Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Free Programming and Computer Science Books
Take a look at techbooksforfree.com. An extensive list of free books to view online or download. Quite a variety of topics including PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, Mono, Mozilla, etc.
NeWS
James Gosling talks about his first project at Sun, a PostScript-based window system called NeWS (the Networked, extensible, Window System).
Back in the day, I used NeWS on SGI boxes and then X11/NeWS on Sun boxes. NeWS was a really cool set of ideas but the implementations I used were slow and clunky. It was too easy to take down the display server with misbehaving code. And it really wasn't much fun writing UI code in a odd mixture of C and Postscript.
Later at Lotus, we used Display Postscript on NeXT for Improv. Huge difference. The implementation was fast and solid. Plus, you only needed to use Postscript directly when you wanted to do something exotic. Most of the time you just used the AppKit.
That's not to say that NeWS was fundamentally flawed. It was certainly nicer than SunView. As James says, NeWS died for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, the medocre quality of the early implementations was only one of them. Probably the biggest reason was that X11 came along, had lots of vendor support and was "open source". X11 was far from elegant but it worked and was good enough.
Note: James has some interesting notes about what he'd do if he was writing a Window System from scratch. (Via Barry Briggs)
Back in the day, I used NeWS on SGI boxes and then X11/NeWS on Sun boxes. NeWS was a really cool set of ideas but the implementations I used were slow and clunky. It was too easy to take down the display server with misbehaving code. And it really wasn't much fun writing UI code in a odd mixture of C and Postscript.
Later at Lotus, we used Display Postscript on NeXT for Improv. Huge difference. The implementation was fast and solid. Plus, you only needed to use Postscript directly when you wanted to do something exotic. Most of the time you just used the AppKit.
That's not to say that NeWS was fundamentally flawed. It was certainly nicer than SunView. As James says, NeWS died for a variety of reasons. In my opinion, the medocre quality of the early implementations was only one of them. Probably the biggest reason was that X11 came along, had lots of vendor support and was "open source". X11 was far from elegant but it worked and was good enough.
Note: James has some interesting notes about what he'd do if he was writing a Window System from scratch. (Via Barry Briggs)
FirefoxIE
Want to make Firefox look like Internet Explorer? Sure, why not? I think this is a reasonable idea but would be more appealing if there was a single EXE that incorporated all the themes, plug-ins, etc.
Apple unveils iMac G5
Apple has unveiled new G5 iMacs. All-in-one integrated system and display. 17-inch and 20-inch screens. US Pricing starting at $1299. Very cool.
Monday, August 30, 2004
An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes
As Ned noted recently, weaknesses have been found in MD5. Researchers have found ways to reliably generate collisions in cryptographic hash functions (MD5, MD4, SHA-0, HAVAL-128 and RIPEMD) much faster than brute-force time. Cool stuff but what are these algorithms used for and why should you care? Read the Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes.
Note: Edward Felten has also written about this subject. Here's his analysis, based on the latest research:
Note: Edward Felten has also written about this subject. Here's his analysis, based on the latest research:
Granted, he's speaking about algorithmic weakness, there are no known exploits based on this work yet but this is big news.Where does this leave us? MD5 is fatally wounded; its use will be phased out. SHA-1 is still alive but the vultures are circling. A gradual transition away from SHA-1 will now start. The first stage will be a debate about alternatives, leading (I hope) to a consensus among practicing cryptographers about what the substitute will be.
What If Simpsons Characters Mated?
If Principal Skinner and Edna Crabapple had a child what would he/she look like? More matchups here. Some of these are disturbing.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
We're Back
We spent a week at Acadia National Park. The weather was beautiful, the nicest week of the entire summer. Excellent for hiking, biking, swimming, boating, etc. We stayed in Bar Harbor which was originally known as Eden.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Slow week
Greetings from Eden -- I'll explain that when we get back. We're away this week so I probably won't be posting too much.
Olympics
Like most of the rest of the world, we've been watching the Olympics on television. NBC's coverage has been better this time around. They're spending more time covering events rather than extraneous stuff. And the camera work and use of technology has terrific. I really liked how they could overlay two separate performances by the same gymnist and how precise they were move-by-move. We've also been watch Olympic coverage on the CBC. It's been consistently good, less hype and over-the-top commentary than American networks.
Friday, August 20, 2004
CobolScript
Stick the word Script at the end of any programming language name and old becomes new again. Case in point: CobolScript.
