YALog(@"Boring");

$\LaTeX$ in Blogger?

2011-12-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

Stumbled on this link Latex on Blogger/Blogspot, so I did a little search and found How to use LaTeX on blogspot? Decide to try it.
Try something simple: $x^2$
It doesn't appear in Preview, but does show up in the actual post.

First Snow -- 2011

2011-11-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

First snow of the year -- not too much. An inch or two.

Update December 15: Maybe half an inch. Least amount of snow in years.

First snow - 2010

2010-11-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

Gee, it's been almost a year since my last post about snow. Today was the first real snow, 1 - 3", although I did clear the dusting last Friday. More is forecast, so I will get some more shoveling in real soon.

Who do I see about "Global Warming"? Oh, that's right, it's now called Biodiversity.

Update: Shoveled twice more. Probably only six to seven inches total, but there's almost a foot on the railing on the back deck.

First Snow - 2009

2009-11-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

First real snow: 2 - 4". It should melt over the next few days, given the forecast for weather in the low to mid-40s.

Update, November 20:
Of course, this violates the usual Global Warming conspiracy theory. "Conspiracy?", you say:

Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of 'Anthropogenic Global Warming'?

Climate sceptics claim leaked emails are evidence of collusion among scientists...

More to come on this, but the MSM will probably ignore it.

What Do People Find Challenging About Cocoa?

2009-06-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

Stumbled on a great post by Scott Stevenson last night about what difficulties people have found while trying to learn Cocoa---What Do People Find Challenging About Cocoa?.

Objective-C: 19%
I Didn't Know ANSI C: 12%
Cocoa is Really Big: 11%
Memory Management: 10%
Interface Builder and NIBs/XIBs: 10%
I Was Used to Java or C++: 10%
Delegates: 8%
Overall Cocoa Model: 8%
I Didn't Know Object-Oriented Programming: 8%
Learning How Documentation is Structured: 5%
Cocoa Bindings: 5%
Xcode: 3%

Number 1 is no surprise---Objective-C is syntactically very different than other languages derived from C.

Items 2 and 4 are related. To be an effective programmer in C requires a fair understanding of memory. Java requires much less knowledge of memory, since pointers are not used. But it is big!

Items 5 and 12 are typical development tool issues. The more advanced the tool, the more you need to know. Apple has done a great job with Xcode, so most people can go a long way before getting stuck. The debugger has changed over the years....

Items 1 and 3 have been the biggest issues for me. I've gotten over the Objective-C hurdle for the most part, but Cocoa frameworks have a lot in them!

Gmail Problems

2009-05-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

Not sure what is up (or down) with Gmail. The application was working a bit odd on Thursday. The problems continued on Friday, but it worked fine at the office. Yesterday and today the service continued to be nearly useless. I was able to change the theme yesterday, but that wasn't the problem (I saw a post somewhere about themes causing problems, so I thought that might help). Today I was able to delete the Spam, but was unable to respond to any message. Typical error messages: Loading.../Still working..../Trying....

Reports of Gmail down on Twitter have appeared but nothing like other outages. Is it an ISP (Time-Warner Cable) problem?

Time to start popping messages again? That seems to be working (at least for my wife).

Update June 1: Gmail worked fine at the office. It is now working at home. Hopefully the problems have been resolved.

The Reality of Blogging

2009-05-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

From GraphJam. Obviously, this blog is in the red zone....

Reading: John Brunner, Traveler in Black

2009-05-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

A little light reading. I hadn't read any of John Brunner's work in awhile. This is different than the other books I have read by him. The man in black is actually good, even if the cover makes him look like the Grim Reaper.

More Twitter

2009-05-13T08:12:00.001-07:00

See Dave Winer's "Tweets of the rich and famous" for some insight into these toons. To see what the Top 100 are tweeting, 100TWT.com, a little site that Dave created a week or two ago....

The 5th Wave

The Joy of Tech

Twitter

2009-05-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Twitter has become very popular the last few months (in some ways, it has jumped the shark and there is a bit of backlash). Quite a few celebrities have been using it to broadcast their lives. Most of them are actually not very interesting.

The most entertaining is Barack Obama's teleprompter (@BOTeleprompter). A look inside the adventures of the president's most needed staff member!

I've also been following Lance Armstrong (@lancearmstrong), Larry King (@kingsthings), Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk), and of course Oprah (@Oprah). Lance's tweets are the most interesting as he posts about his training and racing. Oprah started twittering after Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to a race to a million followers for a worthy cause.

For educational purposes, I've been following David Allen (@gtdguy) and Tony Robbins (@tonyrobbins). Both use Twitter to advance their businesses, but it's for the good and not overdone.

I also follow Dave Winer (@davewiner). He tweets quite frequently, but not as much as some.... He has recently created a website that tracks the 100 most popular people on Twitter (quite a few reality TV people).

Of course Twitter has been the subject of numerous cartoons:

Things Twittered

If the 60's had Twitter...

If Apple Bought Twitter

One last one (for now):

Even More Snow?

2009-04-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

It's snowing again! It was supposed to rain today, but this is unexpected. (Of course the snow/rain forecast for late last week didn't happen.) The surprising thing is that some of it is actually sticking---it won't last.

More Snow?

2009-04-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

It snowed and mostly melted over the weekend (1 to 3"). It snowed again overnight---another 2 to 4". This is not normal! "Big" city to the north has had record snowfall this year! Almost 100", when the average is close to 70" or so.

Sadly, the forecast is for more snow overnight. The bright side: it's supposed to warm up today!

Good News for Microsoft?

2008-12-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Zunes Committing Mass Suicide

At 2AM all Microsoft Zunes were rendered inoperable by SkyNet

Other headlines:
I woke up this morning and my Zune was gone - CNet
The Day Zune Music Died - CRN
The day Microsoft's Zunes stood still - Scientific American
Microsoft plague threatens 30GB Zune extinction - Register, UK
Z2K9?: Zunes everywhere freeze at midnight - National Post, Canada
Midnight mystery crash - Detroit Free Press
Zunes crash en masse - Computerworld
Worldwide Zune suicide? - MLive.com
Y2K returns 9 years later to disable Zunes? - Dallas Morning News
I sense a disturbance in the force - Newmobilecomputing.com
Zunes Going Tango Uniform Worldwide - Overclockers Club
Zune Swoon: MP3 player hit with mass glitch - WTOP, DC
Happy New Year from Microsoft - Associated Content
The Zune Screen Of Death - TechCrunch

Windows 7

Report Accuses Microsoft of Purposefully Leaking Windows 7 Beta

Windows 7 beta ISO the hottest download on the net?

Blocks in Objective-C

2008-12-30T08:16:00.000-08:00

Mike Ash has written a post on blocks in Objective-C that has quite a few people buzzing in the Mac development world.

Compare it with an article by David Stes written about ten years earlier: Objective-C Blocks.

This feature isn't available to all just yet, but it is kind of interesting to see how this concept is actually added.

