On a Mac, this is where to put the style rules:
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/User StyleSheets/Custom.css

You can use a text editor to get it in there or do something like:
cat > ~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default/User\ StyleSheets/Custom.css <<EOT
#card-slider-frame,
#recently-closed-menu-button,
#dot-list {
display: none !important;
}
EOT

The race was interrupted by rain right after the half-way sprint so, like (foreign) football, it was a game of two halves. In the first my biggest obstacle was confidence, I was fighting the thought that I shouldn’t be here, that I wasn’t up to it and didn’t belong: a try-hard wannabe play-pretending among seriously good athletes. But I kept with the bunch, riding on the back a lot.

In the second half I felt much better. I felt well within my physical limits although the pace was faster (31.0mph average versus 29.6) and didn’t let up. I could see I was stronger than several others, having to move up to make sure I didn’t get stuck behind other riders’ gaps. There were 6 DNFs, more than any other race. I really enjoyed it. I felt in control and capable. I didn’t attempt to get any points but in the end I should have ridden hard for the last two laps to get higher up the order of finish of the 8 no-point finishers, I didn’t think of it at the time and just slowed down like the others did on the last lap.

So while I was annoyed by the rain interruption, specifically I was looking forward to my beer during the first half and it was delayed, it worked out for me. I now have some objective evidence that boosts confidence: I raced the points race at the masters national level and I wasn’t out of my depth; peloton padding, maybe, but able to stay with it when others were not. And I wasn’t just hanging on because I would not have finished on lap—when the peloton is shattered by the speed it’s too dangerous to just hang on.

It gives me a baseline to work from, and one that I can have some faith in.

I registered for both the Cat 4 and Masters 40+ omniums. My goal was upgrade points so Cat 4 was my priority. The omnium format this weekend was not favorable for me:

• 1 km time trial
• Team sprint
• Points race
• Match sprints tournament
• Scratch race
• Miss and out (elimination race)

I do a mediocre kilo and I can’t sprint for peanuts. In the bunch races I stand a chance but I’m hit and miss in the miss and out.

Kissena is 400 m and a moderately banked, very bumpy tarmac track. Turns 3 and 4 re particularly bumpy and it’s perfectly normal to bounce around (airborne) a lot, especially coming out of turn 4. It made the kilo interesting. It’s a sprint event–don’t pace yourself, go all out– and I used aero bars. Plus it was The Pollinator’s first outing (besides two weekends at Forrest City Velodrome where the track’s extreme weirdness dominates the experience).

Bouncing laterally halfway across the sprint lane is interesting, especially on aero bars, but The Pollinator was great. Absolutely solid and predictable. I just accepted that’s what racing at Kissena is like and nothing’s going to go wrong if I don’t freak out. The bike’s going to land somewhere and keep going in roughly the right direction so just keep pedaling as hard as possible. In bunch racing I assumed that anyone coming around me will make allowances for these effects and I would have to do the same.

I did two team sprints, Cat 4 and 40+, taking second wheel in both. We were third in both contests which is bad for omnium points as they are allocated 7, 4, 2 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Next the Cat 4 points race with a field of 11. We were up at the rail in turn 1 when the start whistle went off. I led off down to the pole line and brought the speed up to tempo. Before turn 3 I looked back and was astonished to see everyone else dawdling up track in turn 2. Odd. But good. 12 laps is 4 km and I know how to pace myself for that distance so I started a pursuit effort. The gap grew nicely so I kept it up. But the fast guys, Brean and Mark, timed the chase right and got me on the first sprint, bringing me back to the field. I had another go when things got slow, dropping down track from the rear in turn 2, and getting a gap. Same procedure, I got a big gap and was caught but still got 3rd or 4th on sprint 2. And so it went also for the final sprint. I got third overall which I’m pleased with. It was a huge effort. I was on my own for over half the race. I did a lot of training for recovery at tempo after an effort and I wanted to use it. If one other racer had worked with me we could have lapped the field but Brean and Mark were marking each other closely and I was completely unknown so that wasn’t going to happen.

By the time I rolled onto the apron after that race the masters were already at the rail for their miss and out. I was hacking up a lung and couldn’t consider joining them. It was like someone had been cleaning my windpipe with an abrasive bottle brush. There was a lot of pollen around.

