taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Dublin: Lean forwards on this story from today’s Irish Times. Sadly, it’s behind their subscription firewall, so I’ll just snip out a few choice quotes from Philip Shaffry, the current owner:

‘(The Stag’s Head) has been part of my life for three decades and I’ve been running it for 10 years,’ he says. ‘I’ve two small children and I’m living 10 miles out of town, so I’m hoping to find a pub a bit out of the city centre. But of course I’ll miss this place. I have got really attached to the clientele and the crowd that comes in.’

Looking around at the Victorian bar, opulently decorated with mahogany panelling and a red Connemara marble bar counter, Shaffry is confident there will be no changes to the building.

‘They won’t be able to touch it. This is the crème de la crème, the jewel in the crown, of Dublin pubs. It has been here since 1760, although it was completely refurbished in 1895. This is a grade-one listed building.’

But the bad news?

There are no State laws regulating some aspects of the pub, namely his family’s refusal to allow music - live or otherwise - or television in the bar. Any new owner could change this tradition, says Shaffry, which is a source of concern for some regulars. (….)

A spokesman for CBRE Gunne, which will auction the pub this afternoon, says there had been ‘enormous interest’ in the premises from Irish and international buyers.

Eeek! The guide price is 5 million Euros, if you fancy a shot.

Thanks for Philip for his excellent stewardship — here’s hoping any new buyer will keep his approach. That approach made the Stag’s what it is today — the best pub in Dublin. (In my opinion, at least ;)

Tags: approach, bar, building, crme, dublin, irish, owner, pub, stag, story, today

Code: Ugo Cei: Building Interactive Web Programs with Continuations quoting Phil Windley:

This leads to the question: what if I could write programs for the Web that were ’structured’ in the programming sense of that word? The result would be Web programs that were more natural to write and easy to read. You’d no longer have to maintain the state of your program outside the language and the data could be kept in variables, where it belongs. The answer is: you can.

I hate the ’save all state’ model imposed by developing for the web, and have been hoping for a way to do this for a while — and now I know what it’s called ;)

It seems Seaside is the leading continuations-based web-app framework, using Smalltalk, and (as Ugo noted) Apache Cocoon has it too, but there’s a whole load more. Can you tell I haven’t been following web-app development techniques much recently?

Never mind those other languages, though — Continuity looks promising as a Perl framework based around continuations. Perl 6 will reportedly have native continuation support, and Dan Sugalski gives a good write-up of how they’re implemented and their ramifications there.

Tags: building, code, continuations, framework, interactive, perl, programming, programs, question, state, web

Trips: So I’m just back from ApacheCon 2004, which took place in the lovely Alexis Park building site ;)

Good fun was had — very interesting to meet all the faces behind the names from various mailing lists and blogs, and get the inside track on how the ASF really works… there’s quite a lot you don’t get to understand from the outside, or even from being a committer. So, a useful trip.

Most of the talks were, naturally, very web-oriented — we’ll have to see what we can do about that, next time around! One useful tidbit: I didn’t realise, but found out at the conference, that the ASF ConCom are very generous with paying speakers’ expenses. So maybe next time I’ll join the speaker line-up, too.

A major goal, one we achieved, was an impromptu SpamAssassin developer summit, 5 days sitting down together hammering on bugs and plans, with 4 of the main developers present (myself, Daniel, Theo and Michael). Pretty much achieved, although there were some thorny bugs to deal with… one interesting factor is that we may now be moving towards emulating the Apache httpd’s preforking model to deal with a memory/performance issue we’re seeing in 3.0.x.

Finally — this sequence of photos has been cropping up all over the internets. When I saw it, I immediately thought it looked a lot like Ireland — and Roundstone, Co. Galway, in particular. Sure enough, it appears it is! I guess the Connemara landscape of Roundstone’s bay is pretty memorable, after all…

Tags: apachecon, asf, building, fun, lot, mailing, place, roundstone, site, time, trips

GNU: Hey, Dublin-based people! Richard Stallman will be giving a talk titled ‘The Dangers of Software Patents’ in Dublin on May 24, at 19:30. It’ll be in the TCD Hamilton building, right beside Pearse St. DART station. I’ve never seen him speak, but I hear it’s definitely worth attending, and his message needs to get out there, further into the Irish software industry and political circles.

Also on patents: good news via groklaw.net — Germany has stated they plan to vote against the Irish software patent legalisation plan, and some French ISVs are asking Chirac to do likewise.

Tags: building, dublin-based, gnu, hey, may, patents, pearse, right, software, talk, tcd

Good to see the US troops in Baghdad were kept busy keeping an eye on the important stuff — like surrounding the Oil Ministry building with 50 tanks and snipers, while the largest collection of antiquities in the Middle East got trashed. That’s keeping your priorities straight!

The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.

The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.

Residents noted that the irrigation ministry, just next door, was torched.

(Sydney Morning Herald) (more in attached mail).

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 08:07:44 -0000
From: “uncle_slacky” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Re: Baghdad looting

— In (spam-protected) Roy Stilling (spam-protected) wrote:

> On “Yesterday in Parliament” yesterday, one of the awkward squad MPs
> made the claim that while the mob was looting Iraq’s museums and
> public buildings, US forces guarded one ministry only - the Oil
> Ministry. Anyone seen any corroboration of that claim anywhere?

