I’ve clearly not been updating this weblog very often recently. One reason is that many of the smaller items in the past have been links to other sites, and these usually go into my Delicious bookmarks nowadays, and appear in the margin here automatically rather than as articles. I’ve also been posting photos on Flickr quite often.

For the last couple of months I’ve been busy at work and trying to get another release of FLJUD finished. I’ve started a documentation wiki for FLJUD too.

I’ve also been occupied by playing Resident Evil 4 and watching Rome and Lost, not productive, but good fun.

Hopefully I’ll return to posting stuff on Ape Tracks more regularly.

I’ve released version 0.5 of FLJUD, almost 18 months after I started to rewrite version 0.4. It’s not well written, elegant or stable, but it works, and has enough functionality to justify upgrades from 0.4. More importantly, FLJUD’s code is progressing nicely towards becoming a rather neat framework for quickly building other Jabber/XMPP components.

The BAXL/FLJUD documentation site is also freshly released. One person who tried an older alpha version of FLJUD said “it made my head hurt”: this doesn’t surprise me as at that point there was very little documentation and half the config file had no effect… I’m hoping the documentation will at least reduce the headaches.

Now that I’ve got 0.5 out of the way there’ll be no more ‘alpha’ releases, just simple incremental releases. Each release will have new features and improvements on the back-end BAXL framework. I’m aiming to release a new version every couple of months from now on.

What I desperately need now is feedback from users.

Why go to all the bother of organising a New Year’s Eve firework display, and then start four minutes early?

Slashdot | Is Ruby on Rails Maintainable?

puts [
    'Ruby on Rails is not just scaffolding',
    'Scaffolding is not for end-users',
    'Scaffolding is a development aid',
    'You can override any aspect of the Rails framework with your own code'
].join(".\n") * 100

A film of Moorcock’s Elric is rumoured to be in the early stages of production (development hell, more likely). And that means the old casting chestnut returns.

I agree with this poster to the Moorcock forum: Stephen Chow as Elric would be an excellent choice. But I doubt it will happen.

It’s going to be difficult to make a good film based on Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books, and Elric is probably the most difficult MM character to portray. I’ve got a horrible feeling that this might go the way of the Judge Dredd film, rather than Lord Of The Rings…

Link: Moorcock’s Miscellany Forums-viewtopic-Stephen Chow for Elric

Studio Ghibli are producing an animated film based on the ‘Wizard of Earthsea’ novels. This is good.

Small rant: Ghibli have never made a bad film and the artwork looks great, but it’s disappointing that once again, Earthsea’s inhabitants have been given the wrong skin colour. Ged’s skin is red-brown in colour. It’s a shame that one of the few ‘classic’ fantasy works with non-caucasian characters is usually illustrated with images of white people.

Link: Anime News Network - Ghibli Announces New Anime

To The Edge
Originally uploaded by BinaryApe.

I’ve wanted to visit Alderley Edge ever since reading ‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ as a child, and I’ve finally got round to it.

The local library were very helpful and gave me a copy of an old geological map of the area.

The Edge is just as I imagined it when reading the books, although without any obvious supernatural creatures, and with National Trust pathways. It really is a fascinating and beautiful place.

I’ve just received this:

SS Peter & Paul Catholic Parish 7 Tetlow Lane, Wimbome DORSET BH21 ILF London, UK. Dearest In The Lord, On behalf of the trustees and executor of the estate of Late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, I wish to notify you that late Sir. Dennis Thatcher, made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling (¬£950,000.00) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL. This may sound strange and unbelievable to you, but it is real and true. Being a widely travelled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were nominated to him by a random selection. Sir. Dennis Thatcher passed away peacefully in the Lister Hospital London, after a short illness at the age of 88 years. He was businessman and husband to Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister. He was Born May 10th 1915; died June 26th 2003, and his WILL is now ready for execution. Sir. Dennis Thatcher, until his death was a very dedicated Christian who loved to give out. His great philanthropy earned him numerous awards during his lifetime. In a tribute to him at a News Conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Mr. Tony Blair said: …”Sir Dennis was a kind and generous-hearted man, a real gentleman who had many friends here and abroad”. According to him, this money is to support your activities and to help the poor and the needy in your country. Please If I reach you as I am hopeful, endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible. Yours In His Service, Rev. Fr. Cohen Highley

Wow.

Elephants

I’m still hooked on the Pete’s Pond Wildcam.

Breakfast watching the baboons and deer, and Fatty the croc sunbathing, a lunchtime glimpse of warthogs digging up the bank to make better mud, and regularly checking in the evening, just in case something has wandered over for a nocturnal drink or wallow.

Here are some elephants I ‘photographed’.

Walmart and the Secret Service: Protecting the Dear Leader by confiscating a child’s poster?

Link: Civics Student…or Enemy of America?