It used to be said that, to a first approximation, all programs are written in COBOL. Apparently this is still true, at least in some sectors. Here's the relevant quote:
It used to be said that, to a first approximation, all programs are written in COBOL. Apparently this is still true, at least in some sectors. Here's the relevant quote:
"Most of the world's business data, approximately 75 to 85 percent, is written in COBOL," adds Bill Payson, president and CEO of Senior Techs, an Internet-based job bank for experienced IT professionals in Campbell, Calif. "That translates to some hundreds of billions of lines of code."Hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL code? Yikes. Maybe CobolScript isn't such a crazy idea after all.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
End Of The Line For Alpha
Another remnant of Digital Equipment Corporation is going away. It's the end of the line for the Alpha chip. It never really had enough market share or attention to be viable. Digital's acquisition by Compaq and then HP didn't help much either. Too bad.
Python in Air Traffic Control
According to this Python success story, Python is being used in air traffic control software. One interesting aside: apparently Python replaced another scripting language. The project originally used Lua but found Python to be easier to develop and debug.
This reminds me of Sun's original Java code license which would have precluded the language from being used on a project like this:
This reminds me of Sun's original Java code license which would have precluded the language from being used on a project like this:
Sun amended the license several years ago. It no longer mentions air traffic control.Software is not designed or intended for use in on-line control of aircraft, air traffic, aircraft navigation or aircraft communications; or in the design, construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility. Licensee warrants that it will not use or redistribute the Software for such purposes.
Broadband use surpasses dial-up in US
According to this article broadband users now represent more than half of all home Internet users in the U.S., up from 39% a year ago. Hmm, I wonder how many of those "always connected" systems are protected by a firewall?
Toogle This
Toogle is a Text version of Google's Image Search. And here is my Toogle image. It's from an ancient article on Domino 4.6. Let's look for some other Iris alumni: Here is Ned. Here is Pete. Those were like mine, just a pure name match. Maybe we can call that a Tooglewhack? I needed to be a little more creative to get these last two: Here is Brian and here is Andrew.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Ignorance is Bliss
Charles Miller and Alan Green have a funny exchange over the virtues of ignorance in Java. Very geeky. Charles final response captures blissful ignorance quite well.
To take this one geeky step further, I can't fail to mention the BLISS programming language. My first employer had a VMS source license and most of VMS was written in BLISS-32. As a result, I ended up learning how to read BLISS code. It was a powerful and somewhat scary language. Very low-level and more powerful than C. At the same time a lot easier to screw up than C -- if that sounds possible.
To take this one geeky step further, I can't fail to mention the BLISS programming language. My first employer had a VMS source license and most of VMS was written in BLISS-32. As a result, I ended up learning how to read BLISS code. It was a powerful and somewhat scary language. Very low-level and more powerful than C. At the same time a lot easier to screw up than C -- if that sounds possible.
ActionScript Jabberwocky
Behold! It's the The ActionScript Jabberwocky.
ActionScript is Flash's scripting language. I don't speak ActionScript. I know it's a variant of JavaScript so in that sense, the code is comprehensible. I can parse it more easily than Lewis Carroll's original although it's nowhere near as artful.
Speaking of Jabberwocky... Monty Python fans quote from the Holy Grail and Life of Brian at length but Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky seems to be all but forgotten. Strictly speaking it isn't a Python film even though it was released in some countries as "Monty Python's Jabberwocky". It stars Michael Palin and has a brief appearance by Terry Jones. It was Terry Gilliam's first solo feature film. It plays like a dark fairy tale rather than as pure farce like Holy Grail. If you've never seen it, and have liked Gilliam's other films, check it out.
ActionScript is Flash's scripting language. I don't speak ActionScript. I know it's a variant of JavaScript so in that sense, the code is comprehensible. I can parse it more easily than Lewis Carroll's original although it's nowhere near as artful.
Speaking of Jabberwocky... Monty Python fans quote from the Holy Grail and Life of Brian at length but Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky seems to be all but forgotten. Strictly speaking it isn't a Python film even though it was released in some countries as "Monty Python's Jabberwocky". It stars Michael Palin and has a brief appearance by Terry Jones. It was Terry Gilliam's first solo feature film. It plays like a dark fairy tale rather than as pure farce like Holy Grail. If you've never seen it, and have liked Gilliam's other films, check it out.
Frank Animated Short
I hadn't heard of Jim Woodring's Frank comics before. Very cool. The visual style reminds me of George Herriman's Krazy Kat comic strip. To give you a taste of Woodring's style, here's a Flash game that uses his artwork. (Hmm, is it really a game or a Flash thingamajig?)
