Facebook could become the ultimate platform for training facial recognition systems. Almost every photo uploaded to the site is of someone. The first thing that you do is to tag the people in the photo, creating a link between the photo and the related person.

But what would happen if the tagging process worked in conjunction with facial recognition technology? Every time a person was tagged in an image you could help the system learn what that person looks like. Eventually the system could become “smart” enough to recognise people on its own.

Auto-tagging photos - it’s the way forward, and you heard it here first!

The following slice of code will search a table and return any rows where there is a clash between the date range in the row (ValidFrom and ValidTo) and the date range in the variables (@InTo and @InFrom).

Null dates are treated as either infinite past or infinite future accordingly.

WHERE
NOT (
(@InTo < ValidFrom AND @InTo IS NOT NULL AND ValidFrom IS NOT NULL)
OR
(@InFrom > ValidTo AND @InFrom IS NOT NULL AND ValidTo IS NOT NULL)
)


I was pondering this question earlier today while I rewired a 4-way adaptor to have a longer lead. When was the last time that I actually had to change a plug. While I was a child I changed plugs all the time. I loved to play around with electrical gadgets that I had acquired through jumble sales and alike. These items often required a plug to be connected and therefore I spent quite a number of weekends messing around with screwdrivers, wire clippers and even in some cases soldering irons.

I remember that in school, both primary and secondary, I was taught how to change a plug. I was taught the colours of the wires inside a cable and how they related to the electrical mains supply. I understood which terminals within a plug these had to be connected to and I knew how to strip the cable to the correct lengths.

These days most electrical items come with a plug moulded onto the wire. It is rare that you have to change a fuse let alone rewire the plug. Before today I really can’t remember the last time that I saw the inside of a plug. Are children even taught, what was once considered a necessary life skill, in schools?

So  I ask you, when did you last wire a plug? What colour is the earth wire? Does blue connect to the neutral terminal or the live terminal? Finally, is it the earth or the live terminal that has the fuse?

I have just got back from a short holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes. More on that later but for now I thought I would share this photo that I took while in the Valley of the Butterflies. It reminded me of the Banksy painting shown on the right.

What is loud, fast, very hard, and makes this happen to cars:

A train going over a level crossing when the car shouldn’t have been there. Don’t play on the railways kids!

This car was left in the car park at work by Network Rail. It was recently used as part of their campaign to convince drivers that driving over level crossings when the lights are flashing is generally considered a bad idea.

I have been very busy over the last two weeks or so. I won’t go into detail but I would like to thank Becky and Dave for a lovely housewarming and birthday party that they had last weekend. I made my own burgers to cook on their BBQ and it was all jolly good fun. I also went to see Pirates 3 this week which I thought was very swashbuckling. It was almost as good as this video found by Colin:

Pirate video

Don’t let the song get stuck in your head!

I went to the Brake Road Safety Awards on Friday evening with work. The company that I work for won an award for our risk management product which I thought was pretty cool. Nothing like drinking on company expenses.

I am going to have a Pimm’s party. It is called Pimm’s in the Park and will be on Saturday 11th August at 2pm in St Andrew’s Park, Bristol. Everyone is invited, just bring along a picnic, some chums and a bottle of Pimm’s!

I sit here hot and restless. The weather is threatening and I am sure I just saw some spots of rain on the glass of the window. I feel like my life has turned into a whirlwind of busy this week yet I can’t pinpoint why. I look back to when I last blogged and realise that it was only last Friday, yet even this seams like an age ago.

I have visited my parents, met up with Lauren who is a friend from high school and now works in the same hospital as my Dad, been bowling - a sport that I definitely need more practice at, done a five mile walk over Cannock Chase, ate in multiple restaurants, been to the gym twice, wrote two Facebook applications on their new Facebook platform, washed the car, visited the Festival of Nature in Bristol and many other things besides.

