Scoville Units Unite

Hi Jim,

When you meet with DC Thomson to discuss their slashing of jobs will you be bringing up their Lets Get Dundee Working Campaign?

Recession recovery to take longer in Dundee

Council backing Courier jobs campaign

Surely a local company shedding 350 staff is ideal for being a focus of their campaign? They should be able to get loads of column inches on fighting to retain these jobs in the city.

Thanks,

Found via Evolving Thoughts

This should be about 95% correct. Some of the names are familiar but I can’t remember definitely seeing them.

X what you’ve seen
O what you saw some but not all of
Bold what you particularly liked
Strike-through what you hated

CLASSIC DISNEY
——————————-
[ X ] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[ X ] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[ X ] Bambi (1942)
[ X ] Cinderella (1950)
[ X ] Dumbo (1941)
[ X ] Fantasia (1940)
[ X ] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[ X ] Mary Poppins (1964)
[ X ] Peter Pan (1953)
[ X ] Pinocchio (1940)
[ X ] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[ X ] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[ ] Song of the South (1946)

DISNEY’S DARK AGE
——————————-
[ X ] The Aristocats (1970)
[ ] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[ X ] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[ ] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[ X ] The Jungle Book (1967)
[ ] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986)
[ ] Pete’s Dragon (1977)
[X ] The Rescuers (1977)
[X ] Robin Hood (1973)
[ ] The Sword In The Stone (1963)

THE DISNEY RENAISSANCE
——————————-
[ X ] Aladdin (1992)
[ X ] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[ ] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[ ] Hercules (1997)
[ ] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[ X ] The Lion King (1994)
[ X ] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[ ] Mulan (1998)
[ ] Pocahontas (1995)
[ X ] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[ ] Tarzan (1999)

DISNEY’S MODERN AGE
——————————-
[ ] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[ ] Bolt (2008)
[ ] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[ ] Dinosaur (2000)
[ ] The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[ ] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002)

PIXAR
——————————-
[ X ] A Bug’s Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[ X ] Finding Nemo (2003)
[ X ] The Incredibles (2004)
[ X ] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[ ] Ratatouille (2007)
[ X ] Toy Story (1995)
[ ] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[ ] Wall-E (2008)
[ ] Up (2009)

DON BLUTH
——————————-
[ X ] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[ ] An American Tail (1986)
[ ] An American Tail: Fieval Goes West (1991)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[ X ] The Land Before Time (1988)
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[ ] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[ ] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[ ] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

CLAYMATION
——————————-
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[ X ] Chicken Run (2000)
[ X ] Coraline (2009)
[ X ] Corpse Bride (2005)
[ ] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[ X ] The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
[ ] The Puppetoon Movie (1987)
[ X ] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

CGI GLUT
——————————-
[ ] Antz (1998)
[ X ] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[ ] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[ X ] The Polar Express (2004)
[ X ] Shrek (2001)
[ X ] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek The Third (2007)
[ ] Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)
[ ] How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

IMPORTS
——————————-
[ ] Arabian Knight
[ ] Back to Gaya
[ ] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years (1988)
[ ] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Planet 51 (2009)
[ ] Waltz With Bashir (2008)
[ X ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

STUDIO GHIBLI/MIYAZAKI
——————————-
[ ] The Cat Returns (2002)
[ ] Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
[ X ] Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Skip the movie; read the book instead.
[ ] Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
[ X ] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[ ] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors The Yamadas (1999)
[ ] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[ ] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday (1991)
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War) (1994)
[ ] Porco Rosso (1992)
[ ] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[ ] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] Whisper of the Heart (1995)
[ X ] Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea (2009)
[ ] Panda! Go Panda!
[ ] Tales from Earthsea
[ ] Horus, Prince of the Sun

SATOSHI KON
——————————-
[ ] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ X ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

SHINKAI MAKOTO
——————————-
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[ ] Voices of a Distant Star (2001)
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