Winter Driving

2008-12-30T07:43:00.001-08:00

We spent a few days in Portland over Christmas. The snow/ice covered streets* were difficult to navigate even for those driving SUVs (hated by so many of the progressive left). Of course having a vehicle that can handle the conditions often gives a false sense of security....

For graphs of other behaviors/interactions see: GraphJam

*The snowfall was the most since 1950 or 1980, depending which news story you wanted to believe. Regardless, their city government didn't know what to do with 10-12" of snow.

Microsoft Vulnerabilites

2008-12-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

New Kernel Vulnerability Discovered in Vista

Critical Vulnerability In Internet Explorer Found, Patch on the Way

Microsoft issues patch for latest IE vulnerability

This is truly frightening:

MS Windows XP in Control of Royal Navy Nuclear Powered Sub fleet

Microsoft News

2008-12-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Microsoft: Big Security Hole in All IE Versions

Internet Explorer 7 Attack in the Wild

IE zero-day vulnerability awaits patch
Computer users are advised to switch to an alternative internet browser, such as Firefox or Google Chrome or Safari to be certain to avoid hackers who have so far corrupted an estimated 10,000 websites.

Vista To XP Upgrade Triples In Price, Now $150

Performance Tests Show Early Windows 7 Build Beats Vista

Microsoft Releases Its First-Ever iPhone Application

First Snow

2008-12-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

Finally got our first snow, about two inches. It's going to be cold, so it will be staying around.

The forecast for the coming week:

A comparison with last year:

November 2007

3.2" rainfall for 13 readings.
Low temperature: 20 degrees on the 2nd, 3rd, and 14th
High temperature: 66 degrees on the 4th.
8" snowfall for four readings.

November 2008

Total 4.5" rain fall for 19 readings.
Low temperature: 18 degrees on the 23rd.
High Temperature: 64 degrees on the 13th.

Some Microsoft News

2008-12-05T10:06:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 News:

Miscellaneous:

The Internet Life?

2008-12-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

From Geek And Poke

Cyberchondria: Too Much Bad News

2008-12-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Cyberchondria: Too Much Bad News

According to the New York Times, health-related Web searches are making us unecessarily anxious. A Microsoft study released on Monday reveals that search engines often lead people to fear the "worst about what ails them." Web searches for medical problems are "as likely or more likely" to lead people to pages describing serious conditions as benign ones, even though the more serious illnesses are much more rare.

Slashdot has a similar post: Microsoft Researchers Study "Cyberchondria", which links to Microsoft's paper.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

The bird will be in the oven and family will be gathering soon. Thanks to all that make this possible!

Update: The bird and associated fixings was very good!

More Microsoft Issues

2008-11-22T17:38:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Feared Mac Vs. Vista In '05

Microsoft Moves To Quash Case, End E-mail Revelations

Microsoft launches online store, sells downloadable software

Microsoft Marketing Geniuses use a Mac in their Vista Promo

Internet Explorer 8 Delayed Until 2009

Microsoft Blames Add-Ons For Browser Woes

Microsoft To Offer Free Anti-Virus Software

These items make this inspirational news:

Microsoft to aid in war on terror, builds software for DHS

Veteran's Day

2008-11-16T12:41:00.000-08:00

This User Friendly series from last week capture the meaning of Veteran's Day in a very poignant way.

On the internet...

2008-11-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

Want a dog?

2008-11-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

I got this in an email the other day---my kind of dog!

Dog For Sale

Excellent guard dog.

Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore,
as there are no more thieves, murderers,
or molesters left in the neighborhood
for him to eat.

Most of them knew him as 'Holy Shit'.

----

Maybe she should contact the government about paying for her dog's food bill?

Snopes has some background on the email.

Bugs, Speed, and Viruses!

2008-11-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Windows Turns 25
Check out the original interface!

Does Microsoft Need to Ship Windows 7 in 2009?
Industry analysts differ on the importance of shipping Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system before the 2009 holidays, but agree that the release of the OS needs to be swift and smooth to avoid the sins of Vista's past.
[OSNews]

Windows 7 Benchmarks Part II: Some Second Opinions

Boot Windows Vista In Four Seconds

Microsoft's "Dead Cow" Patch Was 7 Years In the Making

Update: AVG Virus Scanner Accidentally Removes Critical Windows Component
...the new virus definition file mistook user32.dll, a critical Windows component, for a container for the Trojan Horses....

Microsoft Windows 7?

2008-11-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 is taking a beating already!

Windows 7 scheduled for a mid-2009 release

Windows 7 Preview

Is Windows 7 Faster Or Just Smarter?

Windows 7 Benchmarks Show Little Improvement On Vista

Report: Benchmarks Show Windows 7 Pre-Beta to be Bloated, With Compatibility Issues

5 very basic things Windows 7 still isn't any good at

Service Pack 1 for Vista has some issues also:

Microsoft Reveals Vista SP1 Driver Installation Failure Rates

The Matrix on Windows?

The Matrix on Windows

Some Microsoft Stuff

2008-08-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Tries a New Ad Agency Guess this is necessary when you consider the things they have tried in the last month or so....

The Vista debacle continues:

Vista's Security Rendered Completely Useless

Windows XP Still Outselling Windows Vista

Dave Winer wrote: Could Vista fail?

Mojave, something new?

Microsoft's "Mojave Experiment" Teaser Site Goes Live

The Mojave Experiment

Microsoft Tricks Diehard XP Users Into Liking Vista with "Mojave" Ruse

A few miscellaneous items:

Comparison of Windows XP and Linux/Sugar On the OLPC XO

Let's confuse people with another potential OS:
Windows Is Dead – Long Live Midori?

Some Microsoft Items

2008-07-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Some posts on OSNews:

A couple of posts on Slashdot:

Smarter than a 5th Grader?

2008-07-08T09:22:00.001-07:00

The quiz results:

Intel not upgrading to Vista

2008-06-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

According to DownloadSquad, Intel, with about 80,000 employees is not going to upgrade all their employees to Vista. Wow!

A post on OSNews suggests that Windows could use some fresh air.

A post on Computerworld, Dear Microsoft, thanks for the help, Linux, suggests that the opportunity for other OSs will increase as Microsoft phases out easy access to Windows XP.

In Linux/Microsoft related news, Slashdot notes that Microsoft will be more open source friendly with the departure of Bill Gates.

The Departure of Bill Gates in Comics

2008-06-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

These two strips are regular reads for me. Both of them capture the humor of people/things in the computer/technology world....

PC Weenies: Bill's Last Day

Joy of Tech: Happy Retirement

Windows: "An absolute mess" -- Bill Gates

2008-06-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

Bill Gates wrote a scathing email (rant) about his experience trying to install Windows MovieMaker. OSNews has posted it in: Full Text: an Epic Bill Gates e-Mail Rant.

The real reason that other systems have been gaining on Windows---it's an absolute mess! Will Windows 7 fix this? I doubt it!

The original Seattle-PI post: Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant. It has some a comment by Bill Gates at the end:

As for the message, Gates smiled and said, "There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job."

