Filed under: postgres
Today, I’ve been trying to get PsycoPG2 installed on my Macbook so that I can run through some tests and try and improve the user experience on Who’s Playing and hopefully increase it’s usage. I re-installed OSX the other week, and there’s still some little things like this to catch.
First off, I tried installing it via Macports, which worked Ok, but didn’t install it in a directory that the default Apple install of Python could see, it put it in the Macports directory. After a while I couldn’t find any way to change the install dir, so I ran:
python_switch python25
which lost all my other libraries, and the Django framework. Not quite what I wanted really.
python_switch python-apple
Will switch you back to the Apple install.
The easiest thing to do is just to download the latest psycopg2 tarball, and edit the setup.cfg file. I also installed Postgres from the official Mac binary, not from Macports, so I told it to use pg_config from that install. Uncomment the pg_config line and point it to your install of Postgres.
pg_config=/Library/PostgreSQL/8.3/bin/pg_config
Then run setup.py
sudo python setup.py install
Job Done.
Update: For Snow Leopard users, you might also see the following error:
Symbol not found: _PQbackendPID
The solution, that I found on Kreegers blog, is to tell Snow Leopard that python needs to run in 32bit mode:
defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Prefer-32-Bit -bool yes
Filed under: Premier League, football, soccer | Tags: football, premier league, soccer
The Premier League is heading for disaster, todays Guardian carries a story about the debts run up by the leagues clubs, it will come as no surprise that the top 4 in the league are also the top 4 in debt.
Chelsea and Manchester United are both £700 million in debt, Arsenal are £416m in debt and Liverpool are £280m in debt. Fulham are a surprising 5th at almost £200m, all these teams are either bankrolled by a millionaire owner or they’ve mortgaged the stadium and other assets and they’re owned by the banks (does that mean we actually own them?)
With this amount of debt, the only way the owners can ever hope to make their money back is to sell them to someone richer, but that can’t go on forever. Hoe many people in the world could afford to buy any of those top 4 clubs, and if they’ve had the business nouce to make that much money, would they think buying a football club in that position was good business?
For the big 4 clubs, the pressure to win is enorous, winning keeps their cash flow positive, the extra cash that the Champions League brings is a must, you only have to look at Leeds and the position they found themselves in not too long ago. What would happen if Arsenal, Chelsea, manchester United or Liverpool failed to finish in the top 4? Well I don’t think it would mean a collapse on the Leeds scale, but 2 seasons in a row? 3?
Whenever teams are under such vast pressure to win, there comes the temptation to cheat.
If you think I’m being over dramatic, you can look to Italy in 2006 when Lazio, Juventus, Milan and Fiorentina were all found guilty of match fixing and either relegated or banned from European competition. It’s not too hard a leap to make to see that kind of thing happening in the Premier League, or even the Championship with the riches up for grabs. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see such allegations in this country in the next 4 or 5 years, and when they do, the Premiership is doomed.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Give it in little projects to the little guys.
As I’ve said in the past, government should concentrate on providing data and let it’s citizens build the sites they want out of that.
Some would say that the sites built wont cover the needs of everybody, but then how is that different from today?
Over the weekend a bunch of people got together for Hack The Government Day and proved what can be done when data is free, using screen scraping, they built projects against the data held at companies house, the job center, an API for searching schools, a site for finding a local dentist, a site to review your MPs voting record and a site that took Sport England’s Active Places and improved it using Google Maps. Active Places was developed using £5 million of lottery money.
The sooner this kind of data becomes free, the sooner we start to get these kind of sites available.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m coming to the conclusion that (at least) one of my side projects is dead, http://www.whos-playing.com is a site I wrote to help people manage 5 a side football teams, it lets you pick teams and rate your team mates to help keep the teams fair.
The idea was to have the site free while people beta tested it, then charge people to use it once I was happy that it worked Ok, but no-one wants to use it when it’s free, so I doubt people would want to pay for it.
It’s been live for about 6 months and has gained less than 100 users users, none of them active. I’ve received 2 emails regarding problems on the site, both of which were fixed in quick order, after that, neither user carried on using the site.
I tried engaging the team organisers whenever I fixed major bugs, or improved the interface in such a way that might make it usable for them, but I rarely got even a log in from them.
I’ve tried gaining users by joining various 5-a-side groups on Facebook, but it’s hard not to look spammy when you’re the most active user on there. Some people signed up, but never got any further.
One of the users works for one of the major 5-a-side football pitch providers in the UK, but his experience of the site didn’t get any further than trying to invite a few players to join his team. I’ve even emailed the FA, but heard nothing back.
So now it’s beginning to look like the site is a dud, no active users even when the site is free, even when some of the users who signed up are your friends, it doesn’t appeal to people who hang out on groups aimed at the subject it covers.
So it looks like whos-playing.com is in injury time, all the substitutes have been played, the referee has checked his watch and unless something happens soon I might have to blow the final whistle.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’ve had a bit to say about the state of travel information online, and regular readers will know what I think the solution is. So when I heard that a company in the North West had been awarded a contract to overhaul SYPTE’s online information website I was quite excited, maybe now we’d get a decent service that worked on a wider range of devices, with better maps and, dare I say it, an API we can use.