OTHER ANIME FILMS
——————————-
[ X ] Akira (1989)
[ X ] Appleseed (2004)
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina (2007) –
[ ] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title – Vengeance of the Space Pirate) (1982)
[ ] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[ ] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title – Revenge of the Ninja Warrior) (1985)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden (1987)
[ ] End of Evangelion (1997)
[ ] Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (1998)
[ X ] Fist of the North Star (1986)
[ ] Galaxy Express 999 (1979)
[ X ] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[ ] The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
[ ] Lensman (1984)
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title – Clash of the Bionoids) (1984)
[ X ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo (1986)
[ X ] Ninja Scroll (1993)
[ ] Origin: Spirits Of The Past
[ ] Patlabor the Movie (1989)
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13 (1983)
[ ] Project A-ko (1986)
[ ] Robot Carnival (1987)
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle (2006)
[ ] Silent Möbius (1991)
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
[ ] Steamboy (2004)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger (2007)
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic (1983)
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie (1987) Hell no.
[ X ] Vampire Hunter D (1985)
[ ] Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (2000)
[ ] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force (1987)

CARTOONS FOR GROWN-UPS
——————————-
[ ] American Pop (1981)
[ ] The Animatrix (2003)
[ X ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World (1992)
[ X ] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[ ] Final Fantasy: Advent Children (2005)
[ ] Fire & Ice (1983)
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Lookin’ (1982)
[ ] Lady Death (2004)
[ ] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ X ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (Coonskin) (1975)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

OTHER ANIMATED MOVIES
——————————-
[ X ] Animal Farm (1954)
[ ] Animalympics (1980)
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie (2007)
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[ ] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie (1988)
[ ] Cats Don’t Dance (1997)
[ ] Care Bears: The Movie (1985)
[ ] Charlotte’s Web (1973)
[ ] Fern Gully (1992)
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987)
[ ] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986)
[ X ] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword (1985)
[ ] The Hobbit (1977)
[ ] The Iron Giant (1999)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
[ X ] Lord of the Rings (1978)
[ ] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[ ] My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982)
[ ] The Prince of Egypt (1998)
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie (2002)
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell (1978)
[ ] The Road to El Dorado (2000)
[ ] Rock & Rule (1983)
[ ] Space Jam (1996)
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985)
[ ] Superman: Doomsday (2007)
[ ] The Swan Princess (1994)
[ X ] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards (1977)
[ X ] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman (2009)
[ ] Balto (1995)
[ ] Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)

ADDENDUM
[ ] 9 (2009)
[ ] The Ant Bully (2006)
[ ] Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
[ ] Bee Movie (2007)
[ ] Beowulf (2007)
[ ] The Chipmunk Adventure (1987)
[ ] Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
[ ] Felix the Cat: The Movie (1988)
[ ] Flushed Away (2006)
[ ] Happily N’Ever After (2007)
[ ] Hoodwinked (2005)
[ ] Horton Hears a Who (2008)
[ ] Ice Age (2002)
[ ] Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
[ ] Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
[ ] Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)
[ ] Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008)
[ ] Open Season (2006)
[ ] Pokemon: The First Movie (1999)
[ ] The Princess and the Frog (2009)
[ ] Robots
[ ] The Rugrats Movie (1998)
[ ] Shark Tale (2004)
[ ] Shrek Forever After (2010)
[ ] The Simpsons Movie (2007)
[ ] Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
[ ] Space Chimps (2008)
[ ] The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004)
[ ] The Tale of Despereaux (2008)
[ ] Valiant (2005)
[ ] We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993)

ADDENDUM II
[ ] Mind Game
[ ] The Secret of Kells
[ ] Shonen Sarutobi Sasuke (U.S. title “Magic Boy”) The first anime I ever saw.
[ ] Princess Arete
[ ] Urusai Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer
[ ] Cat Soup
[ ] Summer Wars

Reply to Freedom Flotilla letter

David Martin MEP – Labour

First reply from Jim McGovern’s secretary

Dear Alan,

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately I am unable to attend the rally in Edinburgh tomorrow, but I share your outrage over recent events on the Gaza-bound flotilla, and fully agree with the points you raised in your email. I strongly condemn the Israeli raid, and would in the first instance call for an immediate and unreserved apology from the Israeli authorities. I fully support calls for an international investigation but, in order to ensure an independent and unbiased inquiry, do not believe this should be led by Israel.