Feeding Cannibals?

2008-06-25T08:26:00.000-07:00

Take the Cannibal Quiz.

Windows 7 - Release Date Set

2008-06-25T07:55:00.000-07:00

OSNews reports Microsoft Sets Ship Date to January 2010.

A post on Slashdot, No XP Reprieve; Windows 7 Release Set, links to more details. Previously, Slashdot reported that
DOJ To Oversee Windows 7 Development. That's sure to set things back!

On a related note, Microsoft Pledges Windows XP Support Through 2014. 2014, then why stop shipping it at the end of the month?

How much will it slip? The next version of OS X (Snow Leopard) will be out next year.

Wordle

2008-06-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Wordle is an interesting Java application that takes text and displays it graphically depending on the frequency count of the words in the text. Here's chapter 7 of Cocoa Programming For Mac OS X, 3e:

The Wordle gallery contains some interesting images.

XP/Vista RoundUp

2008-06-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

Time to clear out a few items that have accumulated in Google Reader....

Windows XP:

Vista:

Blog Value?

2008-06-14T07:18:00.001-07:00

I think that is about $9,400 too much. To find out how much your blog is worth go to My blog value.

Microsoft: Don't Wait

2008-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

OSNews reports that Microsoft is trying to discourage people from waiting: Don't Wait for it, Says Microsoft. A few days ago, this post Microsoft requires Windows 7 driver testing for Vista certification. Starting today. Wha? appeared on Dvorak Unlimited.

Meanwhile, Microsoft releases Windows Search 4.0. I haven't heard of anyone using any previous release and have seen only a little press on Windows Search.

and on the XP front:

Windows XP Lives, Thanks to Linux and Microsoft Denies Call-in 'Save XP' Petition

In contrast to this confusion, there is a rumor that Apple may be releasing their next release in January. See Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Coming in January 2009? for details. More information about it may come at the Developer's Conference next week, certainly more about iPhone 2.0!

Vista and Windows 7

2008-05-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

News regarding Vista's success and Windows 7 (Vista's successor) continues to be posted.

Steve Ballmer says that Vista is selling really well (Slashdot post).

"Steve Ballmer is in no way disappointed with Windows Vista. It is selling 'incredibly well,' he told a press conference in Herzeliya, Israel today. 'Vista sells on almost 100 per cent of all the new consumer PCs around the world,' the Microsoft CEO proclaimed. He added that the operating system was also selling on '45 percent of all of new business PCs.' Which is enlightening, since business users are about the only buyers of new PCs that get a choice."

Scoble posts, We ain’t gonna tell you about Windows 7, a link to a CNet interview Windows chief talks '7'.

Two posts about Windows 7 on OSNews:

Update:

Late yesterday, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer demonstrated Windows 7 according to this DownloadSquad post: Windows 7 says hello world, then runs and hides away.
A lengthier story, Microsoft demos 'touch Windows', appears on the BBC's site. Interesting comment by Bill Gates about selling 290 million PCs, compared to 10 million by Apple. Those numbers look suspect to me, given several posts I saw recently about Apple selling 66% of machines above $1000. A quick search, using Google, reveals a post on Slashdot: 66% Apple Market Share For Sales of High-End PCs, which links to Macs Defy Windows' Gravity.

Unread books

2008-05-27T01:49:00.000-07:00

As seen on a recent post at Terminal Degree

The top 100 or so books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing's users. Bold the books you have read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: A novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler's Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked: The life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault's Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela's Ashes: A memoir
The God of Small Things
A People's History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield

Leopard Update

2008-05-23T13:27:00.001-07:00

I finally had time to update my office machine to Leopard (I probably could have done it sooner, but wanted to wait until the end of the semester...). Backing up all the files took a couple of hours---too much stuff! The actual installation only took about an hour, then another hour to update the System (version 10.5.2) and Apple applications (iTunes, QuickTime, Safari, etc.).

Problems:

Converting Address Book
Lost dot files

Solutions:

The Address Book problem was an easy one (I had encountered it before). Just copy old files into the new directory (~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook). I found this on one of Apple's Support Discussions: Topic: Tiger-->Leopard Address Book

The dot file problem is a bit tougher---the dot files are gone! The good news is that I have a copy of the important ones on my home machine. Note to self: Backup dot files!

The World of Microsoft Updates

2008-05-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

In the world of lagging updates....

OS News reports that: Microsoft Admits Some PCs Won't Be Offered Vista SP1

Download Squad reports that: Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 will add support for Open Document Format ... support for a several new document formats to Office 2007. The company plans to release Office 2007 SP2 during the first half of 2009, and it will add support for XPS, PDF 1.5, and ODF 1.1 files, among others.

Note the date above---first half of 2009!

Animal Farm == Democratic Party

2008-05-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's kind of amusing watching the Democratic Presidential contest for a number of reasons. The foremost reason is they have a number of special rules:

Florida and Michigan don't count.
Superdelegates are special.

The superdelegate issue reminded me of the final commandment in Animal Farm:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL
BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

I reread Animal Farm recently to compare the current candidate selection contest to the old book. Surprisingly similar situation in many ways, especially if we add media from Orwell's other book, 1984.

Then we have various members of the Democratic party hurling various racist/sexist comments at each other, especially since they (say they) are the party of diversity! [The media never mentioned Senator Byrd, WV, past membership in the KKK.]

Processing

2008-05-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I purchased, Visualizing Data, that uses Processing.

One of the nice things about Processing is that it is written in Java, so you can use Java to add functionality.

Processing has been ported to JavaScript by John Resig. He released it about a week ago, along with quite a few demos.

More Vista Bashing

2008-05-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

SNAFU:

The Vista Bashing Continues, Now Business Week Pitches In

Business Week: Closing the Door to Microsoft Vista

General Motors (GM) may take a detour around Vista, the latest computer operating system from Microsoft (MSFT). The automaker has encountered so many speed bumps getting Vista to work on its machines that it may just wait for the next version of Windows, due in 2010 or 2011. "We're considering bypassing Vista and going straight to Windows 7," says GM's Chief Systems & Technology Officer Fred Killeen.

XP SP3 Causing Endless Reboots on AMD Chips

Windows XP SP3: Problems, Performance Gains

The Church of Oprah?

2008-05-05T10:51:00.002-07:00

Oprah has been going new age for some time, but it is clearly apparent with her total embrace of Eckhart Tolle's New Earth.

The Church of Oprah Exposed a video.

Is Oprah Starting Her Own Cult?

....But don’t worry about Eckhart Tolle. His "power of now" is all about his store. All roads lead to his merchandise, which is prominently featured on his Web site and accessed from Oprah’s.

Oprah's New Easter, by Chuck Norris. Points out how Oprah is lost.

Something Wasn't Wright describes the details(?) (from anonymous sources) of her leaving Rev. Wright's church. Clearly not new age teaching.

China: CNN/Olympics/Health/Internet

2008-05-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, Jack Cafferty called China's leadership "a bunch of thugs and goons". They took offense to the truth and demanded an apology. Sadly, CNN caved in to their demand.

