In order to be more green the council have instigated a two wheelie bin system. One for green compostable stuff, one for non-recyclable. We also get a plastic & metal box & a paper box. Excellent, except (there’e always one of those) they collect the bins alternate weeks. So my compost bin which contains tea bags, potato peelings and sometimes grass clippings is nice and empty whilst the other is stuffed. Well not too stuffed, we are careful with what we bin.

I’ve been having some hassles with fonts in QT - namely with setPixelSize. I was trying to set the font width but as it didn’t work as expected I googled & got http://lists.trolltech.com/qt-interest/2006-08/thread00205-0.html

> font.setPixelSize(14). Does this mean if I use drawText, each character will
> be 14 pixzel wide?

Yes, isn’t the documentation of the function clear enough?

Andreas

Well as the documentation says:
void QFont::setPixelSize ( int pixelSize )
Sets the font size to pixelSize pixels.

No it isn’t really. That’s not documentation, that’s just reiteration.

And as the method actually turns out to set the height of font not the width that’s a “No Points” to TrollTech and a  “Smack in the Mouth” to Andreas.

As I often tell my daughter, if you’re going to use that arrogant “you are all idiots” tone (which even I do on occasion) you really do have to be sure your right first (which obviously I am - usually).

So to continue the “is coding creative” debate I have an example of how the net is allowing everyone to get an audience for the ones they made earlier. Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqFf_XmD4X8 because KevF is an acquaintance, we share the same surname and because it is funny.

Can we be creative without an audience? If a picture is painted in a forest and no one sees it, is it art? I kind of think we need an audience - maybe someone can say why because logically if I’m doing the creating why do I need you looking on? Seems we do though.

Hence flicker and you tube and my space and blogs and personal web pages… There is something different about a blog to a secret diary, something different about a funny film published to one never seen.

Programming then - where’s the audience? The customer tends to be unappreciative and working modes restrictive (see previous posts) but Open Source gives us the chance to produce something we want to, the way we want and give us an appreciative audience - we even show off the code!

Another “hurrah” for Open Source Software then.

Does that sound like M$ threatening the EU? You make life difficult for us and we’ll make life difficult for you (where “You” is the EU Commission and “you” is all the companies and individuals in the EU).  I think it could be interpreted that way

There is some debate how much a problem this will be - most corporations won’t want to roll out a new M$ (or any but I’m guessing especially M$) Operating System on it’s first release and maybe Europe will gain from the rest of the world being beta(*) testers. However, if we don’t have versions to test and don’t have versions to test against (I can already hear my customers “It don’t work on Vista”) we must be behind the curve (is that the correct marketing speak?).  Then there’s the international support / compatibility implications - the US office is on Vista the UK isn’t…

The EU & M$ is a battle of the giants and the only thing we can be sure of is neither is fast mover.

(* yeah I know Vista has been in beta, but a) I doubt it’s totally bug free yet & b) I can’t remember what comes after beta - feel free to remind me!)

Liz Kindly commented - what comes after Beta? Hell

A report on high energy physics on the BBC Today program referred to Stephen Hawking’s comment that we might be one step nearer knowing the mind of God. This is like saying understanding DRAM brings one step closer to knowing the mind of Bill Gates.

Why does someone as obviously clever as Hawking get “how” confused with ”why”?

Why isn’t there a standard address we all enter when prompted for a valid email address on a site we don’t want to talk to? Mail servers could just dump anything sent there and save huge amounts of bandwidth.

I have used  no.way@jose.com    and     no.one@nowhere.nw   plus one or two ruder ones (usually in the Faroe Islands) when I’ve been in a strop.

george.bush@whitehouse.gov (or more patriotically tony.blair@parliment.uk)  is tempting. If they spent more time reading dumb junk mail they might have less time for making dumb foreign policy.

The same goes for osama.binladin@cave.co.iq (or .pk or indeed @guantanamo.cu for all I know) but that might waste the security services time (not that they monitor email for trigger words).

So what are your suggestions?

Over at http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/categories/it-pro-general/288/frustrated-programmer-seeks-creative-outlet.thtml a fellow blogger is crying “Frustrated Programmer Seeks Creative Outlet” which rather contradicts my view that programming is fundamentally creative.

As creative as writing music or prose. If you are being paid to develop a given app it’s as creative as writing commercial music (eg jingles, backing tracks) or commercial prose (eg magazine / advertising copy) anyway. Maybe that is what he is saying, he codes at home to give himself the artistic freedom he doesn’t get during the day.

Hmmm, you can get pretty creative in the commercial environment too - maybe “Go to work on an egg” wasn’t Fay Weldon’s greatest achievement but it wasn’t without value.

