Joe's Blog

Effectiveness of interval histogram Euclidean distance for predicting tune similarity

11 Jan, 2014

In an attempt to quickly find almost exact melodic duplicates (give or take a note or two) in the folktunefinder.com algorithm I tried comparing the Euclidean distance between their interval histograms.

Getting to work in the 2014 Oxford floods

7 Jan, 2014

Flood water waist deep. Bit of a challenge getting out. Thames towpath below Oxford flooded knee-deep in places, just breaching at Donnington bridge. Someone in the University College boathouse shouted that I should be careful of sharks.

Oxford Geek Nights - Strong and Static Typing vs Weak and Dynamic Typing

17 Oct, 2013

Here are the slides from my talk last night. You don’t have to agree. You should also read this Yegge rant if you have particularly strong feelings either way.

Comments on the Oxford Mail site are completely broken

3 Oct, 2013

There’s something very odd going on with the comments on the Oxford Mail site. No disrespect to the paper, but I have a tough time tallying up likely size of readership with some of the behaviour seen on the site.

To a toaster

15 Aug, 2013

O Toaster! What the hell with thee is wrong?

Thy kind hath served my kind for decades long.

A bond hath formed between two nations great,

That decades bond, though, weareth thin of late.

Photoshop Bug

9 Aug, 2013

A fascinating bug in Adobe Photoshop. Presented here as a photographic essay. Bug report as photojournalism. I only created one triangle and moved it around a bit.

Interview Questions

2 Aug, 2013

I have recently been on the job hunt (and come out of it with a new job, thanks for asking). I talked to a number of interesting organisations and answered a proportionally interesting number of questions. No less interesting is that fact that nearly all of these questions, whilst being ideal interview material, were also the kind of questions that would come up every day as part of the job.

Dear Debbie

29 Jul, 2013

Dear Debbie Beckett,

I recently received a letter from you. It said ‘TV Licensing’ on the envelope. I don’t have a TV, but I know from friends that the occasional letter isn’t unexpected. As I don’t have a TV I’m pretty sure this doesn’t apply to me. I opened it, out of curiosity, though. I’ve lived here for nearly 3 years and I’ve never had a letter from you, and I wondered what was inside.

French Adventure

22 Jul, 2013

H and I visit France, and les rencontres de luthiers et maître sonneurs.

Hot

19 Jul, 2013

Last night I dealt with the heat the only way I know how.