Some recent news items:

Visit Google to search for news of China's ongoing occupation of Tibet. For example, China's Tibet spin.

A blog post on the air in China
The smog here is amazing. Good luck to the athletes in 3mths time. It cleared a little after some very heavy rain but was back soon afterwards. At night you can see the beams of car headlights in the smog. Also the willows are in flower and the place is full of willow pollen/fluff. There is willow stuff drifting through the air inside the room I am in now.

The over-riding impression of everything here is BIG. The city has a population similar to Australia in total and has hundreds of 20 story apartment blocks, giving the city a flat and lumpy appearance. Accentuated and made all the more dour by grey smoggy skies. In contrast, there are areas of Beijing that have some quite adventurous architecture.
Child-killing virus may be yet to peak: WHO
An outbreak of a virus (EV71, an intestinal virus) that has killed dozens of children across China may be yet to reach its peak, but will not threaten Beijing's Olympic Games in August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.
China Wants US-Owned Hotels to Censor Internet The Chinese government is demanding that US-owned hotels there filter Internet service during the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing, US Senator Sam Brownback has alleged.

Amnesty UK's videos on China's human rights record and the Olympics The sad reality of their Communist leadership.

China's Cyberwar Against India China's cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said.

Psalm 90

2008-05-03T17:20:00.000-07:00

Today was the memorial service for my wife's mother. Her passing was a huge loss to all of us, but she is in a much better place and free of all her physical afflictions. Psalm 90 was her chosen passage and is copied here in remembrance of her.

A prayer of Moses, the man of God.

O Lord, You have been our refuge in every generation.
2 Before the mountains came into being,
before You brought forth the earth and the world,
from eternity to eternity You are God.

3 You return man to dust;
You decreed, "Return you mortals!"
4 For in Your sight a thousand years
are like yesterday that has past,
like a watch in the night.
5 You engulf men in sleep;
at daybreak they are like grass that renews itself;
6 at daybreak it flourishes anew;
by dusk it withers and dries up.
7 So we are consumed by Your anger,
terror-struck by Your fury.
8 You have set our iniquities before You,
our hidden sins in the light of Your face.
9 All our days pass away in Your wrath;
we spend our years like a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years,
or, given the strength, eighty years;
but the best of them are trouble and sorrow.
They pass speedily, and we are in darkness.
11 Who can know Your furious anger?
Your wrath matches the fear of You.
12 Teach us to count our days rightly,
that we may obtain a wise heart.

13 Turn, O Lord!
How long?
Show mercy to Your servants.
14 Satisfy us at daybreak with your steadfast love
that we may sing for joy all our days.
15 Give us joy for as long as You have afflicted us,
for the years we have suffered misfortune.
16 Let Your deeds be seen by Your servants,
Your glory by their children.

17 May the favor of the Lord, our God, be upon us;
let the work of our hands prosper,
O prosper the work of our hands.

Platitudes?

2008-04-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Why do so many of us dislike platitudes? Is it the platitude or is it the person that quotes them?

The following were tossed out by the leader of our institute yesterday:

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
Henry Ford

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William A. Ward

The amusing thing is that rumors are swirling about him leaving for another institution. Does that make him a captain that doesn't want to go down with the ship?

Despair.com captures the true value of most platitudes in their products:

Images borrowed from despair.com. They know the truth worth of platitudes!

Facebook/Twitter Sucks

2008-04-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Scoble has posted another rant on Facebook: Facebook continues to suck

Some of the comments are amusing, especially this one:

Just a basic Scoble Show template…

‘Greatest Thing in World, Nothing Will Ever Be the Same’ to total ‘Evil Suckage They Refused to Listen to Me, servesthemright’…

Comment by Christopher Coulter — April 28, 2008 @ 11:59 am

Previously he had issues with Twitter: Twitter and inadequacy (er, the great friend divide)

If I had more time, I would try and find where he praised both of them in the past....

Update - April 29, 2008: Seth Godin wrote a post on the Signal to Noise ratio on the web and Twitter. He's right, just look at most of my posts --- who cares?

Update - May 1, 2008: FaceBook In Reality - Hilarious Video Well done little video by some British guys (some language, but it's reality).

APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day)

2008-04-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

The pictures and information that are posted on APOD are truly amazing! Today's picture of The Tarantula Zone is no exception.

Explanation: The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years in diameter -- a giant star forming region within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). That cosmic arachnid lies at the upper left of this expansive mosiac covering a part of the LMC over 6,000 light-years across. Within the Tarantula (NGC 2070), intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova shocks from the central young cluster of massive stars, cataloged as R136, energize the nebular glow and shape the spidery filaments. Around the Tarantula are other violent star-forming regions with young star clusters, filaments and bubble-shaped clouds. The small but expanding remnant of supernova 1987a, the closest supernova in modern history, is located near the center of the view. The rich field is about as wide as four full moons on the sky, located in the southern constellation Dorado.

Update April 29: A video of Airplane Flight Patterns over the USA.

iPhone SDK #4

2008-04-25T12:59:00.000-07:00

Apple keeps pushing out updates for the iPhone SDK.

Erica Sadun, of O'Reilly reports: iPhone SDK4 debuts, Panda/P2 protocol goes MIA Hmmm, hadn't heard of Panda.

More conflict with the GPL, this time it is Apple that appears to be in conflict. Slashdot post: iPhone SDK and Free Software Don't Match

Some C++ and Java Items

2008-04-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

C++ FQA Lite: Main page

Are C and C++ Losing Ground? via Slashdot.

Dr. Dobbs has an interesting interview with Paul Jansen, the managing director of TIOBE Software, about the Programming Community Index, which measures the popularity of programming languages by monitoring their web presence. Since the TIOBE index has been published now for more than 6 years, it gives an interesting picture about trends in the usage of programming languages.

JRat the Java Runtime Analysis Toolkit is a low overhead, easy to use, open source performance profiler for the Java platform. JRat monitors an application's execution and persists performance measurements. This data can then be viewed and analyzed using the JRat Desktop, a Swing application.

Profiler4j is an open-source CPU profiler for Java.

XP, Bill Gates all Meshed up

2008-04-24T18:46:00.000-07:00

Ballmer: Provide Demand, and We'll Extend XP's Lifecycle remarks made at a Belgium new conference (via OSNews). This quote is great:

XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies we can always wake up smarter but right now we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments.

When will the pronounce that Vista is on life support?

O'Reilly Net notes: Wired: Marc Andreessen: Bill Gates Ain't So Bad

“When is Bill Gates not the devil? Answer: When he’s saving the world from total technical chaos. That’s according to internet golden child Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Ning.”

Guess there's still no love for Bill from Marc....

Speaking of Bill, Slashdot: Bill Gates On the GPL — "We Disagree"

Guess we'll be seeing new legalese in the GPL (MPL forthcoming?). Insert light bulb changing joke. For those that haven't seen it:

How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb ?

