Why Dont You Blog?

BBC’s science and technology site has a new article about how much energy could be saved if we cut down on the energy used by lighting. (That’s lighting, by the way, not lightning.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5128478.stm

This is clearly true and obviously a laudable aim. There was one argument that completely stumped me though.

“The carbon dioxide produced by generating all of this electricity amounts to 70% of global emissions from passenger vehicles, and is three times more than emissions from aviation, the IEA says.”

So cars and buses produce almost as much CO2 as lighting the entire planet and planes produce a third as much CO2? I think we can probably take for granted that a lot fewer than 33% of the world’s population make many plane journeys. Even those who do are unlikely to be racking up many frequent flyer miles. I also think it would be fair to say that a lot less than 70% of the global population have much access to a vehicle.

Surely this means that carbon emissions could be quickly reduced by targeting the small section of the global population whose use of planes (and passenger transport) must create more carbon per head per year than would be generated by lighting the average third world city?

More use of energy-saving lightbulbs would obviously be a good idea, but their cost would have to come down a lot before most people could see them as a viable alternative to the uber-cheap wasteful lightbulbs that we usually use. Limiting plane journeys would be easier, giving a quick savinng for little action.

Unless, of course, poor people don’t have the same global shout as the very wealthy (or even the moderately wealthy who can afford a week in Spain twice a year.) Which couldn’t be true.

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The previous blog was based on a link from the Etrusia Protopage.  http://www.protopage.com/etrusia/

This has links to this blog, to Etrusia and to several news feeds.

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http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/06/are_virtual_u2_concerts_better.html - says “are virtual u2 converts better than the real thing?”

Probably.

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Do they pay their article writers by the word? That is the only reason I can think for some of the worse abuse of the English language I have seen in print for quite a while.

The new layout of .net has split the old “web designer” sections and now you have technique/* sections (obviously trying to increase the web-feel for the style). These come in different forms ranging from what appears to be CSS for the retarded to “pro_tips.”

Most of these are fairly well written. The new style of the magazine appears to have improved the writing style of some of the feature writers. There is definitely a less patronising tone being used - especially in the “beginners guides.” (I will not mention the errors for now…). When they are talking about the more technical aspects, the writers do very well and actually get their point across.

However (always a however), when given the chance to “reflect” on some aspect of design (which, as opposed to the coding, is where the magazine seems firmly heading) the writers can go for three paragraphs without actually saying anything. Every other page is crammed full of meaningless prose which looks like it is there for a joke. Words like “leverage” are abused to within an inch of their lives. When ever one analogy gets used (and often a tenuous one at best), there are normally another three or four thrown in for good measure. Dont even think about letting me start on the mixed metaphors… It is truly educational reading - if only for how a “clique” magazine can butcher the English language…..

As always, as soon as “Web 2.0″ and “Agile” programming becomes the topic, no one actually knows what it means, so the writer has to make up words to fill the copy. Sentence after sentence saying the same (non-)thing.

One of my favourites:

Use abstracted code so that you can make changes quickly and easily. This almost goes without saying, but the key to developing in a flexible way is to make sure that you’re not building something that has no room for manoeuvre.

Fantastic - and that is one of the more readable ones…. The really painful ones are too much hassle to type in! When the write starts to wax lyrical about making sure all your staff take ownership of the agile development rather than viewing it as a job, you know it is going to be pure word soup.

Sadly, the Web Design “industry” is entirely to blame for all this. The seemingly constant desire for new “buzzwords” means web design has spawned a language of its own. Strangely, no one actually understands the words they throw around, so every article has to spend the first ten pages explaining what the author thinks the word means. If people would just use the language properly, instead of trying to blind people with word-bluff, this wouldnt be required. Agile is word in the English language. It has a meaning which pretty much every English speaker can work out. Using it to refer to software code is simply wrong. This is why page after page have to explain what it means.

Will the madness ever end?

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Well, doesn’t time fly. It only seems like yesterday I “commented” on a new issue of .NET, yet here is another one. Last month I resisted the urge to rant on about the magazine - unfortunately I dont think I can do the same this time round. There are good and bad points, possibly one of the major good points is the fact that this month the magazine is actually inspiring enough to rant about.

Sadly, some raging lunatic at .NET has decided to go for a major overhaul of the magazine. The sections are renamed, the writing style has drastically changed (and not for the better in most cases) and the sequencing has been altered. Now, I appreciate people often reject change but this really is change for changes sake. I cant for the life of me think they consulted their customers before this re-design (I subscribe and they never asked me).

The old layout, while re-assuringly familiar, did need a change. However it needed a change for the better. It seems that at the moment, .NET has hired the crazy horse who designs Computer Arts and gone for the same look and feel. Sadly, this seriously diminishes the “uniqueness” that .NET used to have regards structure, content and style. Now the magazine looks a bit like a poor copy of an arty style magazine and, strange though this is to admit, it actually takes away from the “authority” the advice it gives carries.

Some bits of it are good - the letters are at the very start now for example. There seems to be more advertising, but I dont know if that is actually the case or an effect caused by the way every article seems to be surrounded by ads. One other positive thing - the crazy editor who oversaw all manner of bad advice, typos, misprints and other assorted lunacy is leaving now. (I can only assume she is moving to Computer Arts…).

