If you don’t give the proper URL, I can’t tell:

• Whether it’s a link to some likely spam/other hostile site

The phishing scam seen on Twitter is exactly this - sending people obfuscated URLs then hoping they don’t notice the actual domain when they open them. Working, too.

McCarthy decided that her son Evan’s autism was caused by vaccines - because she had heard the rumors and her “mommy instinct” told her it was right. She then confirmed her beliefs by attending Google University’s confirmation bias program.

Ah, that’s a very popular course …

Guess it’s not all that similar .. but it was driving me nuts until I finally remembered the other song…

Well, at number one it’s the token african “ethnic” music, and it certainly got a lot of token ethnic music votes. This album is exactly what you would expect - the type of CD bought by yuppies to play in the background at dinner parties to demonstrate their diverse sensitivities. It’s not bad as such but its appearance at #1 says a lot more about the people that voted it there than it does the album itself. This year’s Youssou N’Dour. Apparently Obama has it on his Zune.

The first track, Sabali, is so strongly reminiscent of another song that it drives me nuts.

2 London Zoo by The Bug

Unlistenable junk from some dickhead in London who thinks he’s way cool because he’s in, well, London. Worthless.

3 Fed by Plush

Boring indie tosh, originally released in 2002 and deservedly ignored then. Appears to have been chosen as this years’ “obscure pick” from the type of person who assiduously cultivates a reputation of “someone who knows obscure music”. Unfortunately, the entire herd of critics decided this simultaeneously, pushing this mediocre effort way, way above its natural ranking of, say, #8,671.

4 Dear Science, by TV On The Radio

Exactly what you would expect from a band calling themselves “TV On The Radio”. Refreshingly identical to all the other weird-name indies rock you’ve ever heard. Sound like they want to be early REM, or something. When I listened I thought “these songs sound like they should be at the endings of films”.

5 Sugar Mountain: Live At Canterbury House 1968 by Neil Young

Live album from an artist my parents owned LPs by. What the hell?

6 Exit by Shugo Tokumaru

Ooh, another “token ethnic” album, this time demonstrating the listener is “hip” to the “Japan sound”. Needless to say, no-one outside the Japanese indie scene has ever heard of this weird hobby artist and upon (doing your best at) listening it’s easy to see why. There’s some nice melodies on there which are systematically wrecked by constant dischordant noodling over the top. I have nothing against inaccessible experimental music but this album was not really made to be enjoyed, so why pretend to?

I kind of hate artists like this actually. “Oh wait, this song sounds too good. Let’s add some random flute”. The artist’s contempt for the listener deserves nothing less in return.

7 For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver

This is actually a very nice album. Not really my style, but credit where credit is due. This is almost certainly the best album actually made in 2008 so far listed.

8 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes

Whimsical choral ballads from some band in Seattle. Kind of interesting if you like that kind of thing, I guess. Not up with the whole nostalgic ballad scene really. Reminds me of something else.

9 Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

Haven’t listened to it. Maybe it’s OK, I like some Nick Cave (The Ship Song).

10 Hercules And Love Affair by Hercules And Love Affair

Haven’t listened due to my instant prejudice towards bands with ridiculous names.

11 Robyn by Robyn

Haven’t listened to Robyn by Robyn. Sorry, Robyn.

(I’ll skip any further entries I haven’t listened to)

18 Third by Portishead

Awful comeback attempt by Portishead, a band I used to like. Really abysmal.

20 In The 7th Moon, The Chief Turned Into A Swimming Fish And Ate The Head Of His Enemy By Magic by Kasai Allstars

Haven’t listened, but certainly wins any “album title of the year” competition.

22 Chemistry Of Common Life by Fucked Up

Starts promisingly and you think you’re onto something good before you realise that every song on the album sounds exactly the same - screaming Canadian punk - and the best tune was on the first track. That first track is good, though, if a little long. Here it is.

Other albums that appear on individual critic’s top-ten lists

Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

Pretty nice-sounding indies rock album. Not my thing but again, credit where credit is due.

