Bobby was one of the cleverest, and yet yampiest, Chess players ever, “mad, bad and dangerous to know”, and it’d be a real surprise if you hadn’t heard of him. Even if you weren’t keen on Chess, Bobby was a ‘larger than life’ figure, often getting in the Press, and had even had the Musical Chess based upon him.
Unfortunately there’s a danger that it’s likely to be some of his behavior and some of the comments he made that he will be remembered for, rather than his Chess playing, or the innovations he brought to Chess (both theory, practice and the game itself).
In an effort to promote Talent and Creativity, rather than an encyclopedic Analysis of Chess openings, and generate more interesting and vibrant Chess games, he developed Fischer Random Chess (‘FRC’ or Chess960 as it’s now, more frequently, called).
Other Chess innovations he provided us with included the Fischer Chess Clock.
Personally I hope that it’s these and his Chess play that he will be remembered for as time passes, because essentially he was an outstanding player.
It was extremely unlikely that I was ever going to join this list and now I’ll definitely never get the chance.
Bobby’s Chess Hero was Paul Morphy (another hero of mine too), of whose unprecedented Chess playing talent he said:
This article points out the many similarities between Bobby and Paul Morphy: they were both prodigies, they both dominated the other players of their time, they were both were American (unusually in times led by European and Russian play), they both quit in their primes, and they both suffered in Psychological terms. It’s well worth a quick read.
“I’m big on Aston Villa because the name is just so sweet. It sounds like a lovely spa”
I’ve always liked Tom, and his films, but now I really like him.
However he obviously wasn’t about during the festivities in nearby Lozells and Handsworth in the 1980’s.
Actually that’s a little harsh as Aston Villa is located by (and named after) the beautiful Aston Hall – I’ve got some photo’s knocking about from when we did our last family visit and I’ll get them up on the site soon – a stunning Jacobean Hall, which even got caught up in the Civil War.
I even ended up going to King Edward VI Aston, which ‘sandwiches’ Aston Hall Park, and Aston Hall at it’s centre, with the Villa Ground, and thus spending even more time by the Villa (Hall, club and park), the Holte Pub (56p for a half a pint of Cider) and the “Chippy” opposite the ground.
What he really knows about football may be open to debate, but Tom is in good celebrity company because also following the Villa are the likes of Prince William and Black Sabbath rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
Others include Fast Show comedian Mark Williams, violinist Nigel Kennedy, international hockey player Jane Sixsmith, Bank of England chairman Mervyn King, pop group Ocean Colour Scene, Radio WM presenter Phil Upton and members of Duran Duran.
What the Birmingham post doesn’t go onto say is that that list includes Wayne Horkan esq. too.
Thanks to Tony Harris, Head of Sales for Health at Sun in the UK, and another fellow Villa fan, for alerting me to this story.
http://www.myspace.com/tomhanks
Tom Hanks MySpace page – actually very good – it looks to me as though Tom writes it himself – currently there is a great video of Tom driving, and talking about, his ‘converted’ electric car
http://www.charliewilsonswar.net/
Official Charlie Wilson’s War site – I haven’t seen it (yet), but I’m sure it’ll be good, as my fellow Villa fans in it…
This post is dedicated to James Carlin, the biggest Villa fan I know, Warren Walker, my longest running Villa pal, Wilfred “Wilf” Cashmore, and, of course, to Peter James Horkan, my Dad.
I’m sure Alec won’t mind me having posted the following comment in response to his article:
Hi Alec,
Although I sympathise, especially as a fellow ‘blog writer it appears one has to produce a very regular cadence to ensure continued, and growing, readership, I have to agree with your reader, mentioned above.
The fashion for producing a blog post which is simply titled “Links for DD-MM-YYYY” and contains nothing but links is becoming ubiquitous – and even sadder is in full sway across blogs.sun.com.
Like anyone I like to see interesting sites and links, however I go to blogs to read blogs, to gather opinion, see what peeps are chatting about, etc., etc., not to checkout someone else’s bookmarks.
I believe that one has to think very hard about what blog postings are for, and if indeed “Links for DD-MM-YYYY” type postings are an adequate and appropriate mechanism for sharing bookmarks with one’s readers.
Personally I feel that links, and bookmarks, are acceptable if introduced to the readers during a posting (or even as reference at the end of a posting), for me there has to be some posting ‘meat’ to go with my ‘link’ vegetables (terrible analogy, but it won’t be the worst thing you’ve forgiven me of).
