October, 04 2006

Sometimes software is cheaper if you buy from a distributor. For example, ESRI‘s MapObjects for Java costs $5000, if you buy direct, or just $50 if you go to the Cheap Software Megastore.

Update: Apparently I don’t do irony all that well. Let’s be clear here: I’m not advocating that you rush out to the Cheap Software Megastore and buy ESRI‘s software illegally. I’d be surprised if the warez shop sold any copies of MapObjects, since there’s not a lot of applications where you wouldn’t also want a great big ESRI server behind it, and the server software costs a lot more than $5K. In summary, don’t smoke, wear a seat belt and never, ever buy warez.

I seem to have been flat out these last few months, and it’s time to re-evaluate and re-prioritise my list of hobby projects. The ones on my mind are:

1. This year’s OSDC talk. Plenty to do on this, but it’s out for review at the moment.
2. Rewrite this weblog’s software in Django, fixing up a couple of rough edges in the process. I’m guessing this would come to about 20 or 30 hours work, including data conversion and deploying Django to the server for the first time.
3. I’ve had a C implementation of the Dancing Links algorithm kind of working for a few months now. I’d love to get it in a form where I could compile it as a library, then build it into a Python module. Again, about 20 or 30 hours.
4. An accommodation directory to be used by charities and health services finding housing for vulnerable people. There’s probably a hundred hours technical work, plus a similar amount of talking to real live case workers. Perfect application for Django there.

Hmmm. Looking at this list, I’d say the Django blog rewrite is next.

I was quite enjoying the new Google Reader for a while there. Then it started showing me items I’d already read. Then it started miscalculating the counts on the left hand side. Now it tells me that I am not subscribed to any feeds at all. It’s not normal for Google to just forget stuff is it?

Update: I was being a doofus. See below.

Actually, I think I have an explanation. I blame Simon. I reckon the sudden shift in Internet traffic patterns, caused by billions around the world wanting to check out the new item on Simon’s RSS feed, broke Google.

Update: Just figured it out. It’s quite interesting, in a way. It turns out I had two Google Accounts under different email addresses, and I was signed into Gmail with one account, and Google Reader with the other. I had just assumed they shared a login session, but obviously not. Just to be sure, I deleted the second account, and I am relieved – beyond my ability to express to any non-geek – to learn Google hadn’t lost my feed list.