Tha Carter III by Lil’ Wayne

Rap album to show that the critics are down with the urban beat. It’s pretty good actually, if you like near-freestyle rap over what sounds like early 90s Amiga game soundtracks.

Feed The Animals by Girl Talk

The sole album that is on both my top 5 list and the critics’. Basically the best mash-up of rap and 90s-contemporary/oldies pop you are ever likely to hear, so if that sounds appealing, check it out.

Saturdays=Youth by M83

The album you buy when AIR haven’t released anything and you’re in withdrawl. Unfortunately it’s methadone to AIR’s heroin and leaves one ultimately unsatisfied.

Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust by Sigur Ros

Another good album which somehow found its way onto a critic’s list.

Distortion by The Magnetic Fields

A new album from this classic band. Unfortunately, it sounds terrible. The songs are good, but the production is awful. They never exactly had a hi-fi sound but now it just sounds like a mess. The concept worked for acoustic, but when the style turns to rock I find myself just wanting a clean sound!

…

Well, I’ll stop there.

This year’s is possibly the most pitiful effort yet from the Expert camp. There are very few albums here which, absent pretension, small-network-effects and misplaced hype, would end up on any objective reviewer’s list. The bias is so heavily towards a tiny genre of American college rock that all others apparently merit little or no consideration - the fact that the critics include a handful of non-genre releases somehow makes it worse, because it shows they’re not just making a list of “best college radio releases” for 2008, they really are pretending to cover the whole gamut.

I won’t go into too complex an examination of why I think the critics’ lists are invalid and/or useless, but I think it’s got a lot to do with the compulsion to list albums by perceived merit rather than actual listening pleasure - “I should, rather than do, like this.” This is not a new idea, of course - it’s the general cancer afflicting all “modern art”. One would hope that something as simple as making a damn list of the CDs you listen to most that year would be simple enough to escape this phenomenon. Apparently not.

Take me. If you have read my list above, you’ll notice that on several albums I sound quite complimentary. I say the album has merit, or is nice, or interesting. And yet if you click across to my own “Best Albums of 2008″ list, you won’t see those albums there. Why? Because I don’t listen to them. That’s the razor, basically, and I believe that any other criteria are useless.

This approach has a drawback, of course, and that’s simply that my taste in music is pretty much unique to myself. I like many different styles of music, but what I like and why I like it are all pretty specific. I don’t know a single other person whose tastes exactly overlap mine - or even close. Who does? Taste is a personal thing, shaped by any number of factors.

But to try and widen the appeal of my lists by including music I think just has perceived merit, that I “should” like, is wrong. If I don’t like it, why not? Maybe it’s not my style. Maybe it’s in a genre I don’t particularly enjoy. So how would I know what is actually good in that genre? I wouldn’t, I’d be guessing. In other words, my opinion is worthless. Like the MetaCritic lists, then.

These lists shouldn’t be called “Best Albums of 2008″. They should be called “Albums of 2008 that we thought we, and by extension you, should like”. These are not the albums the critics really like, they’re the albums they pretend to like in front of their friends - and, of course, other critics. Awarding Shugo Tokumaru’s Exit the title of “Top 10 Album of 2008″ is the musical equivalent of conspicuously reading Milton’s Paradise Lost at Starbucks. Not even Milton liked Paradise Lost, and I’d wager that Mr. Tokumaru can’t sit through his whole album either. Neither artist intended their work to be particularly enjoyable, so what’s Exit doing on the list?

So the lists are useless. Really, what is the point? Where is a non-American, non-pretentious music fan to turn for his music news? I do my (extremely) limited best here, but there is no way I could hope to provide a balanced summary of all music releases. Is there anyone who does?

Where do my readers turn, wonders I? Any music fans who actively search for new music - please let me know your most successful sources in comments.

Unfortunately, being the bastard that I am, if I was the postman I’d make certain this house received a special extra helping of junk mail.

