Drivel about data and musings about metadata.

The solution is now available below

DDI can be a harsh mistress sometimes, and mistakes can sometimes be made when trying to use it. As a data format it is flexible enough to handle most situations, but this flexibility can sometimes be a shortcoming.

Below is a poorly written chunk of DDI I’ve written, that forms part of a survey instrument. The good news it can be written in a much better way. The challenge is how to rewrite it:

<d:Sequence id="MainSequence">
    <d:ComputationItem id="CompItem1">
        <d:Code>
            <r:Code programmingLanguage="pseudoCode">SET X = X + 1</r:Code>
        <d:Code>
    </d:ComputationItem>
    <d:IfThenElse id="ifblock1">
        <d:IfCondition>
            <d:Code>
                <r:Code programmingLanguage="pseudoCode">X == Y</r:Code>
            <d:Code>
        <d:IfCondition>
        <d:ThenConstructReference>
            <r:ID>A_different_sequence</r:ID>
            <r:ID>MainSequence</r:ID>
        </d:ThenConstructReference>
    </d:IfThenElse>
</d:Sequence>

If you think you can correct this code, email a solution to theodore.therone at gmail.com. At the end of the week (When I wake up this Saturday AEST) I’ll select a solution at random and give away a $15 voucher for 5senses coffee.

If you need clarification on anything in the example code, post it in the comments and I’ll clear it up.

Unfortunately, there were no correct responses, so the voucher will go to the next challenge, but the answer is still available below.

Solution – this was a simple computer science riddle wrapped in a layer of DDI. It was a loop rewritten as a recursive if-branch. Rewritten as a loop it comes out as this:

<d:Loop id="MainLoop">
    <d:LoopWhile >
            <d:Code>
                <r:Code programmingLanguage="pseudoCode">X == Y</r:Code>
            <d:Code>
    <d:LoopWhile>
    <d:StepValue>
        <d:Code>
            <r:Code programmingLanguage="pseudoCode">SET X = X + 1</r:Code>
        <d:Code>
    </d:StepValue>
    <d:ControlConstructReference>
        <r:ID>A_different_sequence</r:ID>
    </d:ControlConstructReference>
</d:Sequence>

A much cleaner solution!

Dear Qantas,

My wife and I recently used your services on a long trip to Europe during the December 2010 Cold Snap. As such I was unfortunately inconvenienced by the numerous cancellations that were caused due to unforeseen bad weather. I was specifically effected by the snowfalls at Heathrow Airports cancelling flights, including my British Airways flight from Copenhagen to London, to connect with QF10 from London to Singapore to Melbourne. I am not going to complain about the weather, or those flight cancellations as they are not your fault, and I was fortunate enough to have flight insurance.

What I won’t complain about is the weather, as many Qantas staff have so kindly pointed out “Qantas don’t control the weather”. However, what I will complain about is the ineptitude and poor treatment I encountered from Qantas staff, both in Australia and Copenhagen while trying to fly out of Europe.

My first issue came around 11pm (Copenhagen time) on the 19th, when I was first due to fly from CPH to LHR. After a length international call to the Australian Qantas Sales Line I was able to confirm QF10 had been delayed 24 hours, our seats were still confirmed, and we had a new BA flight from CPH to LHR. At this point I was a little annoyed as I frequently asked to be flown out of a different airport as I had doubts that Heathrow would be ready for flights the following day, but although we were a day late, we would still be going home.

Unbeknownst to me minutes after I hung up my seat on QF10 was cancelled, and I received no notification of this.

I didn’t find this out until midday on the 20th when I checked our flights and found our CPH-LHR leg had been cancelled due to the weather.
I called the Copenhagen office (the only place that would answer my calls) to discuss our options for changing the QF10 flight, and was then told that our seats on that flight were cancelled. For all of Qantas posturing that they don’t control the weather, I was quick to point out that had my flight gone ahead I would have been stranded in Heathrow airport, unable to leave the terminal, as opposed to being ‘stranded’ in my Copenhagen hotel room. However, Qantas staff were not quick to offer any recompense for this issue.

I was also starting to get quite aggravated at staff, as they were not prepared to discuss the option of me leaving Europe via an airport besides Heathrow. The only option aside from Heathrow I was given was to leave from Frankfurt on the 24th, and they would not be able to get me to Frankfurt. This made me furious, and while trying to ask for a supervisor to speak with, the staff member (Tina from Copenhagen) said “there was nothing they could do to help you, good bye” and hungup while I was talking.

Even upon calling back to discuss other matters this rudeness was not taken into account. After several attempted calls to BA and the Australia Qantas call centres and calls to the Australian Embassy in Denmark, I was was only able to get through  again to the Copenhagen office. As an aside, the Australian Embassy suggested instead of flying with Qantas, trying to get a flight with Singapore Airlines who do operate out of Copenhagen, and if I ever have to come to Denmark again I will definately consider their advise.