The real purpose of this entry was to link to Fuyama Taruto's animated short of Woodring's weird little world. The grainy black and white feels like a throwback to the early days of animation while the use of CG and the general surreal nature of the short make it feel very modern.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Starbucks Gossip
Jim Romenesko, who runs Obscure Store, has started a Starbucks Gossip weblog. The site's tag line is "Somebody has to monitor America's favorite drug dealer".
PixelField
PixelField is a cool little Flash game. You guide three little bouncy pixels through a minefield to collect blue energy pixels.
Monday, August 16, 2004
Mouthful of Nitrogen
Liquid Nitrogen? It turns out that, in accordance with common sense, you really should not drink the stuff.
Swallowing Iridium
Iridium is dense. It weighs 22.42 grams/cm3 which is more than 22 times denser than water. A hunk the size of a shoebox would weigh more than 1500 pounds. What would happen is you accidentally put a pellet of Iridium in your mouth? George Lazenby made this mistake and lived to tell the tale. (Via BoingBoing)
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Collateral
I saw Collateral the other night. Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx were both good. Late night L.A. is also a visible "character" in this film, directed by Michael Mann. It's very stylish, very visual. I could argue about some of the plot holes but they're not total groaners; just what you expect in a film like this. Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend the film.
Black Squirrels
Another squirrel posting. Here in Massachusetts, and generally throughout the Northeastern US, squirrels are grey. When we moved into our house five years ago, we noticed that many of the squirrels in our backyard had black fur. I'd never seen black squirrels before. They're a variation of the Eastern Grey Squirrel and are common in Ontario and Quebec. A Google search turned up a lot of pages dedicated to black squirrels. For example, there's a Black Squirrel Festival at Kent State in Ohio. There are white squirrels as well and some towns are pretty darn proud of them.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Evil Squirrels
Squirrels may seem cute but they have a mean streak. Here's some evidence. This is one evil squirrel.
This reminds me of another squirrel story that aired several years ago on This American Life. The audio is here in RealAudio format. Skip ahead to 19:54 and start playing. It runs for 14 minutes and is funny as heck. I like how it starts out as a simple matter and builds into a disaster.
This reminds me of another squirrel story that aired several years ago on This American Life. The audio is here in RealAudio format. Skip ahead to 19:54 and start playing. It runs for 14 minutes and is funny as heck. I like how it starts out as a simple matter and builds into a disaster.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Code Bloat Begets Code Bloat
Jason Marshall has written a good article that explains how the code base of a large project can grow exponentially:
Often developers are aware of code that they want to use but it's not in a form that allows reuse. Their schedule doesn't include time for refactoring for reuse so they just copy it. There needs to be more incentive for reuse. The view "in the trenches" may be that copying code is less short-term "risk" than refactoring.The faster your code base grows, the less of it people will understand. When people don't understand all of the code, they don't see global patterns, and so they will reinvent little wheels all over the place. In theory, the development leads and the architects are supposed to watch out for these issues, but there are always places where redundant code can hide, and as the code continues to grow, even this watchdog function breaks down. Soon you have people who are intimately familiar with only a couple of modules in the system, and so replication across modules becomes difficult to spot. As the line-count continues to rise, the percentage of the code that each person really knows decreases, compounding the problem. Welcome to exponential code growth.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
The Mission
Interesting article in last Sunday's Washington Post on the challenges faced by a Marine Corps recruiter in war time.
Video Blogs
Video blogs? If anything, the examples here provide ample evidence that bloggers should stick to writing. Video has its place, but I'd really rather skim text than watch some talking head blather on.
Prozac found in Britain's drinking water
This BBC article doesn't really say much. They don't indicate what levels of Prozac were found in drinking water. Nor whether these levels should be of real concern. Lead, arsenic, radon, etc. all are found in drinking water and can cause serious problems when levels are high enough. Clearly most people don't want to being medicated by their drinking water but a quick "back of the envelope" calculation would show that the levels we're talking about here must be very small fractional parts-per-billion. Is this a real concern or hyperbole?
English Is Hard
I'm not proficient in any language other than English. I took high school French and studied German for a while but never came close to understanding the subtleties and idiomatic aspects of either language. I admire anyone who speaks English as a second language. I can only imagine how difficult it must be.
Earlier today I had an IM chat with someone in China. We were discussing a problem that was blocking some testing. He said "I am not sure what's wrong with me". He meant something like "I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong". In other words, he was trying to say, politely, I might have configured something incorrectly or this may be a bug. It takes the "I am probably wrong" approach first. Maybe this form in Chinese literally translates this way into English but it sounds odd.