The paradox in question is the Boy/Girl problem, which wikipedia has an explanation to here. However, I don’t like the Wikipedia explanation either. I will try to do better.

The question is:

“A family has two children. You know that (at least) one of the children is a boy. What is the probability that the other child is a girl?”.

The kneejerk response to this is “50%”. This is completely understandable and comes from a lifetime of learning that “chance has no memory”. The chance of a child being a boy or a girl is 50%, right? So how does knowing the sex of one of the children possibly affect the sex of the other?

The answer is that you have to consider the whole range of outcomes, you have to consider the results of the two childbirth events as a whole. The fact is, there are two children, with two possibilities each, so the range of possible outcomes looks like this:

BB BG GB GG

Where B and G mean boy and girl, obviously. Each of these four outcomes has equal probability.

However, since you have been told that one of the children is a boy, you are forced to remove one of the outcomes, leaving you with:

BB BG GB

See it? Since you know for sure that there are not two girls, there are only three possibilities left. In two of those three possibilities, the other child is a girl. So the chance of the other child being a girl is actually two thirds - 66.67%.

That is counterintuitive enough, but is fairly understandable when explained. Where it really gets freaky is when you introduce order. This is where my brain absolutely chokes and I have real difficulty accepting at an intuitive level the implications of having this extra information.

Let’s ask the question again, with information about the order:

“A family has two children. You know that the eldest child is a boy. What is the probability that the other child is a girl?”.

Sounds the same, right? My intuitive soul practically screams that the outcome should be the same. But it’s not.

Let’s look at the total range of possible outcomes again.

BB BG GB GG

We know the eldest child is a boy. Now we have to remove not one, but TWO, possible outcomes:

BB GB

In other words, the probability of the other child being a girl is back to 50%.

This seems utterly insane. How the fucking hell could knowing the order of birth influence probability in this way? After all, they have to be either younger or older, didn’t they? One or the other - it’s assumed! How can this change anything?

Well, the thing to understand here is that we’re not talking about two events any more. We’ve actually removed one of the events, so don’t need to consider four possible outcomes, of which one has been removed. We’ve considering one event with two possible outcomes - 50%.

In order to understand it more, let’s actually switch analogies to tossing a coin. We’re not used to thinking about order in relation to children, but in coin-tossing it is natural. When it comes down to it, though, it’s all the same thing. Let’s re-ask the questions - in terms of coin tosses.

Question: A coin was tossed twice. At least once, it came up heads. What’s the chance it came up tails the other time?

Outcomes: HH HT TH TT

Eliminate: TT

Remainder: HH HT TH

Answer: Two out of three times, ie. 66.67%

And now, let’s introduce our knowledge of the order:

Question: A coin was tossed twice, and came up heads the second time. What’s the chance it came up tails the first time?

Outcomes: HH HT TH TT

Eliminate: HT TT

Remainder: HH TH

Answer: 50%

Suddenly our knowledge of the order seems valuable. We’ve been given more information, and as a result the probability question is far more specific and back in line with the “independent event” intuitive expectations we had in the first place. By knowing everything about one of the events, we remove it from the equation.

Understanding how knowing the order influences probability has powerful ramifications. For example, we can now understand why the “statistical” result of 66.67% for the first “other child” example above doesn’t square with our intuitive expectation of 50%. When we first consider the problem, we can’t separate things out and are thinking in terms of “if the family has one boy, and another child is born, then that child has 50% chance of being either sex”. But see? That’s because we removed the event! If we don’t know the order, it’s back to 66.67%.

To me, rephrasing the question in terms of coins produces an “a-ha” moment in which I can intuitively grasp why the probability has suddenly “changed”. I hope the explanation works equally well for you.

