Badge (by sarah)

I made a badge for Alaric at the centenary camp - I've finally got around to blogging about it over on Salaric!

He is now wearing this badge continuously on his coat of many pockets 🙂

Broken Camera (by sarah)

Great - just great - just what we need. The cameras broken - in the same way as before but now its out of warrentee and we dont have enough money to fix it and I can't earn some of the money we were releying on now without it.

So once again we are in the hot water etc... etc... man i think this one has to go under the curse again. :'(

Not even sure if I can up the load the photos that are still on the cards without it. And its probably all my fualt as I think I must have left it in reach of Jean or something for the lense to get jammed :'( :'( :'(

A syntax for IRON (by alaric)

Back in 2004 I jotted some notes on requirements for IRON types.

Since then I've been drifting somewhat towards looser typing, in the Lisp model; having that as the underlying system provides for more expressive programming power, while optional type declarations as assertions, where required, can bring back the statically checkable safety and runtime efficiency of a strict type system.

But that's not what I'm posting about in the current insomniac haze - I've been thinking about written syntax.

IRON is a data model for values. Although I'm still deciding how the mutable data structures like queues fit into things (specifications of them are definitely needed for TUNGSTEN, but whether they count as part of IRON or not is something I'm still debating), I think I may have settled on a basic syntax for written values.

Now, the key requirement here is that IRON is, in the manner of S-expressions, usable to express just about anything - from source code to boring data. Creating a written data syntax that's pleasant enough to use day in and day out is quite a challenge. s-expressions come pretty close, but are deficient in a few areas. YAML is pretty good, but I wouldn't want to write source code in it.

The main thing I'm adding over s-expressions is Smalltalk-like syntax, which I will explain in detail below.

So, without further ado, here's a basic IRON syntax.

Read more »

Up Date on the Jeany-bow (by sarah)

torta = water which she recognises in all is guizes bar steam and ice!

Juice = juice

Milllllll k = milk yep shes starting to actually put the constanants on the ends of words now!

CHEESE! = any food that is not fruit which is obviously = nanna

baby sign wise she has started to do signs that we never got round to teaching her but we know that some of the other kids at nursery know it though they staff don't really use it there.

Cold and thirsty are ones we hadn't taught her and its not coincident becuase its the right sign with the right meaning!

ot! = hot often with the baby sigh - this also refers to any drink in a mug reguardles of weather it has ice cubes in!

Meeeeme = Minni or any cat infact even though she can say cat :/

Doggy = dog and horse and any quadrapede she doesn't yet know the name for except sheep.

Cow = cow - these were origonally doggy but she cuaght on as soon as we said they were cows, unfortunatly sheep are also cows.

Dug wack = duck quack which is any bird she sees and has strangers in fits of laughter as I inform her no thats a pigeon.

Sog = sock

rowsers = trousers or tights

at = hat sounds like cat except she pats her head at the same time

more! = may I have some more mummy or please don't take that away mymmy

no! = Jeans favourite word

Ewrk = icky yuck a word to mean something she shouldnt eat or touch and that she uses when tapping her napping to indicate that we should change her - often accumpanied by the poo sign.

Mine! = any object that Jean currently wants

shoes = want to go outside

car doot doot = vechile of some sort

door = please open the door mummy

ta choo = a cross between ta and thankyou

car mine = little rickshor modile Seth gave her

Theres more but its all mummy, daddy, nanny, jean, eye, hair that sort of thing - oh and book!

The Programmers Lamment (by sarah)

I want feed back on this poem - I'm not sure how to set it out for a start - I was supposed to be writing in two line stanzers - free verse but I dont really under stand what that means so I gave up with the formal structure and wrote what came into my head - warning it does sort of contain a swear - not my fult blame the programmers.

Would lovew feed back - be harsh

Tap, tap, tapping away, Fingers flying, strange graceful dance

Notice not as light fades, consume all energies, forking demons, spawned zombi child

Dance logic, time

Tap tap tapping away, polish finger tips over letters worn

Hunger burns, Sandwitch forgotten, cat licked, stale,

Animalistic, persuing prey, Python here, Chicken there

tap tap tapping, wrist support frayed, mundane treasures, Ruby, Perl

Water sits, bubble strewn, littering your domain

Intently stare, bugs annialated, or so you prey

tap tap tapping, spinning ball, shift to corner, back again

3 am, time for sleep, red eye raw

cup of coffee, jar of beans

headaching, back stooped, so much to sort, so much to do

tap tap tapping. between the sheets, misty bruised dawn, comes and creeps

Power low, reserves giving out, drowsy talk, lisp, dialected, scheme

thought process hard, more tests more

Leached knowledge, sleep, dream, Brainfuck, But still keen