Sunday started with the Cat 4 scratch race. Again I rode hard to set a high tempo because I knew there were sprinters who could easily gap me. I didn’t contest the prime but attacked shortly after it while those that did were in oxygen debt. Like in the points race, I got a gap and then got caught, but sooner. In the back straight I was 4th and managed to come around Steve for third. Again I was pleased with that.

At this stage Brean and Mark were well ahead in the Omnium and I was tied with someone for 4/5th. All I needed to do was do better than Steve in the last two races to get 3rd in the Omnium.

In the match sprints I was dismal in the 4s but I won one 2-up sprint against Joe in 40+, my first ever sprint heat in which I didn’t finish last. I rode a steadily increasing speed up to threshold and kicked entering turn 4 on the second lap. Given how he did in the 40+ points race, I think maybe he could have got past if he’d tried. I didn’t ask.

Steve made it to the sprint finals and I did not. This was not looking good. My last chance was the miss and out.

It’s a very difficult race tactically and I screwed up. I chose to race tempo on the front but the speed was high and there’s a sprint on each lap so it was a fast race. On the second sprint I was first wheel with about 20 meters to go but got eliminated because I looked back, figured I had it and backed off. I slowed while the group was still accelerating. Stupid error. That blew my chance for upgrade points. Phooey.

Steve went on to get 2nd in the sprints which got him 3rd overall, Siraaj won the sprints which vaulted him past me and because I got nothing in the miss and out I was pushed down to 6th. I really only stood a chance in three of the races and I did was well as I could in two of them and screwed the third one up with a stupid blunder.

Meanwhile, in 40+ there was a points race. Oddly only 4 were present. 9 laps, 3 sprints. Three times I tried to drop Joe with a lap and a half or more to the sprint and three times he caught back on and got me by half a wheel or less.

Throughout, the bike was great. It never entered my consciousness during racing. That means it behaves exactly the way it should, otherwise I would have noticed something, and that it fits. I’m not a powerful rider but I didn’t notice it budge in the slightest under any condition. The 404s are clearly good strong, stiff general purpose wheels.

Full results

There’s some good pictures of the lacing I’d use on DHgate.

I had been using three spoke length calculators: Spocalc.xls, DTSwiss and Edd.

The DTSwiss and Edd calculators allow you to use fractional cross numbers but offer no guidance on how. Spocalc says: “Note:If paired hub spoke holes are 15 degrees apart, then: For 24 paired spokes laced 2x, enter 2.25 cross. For 24 paired spokes laced 1x, enter 1.25 cross. For 20 paired spokes laced 2x, enter 2.29 cross. For 20 paired spokes laced 1x, enter 1.29 cross. For 16 paired spokes laced 1x, enter 1.33 cross.” But I didn’t understand where those numbers came from or what the resulting lacing pattern would look like.

So I wrote a computer program to help me visualize the designs and understand. I learned a few things.

First, the angular offset of a pair of spoke holes on the left flange relative to the nearest pair on the right flange is determined only by spoke count N. It is independent of the angle between a pair of holes on the hub. A pair of holes on one side at 2π/N relative to the nearest pair on the other side.

Second, it turns out that Spocalc assumes, when it recommends fractional values of cross number X, that the two spokes in a pair of adjacent holes (on one side of the hub) do not cross each other. In other words, the two spokes are pulling on the flange material between the pair of spoke holes. This is why spocalc’s X for a paired-spoke-hole hub is larger than for a regular hub.

Let’s try to visualize this.

Start with X=1 for a regular one-cross lacing with uniform hole spacing.

Here we have a 20-spoke wheel with a small ERD and large hub PCD to help make the images clearer. Hub spoke holes on the front side, as we look at it, are black—on the rear they are green. Front leading spokes are orange, front trailing are red, rear leading are cyan and rear trailing are green.

Now get rid of the rear spokes and spoke holes for clarity.

Next, increase X to 1 < X < 1.5. The diagram shows X = 1.3.

It’s still a one-cross lacing but now the hub has paired holes, meaning that each J end of one spoke is closer to the J end of one neighbor than its other. But these “paired” spokes don’t cross.

