earth is my favourite planet
life in the pedestrian lane: science, faith, ideas, politics, techArchive for February, 2009
A Resignation and a Redirection
As my life is reorienting significantly, so this blog has also changed its template and its subject matter. I may disclose some other, more personal stuff. As I wrote on Facebook it feels weird to finally resign — 7 years is a huge chunk of my life. Here’s my last email.
From: Papesch, Robert
Sent: Friday, 27 February 2009 15:34
To: NZ – Christchurch
Subject: Goodbye comrades!Thanks to everyone at HP (ex Compaq) for being a huge part of my life for the last 7+ years.
I started at 144 Kilmore Street in the “asylum” – crammed in a meeting room because the Vodafone team was ramping up and running out of space. I sat next to Sally whose laughter still echoes in my skull!
There were some excellent team-building missions – Kaikoura, Akaroa, Amazing Maze, Go Karts
And social events – Rugby World Cup 2003 (best forgotten), Fridays at the Vic and Whale
Some cool projects with their own unique challenges were Mediation/Assembly, Rating and Billing, Program Sam.
The most challenging & satisfying project was “Frodo” – a pretty high-profile effort for Vodafone. HP developed from scratch, a high-performance webservice for Vodafone’s Prepay charging platform. I did a lot of performance testing and analysis.
Then we moved into Prepay Support and I somehow evolved into the “Tester/Toolsmith” role, which I really enjoyed.
Also the GLS project at SSC was very cool.I have learned a lot here about work, technology, people, and life.
My sincere best wishes to everybody and may your future hold many good things.Arohanui
Robert Papesch | Software Test Analyst –> hobo | Technology Solutions Group | Hewlett-Packard New Zealand
it’s freaky man but i had to do it – - got to get into a new possibility space – - discard the existing paradigms – - unleash some creativity by introducing randomness – - i.e. try some different shit 
Ruby, Watir: Attach IRB to existing IE
Today I created a handy tool for Watir script developers: iehook.rb
The general idea is:
- user loads iehook.rb
- a list of IE sessions is returned
- user enters session number required
- $ie global variable is now available
The Watir developer can now use the IRB session to interact with page elements in real-time, via watir commands applied to the $ie object. Here’s a IRB session using iehook:
Read the rest of this entry »
Belated Darwin Day post
This is a wonderful Kiwi short story I read over the Christmas break. Darwin visited Paihia and Waimate in his voyage aboard the Beagle. This lively tale shows a schoolboy’s perspective of evolution and history.
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“At Waimate there are three large houses, where the missionary gentlemen, Messrs. Williams, Davies, and Clarke, reside; and near them are the huts of the native labourers … I cannot attempt to describe all I saw; there were large gardens, with every fruit and vegetable which England produces; and many belonging to a warmer clime.” — Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, December 1835
They were only schoolteachers – and not very well-paid ones. Dad was never made head of the school’s science department because he was “too bolshie” and Mum could only teach part-time because she had to be there when I arrived home from primary school. But despite their modest incomes, they insisted we had a full three-week camping holiday every year …
Financial Acronyms, with Diagrams
From comments at DailyKos:
Teeny-tiny blue bar = subprime loans
Red bar = derivatives
Green bar = ECONOMY OF THE ENTIRE FRIKKIN’ WORLD
The banks have failed, and cannot possibly turn themselves around with any amount of capital injection..
CDO : collateralized debt obligation
SEC: Securities Exchange Commission
FDIC: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
FUBAR: the global financial outlook
Read the rest of this entry »
RE: Dmitry Orlov: Social Collapse Best Practices
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With vintage Russian black humor, Orlov described the social collapse he witnessed in Russia in the 1990s and spelled out its practical lessons for the American social collapse he sees as inevitable. The American economy in the 1990s described itself as “Goldilocks”—just the right size—when in fact is was “Tinkerbelle,” and one day the clapping stops. As in Russia, the US made itself vulnerable to the decline of crude oil, a trade deficit, military over-reach, and financial over-reach.
Russians were able to muddle through the collapse by finding ways to manage 1) food, 2) shelter, 3) transportation, and 4) security.
Tragedy of Western materialism
Unquestionably, science and technology have brought unprecedented wealth and luxury to our civilization, but “progress” has a heavy price: spiritually, socially, ecologically. 9/11 was a powerful symbol heralding a sea change in the machinations of Wall Street and a realignment of the global economy.
Some luminous thinkers have beautifully expressed their thoughts about the downside of Western materialism, in the following quotes (originals here).
Joe Bageant :
“As we have known at least since the Sixties, the core issue of our existence is consciousness, which our corporate state is compelled to control at all times. That’s why drugs are illegal; that’s why we have hundreds of television channels; and that’s why you will never find anything much resembling the truth in U.S. newspapers and magazines.
