Irish Discussion Trends

Inspired by an analysis of computer science research trends, I wrote a simple application using Adobe Flex and Apache Lucene to analyze trends on the Irish discussion website boards.ie from 1998 to mid-2008. For example, computing only term frequencies within posts, one can observe the rise and fall of Ireland's mobile phone networks:





Please note that the 2008 dataset is incomplete, and so the results trail off for this year.

It's Not a Feature, It's a Bug

The Flex compiler (mxmlc) has the following feature: It will only include classes in the output swf that are explicitly referenced either within the .mxml files or any explicitly referenced .as files. There is a request for a compiler option to support the inclusion of all classes, but it's still in the works.

The following is one such example where this feature causes difficulties. Suppose I have a Flex client that uses BlazeDS to make an RPC. The RPC returns a Java object that is explicitly mapped to an ActionScript object using [RemoteClass(alias="...")] above the definition of the ActionScript class. This ActionScript class may never be referenced within the Flex code yet is needed to de-serialize the response! The end result is an "Server.Acknowledge.Failed" fault code:

[RPC Fault faultString="Didn't receive an acknowledge message"
faultCode="Server.Acknowledge.Failed" faultDetail="Was expecting
mx.messaging.messages.AcknowledgeMessage, but received null"]

Duplex Printing with the Lexmark T640 and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

Mac OS X 10.4 includes a driver for the Lexmark T640. However, even with the duplex option installed (System Preferences > Print & Fax > [printer name] > Printer Setup > Installable Options) and either "long-edged binding" or "short-edged binding" selected (Print > Layout), pages come out one-sided! The "Generic PostScript Printer" driver doesn't appear to support duplex printing either.

As a work around, you can install Gutenprint and Gimp-Print for Mac OS X and use, for example, the "Generic PCL 6/PCL XL Printer - CUPS+Gutenprint v5.2.3" driver.

Is One More Powerful Than We Think?

The Power of One is an initiative by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to promote energy efficiency in Ireland. One of their TV ads, centered around the Heffernan Family, appears to have the following logic:

• The Heffernans reduce their energy consumption by, for example, switching their thermostat setting from 23 to 21 degrees.
  
• Through these efforts they save €320 annually on their heating costs.
  
• They save this money in their "holiday fund" allowing the five of them, in the closing scene, to head off into the sun with their surfboards and bags packed.
  

Any problem here? Does saving €320 on annual heating costs, only to spend it on a foreign holiday (I presume that's what the sun represents), make sense? Suppose they travel by air? Technically, it promotes energy efficiency in Ireland, but does it increase energy use somewhere else?



Did I mention Jevons Paradox? As we increase the efficiency with which we use a resource (through technological progress), we increase (rather than decrease) the rate of consumption of that resource. We are dealing with something similar here. If the Heffernans improve the efficiency with which they can heat their home, they may actually use the savings to consume more energy elsewhere. What's worse, the ad appears to promote this.

I will say that the paradox is not universally accepted. The general argument against it is that, in a mature market, the savings made will be greater than the amount used due to the rebound effect. However, I think the ad's advice is counter to this argument.