Projects, interests, and pontifications of Joby Walker
I’ve completed Milestone 0.2 of Spellbook. This is not a fully functional product yet. I’ve only implemented the spell CRUD interface — the spell list functionality will be in Milestone 0.4.
The running application is available for data entry.
LOL. Male/Female comparisons can be quite tiresome, but this is an excellent take on the showing behavior of the different genders. Not that I recognize any of the behavior…no…
Heh. Organic farming practices produce more CO2 per unit of food than traditional farming methodology. Oops.
The Symfony team has released version 1.0!
Symfony is more mature than ever, faster than ever, and more configurable and extendable than ever. A lot of websites officially declare using symfony, and we know of dozens of other applications, either Intranet or Internet, running symfony without any problem. The symfony framework is definitely ready to power complex web 2.0 applications with a lot of users. It has a tremendous amount of documentation and tutorials, including the just-released Definitive Guide to Symfony, a 490p book published by Apress, written by Fabien and me, and free to read online. And you will also find a vibrant community, always ready to give you a hand when starting up a symfony application.
The 1.0 is not just another release. We call it an “enterprise” release, which means that we will keep on maintaining it for a long time (that is, for several years). When a new release of PHP comes with its wagon of BC break, we will update symfony 1.0 to make it compatible. When a bug is found and corrected in one of the components of symfony 1.0, we will update the stable release to make the symfony experience always better.
I am extremely pleased with the framework. It has made my job significantly easier. Thanks and congrats to the symfony team.
I’ll post more on the Symfony framework in the future, but if you are interested in using the framework you should follow the official news on their weblog, or even better subscribe to the RSS feed.
So Christine Gregoire finally grew a spine and announced that Seattle’s Tunnel Lite is DOA:
Gregoire, in a prepared statement said: “The DOT review has shown that the hybrid tunnel proposal does not meet state and federal safety standards. Furthermore, an accident where people could not escape this tunnel could prove catastrophic.
“To move forward with that option would simply be irresponsible,” she said. “Today we need to move forward with the one option that meets safety standards and is fiscally responsible: the elevated structure.”
Finally - spending an extra billion+ dollars on a project that would not be able to carry as much traffic as the current structure is NOT a viable solution. Of course Nickels-the-Hut, won’t see the light. And to allay the safety concerns of a small tunnel with no escape they’ll reduce the speed limit to 35 mph — that’ll improve the carrying capacity!
“If the state is to save face on the flawed process, they (state leaders) will give the voters a chance to express their opinions,” Bichsel said. “I cannot imagine why legislative leaders or the governor would not pay attention to what the voters of Seattle say about their waterfront.”
Wait. So the voters should get to vote — that’s not what Mayor Hut and the the Council said last fall when they canceled a city wide vote after polls were released showing that 65+% of the city opposed the tunnel option. And of course, even though the bizarre multi-part million dollar vote won’t matter — full speed ahead. Once the tunnel finally gets squashed, the Mayor’s and Council’s secondary solution of “surface streets” will get ramped up:
MacDonald said he didn’t know whether the DOT will be asked to do a further study on the surface plan. “The surface discussion is coming like a freight train,” he said.
So stupid…
Former Senator Fred Thompson today:
In Congress, they are debating a meaningless resolution.
Down the street, they are trying a guy for lying about a leak.
A House subcommittee had to cancel a hearing on global warming because of snow.
Just another day in Washington.
Happy Valentine’s Day.
Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans, is held in contempt. Just the law catching up with common sense.
With Toyota soon surpassing GM as the #1 car manufacturer world-wide, Toyota is concerned that the additional exposure will make the company a target of the Democratic Congress. This is not an unfounded fear. Toyota is a non-union employer, largely located in the South that is outpacing the union employers of the Democratic upper Mid-West. GM’s woes are not surprising at all they:
1) Overly rely on vehicles with a high profit margin (large vehicles), and cannot make money on the average car (which Toyota does).
2) Allow workers to smoke on the line, and dash to the local bar during lunch to pound some beers — who wants a car made by a buzzing smoker?
3) Have a legacy of overly generous salaries and benefits that originated in the golden age of Detroit, but is just not affordable when they must compete.
4) Rely on political connections to prevent more onerous environmental regulation and protect their cash cows, while Toyota tapped the green market to make large profits.
In the end, Toyota has a successful business model that can remain profitable — even in adverse economic climates. While GM (and Ford) rely on specific market and political climates to make any money. This is simple survival of the fittest — the more adaptable company will win in the end.
One thing I enjoy about Wednesday is going to the local Pagliacci to get a couple slices of “The Works” (pepperoni, sausage, onion, and green bell pepper). But no, the primo of the day was the “Grand Salami Primo”. Oh well hopefully next week.