However I suspect that whilst the “Links for DD-MM-YYYY” helps to produce a regular cadence, and continued readership, it will sustain it’s use as a blog posting across the blogosphere.
And for the record I really like your blog, as you can probably guess from the number of comments I keep leaving.
All the best, Happy New Year, etc.,
Wayne
I’ll be trying my best to avoid using blog posts as bookmark aggregators, but this is a personal decision, and each to their own.
To back up my assertion that the “Links for DD-MM-YYYY” type posts have become a staple at blogs.sun.com checkout this link to blogs.sun.com’s search facility, as of today it returns 1,092 results for posts which include “Links for”.
In fact, given the number of people writing these types of posts, perhaps that’s where I’m going wrong…
Or rather “tagging, tags, and blog tag policy” or even “what’s the best / most optimal tag nomenclature / syntax”. After redesigning the blog interface I decided to start to rationalise my tags – and to institute a ‘tag policy’.
Tag Policy
Use “-” to delimit multi-word tags
Use all lower case characters
But “Why ?”
For a long time I had been using the “+” symbol to link multi-word tags, but I found that Google Translate (which I use for the language translation capability, up on the top right of the page if you’re reading the blog at http://blogs.sun.com/eclectic/) was having problems processing URL’s which contain “+” or “%2B”.
Here’s a little table I whipped up documenting the issues I was coming up against using multi-word tags, after trying out a number of delimiters, not just “+”, against a variety of technology.
Delimiters tested were: “+”, “%2B”, “_”, ” “, “%20” and “-“. Sites / technology tested were: Roller Blogger (4.0-dev, the version we currently run http://blogs.sun.com on), Google Translate, Google Search, Technorati, Del.icio.us and Slynker.
“+” (plus sign)
“%2B” (encoded plus sign)
“_” (underscore character)
Roller Weblogger 4.0-dev
Will save and retrieve posts which use tags with “+” in the editor
Will not resolve tags URL which use “+” (actually the main site will, but individual blogs can’t)
Will save and retrieve posts which use tags with “%2B” in the editor
Will resolve tags URL which use “%2B”
Will save and retrieve posts which use tags with “_” in the editor
Will resolve tags URL which use “_”
Google Search
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the “+”, search produces a small number of results because of the infrequency of using “+” to separate written words
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the “%2B”, search produces a small number of results because of the infrequency of using “%2B” to separate written words
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the “_”, search produces a small number of results because of the infrequency of using “_” to separate written words
Google Translate
Attempts to resolve tags URL which use “+”, encoding the URL to use “%2B” instead (which Roller can serve, see above), then promptly fails
Fails to resolve the correct URL to translate using “%2B”
Resolves tags URL which use “_” and continues to translate them successfully
Technorati
Resolves tag URLs which use “+” correctly
Replaces the “+” with ” ” and produces good results based upon that
Resolves tag URLs which use “%2B” correctly
Replaces “%2B” with ” ” and produces good results based upon that
Resolves tag URLs which use “_” correctly
Produces smaller, but not unreasonable, results, due of the infrequency of using “_” to separate written words
Del.iciou.ois
Resolves tag URLs which use “+” correctly
Produces results based upon using “+”
Resolves tag URLs which use “%2B” correctly
Replaces “%2B” with “+” and produces results based upon using “+”
Resolves tag URLs which use “+” correctly
Produces results based upon using “+”
Slynker
Fails to resolve “+”
Produces no results
Attempts to resolve tags URL which use “%2B”, encoding the URL to use “%252B” instead
Produces results based upon using “+”
Resolves tag URLs which use “_” correctly
Produces results based upon using “_”
” ” (space)
“%20” (encoded space)
“-” (minus sign)
Roller Weblogger 4.0-dev
Will save posts which use tags with ” ” in the editor
Will not retrieve posts which use tags with ” ” in the editor, instead it separates the words, retrieving them all in alphabetical order
Will resolve tags URL which use ” “, encoding the URL to use “%20” instead
Will save and retrieve posts which use tags with “%20” in the editor
Will resolve tags URL which use “%20”
Will save and retrieve posts which use tags with “-” in the editor
Will resolve tags URL which use “-“
Google Search
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the ” “, search produces a large number of results
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the “%20”, search produces a small number of results because of the infrequency of using “%20” to separate written words
Will search and retrieve multi-word tags as they are written, i.e. with the “-“, and will replace the “-” with ” ” as well, thus retrieving the most amount of related information