The good news is, it’s actually pretty easy. I have two ways of doing it, pick the one you like best.

module AutoReload
 
  @@required_mod_times = {}
 
  def reload!
    diffs = AutoReload.differences # we can only call it once per reload, obviously
    if diffs.size > 0
      diffs.each {|f| Kernel.load(f)}
      puts "reloaded #{diffs.size} file(s): #{diffs.join(', ')}"
    else
      puts "nothing to reload"
    end
  end
 
  def self.update_modtimes
    $".each do |f|
      @@required_mod_times[f] = File.mtime(f) if File.exists?(f)
    end
  end
 
  def self.differences
    oldlist = @@required_mod_times.clone
    AutoReload.update_modtimes
    newlist = @@required_mod_times.clone
    oldlist.delete_if {|key, value| newlist[key] == value }
    oldlist.keys.uniq
  end
 
end
 
include AutoReload

You will then need to initialise it somewhere after all your requires. AutoReload.update_modtimes will do the trick. If you can’t manage that, it will only work properly after the first time you use reload!.

This is the way to do it if you have a lot of files, I think, since it maintains a list of what was changed when, and then only reloads changed files.

Note that it’s not perfect. It will only be able to find files which are in local path, ie won’t be able to reload gems. However, that’s all I need for now.

The next way is even simpler, since it doesn’t bother to maintain a list - it just blindly reloads everything it can:

def reload!
  diffs = []
  $".each {|f| diffs << f if File.exists?(f)}
  if diffs.size > 0
    diffs.each {|f| Kernel.load(f)}
    puts "reloaded #{diffs.size} file(s): #{diffs.join(', ')}"
  else
    puts "nothing to reload"
  end
end

As you can see, this just blindly reloads everything it can find. Probably not the best if you have a lot of constants etc, but for a simple project could be just the ticket. The good news is you don’t need to initialise it. if you have a lot of files you probably should return "OK" or something, else you’ll have pages of reloads scrolling past.

Let’s bear in mind that this kind of trick is always a bit of a hack. Kernel.load() has no ability to unload anything, even if it doesn’t appear in the file anymore. All it can do is overwrite. If you break your code by deleting something important, then reloading using this kind of trick won’t show it up - the object is still there until you reload ruby itself. It’s a convenience thing only, so don’t rely on it too much, do a full reload once in a while.

However, for my use case - making a lot of small changes and working in a very interactive manner with irb - this is a real time-saver, hope you find it useful too.

If you’d prefer it to happen automatically, rspec-style, there is a gem available which will do this for you here which basically does the same thing, just every 1 second instead of manually.

Here’s my shortlist:

1. Josh Fix (US) - Free at Last (pretty stable #1)
2. Girl Talk (US) - Feed the Animals (if you don’t like this album, you don’t like music)
3. Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (US) - Catnip Dynamite (as featured here - good strong #3)
4. Nightwish (FI) - Dark Passion Play (Far from their best but OK)
5. open

I just can’t think of any other standouts this year. I’m interested in suggestions/reminders. Anyone?

Wow, top 3 are all American. That’s a turnaround. And can’t help but notice there’s no Asian representation. Maybe that’s because I didn’t like anything this year, or maybe I’m just sick of all things Japanese and didn’t give anything a fair chance. Could be either. I was down on US, up on JP for a long time; seems to be somewhat reversed now. Ever changing world!

What is Christmas Music? Christmas Music equals:

1. Trans Siberian Orchestra
2. Home Alone theme
3. The Red Army Choir, which is a little too “in your face” normally so I substitute the “Hunt For Red October” soundtrack, but I’ll include a bonus track here for purists

I need a playlist, I hear you ask? Your wish is my command, dearest reader. After you hear this playlist, you won’t care about any other presents. You’ve already reached the top. You may as well kill yourself after listening to this, actually, ‘cos it’s all downhill from here. Don’t tell anyone I said that.

All right. Let’s go! This christmas is gonna ROCK!!!!

Part 1 - Trans Siberian Orchestra

Track 1: What Child is This? (MP3, 13.6M)

A great starting track which will let the relatives know what they’re in for. Sets the scene with pensive, edgy piano, then kicks ass (in the service of the Lord) when the chorus finally arrives. Perfect beginning to your Christmas lunch!!

