Advogato blog for tagishandy

Simpsons Me

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

I wonder if I could use it as my passport photo? It’s not exactly a striking likeness.

Get yours here.

CPAN v DTD (spoiler: CPAN loses)

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

I need to parse a DTD. Specifically I need to parse this DTD:

http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd

It’s quite a well known one. Certainly there’ll be a module on CPAN that can parse it. Let’s have a look.

XML::DTD

Looks promising, comprehensive. Unfortunately it fails with an error which is eventually tracked to a misspelled method name. So much for test coverage. Fix that and it throws a bunch of warnings that cause a rapid loss of confidence. No matter, let’s try…

XML::DTDParser

It’s a “quick and dirty DTD parser”. Hmm. “I’m too lazy to document
the structure”. Nice.

“Since version 1.6 this module supports my “extensions” to DTDs. If the DTD contains a comment in form…”

Maybe I’ll come back to XML::DTDParser…

SGML::DTDParse

SGML? That’s got to be good, right? SGML is the daddy. Every fule no that. Unfortunately it doesn’t really seem to have much of a Perl interface. It’s all about translating DTDs to XML. I might be able to use that. I’m getting desperate.

I’ll take a quick look at the test suite for a confidence boost. Here’s one:

    # Before `make install' is performed this script should be
    # `make test'. After `make install' it should work as `perl

    #########################                                  

    # change 'tests => 1' to 'tests => last_test_to_print';    

    use Test::More tests => 1;
    BEGIN { use_ok('SGML::DTDParse') };                        

    #########################                                  

    # Insert your test code below, the Test::More module is use
    # its man page ( perldoc Test::More ) for help writing this

(I’ve cut the right hand side of the test off so it fits my stupid page layout. Don’t worry - you’re not missing anything good)

The other test is pretty similar. I’m not that confident now.

XML::ParseDTD

Running out of options. Let’s look at XML::ParseDTD. From the documentation it appears to rock. The test results say “2 PASS, 2 FAIL”. 50/50. So at least it’s got some tests, right? Damn right! Here they are in their entirety:

    #!/usr/bin/env perl -w

    use strict;
    use Test::Simple tests => 2;
    use XML::ParseDTD;

    my $dtd = new XML::ParseDTD('http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/D
    ok( defined $dtd, 'new() returned something' );
    ok( $dtd->isa('XML::ParseDTD'), 'it's the right class' );

(Again I’ve cut the right hand side of the test off. Again you’re not missing anything good)

I’m momentarily impressed that it managed to score two failures with that. I’m about to find out how.

Never mind, the DTD URI in the test looks a lot like the DTD I need to parse. I’m getting close. I can feel it.

Unfortunately it has a dependency on Cache::SharedMemoryCache (why?) which in turn depends on IPC::ShareLite - which doesn’t install on my PowerBook. So now I need to fix / avoid IPC::ShareLite.

See kids: the great thing about CPAN is how much time it saves!

iTunes 9006 error?

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

Is anyone else experiencing stalled iTunes Pro downloads? I’ve got a bunch of files stuck in the download queue. Every time I reschedule them - either pause / un-pause or restart iTunes - it tries for a few minutes to download them and then fails with a 9006 error.

iTunes Plus

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

iTunes 7.2 is out. iTunes Plus (DRM free downloads) is available. So I’ve made a purchase: Placebo: Covers.

Wow, it’s easy isn’t it? So nice to be able to enjoy the integrated iTunes experience without worrying about infesting my computer with DRM crippled media.

As Kirk McElhearn points out the files do contain identifying information that can be traced (trivially) back to you. That’s fine by me.

Captcha::reCAPTCHA

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

I’ve just released a Perl interface to reCAPTCHA. You should be able to find it here:

http://search.cpan.org/dist/Captcha-reCAPTCHA

At the time of writing the US mirror of search.cpan.org doesn’t seem to have updated for a few days so if you need it in a hurry you can also get it here:

http://cpan.hexten.net/modules/by-authors/id/A/AN/ANDYA/

Citizen Journalism

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

I’d like to make it possible for local people to set up blog space on the Nenthead community site. They’d post local news stories and interesting ones would be promoted to a unified news front page. Kind of like Advogato but for non-geeks.

Is anyone doing this kind of community focused citizen journalism? I see Wikinews but that’s more top down than what I have in mind.

Drugs house shut after complaints

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

Blimey, the complaints must have been annoying if they had to resort to drugs.

HEDFUK

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

Magic:

By Christian Heilmann via Tobie Langel.

Bastard Linux Patent FUD

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

And then this:

“The point of the study was actually to eliminate the FUD about Linux’s alleged legal problems by attaching a quantifiable measure versus the speculation,” he said. “And the number we found, to anyone familiar with this issue, is so average as to be boring; almost any piece of software potentially infringes at least that many patents.”

Who said that? Dan Ravicher of OSRM - also known as the guy who wrote the report Balmer is quoting.

Via The Inquirer

Update: This dates from November 2004 (eWeek). As far as I know Ballmer’s still quoting the same report.

Robber Barons

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 03:04:29 GMT

James Turner is pissed off about Microsoft’s patent sabre rattling - as we all should be.

At the end, there’s only one thing left to say. For shame Microsoft, for shame. You’ve twisted competition into a thuggish debacle that ranks right up there with the worst of the great robber barons. How ironic that Bill Gates is trying to reinvent himself as the great philanthropist. Andrew Carnegie took much the same route late in his life, as if it could wash away his sins. We can only hope that in a few years, Steve Ballmer will look as much a fool as Daryl McBride does today.

More here.