Years, ago I had a conversation with a co-worker, also from China. He said he was feeling ill and needed to go home. He said that he had "passed out" earlier in the day. I expressed concern and asked whether he had injured himself. He was puzzled, then made a motion with his hand near his mouth and said "No, pass out, pass out". Ah, he meant that he had "thrown up".
Earlier today I had an IM chat with someone in China. We were discussing a problem that was blocking some testing. He said "I am not sure what's wrong with me". He meant something like "I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong". In other words, he was trying to say, politely, I might have configured something incorrectly or this may be a bug. It takes the "I am probably wrong" approach first. Maybe this form in Chinese literally translates this way into English but it sounds odd.
Years, ago I had a conversation with a co-worker, also from China. He said he was feeling ill and needed to go home. He said that he had "passed out" earlier in the day. I expressed concern and asked whether he had injured himself. He was puzzled, then made a motion with his hand near his mouth and said "No, pass out, pass out". Ah, he meant that he had "thrown up".
The iPod's Brain
According to this Business 2.0 article, processors made by PortalPlayer are the "brains and guts" of Apple iPods. The company's newest chip, the PP5020, will feature photo-processing capabilities. The chip is already being used in the iPod mini. Sounds like photo and video support in the iPod can't be far away.
Eclipse Resources
I was going to post this a few weeks ago and forgot. Eclipse 3.0 is nearly 2 million lines of code. Besides the code, there's lots of good information floating around but where do you start? I guess it depends on how you learn. Some developers want to dive hip deep into coding first, others like to read as much as they can before diving, still others prefer course work. Here are some resources you might find helpful.
The Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQ is a recent addition to Addison-Wesley's Eclipse Series. Lots of good info on how to do things in Eclipse 3.0. The book's content is also available online here. The web UI is a little funky but, hey, what do you want for free?
Note: The other Eclipse books from Addison-Wesley are pretty good too:
The Official Eclipse 3.0 FAQ is a recent addition to Addison-Wesley's Eclipse Series. Lots of good info on how to do things in Eclipse 3.0. The book's content is also available online here. The web UI is a little funky but, hey, what do you want for free?
Note: The other Eclipse books from Addison-Wesley are pretty good too:
- Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Plug-Ins is written by Erich Gamma and Kent Beck. Erich is the original architect of Eclipse. He's one of the Gang of Four authors of the Design Patterns book. Kent has been involved with object-oriented technology since Smalltalk, most recently as one of the originators of XP (Extreme Programming) methodology. This book is both technical and gets into the whole Eclipse Gestalt.
- Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-Ins came out recently and covers Eclipse 3.0 features.
- The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse came out last year. An update based on Eclipse 3.0 is coming out in October.
Gunners
In medical school there's a category of student despised by their peers. These are called "gunners" as described here:
This commentary on NPR by medical student Joe Wright talks about gunners. (You can click on the link to hear the audio). I found this comment to be particularly insightful:Gunners: Generally beaten up on the playground as kids. They will study at all times and will not interact with others. Will take notes religiously but will not share. They do not play nice. Social skills are most lacking. They are also identifiable by the uncontrollable laughter during lectures when the professor flashes up meaningless jokes. Should again be beaten up during medical school. Will probably go into ENT or urology.
The danger of "certainty" applies to more than just medicine.Medicine is full of risky surgeries, clinical trials... Situations full of dilemmas. At such times certainty is a form of ignorance. At such times the most terribly wrong answer is to think that there is a right answer.
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
The Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s
The writers of the Online Film Critics Society have compiled a list of what they consider to be the Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. I'm not sure I'd consider all of these films as "overlooked" since I've seen most of them but, then again, I watch a lot of movies. There are some real gems here possibly including films you may have missed the first time around. Here are my quick picks from the list:
Miller's Crossing. The Sweet Hereafter. Lone Star. Fearless. Bound, The Red Violin. Defending Your Life. The Spanish Prisoner. The Double Life of Veronique. Richard III. Before Sunrise. Bob Roberts. Raise the Red Lantern. One False Move. Darkman. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. A Midnight Clear. Big Night. Glengarry Glen Ross.
Miller's Crossing. The Sweet Hereafter. Lone Star. Fearless. Bound, The Red Violin. Defending Your Life. The Spanish Prisoner. The Double Life of Veronique. Richard III. Before Sunrise. Bob Roberts. Raise the Red Lantern. One False Move. Darkman. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. A Midnight Clear. Big Night. Glengarry Glen Ross.
Worst Trailer Ever
Uwe Boll must be trying to become the Ed Wood of the new millennium. The trailer for his latest film, Alone in the Dark is the worst thing I've seen in years. Apparently this film and Uwe's previous effort, House of the Dead, are based on video games. What a hack.