Track 2: O Come All Ye Faithful / O Holy Night (MP3, 9.9M)

Another great track which will get feet tapping around the table. Hey, is this Christmas, or ROCKmas? Hint: Both.

Track 3: A Star To Follow (MP3, 8.8M)

Controversial choice, this one. You see, I hate the beginning. Goes for way too long, and in the past I’ve gone so far as to edit that whole beginning out. However, maybe we can get away with it .. the crowd has been lulled into a trance by the first two all-winner-no-filler anthem classics, so maybe they can tolerate 1:08 of annoying chants. Gets good after that. I might post the edited version if anyone wants it, I got it right here.

That’s the thing with Trans Siberian Orchestra. I love their sound, and their concept, but sometimes I can’t stand their arrangements. Ah well, can’t have it all.

Track 4: Faith Noel (MP3, 10.4M)

God I’m sick of hearing stupid little kids. Let’s get back to what we’re all here for: AXE SOLO!!!!! Oh come let us adore him…

Track 5a: Christmas Canon Rock (MP3, 11.6M)
Track 5b: Queen Of The Winter Night (MP3, 7.3M)

Kind of filler but everyone loves these songs.

Track 6: Boughs Of Holly (MP3, 7.1M)

Oh yeah, back into it. Deck the Halls with Boughs of AWESOME! By now everyone should be nice and drunk and not paying much attention anyway. All they know is that this is the best christmas EVAR. This is the time to make a move on your cousin, if you haven’t already! (of course you have!)

Track 7: The March of the Kings/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (MP3, 6.2M)

More of the same, really. Feel free to skip it if you think it’s a bit noisy.

Track 8: Joy/Angels We Have Heard on High (MP3, 6.3M)

Jesu, joy of man’s desiring. Nice slow wrap-up to the TSO.

Part 2: Japanese section

Free free to ignore this if you hate Japan. Godless heathens, who do they think they are making Christmas music, anyway?

Track 9: 山下達郎: CHRISTMAS EVE (MP3, 5.9M)
Track 9: 山下達郎: CHRISTMAS EVE (english version) (MP3, 5.9M)

English and Japanese versions of this classic. The Japanese is better, but if it gives you jungle flashbacks you might want to stick with the Queen’s Tongue.

Part 3: Soundtracks

Track 10: Home Alone Main Title (”Somewhere In My Memory”) (MP3, 6.7M)

What could evoke more Christmas cheer than the thought of young McCauley Culkin evading bumbling home invaders? That’s right, nothing.

Track 11: O Holy Night (Home Alone) (MP3, 3.8M)

A nice arrangement of this classic.

Track 12: Hymn to the Red October (MP3, 7.1M)

In 1984, the USSR’s best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the USA. Is he trying to defect, or to start a war?

Another Christmas classic.

Part 4: Bonus

Track 13: The Red Army Choir - National Anthem Of The USSR (MP3, 8.6M)

Self explanatory. The very essence of Christmas, distilled.

——————–

That’s all, folks. After that lot’s played through - you won’t have any choice but to hit START OVER. This never gets old. Trust me.

Any requests, tell santa to put your comment in my little comment stocking below! Ho, ho, ho!

Wuthering Heights (MP3, 11.4M)

Lyrics after the break. Most of the lyrics floating around are wrong, I’ve corrected them.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Kate Bush

Out on the wiley, windy moors, we’d roll and fall in green
You had a temper, like my jealousy, too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me when I needed to possess you
I hated you, I loved you too

Bad dreams in the night
You told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering, wuthering heights

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me in’a your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me in’a your window

Oh it gets dark, it gets lonely, on the other side from you
I pine a lot, I find the lot, falls through without you
I’m coming back love, cruel Heathcliff
My one dream, my only master (/monster ## my interpretation ~ Sho)

Too long I roam in the night
I’m coming back to his side to put it right
I’m coming home to wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me in’a your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
So cold, let me in’a your window

Ooh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
Ooh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
You know it’s me, Cathy

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me in’a your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold, let me in’a your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold

Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy, I’ve come home
I’m so cold yeah

Beauty of the Beast (MP3 23.8M)

Another in my tradition of having nothing to say, so posting music. The lyrics in this are a bit, uh, over the top, but still kind of work.

