readingtype

PHP regular expression failing silently due to output buffering

2009-06-24T13:11:00.006Z

I just had a problem where this regexp worked for finding the option with value 'foreign-relations' but not for finding 'economy':

'#(name="Section".*<option value="(.*)" selected="selected">.*</select></p>)#s'

The result was the dreaded PHP blank page. With no errors logged.

This fixed it:

'#(name="Section".*<option value="([\w\s-]*)" selected="selected">.*</select></p>)#s'

The second version is more specific about what string will match in the value attribute and I think that when specified with .* the match filled up the entire PHP memory buffer. If so, it wasn’t logged as an error and that could be because the code here is executed in ‘output buffering’ mode, following an ob_start() call. A guess, but if I am right that might help to avoid a lot of aggravation in future. [nb PHP: not providing error output is Bad.]

Corrections to this assumption welcome!

Meanwhile in South America…

2009-06-10T18:10:00.003Z

Protests descend into murder following the grant of massive mineral extraction concessions in the Amazon region by the government of Peru.

BCS helps UK understand personal data guardianship principles

2009-06-03T23:50:00.009Z

The British Computer Society has published a code of practice for people who work with personal data. There are quite a lot of people working with our personal data, and we know that some have been negligent in the past. Government agencies in particular sometimes seem to encourage their employees to burn CD- and DVDROMs loaded with information that they are not allowed to distribute and leave them in public places such as railway carriages; but there are lots of other insidious ways in which such information might pass from legitimate into illegitimate use.

This code digests UK law and provides guidance that to my eye is simple enough for even the most harried civil servant to understand. I hope sections like Responsibilities of the data handler will be pinned up in the offices where those CDs and DVDs are burned. The code may also be of interest to anybody who is concerned about the way that personal data is being collected and used in the UK. Its weakness may be the use of terms such as ‘responsibility’ which seem not to be understood and applied by all of us in the same way.

Broadsheet Ballads and a Broadside exhibition at St Bride Library

2009-05-31T20:32:00.008Z

St Bride Foundation is participating in the Story of London Festival this June. Both the Foundation’s education department and St Bride Library are involved; the chief outcome is Broadsheet Ballads, ‘a promenade theatre experience’, in other words a play which is performed as cast and audience move through the streets around the Foundation building in Bride Lane.

The play was written during a four-day project by the Foundation’s Youth Theatre in which a group of young people used their analytical and creative skills to respond to the character and content of broadsides in the collections of St Bride Library. During the Festival itself they will get to see their work presented to public audiences.

The press release, which I quote below with permission, is rather modest about the exhibition which accompanies the show. In fact it will be a very rare opportunity to see some of the Library’s authoritative collection of broadsides, many of which were produced (and sold) in the area where the Library is now. For enthusiasts of ephemeral printing, the exhibition is a must. For others, I would recommend it as a valuable insight into popular culture. The songs and poems, the accounts of murders, hangings, freaks and innovations are worthy of study just as much for their style and content as for their printing and illustration. You will learn a great deal about British popular culture, 19th century style.

Entwine yourself in stories from the past…
St Bride Foundation and Occam’s Razor present Broadsheet Ballads, an innovative promenade theatre experience inspired by St Bride Library’s unique collection of 19th century broadsheets. Join us on a musical adventure as we journey from St Bride Churchyard through the lanes behind Fleet Street, encountering tales from times gone by.
The performance finishes in the Grade II listed, St Bride Foundation, featuring a small exhibition of 19th Century Broadsheets and the history of this fascinating area.
St Bride Foundation is perfectly placed in the City of London, just off of Fleet Street, making it an ideal stop as you work your way towards St Paul’s Cathedral, the Southbank or Covent Garden.
The promenade theatre experience was inspired by 30 young people who researched the broadsheet collection, devised scenes and produced a 30 minute theatrical exploration alongside a director, writer and composer.

UK spooks lectured

2009-05-15T11:26:00.004Z

GHCQ had the benefit of these twelve succinct slides on privacy, trust and biometrics delivered by Ian Brown of Oxford Internet Institute. A useful experience, I hope.

Via @monkchips.

W3C to cut the web fonts gordian knot

2009-05-12T18:32:00.005Z

The W3C is constituting a new Working Group to get ‘Web fonts’ sorted out. They propose to do this via a wrapper around an existing font format, probably OpenType. The aim will be to allow the inclusion of fonts that are restrictively licensed, without causing legal headaches for designers. Along the way we may see some benefits for permissively-licensed fonts too.

Github visual diff of typeface glyphs

2009-05-08T14:00:00.004Z

OFL listers will have seen this but it’s rather lovely so I thought I would share more widely. It’s a visual difference between two revisions of the outline of a character from a typeface under development.

Thanks to Eric Schrijver.

Less security please: IIa

2009-04-28T12:39:00.003Z

So the UK Government Home Office now likes to offer ‘comfort’ to a company that intercepts network traffic for commercial gain? Steady on, Jacqui!

