Halfapenguin.com

No christian terrorism?

22:47, 29 Jun 2010

People often say where are the christian terrorists,

I came across this list, sourced from wikipedia,

Since 1973 the following acts of terrorism have been committed in the USA against doctors, nurses, volunteers and organisations who help women in desperate situations.


  • 1264 counts of vandalism

  • 655 bioterrorism threats including anthrax

  • 619 bomb threats

  • 383 death threats

  • 173 arsons

  • 153 counts of assault or battery

  • 91 attempted bombings

  • 41 bombings

  • 3 kidnappings

  • On the following dates, a brave and noble person lost their life

    • March 10 1993 - Dr David Gunn

    • August 21 1993 - Dr George Patterson

    • July 29 1994 - Dr John Britton and James Barrett

    • December 30 1994 - Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols

    • January 29 1998 - Robert Sanderson

    • October 23 1998 - Dr Barnett Slepian

    • May 31 2009 - Dr George Tiller




So do not tell me there are no right wing extremist christian terrorists.

Geek cred restored...

00:33, 22 Jun 2010

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG....

Wants

I know this apparently has been out for a while and all....

The reason my geek cred is restored was that previously i had to hand in my official geek cred (there's an office on the highstreet) because i wasn't excited about a star wars game for the wii (lightsaber and all). That said, this is far more exciting and i'm in a very bouncy mood... Gah, need starwars tag... okay will get on with the new website now... OMG OMG OMG OMG!

(note to self, must have separate personal blog from business blog...)

BP Spills coffee!

18:16, 11 Jun 2010

Relaunch coming soon

23:31, 09 Jun 2010

So a new website design and piece of backend software is being written at the moment,

So expect to see new and innovative content soon

Gemma wants a Barbie

18:13, 22 Feb 2010

So its finally happened...barbie has developed a doll i actually want.

Barbie Computer Engineer

I may not want a pink laptop...although i have a pink and white iphone... but still very geek chic methinks...

Found via
Nicole Kobie

My poor car

06:05, 22 Jan 2010

Most of you probably heard about my poor car and its accident before christmas... but don't know what the results were...

I'll post a longer entry in the morning but here are the photos of the car in the yard.

Me on CBS 6

08:12, 04 Dec 2009

Getting myself on the news...they asked to interview someone for their opinion so i gave it...

This is the home of stonewall, and one of the founding centers of the US gay rights movement and it is tragic that such cowardice happened here.

Update on the travelling

10:51, 13 Nov 2009

I missed off Egypt,


visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World

So now its been corrected.

This made me smile

18:58, 09 Nov 2009

Although i remember Terry Pratchett talking about using the death of kings and use of their successors to use the transfer of monarchy from person to person as a method of faster than light travel since one became king instantly on the death of the old king, without any waiting time caused by an actual signal being sent....

Personally i like my idea of a long stick as a better and more humane idea...

Where i've been in the world

09:24, 30 Oct 2009

Found via Shaken By Sound

I've been to these countries in the world... i'm feeling like i need to travel a whole lot more...

visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Even inside the US of A i'm pretty behind on visiting new places...

visited 11 states (22%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Interrim: Changes coming soon

10:32, 24 Oct 2009

I've noticed that its been a while since i've written on here. I haven't entirely appeared out of the woodwork just yet, but i'll be writing more often and putting up a new version of the Halfapenguin software in the next few weeks.

Reposting about roadtrips

19:51, 22 May 2009

There was a missed post from feburary, it didn't seem to post, probably because i suspect i was trying to bug test the live-journal interface (doesn't allow i-frames)...

I need to write something to fix this in an upcoming patch for the software.

So here is the reposted article.

This is the third attempt at writing this entry, since safari has been logging me out midway through writing.

I was thinking about how i really want to do a proper road trip at some point, and while i don't have the time right now, i thought i'd make a rough plan with the help of the Great and Powerful Google.

After working out i'd like to head to San Francisco and chose places i'd like to visit along the way, this is what it gave me.


View Larger Map

Admittedly its nearly all southern places, but then i can always do a northern road trip in the future :)

I told google to avoid all highways, since it means i can see the little places as well as the big places, which is part of the reason for the trip.

I'd want to stay in each of the places on my list, so this would be about a 3 week trip, so not really practical on the amount of holiday i'm given... maybe i could work this into the idea of being a roving developer...

Aside from the time however i'm more concerned about the carbon footprint such a trip woud generate. If i took my current car, thats about 250 gallons of gas and thats being optimistic... so i'd want a carbon neutral car... anyone mind lending me their Tesla?

Realistically tho, until the technology allows me to do this trip without burning huge amounts of carbon fuels, i'm going to have to wait at least a few years...but when the car is available, i'll be heading to San Francisco... anybody want to come with?

However given i'd probably want to get back to where i started, i'd probably do the extra special see as much as humanly possible trip, which would be something like this...


View Larger Map

For those of you wondering about spokane, i'm still waiting for my breakfast in spokane from 4 years ago...

So i'd probably end up needing a bit more time for this trip... still i'd love to do something like this... roll on fuel cell green supplied cars :)

From Django To Rails Prelude:Time To Look at Rails

21:28, 13 May 2009

So more than 4 years after first looking at Django, and thinking it was better than a bread knife that toasts your bread while it is sliced... it still seems less popular than its slightly younger and scruffier sibling, Ruby on Rails.

I have to say there is a touch of betamax feeling here, i'm a python programmer at heart, and Ruby itself seems to be messy and inelegant, combine with it more than a few misgivings about the way rails does things, i felt sure that Django would eventually emerge supreme, as the better thought out and more sophisticated framework. That happy day has yet to come, and given that RoR seems to be in vogue in the job hunting circles, i may need to swallow my pride.

In the past i have experimented with RoR, i've even got somewhere with it, but still it did not appeal to me. This time i am going to try to go in with a clean(ish) slate, an entire 1.0 of difference separates this RoR from the old version, and its just possible i may find a new framework awaits me.

In an effort to record my RoR experiences, i'm going to attempt to do semi-regular blog postings on the subject. Also to try to prevent my prejudices sneaking in, i'm going to set myself some ground rules...


  • I will try to be as forgiving of RoR as i am of Django's little foybles (they do exist)

  • I will work on improving my Ruby skills, and endevour to be able to at least examine the Rails source

  • I will attempt to keep up with the latest news in the RoR community

  • Once i have become re-familiar with RoR, i will use it to develop on of my upcoming projects. its the only way to get good at something is to use it

  • I will find a use for blocks... people rave about them...popular opinion may not always be right but see whats doable

The storm will pass

11:37, 23 Apr 2009

I found this on the Perez Hilton Blog (its not on my blogroll, please don't disown me), and i think while the comedy responses are good, this says what needs to be said about marriage equality.

If you can't see the embedded link, you can go to the youtube page here

Ethical man goes to America

03:30, 16 Apr 2009

I missed this while it ran in the uk, but thanks to newsnight i found out about the ethical man expedition in America.

This is the first video blog posting (no embed link at the moment)

Click here

Next week involves testing the Chevy Volt, and why does GM think that their electric car will suffice against the likes of the tesla model s?