Americans, the First Amendment does not apply outside of the USA, nor is it applicable, as it is to protect the individuals right to speak against a government's wishes. Nothing more, nothing less. SORBS has a right, and an obligation, to publish truthful information. Please take note, all information published on this site is an opinion of its owner based on reports and comments of the administrators. As this is an opinion you will find in law it is always truthful, regardless of whether the opinion is based on fact or fiction. Before offering threats of legal action try running this information past a competent lawyer who is experienced with a person's rights both in your country and internationally, it will help you save your time and money.

Note: Due to the continual selfishness or stupidity of some people, support tickets sent to the wrong queue will be deleted without being answered. Tickets submitted with the SORBS Support System are always sent into the correct queue.

Isn't what SORBS does illegal..?

I want to try my luck in the courts where do I send the papers..?

Just these last two FAQ entries alone tell me that Mr Matthew Sullivan, the creator and manager of this crazy system, is pissing off and frustrating more people than he is helping.

Note to Mr Sullivan: Don’t call me stupid. I’m not. But I am very frustrated with your Frankenstein.

This is one of those rare cases where I could support an Internet Police Force. Some people would say that the likes of AllOfMP3 and PirateBay are bad and should be terminated. But aren’t these sites ‘enablers’? They expose the technology to more people, and so ultimately create a larger market. SORBS on the other hand is a ‘preventer’. It is crippling legitimate email and other services from flowing.

There are more than a few anti-SORBS posting on the web. Just google for “sorbs sucks”. The people behind SORBS are generating negativity and need to change their model, or be terminated.

Here are a few suggestions of what they could do to become a credible organisation:

• Inform people when they get placed onto the lists. They only pick up “dubious” hosts when an email from that host passes one of their feeder servers, so they will have at least one live email address to inform of their decision to blacklist them.
  
• Re-write their support pages in simple English – no techie-speak. Even true techies may not know what they are talking about.
  
• Let themselves be bought out by a Google or a Microsoft. The ‘big-company’ lawyers would hopefully make sure the model is fair and reasonable to the general Internet population.
  
• Most importantly, they should respond to every query timeously and, where possible, politely by hand – ie: none of this automated response two weeks later crap.

If left unchecked, where will this ‘service’, or rather, similar even more obnoxious and obtrusive services that this idea will spawn, go? We don’t need this kind of stress.

Harrier jet crash near Oxford

A Harrier GR9, on its way to RIAT to be part of the static display, crashed into a road just north of Oxford last night. The pilot ejected safely, and no-one else was hurt.

This is the BBC news story about the crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/5177868.stm

This is about 2Km away from (my sister) Elaine’s place in Woodstock. Sturdy’s Castle is a great pub/restaurant where we have had quite a few good laughs.

(See the map of the area here)

Peta

I'm doing some work on Froogle, and uploaded the data file via FTP. When I checked on the file, I noticed the size is 13.2PB. That's not a size I've seen before.

Google's servers are quite big, as we know, but managing a 132000 000 000 000 000 byte file could get a little awkward. I suspect Notepad might have a little difficulty in opening it.

I was expecting my file to be a mere 320KB.

Abstraction

Joel on Software recently published an article about the Development Abstraction Layer.

As a summary, he says that developers should be isolated from the business. They should not have to concern themselves with any of the infrastructure or business processes superfluous to developing the programs that will make the company money.

Not once in his discourse does he use the word “productivity” though. Yet, ultimately this is what it’s really about. Developers cannot produce solid reliable code when they also have to think about changing lightbulbs, filling in timesheets, answering someone else’s phone calls, or if the network is operating optimally. Every interruption from the deep concentration required for creating complex systems knocks the developer back by hours. I used to estimate this setback was about 20 minutes, but from recent experience, it could take me up to an hour a time to get back into the mindset and pick up the train of thought.

A thread is a particular line of work to be done. In the game example, building an army will be one thread. Making sure that there is a balance of archers, swordsmen and musketeers is a sub-thread of that. When we refer to multi-tasking, we mean juggling the priority of all the threads and acting on them. Usually this will involve switching rapidly between the threads and sub-threads making sure each one gets the appropriate level of attention. In the game example, while being attacked, I have to move up troops to my line of defence, but also keep other essential services progressing.

Have you ever played an involving strategy game like Cossacks: Art of War or, even simpler, C&C Red Alert2? Consider all the threads you have to keep track of at any one time: farming and mining, exploration, defence, expansion, advancement up the progress tree, and the tactical and strategic military proceedings for defeating your enemy. Each of those have as many sub-threads as there are little men on the playing board. Neglect any one, and the chance of victory is significantly diminished. If you’ve never attempted to seriously have a go at one of these games you won’t know what I’m talking about. Let’s just say a large scenario, with a challenging opposition, comes close to the boundaries of the multi-threading and multi-tasking a human brain can perform.

In a similar way, developing software needs considerable concentration on lots of different threads. Database connectivity, the data itself and its structure, all the variables and their current states, interaction with other components, language syntax, framework and design patterns, business logic, future enahancements, usability, accessibility and front-end design, performance issues, and even organisational best practice. All within a deadline.

Without Mr Spolsky’s abstraction layer, those deadlines are doomed. Or more likely, the deadlines are met, but the quality and available functionality is out the window.