Beauty of the Beast
Nightwish

Part 1 - Long Lost Love

Trees have dropped their leaves,
Clouds their waters
All this burden is killing me
Distance is covering your way,
Tears your memory
All this beauty is killing me

Oh, do you care,
I still feel for you!
Oh so aware,
What should be lost is there

I fear I will never, never find anyone
I know my greatest pain is yet to come

Will we find each, other in the dark
My long lost love..

Oh, do you care,
I still feel for you!
Oh so aware,
What should be lost is there

(repeat x2)

(instrumental, change)

Part 2 - One More Night To Live

Safely away from the world
In a dream, timeless domain
A child, dreamy eyed,
Mother’s mirror, father’s pride

I wish I could come back to you
Once again feel the rain
Falling inside me
Cleaning all that I’ve become

My home is far, but the rest it lies so close
With my long lost love, under the black rose
You told I had the eyes of a wolf
Search them and find the beauty of the beast

All of my songs can only be composed of the greatest of pains!
Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes!
I wish I had one more night to live.

A saint blessed me, drank me deeply
Spitting out the misery in me
Still a sinner rapes 1000 saints
Sharing the the same hell with me

Sanest choice in this insane world:
Beware the beast but enjoy the feast he offers

(instrumental)

(repeat)

(return)

All of my songs can only be composed of the greatest of pains!
Every single verse can only be born of the greatest of wishes!
I wish I had one more night to live.

Christabel
Oh, sweet Christabel. Share with me your poem.
For I know now, I’m a puppet on this silent stage show.
I’m but a poet who failed his best play.
A Dead Boy, who failed to write an ending
To each of his poems.

The album, Free At Last, is in first place for my Album of the Year 2008.

Download (MP3, 10.8M)

Lyrics after the break (transcribed by me - I guess someone has to do it first).

I thought about it first
Josh Fix

Ooooh…

Verse 1

I ain’t got your diamond ring
or tickets to a party in the sky
But I can be every dirty thing
that you were always too afraid to try

You’re living big, but where’s your heart?
You know you’re pretty but you hide ..

Bridge 1

Feel all the pain I’m causing
in my so-called fall from grace
Everyone I love I’m hurting,
take me far off from this place

Chorus

I’m taking off, for somewhere nice,
I’m getting tired of all the sunshine
You never know why I go,
And believe me baby, you don’t wanna

So get in line if you want to fly,
I thought about it first and this is my time

Verse 2

Someone cool might come along
and try to find a reason for this whole thing
You want the truth? You’ll be looking long,
you’re never going to get inside of my head

You’re living big and you’re all heart
Hell, you ain’t pretty but you try ..

Bridge 1 (repeat)

Feel all the pain I’m causing
in my so-called fall from grace
Everyone I love I’m hurting,
take me far off from this place

Chorus

I’m taking off, for somewhere nice,
I’m getting tired of all the sunshine
You never know why I go,
And believe me baby, you don’t wanna

So get in line if you want to fly,
I thought about it first and this is my time

I thought about it first …

Bridge 2

Everybody’s searching for their sign
well I just found mine
You shouldn’t try to stop me,
you can’t stop me (you can’t stop me)

(instrumental)

Verse 1 (repeat with modifications)

I heard there was a party in the sky
But I can be every dirty thing
that you were always too afraid to try

You’re living big, but where’s your heart?
You know you’re pretty but you hide ..

(Instrumental Bridge)

Chorus

I’m taking off, for somewhere nice,
I’m getting tired of all the sunshine
You never know why I go,
And believe me baby, you don’t wanna

So get in line if you want to fly,
I thought about it first and this is my time

So get in line if you want to fly,
I thought about it first and this is my time

I thought about it first …

>> require 'digest/md5'
=> true
>> Digest::MD5.digest "Les Rhythmes Digitales"
=> "\213U\3601\260%<j\267-\343(\213I\030\347"

What the fuck is that huge escaped thing? A unicode issue?

