If only I’d just waited!

Bricolage A very successful Open Source CMS. Bricolage runs many popular websites and frequently beats expensive proprietary CMSs in reviews. Bricolage is very different to Hippo: it’s a top-down publishing tool for managing magazine and news sites based around articles, while Hippo is about small communities trading chunks of information. All the same, it’s too impressive to miss in this CMS round-up.

Tiki Startlingly close to what I originally intended Hippo to be, and still so close* that I’m tempted to use it rather than Hippo. Tiki has a large team of clearly talented developers, and if I was going to get competitive I wouldn’t stand a chance. I’ll just pilfer a couple of their ideas instead. Hippo is weirder though, I’ll say that.

Bloki A blog hosting service with wiki-like features, something which is a Good Thing and Hippo-bound for a while. The combination of subscription based hosting with blogging software seems to be getting rather popular - 20six launched an English version of their service this week, and other companies are moving into this area. I’m not sure if Hippo could do this - it’s meant for small groups of people, only a few hundred at most.

*I’m comparing a real working application to something that’s 70% vapourware here, which is a bit cheeky I know.

Something Interesting Happens In Tamworth Shock!

“I will never forget that terrible stare. I immediately thought, ‘That’s not right’”

“I would not want any of my friends to be treated like those Iraqis on the photographs. We are a great nation. But we would lose our self-respect and much more besides if we allowed ourselves and our troops to stoop this low.”

Well done Kelly Tilford.

The key issue is not so much whether or not people commit crimes, it’s what happens next - whitewash, denial, or honest investigation. Some civilians are criminals, some soldiers are criminals, and the state can’t really stop that. The role of the state is to deal with the problem well, and I hope that happens here.

Link: Shopworker ‘sickened’ by POW photos

This caused some excitement at Ape Headquarters. American friends take note :-)

The latest installment in my new “a bear eats something unusual” series.

Link: Bear snacks on US sub

Plan A was to write a shallow prototype that was almost just a mockup, then, after finalising features and design, start work on the real program. I planned to throw one away.

I’m deeply buried in Plan B, which more closely matches Microsoft’s development spiral. I didn’t intend to do this, but it suits me better. I’m now on the third rewrite of Hippo. The amount of change a user sees across the three versions in quite small, but the amount of library functionality is much, much bigger. I seem to be writing a contruction kit rather than the actual app. Good or bad? I’m not sure. Either way it’s a good learning experience, and I get a lot of code to reuse in other projects.

Hippo is now properly multi-user, although without any security yet - the ACL methods just say “yeah, OK” to all checks. The vapourware portion has grown a little too, but the feature set is now pretty stable. No iceberg in sight yet - the idea seems to work.

I think it’s about time I actually added the useful bits, and condensed some vapour…

A few weeks after Christmas, while I was travelling into work on the Newcastle Metro, I noticed that the man sitting opposite me was reading a book on Go. I hadn’t played Go for years. When I was about 14 my eldest sister was given the MB Games Go set, and a few years later I used Older Brother powers to nick it. It went off to University with me, and I continued to play (rather badly) there too.

At some point I misplaced the Go set (I suspect Alison reclaimed it), and then rarely played Go for years - occassionally I would play a computer version. I intended to get a new board and learn to play properly, but other things pushed it back. I also couldn’t find a board in shops, I couldn’t find any other players either.

I got chatting with the Go man, and he recommended a couple of books. One Amazon order later, I started learning how to play properly, and took the book with me on my journey to work.

While I was reading the book in an overcrowded carriage, the guy sitting next to me, who I had never met before, said “You play Go? I haven’t played Go for ages”. We had a brief chat about Go and board games before I left at my stop with the location of some Go retailers.

I only know one person who’s played Go before meeting me, and people on the Metro don’t usually talk to strangers at all, but somehow I’d had two chats with keen Go players within a few weeks. I swapped roles in the second conversation. Odd. I wonder if the pattern continued?

“Mr Weaver said there was no need for people to start fearing an onslaught of badger attacks.”

I’m childishly amused by people who go for short walks in the Lake District, in warm weather, along managed paths, laden with hundreds of pounds-worth of boots, multilayer survival garments, multiple maps, flasks, and odd walking sticks. It’s best to be careful if climbing a difficult hill in changeable weather, but I often joke that someone in suburbia is telling tales of giant bear-like badgers, packs of terrible man-hunting foxes, and moles that can drag a full-grown man to his doom.

“Have you packed the fox-repellent spray dear?” “Yes, and I’ve sharpened the anti-badger stick too. Remember poor George, they only found his feet.” “I’ll pack the flare gun too, just in case.”

Of course, now a real badger has now gone on a violent suburban rampage, I expect walkers with tasers and bayonets.

The poor thing was killed, but he managed to chew up a man’s arm rather badly and chase policemen, so a dog wouldn’t have expected anything better.

Link: Badger rampage injures five

How did the dormouse cross the road? By using a specially made steel cable suspension bridge.

Link: ‘Rope bridge’ for dormice

To define a group, you have to create two groups: those in the group, and those outside. Every group depends on discrimination, what anthropologists refer to as “the other”.

The Conservative Party should be able to prohibit Labour Party members from joining. The Vegetarian Society should be able to refuse membership to a dedicated carnivore, men should be excluded from women’s changing rooms. Some discrimination is justified.

On the other hand, context is important, and a lot of discrimination is unjustified. Should my religion or sexuality be grounds for discrimination when I look for work?

The 2003 Employment Equality Regulations were intended to counter workplace discrimination, and to comply with European directives. However, it looks as if Tony Blair has directly intervened to add a loophole for “religious organisations”.

This wouldn’t be a problem if the context was sensible. Few people would argue against allowing The Church of England to dismiss a vicar if he decided to become an atheist, or a Hindu; the vicar’s religion is clearly a relevant requirement for his employment by The Church of England.

Unfortunately the revised regulations are very vague. They seem to apply to not just religious organisations, but any organisations run by “religious” people. According to The Independant:

“One of the biggest loopholes allows an employer to dismiss or fail to hire an individual if he is “not satisfied” that they fit his own “ethos based on religion or belief”.”

If true (and I’m still stuggling to believe something this crazy is true) then the scope of legal discrimination will be almost infinite: someone working for a bank could be fired for being a Catholic, or “not being Christian enough”, or reading Harry Potter books.

Some discrimination is required by employers, but this loophole would allow outrageous abuses.

This morning I read that someone is selling car stickers printed with “I voted for Blair, but I got Bush”. This morning, that was funny.

Link: Blair gives religious employers the right to sack gay workers

Australian families went on picnics to watch distant atomic explosions. They might not have been distant enough…

This reminds me of the ‘Ned’s Atomic Dustbin’ episode of The Goon Show, but this isn’t a funny story.

Link: Woomera mums had nuclear test picnics