But there are still those of us who remember our consciousness experiments in the Sixties. Remember what it is like to peer into other realities, not to mention observe the inherent folly and frequent horror of our own war-profit-driven, animal murdering, death-and-sex-without-love obsessed culture. There are those of us who know that when a thrush cries out from the branch it echoes throughout the galaxy. All things are connected and ownership of things is meaningless. The purpose of life is to know this. Lao-tsu knew it, just like Einstein knew it. But you and I are not allowed to. It would shatter our revered hologram, the one that threatens to shatter the world.”
What is this Internet Blackout thing?
The New Zealand Internet Blackout is a protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law ‘Section 92A’ that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement — without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.
RE: For the love of money…
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Vulture Funds are powerful financial organizations which prey upon companies and countries weakened by debt.
They buy up the debts of struggling nations at bargain prices then use bribery and legal muscle to extort the full debt plus punitive interest and court costs. Vulture Funds have successfully sued governments, frozen country’s assets and made vast profits from the poorest nations on the planet. Reverse Robin Hoods they rob from the poor and make the wealthy even richer.
In 1996 Paul Singer – the reclusive billionaire who is credited with inventing vulture funds – paid $11m for some discounted Peruvian debt and then threatened to bankrupt the country unless they paid $58m… which they did. Now he’s suing Congo Brazzaville for $400m for a debt he bought for $10m.
In 2002 another Vulture Fund claimed $700m from the Argentinean Government in the middle of a financial crisis, further damaging their struggling economy.
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The current crisis of the global economy tells us some home truths about capitalism.
First, that the market cannot exist without the state. The evidence for this is overwhelming and has a long history from the origins of European colonialism in the 16th century, right up to the post WW2 Keynesian intervention of the state in the economy. The current crisis is the ultimate proof of this calling on massive state bailouts for the survival of the market.
Second, that those who rule the market also rule the state. The evidence for this is also overwhelming and has a long history. Wherever the state intervenes in the market the outcome is in the interest of the capitalist owning class.
Third, that capitalism today is what Marxists call state monopoly capitalism (SMC). If the first two propositions are correct, then we cannot be surprised at the fusion of interests between corporations that become increasingly big and powerful, and the nation states that serve their interests.
Here’s a short Bible study on the pitfalls of worshipping Money: http://www.acts17-11.com/money.html
Set up Ruby & Watir in 3 Easy steps
NOTE: These instructions are pretty old!! The “Quick Start” instructions are a better way to get started.
http://wiki.openqa.org/display/WTR/Quick+Start
Watir (Web Automation Testing In Ruby) is an open-source library that automates Internet Explorer browser actions on Windows. Watir drives browsers the same way people do. It clicks links, fills in forms, presses buttons. Watir also checks results, such as whether expected text appears on the page.
Watir is built on the Ruby scripting language. Like other programming languages, Ruby gives you the power to connect to databases, read data files, export XML and structure your code into reusable libraries.
The Three Essentials are :
- Get Ruby.
The current installer for Windows is ruby186-26.exe, available from rubyforge.org (24 MB download, as at November 2008). Install it to the default location, C:\ruby.
http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167&release_id=17128 - Get Watir.
The package watir_156.msi installs Watir with its required dependencies (8 MB download from justaddwatir.com).
http://justaddwatir.com/watir/wp-content/uploads/watir_156.msi
Note: there are other methods of installing Watir (via Ruby commands) but this is the simplest solution. - Get the IE Developer Toolbar.
The package IEDevToolBarSetup.msi installs the Internet Explorer developer toolbar (0.6 MB download from microsoft.com).
http://xhref.com/1300c
Note: You must have local administrator privileges to install Ruby and Watir. After installing, log off Windows or restart, to ensure Ruby is added to your environment correctly.
Now you’re set up: to become a Watir guru, some time must be spent becoming proficient with :
- Ruby syntax – learning curve is OK if you’re familiar with scripting or development
- Watir syntax – an uncomplicated library that enables Ruby to drive IE directly via OLE
- SciTE editor – a lightweight IDE that’s included with Ruby (alternatively the Eclipse IDE is excellent but complex)
RE: Ideas, Wisdom, Possibility Thinking — Focusing on solutions not problems
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Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.
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At the end of this month the government is holding its Jobs Summit, chaired by Mark Weldon and attended by many of the usual suspects from the ‘great and the good’. John Key has said he wants a ‘do fest’ not a ‘talk fest’.
Adam is therefore asking his readers and indeed anyone else you might come into contact to make constructive suggestions in the comments section of this post as to actions the Key government might take to assist economic improvement in NZ and to fight the recession.
Adam suggests that commenters might care to say in their comments whether the actions they propose are for immediate, medium term or long term action.
Adam will collate all the comments and forward a consolidated list of suggestions to the Prime Minister.
All comments and suggestions are welcome… Now is the time for us all to be open minded and see if we can make some useful and perhaps innovative suggestions.
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