Via @monkchips.

Less security please: II

2009-04-27T13:48:00.003Z

Well, the UK Government lumbers on, taking the very ease with which social media has come to prominence as a licence to rack up the surveillance powers it gives to the authorities on our behalf. NO2ID’s press release reports that the proposals, announced today and weighing in at a bargain recession-beating price of £12 billion, will include ‘probes’ in all datacentres allowing officials to sample whatever they choose. Slow down Jacqui!
Thanks to ORG for notification, via @tobybryans.

Oxford Geek Jam

2009-04-22T07:35:00.004Z

Another computing-focused event in Oxford with a slightly less ambitious agenda than Barcamp Transparency. 7 June 2009: I’m hoping it will be at the Jam Factory, thus making an Oxford Geek Jam Factory.

Barcamp Transparency in Oxford

2009-04-20T18:21:00.004Z

Just a pointer to this putative event in the Summer. Its scope is, as I understand it, the full gamut of digital rights. Could be quite something.

Clagnut’s ‘Facing up to fonts’: useful info about web font techniques

2009-04-11T10:53:00.007Z

A useful presentation for web designers who still don’t know about font linking yet [about 40mins in; the prelude may be useful]. Includes a pointer to Richard’s font matrix, a very useful guide in an imperfect typographical world.

Easter eggs?

2009-04-08T07:58:00.003Z

The National Museum of Computing is slowly getting its communication act together and as a result I received a newsletter detailing their latest achievements this morning. They’re open over the whole of Easter weekend so, if you’re in physical proximity, why not go and have a look at Colossus, play on an Eighties micro, or marvel at the innards of a mainframe?

Barcamp Apache Oxford

2009-04-05T21:09:00.005Z

I’ve had a great weekend in Oxford with beautiful weather making it even better. Today was Barcamp Apache Oxford. This was very relaxed and enjoyable; the collection of semi-related factoids and insights have not yet settled but all the sessions I dropped in on were interesting and cogent. Speakers and participants were knowledgeable and displayed great humility. Makes me feel positive about the kind of environment I’m working in, the people ‘out there’ who are shaping web technology and about software in general. There's some great stuff happening.

Incidentally the most impressive demonstration of coding prowess I saw was this HTML5 and Javascript animation by Matt Westcott. He begs you to forgive the Flash soundtrack (an alternative technology wasn't available).

P.S. I gave a short talk about the Open Font Library that might get posted at some point.

Three conferences that I’d like to attend

2009-02-26T20:50:00.004Z

Libre Graphics Meeting 2009. Cost of travel a tad high (OK, 24 peak-time return Reading to London trips). Would like to be there to talk about the new Open Font Library web site, but will it be any nearer to live by 6 May?
Information Design Conference 2009. Slightly better chance of making this, in Greenwich on 2 and 3 April, as it only requires one of those return tickets (perhaps not even that!)
SERIAC 2009. Booked already as this is a no-brainer at £12.50 for the day of talks on 25 April. Sadly, due to the DLR, I missed last year’s keynote on London’s pooh and how Bazalgette made it disappear, but this year we’re round the table in Camelot so who knows what’ll be unearthed?
OK, make that four: Revival is the 2009 Friends of St Bride Library conference. I really ought to make it for that one as I’m supposed to be doing the techie stuff.

Less security please

2009-02-19T18:30:00.003Z

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/feb/19/civil-liberties-terrorism. "One thing I can tell you is that if you ask the British people they will always choose more security." Do we still think this is true?

Old news: revived ‘Routemaster’ bus design competition results

2009-02-05T19:34:00.002Z

How could I have missed this skeuomorph?

Maker Faire in Newcastle, 14–15 March 2009

2009-01-10T14:42:00.002Z

Looks like fun.

‘No government of any colour is to be trusted with such a roadmap to our souls’

2009-01-02T10:44:00.004Z

That’s what Ken McDonald, head of the Crown Prosecution Service until 31 October 2008 thinks about the idea of a ‘superdatabase’ tracking the addresses and numbers of all email messages and telephone calls made in the United Kingdom.

I don’t think it is a very attractive or practical idea either. How about you?

Open Rights Group tracking the Government’s Intercept Modernisation plans

Andy Maggs’ correspondence with Home Secretary Jaqui Smith in July and August 2008

Advice to writers of skits, in times of economic hardship

2008-12-17T17:44:00.002Z

Til critics
Learn to write edible plaudits
Cooking rhyme
Is only a waste of thyme

Dear Chancellor Merkel …

2008-12-11T10:23:00.002Z

[submitted on the web site of the Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. And for Posnan read Poznań]

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

I hope that by the end of the talks in Posnan you will have decided to support the enviromental proposals in full, showing the strong leadership that you have in the past.