That excitement started to fade as soon as I clicked on a link to Rippleffect’s website, it’s flash. If, like me, you work in an environment where you have no rights to install software on your windows machine you’re immediatly stuck. Flash has it’s place, but it’s not front and center, it’s not the first thing your customers should see (or not, in my case)
Because I have other reasons to be here, I made the effort to find the link to the non-flash version and looked to see if there was any more info on the project. There wasn’t any specific info on the SYPTE project, but they have done work for Merseyrail. I’ve had a look at the hourney planner and I immediatly saw the URL http://www.merseyrail.org/noflash.php?mode=not_installed, but it seems to work Ok on a non-flash enabled browser (Chrome in my case, see above). However when I look at the site with a Flash enabled browser … I can’t see what it uses Flash for, certainly not the journey planner, so the user experience is needlessly downgraded before I even start.
I had high hopes when I saw that a smaller, local agency rather than a large behemoth had won the work, but now I’m not so hopeful that what we’ll end up with will be any better than what’s there at the moment, but prove me wrong Rippleffect, please prove me wrong!!
Over 12 months ago I wrote a bit of a rant about how I thought the tech sector in the north was being overlooked.
So 18 months later are things still the same, or has there been any progress, or is the UK tech scene still firmly rooted in the south?
You can see from the comments on the original post that Ryan Carson’s FOWA bus did come to Manchester, which was a good start.
The list of conferences and unconferences in the north grows too, there have been Barcamps in Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds & Barcamp NorthEast was held in Newcastle. Geekup has expanded from Manchester & Leeds and now has meetings in Chester, Liverpool, Preston and Sheffield.
A new conference aimed at the stuff that can easily be missed when creating an app or website, ThinkVisibility, was announced last week, looking at revenue streams, SEO, accessibility and usability, and that’s happening in Leeds.
NWS2.0 goes from strength to strength, companies like edocr & Yuuguu continue to shine and the myriad of freelancers, design agencies and small web shops are based up north.
3 of the largest online stores (Ebuyer, Dabs & Scan) are based in the north, we have 2 large ISP’s (Plusnet, who I work for, and Zen ).
Sheffield, Leeds & Manchester all have large universities with well respected computer science degrees.
We have communities based around PHP (phpnw), Ruby and Python amongst others, and they all hold regular meet ups around the north.
So yeah, I think it’s fair to say that 18 months later there is more to the UK IT sector than London & Brighton, even more than when i made that post …
Have I missed something? Add a comment and tell me which of your favorite Northern companies & conferences I missed
TO: THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY
PALATINE OF LANCASTER
GREETINGS!
Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and eight, the 57th year of the reign of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Duke of Lancaster,
is Lancashire Day.
Know ye also, and rejoice, that by virtue of Her Majesty’s County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn, Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style themselves Lancastrians.
Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the Pennines, this day shall ever mark the peoples’ pleasure in that excellent distinction – true Lancastrians, proud of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.
GOD BLESS LANCASHIRE AND
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN,
DUKE OF LANCASTER.
Filed under: TV, bbc, rant | Tags: bbc, Brand, Clarkson, Joke, Ross, Scandal, Top Gear
A joke on a BBC television programme today prompted no-one to complain, watchdogs reported. Antiques Roadshow presenter Fiona Bruce quipped that Leeds Castle was a long way from Yorkshire, and hoped that people didn’t get confused.
Switchboards at the BBC were silent as the nation didn’t complain in mass numbers. A spokesman for the BBC apologised for any offence people may feel when they realise that they missed an opportunity to complain and blamed an editorial oversight and said that representatives of both Leeds Castle and Yorkshire had been informed of the joke before the programme was broadcast.
The spokesman went on to suggest that following the offence caused by Clarksongate & RossBrandSachsgate, the BBC had taken a stronger line over AntiquesRoadshowPresenterFionaBrucegate and measures had been put in place to avoid any repeat of the incident.
Filed under: Health | Tags: anxiety, blueday2008, depression, mental health
Today (October 10th) is World Mental Health Day, or BlueDay2008, designed to raise awareness of mental health issues, their effects on you and your family and to make you aware of the symptoms. A lot of fuss is made about keeping yourself physically fit, but not a lot is said about being mentally fit as well, even though the former helps the latter no end.
The internet is awash with stories today about severe depression and anxiety and the way it can wreck lives, but that isn’t the only kind of depression, much more prevalent is the kind of depression you probably wouldn’t even realise you suffer from until you read the symptoms. It manifests itself as a general feeling of … meh, I can’t be arsed, and it’s a lot more common than you might think. Don’t think that just because it isn’t as serious that it’ll just go away on it’s own, or that it won’t get any more serious. Mild depression is quite common, and easily treated for most people.
So what are the symptoms? It’s not like you come out in a rash, the symptoms are not hard to spot, but most people don’t know what they are:
- Persistent sad, anxious or empty mood
- Changes in sleep
- Change in appetite with weight loss or gain
- Lack of interest in once enjoyable activities
- Restless/irritable
- Persistent physical symptoms that don’t respond to treatment
- Difficulty concentrating and/or remembering things
- Difficulty making decisions
- Fatigue/loss of energy
- Feeling guilty, hopeless or worthless
- Thoughts of suicide or death
Have a look at that list. Recognise anything? If you recognise any more than a couple of those in yourself (or anyone else) then it’s probably a good idea to see your doctor, the latter ones especially. This is the next problem with depression, it’s still seen as a taboo subject, people are scared to talk about it and afraid to go and talk to a doctor, I think it’s largely down to negative images of the term “mental illness”, that it somehow makes you inferior, worse than everyone else. That’s bollocks.
Treatment for minor bouts of depression can be as simple as “getting some excersize”, there are even herbal remedies that work, you won’t instantly get dosed up on happy pills if that’s what worries you. Have a look at some of these other pages about depression & anxiety and if you’re worried, just go and see the doctor …
