SQLObject 0.2 is an object-relational mapper for Python. I’ll be very interested to play with this in the future. At present it only supports MySQL and PostgreSQL. On the back-burner list is spending some time playing with MySQL and Python.
How to be a Programmer by Robert L. Read is an interesting read [via Matt Croydon].
Although I’m not a programmer, I specialise in debugging and this article discusses debugging as one of the key skills of a programmer. I can’t do the other stuff, but maybe I could learn.
Got into work this morning, and my PC was frozen (no, not the weather; but we have snow and traffic chaos, woo hoo!). Now, even though this is running Windows 2000 and you learn to expect to have to reboot, it has never frozen on me. Microsoft seemed to get it right with Windows2000.
Rebooted. Message on the screen “F1 to try to reboot again, F2 to enter setup utility” and a horrible grinding sound from the computer. This resolved into a slow “grrr-grrrr” from the hard drive. Oh bugger. I never did implement that backup strategy, and I just downloaded a load of pictures from my camera that would be lost completely. I’m out of CD-R’s at the moment. Typical.
Taking the cover off the PC, I resolved to do what every good PC owner with a bit of experience does. I punched the hard drive, using the classic downward fist motion.
“grrr-grrr wrrr wrrrrrrrrr”
I put this achievement down to watching Doctor Who in my youth. The good Doctor always gave his Tardis console a good whack when it wasn’t working. The poor girl always worked after that.
Whilst it may send Dorothea running for cover, I’m going to talk children, specifically, potty training and sleep training. I’ll let you know when I’ve finished. 
Perhaps the two biggest early years problems you can face, we are doing potty training at the same time as sleep training. Kid A is failing to do number two’s in the right place, and Kid B doesn’t want to sleep in the right place.
Emilia, to put it bluntly, poos in her pants. Worse, she tells us this; after the event. Wee wee is not a problem, the “potty’s the place”. Sigh.
Better news on the sleep training. Here’s the secret, let them cry. Honestly, over a certain age, there is no reason not to let them cry. They will stop, and they will sleep. We got into a terrible mess because we were worried that George would wake Emilia up, so went to him, brought him downstairs and let him sleep in my arms. Bad more, because then he wouldn’t sleep at all unless he was in my arms, meaning no blogging for Paul in the evening, no playing games, no fun with the wife (you know board games, hop scotch, etc). I watched a lot of telly though, and the whole of the extended LoTR DVD.
But, enough was enough. The first night was the worst. Every half hour he’d wake and take ten minutes to stop crying and go to sleep. That last for three hours. That was three days ago. Tonight, he has woken once, and after a quick visit, went back to sleep in two minutes. Eventually, he won’t even do this. It is hard, leaving a child to cry, but it works.
I’ve been playing with Vellum a bit today. One of the features of Vellum is funky caching where if you change a blog entry, you simply delete the page. When requested, you redirect the 404 error to the build process of Vellum. Great, but I had one problem with it. Usually, I let Apache sort out directory requests so /orient/ goes to /orient/index.shtml.
However, if vellum has deleted index.html because it has been rebuilt and index.html hasn’t been expressly requested, Apache errors with “Directory index forbidden by rule:”
So, I tried “Redirect / index.html” in .htaccess, but Apache didn’t want know: “.htaccess: Redirect to non-URL”. index.html doesn’t exist, I’m not going to redirect.
Thankfully, mod_rewrite to the rescue (again).
Options FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^$ /104test/index.html ErrorDocument 404 /vellum104/vellum.cgi?a=build
I was involved in a zero mile an hour car crash this morning. The traffic was stationary and I was idly contemplating the importance of polos (the mint with the hole) when Wham! I thought from the force of the impact that my car would have a car sized hole in the back of it. Looking in my mirror I couldn’t see the erroneous driver in my back seat, so got out to find out why he had decided to drive forward when no one was going anywhere.
No reason. Just a blank look of indifference as he viewed the damage. To his car. My car was oddly intact. His bumper no longer existed.