Dan Makovec’s blog

Politics in Australia

I see Australia has a new opposition leader.

The Labor party have always had a reputation for colorful leadership - Bob “Anyone who sacks a bloke because he doesn’t turn up for work today is a bum” Hawke was one of the mild examples, and Paul Keating (too many ingenious insults to paste here - check out this site, it had me in tears!) truly was a master of colorful public language.

Mark Latham, the new guy is no exception. His list of insults are listed in this article. Not too bad, although using parliamentary privilige to label a journalist a “skanky ho” may be pushing the boundaries somewhat.

Current Prime Minister Howard started off well, but during his current term the government has taken a bit of a dark turn, following the whole immigrant debacle, neatly leading into the war on terror. It would be good to see a change of government, but let’s hope that Labor have some decent policies to back up their somewhat vulgar rhetoric.

Winter’s back

December, and the temperature’s dropped below freezing again. Yay, I love London at this time of year!

London’s strange in Winter - the sun sets about 3.30pm, so my regular working hours (10.30 till 6.30) don’t make much sense. Against every lazy fibre in my body, I’ve taken to getting up extra early and starting work at 9pm so I can finish at 5.

Sure, it’s still black outside when I’m done, but at least I get to see more natural light coming in my office window throughout the day. The downside of course is that I now get up before the sun. This morning we awoke at 6.45am in Lewisham in order to be on the DLR by 8. It was then an hour commute into Bank and out to Victoria before I get in at 9 on the dot.

Shell Oil have decided to show that they are down with the greenies by sponsoring an event they call the “Electric Storm”. I’ll get to why this is related in a moment. Basically, they’ve got a wind turbine and stuck it up in the middle of Jubilee Gardens. They then shove some lights and mist machines up some trees above the main walkway along the south of the Thames, and pump out some weird-ass ambient music that wouldn’t sound out of place in a dental surgery waiting room.

The basic concept is that the mist machines pump out water mist, the lights look pretty against the mist, the sound lulls you into relaxation as you walk home from work, and the whole bloody thing is powered by the wind turbine. So there you go, it proves they’re committed to alternative energy sources.

Here’s what I dont’ get: it’s a 3 month event, running until Februrary. The big friendly oil company have decided that it will get people on its side by spraying freezing cold mist across a main thoroughfare during the evenings after work in the middle of winter. I’m wondering if this is somebody within the company’s idea of a cynical prank, and they’re sitting up there in Shell house with binoculars giggling to themselves as they watch Londoners turn into human icicles below them. One things’ for sure, after witnessing the very refreshing display in the 1 degree celsius night air last night, I hurried across the river to my nearest multinational coffee-house, Starbucks, for a Venti choc-mint bliss to warm up.

Great thing I’m escaping this town in two weeks to go somewhere warm - the top of Whistler and Longhurn

Another year older

OK, this is my second birthday in this cold, blustery wasteland that we call London, and I promise it’ll be my last. Even if I’m not back in Oz next year, I’ll head off somewhere warm like Grand Canaria or something. Having said that, and despite being woken up at 6am by a short phonecall from back home, after getting to bed at 1am, I’m not feeling too badly.

Brian assures me that apples are better than coffee for keeping you awake, so I’ll be digging into the apple juice shortly - as this morning’s coffee has just worn off.

While chatting with my boss Vidar at work, I got inspired to find my first appearance on the internet. While I haven’t found it as yet, I did find the first program I wrote which made it onto the net back in 1994. It was a polling booth door for our BBS - something fairly new at the time.. Who knew the concept would have grown to be so popular on the web today? I should have taken out a patent back then. It was written in Arexx for the Amiga (RIP).

So after hunting down the AmiNet archives, I grabbed the program archive and extracted the files. Reading the .README I wrote back then, it is clear that I had a bit to learn in terms of writing technical documentation. It’s worth a laugh if only for historical reasons. It’s worth noting that this was written just before I first started university, and about a year before I bought my first PC.

Note my old signature - back in the days when I couldn’t figure out whether I was a Dan, Daniel or Danny (I still have some trouble with that), so I simply went by the moniker “Mav”. The stupidity of youth…

                            ExcelPoll V1.3
                       (c) 1994 Daniel Makovec

                 An Arexx Poll booth for Excelsior! BBS

Well, I've just finished this ElNeato voting door for E!, and to be quite
honest, I'm not really the type for long and fancy docs, and I've made the
program as friendly as possible, so it should be fairly self explanatory.

