So all the major parties are acknowledging the need to do something about climate change & our energy usage. No one has commented on the digital media revolution.

PR Blogger has compiled a list of the top 100 influential blogs. http://www.prblogger.com/2006/10/uk100-bloggers/ (NB you may have to edit the URL of some of the links, he(*) seems to have got a relative address in somehow!)

On line applications? Will they ever catch on? Well I can see some advantages even for the home user and it could be Microsoft that pushes people that way.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/92730/google-expands-into-business-software-market.html?searchString=google+apps
So why would a home user want to use an online word processor? Your data being available where ever you are seems like a business advantage not a home user one. However, actually being able to get at my documents from the lounge when the kids are using the office PC is really handy but setting up sharing does call for (a little) IT savvy - so the Google route could be the more popular. Getting at my documents at work so I can work on my novel / home accounts / cv during work (oh, er, I mean lunch) time could also be handy. Do I want to open my home PC up to the scary world of hackers just so I can access it remotely? No (even if I knew how!).
And there’s that little item, cost. That’s the one that drives most people. If I could set a cheap machine, even one running Linux as I’m never going to use anything but the browser, which accesses the same apps as I’m using on my expensive machine then suddenly it seems like a good idea. And many people are using Firefox already so a common browser, a common application, it’s starting to sound easy even if the OS is different because most people don’t have too much to do with the underlying OS. With online apps they will have even less to do with the it.
Why will MS push people into it? Because of cost. Why pay for Windows & Office if you don’t “use” them, well you don’t see them apart from the boot prompt and starting the browser! There are lots of bootleg Windows users, as MS upgrades start to check for these & security fears mean those upgrades are needed more people are going to have to put their hands in their pockets or ditch Windows. The fear is “the unknown” - who wants to be lumbered with a new OS & a new set of Apps, to learn about? However if I’m using the same apps (ie Firefox & online ones) it might just be worth it - especially if I can do it on cheap hardware that I already have, can pick up for next to nothing or even on a thin client!

I love that phrase “This page intentionally left blank”. Makes a manual seem a real techy one when it has that in. I’m not sure why, maybe because it makes people, who don’t depend on documentation quite so much as we do, laugh. Maybe it’s because it’s oxymoronic, if it says that on it then it isn’t actually blank (der).

If you’ve ever been desperate to find something out in a book and despaired that what should be there, just isn’t, then the site of a blank page is terrifying. Arrrrgggg what I need to know to get this working (and home before midnight) hasn’t been printed, the printers / copier missed a page!!! The sight of “This page intentionally left blank” may not solve the problem but it doesn’t take away your hope that there is a solution that can be found. With so much online documentation you don’t see it so much these days

It was http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_061018bible.shtml that got me thinking about it.  A bible with big holes in, like the dog that failed to bark in the night, sometimes what’s missing can tell you the most.

Arrrgg, I’m getting overwhelmed (overrun, over excited??) by compiler warnings. Yes, I know they should be dealt with because

a) they might be a problem

b) they might be a problem later

c) they stop you seeing the real errors / warnings

However, this code compiles on N different platforms and can have N*N compile options which means that sometime parameters / variables are used and sometimes they aren’t. I don’t want to see 100’s of “warning unused parameter” messages. Neither do I want to confuse the code further with more #if’s to take them out. I could cast them to void but there are a hell of a lot (it’s recycled code) but basically an unused parameter or variable isn’t a hanging offence why bother? There are a few other messages of a simillar nature.

Ideally I want a global setting for both g++ & ms vc that will turn off selected warnings. MS vc lets me use #pragma but I need to set it in lots of files

If anyone knows how to do it (or wants to hack g++ - it is open source) to do it please let me know - I’m warning you, I may go mad else

- I’m warning you, I may go mad else

- I’m warning you, I may go mad else

- I’m warning you, I may go mad else

- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else- I’m warning you, I may go mad else

OK, I’ve just wasted more hours than I care to think about trying to build an app on linux. My source code works fine on windows, compiles & links on Linux but then falls over when it is run saying it can’t find a routine.

What kind of naff linker links with no errors & then let’s the app fall over? More hours of reading online manuals trying to create a map file.

So after N hours I discover a pattern. If the routines are in .c files all is OK, those in .C files aren’t. The dumb snot is name mangling the .C files but not the .c files. The make file is telling g++ that .C files are C++ files!!!

Amongst the many pleasures & irritations of Linux I come back again & again to case sensitive file names being a pain in the bum. If I were writing a lean, mean system I’d be tempted. Why convert all the names? It causes the system extra work & limits what the user can do. However, those case sensitive names bite me in the bum again and again!

Maybe I should just remove the shift key from the keyboard of the guy that originally created the sources…

Any thoughts? Anyone find case sensitive names a must?

Sorry for the long quiet but things have hit the fan around here. The powers that be have given my boss his cards & appointed the youngest and least experienced guy in the department as team leader.

I guess that is the way of IT because when I say least experienced he’s probably not the least experienced in the kind of technology that they want us to move to.  My 20+ years of experience might not be in the kind of areas that count any more.

If the company is moving into new technologies that I don’t have is it time to knuckle down & try and learn them or is it time to jump ship? Jumping ship usually means learning new technologies anyway - unless the jump is clear out of development or indeed out of IT.

What careers are available for old time developers? Suggestions on a comment please.

Maybe if I can get enough people to read this I can claim a move to journalism!