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Rails
So, there's this programming language, Ruby, written by a Japanese man in the 1990s. It's neat: it incorporates all the best bits of other languages and it follows the principle of least astonishment. All in all, if you use Ruby you get to be productive *and* have fun.
Then in 2004 a Danish man used Ruby to write a website project he was working on. The particular way he designed the code, he realised, would be useful for other projects - it provided a solid framework which helped with all the basics of how a website works, like creating, updating and deleting data records, and keeping all the different bits of a website in the right place. So he made it open source so other programmers could use it. And use it they did, because it was so handy. A global following sprung up, and the framework kept growing and developing and getting better and better. This framework is called Ruby on Rails and I am obsessed with it.
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Lint: the movie
If you can get to Brighton, and you want to see a spectacle and a half, then check this out.
LINT THE MOVIE starring Alan Moore, Stewart Lee, Steve Aylett, Josie Long, Jeff Vandermeer, D Harlan Wilson, Robin Ince, Mitzi Szereto, Bill Ectric, Andrew O'Neill, Vessel, Leila Johnston, 7-Inch Stitch etc etc - premiere screening - Brighton UK on June 26 - http://tinyurl.com/6h5dayz
Tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/event/120117
Based on Aylett's books 'LINT' and 'And Your Point Is?'
Aylett books, Lint paraphernalia and Caterer comics will be on sale at the venue.
LINT THE MOVIE will also be screened at BizarroCon 2011, Portland USA, in Nov –
http://bizarrocon.wordpress.com/
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Out and about
This not having a working computer lark is interesting. On the downside: NO COMPUTER. On the plus side, I have talked (rather than emailed) to more people than I usually do, and I've gone in more shops. It was rather nice to go into the Waterstone's in Milton Keynes and see that Thomas Emson's Maneater took pride of place on the Waterstone's Recommends gondola end in the SFF section. It was also nice to talk to people in store and check that all was well with ordering and systems. The Waterstone's in Oxford was also looking rather chipper, and I saw a good stocking of our titles both in section and a couple on the tables: Pandemonium Road by Thomas Emson and Write to be Published by Nicola Morgan both looked dazzling.
As I type (on an old Mac Book that Rob has kindly lent me), my new Mac Mini purchased this morning is restoring from backup, and my macbook pro is being couriered to the fixers to have a new logic board (I'm told). The restore from backup has been a bit hairy: I had to reformat* the time machine external disk, and so have gained a few grey hairs today. All seems ok now. Hopefully I'll be back on my proper system this evening, with email and all. Thanks for your patience on email whilst I get sorted out.
*Rob note: I'd say verified and remounted, but maybe that's just me
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Humph
My macbook pro is no longer with us, I'm sorry to say. Or, at least, it won't stay switched on. I've spent an uncomfortable day in Milton Keynes (why? why so many roundabouts? and don't all those people have jobs to go to?) which houses the nearest Apple store. They put a new hard drive in and said it was fine, but it ain't. So I'm going to buy a new computer tomorrow so I can send this one off for an extended fixin' holiday, and restore from backup, which just happens to be completely bang up to date. I find that one loses a significant amount of work due to spontaneous computer failure just the once, in each lifetime.
Anyway, temporary glitch, but apologies if you've emailed and I haven't replied. I will do as soon as I'm back in the land of the computing. Hooray for time machine backups and cloud based version control, that's what I say, which makes this a hiccup not a monumental disaster.
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Anna's Grammar Pointers #3
After the first installment of this grammar series, it seemed like there were a lot of people commenting on the usage of semi-colons. And not in a ‘gosh, those semi-colons are confusing little beasts’ way but in more of an ‘I sure love semi-colons; they are the best!’ way. That’s because people who know how to correctly use a semi-colon love to do so; they want to make sure everybody knows of their great skill. And that is because people who know how to correctly use a semi-colon are superior human beings. That’s a fact. A science fact.
Fear not, intrepid writer -- you too can easily learn to wield the semi-colon with confidence, and then you will become more desirable to the mate of your choosing.
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Anna's Grammar Pointers #2
Life would be so much easier if we didn’t have to, like, talk to people. Both in writing and in real life. (Ha, ha! Only kidding! I’m not a recluse who works from home and avoids exposure to the burning Day Star!) Here are a few tips for addressing and referring to people in text.
When you (or your characters, in dialogue) speak to somebody, the convention is to put a comma before the name. For example: Go to the bakery and get me a chocolate-glazed donut, Rob. This is an issue of clarity -- and a fairly important one, as a missing comma can often turn the preceding words into a string of adjectives describing the person’s name. That is, you switch from talking to somebody to talking about him. And I don’t think the bakery makes a donut Rob, much less one with chocolate icing.