Increase X again to 1.5 < X < 2 and now you have a two-spoke lacing—the two paired spokes cross each other. The diagram has X = 1.7.

These last two pictures are of the same hub. Spocalc is offering only the first lacing but I don’t see anything wrong with the second.

If you increase again to X = 2 then the pair move apart so that each hole is equally distant to both of its neighbors and you’re back to a regular hub.

The third lesson is how X relates to the angle θ between a pair of spoke holes. θ = 4π/N when X is an integer. θ = 0 when X = 1/2 + an integer, e.g. X = 1.5, which is an impossible hub in practice. In general θ = 8π/N⋅abs(1/2 - frac(X)), which allows me to calculate X given measurements from the hub.

Now put the rear side spokes and spoke holes back in the picture.

And here’s the actual front wheel I’m considering with two-cross lacing, 38 mm hub PCD and 521 mm ERD.

This was my first race at Ninigret and my first masters crit. They have a race track on a disused airfield on the south coast of Rhode Island. Folk down there crash a lot. The fire brigade were hosing a dramatically igneous car on Rt 4, the paramedics were stretching someone from another car on 95 near Cranston, the cops were sorting out a crumpled pair of cars a little north of Providence. And that was just the ride home. The Ninigret race track, otoh, is safe. No cars, curbs, railings, drains or potholes. In a pinch you can safely ride off the track and on the grass.

Clearly most contestants race that track a lot and the racing style is interesting. Frequent very short-lived attacks. Just as frequent, the speed drops to a crawl. Nobody cooperates with anyone, it seemed. As though there’s a repeating 15-way match sprint going on at the front. Intriguing and good fun. Keep your eyes on the front to save energy. Skills were generally very good so I felt safe despite a lot of hard, close racing. And it was very windy which made it particularly interesting.

I’m no sprinter and never will be so opportunism is my only hope in a race like this. On (maybe) the 3rd bell lap I got near the front. The attack went in the usual place, after the 2nd last turn, and I found a good wheel. Three guys got well clear and then I found myself in 4th with the gap ahead of me. I started slowing thinking the sprinters would finish the job and then we regroup. The guy behind me said something to me, either encouraging or exasperated at my slowing, I’m not sure which, and I responded with my best shot. Meanwhile, three sprinters ahead were side-by-side looking at each other deciding who would lead it out, and I sailed past. That felt nice.

Later, pretty much the same thing happened again, I got past a small group of stalling sprinters. But I couldn’t believe the situation and decided something was wrong. It must be a straight prime and there’s a break down the road and I’m sprinting for nothing and everyone will think I’m foolish. So I sat up. I was passed close to the line by one of the Fuji chaps, whom I asked, to confirm, is there anyone ahead of us? He said yes, those two (pointing). I said, so that was for nothing? He said, no, we were racing for the field sprint. Fooey!

At that point I was miffed and directed my anger at the two ahead so I led for nearly a lap to bring them in. They weren’t going to confuse me again. Actually, it was so windy that I couldn’t hear the prime announcements, only the bell.

That tired me out a bit. But there were still a few laps to the finish. It looked like the race would stay together. What to do? The way it was working meant I didn’t want to attack, because I knew I’d get no help and with that wind would need it. So I wanted to go with a late attack. But nothing stuck and in the drag race to the finish I sat up when I saw I couldn’t make top 10.

Won some Fuji handlebar tape on that prime.

I had a small mechanical just before the start so I was at the back at the start. But I got to the front quickly and after the hill, drove it fairly hard for a lap or so, hoping for an attack to hop on or see team colors in. Thereafter I kept close to the front, trying to keep the pressure on when I could. The mantra being: split the field, shed riders, maybe a break goes one of us can join. Above all, thinking of Cav’s great remark, no racing like juniors.

One guy soloed off. I can’t recall if I was too gassed to go with or didn’t believe he was worth it or what. The pack let him go and so did I. Later a couple of others went, I have the same lack of memory as to why I didn’t go with. I regard these as lost opportunities and mistakes to be learned from, see below. All other attempts were shut down real fast.

