Friday, February 27, 2004
Smoots
If you've ever walked across the Harvard Bridge connecting Cambridge to Boston you've seen the Smoot markers on the sidewalk. The bridge is 364.4 Smoots plus one ear in length. A Smoot is the height of Oliver Smoot, a pledge of the MIT fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha back in 1958. It turns out that Oliver Smoot has devoted his life to measurement. He was chairman of ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and has just been elected as president of ISO (International Organization for Standardization). Impressive. The true measure of a man is how he can take a fraternity prank and turn it into a career. 
Thursday, February 26, 2004
The Worst (Mac) Word Ever
Mac Word 6.0 was big, slow and not very "Mac-like". Worse yet, its interface was arbitrarily different from its predecessor, Mac Word 5.0. All in all, a bad experience for users. Rick Schaut has worked for Microsoft for fourteen years starting out on Word 5.0 for the Macintosh. In this article Rick recalls the key decisions made during the development of Mac Word 6.0 and the technical problems they caused. It's rare to see this sort of candor ("Mac Word 6.0 was a crappy product") from someone in the trenches, especially when they're still employed by the company that produced the product. An excellent read.
World Snowball-fight Championship
Another childhood activity is taken over by adults. Actually I'd love to see something like this show up in the Winter Olympics.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
The Not So Random Coin Toss
Does a flipped coin have equal odds for heads and tails? Apparently not. Statistician Persi Diaconis, featured in this story on All Things Considered, found that coin flipping isn't as random as we assume. Using high speed cameras and equations, Diaconis found that even though humans are largely unpredictable coin flippers, there's a built-in a bias: If a coin starts out heads, it ends up heads when caught more often than it does tails. There's an approximate 1% bias in favor of heads in this case.
One interesting observation in the report is that coins don't always flip end over end when we flip them. Sometimes they don't really flip over at all. Sometimes they tumble in complicated ways. Diaconis' team constructed a mechanical coin flipper which, when carefully configured, would flip coins with exactly the same outcome each time. We can't really control our hands to be as precise. So humans are the random element in a coin flip but we're not as random as we think.
One interesting observation in the report is that coins don't always flip end over end when we flip them. Sometimes they don't really flip over at all. Sometimes they tumble in complicated ways. Diaconis' team constructed a mechanical coin flipper which, when carefully configured, would flip coins with exactly the same outcome each time. We can't really control our hands to be as precise. So humans are the random element in a coin flip but we're not as random as we think.
Foreign Languages for Travelers
The Foreign Languages for Travelers web page lets you search for a particular word or phrase translated into several dozen languages. Included with most of the translations is a sound file of a native speaker pronouncing the word or phrase.
In case you were wondering, no Klingon phrases are listed. Speaking of Klingon, this list of Klingon Software Quality Assurance phrases (in English) is handy.
In case you were wondering, no Klingon phrases are listed. Speaking of Klingon, this list of Klingon Software Quality Assurance phrases (in English) is handy.
Sharp Edges
Good thing I didn't touch the edges of this sign. Hmm, what's up with this bridge? Arrggh! (Via Waxy.org)
The Complete Guide to Googlemania!
This Wired story on Google is an interesting read. Not sure I like any of the proposed redesigns of the Google home page. I like the current simple design.
8up
I can't read Japanese but it's easy to figure out how to play this Flash game without instructions. It's like a Japanese version of Three Card Monty. Fun.
ZVUE
The HandHeld ZVUE portable video player is an interesting device. It's inexpensive ($99) and plays videos, MP3 files and can display JPEG photos. It's aimed at teenagers so the appeal is mostly as a novelty but now that MP3 players are relatively inexpensive, portable video players are clearly next. Of course, video requires a lot more storage than music but the usage model is different as well. Except for music videos, perhaps, it's unlikely that you'd want to carry around a huge video collection. The ability to quickly transfer video content to a device or card will be key.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004
BlogEnders
Can you blog too much? Sure, anything can be taken too far and become a harmful addiction. So when are we going to see a support group to help people quit the blogging habit ? We could call it "BlogEnders". A quick search didn't turn up anything. If the TV news magazines start talking about the "dark side of blogging" and blog addiction, remember you read about it here first. And look: all of the variations of BlogEnders domain names are still available! Fortunately I am not addicted to blogging. I can quit anything I want. Really. I just choose not to.
BlogBinders
BlogBinders can turn your weblog into a book. While some blogs may be "print worthy" I'm not sure that the usual blog entry that consists of a link to some web page followed by pithy or funny commentary would translate usefully into book form.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Subversion 1.0 Released
Subversion 1.0 has been released. Subversion is a relatively new version control system designed to be the successor to CVS. Subversion's design is similar to CVS but attempts to fix most of CVS's noticeable flaws. Looks like an O'Reilly book on Subversion is in the works. Here's the draft version. (Via Slashdot)
The Complete History of the Internet and Hacking
Here's a chronology of Internet and hacker events from the 1960s to the present. A selective list but still a very interesting read.
The Station Agent
We saw The Station Agent last night. Good indie film. I'd read that it got a lot of attention at Sundance; looks like it's won lots of awards too. It's about three lonely people and how their lives intertwine at a old train depot. Good acting, some comic moments, very lazy pacing. Peter Dinklage is especially good as Fin.
