Software

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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: Information Technology; Category: Software; Published: 23 December 2010; Hits: 7262

Over the years I have written many small applications and utilities.

In order of sophistication these include:

Simple HTML web pages
Command line scripted utilities and batch (BAT) files
Embedded Java code in web pages
Word and Excel macros typically written in Visual Basic for Applications VBA
Simple databases with VBA or Visual Basic (VB) VB frontends
Database related SQL queries batch data manipulators, templates and structures
Simple stand-alone utilities in in VB
Windows utilities written in plain C++ or using the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC)
Fully featured relational databases using SQL Server and VB
Complex applications written in C++

Some examples include:

Automatic footers and metadata updater code for Word and Excel; optionally to bring up a dialog to ensure file naming conforms to a standard.
A utility to process business financial data to reveal a variety of comparable ratios indicative of business health.
An applications to change registry settings and to install and run files on desktops and servers across a network.
A library (DLL) of simple encryption routines that add no overhead (don't change the file size) that can be used on any file; or encrypt in URL friendly characters to secure URL strings sent to web pages.
Several applications based around this library that can easily be called by applications written in languages other than C (VB, VBA, Java, C# etc).
File manipulation software for archiving, file moving and general file management; providing scripted batch processing archiving and reporting.

I'm happy to provide more information on any of these on applications or tools. Use the contact facility on this website.

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Travel

The United Kingdom

In May and Early June 2013 we again spent some time in the UK on our way to Russia. First stop London. On the surface London seems quite like Australia. Walking about the streets; buying meals; travelling on public transport; staying in hotels; watching TV; going to a play; visiting friends; shopping; going to the movies in London seems mundane compared to travel to most other countries. Signs are in English; most people speak a version of our language, depending on their region of origin. Electricity is the same and we drive on the same side or the street. Bott Wendy and I have lived in London in previous lives, so it's like another home.

But look as you might, nowhere in Australia is really like London.

Fiction, Recollections & News

More on 'herd immunity'

In my paper Love in the time of Coronavirus I suggested that an option for managing Covid-19 was to sequester the vulnerable in isolation and allow the remainder of the population to achieve 'Natural Herd Immunity'.

Both the UK and Sweden announced that this was the strategy they preferred although the UK was soon equivocal.

The other option I suggested was isolation of every case with comprehensive contact tracing and testing; supported by closed borders to all but essential travellers and strict quarantine.

New Zealand; South Korea; Taiwan; Vietnam and, with reservations, Australia opted for this course - along with several other countries, including China - accepting the economic and social costs involved in saving tens of thousands of lives as the lesser of two evils.

Yet this is a gamble as these populations will remain totally vulnerable until a vaccine is available and distributed to sufficient people to confer 'Herd Immunity'.

In the event, every country in which the virus has taken hold has been obliged to implement some degree of social distancing to manage the number of deaths and has thus suffered the corresponding economic costs of jobs lost or suspended; rents unpaid; incomes lost; and as yet unquantified psychological injury.

Opinions and Philosophy

Electric Cars revisited (again)

Electric vehicles like: trams; trains; and electric: cars; vans; and busses; all assist in achieving better air quality in our cities. Yet, to the extent that the energy they consume is derived from our oldest energy source, fire: the potential toxic emissions and greenhouse gasses simply enter the atmosphere somewhere else.

Back in 2005 I calculated that in Australia, due to our burning coal, oil and sometimes rural waste and garbage, to generate electricity, grid-charged all-electric electric cars had a higher carbon footprint than conventional cars.

In 2019, with a lot of water under the bridge; more renewables in the mix; and much improved batteries; I thought it was worth a revisit. I ran the numbers, using more real-world data, including those published by car companies themselves. Yet I got the same result: In Australia, grid-charged all-electric cars produce more greenhouse gasses than many conventional cars for the same distance travelled.

Now, in the wake of COP26, (November 2021), with even more water under the bridge, the promotion of electric cars is back on the political agenda. Has anything changed?

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