A bit later, on lap 5, I attempted to bridge. I jumped on the downhill after the yacht club and had a good gap after I was around the turn from Harbor onto Ocean. I backed off to threshold to climb the hill. But I was hurting bad. I had gone too hard — unnecessarily hard! — to get the gap. The PT file shows I was over 700W for about 15sec before attempting the hill at hi-Threshold. Then, seeing the big gap to the break, I lost courage, faltered, looked back, found a but more pluck and hit it anew, but again anaerobically, for about another 25sec, enough to get me half way to the top. Riding that hard hurt so much all my beliefs evaporated and I sat up.

After that I made some efforts to pull in the break with the pack. I don’t recall the catches clearly or when Gerald Harris of Team Harris (I’m guessing unrelated to the Cyclery in Newton) got away. I remember him coming up and being at the front a while and then he wound up the winner on a solo break. Awesome riding!

Last chance. I tried to rest on the 2nd last lap and get position on the last. I was 2nd wheel behind Brier going into the last turn and it stayed that way to the bottom of the hill. But going up it I got passed by 15 to 20 riders and won a couple of places back after the top. Slaughtered.

While I’m sure the wheel suckers who made top 10 are more pleased with themselves than me, I’ll take it. I did most of what I set out to do.

But my skills of the break are lacking. I screwed up in two ways and learned good lessons. 1: Don’t drain myself with an unnecessarily hard jump, especially if what I really need a solid VO2max effort to get properly away. 2: Sometimes soloists win. Why not go with? I didn’t have anything better to do.

I feel some satisfaction from being active rather than passive but being smart sure would be a bonus. Driving the speed of the race up is a pretty stupid strategy and is unlikely to serve you or your team.