A quick News Google indicates, for example:

Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172643895.html

Since US forces rolled into central Baghdad a week ago, one of the sole public buildings untouched by looters has been Iraq’s massive oil ministry, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by troops.

The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.

The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.

Baghdad residents have complained that US troops should do more to protect against the looters, most of them Shi’ite Muslims repressed by Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime who live in the vast slum known as Saddam City on the northern outskirts.

But while museums, banks, hotels and libraries have been ransacked, the oil ministry remains secure.

The symbolism is loaded, considering how vehemently the United States and Britain denied war opponents’ accusations that the campaign to oust Saddam was driven by oil lust.

“They came from the other side of the world. Do you believe they’re going to do much for me? They’ve just come for the oil,” fumed Salam Mohammad Hassan, a doctor who lives near the ministry.

Residents noted that the irrigation ministry, just next door, was torched.

US forces, who say they cannot prevent looting across the capital of five million, respond that they are not trying to seize Iraq’s oil resources but preserve them.

“Anyone who says we’re protecting this ministry to steal Iraqi oil doesn’t know what’s really going on in this country,” US Captain Scott McDonald told AFP at the ministry gates.

The United States, he said, is only safeguarding Iraq’s potential which would otherwise be considered game for looters.

“Oil belongs to the Iraqi people; it’s their property. It must be protected because it’ll go, indirectly, to build schools and hospitals,” he said.

McDonald said a few looters had managed to sneak into the ministry- cum-fortress after US troops entered Baghdad. A few offices were robbed but nearly all files and archives remain intact, he said.

Coalition forces also say they control all of Iraq’s oilfields.

Amnesty International has criticised the attention on controlling oilfields, which it said must have taken “much planning and resources.”

“However, there is scarce evidence of similar levels of planning and allocation of resources for securing public and other institutions essential for the survival and well-being of the population,” the London-based rights group said.

Iraq has the world’s largest oil resources after Saudi Arabia, with 112 billion barrels of proven reserves.

Before the start of the war, Iraq was producing about 2.5 million barrels a day, of which just under two million were exported under UN supervision through the “oil-for-food” program.

In front of the oil ministry, a young Iraqi sat down in hopes of selling cigarettes.

“Before, lots of people would stop here to buy from me, that’s why I’ve kept coming. But there hasn’t been anyone for a few days.”

Upon saying that, he was kicked out unceremoniously by a soldier.

*

and going back to last week, from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2547131,00.html

“U.S. troops occupied the Oil Ministry. But the nine-story Ministry of Transport building was gutted by fire, as was the Iraqi Olympic headquarters, while the Ministry of Education was partially burned. Near the Interior Ministry, the office building of Saddam Hussein’s son Odai stood damaged, its upper floors blackened.”

and from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2556458,00.html

“The Oil Ministry also seemed intact with a heavy U.S. military presence inside.”

BTW these reports are duplicated on many other news sites, they’re not just the product of the Grauniad’s fevered imagination…

Rob

Tags: building, claim, entrance, ministry, motorist, oil, onlooker, quarter, roof, yesterday

A STORY thought to be a myth about a horse and cart being entombed during the building of an extension to the West Highland Railway Line over one hundred years ago has been proved to be true.

Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:51:31 -0000
From: “Martin Adamson” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Century-old rail ‘myth’ proved

The Times

THURSDAY MAY 10 2001 
Century-old rail ‘myth’ proved 
BY A SCOTLAND CORRESPONDENT 
A STORY thought to be a myth about a horse and cart being entombed
during the building of an extension to the West Highland Railway Line
over one hundred years ago has been proved to be true. After a 17-year
search Professor Roland Paxton of Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh,
has found the animal’s remains in the spectacular Loch-nan-Uamh
viaduct near Mallaig, Argyllshire. 
Professor Paxton said that his team found the almost intact remains of
the horse and cart on the weekend, using state of the art radar
equipment to probe the pillars. 
He said: “The cart is lying at the bottom of the 40ft pillar with the
horse sitting vertically on top, as though they had fallen in
backwards.” 
The accident in 1899 must have happened as builders began pouring
stone into the pillar’s cavity from a backed-up cart, he said. “It’s
quite difficult to reverse a horse and cart and it looks like this one
went over the edge and disappeared into the pier, dragging the poor
horse in after it.” 
The horse had probably died instantly, the professor said. “There’s
evidence the horse’s neck was broken, presumably in the fall, and that
the filling continued.” 
Professor Paxton first read about the accident 17 years ago, but the
myth and folklore that grew around the story made it difficult to know
where to search. It was not until he recieved a tip-off from local
man, Ewen Macmillan, 75, from Arisaig, Argyll, that he was able to
find the right location. 
Mr Macmillan said that he had first heard the story as a boy from his
father. “I was fascinated and the story stuck in my head ever since,”
he said. 
Sir William McAlpine, whose great-grandfather Robert McAlpine was the
building contractor on the eight-span viaduct, sponsored the search. 

Tags: building, cart, century-old, extension, horse, may, myth, rail, story, west