Google Translate
Attempts to resolve tags URL which use ” “, encoding the URL to use “%20” instead (which Roller can serve, see above), then promptly fails
Fails to resolve the correct URL to translate using “%20”
Resolves tags URL which use “-” and continues to translate them successfully
Technorati
Resolves tag URLs which use ” ” correctly, after re-encoding the URL with “%20”
Produces good results based upon using ” “
Resolves tag URLs which use “%20” correctly, replaces the “%20″ with ” ” and produces good results based upon that
Resolves tag URLs which use “-” correctly
Produces smaller, but not unreasonable, results, due of the infrequency of using “-” to separate written words
Del.iciou.ois
Resolves tag URLs which use ” ” correctly, after re-encoding the URL with “%20”
Produces results based upon using ” “
Resolves tag URLs which use “%20” correctly
Replaces “%20″ with ” ” and produces results based upon using ” “
Resolves tag URLs which use “-” correctly
Produces results based upon using “-“
Slynker
Attempts to resolve tags URL which use ” “, encoding the URL to use “%20” instead
Produces results based upon using ” “
Resolves tag URLs which use “%20” correctly
Replaces “%20″ with ” ” and produces results based upon using ” “
Resolves tag URLs which use “_” correctly
Produces results based upon using “_”
As you’ve probably surmised by now the issue is actually about the convergence of two technologies, and the incompatibilities they currently have. Principally that of tagging blog posts (and other stuff too) and that of URL encoding. It is not due to the limitations differing web1.0 and web2.0 platforms have around tag syntax, specifically multi-word tags, but of the correct adherence of these platforms in there support of RFC 1738: Uniform Resource Locators (URL) specification.
The problem is that tagging generally uses a relatively free form syntax (driven mainly by the communities which use and propagate said tag nomenclature, or “Folksonomy”), when and where possible, but that URL encoding has a variety of reserved characters, which conflict with the characters used in tags.
Characters for special use in defining URL syntax include the following “Reserved Characters”, and should be encoded where possible (although as the data in the tables above prove even the encoded URLs fail to produce the expected, or required, results).
Character
Hex
Dec
“$” (the dollar sign)
“&” (ampersand symbol)
“+” (plus sign)
“,” (comma symbol)
“/” (forward slash)
24
26
2B
2C
2F
36
38
43
44
47
Character
Hex
Dec
“:” (the colon)
“;” (the semi-colon)
“=” (equal sign)
“?” (the question mark)
“@” (the ‘at’ symbol)
3A
3B
3D
3F
40
58
59
61
63
64
Given that the above are “Reserved Characters” when it comes to URL encoding, and that they include some of the most popular delimiters used by multi-word tags (specifically “+” which is used a great deal, especially on Technorati). And, as I have found in the investigation above, have a number of issues in being used both in multi-word tags and in URL encoding, I have decided to standardise on “-” as the multi-word tag delimiter of choice.
For me it has a number of advantages:
saved and retrieved correctly in tags in the Roller edit post page
the URL is encoded correctly in Roller too
it resolves correctly whilst using Google Translate
it returns all search results for both “-” and ” ” in Google Search – an unexpected bonus, in terms of returning search results (and thus being included in said search results)
it returns reasonable results from Technorati, based upon “-“
it returns reasonable results from Del.icio.us, based upon “-“
it returns reasonable results from Slynker, based upon “-“
As to the issue of upper versus lower case, I have standardised on all lower case, as this has little effect in searches (outside of Technorati, which returns slightly differing results, albeit with a low delta between the results returned).
You may be able to see that I have started to retroactively replace the tags so far created with this new standard – however I have focused on the most popular tags for the time being, and I will continue to use this format from now on.
Given I’ve just redesigned the site, I thought it would be nice to keep a visual comparison of the old 2007 look and feel versus the new 2008 blog interface and design.
Sadly image rendering in IE and Firefox lags behind that of Opera and Safari (the four browsers I review the site with), so these images may be a little ‘out of focus’. If that’s the case for you please get back to me and I’ll see if I can do anymore to improve the issue, prior to the two ‘largest by volume of users’ browsers catching up of course.
All the very best to Alain Andreoli in his new role as he joins Sun as Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Services (GSS) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) . …..
Thanks to Alex Cox I’ve radically redesigned my ‘blog inspired by the product branding used in his seminal 1984 film ‘Repo Man’.