The continued policy of the blockade is unacceptable and politically counter-productive. It has devastated the private sector economy and damaged the natural environment, notably water and other natural resources. The EU has consistently called for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of crossings for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza. This has been reiterated following the flotilla raid, and I am pleased that the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is urging Israel to end the blockade.

The EU is the biggest contributor to aid in the Palestinian Territories. In March 2009, the EU pledged more than €61 million (around £55 million) in humanitarian and food aid for victims of the crisis. Food, emergency shelter repairs and medical aid is being provided through the United Nations to Gaza Palestinians.

Relations between the EU and Israel have been frozen following a vigorous campaign by the European Parliamentary Labour Party, amongst others, in the European Parliament. I recently asked the European Commission for clarification on the upgrading of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and I am pleased to say that there are no plans to upgrade the Agreement. Please find my question and the Commission’s response attached.

A human rights clause is an essential element of all of the EU’s diplomatic agreements with third countries, and Israel’s respect for human rights must be an essential part of any consideration to upgrade relations. Given recent events, I believe the EU should go further than this and withdraw all trade preferences under the current Agreement as well as beginning the process of imposing trade sanctions.

Please be assured that I fully support an immediate resolution to the conflict, an end to trade preferences for Israel and an end to the blockade, to ensure humanitarian aid gets to those who need it most and to help secure a lasting two-state solution. I have already written to the chief executives of British supermarkets urging them to end the sale of products from the Israeli occupation which I believe is complicit in the suffering of the Palestinian people. At the European level, a delegation of MEPs returned this week from Gaza. They have called for the EU to launch a political initiative immediately to lift the blockade and begin the reconstruction of basic infrastructure. The delegation has also urged that the EU and other donors increase funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), and I will fully support the attempts in the European Parliament to increase financial support to the UNRWA.

I hope this has addressed your questions. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Best wishes,
David

David Martin
MEP for Scotland

Reply to Freedom Flotilla letter

Jim McGovern – Labour

First reply from Jim McGovern’s secretary

Thank you for your message which I shall pass to Jim McGovern.

Jane O’Neill

I wrote the following letter to all my representatives yesterday and look forward to some interesting responses.

MPs: Jim McGovern (Labour)

MSPs: Joe FitzPatrick (SNP), Alison McInnes (Liberal Democrat), Richard Baker (Labour), Alex Johnstone (Conservative), Nanette Milne (Conservative), Marlyn Glen (Labour), Nigel Don (SNP), Maureen Watt (SNP)

MEPs : Alyn Smith (SNP), David Martin (Labour), Catherine Stihler (Labour), Ian Hudghton (SNP), Struan Stevenson (Conservative), George Lyon (Liberal Democrat)

Dear X,

I am sure that like all people of conscience you have been horrified by the reports of the Israeli military attacks on neutral vessels in international waters killing at least 9 civilians. Amongst those on board were a man from Dundee – Ali El-Awaisi who was reportedly tortured.

The time line of events appears to be filling out as expected now that the Israeli state has released their prisoners.

This appears to be:
On 6 of the boats where the passengers and crew did not resist they were beaten.

on the Mavi Marmara:
IDF attacking the boat with weapons fire from the boats and helicopters damaging transmitting equipment and killing passengers.

Someone waving a white flag and a cameraman being shot – the cameraman being shot 4 times in the head.

IDF illegally boarding the vessel in international waters.

IDF boarding and the passengers and crew defending themselves. They additionally disarmed the soldiers and threw any guns or ammo they found on them overboard.

