The police have been in the news today, releasing clips of time wasting calls to the 999 service. Here’s an excerpt from an article on BBC News:

Operator: “Hello it’s the police here.”
Caller: “Yes, sorry, I can’t find Homebase and I’m getting really distressed, who can I ask?”
“You can’t find Homebase?”
“Homebase in Huntingdon and I’m getting really stressed and in tears, I’ve had to pull over and I just don’t know who to ask.”
“That’s not really a 999 call, it’s not a life and death emergency is it?”
“No it’s not, so who can I phone?”
“Is there some one on the street you can ask for directions?”
“I’ve asked several times, I’m sorry I’m in tears. I’m sorry I won’t call again.”
“You’re best asking some one in the street for directions or finding a map. It’s not a 999 call.”
“Thank you.”

A quick trawl on Google reveals other police forces have their own collection of clips, such as the Avon and Somerset Police with people phoning up about pigeons, lost glasses and sandwiches. And here are some from the Metropolitan Police:

“Do you know a good stain remover?”
“There’s a rat in my kitchen..”
“I can’t turn my tap off…”

These types of questions are what Texperts excel at answering all day long. The AA markets itself as the fourth emergency service, my vote is for ”Texperts: The Fifth Emergency Service”!

REST is very much the way forward as far as Rails in concerned, but there are still plenty of people who need to access a SOAP api, or who have to provide one to third parties. Rails 2.0 dropped Action Web Service from core, with the promise that all you had to do to get it back was to install the gem.

There’s a little more to it than gem install actionwebservice though, and this is what we did.

Getting the source

We checked out the source from http://svn.rubyonrails.org/rails/ousted/actionwebservice/ into our vendor/rails folder (we have all of the rails gems frozen there).

Loading the framework

There are 2 things to do here.
First, above the Rails::Initializer.run block put

class Rails::Configuration
  attr_accessor :action_web_service
end

Next, add

config.frameworks += [ :action_web_service]
config.action_web_service = Rails::OrderedOptions.new
config.load_paths += %W( #{RAILS_ROOT}/app/apis )

This tells Rails that you do want to load Action Web Service, creates a thing for its settings to be contained in and makes Rails look in the apis folder when it needs to find an undefined constant.

Running our tests

Having done this your app should run. There’s one more thing left to do so that you can run your tests. Crack open your test_helper.rb file and add

require 'action_web_service/test_invoke'

below where it says require 'test_help'. This essentially allows you to use the invoke method in your test cases.

Happy Ending

Relax, make yourself a cup of tea. You’ve re-enabled SOAP in your Rails 2.0 app and it didn’t even take 5 minutes.

Some very good friends of Texperts, including my brother George, have just launched a new service. It’s a simple concept, and in many ways has a similar philosophy to our own, in that there is no reason for time on the move to be time spent devoid of information and productivity. The service I’m talking about is from CPDcast.com, and it allows you to fulfil Continuing Professional Development (CPD) whilst out and about. CPDcast.com have a library of 30 minute CPD podcasts that play on iPods (or any MP3 players), Blackberries and phones (and of course normal PCs).

Interestingly, a quick search of our database shows that some of our Texperts may have known about this before George even got round to telling me. One Texpert found the service whilst searching for the answer to a question regarding the dates of any upcoming legal seminars in Norwich which would accommodate a barrister who was short of CPD points. It seems that the deadline for barristers to accrue the necessary hours hits at the end of December, and quite a few are getting a little anxious! As explained to me by George, the beauty of CPDcasts are that once downloaded, they can be listened to at any time – so no need to book anything, which he assures me is what barristers and other legal eagles have been telling CPDcast they need. I suppose this fits in to the (illusion of a) hectic life that they are so keen to tell us all about? I’ve been told that the time lawyers used to set aside for CPD can now be spent on other activities such as going to the pub, but my experience of those in the industry leads me to believe that the extra 12 hours is more likely to be spent increasing that week’s hours billed. Oh well, it takes all sorts to make the world turn.

The idea is that if you want to get 30 mins of non-accredited CPD, then you just listen to it wherever and whenever you want and then count it in the normal fashion. If you want the time to count towards your accredited CPD, there is a quick 3 minute test (that you take from the site) to prove that you listened to it.

It strikes me that it is inevitable that things like CPD end up featuring as part of your journey to work, after all, it’s 40 minutes wasted if all you manage is a poor attempt at a snooze or a flick through the Metro. We’re currently looking at a few things ourselves that may inform and entertain you on that journey, watch this space…

Well, I’m not qualified to judge how great CPDcast is; the site looks good, the sound quality on the demos is fantastic, but I’m not an expert, so I suggest you pop over to their site and judge (geddit?) for yourselves. As with any new venture, best of luck and hope it all goes very well guys!

The blurb, as passed to me by George, is as follows:

“….This dream can be made true by listening to the CPDcasts during what would otherwise be ‘dead’ time – time spent on the tube, driving home or making the dinner. The other added bonus is that there are no geographical barriers – as long as you have the Internet or even simply a modern web-enabled mobile phone! CPDcast.com enables CPD to be completely location and time free.

Like any new service, people will undoubtedly be unsure of the exact format and quality of the product. CPDcast.com only use the very best contributors, and invite anyone to listen to a free 15 minute CPDcast on our site. No registration is required. In the run up to New Year, we are also giving one full CPDcast (of your choice) away for free to anyone that registers on the site. Both of these freebies may count towards your CPD points.