Check out the same from bash:

$ md5 -s "Les Rhythmes Digitales"
MD5 ("Les Rhythmes Digitales") = 8b55f031b0253c6ab72de3288b4918e7

Now that looks more like what I expect from an MD5 hash. Is Digest::MD5 mangling the text into some kind of weird invalid unicode?

Let’s try with $KCODE set:

>> $KCODE = "UTF8"
=> "UTF8"
>> require 'digest/md5'
=> true
>> Digest::MD5.digest "Les Rhythmes Digitales"
=> "\213U?1?%<j\267-?(?I\030\347"

Great. Any different in 1.9?

irb(main):003:0> Digest::MD5.digest "Les Rhythmes Digitales"
=> "\x8BU\xF01\xB0%<j\xB7-\xE3(\x8BI\x18\xE7"

Different again. At least I can see the characters in there, though. This is causing some pain.

Am I doing something hopelessly wrong? Somewhere in all these, some character encoding crap is going down. I can’t believe I’m the only one having these problems, and they render it difficult to use hashed passwords. I am working around the issue by shelling out to bash for now, but would like to get it fixed.

UPDATE: About 2 minutes after writing that, I realised I need to use Digest::MD5.hexdigest, not plain digest. I have no idea what the difference is supposed to be, but oh well, lesson learned. Apparently writing complaints on this blog helps me solve problems, so expect it to continue.

>> Digest::MD5.hexdigest "Les Rhythmes Digitales"
=> "8b55f031b0253c6ab72de3288b4918e7"

I have come to realise that there is one, and only one, appropriate way to store time so everything can understand it without endless string conversion problems, and that is in a numeric format of milliseconds since Epoch UTC.

The only appropriate time to convert from milliseconds into a human-readable string is upon presentation to an actual human - ie, in the View. Or, if you like, store a second time field in any records you save or pass around - just make sure your program doesn’t care about those.

This revelation comes from YET ANOTHER journey into ISO document land as I realised that not only do I have no idea how to store milliseconds in a JSON date/time string, but neither does anyone else. RIGHT!! THAT IS IT! From now on, dates are an integer.

Maybe.

Anyway, here’s some notes on getting millisecond-precision time references in and out of Ruby and JS, both of whose time classes I am no fan of, more for me than anything else..

Ruby example:

 
# Getting milliseconds since Epoch out of Ruby:
 
time_float = Time.now.to_f
time_ms = (1000* time_float).to_i
 
#writing
 
>> t = Time.now.utc
=> Thu Nov 20 23:01:32 UTC 2008
>> time_float = t.to_f
=> 1227222092.50133
>> time_ms = (1000* time_float).to_i
=> 1227222092501
 
#reading
 
>> n = Time.at(time_ms / 1000.0).utc
=> Thu Nov 20 23:01:32 UTC 2008
>> t
=> Thu Nov 20 23:01:32 UTC 2008
 
# check we retained usec through the process
 
>> n.usec # note we lost microsecond precision, this is intended
=> 501000
>> t.usec
=> 501333

Reducing Ruby Time.now to millisecond precision:

time_float = Time.now.utc.to_f
time_msp = ("%0.3f" % time_float).to_f

That doesn’t have much to do with time, I just thought it was cool. Note that apparently doing precision reduction with strings is faster.

Javascript

// Reading an ms-since-epoch time:
js> date_from_above = new Date(1227222092501)
Fri Nov 21 2008 10:01:32 GMT+1100 (EST)
js> date_from_above.toUTCString()
Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:01:32 GMT // note same as above 
 
// Make a new current date
js> t = new Date
Fri Nov 21 2008 10:28:12 GMT+1100 (EST)
 
// Output date object in milliseconds-since-epoch format
js> t.valueOf()
1227223692041