Abcdef... Whatever... The World's Longest Alphabetical Email Address
100% Pure Java, or Viable Java?
Good essay by David Jeske on the 100% pure Java mindset. Native code exists at some level "under Java" whether written by the application developer or not. In a competitive market, it comes down to whether you can build the best application in Java or not. Users shouldn't notice or care that it's written in Java. If using SWT allows you to build a better application, why the focus on Java purity? Swing is cross-platform emulation of platform look-and-feel. It's a subset of what's possible on any given platform. SWT is analogous to Swing but with a difference: SWT uses a rich set of native widgets. SWT is implemented on different platforms using a combination of Java code and JNI natives specific to each platform. It sounds a bit odd but has worked well for Eclipse. It allows the bulk of an application to be written portably in Java and still feel like a completely native application.
Congdon's Doughnuts
We spent part of the weekend in Maine. We drove up the coast and stayed overnight in Ogunquit. For breakfast the next day, we went to Congdon's Doughnuts in Wells. I don't think my family is related to these Congdons except in a Homer Simpson-like enjoyment of doughnuts. Homer buys his doughnuts from Lard Lad's Donuts but I think he'd approve of these.
See Spot run! Run, Spot, run!
A sharp-eyed reader noticed that my blog's tagline had a grammatical error. A missing comma. I'm chagrined especially since it's a takeoff on the classic "Run, Spot, Run!" line from the Dick and Jane First Grade Primer. I guess I took the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten to heart and forgot everything I learned after that. On the other hand, it looks like I'm not the only one having trouble with First Grade grammar. See this Straight Dope article on: How do you diagram the sentence, "See Spot run"?
Thursday, February 19, 2004
Flying Pigs
These paper animation kits from Flying Pig USA are very clever. They come in book form. You cut out the pieces, glue, assemble and play. (Via BoingBoing)
Support for @ Symbol Added to Morse Code
Morse code is entering the 21st (20th?) century by adding the "@" symbol used in e-mail addresses. The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between them. Apparently this was the first time in several decades that a new sign was added. Next up in 2050, Morse code support for emoticons
Bloglines
Bloglines has become my default RSS aggregator. It has a few quirks but I like it better than others that I've tried. I'm a little surprised because I expected that I'd prefer a "real" client over a browser-based one. Sam Ruby has reached the same conclusion. We share one complaint about the Bloglines interface: once you visit a feed it assumes that you've read all of the new postings in the feed unless you mark it as unread.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Ping-Pong
Let's see Ping is a command to help diagnose network issues. Pong was the first video game. But I digress. This is a cool Shockwave Ping-Pong game. (Via MetaFilter)
Barcode Yourself
Barcodes are everywhere. Why not make your own? Dan Bornstein has a script that let's you generate your own barcodes. Here's one that I made (the code value is meaningless):
Newsgroups and Blogs
K. Scott Allen has an interesting entry contrasting newsgroups and blogs:
According to Google groups, I first posted to Usenet in 1986. I started reading newsgroups a couple years earlier. Notice the weird email address? Top-level domain names (.com, .edu, .org, ...) had only been in use for a short while. Pseudo-domains such as .UUCP were in common use. In fact, if you scroll to the bottom, you'll see the god-awful syntax that was used to manually route email via UUCP:
I used to read Usenet newsgroups a lot but stopped several years ago. They're still a good resource but the noise level is too high. Now I use Google to search newsgroups if I want to look for something I can't find elsewhere. A lot of companies provide public news servers (separate from Usenet) for vendor-specific discussion forums. I don't use them too frequently.Blogs gives people a place to "push: ideas, in contrast to newsgroups and mailing lists, where it seems more acceptable to "pull" ideas by asking questions. Pull would work so much better if people didn't ask the same questions over and over again each day.
According to Google groups, I first posted to Usenet in 1986. I started reading newsgroups a couple years earlier. Notice the weird email address? Top-level domain names (.com, .edu, .org, ...) had only been in use for a short while. Pseudo-domains such as .UUCP were in common use. In fact, if you scroll to the bottom, you'll see the god-awful syntax that was used to manually route email via UUCP:
..{talcott,mit-eddie,frog}!ci-dandelion!congdon
Translation: if you can reach talcott, mit-eddie or frog, you'll be able to route through to ci-dandelion to reach me. UUCP maps were distributed back then in Usenet newsgroups to provide routing information to automate this process. DNS came along to provide a consistent hierarchical naming scheme and mechanism for finding other hosts. (K. Scott Allen link via Robert Scoble)This Old Blog
My recollection of weblog history is hazy. I remember the first time I used email, the first time I read and posted to Usenet news, the first time I used a web browser, etc. but I don't recall the first time I read a weblog. The blog concept includes things people had been doing in print form long before the term was coined. And people have been posting and updating "personal pages" on the web since the early days. But when did we start calling them weblogs ? I found this essay written in September 2000 on weblog history. According to the essay, the term weblog was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997.
