Nearly all the work my company has done in the past six months has been J2EE. The Microsoft people are underutilised. End of business case.
I got bored and started to write some software to export a database table to XML. I don't have direct access to the SQL Server I use on my development sites so a text backup via a webpage is the next best thing. Five minutes later...
objADORS.Save Response, adPersistXML
Boring.
So I re-wrote my CSV exporter. It took longer and the output is readable.
Of course I can't do any XSL funkiness with the CSV file but that's not what I'm using it for is it?
Backing up the CD database at home is a little easier. mysqldump.
Nerding over...
Stayed back until 7 on Monday so I'm out of here at 4. Meeting with band manager tonight to discuss management and publicity options for our band. Personally I think we should wait until after the EP is done (so January 2004). Not really much to push if we have no CD to sell, and we're quite capable of getting gigs by ourselves. We'll see what he has to offer. Maybe he'll be able to push the demos around the right ears.
Global warming today. Europe's hottest summer in 500 years [The Age]. "Permanent" Canadian feature for the past 3000 years, the "War Hunt Ice Cap" breaks in two [via Slashdot].
Impatient movie fans frustrated with long delays in physical distribution, turn to the internet. [Wired.com]
A comedy about a group of Shaolin monks who blend their kung fu skills with soccer is a smash hit with file sharers (watch the trailer). The movie has landed on file traders' top 10 list for the past four months, according to BayTSP, a company that sniffs around peer-to-peer sites for illegal copies of movies and music.[Miramax spokesmen say] "We were pleased to see that there is interest in the film (online)," the spokesman said. "At the same time, we work with the MPAA and our legal department to vigorously prosecute those who take our property and use (it) for their own purposes."
Since Miramax owns the rights to the film, the studio has restricted retailers from selling copies of the film in the United States. Pollard bought his copy of the movie from an online vendor overseas.
Australia is heading for permanent drought? [Wired.com]
Australia may be facing a permanent drought because of an accelerating vortex of winds whipping around the Antarctic that threatens to disrupt rainfall, scientists said. Spinning faster and tighter, the 100 mph jet stream is pulling climate bands south and dragging rain from Australia into the Southern Ocean, they say.
Stage 1 Water Restrictions are just common sense. Should probably keep Stage 2 water restrictions around forever too. Why are they allowed to water the MCG? I'd like to see Howard try to beg a zillion tons of fresh water out of Indonesia.
Master Of Disguise was even worse than I expected. Even the Turtlely-enough bit wasn't worth it although is definitely worthy of mimicry. mmmmTurtle! Dana Carvey is definitely great at the characters he does but the script was just crap. Has Brent Spiner been a major character in anything good (yes, ignoring Star Trek if you must)?
A parasite found in cats [via Josh] has been linked with changes in behavour of people infected [The Age via acb].
Czech scientist Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague told Reuters his research showed a parasite called toxoplasma gondii in cats, rabbits or raw meat, may make women reckless and friendly while making men jealous and morose.Just contracting the bug might not be life-threatening but infected women behind the wheel can be fatal, and those out for a stroll in busy traffic may be a hazard, he said.
"It is not much fun. Our research has shown that toxoplasmosis raises 2.6 times the risk of a traffic accident by prolonging the reaction time of infected people," he said.
I have a cat loving friend who has a habit of walking into speeding traffic but I'd hardly call one person a large enough sample size.
Anyone looking for ASP VBScript code to accept files posted using HTTP Post (such as an image uploader) can go no further than this ASP VbScript upload script by Cakkie. It's free and VERY fast (faster than the usual crop of similar code). I've tested it out and I'm going to replace my third-party COM object code with it.
Absolutely everything you never wanted to know about Russell Crowe's musical career, starting with a lovely quote from Frenzal Rhomb's song "Russell Crowe's Band is a F---ing Pile of S--t". [The Age]
Article by Graeme Philipson questioning the need for "copyright" [The Age].
Just imagine, if you will, a world without copyright and intellectual property laws. Anybody could copy anything - music, films, software, books - at any time, for any reason, with no penalty and at no cost. What would such a world look like?People would still write, just as Goethe and Swift and Racine did when they lived in such a world. People would still paint. People would still write and perform music. We would still enjoy their output - though at lower cost. Payment for performance would become more important. Content would not change, just the business models based on them.
I'm pulled both ways, as the rant below will not help to explain.
What most artists I know would want to hold on to more than anything is credit for thier art. Nothing would piss a musician off more than to write a song and then hear someone else getting popular from it without properly crediting the original artist... that is, claiming their song as their own. Of course this happens every day with cover bands. I can bet you a million dollars Alien Ant Farm had been playing Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal in their live set way before recording it. I'm sure they never pretended it was their song, but it doesn't take much to claim it as your own at a gig. David Bowie didn't announce "Pablo Picasso" as being a Jonathan Richman cover at his live-to-cinema gig, and having never heard the original I had no reason to doubt it was a David Bowie track I was hearing.
But is Jonathan Richman still playing gigs? Looks like it. I can tell you I'd never have looked him up or known of his existance except that David Bowie played his song... and made it better. I'm not going to go out and pay to see this guy perform. But I'm happy to pay $100+ to see David Bowie. Hell, last year I was happy to pay $100 to see Tori Amos to a whole se