To install the program, copy it to wherever you keep your doors (how about the
doors: path?) 
Ok, how do we set it up?

Well, there's two ways:

Firstly, if you just want to bung it in the doors sub board with all the other
doors, you can, like this:

Go into the doors subboard, and type:

A (add)

Then, provided you've stuck the prog in the default door, just press
when asked for a dir.

just hit  when asked for a pattern, and type 'y' when the line
containing 'ExcelPoll.rexx' comes up.

Enter a nice description (like 'The world's greatest voting program') next, and
unless you don't want guests using it, leave access levels at 1-32.

This is an (A)rexx door, so enter it in.

don't worry about the IPL variable thingy, or the days offset (what use is that
thing anyway, does anybody know?).

I think having only 1 user at a time is the safer option.  I've never tried to
get two copies of the same prog going simultaneously, so keep exclusive access
on just in case.

That should be it!

OK, the other (and I think better) way to set it up is to edit the file
EX.BBSMenus.

Now, you can add the program to any section you like, usually you use either the
Main Menu commands, or the global commands.

If you want to access the prog from the main menu only, then find the end of the
section (about line 38), and add the folowing in on the next line, following the
format of the above lines:

610,      V,       0,         "1-32",          "\#0Doors:ExcelPoll.rexx"

If you wish, you could add the above line to any section in the entire file,
depending on where you want people to vote from.

Now, in order for this to work, go out to the main control panel window on WB,
and select the "Extras->Reload->Menus" menu item.  The program should then be
immediately activatable.

As far as personal settings are concerned, edit the program, and locate the
following block of text near the beginning of the file:

/**************************************************************************/

/*                  Change these settings to personal preference                                     */

AddAccess   = 20
DelAccess   = 20
EdtAccess   = 20

TempPath    = 'RAM:t/'
TopicPath   = 'ExcelBBS:Doors/'
TopicFile   = 'vote.data'
UserFile    = 'vote.users'

/**************************************************************************/

For faster access, all disk IO is done to a file in RAM (in the TempPath path).
The program then copies the completed file to the 'hard copy' file on disk (in
the TopicPath path).

Also, as seen above, you can set the access at which users can edit, add, or
delete poll topics.  Just change the numbers above to whatever you like.

That's about it!

*** NEW ***

Also included in the package is ExcelPollFrontDoor.rexx.  As the name suggests,
this is a front door to ExcelPoll.  When this program is added to the login
script (ExcelBBS/Text/English/Text.Welcome.User), it checks for any topics the
user hasn't voted on.  If it doesn't find any, it exits straight away.  If it
does tho, it puts a prompt up asking if they wish to vote now.  If they don't,
once again, it exits cleanly; if they do, it loads ExcelPoll.rexx (in the
DoorPath path, as set in the program the same way as the settings explained
above).  This is very handy particularly if you want constant input into the BBS
from your users.  Other settings here include MinAccess and MaxAccess, which
allow you to define the access groups that are allowed to vote.

To run this at login, add the following line to
ExcelBBS/Text/English/Text.Welcome.User:

\#0Doors:ExcelPollFrontDoor.rexx

Ok, hope that's all you need to know...

Any probs just mail me! 
My contact address is at the end of this document.

OK, now for the legal stuff:

This program is MavWare.  I'm calling it MavWare because I do not know of
another Xware name that has the terms and conditions I use.  The conditions of
use of this program are:

1.	This program, and any algorithms used within, although freely distributable
	is the property of Daniel Makovec, the author.  If you wish to use any parts
	of it in your own creation, contact me first!!!

2.	No fee whatsoever may be charged for the copying of this program, not even
	disk copying fees (hey, let's face it, if you're on a bbs, who needs a
	disk?) 
3.	This program must be used 'as is';  the only legal modifications you may
	make are to lines 12 thru 23 inclusive, as displayed above, for the soul
	purpose of changing default access and path settings.