I created my first weblog on Edit This Page in 1999. I posted a few times but abandoned it in 2001. I never took the time to learn Manila properly and lost interest. I just discovered that the blog is still there. For what it's worth, the set of articles that I wrote are still there too. Yes, the blog title is pretty odd. I just translated "line noise" into German.
My current blog started on Blogger in April 2001. I forgot about it until this past August when I was looking at some Blogger stuff. I posted a test entry linked to Ned's blog. He found the link in Technorati and sent me an email wanting to know if I was starting a blog. I decided to post some "real" entries. I've been posting steadily since then. Thanks to Ned for providing the impetus to get started and keep going.
I created my first weblog on Edit This Page in 1999. I posted a few times but abandoned it in 2001. I never took the time to learn Manila properly and lost interest. I just discovered that the blog is still there. For what it's worth, the set of articles that I wrote are still there too. Yes, the blog title is pretty odd. I just translated "line noise" into German.
My current blog started on Blogger in April 2001. I forgot about it until this past August when I was looking at some Blogger stuff. I posted a test entry linked to Ned's blog. He found the link in Technorati and sent me an email wanting to know if I was starting a blog. I decided to post some "real" entries. I've been posting steadily since then. Thanks to Ned for providing the impetus to get started and keep going.
Orkut maps
This is interesting. Someone has built maps from name and location data scraped from Orkut. For example, if you click on the map below it shows Orkut members who listed an address in the Boston area.
I wonder how the Orkut folks will feel now that their user directory is public? At least now if you aren't an Orkut member you can find someone nearby and pester them to send you an invitation. Actually, if you want an invitation just send me an email or post a comment here. (Via Robert Scoble)
I wonder how the Orkut folks will feel now that their user directory is public? At least now if you aren't an Orkut member you can find someone nearby and pester them to send you an invitation. Actually, if you want an invitation just send me an email or post a comment here. (Via Robert Scoble)
Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Chewbacca Defense
In a recent thread on Slashdot concerning SCO someone mentioned the Chewbacca Defense. The phrase refers to a nonsensical legal defense. It originated on South Park. The defense argument goes something like this:
Note: Chewbacca does not in fact live on Endor but the illogic of the defense doesn't require this to be true anyway.Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense! Why would a Wookiee - an eight foot tall Wookiee - want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!
What does that have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense!
None of this makes sense.
If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
Trunk Monkey
Everyone needs a trunk monkey This link came from Majk via email. Strangely appropriate since his web site claims to be "jet-powered and monkey navigated!".
(Via Majk)
(Via Majk)
PC Case Mods
PC cases are boring. So boring that case mods such as sticking glowing lights inside or attaching glowing USB cables is considered cool -- at least to geeks. Personally, I'm about as likely to "case mod" my desktop PC as I am to "case mod" my refrigerator. That's not to say that I don't appreciate good aesthetic design, I do, but you won't find much of it in PC case design outside of Apple. Adding glowing geegaws to a PC case is not design. So why are PC cases so boring in the first place? Is it strictly financial or is there something inherent in PCs that says Chevy Nova rather than Audi TT Coupe?
Java garbage collection and performance
Excellent article on developerWorks on Java garbage collection and performance. It explains how tricks that helped reduce the costs of garbage collection with early JVMs such as explicit nulling, object pooling, and explicit garbage collection now can do more harm than good. This article is the latest in a series on Java theory and practice by Brian Goetz. Lots of good content in earlier articles as well.
Sceptical
I was reading an article on BBC website, a quiz about cynicism. I found another word that Americans spell differently: sceptical / skeptical. The last spelling variation I was surprised by was gaol (jail). Can all of these variations be blamed on Noah Webster?
Monday, February 16, 2004
M&Ms pack more tightly than randomly packed spheres
As I wait for a build to complete, I'm snacking on a bowl of black and white M&Ms. I just found this interesting article on Science News. So M&Ms (ellipsoid shapes) can be packed nearly as dense as "perfectly" stacked spheres. That's surprising. And using M&Ms to come up with this result just shows that "doing science" doesn't have to be esoteric. I've got a bag of M&Ms and a bowl. Of course, the team mentioned in the article also had access to an MRI scanner to confirm their results. I don't have one or those handy.
Treo 600 camera
The image quality of the camera on the Treo 600 is typical for a camera phone -- a little better than a first generation digital camera. There's no zoom, no flash and only 0.3 Mp (640 x 480) resolution. The camera is intended for fun, not quality prints. That said, there are ways to improve the quality of the pictures that it takes. It works best in well-lit settings without too much contrast. Also, there are a couple of software applications that can improve the results. Qset is a simple Palm application that can modify the JPEG quality setting for the camera. The default setting is 65 which can show some JPEG artifacts. Increasing the quality setting to 90 will create larger image files but the artifacts go away. See this thread on TreoCentral for a discussion on this. There are plenty of image editing tools that can improve the appearance of digital pictures. One free application that works well with pictures taken with the Treo is DC Enhancer. It does a pretty decent job of removing digital noise and auto balancing images.
Determining the character encoding of an RSS feed
Mark Pilgrim has a good article on determining the character encoding of an RSS feed. This can be generalized into how to handle charsets for any XML content that's fetched via HTTP. The devil is in the details and you need to read the specs closely to figure out what's "right".