After speaking with Inga (agan on the 20th), and waiting on hold while she reorganised travel, I was able to get a flight from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, with a Frankfurt to Sydney, then Sydney to Canberra flight. This time I was not as satisifed as the original call, as I received an identical ‘itinerary’ email I did for the delay QF10 flight, which was then cancelled.
After explained what had happened previously, and strongly requesting a full confirmation with ticket number I was told that the ticketing department was busy processing tickets for rebooked flights for the 20th and would not be able to do tickets for the 21st until later that day.
After much loud complaint, I realise she would not be able to help, aside from assuring me that my tickets would be valid and my flights were confirmed.

Which brings us to the 21st, where I was due to fly CPH-FRA-SYD-CBR. I perform my due diligence, the CPH website says that flights are operating as scheduled, our CPH-FRA flight looks good, and Australia hasn’t had any freak snowstorms, so I think its all ok. So I call the Copenhagen line again, and confirm everything, times and places, that there are two seats available, etc… and I am assured that everything will go ahead as planned.

Turns out it wouldn’t as the staff member I spoke with didn’t check the Canberra leg which was non-existant, which I didn’t find out until I perform online check-in. Everything looks good, I start booking the seats, and there is no SYD-CBR flight.

So, I call Copenhagen Qantas again and speak with Tina, the same Tina who delightfully hung up on me the day before. She informs me of “stupid Robert” who cancelled the SYD-CBR section as I was a “no show” for the original MEL-CBR leg I was supposed to be on after the original QF10 leg. This leg has now been rebooked and in theory I should be arriving home on the 23th of December, with only two lost days of work and no time to prepare for Christmas.

In summary:
Qantas was never at fault and never owned my problem, it was the weather, or British Airways, or ‘stupid Robert’ who made an error, but never Qantas LTD who inconvenienced me as a customer.
We were nearly left stranded on two separate airports by Qantas cancelling legs of my flights.
A Qantas staff member hung-up on me while I was trying to reach a manager to resolve the issue

This isn’t about the weather, but about how Qantas failed to treat me as a customer with respect. As someone who always shows up well before the plane is due to leave, always has ID ready, never has oversized carry on and is frequently polite to your cabin staff, I would expect that Qantas would try and treat me as a customer better.

In future, where practical, I will minimise my travel with Qantas, as I cannot be certain that I will be treated with the good service one would expect from “Australia’s national carrier”.

Regards,

Sam Spencer.

So what is my first blog post in several weeks, on what is supposed to be a technical blog, is of a personal note, then after exams its back to the dry statistics.

In a few weeks I will be leaving Perth. I was offered and accepted a position in Canberra and will be moving over as soon as my exams finish.

My last exam, ever, is on November 18th, and with my wife moving over well before then to try and sign a lease before the rest of Canberra’s graduate intake shows up I will be leaving very shortly after.

However, there is a good note: before I go there is one last thing I want to do in Perth – be in a group that drink’s all 141 beers on offer at The Paddington Ale House.

So on Saturday the 20th of November, I am planning on going to the Paddington for lunch and staying until all 141 beers have been marked off the checklist. This can be done as group, so I am inviting anyone and everyone who wants to come along to help out and wish me good luck (or good riddance) as a last harrah before I go.

If you wish to come email me, or let me know about it on twitter.

For those of you not following my twitter feed, we got back from the snow yesterday. The weather was great, with snow on the first few days we were there, and then warming up over the week. It was kind of icy on the last two days, which contributed the majority of falls, almost exclusively by me. On Friday I had a bad fall and thought I had done some serious damage to my shoulder, but after a few days in a sling it was ship-shape again.

While we were over in Canberra, wife and I had a chance to look at some real estate in the Belconnen area for when we move over as part of the 2011 Graduate program with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For now, its back to work, and study, and code, etc… This semester should be a little lighter on my work load, especially with the wedding out of the way. So aside from uni/work code I should be able to continue active development on some of my personal projects. Namely, the DDI Classification Viewer and the Perl-Email-Twitter Gateway script. The latter of which got a serious test during the holiday, and may be rewritten in Python in the coming weeks.

A victorious pose after shredding down the mountain!

So in the midst of preparing for Cornell, Uni work and wedding planning I haven’t had time to update, but taking a breather in a beautiful hotel room is a perfect time to get back to blogging.

I arrived in Ithaca yesterday, the trip up way gorgeous. I would say pun intended, but I didn’t know Ithaca was famous for it gorges until I got here. Spend the afternoon with folks from the DDI Alliance Expert Committee. That was great, didn’t say much, but listening to some extraordinarily smart people and having them do the same to me was honouring. Sadly after dinner I had to retire with a killer fog of jetlag and nearly immediately fell asleep.

This morning was much more eventful, the lovely staff at the Statler Hotel were able to get me a cord to charge my camera with, and with that I set off to explore the campus and surrounds. I walked round the campus before setting off for Collegetown. As my camera only had a short charge all my shorts of Collegetown are on my phone, whose cord is absent, so until I find it or figure out how to get the shots off, no photos from there yet.

But thats ok, as the best shots were down by Casadilla Gorge. The shots were great, and by the bend down the end there is (according to locals) a little wading area. The track along the creak from there was spectacular and green after last nights rain.

The only downside is a twisted my ankle some time during the walk, but I’m all strapped up, about to head of for lunch and see Jeremy Iverson from Algenta talk about Colectica.