XML and the document format mind bender

"It is entirely possible to have all the benefits of XML and yet retain the ability to just use user friendly, commodity off-the-shelf tools. However doing so - especially with complex document-oriented information - requires something more than just slapping an XML label on the file format." -- XML and the document format mind bender

Tiling an A3 image onto multiple sheets of A4 with Linux

I'm constantly amazed at how rapidly Google finds free Linux utilities that do what I want to do. Some of them very, very obscure. Its one of the really nice things about running Linux day-to-day as one's main environment.

Yesterday, however was different. Yesterday I wanted to find some way to print an A3 PDF on multiple sheets of A4 paper. This is one of those things that sits of the border line between (a) the originating application (b) a stand-alone utility and (c) the printer driver.

I have a multi-stage process that works but is not for the faint of heart. Have I missed something?

Publishing 2.0

I will be doing the keynote presentation at Publishing 2.0 on Wednesday 25 April 2007 in Bletchley Park (yes that* Bletchley Park: Alan Turing, Enigma machines, all that) in the UK.
The event is being organised by XML:UK. I have attended a couple of previous XML:UK events and thoroughly enjoyed them. This will be no different I'm sure.

I will be talking about how a whole series of mini-revolutions currently ongoing in the publishing space add up to a much bigger bang than the three previous electronic publishing revolutions : (1) electronic production for paper (2) CD-ROM distribution and retrieval (3) Web distribution and retrieval.

Number (4) is a humdinger. Come to Bletchley and we'll talk about it.

Linux pre-installed on a Dell box (or any other box)

click here to help make it happen. If Dell can find a model that makes this work for them, you can be sure that other vendors will follow suit. This here snowball needs to start rolling down the hill. You can help get it started.

A logo for REST

Whoa.See top right under the date stamp.

Thanks to my geek strumming adventures I grok the logo (If that is what it is). Even if I didn't grok it, its kinda pretty.

Maybe REST was assigned a logo and I never noticed?

Home truths about computing

"Software cannot be proven correct but it can be proven to be over budget."--Home truths about computing

Newbie Geek Strums #5

Following on from the last update

• I can hit F's and B's using barre chords - but too slowly to
  strum anything other than the sound of paint drying.
  
  
• I am having difficulty picking up very thin and flat things - like stamps and plectrums and paper clips - with my right hand. As a lefty, this is my fretboard hand resulting in (a) practically non-existent nail protrusions over my fingers and (b) leather like skin at the tips of my fingers. (Imagine picking up a paper clip while wearing a glove...That is what it feels like.) The nails on my other hand I have let grow longer in order to finger pick. This new assymetry is weird and takes a bit of getting used to. The feel of a computer keyboard
  changes for example. I'm hitting some keys with my nails (left hand) and others with skin (right hand). I've switched to dialling numbers on my cellphone with my right hand...
  
  
• I can hobble through quite a few songs now as long as they involve mostly open position chords of the minor, major and seventh varieties. I have started to get some fludity in basic finger and strumming patterns. On a good day, I can do basic Travis picking. It is very interesting watching how this finger picking process works mentally speaking. I switch my conscious mind to my left hand, put the pattern in motion and then switch my conscious mind to my right hand, leaving the left hand on some sort of auto-pilot. It is starting to
  work for me and it feels very, very strange. If only parallel-programming worked this way...
  
  
• When physical frustrations kick in or I find myself with time but no access to a guitar, I switch into theory mode. I'm a sucker for abstractions so its probably no surprise to anyone who knows this stuff that I have ended up scanning through stuff on neo-Riemannian theory and Pat Martino's (mind blowing) take on the organisation of the fretboard in The nature of guitar.
  

Oh, and finally, I wanted something to bring with me on my regular overnight stays in Dublin so I got one of these Traveler Escape Steel - the only travel guitar I could find with a lefty model. Fantastic fun.

I realise this puts me on the slippery slope towards full-on Gear Acquisition Syndrome...