Blag o' dkam

Well, apparently I’ve not been consistent enough — an important quality when one bags out others for being inconsistent. So — I’ve updated all references to “Bookie” to the now correct “Booko”.

While I was at it I updated the scraping code for Fishpond who have again updated their site. At least they’ve updated it for the better. Compare and contrast the old and new Hpricot XPath code for grabbing the book title and author.

The Old:

book.title     = (doc/"table/tr/td/div/h1").inner_html
book.author    = (doc/"table/tr/td/p[2]/a/font/u").inner_html

The New:

book.title     = (doc/"h1#product_title").first.inner_html
book.author    = (doc/"p#product_author/a").first.inner_html

Much nicer!

Coles pledges clearer pricing

Although, I could have done slightly more research first:

Coles, which has 749 stores nationally, joins Woolworths in supporting unit pricing. Aldi has already adopted the system

Feedback for Coles and Safeway:

Hi There,

I’m writing to suggest you guys start using unit pricing. I’ve experienced it while living in Finland and found it an excellent way of comparing products. It makes shopping faster and easier. I’d be more likely to buy larger volumes if I could quickly see, at a glance, that it provides better value.

I like it so much, that I’d change supermarkets just to compare prices more easily.

Cheers,

Dan

• Bug fixed which stopped Booko remembering which Book searching place you last used. ( Bug reported by teh timo )
• Re-factored the functions which go and get the prices from the stores.
• Added an attribute to “Book” such that it now remembers when its prices were last looked up. Accidentally introduced a bug where any new book initially had no idea when it was last looked up and crashed the “Recently Viewed” method.
• Todo — better testing

From Indexed.

( From here )

It’s also for anyone else.

Edit: this is from Flight of the Concords BTW.

So, I was watching Enemies Of Reason and had an idea I’m sure is not original. Start up a new Homeopathy business selling a new “Super Homepathic” cure all. Advertise the liquid as having the memory of all known substances which cause human ailment. Sell 20ml bottles of distilled water for $50 a pop.

According to Richard Dawkins, in a cup of water, at least one molecule will have passed through the bladder of Oliver Cromwell. From this, it can be inferred (don’t worry about proof) that in a 20ml bottle of water, at least one molecule of the liquid has been in proximity to a substance which causes human ailment during some point in its lifetime (the Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years or so old – so this is a reasonable assumption). It’s spent the intervening time becoming more dilute, yet maintaining the “Memory” of this substance.

In order to be taken seriously, it needs to be expensive. It’s not any old crap after all – it’s “Super Homepathic” medicine. $50 a pop is within reach of most people, but pricey enough that you’ll feel awe whilst imbibing it. The stronger the awe, the better the placebo effect, the better the “cure”!

To assuage the guilt, on all shipping bottles we’ll say “Should be used in conjunction with accepted medical treatment.”

If someone cries foul, we’ll suggest a double blind test with other Homepathic cures. Check. Mate.

99 Designs looks like a great site. Clear purpose, good design very well executed. I like to think, whilst much simpler, Booko has a similar, clear objective. “Does one thing very well.” is the result I’m looking for, which I think 99 Designs has accomplished.