This continued until they were overwhelmed and more were killed or injured.

They were subsequently interrogated for information.

There are some reports that the tally of killed and injured given by Israel does not match those recorded by those on the boat and that several people are still unaccounted for.

They were then taken to a prison and interrogated, attacked by dogs and some claim to have been tortured.

All film and footage from those on board has been seized by Israel and so far tiny snippets which out of context support part of the Israeli narrative have been released (breaching international copyright laws). These have included clips with no sound at points in the time line where those on board claim they were being shot at.

The aid was then subsequently filtered using the secret Israel check-list of prohibited material into the Occupied Palestine Territories. One known item removed was batteries for electric wheelchairs. The justification for this was they could be used to arm suicide vests. Given they are the size of car batteries this is clearly a lie. Other items known to be banned include deadly coriander and evil sheets of A4 paper.

I would ask what you are capable and willing to do in your capacity as an elected representative of the people of Scotland and Dundee/North East to:

1. Bring attention to this outrageous attack on a humanitarian convoy.
2. Ensure that the truth of the events is released and not solely sanitised propaganda of the Israeli state.
3. Ensure the safe return of all passengers of these vessels to their home states including the dead, injured and the disappeared.
4. Ensure the safe return of all their possessions including the footage taken of the assault.
5. Ensure the safe passage of any subsequent aid convoys to Gaza or anywhere else carrying aid or passengers from Dundee given this outrageous precedent which has been set in the Mediterranean of state forces attacking such convoys.
6. Ending the blockade of Gaza.
7. Ensure that the ignored UN resolutions against Israel are enforced to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Additionally I invite you to attend the demonstration in Edinburgh tomorrow. There have been two buses laid on by Tayside for Justice in Palestine.

Yours sincerely,

Alan Graham

A friend was called yesterday by yet another dodgy SEO company. They called from 0161 9058460 which from an advert appears to be a company called Rank Right.

They claimed that they were from Google and could get a site to the first page of Google for £99 per month.

Having dealt with this sort of thing before they responded that this sort of claim was a scam and that the site was already on the front page of Google. Additionally companies claiming to be Google were scammers.

The response from the Sales Drone That’s not right you can’t get on the first page of Google yourself you need to pay a company to do that

My current joy:

Doing a compare between an old and new version of two versions of a piece of software.

This is the last minor release before the next major version number release.

The developer has decided to update his address in the copyright section of almost 300 files. I am now having to go through each of these to find any real changes.

Questions:
1. If you have an address change why do at 1.9.9.9 when you are currently testing 2.0.0.0?
2. Why not just say Copyright as per file /copyright.txt if you are making this change?
3. Why not release a version of the update with actual real changes instead of cosmetic details which is in a comment?

I went to see Erasing David at the DCA.

It was quite good, there were a number of things in it I thought could have been fleshed out into great points, and a number of those which were fleshed out which in the scope of the documentary appear unfounded.

The premise of the documentary is that David Bond got a letter from the Government basically saying whoops, we lost loads of personal info on you and your family and your bank details too. Sorry, hope you aren’t distressed about it. As you were.

He becomes curious (and anxious and paranoid) about the amount of data being held on each person by a vast array of government departments and companies.

The bulk of the film is a recording of him aiming to go on the run for 30 days whilst private eyes try to track him. This part falls a bit flat for reasons I will go into later (with spoilers).

The rest is made up of interviews and a small amount of recording before his escapade (and a tiny epilogue).

He interviews a number of people on the issues of privacy, from No2ID campaigners, members of Liberty and former Home Secretaries to a headteacher who is using biometrics in school and people who have been the victims of false positives when it comes to data.

The David Blunkett interview was revealing. Just today he is bemoaning the cancellation of ID Cards. In the documentary he is complaining about people prying into others private lives. A far cry from his usual Nothing to hide, nothing to fear nonsense. Maybe this was prompted by a number of tabloids raking into his personal life with him deciding that he did have things he wanted to hide.