None, they declare darkness to be the new standard.

Microsoft Mesh in the News is the lead story in John Dvorak's 5-minute report.

All the talk is about Microsoft Mesh. I see it as Lotus Notes, Microsoft edition. Replication awaits. I lament unfulfilled promises.

Microsoft Happenings

2008-04-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

John Dvorak describes Vista's 11 Pillars of Failure
#2 Code size and #11 Performance are probably the leading factors. Code size makes things hard to change without breaking something else....

Another post from OSNews: Microsoft to Abandon Vista, Fast Track Windows 7?

The Download Squad takes a look at Microsoft's vision of open source future in: Bill Gates talks about open source. He's doin' it wrong.

The big news is that Microsoft has launched something new and big---Live Mesh.
Slashdot: First Looks at Microsoft's New 'Live Mesh' Platform
OSNews: Ten Things To Know About Microsoft's Live Mesh

Update April 25, 2008:

Microsoft is killing off its nerd watch, according to this Slashdot post:
Goodbye To the SPOT WatchGoodbye To the SPOT Watch You do remember SPOT, don't you?

Microsoft Quality?

2008-04-22T08:25:00.000-07:00

Office 2007 Fails OOXML Test With 122,000 Errors That's inspiring, given all their recent support for openness and XML!

On the bright side:

Windows XP SP3 Released to Manufacturing, seven years after the initial release of XP!

Ah, Vista!

2008-04-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

A post on OSNews: Ballmer: 'Vista Is a Work in Progress' Gee, why are we not surprised? This quote is great:

Certainly, you never want to let five years go between releases.

Very true. How about the time between updates?

Another post on OSNews: Are You Stealing Vista? Maybe if Vista was priced more in line with what it's worth, people wouldn't steal it?

On the topic of updates, a post on Slashdot reports Windows Update Can Hurt Security. This could affect other systems that are not updated very often.

Terry Fator - Live!

2008-04-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

We went to see Terry Fator, the winner of America's Got Talent, recently. He was really good! If you haven't seen him on TV, you should watch at least the first of these videos.

Emma Taylor performs, At Last (Etta James) (first appearance on America's Got Talent)
Johnny Vegas performs That's Amore (Dean Martin) and I Left My Heart in San Francisco (Tony Bennett)
Walter T. Airedale performs Friends In Low Places (Garth Brooks)
Emma performs a duet with Terry of Unforgettable (Nat King Cole)

One of the interesting things about the show was that he said it was OK for people to take pictures/video. I've never seen an artist encourage the audience to do so before.

Art Elitism At Yale

2008-04-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Update: Yale Student's 'Abortion Art' Claim a Scam It may be a scam, but it's still sick! If we say something is a hoax, does that make it go away?

A senior in Art(?), at Yale, will be unveiling her work(?) next Tuesday.

For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

....

Read the rest if you want to be sick/totally disgusted. Guess they don't know the difference between an abortion and a miscarriage.

Truly sick! Way to go Yale!

Google Earth 4.3 Released

2008-04-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

Some posts on the release of Google Earth 4.3:

Yet another shiny object to play with....

Windows Updates?

2008-04-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Stupid Internal Microsoft Vista SP1 Video from this post on Download Squad The internal Microsoft sales video you wish you hadn't seen.

Windows XP SP3 set for April 29 (Dvorak Uncensored)

Microsoft Charts Its Road Map for Windows Embedded a post from OSnews: The Embedded roadmap outlines the "renaming of its family of products and plans for new solutions in key device categories".

Some older items:
Do You Hate Windows Vista As Much As These Guys? The video (some strong language---from a post on Dvorak Uncensored about two months ago.)

30,000 petition MS to "save Windows XP" Guess this has succeeded to some extent. Underpowered machines will have this option, regardless of manufacture date.

Shell History Meme

2008-04-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've seen this on a number of Advogato blogs recently.

history | awk '{a[$2]++ } END {for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head

Office
98 vi
69 cd
58 ls
57 c++
48 ./a.out
33 mpost
31 ./ren*.sh
23 chmod
21 echo
15 rm

What does it tell you? I edit files, move around between directories, compile some, run the resulting executable. Some things get deleted.

network (another office machine)
111 ls
90 vi
90 cd
48 g++
45 exit
19 mutt
13 chmod
12 rm
11 mv
10 ./a.out

What does it tell you? I list files, edit files, move around between directories, compile some, logout, read email, delete/rename some files, and run a few executables.

Home
116 cd
74 ./ren*.sh
68 ls
53 vi
53 chmod
48 echo
36 rm
10 exit
10 c++
10 ./up*.sh

What does it tell you? I move around directories, rename stuff, edit and delete files, and some compiling.

Windows is Broken

2008-04-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hmm, someone else noticed the obvious....

OSNews: Gartner Explains Why Windows Is Broken

"In a session at the Gartner Emerging Trends conference today, analysts Neil MacDonald and Michael Silver identified many reasons that Windows (and thus Microsoft) are in trouble. Microsoft's operating system development times are too long and they deliver limited innovation; their OSs provide an inconsistent experience between platforms, with significant compatibility issues; and other vendors are out-innovating Microsoft. That gives enterprises unpredictable releases with limited value, management costs that are too high, and new releases that break too many applications and take too long to test and adopt. With end users bringing their own software solutions into the office... Well, it's just a heck of a sad story for Microsoft."

Guess Windows 7 may have some shortcomings also. It sounds better than the monstrous monolith that Vista is though....

OSNews: Why Modular Windows Will Suck for Microsoft and for You

Ars analyses the concept of a modular Windows, and concludes: "Modularization - and the discriminatory pricing it permits - might appeal to accountants and economists. But it is bad for consumers, bad for Windows, and ultimately, bad for Microsoft. A modularized Windows, or worse still, a modularized subscription-based Windows, undermines the purpose and value of the Windows OS. If it comes to pass it will surely sound the death knell of the entire Windows platform."

RIP: Ashley Morris

2008-04-06T08:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Ashley Morris passed away a couple of days ago. It's been hard to grok that I will never see Ashley again. He was one of the most fun people I have ever met and would do anything for you. I pray the best for his wife, Hana, and their children.

The original post by Hana: This is the last post.

Some recent posts about his passing:

Daily Kos: There's one less angry, funny man in New Orleans There's a nice little video of Ashley and his family.
Later, homey. Not goodbye. See ya later. I promise.

Maybe he and Dale Earnhardt will get to see Junior win the championship this year!

Update

Lacey

2008-04-05T13:14:00.001-07:00

The most recent granddaughter (she's about a month old in this picture). She's a bit more fussy than her big sister Sara (who turned two a week ago), but not as fussy as some babies.

More Snow!

2008-04-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

We got a bit more snow last night to add to the total---second/third highest ever!
It snowed last weekend also.

I got tired of the snow long ago. This year has been the worst I've seen. Even the old-timers were forced to admit that this year was bad as the weather service reported the news.

