Month: January 2008

Categories
technology

to err is human

I thought this reg article on error messages was brilliant. Of course it makes sense that an error message would be required for a screen buffer related exception hence the “blem wit” extract from “There is a problem with the Memory Control Block for the shell”. Did windows TSR programmers of that era consider logging to files? You betcha but debugging TSR’s was often a nightmare.
My favourite error message for jaw-dropping unhelpfulness is the old win32 error

Error: “The parameter is correct”

Categories
education

Dismissed out of hand

It was with little surprise that I read the latest broadside from a senior staff member of an Irish University against WIT’s bid become a University. So let’s consider what he said.

“Giving more narrowly specialised and less academically resourced institutions of higher learning a status of University will lead to further devaluation of bachelors, masters and PHD level degrees awarded in this country in the future. Ireland’s education system is already oversaturated with Universities, all of which, with exception of just three, fail to rank internationally as institutions of academic research and or higher learning. However, having so many Universities leads to dispersion of state and private funding for science and education, resulting in an absurd situation where our flagship Universities – TCD, UCD and UCC – are starved of funds and unable to attract world class researchers, while our potentially competitive Universities – such as U of L and NUI Maynooth – are forced to short-change their ambitious research agendas to allow the politicised and economically infeasible strategies for regional development to go on.”

WIT’s more narrow range of subjects stems from their original funding and need to attract students. It is hardly our fault that Trinity, with many years of University funding from the HEA far exceeding that of the IT’s, still finds it difficult to improve its ranking in the world table of academic institutions. In consideration of their lack of funds then perhaps TCD should consider revising its strategies to increase the breadth of their funding sources. However, I acknolwedge that he and many of his colleagues may feel industry is beneath them but you never know. It’s easier to engage in ad hominem attacks against competitors than introspection.
At any rate, if he discussed the matter with his colleague in UCD Morgan Kelly, he’d probably find out that the difficulty in attracting world class researchers has a lot to do with the living costs of Ireland and the obscene ones of Dubiln in particular. Perhaps these “infeasible strategies for regional development” are warranted after all.
Having helped create a research group with a budget equivalent to the complete research budget of Maynooth, within 10 years, I’m quite confident that we can compete nationally and Europe-wide for research tenders. I think that Dr. Gurdgiev does identify a serious problem of over-competition within a small country where collaboration would be better. Unfortunately, this manifesto would be better served by less dismissive language.
As an economist he should be familiar with the concept of a vested interest and their inherent need to spin all information to their own end.

Categories
humour

Why the planet is so lonely

Like many of the irish population I listen to the Last Word on Today FM regularly while travelling home from work. Today I managed to catch a section on the Lonely Planet guide’s description of certain Irish towns and counties. A link to the press release on the Irish section of the guide can be found here
The section was typically Dublin focussed with most of the interview covering the guide’s comments about Temple Bar. Lads, you’ll never achieve any decentralisation if you don’t educate the pale about the rest of the country. Surely it’s worth pointing out there are places where you can get to work in under an hour without having a multi-million euro mortgage and a helicopter.
However, at the end they mentioned the comments about Waterford.


Waterford Town: “Although that seedy port-town feel is still evident in places, the city has received a facelift in recent years. Pedestrianised streets and public artworks have improved the centre, and it’s now a more attractive place to wander.” (P184)


Now, this back-handed and cack-handed complement is typical of the bluster that the editor Justin Bambridge tried to defend on Matt’s show. He made vague references to “proper research” but couldn’t articulate what this really consisted of. There are not “seedy places” in Waterford CITY. I can only think of a few square metres in the town that could be described as “seedy”. I can assure the reader that having grown up in Waterford if there was any more seediness to find, my intrepid group of friends would have found it. I kinda wish they’d included some photos of all this licentiousness.
While we’re at it, I’ve found greater need to “take care after dark” in the “cultural centre” that is Kilkenny or the “buzzing with energy” Cork than in Tralee. As for Dublin, I’ve seen more alcohol-related fights in Dublin on my ocassional nocturnal outtings there than many years spent in Waterford and frequent trips abroad. I suppose depending on their mood the writers would thus describe Dublin as “having something for everyone”.
Perhaps the planet is lonely as it’s so goddamn smug.

Categories
philosophy

Jumping from couch to couch

If you haven’t seen this on gawker or youtube yet then you’re in for a treat. Now, I’m all for expressing unpopular beliefs (popularity is overrated) if you can provide a rational argument for them but if you fervently (WRIT LARGE) believe in something to the point of wild-eyed and frothing enthusiasm then an honest person has to share that with the world at large. Especially so if you view that you’re the “only person who can help” when you see an accident or that your religion is the “way to happiness”. More problematic is the anti-psychotherapist propaganda and the IPR protection of much of the Scientologist belief system. All “religions” seem to think they’re the way to happiness anyway. I guess what I object to about this is that people can have all the unsubstantiated beliefs they want but, at the minimum, theit tenets should be publicly available (not for cash) and publicly expressed, So, with the presumption that Mr Cruise is “extremely serious” he should be giving public interviews about all his beliefs. Even if his career nose-dived it’s not like he needs the money. He’s rightly afraid of ridicule as the Brooke Shields incident proved. Mother’s are movie-goers too! Still, if he’s so serious… ?
I guess I’m a religious committment-phobe. I’m comfortably agnostic but determine the existence of an unknown creator is low in probability based on our current knowledge of the universe. Still, I can’t know so I can’t even fully commit to agnosticism or atheism. Maybe it’s labels. I don’t want my psyche to be branded (or trademarked). I’m not sure I could commit to any religion that wanted me as a member, only kidding :S Gee that sounded smug, maybe I should make an informercial 😀
I reject the idea of “supernatural”, I just believe we can’t explain some things yet but we should be careful about forming belief systems about things we don’t understand. This applies to science aswell. As our knowledge of the physical world expands we better appreciate how neat formulaic beliefs don’t always hold (e.g. at the sub-atomic scale) and we appreciate that our beliefs are essentially heuristics which have a utility and should be measured as such. Bit cold, bit dry but there ya go 🙂 Still, a lot of rules and regulation in the major religions of the world have practical social value. Don’t eat meat that’s rotten, don’t fight your neighbour, don’t steal, kill etc.
It’s important to consider their context rather than blindly dismissing everything. Marx claimed that religion was the opium of the people. So, he replaced it with a new drug, just as powerful and stupefying.
I guess most people would chose certainty over ambiguity, destiny over happenstance and heaven over oblivion.