There were two members of the general public interviewed who had been victims of duff data. The first was a woman who applied to work with children but failed the criminal background check. Someone with a similar name and same date of birth had a conviction for shoplifting meaning this woman was unsuitable to work with children. The second was a man who fell victim to Operation Ore. His credit card details had been stolen and used to buy, amongst other things, a membership to an online site with child pornography on it. Although the police decided something like 99.2% of the transactions were fraudulent they refused to budge on this one, thus branding him an evil pedo scum for life. He mentioned 39 people had committed suicide after being caught in the same operation. Two lives ruined due to wrongful data being held on them by the state.

Before he embarks on his adventure you see a number of interesting situations, from interviews with a psychiatrist to discuss possible mental health effects of the experience to flare ups with his 7month pregnant wife over him deciding to disappear and refusal to sign a form allowing a nursery to keep loads of data on his children.

These all through up questions to do with keeping accurate and relevant data for necessary lengths of time. unfortunately over the course of the film he is advocating all data bad held by everyone when relevant data held for appropriate lengths of time by the right people would have got to the heart of the issue and made a far more powerful case.

The second major part of the prelude is him investigating the vast amounts of data held on him by companies. He puts in 80 requests under the Data Protection Act to various governmental and private organisations to find out what data they hold on him and his child.

He gets back various amounts from a few pages – to a doorstop from Amazon. This is where one of the main flaws in his arguments creeps in. Amazon didn’t seek out info on him and collate it. He signed up to Amazon. He agreed to their terms. He bought lots of stuff and liked it, reviewed it and catalogued it. If he found out that Amazon had this info and sold it to someone that would be a major argument against the retention. If they would refuse to delete it – major argument.

When I say this I am not meaning to critisise David, but some decisions he took and that we all take. Whether willfully, negligibly or through ignorance we all give away massive amounts of data to various people. The one important point he does make – whilst visiting East Germany and discussing the Stasi – is that tiny amounts of data appear innocuous, but when you have tiny amounts of data about someone or something from lots of sources you can discover more than the sum of their parts.

When on the run, he takes a number of measures, avoiding using credit cards, paying cash, doubling back on himself etc. What leads to his discovery is not using a mobile phone (which he does – to access a site set up by the PIs!) or credit cards but being careless with data and social engineering.

When it came down to it it wasn’t fingerprint protected databases or CCTV but social engineering and binning important documents without shredding or destroying sensitive data that was his downfall.

I won’t say any more to avoid spoiling it.

The small amounts of data was underlined when he saw the private eyes operation room. Surrounding a scarily large photo of himself was a vast array of info they had managed to dredge up from 20 year old photos of his mother to his birth certificates, credit card receipts (which he had binned) and even some of his plans for his run which he had written down. They had also predicted some of his movements.

The last failing was that he didn’t hit home the real point of his paranoia about vast databases of info on him. It took 2 people working full time for a couple of weeks to track him down, during which they spent ages on foot tracking down information on him. With access to databases of this info they could have got loads of this info in a few hours of the first day.

Although there were a number of failings in the film it interested me for two main reasons. The first was that there are very few documentaries of good quality investigating the issues covered. The second was David himself. He laid himself bare for criticism by showing himself doing lots of silly things in the context of the film – showing his address, possibly credit card numbers, phone number on screen whilst talking about the importance of keeping data safe. He also revealed a number of personal issues in the film – a past driving conviction as held by the DVLA and in his meetings with the psychiatrist and during his time on the run he shows himself to becoming increasingly paranoid. I had no doubt that if he had managed to stay on the run for a couple of months he would have developed some more serious mental health problems.

And that is really endearing.

To try and highlight issues of privacy he was willing to sacrifice so much of his own.

To read more about the film go to the Erasing David site.

Due to a combination of factors regarding scammy scummy business practices I remembered about this incident.

A few weeks ago I get a knock at the door and it is someone from an energy company touting for business by trying to convince us to switch suppliers.