Handling charsets for HTML content over HTTP can be a little tricky too since HTML content can include a META tag that indicates what the charset is supposed to be. A number of years ago we discovered that Netscape 4.x browsers had a bug when handling the HTML META charset whereby if HTML content included this tag, the browser will fetch the page twise. This results in double POSTs if the browser was reading the result of a POST command. The bug is intermittent. It was the source of much gnashing of teeth and pulling out of hair before we figured out what was causing it. Fortunately, usage of Netscape 4.x browsers is rare these days.
Handling charsets for HTML content over HTTP can be a little tricky too since HTML content can include a META tag that indicates what the charset is supposed to be. A number of years ago we discovered that Netscape 4.x browsers had a bug when handling the HTML META charset whereby if HTML content included this tag, the browser will fetch the page twise. This results in double POSTs if the browser was reading the result of a POST command. The bug is intermittent. It was the source of much gnashing of teeth and pulling out of hair before we figured out what was causing it. Fortunately, usage of Netscape 4.x browsers is rare these days.
Wireless mouse
I bought a wireless optical mouse for our desktop system at home. It's an inexpensive Logitech mouse and works great. The fewer wires the better. I would have preferred to get a Bluetooth mouse but our desktop system doesn't have built-in Bluetooth. I couldn't justify buying a Bluetooth USB adapter just for the mouse. Also Bluetooth wireless mice are currently more expensive than the non-Bluetooth variety. Eventually we'll get a new desktop system and we'll go all wireless for peripherals. For now, this works fine.
Sunday, February 15, 2004
People lie more on the phone than by email
According to the New Scientist, a study has shown that people lie more on the phone than by email. The fact that emails are automatically recorded - and can come back to haunt you - appears to be the key to the finding. (Via blackcarr.org)
Grow
Grow: I have no idea what the goal is here but it's nice eye candy. I got 9400 on my first (and only) attempt. (Via Waxy.org)
Squeak Box
I'm not a computer hardware geek. I prefer turnkey hardware. Plug it in, flip the switch, it works. Computer as appliance, not hobbyist breadboard. Here's an interesting minimalist system that comes preconfigured as a "Squeak Box". For $250 you get a bootable system for doing Squeak development. Squeak is an integrated software development environment for Smalltalk. It's distributed as open source and runs on many computers and operating systems. This Squeak PC system is a very basic x86 box running Linux -- no hard drive, just flash but otherwise fully functional. Plug in a monitor, keyboard, mouse and network jack and you're good to go.
Saturday, February 14, 2004
Mobile Bloglines
I've been using Hand/RSS on my Treo 600 to read news feeds. It works pretty well but I just tried Mobile Bloglines and like it better. It's a simplified UI for Bloglines and I can use the same account that I use on my laptop.
Friday, February 13, 2004
Another Penguin Game
In this game you have to hit the penguin out of the air with a snowball onto a target. A little tricky but additive.
Get Stomped
In this game the goal is to avoid gettting flattened by an elephant for as long as you can. I managed to stay alive for 12.2 seconds. The elephant seems to really enjoy his work but I can't understand what he's saying. Anyone?
Decompression bombs
A Decompression Bomb is a compressed-format file that expands to fill your disk. The bomber sends you an email with a compressed attachment designed to choke a virus scanner or the like. This article describes in more detail how different compression schemes can be exploited. For example, using GZIP to repeatedly compress a specific byte stream in three stages can result in a file of only 5928 bytes that when expanded is 100 gigabytes!. Other file formats that use compression are vulnerable as well, for example a GIF file that represents a 6000 x 6000 black rectangle compresses down to 25527 bytes but will expand to over 100 megabytes when represented as a 24-bit image.
Thursday, February 12, 2004
8 GB CompactFlash card
SimpleTech has announced an 8 GB CompactFlash card. Only catch: it costs $5,999 (!). Insane for now but give 'em time. When cards with this sort of capacity become affordable, tapeless digital video recorders will be the norm. (Via Gizmodo)
Python Phone?
Nokia is going to support Python on their Series 60 handsets. These phones use the Symbian OS which already supports Java. Not exactly sure why you'd want Python on your phone but it's a cooler language choice than VB According to Peertti Korhonen, the CTO of Nokia, they may also add support for Perl. Yow. (Via MobileWhack)
According to Peertti Korhonen, the CTO of Nokia, they may also add support for Perl. Yow. (Via MobileWhack)
I Feel Great! Yeah!
Gee, I eat Nutrigrain bars all of the time and never felt as good as this guy. How can I too, feel great?
Dog and Cat Bloggers
Joi Ito mentions that he was playing with his dog the other day and wondered what her blog might look like. Something like the dog's diary in this. Pretty funny and the cat's diary is hilarious. (Via Joi Ito)
Method swizzling in Objective-C
MethodSwizzling in Objective-C lets you modify the mappings from a selector (method name) to an implementation (the method code itself). This allows you to "patch" methods in existing code. Sounds bizarre and it's the sort of thing that you have to use carefully. On NeXTStep we relied on the more invasive poseAs mechanism. It lets you define a class to replace an existing class. Everywhere that code creates an instance of the existing class it actually creates an instance of the "poser". All method calls go through the poser class first (which has access to the original class). We used this to override the NSText class to work-around some editor bugs. (Via 0xDECAFBAD)
The Simpsons: The Movie?
