Posted by mattc at Nov 28, 06 05:05 AM
This article will show several simple changes that can be made to improve the performance of your Web applications.
On banishing 'new' from our code
Posted by mattc at Nov 27, 06 05:05 AM
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 09:46 PM ... Comments (0)
Putin is not an evil person, or an angel, but a normal human being that manages to do one thing and fails to do another.
Putin aide, Guardian G2.
Not that i'm a Putin apologist, I just thought it was quite an accurate summary of the human condition and an honest explanation of the choices facing a political leader.
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 09:43 PM ... Comments (0)
The test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will make it any better; it will only make it more expensive, more foolish.
Frank Pick, Design and Industries Association, 1916
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 09:32 PM ... Comments (0)
A greasemonkey script that removes all the global branding from bbc.co.uk pages, letting you surf in blissfully ignorant isolation of the wider wonderland.
Download and install bbc_debrand.user.js
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 09:30 PM ... Comments (0)
Candidates stand, Ministers sit, Prime Ministers lie
Guardian, May 2005
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 09:27 PM ... Comments (0)
On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong to the Emperor, (b) embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camel's hair brush, (l) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble flies from a distance.
The Analytical Language of John Wilkins, Jorge Luis Borges
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 07:22 PM ... Comments (0)
Every year I play the Times Fantasy Football and every year I struggle with finding the best value players.
Typically the players that get last minute transfers from the bench of a good team to a starting place in the first XI of a lesser team are the best picks. Jiri Jarosik being a prime example who ended up amassing a huge number of points after Chelsea dumped him on Birmingham a few weeks before the transfer deadline.
Anyway, here's the output of a program that will periodically reorder the latest player points tables from The Times website in to a fairly crude 'best-value' metric.
The cheapest players earning a relatively good number of points throughout the season will appear at the top end of the tables, the expensive players earning a similar amount will drift around in mid-table indicating that they are overpriced.
The generated files are stored in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:47 PM ... Comments (0)
Here's my notes from the very useful Testing Computer Software by Cem Kaner.
There's some quite concisely expressed profundities in the early chapters, my two favourites being ...
A great programmer is less likely than a incompetent tester. (chapter 2)
... and ...
The 'quality' of software is fundamentally measured in human terms. Therefore, in testing for bugs we are looking to determine the *degree* of usefulness of the system to the user. (chapter 4)
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:38 PM ... Comments (0)
- 1 oven roasted red pepper - 15 mins - 2 tblspoons chopped parsley - 8 baby squid tubes - 600ml (good) clear chicken stock - 1g saffron - 1 green tomato, sliced - 1 teaspoon caster sugar ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - mix pepper, parsley, season, stuff squid - boil stock, add saffron, add squid - caramelise tomatoes with sugar
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:38 PM ... Comments (0)
- 55g butter - 4 slices of bacon - 1 onion, chopped - 1 carrot, chopped - 1/2 tsp thyme - 1 garlic clove - 1 bay leaf - 450g green peas - 2.5 litres chicken stock - 300g gammon or 1 ham hock - pepper ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - melt butter, add bacon. cook until golden - add onion, carrot, thyme, garlic, bay leaf. cook until onion softens - add peas, stock, ham. simmer for 1/2 hours - puree, season.
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:36 PM ... Comments (0)
- 25g butter - 450g parsnips, chopped - 3 leeks, chopped - 1 litre vegetable stock - grated lemon rind - 1/2 lemon, juice - 1 bay leaf - 150ml single cream ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - melt butter, cook parsnips & leeks for 5 mins - add stock, grated lemon, bay leaf, simmer for 15 mins - add lemon juice - puree, add cream, season
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:35 PM ... Comments (0)
- 4 shallots - 2 garlic cloves - 2 teaspoon ground cumin - 2 heads cauliflower, cut to florets - olive oil - 400ml chicken stock - 100ml double cream - 8 scallops - knob of butter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - sweat shallots, garlic, cumin, cauliflower in olive oil - add stock, cook until cauliflower tender - puree soup, add cream. strain - sear scallops, seasons. add to soup
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:32 PM ... Comments (0)
- 2 onions - 2 garlic cloves - 2x400g cans cannellini beans - 1.5 litres chicken stock - small bunch tarragon leaves ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - roughly chop onion & garlic, cook with olive oil. don't brown. - add beans & stock, simmer for 25 mins - add tarragon before serving
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 06:28 PM ... Comments (0)
- 2 large leeks - 40g butter - 4 medium celery - 400g artichokes - 1 litre light stock - small bunch parsley - 1 tsp coriander seed - 3g shelled walnuts - 30g fresh ginger - 4 tsp groundnut oil ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - slice leaks to thin rounds, cook on low heat 15 mins - slice & add celery and artichoke, cover until vegetables soften - pour in stock, cook 25 mins - grind corriander, add and pulp walnuts - fry thin ginger for 30 secs, add corriander & walnuts & let sizzle - blitz soup in blender, stir in parsley, add mix
Posted by mattc at Nov 26, 06 12:08 PM ... Comments (1)
This is a collection stuff that used to be linked from my homepage put in to some sort of logic order. I've been meaning to do this for about 3.5 years.
Posted by mattc at Nov 10, 06 08:24 PM ... Comments (0)
random bookmark
link summary
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matt chadburn . wiki . 2010