I feel strongly that the opportunities for 'green' industry and social practice will soon outweigh the interests of industrial polluters. I believe that the proportion of the labour market and economic influence that is held by those polluters will rapidly get smaller in all European countries, not just my own.

I also feel that polluters in every country should take on the economic burden of their pollution. The polluters are the only ones who will benefit through their pollution; everyone else will suffer. It sets a very bad example if the most technologically advanced and wealthy countries do not enforce this policy. Other European countries, and the rest of the world, are fully aware of such double standards.

The population of countries such as Germany have the expertise, the manpower, the economic capacity and the political will to change the way we all think and act on environmental issues. Please do not let the short-term interests of the minority stand in the way of a better environment for everybody. A recent survey shows the majority of Germans want to make this change: 'According to an Avaaz YouGov Opinon Poll (5-8 December 2008) 85% of Germans agreed that "Germany should show leadership in securing a strong climate agreement for the EU despite the economic downturn"' (http://www.avaaz.org).

I think in particular of the populations of countries such as Bangladesh who are under threat of significant flooding if sea levels continue to rise, and of the Chinese whose country is industrialising rapidly and whose descendants do not deserve to inherit an industrial wasteland. In Europe we have experienced the degradation that unregulated industry creates and we have rejected it. Please take the next step and make it clear to the world that you strongly support an economy based on environmental respect and regeneration, not environmental destruction.

I know that I am adding my voice to those of many others. I write to you as I have written in the past to the political leaders of my home country, the United Kingdom. Thank you for making this an easy task!

Yours sincerely,

Ben Weiner

Reading Type in Free Font Index

2008-11-20T11:50:00.002Z

I’m pleased to have my typefaces, drawn ten years ago now, included in this rather nice new book :-)

Two updates

2008-11-17T13:10:00.005Z

Firstly, to brag about the conference I helped to organise at St Bride Library on 7 November. Entitled ‘Letterpress: a celebration’ the idea of the conference was to bring together people from across the surprisingly broad field of letterpress printing and let them get to know more about each other. We were privileged to get great speakers and exhibitors, sell out, and receive lots of complimentary comments.

Secondly, to mention the new version of the Open Font Library site [current version] which I spent much of October working on. It’s not by any means finished, but it’s looking good; we have worked hard to explain what the site is for and how to get involved, and provided some guidance on font formats and licensing.

Ed Trager is making a character viewer that enables users to get a preview of each font using any one of a gazillion keyboard layouts, so we will be able to go far beyond simply supporting the Latin alphabet. We also have a very simple @font-face CSS rule generator. The credit for the site’s good looks (at this stage of development) goes to my brother James, who did the visual design and wrote the CSS. Internet Dave raised funding for the work and held the project together. To stay up to date with progress, watch this space, or join the OFLB mailing list.

Dear MEPs:

2008-10-06T08:12:00.002Z

I am a resident of Reading, Berkshire. I am writing to ask you to oppose proposals to allow European industries to be given free carbon-dioxide permits after the year 2013. This would send out entirely the wrong message - of double standards - to countries outside the European Union and within the EU it would fail to support the initiatives of businesses which are striving to find more environmentally-responsible ways to generate energy and carry out manufacturing.

The EU parliament's industry committee has already voted to end the free carbon-dioxide permits after 2013, but now exemptions are sought that will totally undermine this decision and negate the progress already made.

Effectively it would mean Europe giving up on its strong lead on global pollution reduction before anything has been achieved.

I do understand that there is a risk that large manufacturing companies will relocate to avoid the legislation, but I feel that this should be mitigated with efforts to encourage enterprises that will deliver pollution-reducing ideas and techniques. Why not insist that the big polluters sponsor these companies, so that both can receive rewards in the longer term?

I look forward to your upholding of the EU parliamentary industry committee's decision.

AFP: WWF bemoans attempts to water down EU's green targets
FT: Climate change fears after German opt-out
EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee

Walking backwards for Christmas

2008-10-03T11:09:00.006Z

I went looking for some info about tax (not yet found) and ended up reading a brilliant article about freelancing by Phil Gyford [thanks to fidothe's delicious delicious links for that]. I hopped across from there to Matt Webb, mindhacker, who wrote well on the strange business of working out what to charge and how it can be influenced by the degree to which you think your work might benefit yourself or humanity.

This brought me back to my own situation, freelancing as I do: I’m writing a little software – developing an lightweight home automation interface at the moment – then also polishing the work of others, slotting in features, occasionally tutoring clients or the employees of clients, and quite often overtly using the information design and typography skills I learned at university. This is what is turning cogs in my head. But most of the social contacts I have are in the world of graphics and print history, because I volunteer for St Bride Library and that takes up most of my free time, some of my work time and certainly all my conference time.

I seem to be walking into the world of software facing backwards into the activities that were the springboard for that work, rather than forwards into the possibilities ahead. Like the goon I am, I suppose. And for how much longer?