Successful bowling is very much a combination of skill and luck. Dad was surprisingly good at sending the ball down the alley to remove all the pins in its path. However he did manage to slip over while showing off and cut his hand. Stuart, my sisters fiancé, had a quietly accomplished bowling technique while my aunt managed to get the ball into the gutter 99% of the time. The other 1% was when she got a strike halfway through the second game.

On Thursday I visited Casa Mexicana on Zetland Road in Bristol. A subtly themed Mexican restaurant with bored waiting staff greeted James, Jacky, Ross and myself as we chose a table by the window. Our drinks order was taken three times by three different waiters although we couldn’t complain when it arrived - the sangria that Ross had ordered certainly had a kick to it. The food was spicy and good although I think they were a bit stingy with the rice that was served with my Chimichanga.

Facebook is a social network site that began with American college students and has now rolled out across the world. Last week they released Facebook Platform, a development API allowing programmers to connect to and produce widgets for Facebook. I have created two Facebook applications this week. The first allows users of PleaseGetMe.com to display their wish lists on their Facebook profile page. The second, LifeKarma, allows you to give good or bad karma to your Facebook friends - and lets them retaliate. Your karma score is shown on your profile and you can even access a graph of your karma rating over time. If you have Facebook then please give them a try.

I have signed up to Last.fm so if anyone else is on that then add me as your friend

Is anyone going to the QFC party in November? I was thinking of getting myself a ticket but only if others are going too.

The coming of the summer months, note how I didn’t say weather, is marked by another round of euro-ballad-pop-rock music from artists that no one has ever heard of. Eurovision has always been a night to take the mickey out of other countries as well as our own pitiful entries.

My Eurovision weekend was spent in the company of my good friends down in Exeter where Roz organised an exciting party in the house of Reagan, Dave B and Damo. I was allocated three countries that I had to support, as well as the UK, which were The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania and Belarus who did surprisingly well in the competition by coming sixth overall.

I think this year more than ever the political voting spoilt the competition. Eurovision has always been a bit susceptible to national bias with Greece and Cyprus being the main culprits over the years. However with the introduction of the Eastern Bloc and Balkan countries into the EBU it has become far more prevalent. It was laughably easily to predict the set of countries that were going to be gaining votes. I would be willing to bet that it will be these same set of countries that rank highly next year. Not that I am a sore looser or anything.

Our entry, a cross between Steps, 5ive and Eurotrash, with stunning chorography and deeply meaningful lyrics came a joint second to last with France. Not only that but it also managed to set Damo’s surround sound amplifier on fire with acrid smoke pouring out of it by the end of the performance.

Roz bought the most amazing burgers from some farm shop near her flat. They tasted gorgeous and I am very jealous that they have such a fine purveyor of burger goodness so close to them. I think at the weekend I will have to go to the delicatessen on the Gloucester road for meat treats.

It was also great to catch up with my friend John (Prom) who has been absent from my life for a good number of years now. He is coming to the end of a philosophy degree at Exeter so good luck to him in the coming months.

Oh, Serbia won Eurovision - much to Becky’s dismay as she had to drink from The Cup Of Europe (a bowl of sparkling alcoholic fruit punch) whenever they were given 12 points

Here’s to a great weekend, it was nice to catch up with everyone again.

This morning I rang Albany, my uninsured loss recovery company, to see if I was ever going to get the cheque for £150 that they told me they would send me to cover my policy excess from the car crash last year. The nice lady told me that they had received the money from the third party insurer on Thursday and that the cheque was in the post.

I arrive home this evening and lo and behold the cheque was there waiting for me. Huzzah.

And so ends not only a rather annoying chapter of my life but also an otherwise uneventful Friday.

Transport for London are giving away 100000 free Oyster cards that let you travel around London for half the usual cost. The cards normally cost £3 plus whatever pay-as-you-travel money you top them up with. However for the moment TfL are giving them away, all you need to do is top them up with some cash for travel.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/oysteronline/freeoyster/