It was recently suggested to me that there could be risk-free money to be made crossing Betfair and Betdaq. Betfair and Betdaq are betting exchanges - they allow their users to bet on various events, from the traditional horse races to more unusual fare like netball or the UK general election. Unlike a normal bookmaker, the exchanges don't provide the odds and take the opposing side of the bet. Instead the odds are determined by other users and the other side is another user. So while there may be someone offering 1.15 odds that Labour will win (a back bet) the next UK election, someone else may offer 1.2 that they will lose (a lay bet). When the back and lay odds match then a bet is made. Note, all the odds quoted in this article are decimal odds as this is the type of odds used on the exchanges.
Available on iTunesU. I could not find a course website.
This is a series of 8 anthropology lectures on the topic Socities in Transition recorded at Linacre College, Oxford University during early 2009. Each podcast is just under an hour and audio only (occasional mention is made of slides). Each lecture is given by a different presenter. All are fairly academic in nature (a couple are quite dry and I found it hard to maintain concentration), but are still accessible to the non-expert. These lectures are not straight history, there is little discussion of historical events. Instead each podcast presents current research on the process of social transition during a notable period of history. They often provide an interesting snapshot (or at least intriguing tidbits) of life around the time of the transition.
The lectures are in chronological order, spanning the entirity of human history - and beyond. The first lecture is on the Neanderthals - their slow extinction and modern discovery. The next lecture deals with the spread of farming in South East Asia. Then follows an interesting lecture on the spread of metallurgy in the Bronze Age and what the metals meant to society at different times and places. Another interesting lecture details attempts to date and size the volcanic explosion at Thera (now Santorini). From this research the presenter trys to match up the likely effects with events and history in the region (mainly the Minoan society on Crete). The next two lectures are respectively on the beginning and end of Roman rule in Britain. Apparently the collapse of the British economy after the Romans left was particularly swift - previously common pottery and coins disappeared almost overnight and buildings quickly fell into disrepair. The last two lectures are on more modern topics - the industrial and the current information revolutions.
Worth a listen for background information on the timeperiods discussed.
A while ago I put up some photos from Dougga. Here are the best photos from the rest of that holiday in Tunisia. The set on Flickr is here.
This is a quick post about a coding problem that took longer than expected to solve. I have put an example solution here as a reference for myself or others, hopefully speeding up the task. I needed to create a dialog to connect to a local or remote JMX process. Essentially this would be very similar to the JConsole "New Connection" dialog. Initially I thought this would just be a standard component, but instead it took some trial and error (as well as digging through Sun documentation) to get the required functionality working.
Available on iTunesU. I could not find a course website.
These podcasts detail the life of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, often considered one of the greatest commanders of the ancient world. During the Second Punic War against the Roman Republic in the 3rd century BC, Hannibal led his army over the Alps into Italy. He then used superior strategy and tactics to defeat the Roman army at a number of engagements, resulting in the battle of Cannae - a devastating loss for Rome. After this, the Romans adopted many of Hannibal's techniques. At the Battle of Zama, Hannibal was defeated and Carthage lost the war.
The lectures were given by Patrick Hunt as part of the Stanford Continuing Studies Program sometime during 2007. I couldn't find a course website, but there are a few articles relating to the course. There are 8 lectures (strangely numbered 1 through 10), all of which are audio only and nearly two hours long (around 30MB in size). The first podcast is an interesting discussion on Carthaginian culture, in particular whether they really practiced child sacrifice. The second lecture introduces the First Punic War and Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca. The Second Punic War is covered over three lectures (along with an epilogue). The remaining three podcasts are dedicated to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps.
It seems Patrick Hunt organises regular expeditions to cross the Alps, trying to find archeological proof of where Hannibal crossed. Great attention is paid to how closely various mountain passes fit the ancient descriptions. Dr Hunt personally favours the Col de Clapier. If this historical event is of interest, then you will be well served. There is not one, not two, but three different first-person accounts of modern crossings of the Alps in attempts to follow Hannibal's footsteps: Hunt's; Ed Boenig, a student of Dr Hunt's; and John Hoyte's, who crossed the Col de Clapier in 1959 with an elephant (called Jumbo).
Apart from close concentration on a narrow historical time period, the series has many intriguing digressions. For instance, there is occasional mention of the meaning of Hannibal's name, "grace of Ba'al". Ba'al was the main Carthaginian deity, who supposedly lived on a mountain. Thus Dr Hunt suggests Hannibal would have had no fear of mountains. A bit of a stretch, but still interesting. If you have a particular interest in finding out about Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, then this is the podcast for you. However, there is still much to learn even if that is not your focus (and the second two alpine lectures can be safely skipped). On the downside, the first lecture (on the origins of Carthage) seems to be missing. Also, there is no sign of the lecture slides. Being able to see the maps and slides would have been particularly useful during discussions of which Alpine pass most closely matched ancient descriptions. Nevertheless, don't be put off by the long podcast length, this series is well worth a listen.