4.	This program must be distributed AT ALL TIMES with the files EXCELPOLL.DOC,
	EXCELPOLLFRONTDOOR.REXX and full credit must remain with the author (me)

5.	If you use this program on your BBS, you MUST send me some Email to state
	this, so I can keep track of program usage.  Include your name (or your
	SysOp's name if you are not), the BBS name, address (just city/country will
	do, along with Email address), BBS phone number, version of E! and ExcelPoll
	you are running,

6.	The usual disclaimer notice: I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR ANY
	DAMAGE, LOSS (EITHER PERSONAL, FINANCIAL OR MENTAL) CAUSED BY THE USE OR
	DISTRIBUTION OF THIS PROGRAM. (In short, if the stock exchange collapses, or
	your computer fries, or you slice your finger off in DF0:, DON'T COME
	RUNNING TO ME!!!

Alright... Geez I hate rules and regulations, but without them there would be
anarchy I suppose, so that's 'em. Simple enuff I hope 
Last but not least, enjoy the program!!  I enjoyed the challenge of whipping it
up, and probably would have got it done much more quickly if I hadn't been
working all week   Please, send me any post cards, flames, bug reports, etc.
They're all optional, but remember rule number 5 above!

History: (sorry about the setting out, I ripped it straight out of the actual program)

0.0 - 0.99 : Internal revisions
0.99a :	Added in compensator for non existant data files

0.99b : Beta test release version, released to Kym Dyer (thanx mate!) of Mystic BBS
		Added 'break proofing'.  Now user cannot halt program with a CTRL-C or the like.

0.99c : Modified file handling.  Now writes data to RAM, then copies RAM file to disk.
		This results in a 75% speed increase during file handling.  Much nicer! 
0.99d :	As the legend of iterative enhancement continues....
		Major enhancements here!

		Accidently stumbled upon a bug with the topic adder.  If you selected to add a new
		topic, then typed in a topic title, and a few lines, then said it wasn't ok, then
		hit return to escape, the topic counter was not reset, consequently an infinite loop
		was set up.  I have fixed this bug now.  (One of those obscure ones from awkward
		situations that avoids detection most of the time

		Also, topic deleter would delete the wrong topics :).   Fixed

		Cleaned up graphical display a little

		Finally, modified data file operation so it will only save when necessary, another
		time saver, as well as eliminating some extra unnecessary lines of code

		Now only saves hard copy on exiting program.  Gives greater speed.  This way, while
		there is some delay after entering new data, it's not as bad as if both the soft and
		hard copies were written simultaneously, thus data writing time is spread out 
0.99e :	Finally!!! Worked out that the designers of E!, just to be F******* awkward, decided
		that E!'s Arexx port wouldn't use the standard commands "parse pull" and "say".
		Consequently have used a find/replace to change above commands to "Transmit" and
		"Query" (aka TR and QU).  Now we're getting somewhere!!!

		Also, am now able to obtain user/bbs data from the port, so by next release One Vote
		Per Person and security access restrictions should be in place.

1.00  : Now fully operational as a standard Arexx door.

		Added custom IPL pen colour routines, dependent on terminal type, so you don't get
		all sorts of spastic command sequences coming up when IPL is off.

1.1   : Access restrictions in place

		One vote per person in place

1.2   :	*** First Public Release ***
		Extensively debugged all over the place 
		Added ExcelPollFrontDoor.rexx.  Now user can have a prompt appear as
		they log on, telling them they haven't voted on a topic.

1.3   :	Ah, forgot to use E!'s emergency exit mode, when user drops carrier.
		Have added this in now, so the program won't hang when the person loses
		the connection.

Still to come:	Maybe special RIP support, depending on demand.

				Anything else?  Tell me! 
   Author:	Daniel Makovec

Max's Net:	Daniel Makovec

    E!Net:	Daniel Makovec (suprise, huh? ) 
 InterNet:	9405566s@lux.levels.unisa.edu.au
 			mav.bkroom.apana.org.au

I won't bother leaving a snail mail address, coz obviously anybody who uses this
program will be on a net of some sort anyway!

Special thanx to: 	Kym Dyer, for inspiring me to make Excelsior do something
					useful, and for the book! 
					BJ Dibbins, for lending me the E! book, and helping me with
					the Arexx port stuff.

CatchU...
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