The Guardian is reporting that a Simpsons movie is in the early planning stages. No date yet. I'll believe it's really happening when it shows up in IMDB.
Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Fear In Numbers
According to this list of phobias, Apeirophobia is the fear of Infinity. There doesn't seem to be a fear of zero. Kenophobia, the fear of voids or empty spaces, seems like a reasonable approximation. Fear of numbers in general is Numerophobia. Special mention is also made of the fear of the number thirteen (Triskadekaphobia) and the number eight (Octophobia). Thirteen I understand, it's considered unlucky but what's wrong with eight? (Okay, the Phobia Clinic explains it somewhat, it's the "figure eight"). And eight is just the Infinity symbol standing upright. Is there something that the brain doesn't like about this shape? Further digging and the Phobia Clinic web site doesn't impress me as much: this page is nearly the same as the one shown for Octophobia sufferers just a few different words. Must be a template. If I suffered from these phobias I'd feel cheated.
I never had a number phobia -- maybe number philia. I like powers of two, especially eight. One childhood phobia I recall was triggered when we drove across bridges. I would grip the door handle until we got to the other side -- I guess I was thinking that if the car started to veer off the bridge I would quickly open the door and jump out. I don't think I really thought that plan through.
I never had a number phobia -- maybe number philia. I like powers of two, especially eight. One childhood phobia I recall was triggered when we drove across bridges. I would grip the door handle until we got to the other side -- I guess I was thinking that if the car started to veer off the bridge I would quickly open the door and jump out. I don't think I really thought that plan through.
HotLinks
HotLinks scans RSS feeds for new content and displays a synopsis of each link as well as a thumbnail of the web page. Simple idea and very cool. Looks like it was built entirely from open source tools including MagpieRSS for RSS parsing and khtml2png which creates PNG versions of web pages. Maybe I'm just a sucker for pretty pictures. On the other hand, I did find several cool links the first few times I visited this site. Looks like HotLinks is relatively new. I almost felt like keeping it all to myself. Clearly I didn't.
There's also a HotLinks blog, an RSS feed as well as an OPML file listing all of the HotLinks public feeds.
There's also a HotLinks blog, an RSS feed as well as an OPML file listing all of the HotLinks public feeds.
Mozilla Firefox 0.8
I downloaded Mozilla Firefox the other night. It's terrific. No whizbang features that I've found so far, it's just fast and rock-solid (despite the 0.x version number).
Comments
Squawkbox is acting flaky again today. I've gotten email notifications of a few comments being posted since last night but they don't appear yet. Sorry, I'll see what I can do.
Update: I figured it out. My bad. Not sure why I didn't notice this earlier. Under some circumstances, Blogger post ids were being treated as numbers in JavaScript and getting truncated or rounded. Bad. I worked around that problem and hacked the JavaScript so that old comments wouldn't disappear. I have to move over to my own comment system and stop relying on a third party.
Update: I figured it out. My bad. Not sure why I didn't notice this earlier. Under some circumstances, Blogger post ids were being treated as numbers in JavaScript and getting truncated or rounded. Bad. I worked around that problem and hacked the JavaScript so that old comments wouldn't disappear. I have to move over to my own comment system and stop relying on a third party.
Comcast Proposes to Buy Walt Disney
Walt Disney must be spinning in his cryogenic chamber. Comcast has made a bid to buy Walt Disney Co. This reminds me a bit too much of the AOL/Time-Warner merger. Wonder how this is going to play out? Disney is already in turmoil with shareholder fights between Eisner and Roy Disney. The recent split with Pixar can't help either.
Note: if you read the first link you'll note that the "Disney On Ice" rumor is false. I just felt compelled to use "cryogenic" in a sentence.
Note: if you read the first link you'll note that the "Disney On Ice" rumor is false. I just felt compelled to use "cryogenic" in a sentence.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Pronunciation of SQL
Charles Miller finally settles the argument on how to pronounce SQL. Nope, it's not "sequel". And no, it's not "Ess Que Elle". The proper pronunciation is "Squirrel". Makes perfect sense. Microsoft Squirrel Server has a nice ring to it.
Was Atkins obese?
According to this article, Dr. Robert Atkins was clinically obese at the time of his death. It says he weighed 18-1/2 stone (which Google helpfully translates for us Americans as 259 pounds). The article says he was six feet tall which gives him a BMI value of 35.1 -- obese. That doesn't mean his diet doesn't work but it does seem a bit ironic.
Update: As mentioned in the article, there's some dispute as to when Atkin's weight increased. I don't have anything against the man or his diet. I have friends who've lost weight on it. It just seemed like one of those "isn't it ironic?" stories.
Update: As mentioned in the article, there's some dispute as to when Atkin's weight increased. I don't have anything against the man or his diet. I have friends who've lost weight on it. It just seemed like one of those "isn't it ironic?" stories.