Larry David
Two factoids I didn't know about Larry David. 1. He did the George Steinbrenner voice on several episodes of Seinfeld. 2. Forbes estimated that he made over $200 million for his role as co-creator of Seinfeld. $200 million for a Show about nothing.
ISBN Revision Project
Books are referenced by a 10-digit ISBN (International Standard Book Number). There are nine "real" digits and one check digit. If books were given sequential ISBN numbers this scheme would allow 1 billion books. But ISBNs are allocated in blocks for regional groups, countries, publishers, etc. which means that quite a few ISBN numbers are never used. After 35 years, the system is going to start to run out of numbers. So, a new 13-digit ISBN will be implemented. See the FAQs about the ISBN Revision Project for more details.
Plush Alien Facehugger
Here's a great gift idea. A plush facehugger from Alien. How'd you like to wake up and find this thing in your bed?
Monday, August 09, 2004
The Village
I saw The Village the other night. The story here of a utopian community in rural Pennsylvania in the late 1800s. The forest that protects the village from the outside world contains creatures that the villagers refer to as "those of whom we do not speak". They protect themselves from these creatures by 24-hour vigil and by avoiding anything in "the bad color" that attracts the creatures into the village.
The cinematography is wonderful here and there's a great cast. The sense of anxiety starts in the first few frames. But M. Night Shyamalan seems to have painted himself into a corner. He ends up trotting out his (now old) tricks again.
I won't spoil the plot for you but when the truth is ultimately revealed, I was disappointed. For me, the basis of this strange little community just didn't hang together when fully explained.
Update: On further reflection I don't want to dissuade anyone from seeing this film. Go see it. Despite the flaws, there's an interesting message about protecting your loved ones from the outside world. To try to maintain a sense of innocence.
The cinematography is wonderful here and there's a great cast. The sense of anxiety starts in the first few frames. But M. Night Shyamalan seems to have painted himself into a corner. He ends up trotting out his (now old) tricks again.
I won't spoil the plot for you but when the truth is ultimately revealed, I was disappointed. For me, the basis of this strange little community just didn't hang together when fully explained.
Update: On further reflection I don't want to dissuade anyone from seeing this film. Go see it. Despite the flaws, there's an interesting message about protecting your loved ones from the outside world. To try to maintain a sense of innocence.
Koko Gets Dental Work
Koko the gorilla uses American Sign Language. She recently indicated that she had pain in her mouth. She had a tooth extracted as well as a full medical examination by specialists. I thought this part of the story was particularly funny:
Apparently Koko next signed "she may be a specialist but her food tastes like crap".Her teacher, Francine Patterson, was at her side when the anesthesiologist prepared to put her under in the morning, and apparently Koko asked to meet her specialists.
They crowded around her, and Koko, who plays favorites, asked one woman wearing red to come closer. The woman handed her a business card, which Koko promptly ate.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Java: The Big Picture
In poster form.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
No Comment
Squawkbox seems to be broken today so my comment system is down. Sorry. Hopefully it'll be alive again soon.
Update: comments are back. Fire away.
Update: comments are back. Fire away.
Do You IMDB?
IMDB is an addiction. It's too easy to spend lots of time bouncing from link to link when all you intended to do was remember who played "character X in that movie from the 80s that starred actor Y". Even though I've used IMDB for years, I didn't really think too much about who was behind it. Here's an interesting LA Weekly article on IMDB.
Something Silly
Clever Shockwave animation. Don't Let It Get Your Cursor!!
Company Name Etymologies
What's the origin of company names such as Akamai, Sprint, Novell, etc.? Wikipedia knows. Some of them are pretty funny. The name Mitel was constructed from the founders' first names and their first product: MIke and TErry's Lawnmowers. They originally intended to sell Russian-made lawnmowers. The name Novell was suggested by a founder's wife who mistakedly thought that it meant "new" in French.
Update: as Sylvain points out, Nouvelle, in French, is the feminine of Nouveau. Novell is still not the correct spelling but closer than I thought.
Update: as Sylvain points out, Nouvelle, in French, is the feminine of Nouveau. Novell is still not the correct spelling but closer than I thought.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
RSSCalendar
RSSCalendar lets you setup an online calendar that can be syndicated as RSS feeds (Daily, Weekly, Monthly). It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure how useful it will be. RSSCalendar lets anyone subscribe to your calendar (the URL is obscure but access isn't authenticated). The feed includes links to entries in VCalendar (VCS files) format but would have been nicer if the events in the feed were in some sort of structured XML format rather than just plain text.