Anyway, I had fun. I love racing. What’s up next? Ninigret on Sat or Myles on Sun or both?

!	0021
#	0023
%	0025
',’	0027,2019
0	0030
1	0031
2	0032
3	0033
4	0034
5	0035
6	0036
7	0037
8	0038
9	0039
@	0040
A,a,À,Á,Â,Ã,Ä,Å,à,á,â,ã,ä,å,Ā,ā,Ă,ă,Ą,ą	0041,0061,00c0,00c1,00c2,00c3,00c4,00c5,00e0,00e1,00e2,00e3,00e4,00e5,0100,0101,0102,0103,0104,0105
B,b	0042,0062
C,c,Ç,ç,Ć,ć,Ĉ,ĉ,Ċ,ċ,Č,č	0043,0063,00c7,00e7,0106,0107,0108,0109,010a,010b,010c,010d
D,d,Ď,ď	0044,0064,010e,010f
E,e,È,É,Ê,Ë,è,é,ê,ë,Ē,ē,Ĕ,ĕ,Ė,ė,Ę,ę,Ě,ě	0045,0065,00c8,00c9,00ca,00cb,00e8,00e9,00ea,00eb,0112,0113,0114,0115,0116,0117,0118,0119,011a,011b
F,f	0046,0066
G,g,Ĝ,ĝ,Ğ,ğ,Ġ,ġ,Ģ,ģ	0047,0067,011c,011d,011e,011f,0120,0121,0122,0123
H,h,Ĥ,ĥ	0048,0068,0124,0125
I,i,Ì,Í,Î,Ï,ì,í,î,ï,Ĩ,ĩ,Ī,ī,Ĭ,ĭ,Į,į,İ,ı	0049,0069,00cc,00cd,00ce,00cf,00ec,00ed,00ee,00ef,0128,0129,012a,012b,012c,012d,012e,012f,0130,0131
J,j,Ĵ,ĵ	004a,006a,0134,0135
K,k,Ķ,ķ	004b,006b,0136,0137
L,l,Ĺ,ĺ,Ļ,ļ,Ľ,ľ	004c,006c,0139,013a,013b,013c,013d,013e
M,m	004d,006d
N,n,Ñ,ñ,Ń,ń,Ņ,ņ,Ň,ň	004e,006e,00d1,00f1,0143,0144,0145,0146,0147,0148
O,o,Ò,Ó,Ô,Õ,Ö,ò,ó,ô,õ,ö,Ō,ō,Ŏ,ŏ,Ő,ő	004f,006f,00d2,00d3,00d4,00d5,00d6,00f2,00f3,00f4,00f5,00f6,014c,014d,014e,014f,0150,0151
P,p	0050,0070
Q,q	0051,0071
R,r,Ŕ,ŕ,Ŗ,ŗ,Ř,ř	0052,0072,0154,0155,0156,0157,0158,0159
S,s,Ś,ś,Ŝ,ŝ,Ş,ş,Š,š,ſ	0053,0073,015a,015b,015c,015d,015e,015f,0160,0161,017f
T,t,Ţ,ţ,Ť,ť	0054,0074,0162,0163,0164,0165
U,u,Ù,Ú,Û,Ü,ù,ú,û,ü,Ũ,ũ,Ū,ū,Ŭ,ŭ,Ů,ů,Ű,ű,Ų,ų	0055,0075,00d9,00da,00db,00dc,00f9,00fa,00fb,00fc,0168,0169,016a,016b,016c,016d,016e,016f,0170,0171,0172,0173
V,v	0056,0076
W,w,Ŵ,ŵ	0057,0077,0174,0175
X,x	0058,0078
Y,y,Ý,ý,ÿ,Ŷ,ŷ,Ÿ	0059,0079,00dd,00fd,00ff,0176,0177,0178
Z,z,Ź,ź,Ż,ż,Ž,ž	005a,007a,0179,017a,017b,017c,017d,017e
~	007e
Æ,æ	00c6,00e6
Ð,ð	00d0,00f0
Ø,ø	00d8,00f8
Þ,þ	00de,00fe
ß	00df
Đ,đ	0110,0111
Ħ,ħ	0126,0127
IJ,ij	0132,0133
ĸ	0138
Ŀ,ŀ	013f,0140
Ł,ł	0141,0142
ʼn	0149
Ŋ,ŋ	014a,014b
Œ,œ	0152,0153
Ŧ,ŧ	0166,0167
µ	00b5

