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Wednesday 28 September, 2011
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Long-time readers will be, no doubt, relieved to hear that my train down to London this morning was 390-054. Foolishly, I didn't look at the nameplate so I don't know what its name is, or even if it has a name. Wikipedia isn't helping here either. For extra memorability, it arrived in reverse configuration, that is with first class at the back of the train rather than the front, causing much harumphing and kerfuffle on the platform.

Bonus factoid: No wifi on this train. I thought at the time it just wasn't working, but apparently the Dept for Transport wouldn't allow it to be fitted. I wonder why.


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Tuesday 27 September, 2011
#[code]CycleStreets Android App Development Builds

The CycleStreets Android App is available through the Android Market. Like other apps, if you install from the Market, you will be informed of new updates as they are released. Unlike most other apps, the CycleStreets app is free software - the code is available for anyone to poke around with, build on, add to, and so on.

The code is more or less constantly evolving, so there are often new features or bug fixes in the code some time before a release to the Android Market. Features or bug fixes you might like to have. Of course, not everyone has the time or skills to build the code themselves. Fortunately, we have software to that for us.

Each time I make a change to my copy of the app's code, a new build of the app will appear here. Whatever I'm working on might not be entirely complete, but it'll be the very latest code there is.

Once I have finished a feature, I push the code into the main branch. Those builds will appear here, in the master directory. Builds of this branch will happen less often, but new features should be complete.

To install any of these builds, you will first need to uninstall any existing version of the CycleStreets app you might have on your phone, and then turn on the "Unknown sources" setting. With that done, download the build and, once the download completes, select it. Your phone should offer to install it.

Unfortunately, there's no way to automatically update an application you've downloaded like this. The best I can offer is an RSS feed of builds.


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Monday 26 September, 2011
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Spent three days wrestling with a UI rendering bug in our CMS editorial front end. Hampered by attritional relationship with CMS supplier, crappy documentation, and ropey code (ours and theirs). Googling further hampered by them shipper older, but unspecified versions of other libraries. Stumbled across solution by accident about 20 minutes ago. Fix required four additional lines of code.

I really, really hate situations like this. First, it's taken a ridiculously long time to sort out - bug was bounced to me from someone else and I think it was with another guy before that. Secondly, now that I have a fix I can't actually explain why it works, only that it does. That's rather rubbish and deeply unsatisfying.


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Thursday 22 September, 2011
#[linkfarm] Has Neal Stephenson become too accessible? - The blurb on the back of my review copy of Neal Stephenson's new novel, "Reamde," described it as "his most accessible novel to date." I frowned when I read those words: Accessible? This was supposed to be a good thing?
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Tuesday 20 September, 2011
#[linkfarm] Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. - It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.
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Friday 09 September, 2011
#[linkfarm] The Drive by Night - These days, the Drive is about lesbians, leftists, and good food. I recommend this combination as a basis for a successful neighborhood anywhere.
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#[linkfarm] FactCheck: Why less is more when taxing the super rich - Put simply, the super rich will do anything they can to avoid paying more tax.
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Wednesday 07 September, 2011
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I am riding Beth Tweddle MBE.less than a minute ago via TwidroydPRO Favorite Retweet ReplyJez Higgins
jezhiggins

The train. Some people!
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Monday 05 September, 2011
#[elsewhere] Are you sure you didn't paint that picture yourself?
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Thursday 01 September, 2011
#[linkfarm] Virgin train to be named after champion gymnast Beth Tweddle - The 26-year-old athlete, who has an MBE, will be at Lime Street station today to see her No 390022 arrive from London.
A splendid new name for Penny the Pendolino, originally named Virgin Hope. I'll keep my eyes open.
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#[linkfarm] There is no moral case for tax havens - The moral bankruptcy of the tax haven runs deeper. Indeed it is intrinsic to its purpose. The British Virgin Islands is the global capital for the incorporation of offshore companies. Though it has a population of just 22,000, it has 823,502 registered companies which make vast amounts of money through the wonder of transfer pricing. It works like this. Suppose I manufacture a product in Africa and sell it in the UK. If I am a canny businessman I set up an intermediate company in a tax haven. It need do nothing except exist on paper. But through it I can buy all the products I make in Africa, dirt cheap, and then sell them, at a much higher cost, to my UK subsidiary. The African and British companies do not, thus, make much profit, so I have little or no tax to pay. All the money stays offshore, where taxes are low or non-existent. This is perfectly legal. But it distorts the world economy and means I pay no tax.
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