Draconian measures - again

Avery Pennarun is pondering XML's contribution to the genre of Programmers and Sadomasochism.

For those interested in this subject http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/01/16/draconianism is a useful springboard.

The use case that ill sits with Postel's Law is the one where I'm sending you the XML message needed to change the parameters of the [nuclear reactor/medical monitor/industrial process/zillion dollar fund transfer exchange] and you get duff XML. Should you be liberal in what you accept?

Thinkpad X61 - broken WIFI (and how to fix it)

So, I upgrade my 8.04 (Hardy) on my Thinpad X61 and get a new kernel 2.6.24-23. All is fine except the WIFI which comprehensively does not work. The flashing light under the monitor does not flash. The hardware pessimist in me thinks hardware failure. The "all upgrades have consequences" Karmic causal correlationist in me blames the kernel upgrade.

I hobbled my way to a wired network and found the solution here.

Bootstrapping tomorrow, today

"Maybe our choice of words will be of interest to linguists boldly looking to re-instate the ungrammaticality of the split infinitive?" -- Bootstrapping tomorrow, today

Debuggers Delight Syndrome

"Problems need solving. We go to it. We chase the high that a solution will bring. We often do not worry about why the problem exists in the first place." -- Debuggers Delight Syndrome

Does your head run Unix?

Sometimes I think my head runs Unix.

Doing the heavy lifting with Python

A good example of using Python for the heavy lifting part of an application.

What version are you running?

"There are many aspects of the IT business that have been turned upside down the internet. One concept which is effectively being meaningless is the concept of a "version" in the sense of an application software package version number/name or an operating system version number/name." -- http://www.itworld.com/offbeat/60990/what-version-are-you-running?