Module::Build::Kwalitee
October 14, 2005
I’ve just uploaded Module::Build::Kwalitee v0.14 to CPAN. If you write Perl modules and use Module::Build you might want to have a look at it. It was developed for use internally at Fotango because we were tired of adding the same set of tests to all projects. From the README:
Module::Build::Kwalitee subclasses Module::Build to provide boilerplate
tests for your project. It does this by overriding “new()” and copying
tests to your t directory when you run ‘perl Build.PL’.Module::Build::Kwalitee gets over the bootstrapping problem by
overriding Module::Build’s “distdir” target. This adds a “mbk” directory to
your distribution containing a stub Module::Build::Kwalitee which
just overrides Module::Build’s build_requires() and recommends() methods to add the
dependencies of its tests.Module::Build::Kwalitee tests are not automatically added to MANIFEST so
if you want them shipped with your distribution you will have to do this
manually.
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
October 14, 2005
I saw it last weekend. I’m pretty indifferent to it, though I think it’s a film to keep fans of the book(s) happy; it would be rather baffling if you’re not familiar with the story. Trillian was cute though.
Wikipedia
October 13, 2005
It rocks. You should definitively have a look if you haven’t seen it already. One thing I’ve noticed is that almost every time I go to the front page it’s got a different Norwegian article listed. This makes me wonder whether it is guessing from my browser settings of preferred languages that it might be interesting or if there are some very active Norwegians posting on the site.
Paper crowbar
October 11, 2005
I was referred to a specialist surgeon for my dental problems. I called them up, and the earliest appointment they had free were in about two weeks. Not happy with the prospect of going that much longer in pain, I said I had hoped on something a bit earlier. I was told to get my dentist to call, and countered that I had a letter from him, and should I fax it over. To cut a long story short, I went downstairs to fax the letter over, and by the time I got back up my phone was chiming. “Can you be here in 40 minutes?” My manager kindly booked me a cab, and I got there just in time.
There was no waiting when I got there, I just had to fill in a form with personal information and medical history since I’d not been there before. I was then invited in to see surgeon, who was very pleasant. He asked some questions, prodded a bit and took an X-ray. He developed it in a seconds, studied it and went “hmmm…” then picked up the phone and fired off some quick questions. Turns out he wanted a bigger picture. Thinking this might delay things a bit, my heart sank. But no! I was sent two doors down. “They’re expecting you. Come right back.” Off I went, and waited for thirty seconds, then took X-ray of entire jaw (a couple of minutes?). Then to wait for the picture to be developed. Another 3-4 minutes. Back in the surgeon’s office in less than 10 minutes. Now that’s service!
The surgeon’s conclusion ended up on the same as my dentist: an infection in the jaw. He prescribed me yet another type of antibiotic, the third one I’ve had in 3 weeks. This type handles more types of infections, however. If these tablets don’t work, the socket after my extracted tooth has to be opened up to figure out what can be wrong. I find myself hoping they work.
Which sci-fi character are you?
October 8, 2005
Apparently I’m Marcus Cole, though I can’t say I’ve heard about him. It’s a long time since I saw Babylon 5, and I only caught one or two of the first series.
He looks like he’s just stared Death in the face, in my opinion.
Blade Trinity
October 8, 2005
Though Snipe’s character was one-dimensional and dull as ever, Blade Trinity on a whole is actually quite enjoyable. This was pulled off by giving the great support cast more screen time. The story was thin as usual, but I don’t let that get in the way of good entertainment.
Blade’s two sidekicks, motormouth wise guy Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and eye candy Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel), were both good. Unbeknownst to Blade their team were doing their homework killing vampires and figuring out what the vampires were up to, before coming to Blade’s help busting him out of prison. The fool had managed to get his friend killed and himself arrested. Blade, ever thankful, didn’t want their help at first but knew he could not carry the film alone so gave in in the end.
Of the vampires I particularly liked Parker Posey’s character Danica Talos. She had a wonderful world-weary rock-star feel about her, as if she found everything dreary and almost terminally boring. Her interactions with King got her juices flowing though; you could feel him winding her up.
Tired of toothache
October 8, 2005
In the last year I’ve been incapacitated by pain following complications with two extractions for a total of over five weeks. I’m going crazy through lack of sleep, but if I try to get some I’m rewarded with a 40 min period of excruciating pain while the painkillers slowly set in again. At least while I’m awake I can notice when the last batch is starting to let go and administer more drugs before it loses its effect completely.
I’ve had enough of this pain now. Someone please make it go away somehow.
Scrabble victory
October 5, 2005
I just won my first ever game of Scrabble against English native speakers. I got 216 points against Nadia’s 167 and her brother Nathaniel’s 163. The foundations of my victory was laid when I managed to use up all my letters (thus getting a 50 point bonus) putting “windows” on top of a triple-word-score square; this alone earned me 101 points.
We play Scrabble from time to time, but it has a tendency to become a bit boring as people (especially me) take their time moving. Not so this time as we were playing with a time-limit of two minutes per go. This worked very well and made the game a lot more enjoyable. Surprisingly, it also seemed to work in my favour. Feeling quite proud now…
Hot chocolate
October 5, 2005
For various reasons, among them trying to shake a bad cold, I’ve arranged to work from home tomorrow, which means I can sleep in a bit longer than usual. Feeling shattered I went to bed relatively early (about 10pm) nonetheless, hoping to catch up on some sleep.
Alas! No such luck. I woke up at about twenty past one, with a now-familiar ache in my jaw. Having administered painkillers and waited for them to kick in I went back to bed at about 2. Not being able to go back to sleep I got up about 5 minutes ago, and I’m now administering warm milk in the form of hot chocolate to see if it will make me more drowsy.
This really, really sucks.
Update (05:35): It didn’t work very well. I’m still awake :(
The Froody RPC framework
October 4, 2005
I just uploaded Froody to CPAN. From the README:
Froody is a framework that can be used to easily create both server and
clients for making remote API calls across the web.Froody communicates by the AJAX friendly calling convention of passing
parameters to methods via CGI parameters and returning XML data structures as
a response. The Froody framework handles all the nastyness of dealing with the
CGI and XML for you, so all you really have to worry about in your Perl code
is actually getting the job done. In particular, it lets you define a strict
spec for what will be returned simply by example, making new methods quick and
easy to write.