If you happen to be a little less concerned with only your own training, head for the corporate services division of CPDcast.com to get an ‘access key’ so everyone at Shyster & Shyster (ed: I added this name, sorry George!) can download to their hearts content at reduced prices. CPDcast.com is always eager to hear from people who would like to contribute as they plan to add 12 new CPDcasts every month….”

So, with the end of 2007 almost in sight, we thought we would look over the year gone past and choose our ten favourite goals from the past 12 (ok, 11 and a half) months.

James McFadden (for Scotland vs France). Yes, the goalkeeper should have done better, and for technique McFadden probably scored at least two better goals than this one in 2007. But none of them resulted in Scotland beating France. In Paris. This clip is worth it for the commentary alone. Although if you were watching on Sky, Gordon McQueen’s reaction is almost as good.

Nery Castillo (for Mexico vs Brazil). Nery Castillo was arguably the star of the Copa America this year (Robinho aside), and there were rumours abound that he was set to leave Olympiakos for one of the bigger clubs in Europe. It was of some surprise when he signed for Shakhtar Donetsk for a 20M Euro fee that broke all sorts of transfer records. When Mexico beat Brazil 2-0 in the Copa America, Castillo was the architect. This goal shows exactly what he can bring to the game, perfect timing, an incredible first touch and composure in front of goal.

David Healy (for Northern Ireland vs Denmark). Healy broke Davor Suker’s record for the most goals in a qualification tournament when he scored 13 in Northern Ireland’s campaign. This is the pick of the bunch, completely deceiving the goalkeeper, and putting the ball in the one place that nobody could get close to it. All of this while off balance and in the most unlikely of shooting positions. As one pundit commented, “Roy of the Rovers reads David Healy comics”.

Lionel Messi (for Argentina vs Mexico). Another goal from the Copa America. There could easily be at least two or three more Messi goals in this compilation, not least his Copa Del Rey goal against Getafe. However, in the interest of fairness, and because of the vision involved, we have decided on just one and gone for this delicate lob in the semi-finals of the Copa America. The fact that he can get that much lift from an almost stationary ball is one thing, the fact he can put it in the bottom corner is another altogether. This redefines the phrase “delicate chip“.

Scott Severin (for Aberdeen vs Rangers). The last team you want to face in a must win game on the last day of the season is Rangers. Aberdeen needed 3 points to be guaranteed third spot, and a place in the UEFA Cup. After a frenetic opening period Aberdeen got a half chance on the edge of the box. The ball fell to Scott Severin…

Cesc Fabregas (for Arsenal vs Sparta Prague) One of the stars of 2007 has been Cesc Fabregas. His emergence as Arsenal’s key man has been astounding, not least because they haven’t seemed to miss Thierry Henry at all. The most important new asset in his game is goals. And plenty of them. While his strike against Manchester City was individually brilliant, it was his goal against Sparta that really exemplified what Arsenal have done so well this year.

Maxwell (for Inter vs Parma). Inter have dominated the Italian league for the past two years. They boast the only unbeaten record in Italy (or England, Scotland, Germany, France, Spain…) and look unstoppable in their quest for another Scudetto Title. Probably the best goal they have scored this season came from Maxwell, the heir apparent to Roberto Carlos’ Left Back spot for Brazil. It starts with him nutmegging Damiano Ferronetti and only gets better from then on.

Clarence Seedorf (for Milan vs Shakhtar Donetsk). Seedorf seems to have been around for ever, and yet he is only 31. Milan have been far from their best this season in the league, but look like the team to beat in the Champions League. Seedorf’s double against Shakhtar at the San Siro was something special. The technique for the second was sublime.

Mancini (for Roma vs Lyon). Everyone loves seeing a player beat an opponent with a quick stepover. Or four. Watching it in slow motion is equally as hypnotic. He doesn’t exactly place it in the bottom corner either…

Fernando Belluschi (for River Plate vs Velez). One of the best players in Argentina at the moment. His short career has been blighted with indiscipline, but at only 24 he could still make a much bigger name for himself. Against Velez he was unstoppable. He scored a hat-trick, and while the second was good, and the third was visionary, the control and power required for his first made it the pick of the three.

BusinessWeek has just published an article entitled A New Twist on Mobile Search which gives some details on the leading “mobile find” companies in the UK, naturally Texperts was mentioned.

The article includes some exciting news on the Texpert service:

Co-founder Sarah McVittie…adds that the startup is evaluating sponsorship deals that could lower prices by placing ads after individual answers.

I’ll blog more about this another time, but for now please post any thoughts you have on the balance between the cost of the service and introducing advertising.

Some interesting information on some of our rivals is their pay model for researchers:

“They only have to pay researchers when texts come in,” says Analysys researcher Grant.

Thankfully us Texperts get paid even if it is quiet, so there is always a pool of Texperts ready to answer questions at all times of the day, and it helps to retain high quality Texperts and keep us motivated. Also, Texperts not on a question help each other out…sometimes when I’ve been stuck a dozen other researchers have stepped in to help out and come up with the answer!

More on our rivals:

The company says it manages to answer three-quarters of incoming questions within five minutes and 95% within a half-hour.

Unless there is a sudden deluge of questions or an answer is particularly complex nearly all questions to Texperts are answered within 10 minutes, and certainly none take over 30 minutes. When I’m out and about and using the Texpert service myself it is because I want an answer fast. Of course the difference is that Texperts only charge for answers so we can ask for more information to get the question answered quickly, whereas our competitors charge per question so they can’t easily ask for clarification.