I forget the exact figures but he asked me what my energy bill was. I said £90/quarter for electricity and £10/week for gas during last quarter (winter). He pulls up his tablet PC and tells me I currently spend £360/year on electricity and £520/year on gas. This adds up to £880/year on energy costs. If I switched to his company then with their £50 duel customer saving it would only cost £850 per year.

I looked at him.

He looked back.

Me: Those were the figures for the last quarter – winter, where we clearly spend more on heating

Energy man – glazed look.

Me: You multiplied my Winter quarter fuel costs by 4 to get my yearly bill.

Energy man – Yeah there are 4 quarters in the year

How many people fall for this. Not only would this not be a saving without switching both energy supplies, it is only a saving if the figures used were correctly used for a comparison, which they clearly were not.

I attended the Developer Day Scotland for the second time at the weekend (I had to miss first one, can’t remember why). My sessions did vary a bit from what I had originally intended.

Firstly I had forgotten to pick up the directions so couldn’t remember exactly what building it was in. I bumped into someone I recognised from the TechDay event in Edinburgh and having walked further passed the wrong directions I had been given we found the building. There was a slight confusion over badge as one of the many other Alan Grahams had registered too. Got a wee goodie bag which included a DevExpress t-shirt. There is a competition to win a Sony Flipcam for anyone wearing the t-shirt in a funny or unusal pose and tweeting it using #DDDScotPic. So far Gavin has the only entry so he’s a shoe in.

Session 1 HTML5 : The Language of the Cloud?

Craig Nicol gave a talk about HTML5. The takeaway for me was basically to wait until things have settled down a bit. All browsers implement different things so I would be driven mad doing anything yet in my spare time. The video demos were very cool though.

Session 2 T4 and how it can be used for code generation in Visual Studio 2008 / 2010

I was looking forward to this. We have a small number of classes using this in one of the projects at work but I haven’t even looked at it yet. The area I was interested in using it was generating enums from a database and this is pretty much what Rob Blackmore promoted it as being good at.

Session 3 Web standards are broken, and it’s getting worse

I went to this session by Sebastien Lambla to find it had turned in to a talk about OpenRasta. If I had known in advance I might have popped to Defensive Programming. As I was in second row and the largest room had a dozen (at most) people I decided to stay. Having not known anything about it beforehand I didn’t really take too much in and the small bit at the end about OpenWrap probably got me more interested.

Grok Talks

A really good grab bag of stuff. Colin MacKay on SQL Injection. Someone on Code Dojos. A talk on ways to learn. Seb on his OpenWrap promo. I can’t remember the other one. Something about loving users maybe?

Session 4 Get Started with Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) using Cucumber

This was a really thought provoking talk by Steve Sanderson on Behaviour Driven Development. He gave a bit of background on some of the problems with TDD and what BDD set out to solve. His demonstration of writing specs then tests to pass them was really interesting. We are using SWEA at work but it is so fragile and such a hassle to work with we had been thinking of switching to Selenium. Having seen this I want to play around a bit with SpecFlow. I think it might be more suitable.

Session 5 Enforcing Code ‘Beauty’ With StyleCop

Or as Guy Smith-Ferrier referred to it How to start a fight. I felt slightly out of place as when he asked who had used it one other person had for 6months. I said it was from before it was called StyleCop. I did get a TekPub 30 day trial for making some comments/questions during the session. It was an intro to but I managed to pick up some tips on working with Legacy code and had a further spur to dig out StyleCop happy templates for new files.

Afterwards I popped to Bar Republic to get an amazing pizza then grabbed the train home. Really enjoyable day. The only session I didn’t get what I had wanted was the one which had changed and if it had been as intended it was my preferred session of the day – so I look forward to seeing it next year! Having seen everyone tweeting all day I dug out my tablet but couldn’t get it to log into Twitter. That was a bit dissapointing so I’ll need to investigate what’s up with it.