The good news is that any additional snow that falls should melt in a day or so, since it should start getting warmer---almost up to 50 the other day! Of course, we should see a fair amount of rain for the next two months or so if this is like past years.

This kind of weather may become more frequent, given that the BBC reports: Global temperatures 'to decrease'. Just a few months ago, the BBC was on the Global Warming bandwagon. Guess they've looked at things and have decided it's not the way Al Gore says....

Update

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SPOKANE WA
814 AM PST SUN APR 6 2008

...WINTER OF 2007-2008 MOVES TO NUMBER 2 SNOWIEST ON RECORD FOR
SPOKANE...

AS OF 1 AM SUNDAY APRIL 6TH...THE WINTER SNOWFALL TOTAL FOR SPOKANE
WAS 89.4 INCHES. THIS TOTAL IS THE SECOND SNOWIEST ON RECORD.
RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT FOR SPOKANE SINCE 1893.

THE TOP TEN WINTER SNOW TOTALS ARE LISTED BELOW...

1. 93.5 INCHES 1949-1950
2. 89.4 INCHES 2007-2008**
3. 89.0 INCHES 1974-1975
4. 87.3 INCHES 1992-1993
5. 83.2 INCHES 1955-1956
6. 81.7 INCHES 1964-1965
7. 80.5 INCHES 1996-1997
8. 79.6 INCHES 1951-1952
9. 77.5 INCHES 1968-1969
10. 73.5 INCHES 1931-1932

**2007-2008 SEASON NOT YET COMPLETE. MORE SNOW IS POSSIBLE.

XP, Vista, and Windows 7

2008-04-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

The Death of XP

OSnews Microsoft Windows XP Dies June 30, As Planned.

Downloadsquad reports that Microsoft will support Windows XP until 2010 -- on low power laptops only. Slashdot has a similar story Microsoft Extends XP For Low-Cost Laptops

Vista

Rumors about Vista not being all that it was to be shouldn't make a story like this too much of a surprise, since the Product Manager is the one that catches the flak when things go wrong....
Microsoft's Vista Blogger Quits. Why "Vista" Nick White Left Microsoft.

Windows 7

Is it the future? Reports of early versions have been floating about the web for a few months.

How Microsoft Plans To Get Its Groove Back With Win7 from Slashdot.

OSNews links to Gates: Microsoft Windows 7 Sometime Next Year

Dvorak Uncensored suggests Let’s go straight from XP to 7
Bill Gates says he expects the new version of Windows operating software, code-named Windows 7, to be released “sometime in the next year or so.

Looks like the time between major OS releases is going to shorten substantially!

XP vs. Vista

2008-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the thread on Operating System Updates, we have:

Free support for Vista SP1 installs How nice!

Why Vista isn’t as good as the Mac Robert Scoble has some battery life issues on his Dell Tablet.

Death Match: Windows Vista vs. XP links to an article on the Australian PC World. It looks at big questions like: will Windows XP still be properly supported by Microsoft and, as a primary development target, by third parties? Is there something we've missed, some hidden gotcha that's going to trip us up?

The Death of Windows XP on Slashdot points to an article with a timeline of XP's death Windows XP: Going, going ... gone?

Another Slashdot post, Windows 7 Likely Going Modular, Subscription-based, describes a little of Microsoft's next Operating System. Modular doesn't seem like a new idea to those of us that know a little about Unix....

Vista SP1 Finally Released

2008-03-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

OSNews notes that Windows Vista SP1 Released

After many rumors as to when Windows Vista would get its much-anticipated first service pack looked improbable, Microsoft has finally dropped SP1 on the masses. SP1 rolls together 23 security updates and 550 hotfixes into a 434.5MB download (726.5MB for the 64-bit version). Apart from improvements brought by individual updates that are now part of SP1, changes that SP1 brings by itself to Microsoft's flagship OS are numerous.

Another post from downloadsquad, Windows Vista SP1 available now, has a few more details.

Some people are not happy with the update: Windows Vista SP1 Meeting Sour Reception In Places. Not too surprising!

Of course, this is after a delay, back to the original mid-March release date.

Meanwhile, Apple released the iPhone SDK about two weeks ago just a little late. They also released the second security update for 2008, two days ago....

A Tale of Operating System Updates

2008-02-20T11:43:00.001-08:00

Why does it take Microsoft so long to release updates for their operating system?

Vista was released a little over a year ago (November 8, 2006) and the first update (SP - Service Pack) is semi-available. See Vista SP1 Release May Be Near, Microsoft Upgrades Vista Kernel in SP1, SP1 Unsuccessful in Preventing Vista Hacks, or TechNet Users Revolt Over Vista SP1 Unavailability for details/commentary on the release of SP 1.

The previous version of Windows, Windows XP, was recently updated (see Microsoft releases Windows XP SP3 RC2 for details). That is about six and a half years since the original release date of October 25, 2001.

On the other hand, OS X 10.5 (Leopard), was released October 1, 2007. OS X 10.5.2 was released on February 11, 2008. That's two updates in less than five months. For some users, these were critical, but for many of us it was not.

The original question remains: Why does it take Microsoft so long to release updates for their operating system?

Reading: Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra

2007-11-20T15:14:00.000-08:00

I finished reading this book the other day. Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra was very good because it filled in some of the background of the development and growth of Algebra throughout history. The wars in Europe had a profound effect on many mathematicians and their work.

Some time after the first of the year, I think I will reread it and take notes as I read it. There are some concepts that could be more firmly fixed in my brain.

Tags: Books

Blog Reading

2007-11-19T04:29:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I posted one of these histograms....

Metafilter got the axe awhile back. Some blogs seem less active as we head into the holiday season....

First Snow!

2007-11-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

It started snowing about half an hour ago. Some of our Thanksgiving visitors are looking forward to it. The snow may or may not stick, but the weather forecast for the coming week makes snow quite possible.

Update November 20: It has dropped a bit more snow the last two nights. There is snow on the ground, but not the roads (they are a bit slushy). Yesterday I took a quick pass with the snow shovel on the driveway---just in case. Today I cleared the front porch.

GTK (or TLAs yet again)

2007-11-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

I've spent far too many hours this week looking over GTK information and trying to install GTK on OS X (both Leopard (OS X 10.5) and Tiger (OS X 10.4)). I thought I'd make one more attempt at it this morning, but have reached the conclusion it isn't worth the time, especially after finding a blog post GTK vs QT (thanks to Google) on the subject.

This is not the first time I have spent too much time on GTK. The first time was about two and a half years ago. I had heard about and seen some posts about the GIMP, so I thought it might be interesting to investigate, especially since it used a library (GTK) that supported standard graphics and user interface elements. After about a week, I gave up on both the GIMP and GTK. How could I get students to use something that took this long to install (and didn't work 100%). During my search for more information, I read about Qt (I had heard about it many years ago, but didn't really pursue it).

My experience with Qt has been much better. My first installation had some problems, so I gave it one more try and it worked (it took about eight hours to compile on my old G4 laptop). At some time, the folks at TrollTech started to release Qt as disk images, making the install process much easier.