Recently I wanted to have a clickable button in a table. Searching on Google for JButton in JTable I found a couple of suggestions, most notably this DevX article and this Esus article. There was also a StackOverflow question that just referenced other solutions. None really satisfied me. So borrowing their ideas I created my own solution.
A while ago I put up some photos from Pompeii, and it is about time I put up the best photos from the rest of that holiday in Italy. The set on Flickr is here.
Available on iTunesU. I could not find a course website.
Professor Isabelle Pafford from The Ancient Mediterranean World podcasts returns for another series of Ancient History podcasts. This time a course on the Roman Republic given during Fall 2008 at Santa Clara University. There are 19 podcasts - 1 is a slide show video, but the others are audio only. Each podcast is around 50 minutes in length and around 50MB. In the audio podcasts there are often references to slides that are not available online.
The course starts with the stories of Rome's foundation along with details of the surrounding area and people, which presumably influenced early Rome. The Roman Kingdom is quickly passed over (perhaps due to a lack of information on the era) for the Roman Republic. Most attention is focussed on the Late Republic, with over half the lectures on the period from the Gracchi to Caesar - around 133BC to 49BC.
These lectures are full of engrossing details. There is a bit of historical timeline talk (on this date this happened and on that date that happened), but the series is more about the life and times of ancient Rome. For instance, there is often discussion of the Cursus Honorum (a series of military and administrative positions that provided a semi-formal structure to a political career) and how it affected the way people sought or achieved power. There was also a strong patron-client system, where a person's power could, in part, be measured by the number of clients/followers they had. Thus, manumission was common as freed slaves were typically clients of their previous owner. There is also some interesting consideration of which events are definitely known to have occurred, the fixed-points of history, and those parts of the primary sources that may be apocryphal.
Professor Pafford can be an engaging speaker, and it is clear this is an area she knows well. Indeed the extra colour provided as cracks began to appear in the republic had me hooked. It was a classic fight between two political parties, the Optimates and Populares - modern analogies are too easy to make. Although the ability to raise private armies and the tendency of losers to be executed adds an epic scale to proceedings. The final result may be well-known, with Caesar the unlikely Populares triumphing - but I still raced through the last half-dozen lectures.
It was a good thing I did know what happened in the end, as the end of the lecture series is missing (hint Caesar is assassinated and his nephew eventually dissolved the republic, becoming the first emperor, Augustus). I would guess that around a half-dozen of the lectures are unavailable, mainly around the mid-republic. At one point Professor Pafford apologises for losing some lectures in a hard-drive crash. So I suppose their absence is forgiveable. However, like the earlier Ancient Mediterranean podcasts, there are numerous other production issues. The audio quality is usually good, apart from a few notable exceptions. The video lecture is almost impossible to hear, and the slides are small relative to the screen. Another lecture on the First Triumvirate is split across two lectures because it sounds like the microphone failed (and the second part is very quiet). There is also quite a bit of course administrative talk (assignments, books, etc) - in one 40 minute lecture, 8 minutes are spent on such course administration topics. At least the class seem interested and ask some good questions. The lectures are also presented out of order on iTunes. It helps to know a bit of history to reorganise them from the titles.
Interesting history podcasts, again let down a little by production.
I don't like new year resolutions detailing plans to make yourself better - I'm already great! However, I do like the idea of setting a few goals. This year's goals are fairly similar to last years, but a little less ambitious:
- Blog at an average rate of at least 4 times a month. Fairly sure I can do this with the Blender and History Podcast posts I'm planning.
- Only have 2 programming projects going at the same time. Reassess projects every 3 months. The first two are: learning how to load and animate blender models in a 3D graphics engine; and a secret project.
- Complete 3 Blender models and write tutorials on them - the models are a robot (to learn animation), a Thermopolium, and a Broch.
- Maintain Queuesaurus and general ruby skills. Try to use Scala.
- Run 5km in 25 minutes. This is a bit ambitious.
- Decrease net ownership of physical goods
Almost a year ago I wrote some goals for the new year. Now it is time for an assessment.
- Goal: Improve Ruby skills. Result: Partial success. I'm not at what I would consider a professional standard, but not far off it. I gemify'ed my BBC weather library, but have since abandoned it as keeping up with the BBC's constant API changes was frustrating. I use Queusaurus even if no one else does. I started another project, but it didn't get far enough to publicise.
- Goal: Learn Scala. Result: Have done some, but not much.
- Goal: Learn Blender. Result: Near Success. I feel confident enough about this one. I haven't completed an ancient scene, but I'm sure I could.
- Goal: Decrease net ownership of physical goods. Result: Success. Doing this slowly but surely - I own fewer things now than when I wrote that goal, but not by much.
- Goal: 48 blog posts in a year. Result: 44 posts. I'm fairly happy with that. Holidays and looking for a new work contract slowed me down a bit.
- Goal: Run 5km in 25 minutes. Result: Not even close. The less said the better.
- On the stretch goals, all are still a long distance away.
I think the main problem with achieving those goals was my tendency to try doing too much. At one point (and continuing for a couple of months) I had 6 programming projects on the go at once. Nothing progressed at any pace over the last half of the year and that is what caused the most slippage. Something to be aware of for the coming year.
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