And here’s a corresponding Sphinx charset_table from the second script:

charset_table = U+021, U+023, U+025, U+027, U+030..U+039, U+040..U+05a, U+07e, U+0b5, U+0c6, \
	U+0d0, U+0d8, U+0de, U+0df, U+110, U+126, U+132, U+138, U+13f, U+141, U+149, U+14a, \
	U+166, U+2019->U+027, U+061->U+041, U+0c0->U+041, U+0c1->U+041, U+0c2->U+041, \
	U+0c3->U+041, U+0c4->U+041, U+0c5->U+041, U+0e0->U+041, U+0e1->U+041, U+0e2->U+041, \
	U+0e3->U+041, U+0e4->U+041, U+0e5->U+041, U+100->U+041, U+101->U+041, U+102->U+041, \
	U+103->U+041, U+104->U+041, U+105->U+041, U+062->U+042, U+063->U+043, U+0c7->U+043, \
	U+0e7->U+043, U+106->U+043, U+107->U+043, U+108->U+043, U+109->U+043, U+10a->U+043, \
	U+10b->U+043, U+10c->U+043, U+10d->U+043, U+064->U+044, U+10e->U+044, U+10f->U+044, \
	U+065->U+045, U+0c8->U+045, U+0c9->U+045, U+0ca->U+045, U+0cb->U+045, U+0e8->U+045, \
	U+0e9->U+045, U+0ea->U+045, U+0eb->U+045, U+112->U+045, U+113->U+045, U+114->U+045, \
	U+115->U+045, U+116->U+045, U+117->U+045, U+118->U+045, U+119->U+045, U+11a->U+045, \
	U+11b->U+045, U+066->U+046, U+067->U+047, U+11c->U+047, U+11d->U+047, U+11e->U+047, \
	U+11f->U+047, U+120->U+047, U+121->U+047, U+122->U+047, U+123->U+047, U+068->U+048, \
	U+124->U+048, U+125->U+048, U+069->U+049, U+0cc->U+049, U+0cd->U+049, U+0ce->U+049, \
	U+0cf->U+049, U+0ec->U+049, U+0ed->U+049, U+0ee->U+049, U+0ef->U+049, U+128->U+049, \
	U+129->U+049, U+12a->U+049, U+12b->U+049, U+12c->U+049, U+12d->U+049, U+12e->U+049, \
	U+12f->U+049, U+130->U+049, U+131->U+049, U+06a->U+04a, U+134->U+04a, U+135->U+04a, \
	U+06b->U+04b, U+136->U+04b, U+137->U+04b, U+06c->U+04c, U+139->U+04c, U+13a->U+04c, \
	U+13b->U+04c, U+13c->U+04c, U+13d->U+04c, U+13e->U+04c, U+06d->U+04d, U+06e->U+04e, \
	U+0d1->U+04e, U+0f1->U+04e, U+143->U+04e, U+144->U+04e, U+145->U+04e, U+146->U+04e, \
	U+147->U+04e, U+148->U+04e, U+06f->U+04f, U+0d2->U+04f, U+0d3->U+04f, U+0d4->U+04f, \
	U+0d5->U+04f, U+0d6->U+04f, U+0f2->U+04f, U+0f3->U+04f, U+0f4->U+04f, U+0f5->U+04f, \
	U+0f6->U+04f, U+14c->U+04f, U+14d->U+04f, U+14e->U+04f, U+14f->U+04f, U+150->U+04f, \
	U+151->U+04f, U+070->U+050, U+071->U+051, U+072->U+052, U+154->U+052, U+155->U+052, \
	U+156->U+052, U+157->U+052, U+158->U+052, U+159->U+052, U+073->U+053, U+15a->U+053, \
	U+15b->U+053, U+15c->U+053, U+15d->U+053, U+15e->U+053, U+15f->U+053, U+160->U+053, \
	U+161->U+053, U+17f->U+053, U+074->U+054, U+162->U+054, U+163->U+054, U+164->U+054, \
	U+165->U+054, U+075->U+055, U+0d9->U+055, U+0da->U+055, U+0db->U+055, U+0dc->U+055, \
	U+0f9->U+055, U+0fa->U+055, U+0fb->U+055, U+0fc->U+055, U+168->U+055, U+169->U+055, \
	U+16a->U+055, U+16b->U+055, U+16c->U+055, U+16d->U+055, U+16e->U+055, U+16f->U+055, \
	U+170->U+055, U+171->U+055, U+172->U+055, U+173->U+055, U+076->U+056, U+077->U+057, \
	U+174->U+057, U+175->U+057, U+078->U+058, U+079->U+059, U+0dd->U+059, U+0fd->U+059, \
	U+0ff->U+059, U+176->U+059, U+177->U+059, U+178->U+059, U+07a->U+05a, U+179->U+05a, \
	U+17a->U+05a, U+17b->U+05a, U+17c->U+05a, U+17d->U+05a, U+17e->U+05a, U+0e6->U+0c6, \
	U+0f0->U+0d0, U+0f8->U+0d8, U+0fe->U+0de, U+111->U+110, U+127->U+126, U+133->U+132, \
	U+140->U+13f, U+142->U+141, U+14b->U+14a, U+153->U+152, U+167->U+166

A,a,À,Á,Â,Ã,Ä,Å,à,á,â,ã,ä,å,Ā,ā,Ă,ă,Ą,ą

The search uses SphinxSearch so I want to configure it to use character matching tables that are compatible utf8_general_ci. Sphinx’s charset_table allows any character folding to be configured but it isn’t going to be trivial to write down all the rules.

How can this be automated?

The basic idea is that you can dump out any of MySQL’s collations by populating a CHAR(1) column with every character you care about and

SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(mychar) FROM mytable GROUP BY mychar;

The output of which can then be procesed into charset_table rules for a Sphinx config file.