Well, that is enough on the style - I will think about polite things to say about the articles and return to this topic.

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Great programme on Channel 5 tonight. Current archaeology in Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Incredibly only a quarter of Herculaneum has been excavated. Fantastic things on this programme included wooden furniture, half-painted statues, half-painted frescos.

It also showed my favourite thing- the pavements and kerbs and stepping stones.

There was a fascinating trip down an incredibly sophisticated sewer system. They also looked at human excrement and various odds and ends using an electron microscope. There was a visit to a baker’s shop and they showed how the grain was ground. The oven was brilliant- just like the sort often used today to bake pizzas. There was even a loaf of Roman bread.

Catch the repeats or buy the dvd if they release it.

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Genuinely a quick one today. Have you ever noticed when you google phrases like “AJAX tutorial,” you get MILLIONS of hits (and I mean over 12 million here). Happy days you may be tempted to think, however on investigation nearly all the hits are to pages with links of other sites - which in turn have lists of links and so on.

I am sure Mobius would have been proud of this….

Anyway, not wishing to be left out - here are some of the “cool” AJAX related links I have been looking at today. Some are better than others…

• http://www.ajaxtutorial.net/ (Not as good a tutorial site as you would think…)
• AJAX On Rails - Will the dreaded Rails framework ever stop!!!!!
• IBM Developer Tutorial - not too bad actually, worth checking out first.
• http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/138966.htm
• http://www.stromcode.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=18&mode=&order=0&thold=0
• http://www.ajaxprojects.com/ajax/tutorialdetails.php?itemid=12
• http://www.plasticshore.com/logfile/entry/legacy_483
• http://www.ajaxprojects.com/ajax/tutorialdetails.php?itemid=13
• http://www.robgonda.com/blog/projects/ajaxcfc/(AJAX and Cold Fusion)
• http://www.indiankey.com/cfajax/ (More CF/AJAX)

Some good links for first timers:

• http://prokata.com/ajax
• http://www.mgroves.com/blog_archive.php?blogID=57
• http://www.funwithjustin.com/ajax-toybox/
• http://www.ajaxprojects.com/ajax/tutorialdetails.php?itemid=10 (personal favourite)

If it helps - you can find a round up of “50 AJAX Toolkots and Frameworks” which is more interesting than it sounds at - http://www.maxkiesler.com/index.php/weblog/ comments/ round up of 50  ajax toolkits and frameworks/

Seriously, if you know of any better AJAX related links let me know!

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There are some new articles on Etrusia’s Roman history site. http://romans.etrusia.co.uk/roman_pompeii.php is a brief introduction to Pompeii and Herculaneum, with links to some 30 year-old photographs of parts of Pompeii that may not all be accessible to a visitor today.

There is also a short article on Hadrian’s Wall, on the same principles - a basic background introduction to the Roman monument that stretches across the whole of the North of England, with many sites along the route which will interest visitors. http://romans.etrusia.co.uk/roman_hadrians_wall.php

More shameless plugging, I guess.

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There is some good new material on the Anglo-Saxons on http://saxons.etrusia.co.uk/ which has just been remodelled and will be further extended in the near future. This would be a useful introduction to a little-known period in English history for senior school pupils following the national curriculum in History. It is also an interesting condensation of knowledge about the Saxons for anyone with an interest in British history.

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Continuing the discussion about the book by Chris Smith and his co(ghost?) writer. Like the previous poster, I have not read it either, but since when has that stopped a reviewer? (I’ve read a review in the Guardian.)

Their premise appears to hang on a “big idea,” always a cause for suspicion, especially when one is trying to generalise about culture. There is a huge conceptual error in assuming that belief in a single god is in anyway associated with a commitment to solving problems logically (leaving aside the excellent point made in the previous blog that Christianity hardly has a monopoly on monotheism).

Didn’t the ancient Greeks invent all our categories of logic? How many gods did they have? Isn’t the Socratic method the basis of scientific and philosophical enquiry? Didn’t the Romans devise technical solutions to practical problems that are still used today? How many gods did they have? These examples do not even extend beyond “western” culture. If one also considers the scientific achievements of the ancient Chinese or Egyptians or any number of civilisations throughout history, it is clear that religious belief has little to do with development of practical science and technology.

Max Weber argued for a connection between religion and social development, in his 19th century work on the Protestant work ethic. He was arguing, however, that some elements of the Protestant world view led people to to reject external religious authority and value their own practical achievements in the real world. Very briefly, the Protestant religion supported the scientific and social development of industrialisation, whereas a Catholic world view was more closely associated with social stagnation because of its values of respect for authority and reward in the afterlife.

From this perspective, Weber was building an analysis of industrial society that could accomodate the role of ideas, as well as production and social organisation. There have been many more recent analyses of the interaction of social change and the realm of ideas and beliefs (e.g. Gramsci)

These issues are very complex and much of the writing is difficult to follow. However, none of it draws a simple line connecting belief and technology. Technology is a social creation. Its nature is inextricable from the social relations in which it is developed. Beliefs are also part of social relations. Hence there are interactions between belief systems and scientific and technological advances. However, a recognition that they are connected in various subtle ways does not support a simplistic assertion that belief A leads to technology B.

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