I guess this is that Greenbelt (http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/) influence on me again - all of life should be creative and spiritual, which is why an Arts Festival worries about PowerPoint! (http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/user-blogs/dave-f/477/open-source-christians-re-sub.thtml)

Comment by Steve Vink at 4:00pm, 06 Sep 2006
Hi Dave, what you are saying is fundamentally correct. By day, I’m constrained by procedures, set programming practises and rules and regulations that stifle creativity. It drives me mad, but that’s the nature of the game with the bigger software vendors. So by night, I put away the green-on-black displays, and unleash the real me! Forgetting the actual output of my programming, even being able to code how I choose to code is a breath of fresh air. My personal library of pre-built functions is my own private museum of hand-crafted perfection!

Comment by Tim clark at 9:19pm, 08 Sep 2006
Programming is most definitely a creative activity. There are those who equate programming with formal logic and argue that it therefore can not be creative. That says more about their understanding of logic. Even something as apparently rigid as developing a proof of a mathematical theorem is a creative activity — essentially as a corollary to Gödel’s incompleteness theorems.

There are all sorts of creative activities, each with their own rigid constraints, whether it be computer programming or creating a sculpture from stone. I find in computer programming the freedom to conjure into existence complex structures with a few elegant strokes a most satisfying process, while the need to obey a rigorous syntax does not worry me. I would, however, find the laborious physical constraints of sculpting in stone where one wrong move destroys everything quite unbearable. The sculptor may well feel the reverse.

The creative activity of computer programming is more like the craft of designing and building a machine like a motorbike. The result may or may not be fit for purpose. Whether the resulting artefact is aesthetically pleasing as well is a subjective judgement in both cases.

by Dave Eff at 9:46am, 11 Sep 2006
Hiya Steve, Sorry to hear your work environment is so constrained. My office is fairly small and we have a self moderating arrangement ie write how you want but if everyone else thinks your code is pants you will get it in the neck!

Comment by Dave Eff at 9:53am, 11 Sep 2006
cheers Tim, good to hear agreement Most (all?) activities have some rules you have to follow - correction “know”. Most composers will know their scales & harmonies even if they don’t consciously think about them and on occasion ignore them. And writers need to know some syntax of their own even if they can get away with a more loose interpretation than programmers. (Like starting a sentence with “And” if they feel like it!)

 If I can believe my ears (and The BBC’s Today Program) Tony Blair is planning to leave office amidst the “wave of euphoria” on his 10 years in office.

Wave of euphoria? Wave of ….. ? W-w-w…. ? Hang on a sec. let’s check http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/euphoria?view=uk

No, that’s what I thought it meant.

Well we all knew Downing Street was a bit out of touch (telling us we can all get Dr’s appointments, confused at why people pull their own teeth, assuring us what parents want is a choice about which crap school our kids attend not a decent school) but to expect a wave of euphoria at TB’s 10 years in office does imply they are not on a different wave length but a different planet.

I don’t want to get personal, as Tories go Tony isn’t that bad, but in general the public doesn’t get excited at politician’s anniversaries. There was a bit of vibe at the queen’s 50th but it passed a lot us by and she’s different to a politician (even if Maggie got confused).  I can’t see most of us dusting off the bunting and trestles for any politico’s 10 years in office.

It’s tempting to say they meant his 10 years in office would slip by in the wave of euphoria that he’s leaving, but it would still be insane.

Note to Spin Dr’s: Politicians do not, in any circumstances, invoke euphoria in normal people.

Comment by Liz Chapman at 8:07pm, 12 Sep 2006

“I don’t want to get personal, as Tories go Tony isn’t that bad” See it’s comments like that, that meant I knew you should have a blog! Class.

Oh dear, just wasted my lunchtime - I blame this person http://www.reachoutandtouchthescreen.blogspot.com/

Why (oh why etc) am I suckered into proving what a clever chap I am? Liz had this link http://uk.tickle.com/test/iq.html and explained how she got 144 so I just had to have a go. What is more depressing, that I wasted my time or that I only got 140? (In case you hadn’t noticed that’s less than her, damn, damn, damn!)

What is the point? I Just need my ego stroked with a high score? (Somebody set up a site that gives good and bad scores for the same questions & see which is the most popular…)

Anyway if you need to waste your time click the link, the important bit is to remember to click “No Thanks” when they ask you to sign up to get your results. You still get your results but hopefully with less spam attached.

But wait, I’ve got this cold - without a brain full of snot I must get twice the score. Wow, an IQ of 280!

Liz commented - Eat dust IQ sucker

Thanks Liz

I’ve just got back from Greenbelt - a Christian Arts Festival (check out http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/  if you want to find out just what that might mean).

Annie Kindly commented that she agreeed & it sounded like a good title for a book