I’m quite sure this doesn’t only apply to developers – every fee-earning worker would be more productive if the abstraction layer is working effectively. Trainers, consultants, pilots, welders, nurses, and even the fellow on the factory floor that clicks caps on cans of concentrate.

So in conclusion, a big shout out goes to all those people who work in Business Support type roles. You make sure the toilet flushes and that the coffee is brewed, and for that we sincerely thank you!

Introducing the SvenPod

Ok, so this might be a few weeks out of date, but it is a recent creation by Mr Eduardo Mateos.

7th July London Bombings Commemoration

It seemed fitting to take the short walk from the office to Aldgate tube station at midday today.

We just rounded the corner when the bell chimed and everyone stood still. Out of respect, we didn't go much closer.

The police had blocked off the roads around Aldgate, so even the normally bustling traffic was forced to focus on the occasion. At the similar memorial moment a week after the tradegy last year, the vans and bikes still zooted by, some seemingly angered by the inconvenience. Today was different. Everyone, even those coincidentally walking by, bowed in respect.

Another major difference today is no sirens. At all. All is quiet in London, for a change. I suspect emergency services have been told not to use them except in dire circumstances. And no helicopters of course.

As I remember it, the weather a year ago wasn't too disimilar from today. Overcast, with spots of light rain.

It is a day for reflection today, and I'm finding it difficult to get into any real work. I suppose I partly feel this emotional because there is no-one around me that was here with me a year ago - all newbies in the office. Maybe it's best to put it in the past now. Experience had. Lessons learnt.

My condolences to all those many people directly affected by the 7th July 2005 London bombings. My limited experience on the day was mere inconvenience, even though I was so close. And my sincere thanks and congratuations for a job superbly done to the many emergency services people who were on duty that fateful day.

Weed on street corners: a public service

I got this in email:

"Good old South Africa
Now for those of you who want to know, this is growing o the corner of NMR Avenue & Old Fort Rd. Its about 300m from the Durban Metro Police station, where their very awake traffic wardens & other members do regular foot patrols. It's also about 800m up the road from the world infamous CR Swart SAPS station where the observation skills are even less evident. "
The original author may have been BronwynF.


I was going to change the story to how the Durban police deliberately plant and cultivate such plants at appropriate places around the city as a public service. The thought being that a person with criminal intent, but suitably mellowed out, would not commit any crimes, or at least be easier to apprehend and deal with.

It's the law in Africa, ya know!

Abide

In his recent Top Gear magazine article Jeremy Clarkson (155, p52) had a rant about dummkopfs on the road and in the toilets. He says things like “If daft people are removed from the road, it will cut the number of accidents dramatically.” I would agree with him.

Here’s another thought along the same lines. Rules, and laws for that matter, are made for the stupid, and as guidelines for the rest of us for when we are in a state where we don’t want to have to think about it.

Let me expound. Mr Tolo *thinks* he knows how to drive, but mostly shows off by driving too fast and weaves in and out of the traffic causing others to brake or otherwise evade. I drive fast, maybe above the speed limit, maybe even “racing speed”, but still within the vehicle’s performance envelope, and more importantly, within *my* performance envelope. On my return trip, I’m tired and I don’t want to use all my senses (read energy) to focus on driving – my level of alertness is lowered and my speed matches. (As a sideline, one could throw the cliché “there’s a time and a place” in here.)

The Biblical laws – thou shalt not kill etc – are still not (4000 years later) inbred in every human. There are still some numpties that challenge these basic principles and the laws of the land will punish them accordingly, because the laws of the land, are ultimately founded on these fundamentals.

Apparently British law – they like to say – is based on “reasonableness”. “Is the thing reasonable for an average person?” What’s average these days? And if the performance of motor vehicles is a factor in determining motorway speeds, then with the significant advances in motor technology in the last 30 years (ABS brakes for example), why aren’t the speed limits higher? Oh! Because there are more “below average” people driving these days. It balances out.

While we’re doing Biblical: “love your neighbour as yourself”. Or in other words, don’t do anything that will inconvenience or endanger anyone else. This is one of my fundamental principles that I live (and drive) by. Mr Tolo breaks these two frequently.

When I was in high school, I pulled my classmate’s tie, causing the knot to tighten up. A HOD happened to see us, and I was caned. Perhaps a bit harsh a punishment, considering (a) it was all in good nature, and (b) I had had my tie pulled just moments before. Nevertheless, I had caused an inconvenience to my buddy.

I’ve heard of a guy riding his bicycle with his kid on the pavement, and being told by the cops that it against the law and he shouldn’t. So take the 5 year old to go ride in the road? Where’s the wits in that? (Maybe I missed the other half of the story, that the father and son were actually cycling up the pavement of a Saturday morning high street, which wouldn’t have been appropriate.)

So the question is, how do we maintain laws, and at the same time apply that reasonableness test to them? Or rather, how can the “people who could out-Forrest Forrest Gump” (as Mr Clarkson puts it) be kept in check, while the rest of us get a little leeway to act, like I say, in a way that doesn’t inconvenience or endanger anyone, yet may be outside the strict letter of the law?


(Tolo is Portuguese for ‘fool’. Nothing against the Porras of course – it’s just a cool, descriptive word.)