I thought I might transfer my blog to this site - since it uses WordPress, and that seems cool. I just need to work out how to set up my template here, but that shouldn’t take too long.
March 2005
Monthly Archive
Someone on the AppleScript Studio Mailing List wanted to know how to get an age; here’s my take:
set birthday to date "Thursday, 1 April 1976 12:00:00 AM"
set age to (year of (current date)) - (year of birthday)
if month of (current date) < month of birthday then
set age to age - 1
else if month of (current date) = month of birthday then
if day of (current date) < day of birthday then
set age to age - 1
end if
end if get age
set age to (year of (current date)) - (year of birthday)
if month of (current date) < month of birthday then
set age to age - 1
else if month of (current date) = month of birthday then
if day of (current date) < day of birthday then
set age to age - 1
end if
end if get age
Thanks to Sam Deane, and his Now Playing script, I have added the following functionality to iTunesRater.
When a song with no Artwork starts playing, Amazon.com is contacted, and if the Artwork is available, then a drawer with possible artworks is opened. Eventually, when you click the Artwork you want, it will be copied to the track, (and all others from the same album).
Now if only I can make it so it does this bit in the background - perhaps another script that gets called?
Thu 24th Mar 2005
Technological Literacy and Computer Control
Posted early afternoon, filed under Design & Technology.The worlds of Design and Manufacture are changing. Where designers used to ‘just’ design, and have someone else create anything other than foam or balsa models, Technology has forever changed this.
Computer Aided Manufacture is where an object is created on a machine connected to a computer. A representation of the design is created on the computer, and commands are sent to the machine, telling it where to remove unwanted material, or drill holes.
Industrial level machines are used in almost all forms of manufacture, from car parts and assembly at Holden or Mitsubishi, through to cabinet manufacture, and moulds for creating injection moulded ice-cream containers. For all but the smallest companies, and applications other than just prototyping, the per-unit savings in cost, materials and time quickly overwhelm the significant cost of the machines. A machine for turning wood into cabinet parts can cost upwards of $250,000, but is capable of producing one part every few minutes - all identical, and with no errors.
Technological Literacy is having an understanding of modern technologies, and being able to articulate the various costs and benefits of such systems. In short, having and idea of the skills involved, having some experience using the systems, and hopefully being able to transfer the skills from one system to anther.
With the acquisition of a small CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) milling machine, schools will be able to develop these technological literacies, vital as they are for modern design and manufacturing, to a high standard. The particular machines we are looking at, while much smaller than those used by industry, offer significant similarities to them.
For example: currently students use a low technology method of creating electronic printed circuit boards. They trace a design onto a copper board, and place the product in a chemical that removes unwanted copper. Designs are slow to create, and errors usually result in starting again. With a CNC mill, students will create their own design using computer tools, and the machine will remove all of the unwanted copper. Errors in the design phase result in just a redesign of the board - the computer itself does not make errors in the milling process. Having a machine remove the copper also alleviates the problems in that area in working with nasty chemicals and the fumes they create.
Similarly, students studying CAD (Computer Aided Design) already develop skills in creating 3D virtual representations of real objects, and those of their own design. What they lack is the opportunity to create a ‘real’ version of these objects. Their creativity is limited by their skills. In many cases, students in Year 9 are able to design an object that would require the skills of a master craftsman to create to any accuracy.
With the inclusion of CAM in a curriculum, we can more accurately model industry. Graduates will have a solid understanding of how articles are manufactured in today’s world, rather than just a limited set of skills. This will open up a whole new variety of career paths and career ideas other than those the students already have.
The world of work is forever changing. We need to change to keep up with it, and suitably prepare our students in terms of technological literacy.
I’ve redesigned the User Interface for iTunesRater, making it more of a controller, and upped the version number to 0.5
I’ve also included the functionality of AutoRater - but the maxRate and minRate values are (at the moment) hard-coded to -5 and +10. I need to learn how to load and save preferences before I change this. AutoRate is also turned off by default.
Anyway, it is at iTunes Rater 0.5, and the source is iTunes Rater 0.5 Source.
As of now, iTunes AutoRater is deprecated, since the functionality is all implemented in iTunesRater0.5
Next feature might be an image lookup, and apply (to single song and to all in same album).
I miss Adam and Wil on TripleJ’s breakfast, the new guys really don’t cut the mustard.
But the one interesting thing I have heard them deal with is the debate about “Tom Price”, the mining town in WA. Who was the person who actually discovered the Iron Ore there? Was it Lang Hancock, or Bill Burns and Ian Whitcher?
Not that I really care, but this was only 40 or so years ago. There are people who are still alive who were involved in the discovery. So why is there so much uncertainty about what happens?
It really makes me wonder how much of ‘ancient’ history is true. How accurate were the records from 1914-18, let alone hundreds or thousands of years ago? How do we know we haven’t had the wool pulled over our eyes about thing in history?
I mean, Pythagoras didn’t really discover that theorem (the Egyptians knew about it all along), and Aristotle’s 4 humours held back medicine for centuries! Similarly with the 4 elements and general science. And Fraud (intentional error) just made his results up, yet they have been treated as gospel.
Don’t get me onto gospel!
The new plan for writing a novel. Use the random link feature of Wikipedia to get ideas - and the ideas must be weaved into the story as they are found. No skipping pages, or other tricky stuff.
I can’t wait - NaNoWriMo 05, lookout. (It must be better than my last year’s effort).
Sun 20th Mar 2005
UK professor concludes: cellphones don’t cause gas station fires
Posted mid-afternoon, filed under Science.UK professor concludes: cellphones don’t cause gas station fires:
He studied all 243 gas station fires from the past 11 years that were supposedly sparked by cellphones and determined that not a single one was actually caused by a handset. The actual cause of most of these fires? Static electricity, which is what everyone who actually knows anything about this stuff has been saying all along.
via Engadget.
[composed and posted with ecto]
Tue 15th Mar 2005