Guess it's time to go back to looking at PyQt, since PyGTK isn't going to happen anytime soon for me.

---
Too many TLAs above? I posted More TLAs a little over a year ago.

GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program
GTK The GIMP Toolkit
PyGTK a set of Python bindings for the GTK framework
PyQt a set of Python bindings for Qt application framework

Solution to "The Theory of Everything"?

2007-11-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

Saw an interesting post on Dvorak Uncensored on Thursday entitiled "Has A Surfer Dude Solved ‘The Theory of Everything’?" I'm always a sucker for stories about surfer dudes having spent a lot of time in San Diego while growing up, so I read the post. After the post, I clicked on the link to a more detailed story Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything. It had links to the guy's (A. Garrett Lisi) work and life. Interesting reading!

It never ceases to amuse me how the media plays up the surfing aspect of someone that is successful. They did the same thing when J. Craig Venter was at the leading the charge in decoding the human genome a few years ago. Then again, there was the fairly recent story about the aging rock star (Brian May of Queen) going back to finish his PhD in Astrophysics. Some sort of leveling, or is it that surprising that nerds do something other than read books and work on computers?

Update November 18, 2007: A friend of mine from graduate school (M has a PhD in Physics and follows the Physics world quite closely) pointed me to a post by Dr. Sean Carrol "Garrett Lisi's Theory of Everything" about the paper. Garrett has posted a few comments in response. He continues to seem very humble about his work.

Update November 20, 2007: Decided to poke around and see if there was any further activity regarding Garrett's paper. There was! The BackReaction blog posted A Theoretically Simple Exception of Everything. The comments are interesting, as Dr. Lisi responded to several commenters. After reading the post and comments, I clicked on Garrett's name in one of his responses. It took me to Deferential Geometry his wiki. The wiki is interesting---at times you could see it rendering what looked like TeX for the links.... A little poking revealed that he is using TiddlyWiki, created by Jeremy Ruston, and jsMath, made by Davide P. Cervone. They work well together!

Speed Download by Yazsoft

2007-11-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

Last week I saw several posts (Borkware Miniblog and NSLog();) about using Speed Download to download Leopard from Apple. I was a bit skeptical, but had tagged one of them in Google Reader for later. After installing Leopard yesterday, I needed to install a newer version of TeX. After about two/three hours, the download terminated in the middle (about 350 of 740 MB). My first thought was to start it again, my second thought was "hmm, I should try that Speed Download application."

A few minutes later, Speed Download was installed and I was ready to go. First I had to find the URL at the CTAN (the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) which wasn't as easy as it should be.... Click start and about two hours later I had the latest version of MacTeX.

Yazsoft's Speed Download is now on my least of applications to purchase!

Learn Lisp/Scheme

2007-09-20T07:57:00.001-07:00

Peter Seibel, the author of Practical Common Lisp, posted that Google search results list some old tutorials instead of his more recent tutorials and asked for some link love. Some of these old tutorials are severely out of date and don't do much to promote the use of/interest in Lisp.

So, if you are looking to learn more about Lisp, see: Common Lisp tutorial. It is quite good. I spent some time looking at it about a year and a half ago, before deciding to stick with Scheme.

If you are looking for a good introduction to Scheme, take a look at How to Design Programs. It is very good also and is a better introduction to many Scheme concepts than Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It is one of the most frequently sited books for learning Lisp/Scheme. The easiest to use Scheme implementation I have seen is DrScheme. It has a lot of options and works very well with How to Design Programs (some of the authors of the book are also the implementors of DrScheme).

If you are using a Mac, take a look at NewLisp (it's actually cross platform). It's much more modern/easier to setup than some of the other Common Lisp implementations.

Blog Reading

2007-09-03T08:21:00.001-07:00

This week's numbers

No decision on axing/splitting any other blogs. Metafilter remains high on that list though.

Building qOrganizer on OS X

2007-08-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago I read about qOrganizer. Since it's open source and Qt, I thought I would try to build it when I had some time. I have some time this afternoon (office hours early in the semester usually aren't too busy). I downloaded the source, backed up the existing project file (just in case), then commenced building the application as follows:

cp qOrganizer.pro qOrganizer.pro.original
qmake qOrganizer.pro
xcodebuild -project qOrganizer.xcodeproj -activetarget

Note: qOrganizer is in: build/Default

The application could probably be built directly in Xcode, but I find the command line faster for things like this.

Double-click the final application and start organizing whatever you need to organize.

The data files are stored (as text) in the directory .qOrganizer in your home directory.

Blog Reading

2007-08-26T16:41:00.001-07:00

Here's the view:

News.com is going to get the axe today. It accounts for about 10% of the overall posts I've read over the last month or so. They updated posts, so I wind up reading the same headline multiple times. I'll go back to reading it as I did in the past---when I have time, I'll look at it, as I do for Drudge Report and HotLinks.

Future:

Axe MetaFilter?
Split off development-related posts from other posts?

Blog Reading

2007-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

This week seemed easier:

I don't think I'll cut any blogs this week. Cutting the Drudge Report and Hotlinks didn't change the numbers much, but it seemed like I spent less time actually using Google Reader.

Blog Reading

2007-08-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Removing Drudge Report from my feed list made some difference over the past week, as shown in the Trends chart:

This week, Hot Links is getting the axe. It's just as easy to go to the web page once or twice a day, as I have been doing for
Drudge Report.

Blog Reading

2007-07-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Reading blogs takes much less time using Google Reader. Why? The way things are organized/viewed is faster and I have learned the magic keystrokes (Shift-n, Shift-p, Shift-o to switch activate a feed and my old friends j and k for moving up and down inside a feed).

One other thing that has been interesting is the Trends chart:

Based on the trends, I was able to see that the Drudge Report was the most frequent poster (many repeats). After a little thought, Drudge got the axe. I can go to the web page a few times a day faster than looking at the headlines inside Reader. Next on the list is probably Hot Links.

Wireless Mouse (Keyboard) Batteries

2007-07-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

I have a love/hate relationship with my wireless mouse (and keyboard). The mouse seems to eat batteries. It seems like the mouse needs 2 AA batteries at the most inopportune moments....

Mouse:
September 27, 2007
August 25, 2007
July 28, 2007

Update August 25: The mouse needed to be fed again.
Update September 27: Fed mouse again, keyboard has shown an alert. Looks like the mouse needs to be fed once a month.

Facebook Bankruptcy

2007-07-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of buzz about Facebook since they opened it up to non-students recently. There have also been a number of posts about the difference between it and the other online diary applications. It's supposed to be a more mature version of MySpace.

Recently a high-profile Facebook user, Jason Calcanis, declared Facebook bankruptcy and comment bankruptcy. He has a great quote midway through his post:

You spend so much time checking off what you'll do that you never do anything.