Micro Java (J2ME) for Palm
I finally got around to installing the Java runtime on my Treo 600. The performance is pretty good. Lots of cell phones and PDAs support J2ME applications, especially games. I found more info and downloads on the MicroDevNet website
T-Mobile Treo 600
Almost five months after the Treo 600 started shipping for Sprint, it is finally going to be available for T-Mobile. Upgrade price for existing T-Mobile Treo customers is $399. The T-Mobile Treo 600 is expected to start shipping in early March.
What To Rent
What To Rent will recommend a movie for you to watch based upon your personality and the type of film experience you are looking for. Seemed to work well for me but the Theory and Operation section of the web site is a little odd. Integrated circuits?
PalmSource to rebrand OSes Garnet, Cobalt
According to The Register, PalmSource will rebrand Palm OS 5 as Palm OS Garnet and it's successor (Palm OS 6?) as Palm OS Cobalt. From version numbers back to names that's an interesting twist.
Monday, February 09, 2004
Close Encounters of the Steve Kind
Folklore.org has a recollection of a meeting between Steve Jobs and Donald Knuth. Classic. Speaking of Knuth, previews of The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4 are now available. Current plans are to publish in 2007.
Meeting Agenda Detection
Ever been in a pointless meeting? Of course you have. Rather than just suffer silently, read Rand's Guide to Agenda Detection and you'll be better prepared to determine what needs to be done and the fastest way to get out the door. His final conclusion:
That's certainly more useful advice than "sit there, keep quiet, grit your teeth and appear interested".Meetings are always going to be inefficient because language is hard. Getting folks in the same group, with the same organizational accent to talk coherently to each other is hard enough. Meetings give us the opportunity to include other organizations with other accents. This makes the language chaos complete, but, now, you don't care. You don't need to know what they're saying because with Agenda Detection, you can figure out what they want, get it for them, and get the hell out.
TV Tome
TV Tome is an amazing TV reference guide. Episode guides, reviews, etc. For example, here's The Simpsons episode list. And here are more than you'd ever want to know about my older son's current favorite shows: SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly Odd Parents.
It Was Forty Years Ago Today
My parents called my brother and me downstairs to watch The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. What I remember were the bowl haircuts and screaming fans. I was a small child dressed in pajamas ready for bed, but yes, I'm that old. For kids, the Beatles quickly went from Ed Sullivan curiosity to popular obsession: we listened to them on our portable AM radios, carried Beatles lunchboxes to school and watched Beatles cartoons on Saturday morning.
Playing Favorites
Back in 1981 Brian Kernighan wrote a well-reasoned rant entitled Why Pascal is Not My Favorite Programming Language. Nearly 23 (!) years later, James A C Joyce responds with his own rant: Why C Is Not My Favourite Programming Language.
In my opinion, Joyce's premise is flawed
I could understand a rant that was focused on safety issues of unchecked buffer overflow in C libraries. Or one that asked why developers continue to develop new code in C rather than C++ (or Java or C#). But why drag Pascal into the discussion? And why only a single mention of C++ which was clearly designed as the successor to C?
In my opinion, Joyce's premise is flawed
Kernighan's rant was directed at the Pascal language as it existed in 1981 Pascal was a teaching language and not suitable for serious programming. C was designed to be a low-level system programming language. Its use in the development of Unix is a testament to its value for "serious" programming. There are some reasonably successful Pascal derivatives such as Delphi but C derivatives such as C++ (and C# and Java...) are predominant these days.Unfortunately, time has not been kind to Kernighan's tract. Pascal has matured and grown in leaps and bounds, becoming a premier commercial language. Meanwhile, C has continued to stagnate over the last 35 years with few fundamental improvements made. It's time to redress the balance; here's why C is now owned by Pascal.
I could understand a rant that was focused on safety issues of unchecked buffer overflow in C libraries. Or one that asked why developers continue to develop new code in C rather than C++ (or Java or C#). But why drag Pascal into the discussion? And why only a single mention of C++ which was clearly designed as the successor to C?
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox 0.8 has been released. Yet another name change for this terrific web browser (Firefox aka Firebird aka Phoenix). The browser is not to be confused by the Clint Eastwood movie of the same name: "You must think in Russian"
Server Geek Humor
Server geek humor is alive and well at Orkut and Bloglines. When Orkut gets a server error it reports:
Server folks rarely get the chance to do stuff like this -- and those of us who work on commercial products never get the chance. Servers aren't really funny when they misbehave. Administrators probably won't appreciate humor showing up in log files. And the jokes we put in comments in our source code only are seen by fellow project members. It's a pity.
When Bloglines is under repairs it displays this image:Bad bad server. No donut for you
Server folks rarely get the chance to do stuff like this -- and those of us who work on commercial products never get the chance. Servers aren't really funny when they misbehave. Administrators probably won't appreciate humor showing up in log files. And the jokes we put in comments in our source code only are seen by fellow project members. It's a pity.
Sunday, February 08, 2004
Oddbot and Conditional GETs
I've been noticing a number of Oddbot references in my referrer log. Oddbot is the RSS/news feed robot for Oddpost. Following that thread takes me to a good article on implementing conditional GET for RSS feeds. True confession time: my RSS feed is dumb. It's a simple PHP script that I've hacked a few times but only enough to get it working. It generates content dynamically each time. It would be a simple matter to fix it to support conditional GETs. I should fix it. I will fix it. When I get some time.
