This blog is now closed.

From now on I shall be posting at llaisdy.wordpress.com (better spam handling, stats; stops me obsessing about Wordpress vs Django). I shall also be sprucing up the most important posts from here and moving them over (e.g. posts on Welsh grammar, HTK, Android, etc.).

I don’t intend to delete this blog any time soon, and certainly not before I’ve translocated important material. Feel free to copy over anything you find useful, but please cite your source.

If/when I do decide to delete this blog, I shall leave a month’s notice here.

After many years of devoted service, my main development machine (a Thinkpad A31p) has suddenly gone kaput. I have ordered my new machine which is an Apple MacBook Pro.

I’ve been saying to myself (and to anyone in earshot) that the next machine I buy would be a Mac. Last time I chickened out (and bought a Thinkpad X60s), but now I’ve finally taken the plunge. It’s in the post.

Not only am I moving from a PC-type laptop — with a three-button trackpoint — to a Mac — with a huge trackpad and only one button —, but I don’t intend to dual boot. My Thinkpads are Debian machines, but I’m telling myself that Mac OS X is Unix under the glitter and I shoudn’t need to dual boot with another Unix.

I’m telling myself all my old friends will be there: emacs, python, apache, latex. I’m telling myself that the absolute freedom of Debian involved me in a lot of sysadmin headaches I wasn’t at all interested in. I’m telling myself that lots of other Unix, Linux and BSD hackers have gone this way before me (and that by now I’m behind the times). I’m telling myself that I’ll enjoy submitting to the Mac OS X way.

It should arrive early next week.

My distro is Debian. My window manager is OpenBox. My editor is Emacs. My blog should look like this or that. And of course it should be based on Django, not Wordpress.

• Administrative Debris
• Minimal

Mae nifer o ansoddeiriau sy’n cytuno efo rhif eu henw. Gellir eu dosbarthu mewn dau fath: ansoddeiriau sy’n affeithio eu llafarog, ac ansoddeiriau sy’n ychwanegu terfyniad.

Yn ôl PWT [1], does ‘na ddim ond 25 o eiriau sy’n cytuno efo’r enw a chael ffurf fenywaidd. Dyma’r holl restr:

Sylwadau:

• Mae’r rhan fwyaf o’r geiriau hyn yn aml iawn: mae 14 mewn 2000 gair amlycaf (yn ôl CEG); ac eithrio dau (crwm ac hysb) mae bob un mewn 10,000 gair amlycaf.
• Mae’r newid rhwng ffurf gyffredinol a benywaidd yn syml iawn. Gellir ei disgrifio fo fel agor y llafariad (e.e., y -> e, w -> o, i -> ai).
• Does dim ond ansoddeiriau sy’n defnyddir fel goleddfwr enw yn cael ffurf fenywaidd. Er engrhaifft:
  1. Dyma stori fer.
  2. Mae’r stori yn fyr.

  Mae PWT (nod. a tud. 191) yn dweud, "Gall ansoddeiriau benywaidd a lluosog fod yn ddibeniadol mewn arddulliau hynafol a thafodieithol, e.e., Y mae’r afon yn sech." Mae gan CEG defnyddiau traethiadol bob un o’r ansoddeiriau uchod, ond dim ond gan bychan (1 enghraifft) a gwyn (2 enghraifft) ffurfiau benywaidd dibeniadol neu draethiadol.