I broke the process into three steps:

• A script generates a human-readable file describing the collation rules
• Manually edit the file to define the exact rules I want Sphinx to use
• A second script turns the edited file into a charset_table definiton

The first script takes as input specification of a MySQL utf8 collation and a numeric range of Unicode code points. It creates the table, populates it, runs the SELECT query (in the style above) to generate the human-readable output file. For example, if it is working on utf8_general_ci from 0×20 to 0x17f then it would look like this:

0020
!        0021
"        0022
#        0023
$        0024
%        0025
…
=        003d
>        003e
?        003f
@        0040
A,a,À,Á,Â,Ã,Ä,Å,à,á,â,ã,ä,å,Ā,ā,Ă,ă,Ą,ą 0041,0061,00c0,00c1,00c2,00c3,
0c4,00c5,00e0,00e1,00e2,00e3,00e4,00e5,0100,0101,0102,0103,0104,0105
B,b      0042,0062
C,c,Ç,ç,Ć,ć,Ĉ,ĉ,Ċ,ċ,Č,č               0043,0063,00c7,00e7,0106,0107,0108,0109,010a,
010b,010c,010d
D,d,Ď,ď  0044,0064,010e,010f
…
W,w,Ŵ,ŵ  0057,0077,0174,0175
X,x      0058,0078
Y,y,Ý,ý,ÿ,Ŷ,ŷ,Ÿ        0059,0079,00dd,00fd,00ff,0176,0177,0178
Z,z,Ź,ź,Ż,ż,Ž,ž        005a,007a,0179,017a,017b,017c,017d,017e
[        005b
\        005c
]        005d
^        005e
…
Ł,ł      0141,0142
ʼn        0149
Ŋ,ŋ      014a,014b
Œ,œ      0152,0153
Ŧ,ŧ      0166,0167
µ        00b5

Each line in the file repesents a set of characters the collation treats as equivalent. A line has one or more characters (comma separated) followed by a tab followed by those characters’ respective Unicode codepoints.

With an understanding of how the second script works, I can edit the fileto get the Sphinx charset_table rules I want.

A line with only one character will be translated to a singleton (ie. terminal) character in the charset_table. For example in the last line above, µ will become “U+00b5” standing on its own in the charset_table with “->” neither before nor after it.

A line with two or more charcters does two things. First, the leftmost character in the set will become a singleton. Then all the characters to the right of the first character will be folded to that first character. For example, take the line:

D,d,Ď,ď  0044,0064,010e,010f

This will produce the following charset_table rules:

U+0044, U+0064->U+0044, U+010e->U+0044, U+010f->U+0044

When I was editing my file I first reviewed the folding rules (the lines with more than one character) to see that they made sense. Then I carefully thought about all the characters I didn’t want Sphinx to index at all and deleted those lines from the file. For example, in a song’s artist name field I want !, ‘, ’ indexed but not “, $ or ?. Finally, thiking about the equivalence of “O’brien” and “O’brien”, I replaced the singleton ‘ line with this:

',’   0027,2019

The second script then reads the edited file and generates the rules as I described.

The two scripts (in PHP) are here and here. Feel free to play with them. The output of the first can be piped into the second but I fee that the manual editing step of the process is important. The scripts are  MySQL collation to Sphinx charset_table conversion by thefsb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Unfortunately the case is empty. I have not located the cassette itself.

It seems perhaps I never entirely got over Majella. Yesterday I came across a bunch of Stockhausen music in MP3 files. One of the pieces was Klavierstück XII recorded by Bernhard Wambach which I downloaded and listened to.

Oh my! I haven’t heard this piece for probably well over 20 years but I remembered it clearly and my heart swelled. It’s a great piece in its own right—lovely melodies and a rhythmic coherence to carry you along.

And it’s so theatrical! The vast majority of the piece is performed on the piano’s keyboard in conventional manner and that alone is theatrical. But the vocalizing adds another whole dimension. Mr. Wambach’s recording is reserved but, as I recall it, the young Majella’s in that BBC breadcast was sensational. I was captivated by her charisma, audacity and the uninhibited generosity of her performance. I fell in love.

I must have. What else could explain the joy and agony that swept over me yesterday as I listened to Mr. Wambach’s straight-laced, professional interpretation?

It dawned on me that I had never in all these years seen a photo of Majella. Back then we didn’t have the world wide web but we do now. Looking now at these three images, all early 80s photos of her playing Klavierstück XIII, it’s clear that my student engineer’s heart knew exactly what it was doing all those years ago. I wonder if I will ever get over Majella.

There is a recording of Majella playing Klavierstück XIII on Stockhausen Edition CD 33 but I can’t find any reference to a published recording of her playing XII. If only I still had that cassette.