Visited States
I've seen several references to this visited states map maker for the past couple of weeks (including Pete). So I clicked away and created my own map.
There's a swath of the Northwestern and Southern states that I haven't visited yet. And then there's West Virginia. I've never been there although I do have a cousin who lives there. You can create your own visited states map here. There's also a visited countries map maker here. I tried that as well but the results aren't too impressive. I lit up all of North America, a few Caribbean countries and portions of Europe.
There's a swath of the Northwestern and Southern states that I haven't visited yet. And then there's West Virginia. I've never been there although I do have a cousin who lives there. You can create your own visited states map here. There's also a visited countries map maker here. I tried that as well but the results aren't too impressive. I lit up all of North America, a few Caribbean countries and portions of Europe.
W3C Recommends XML 1.1
The W3C officially recommended XML 1.1 a few days ago. Nothing to get excited about -- just changes to handle characters in later versions of the Unicode Standard. Yawn. Unless you're writing an XML parser, XML 1.1 can be safely ignored. If you're generating XML, don't mark it as XML 1.1 content. Why? Because as the spec says: "Programs which generate XML SHOULD generate XML 1.0, unless one of the specific features of XML 1.1 is required". Need anything in the XML 1.1 spec? Unlikely. And even if you do, it's going to be a while before support for XML 1.1 is common. (Via Don Park)
Packaging Rant
"Out-of-box experience" is a term used to describe the initial experience a user has in taking a new product out of the box and setting it up. That assumes you can actually get the product out of the box in the first place. I've purchased a number of items recently that were packaged in hard transparent plastic. I hate this stuff. There's no seam to break open -- the entire outside edge of the package is sealed shut. The only way get at the item inside is to surgically remove it. And that's often difficult to do -- the plastic is so thick it's tricky to avoid damaging the contents. And once you've cut through the plastic, the packaging is ruined and can't be used for anything. This type of packaging is most likely intended to discourage shoplifting but there's got to be a better way than this.
Swiping Barcodes
I recently renewed my Massachusetts driver's license. The new one has a 2D bar code on the back. As described in this Wired article the barcode encodes the information displayed on the front of the card -- and possibly more info. One concern with this form of personal information is how casually it can be collected by a quick scan. I can understand the concern. but I'm not particularly worried. About the only place I show my driver's license these days is a video rental store (I lost the rental card long ago). They don't swipe or scan the card, they just glance at the name and address. If you're worried about what information might be stored on your license, you can download the SWIPE Toolkit and see for yourself. And, as mentioned in the Wired article, you could put a sticker over the barcode if you want to prevent it from being scanned.
Spot The Fake Smile
See how many fake smiles you can spot. I did much better than I expected: I got 16 out of 20 right and picked out all of the fakes. Maybe I'm better at reading "body language" than I thought. (Via MetaFilter)
Class Data Sharing
J2SE 1.5.0 Beta 1 is out. Lots of interesting new features in this release. One that I hadn't read about before is Class Data Sharing (CDS). CDS is intended to reduce startup time and memory footprint for Java applications. Geez. It's about time. Having each JVM "demand map" classes into memory (and transform the class data) is expensive and sucks up memory that can't be shared across JVMs.
The Skeptic's Dictionary
Skepticism is healthy. If something seems "too good to be true", it probably is. There are lots of ways that faulty logic and pseudoscience tries to convince us to buy something or think a particular way. The Skeptic's Dictionary is terrific web site that contains articles on "Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions".
Friday, February 06, 2004
RSS 2.0 and Comments Feed
I've added an RSS 2.0 feed here. It's the same content. The only visible change is that with RSS 2.0 I can supply a Comments link for each item. This is useful when using some aggregators (e.g. Bloglines) that will display a Comments link. You can add a comment to the entry without the need to open the entry directly. I also added a Comments RSS Feed here. Not sure how useful this will be to anyone but since it could be done, I did it.
Thursday, February 05, 2004
How to manage smart people
Scott Berkun has some advice on how to manage people, especially talented people. Good stuff. Here's an except:
Managing people is difficult. A good manager can make it look deceptively easy. It's not easy.Managers have many undocumented, unsaid, but incredibly important, functions. They have more to do with enabling the happiness and productivity of the people that work for them than anyone else in the organization. A manager, at any level of hierarchy, from line project manager, to CEO, has an emotional responsibility to their reports, or to the people who are dependent on them. Like a parent in a family, or a coach of a sports team, a manager sets the tone for dialog (open and thoughtful or defensive and confrontational?), enables or prevents a fun work environment, and interprets (or ignores) the corporate rules and structure, into a daily practice of shared work. While managers are hired to get stuff done for their employer, they also make a personal commitment to each of their reports by being their boss. The manager automatically takes on more responsibility for the career of their employee than anyone else in the organization or company.