Ar ôl fy ngwers Cymraeg y bore ‘ma, nes i dipyn o ymchwil sydyn yn y llyfrgell. Ro’n i’n chwilio am berthynas rhwng yr ansoddair Cymraeg “cryf” a’r ansoddeiriau Saesneg/Ffrangeg “grave”. Ro’n i’n darganfod:

• Mae’r ansoddair Saesneg “grave” wedi benthyg o’r Ffrangeg. n.b.: mae’r enw Saesneg “grave” o’r Hen Almaeneg. Felly yn Saesneg, dydy “grave” (ansoddair) a “grave” (enw) yn berthynol gyda i’ gilydd.
• Mae ‘na ansoddair Lladin “gravis” wrth gwrs. Mae’n debyg iawn bod y gair Ffrangeg yn dod o’r Lladin.
• Mae’r Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymraeg yn rhoi tipyn o hanes am “cryf”, yn ei berthnasu efo hen eiriau Cernyweg. Y cofnod henaf ydy, “H. Grn. cryf gl. Lad. fortis”. Dw i’n meddwl bod yr ystyr: mae’r enghraifft gynharaf “cryf” yng nghyfnod yr iaith Hen Gernyweg, pan roedd o’n cael ei defnydd i loywi (neu gyfieithu) y gair Lladin “fortis”. Os rhywun yn defnyddio “cryf” i loywi “fortis”, dylai “cryf” rhan o’r iaith gyffredinol y cyfnod (h.y., Hen Gernyweg) yn barod.

Iawn ‘ta. Dyma fy ngofyniadau:

• Pwy, pryd a pham dach chi’n meddwl roedd yn defnyddio “cryf” am “fortis? Dydy’r geiriadur yn dweud. Efallai mynach yn cyfieithu’r Beibl?
• Oes ‘na ymchwil arall sydd yn canolbwyntio ar eirdarddiad Cymraeg (neu Gernyweg)?

Yn y cyfamser, fydda i’n tybio bod yr ansoddair Cymraeg “cryf” yn berthnasol efo’r ansoddair Lladin “gravis”.

Dyma’r sleidiau Powerpoint o’m cyflwyniad Gloywi Iaith, “Dysgu Tseineg”.

… with LaTeX, dvipng, and Python

This is a response to Thomas Guest’s blog post on the same topic.

I’ve tidied up my script for converting FEN format chess positions to PNG files, and I offer it up here: fen2png.py. It’s a Python script, and it requires LaTeX, the LaTeX skak package, and dvipng.

There’s not much more to add. Usage:

fen2png.py [-o filename] <fen>

If [-o filename] is not given, fen2png will use the fen code for the filename, replacing slashes with underscores. For example,

fen2png.py 3Q4/p7/PP3p2/R4P2/1pP2p1P/N3BN2/kr2BK1P/4R3

Produces the file 3Q4_p7_PP3p2_R4P2_1pP2p1P_N3BN2_kr2BK1P_4R3.png, as shown below.

Mark Kirtley
1 Pr The Problemist 1986

S#8

This very nice selfmate in 8 is from John Rice’s Chess Wizardry and was cited in last November’s Problemist Supplement. In a selfmate, white moves first and must force black to give mate.

Here is the solution (in white on white; as before, ‘S’ is for Springer = Knight): 1. Sb1+ Kb3 2. Qd1+ Rc2 3. Bc1 axb6 4. Ra1 b5 5. Rh1 bxc4 6. Ke1 c3 7. Sg1 f3 8. Bf1 f2.

Following on from Installing Satchmo, this is a brief note on Satchmo configuration.

Much (perhaps all) of the SatchmoConfiguration page on the documentation wiki seems to be obsolete, and many sections are marked, "ignore the part below about …". Although aimed at Satchmo developers rather than users, the page How to use the configuration system seems more current and is worth a look.

For Satchmo users (i.e., people using Satchmo to build an ecommerce app) the central point is that "settings are then managed by admins at the site settings management page, located at SHOP_URL/settings/". So, if the site is at http://localhost:8000/shop, there are actually two addresses for this config page:

• http://localhost:8000/settings
• http://localhost:8000/shop/settings

Here we can make various settings to do with payment, shipping, tax, etc.

My next step now is to put together a set of requirements for the ecommerce app I need (i.e., for Llaisdy), and then to build a prototype of that. I’ll run it on a local test server first, then upload it to somewhere like http://www.llaisdy.com/shop.