Written and directed by Alex, with the ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith as Executive Producer, Repo Man stars Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton as repossession agents on the trail of missing car with a little extra in the boot (a stolen ‘nuke). It’s a satirical and surreal comedy, widely seen as one of the first truly independent movies (along with it’s stable mate, the excellent ‘Rumble Fish’). It has a great, mainly Punk, soundtrack, including Black Flag’s ‘TV Party’, and songs performed by Iggy Pop, Suicidal Tendencies, The Circle Jerks, The Plugz, Burning Sensations, Fear and Juicy Bananas.
I was really struck by the product branding used in Repo Man – it’s pure and simple function over the aesthetic (with a good dollop of humorous irony thrown in for good measure).
After writing to Alex to ask his permission to use the branding as the basis of the look and feel of the site I was very happy to receive a reply (in quick order too).
Here’s Alex’s response:
You’re welcome to use that look.
It was originally the brainchild of Ralphs Supermarket in Los Angeles, who gave us all their generic stuff. The only labels we had to make said Drink and Food.
John Lydon also used it for his PIL album, ALBUM aka CASSETTE.
I was really pleased about getting a reply as I’m a big fan of Alex, and of his work, and not just because he does the best Jimmy Carl Black impression I’ve ever seen.
Whilst recently reading Dave’s blog I had an idea that the colour scheme and basic layout he used would be a near perfect springboard for the ideas I had around using the product branding used in Repo Man as the basis for my sites look and feel redesign.
Thanks to Dave, or rather his blog I’ve rebuilt the basic layout of this site, incorporating the Repo Man inspired look and feel. To properly credit Dave I added “Derived: Dave Johnson’s Rollerblogger blog CSS” to the header of my CSS file.
Additionally theres a few more people to thank including www.khmerang.com, who’s post on ‘Real World Bar Graphs (with some CSS)’ helped my develop the Tag Pareto / Bar Graph, which I’m using as a page leader rather than the ubiquitous Tag Cloud (although there is an obligatory Tag Cloud on my archives page).
That then led my to develop two other new pieces of functionality using Roller’s in built template scripting language ‘velocity’.
Firstly a new menu which incorporates both the page menu functionality and the category menu functionality – it’s included in the banner at the top of the page.
Secondly a new recent posts menu which both adapts to the currently chosen category and instead of linking to the individual page for an entry it instead links to an anchor on the page of the main blog (also current category dependent). The advantage here is that the reader still has the choice of reading posts around the target post – if they attract the eye
I also have to thank the friends and colleagues who read reviewed my blog. A constant theme that came out in the comments made by them that the nature of the site was too diverse. Amusingly Walter Milner had this to say, which I thought was the most succinct (and most humorous):
So relating to blogging – we have multiple aspects of our personalities, and I suspect that if you mix them on the same ‘channel’ you construct a confused message. One aspect is working at Sun/programming in C/PRINCE, another is a bizarre experience of a walk-on role in ‘The Birds’. I think you should separate them.
And why have you got some 5 channel paper tape as your banner?
However many of the reviewers wanted different things from my blog. Family (and some friends) generally wanted light fluffy stuff, like what’s going on at home, and what music am I listening to. Work friends generally wanted Sun Microsystems specific content. Whilst friends I had made in the IT Industry generally wanted generic technology information and opinion. Personally I also wanted to be able to blog about contemporary issues and news, in fact to use my blog as a diary of the significant events occurring around me.
In an attempt to reach a compromise I ratiionalised my blog categories, ‘boiling’ them down to only four categories (not including root, or ‘All’, which makes five). The four are: (1) Home – personal stuff, what record I’m listening too, etc., (2) Life – contemporary news, etc., (3) Tech – from micro IT to macro IT, technology and the technology industry, and (4) Work – stuff about Sun Microsystems, etc.
I’m hoping that by simplifying the categories down to four core areas, and by providing category specific functionality (now and more in the future), it will be easier for readers of this blog to navigate and find the stories and information pertinent to them.
And for those of you who haven’t seen Repo Man, obviously I recommend seeing it, and here’s a link to the theatrical trailer (hosted over at YouTube) for you to either get a ‘taster’ of the film, or remind yourself of it. In one scene in the trailer you can briefly see Emilio Estevez, as ‘Otto’, eating out of a can simply labeled ‘food’ – wonderful.
http://www.reelfilm.com/repoman.htm
A negative review (which I don’t agree with – but I like to be impartial) of Repo Man from David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews
http://www.repomanfilm.com/howto.htm
Very funny ‘How to be a Repo Man’ from the Repo Man fansite (a collection of quotes from the film, mainly advice given to Emilio Estevez, as Otto, by his fellow repossession agents).