The cult of competence
A new survey says one in 10 people is incompetent at work. Homer Simpsons of the world unite! (Via Small Values of Cool)
64-bit Windows XP preview for AMD CPUs out
Intel seems to have miscalculated the level of interest in 64-bit x86 technology. Microsoft has just released a 64-bit Windows XP preview for AMD CPUs.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Mein Boot ist gelb
This Shockwave submarine simulation is nice. The visuals and music are soothing. (Via MetaFilter)
USB Flash Drive
I bought a 256 MB PNY USB Flash drive at CompUSA last week. Simple and easy to use. Being able to pop it in and do a quick backup is great. The deal for the PNY drive expired last week but I noticed that they're selling a similar SanDisk flash drive for $49.99 this week which is an excellent price.
Speaking of flash memory. I was digging through some boxes and found my Psion Series 3a. A technology relic: about 10 years old. It has two flash card slots. Each card held 256K. Psion PDAs were way ahead of their time but Psion was never too popular in the US. At least Psion's software is getting wider distribution. The Symbian OS used by high-end cellphones was originally developed by Psion.
Speaking of flash memory. I was digging through some boxes and found my Psion Series 3a. A technology relic: about 10 years old. It has two flash card slots. Each card held 256K. Psion PDAs were way ahead of their time but Psion was never too popular in the US. At least Psion's software is getting wider distribution. The Symbian OS used by high-end cellphones was originally developed by Psion.
Monday, February 02, 2004
Orkut impressions
Orkut is the first online community, social network thing that I've joined. I'd read about Friendster, LinkedIn, etc. but didn't bother with them. After spending some time with Orkut I agree with David Weinberger's assessment: "I personally am finding Orkut to be all maintenance and no value". Collecting friends on Orkut is like collecting trading cards -- it's fun but for what ultimate purpose?. I've joined some Orkut communities and created a couple as well but so far I don't see much value to it all.
Groundhog Day
Today is Groundhog Day. Phil saw his shadow so we get six more weeks of winter. (Today because my shadow I see, six more weeks of winter there will be). Personally I'd rather watch Bill Murray's movie version than the real event.
A few years we found a couple of groundhog cubs in front of our neighbor's house. We were afraid that they might get run over so we walked over to see if we could move them to a safer place. They were pretty small but had sharp teeth and long sharp claws. One of them got up enough courage to growl at me but both of them seemed to be shaking in fear. According to the neighbor, they had probably wandered from a den in the woods behind his house. We moved them back by carefully coaxing them onto a shovel. The mother returned later. As this article mentions, groundhogs mature quickly and can fend for themselves by the time they're six weeks old.
A few years we found a couple of groundhog cubs in front of our neighbor's house. We were afraid that they might get run over so we walked over to see if we could move them to a safer place. They were pretty small but had sharp teeth and long sharp claws. One of them got up enough courage to growl at me but both of them seemed to be shaking in fear. According to the neighbor, they had probably wandered from a den in the woods behind his house. We moved them back by carefully coaxing them onto a shovel. The mother returned later. As this article mentions, groundhogs mature quickly and can fend for themselves by the time they're six weeks old.
Engineering geek names son version 2.0
I guess this is further proof you should avoid version 1.0 of anything. Potential parents: giving your kid a humorous name is a really dumb idea. Growing up is hard enough without having your name be source of amusement for your classmates. Don't do it.
Sunday, February 01, 2004
Orkut
I got an Orkut invitation the other day. Orkut is Google's answer to Friendster, an online social network. I accepted the invite, entered my info, invited several more people, joined some groups and now... And now what? Orkut tells me that there are 11907 people connected through my friends. Cool. I guess. I haven't had an "Orkut epiphany" yet. I can see the potential but don't know where this will lead (if anywhere).
Cold January
January in Boston felt cold, really cold. It was more than just a feeling. It was the second coldest January in Boston on record and the coldest January in over 100 years. Average temperature for the month was 20 °F. And since we get wind with our cold here, it feels a lot colder than that. Today will be the first day since January 22nd where it will get above freezing.
How To Order Coffee: A Starbucks Guide
Tucked into the plastic bag covering today's Boston Globe is a Starbucks pamphlet entitled "Make It Your Drink: A Guide to Starbucks® Beverages". It's a veritable Berlitz Pocket Guide to Starbucks. But who is this pamphlet for? Starbucks has had shops in the Boston area for many years. Have Bostonians resisting barista-speak? Do we need remedial help from Starbucks on how to order coffee?
Don't misunderstand, I like Starbucks. Unlike Ben, I willingly drink cappuccino and the like. And for those of us who aren't too parochial, the fact that you can walk down the street just about anywhere and find a decent cup of coffee is a good thing. I just wish that Starbucks didn't pile on the attitude and barista-speak so heavily. Truth be told, I'm more likely to end up at a Dunkin Donuts than Starbucks these days. Dunkin Donuts is even more prolific around here, their coffee is prety good, is a lot cheaper than Starbucks and there's no "barista" attitude.
Don't misunderstand, I like Starbucks. Unlike Ben, I willingly drink cappuccino and the like. And for those of us who aren't too parochial, the fact that you can walk down the street just about anywhere and find a decent cup of coffee is a good thing. I just wish that Starbucks didn't pile on the attitude and barista-speak so heavily. Truth be told, I'm more likely to end up at a Dunkin Donuts than Starbucks these days. Dunkin Donuts is even more prolific around here, their coffee is prety good, is a lot cheaper than Starbucks and there's no "barista" attitude.
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