Rubenerd

This originally appeared on the Annexe, back when I recorded daily puzzles.

This originally appeared on the Annexe, back when I recorded daily puzzles.

This originally appeared on the Annexe, back when I recorded daily puzzles.

This originally appeared on the Annexe, back when I recorded daily puzzles.

Since early this morning our home Internet connection has been down for some reason (I'm typing this on my iPhone through its painfully slow Aussie data plan directly) which has made my assignments far more complex and has turned my work I do in Singapore from here into a disaster. Hopefully I won't be gone from here for too long, but I've now got even more work to do.

I'm going to need a break from this so called mid semester break!

Tuesday 22nd September: Still down.

Wednesday 23rd September: Still down.

Thursday 24th September: Still down.

Friday 25th September: Still down.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

PHP: strpos – Manual

"strpos — Find position of first occurrence of a string"

(categories: programming php web)

SiteCrafting > Blog > PHP Patterns, Part II

"In this installment, we will be looking at two patterns that have been 'borrrowed' from Java. If you've had any development experience with J2EE, you are probably well aware of how handy Data Access Objects and Value Objects can be. If you haven't, don't fret! This article was written especially for you!"

(categories: programming php web design sql databases)

This originally appeared on the Annexe, back when I recorded daily puzzles.

1. IBM PC DOS 2000! 
2. FreeBSD 7.2 + Xfce 
3. FreeBSD 7.2 + Gnome 
4. Windows XP SP3 
5. Debian Lenny + Gnome 
6. Windows 7 RC 

My relative subjective view of sluggishness/performance on a ThinkPad X40. Shorter bars are better.

Because my ThinkPad X40 came with a licenced copy of Windows XP Professional it meant I didn't need to go out a buy a copy of Windows 7 to run a few university specific applications; provided I use XP on this machine due to OEM licence restrictions of course.

I had the same experience Chris DiBona discussed on a recent episode of Cranky Geeks with Windows 7. After hearing all the hype surrounding it, I installed it on this 1.4GHz Pentium M notebook and it ran slower than molasses. I really mean it, it was painful. Even with the ugly Luna theme enabled (which I turn off to make it look like the classier Windows 2000) Windows XP ran circles around it. That's to be expected when we're comparing a decade old OS to a new one, but that's not what all the pundits and bloggers are telling me I should expect.

Windows 7 is faster than XP! It's the greatest OS in history! Leaving aside another discussion on astroturfing and suspiciously saccharine sweet reviews for 7, I get the feeling once the general public has it we'll still be hearing people wanting to downgrade to XP. Eager people running release candidates are not truly representative of the largest userbase for desktop operating systems in the world.

The problem for Microsoft is their Mac OS X eye candy envy is causing them to change their product into something most of their customers don't want. Microsoft has the opportunity here to further secure the market for business users like my dad who shrugs his shoulders at all the pretty icons and gradients on my Macs. He doesn't want superfluous visual effects, he wants a thin layer OS that's secure, easy to maintain, that stays out of his way and juts lets him run his office, chemistry and CAD applications. His entire company is still on Windows 2000 Professional. And speaking of another well established user base, I'm sure there are plenty of gamers who would also love to have as thin a layer of an OS as possible.

I tell you what, for people like my dad ReactOS is looking more appealing every day. When they release 1.0 my dad might want to buy a few bottles of Champaign.

Here's another Rubenerd Fun Fact for all you rabid Official Rubenerd Fun Fact fans. I know you're out there, I can hear you breathing. Oh wait, that's me.

While high in the early 70s, Mick Jagger flirted with the idea of changing the band’s name to The Meandering Parsnips. He assures us that at the the time it was hilarious.

Thank you.

As you may have noticed if you've been reading my blog for a while, I'm somewhat of a public transport nut. Having lived in Singapore most of my life, moving back to Australia for part of the year made me realise just how much I'd taken the public transport there for granted.

Many Singaporeans complain about the reliability of some of the buses and that they think it costs too much money to constantly build new underground train lines, but those are the kinds of investments that will be paying dividends for decades.

In comparison most Australian cities seem to follow the American model (sans perhaps New York City and Portland) of new expensive highways over public transport; while there are token efforts every now and then there is still the publicly held consensus that car ownership is a right not a privilege, and that the opportunity cost of building a new highway in place of a new train line is an acceptable one to take. I've been arguing for years this is entirely backwards and that if people are given a reliable, fast, comprehensive and affordable public transport system they'll use it.

Anyway, I was going somewhere with this! Scott Ludlam of the Aussie Greens had this to share this afternoon in regards to the current Senate report on public transport, in particular the issue I was talking about with road transport always getting priority:

The report on the Senate Inquiry into Public Transport tabled today recognised a multitude of reasons why public transport is a vital part of our nations’ infrastructure and that its significance will grow in the years ahead.

[…] only states with coherent public transport plans and proposals will benefit. States that retain outdated planning policies favouring freeways over public transport will miss out. I hope that this report will play a role in focusing Government attention on the urgent need for a systematic re-prioritising of transport funding,” Senator Ludlam said.

Trips made using public transport increased by 14.7 per cent from 2004 to 2008 in the eight capital cities.

These figures nearly made me fall out of my chair:

In the 30 years to 2004 the Commonwealth spent $58 billion dollars on roads, $2.2 billion on rail, and just $1.5 billion on public transport.

Even if you "John C Dvorak" the figures they still seem wildly disproportionate:

In the 30 years to 2004 the Commonwealth spent a meagre $58 billion dollars on roads, while spending a huge $2.2 billion on rail, and a whopping $1.5 billion on public transport!

I just don't know where to begin with these. Yes roads are needed and are useful for a functioning economy, and Australia's vast size and limited population presents formidable challenges for dealing with moving people and goods around, but come on… 1.5 billion? 2.2 for rail? It just boggles the mind!

Ah well, at least I'm lucky enough to live next to a train station here so I can commute into Adelaide and return without too many problems. The vast majority of Aussies aren't so lucky.