John Topley's Weblog

August 2004 Article Archive

Child's Play

Saturday, 21 August 2004

I recently had some software recommended to me by a six year old. Not directly, but via her Daddy, who casually mentioned to me this amazing software that his daughter was having a lot of fun with. The software is called BAMZOOKi Zook Kit and as the name suggests, it lets you make Zooks…

In case you think I've finally lost the plot completely, I'd better explain. Zooks are animated creatures—the weirder the better—that have their own television show on Children's BBC called BAMZOOKi. Unfortunately I haven't actually seen the show because it's on whilst I'm at work.

A Zook created by one of the professionals i.e. a child. Click to enlarge.

The Zook Kit is software that lets children (and adults!) construct their own Zooks and I believe that the best ones are featured in the show, where they take part in all sorts of challenges. It's sort of like the Olympic Games, but without the politics and cheating. There's also a gallery of the best Zooks on the BAMZOOKi website.

The best part of it all is the Zook Kit software, which is incredibly sophisticated. Maybe I've been asleep for a few years, but I was astonished by the professional quality of this tool, which lets you manipulate and combine three-dimensional objects and specify their behaviour. All the control you'd expect is there, from shape manipulation to motion control and colours/patterns. You can give your Zook legs and specify the order in which they move. Objects can be cloned, mirrored and imported and exported. It's an object-oriented construction kit for animated creatures and the best bit is that it's really easy to use. There's even an online Zook Kit Lite version, created using Shockwave.

One of my Zooks. Click to enlarge.

Once you're happy with your Zook you can switch to test mode and watch it come to life. If you've only given your Zook one leg then at this point it will start to flail around helplessly! The programmers have used AI algorithms to animate the Zooks in a realistic way, which certainly works. The environment can be changed so you can see how your creation copes with obstacles and slopes, or perhaps see how fast it is in a sprint.

It may not increase your productivity or be the next big thing, but the Zook Kit is a ridiculously fun piece of software that put a big smile on my face, in a way that hasn't happened since I first clapped eyes on Delphi 1.0 or CityDesk.

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Nothing For Nothing

Tuesday, 10 August 2004

“Subject: ms sql server vs oracle sql server
From: Catalin Enache

Greetings!
My name is Catalin I am assigned to choose an ERP for our company based in Bucharest, Romania, Europe. The maximum number of simultaneous users of the ERP will not be bigger than 60. We have to buy some local product and I reached the point where the databases used by the last two applications remained on the shortlist are in discussion. One uses Oracle and one MS SQL Server. Probably is important to mention that we already have licenses for MS SQL Server.

Would you care to give me some advices and/or clues that would help me reach a fair decision?

Any help would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Catalin”

—This e-mail was sent in reply to an innocuous, one sentence posting I made on the Joel on Software Forum, in a topic thread about the relative merits of Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. Although you wouldn't guess from the familiar tone of the e-mail, I don't know this person.

I love the way the message cuts to the quick and talks about the constraints on the system, as if this is more detail that I've asked for during previous correspondence. I also wonder if this is the same person who made the original posting in the Joel on Software forum. The use of oracle sql server is quite distinctive.

What makes Catalin think that I'm even qualified to comment on this? (S)he doesn't know anything about me apart from what's in the public domain. Sure, I've worked with both products and I have an idea of the sort of things that you should look into if making this evaluation, but it's far from my area of professional expertise. That's supposed to be your job, Catalin! There are lots of people who gave more detail in the original discussion, and many of them will be more qualified than me to give advice on this topic. Hey, I wonder if they got contacted too?

Let me be clear: just because I have a website and occasionally post in discussion forums or weblog comments, it doesn't mean it's open season to e-mail me and ask me to help you do your job. I don't mind following up on specific technical matters that I post about here, and if you look you'll see that I've replied to various comments in my knowledge base that are only loosely related to the original entry.

For the record, I'd go with Microsoft SQL Server. You've already paid for it and you can use the money saved to pay for some proper ERP consultancy. Just don't blame me if it's the wrong decision for your company. After all, you didn't pay me to consult for you, therefore my advice is without value i.e. it's worthless.

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