Robert Scoble wrote: Calacanis can’t keep up with Facebook This post reeks of geek superiority, when there shouldn't be any. Scoble posts some interesting things and some interesting videos, but his job is different than a lot of other people. He fails to realize this in this post. Facebook, etc. are just tools for non-disruptive communication. The moment that their usage becomes disruptive, they lose their usefulness.

I fail to see how people can spend all day updating their every move on any of these applications and still get any real work done. Not to mention the fact that most people really don't care when/where you are eating, going, etc. These posts are a great reminder to focus on things that really need to be done.

Book: Rapid GUI Development with QtRuby

2007-07-25T14:43:00.000-07:00

The Pragmatic Programmers have released another little PDF book, Rapid GUI Development with QtRuby. It looks pretty good!

The bad news: It is written for Qt3. Hopefully they will update it for Qt4 in the near future.

An OLPC Option?

2007-07-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Slashdot reports a $150 Linux Laptop for the Masses. At first glance, this looks like another option for an OLPC---The laptop is a 1.5 GHz Celeron M 370 with 14 inch screen, wireless network and it comes with Fedora Red Hat pre-installed. According to the update, the Swedish company offering the machine may not be entirely legitimate.

Regardless, the future is clear. Low-cost machines are going to become more readily available.

Web 2.0?

2007-07-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

The debate over the use of Web 2.0 continues. O'Reilly's Conference News points to an article in the Miami Herald, What is Web 2.0?

The short story:
The definition of Web 2.0 differs depending on whom you ask.

The defining issue seems to be whether or not a user can edit something on a site, i.e., Wikipedia. One could argue that this is old technology, given that WikiWikiWeb started back in 1995 (if not a bit earlier), it's just easier for user's to modify (post) content.

So, I still don't think much of the use of the term Web 2.0. It's just marketing buzz words for the evolving state of the web.

Real meaning of OLPC?

2007-07-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

New Acronym: OnLine Porn for Children
Old Acronym: One Laptop Per Child

OLPC Used to Browse Porn, was posted on Slashdot last week. I was a little surprised to see this, then again not.

One Laptop Per Child machines for sale this Xmas?, on BoingBoing, suggests that more children may be able to view porn. It has a pretty good close-up of the machine, for those that haven't seen it.

Blog Reading: Bloglines -> Reader

2007-07-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've been using Google Reader the last few days, first for the Mac-related blogs, now for everything! I tried Reader several times before, but it didn't seem to do handle news the way I like to read them. Somewhere along the way, this has changed. I like the way it keeps a history of previously read items (I have over 3200 items marked in Bloglines). This was part of the catlyst for change---keeping items seems to slow Bloglines down, as it reloads any images. While waiting for one of the blogs to load the other day, I thought "I should try Reader again."

This is my second newsreader switch since I've been reading news/blog feeds. I switched to Bloglines from NetNewsWire about a year ago when I decided that I was rereading (mostly headlines) the same stories at home/office during the day. I still like NetNewsWire, but I don't always have access to it, the way I do to web-based readers.

This cartoon sums things up pretty well:

Some Coding Tips

2007-07-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, a couple of fairly well known Mac developers posted some thoughts on how to manage code a little more effectively. Each one of these has some good practical ideas to help manage the process.

Contrasting Hands

2007-07-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Mari holding my index finger. Quite a contrast in size!

Safari 3.0: DjVu Fix

2007-06-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Monday, Apple released Safari 3.0 for both Macintosh and Windows. I couldn't resist, so I installed it on my office machine and things have been working just fine, until today. While trying to read a DjVu file, DjVu quit. It took me a few minutes to remember that it is a plug-in and may not work with Safari 3.0.

Google to the rescue! Search for: DjVu "OS X" and a number of items are displayed. The original DjVu Plugin and WinDjView were just two of the items to choose from. Check the date on DjVu Plugin and see March 2006---kind of old. Take a look at WinDjView to see what it has to offer. Download, install, start --- success! Looks like I'll be using WinDjView now.

This is the first problem that I have had with Safari 3.0. Famous last words. Somehow, Safari crashed while looking at one of my old posts.

Blogging

2007-05-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

I should put more notes on this blog. How to convert PNGs to PDFs was here, but combining the PDF was not....

Cocoa source blog: Code Beach

Anyone Can Blog

2007-05-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

Gotta love cartoons like this....

Reading: Art Garfunkel's Reading List

2007-01-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

I saw a post somewhere that pointed to a list of books that Art Garfunkel has read since 1968. He has read nearly a 1000 books since June, 1968. His library is very eclectic. It includes many classics (Dickens, Faulkner, Shakespeare, Twain), popular at the moment (Stephen W. Hawking, Toffler, Gore Vidal), philosophy (Goethe, Kant), psychology (Freud, Piaget), and works by Russian authors (Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Tolstoy).

The next time you need a recommendation, just look at Art Garfunkel's list. If nothing else, you can tell your family/friends that Art Garfunkel read it when they ask "What are you reading?"

Tags: Reading

How did anything ever get done before email?

2007-01-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

Another great bLaugh comic. I've wondered this many times, but mostly about cell phones....

YALog(@"Boring");

$\LaTeX$ in Blogger?

First Snow -- 2011

First snow - 2010

First Snow - 2009

What Do People Find Challenging About Cocoa?

Gmail Problems

The Reality of Blogging

Reading: John Brunner, Traveler in Black

More Twitter

Twitter

Even More Snow?

More Snow?

Good News for Microsoft?

Blocks in Objective-C

Winter Driving

Microsoft Vulnerabilites

Microsoft News

First Snow

Some Microsoft News

The Internet Life?

Cyberchondria: Too Much Bad News

Happy Thanksgiving!

More Microsoft Issues

Veteran's Day

On the internet...

Want a dog?

Bugs, Speed, and Viruses!

Microsoft Windows 7?

Some Microsoft Stuff

Some Microsoft Items

Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Intel not upgrading to Vista

The Departure of Bill Gates in Comics

Windows: "An absolute mess" -- Bill Gates

Feeding Cannibals?

Windows 7 - Release Date Set

Wordle

XP/Vista RoundUp

Blog Value?

Microsoft: Don't Wait

Vista and Windows 7

Unread books

Leopard Update

The World of Microsoft Updates

Animal Farm == Democratic Party

Processing

More Vista Bashing

The Church of Oprah?

China: CNN/Olympics/Health/Internet

Psalm 90

Platitudes?

Facebook/Twitter Sucks

APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day)

iPhone SDK #4

Some C++ and Java Items

XP, Bill Gates all Meshed up

Microsoft Happenings

Microsoft Quality?

Ah, Vista!

Terry Fator - Live!

Art Elitism At Yale

Google Earth 4.3 Released

Windows Updates?

Shell History Meme

Windows is Broken

RIP: Ashley Morris

Lacey

More Snow!

XP, Vista, and Windows 7

XP vs. Vista

Vista SP1 Finally Released

More on Software Updates

A Tale of Operating System Updates

Reading: Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra

Blog Reading

First Snow!

GTK (or TLAs yet again)

Solution to "The Theory of Everything"?

Speed Download by Yazsoft