12
Dec 07

The Alphanum Algorithm in Python

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: The Alphanum Algorithm in Python
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 07 01:12:21 GMT

And, in a heroic session of coding (the last couple of
hours really; yes, it took me that long, goddam regular
expressions…) the geezer comes up with the Python
version of the Alphanum algorithm…

The Alphanum Algorithm
http://www.davekoelle.com/alphanum.html

Alphanum Algorithm in Python
http://mv.asterisco.pt/Files/alphanum.py

Yay for me, I still remember how to code….

— MV

PS – Yes, I later found the solution below but I had fun meanwhile…

def safeint(x):
try:
return int(x)
except ValueError:
return x
data.sort(key=lambda x: map(safeint, re.findall(“\d+|\D+”, x)))


10
Dec 07

6am

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: 6am
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 07 06:16:21 GMT

“Six o’clock in the morning
Still sitting here pouring
The drinks till they’re gone”

Enuff ‘Z Nuff – Fly High Michelle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94jLlr3uDE

“And though we still stay up all night
The mornings aren’t quite as bright

And who’s to say what its about
When John Wayne caught the last train out
And Spock and Kirk have had enough
And no one’s left to beam me up

Got to get back
Got to get back
I never meant to take it this far”

Jon Oliva (Savatage) – A Little Too Far
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns5sqACnk3g

— MV


10
Dec 07

More Than Words

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: More Than Words
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 07 05:46:21 GMT

Trolling the web and YouTube for stuff (what else to
do when you’re on an insomnia trend again?) I just
found out that Extreme have reunited and will be going
on tour and recording a new album during 2008.

http://news.bostonherald.com/track/celebrity/view.bg?articleid=1047228

Like they say in the press release, the world is in
dire need of serious rock n roll (instead of angry depressive
grunge remakes and stupid repetitive hip hop).

This post’s title was just to fool you: no mushy ballads
and no populist abuse of the portuguese flag in sight…

Extreme – Mutha (Don’t Wanna Go To School Today)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjUXyIdtTUs

Extreme – Get The Funk Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTk3b1oH0Co

Extreme – Decadence Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykRxlPd6U4k

— MV


09
Dec 07

RESTful DB and App Servers

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: RESTful DB and App Servers
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 07 19:40:21 GMT

Like I said before, most of the week’s linkage
has had to do with CouchDB or, generally speaking,
to do with JSON-formatted REST-accessed database and
application servers.

http://mv.asterisco.pt/cat.cgi?JavaScript%20in%20All%20of%20the%20Tiers
http://del.icio.us/mvalente

CouchDB is sure fun to use, but its Erlang dependency just
pisses me off.

http://couchdb.org/
http://code.google.com/p/couchdb/
http://jan.prima.de/~jan/plok/archives/108-Programming-CouchDB-with-Javascript.html

The way that I’ve been thinking about a new web development
framework indeed involves a REST interface and JSON or XML
formatted data. But I just think that a) you might as well
standardise the programming languague used at all tiers (and
that means Javascript) and b) you should have REST/JSON as
interface not only to the DB tier but also to the logic tier.

Sure enough there are some alternatives if you want to go
that way.

Basura DB (Python based JSON/REST DB implementation)
http://www.intertwingly.net/code/basura/
http://intertwingly.net/blog/2007/09/24/Tests-Id-Like-CouchDB-to-Pass

Persevere (Java based)
http://code.google.com/p/persevere-framework/
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-aj-objmap/

Robaccia (Python based web framework includes a RESTful JSON server)
http://bitworking.org/news/restful_json_server

JSONStore
http://taoetc.org/97

DBSlayer (HTTP/JSON interface for MySQL databases)
http://code.nytimes.com/projects/dbslayer

But aditionally to databases, I’m thinking more in line with
the proposed RADAR architecture of having the REST interface
also available for the app server. There arent as many options
here…

The RADAR Architecture
http://pragdave.pragprog.com/pragdave/2007/03/the_radar_archi.html

Naked Objects
http://www.nakedobjects.org/tutorial/index.shtml

NetKernel
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=47695
http://www.1060research.com/netkernel/

And sure enough all of the above is typically Java-based (yuck!),
with some other languages thrown in (Python, Erlang), but none
goes all the way and standardises on Javascript as the implementation
language and the glue language. Apparently I am not the only one
considering this idea…

Alt Framework
http://marcello.cellosoft.com/projects/alt/

Simile’s Exhibit Framework
http://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/

— MV


08
Dec 07

Zappa: Heavy Mental

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Zappa: Heavy Mental
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 07 16:07:21 GMT

“Flakes”, a song on Frank Zappa’s Sheik Yerbouti album,
contains a Dylan parody, with guitarist Adrian Belew
doing the Dylan “voice”.

http://www.edlis.org/twice/threads/flakes.html

I was looking out on YouTube to see if there was
some video for Bob Dylan’s impersonation in one of
Frank Zappa’s songs when I found a bunch of stuff
both from Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa (son) and
Moon Unit Zappa (daughter) that is the perfect
example that you can have heavy and mental in the
same setting… Some of the videos is stuff that I
hadnt seen in 20 years…

Frank Zappa – Flakes+Broken Hearts are for Assholes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPlvuSisdg (with Steve Vai on guitar)

Frank and Dweezil Zappa — Sharleena (live) (“Battlestar Galactica?!?”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1c39Hi8SLI (THE DWEEZ!)

Moon Unit Zappa – Valley Girl (“Its like SO bitchen!!”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M9aY7hXjGU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eEvLzoSVsw (with lyrics)

Dweezil + Moon Zappa – Let’s Talk About It
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbN3iAdWPi0

Dweezil Zappa – My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RfAmdTa4W8 (“No Redeeming Social Value!”)

— MV