October 2007
76 posts
'radical' idea to make people have to opt-in to... →
The problem with this idea is that it’s not radical at all. This has always been the case. The natural state of a human being is much healther before they start opt’ing in to unhealthy habits.
People opt-in to not getting exercise by buying a car. They opt-in to smoking by buying ciggerettes. They opt-in to obsesity by buying food that is high in sugar, and trans fats.
Everyday GIT With 20 Commands Or So →
“The more you find out about the world, the more opportunities there are to laugh...”
– Bill Nye
PieDock →
PieDock is a task bar in the shape of a pie menu that appears directly around your mouse cursor.
Clang →
“clang is Apple’s new C/C++/Objective-C front end to Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM), offering a potential replacement to GNU Compiler Collection (GCC).”
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin →
Interesting how things change.
How to Make Apple Crumble →
gah! Too much tech news. I read this headline as “How to make Apple(the computer hardware company) crumble(go bankrupt, lose sales etc.)”
Report: PDF files used to attack computers →
“A security update for Adobe Acrobat Reader, which opens PDF files, was made available a few days ago, but many users have not updated the program yet, Hypponen said.”
It doesn’t matter if a security update is available, no normal user knows about it and won’t know about it because of the lack of a default central package manager for windows.
As I mentioned...
C++ FQA Lite: Main page →
ah…C++
“You know, you really are supposed to understand the code you are...”
– — Al Viro, in an October 26th, 2007 message on the Linux Kernel mailing list. Quote: Understand the Code | KernelTrap
GIMP 2.4 Release Notes →
“The fullscreen mode has been improved to not only allow getting a full scale preview of the artwork, but also allow comfortable editing. The artist has maximum screen estate available while all functionality is quickly accessible by pressing the Tab key (toggles visibility of all docks) when working fullscreen.”
New Gimp looks really interesting
Simple Turing machine shown capable of solving any... →
Monads in functional programming - Wikipedia →
“The primary uses of monads in functional programming are to express input/output (I/O) operations and changes in state without using language features that introduce side effects[3]. They exploit a loophole that, although a function cannot directly cause a side effect, it can construct a value describing a desired side effect that the caller should apply at a convenient time. However, I/O...
Local whiz speeds up broadband by 200 times |... →
Awesome!
Frank Zappa - Valley Girl (song) →
lol
“Frankly I don’t care about apparmor, I don’t see it as a serious...”
– — Alan Cox, in an October 22nd, 2007 message on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Quote: I Don’t Care About AppArmor | KernelTrap
“I think it all started when I was 5 and my sister pushed me into a bucket of...”
– Hailstorm: iam.bmezine.com
UML: The Positive Spin →
damn it, I’m supposed to be studying.
Extreme Programming - Wikipedia →
The word ‘extreme’ really doesn’t apply. I’d probably call it the ‘obvious programming method’ as it is really the most obvious way to program because programming is not engineering.
Dr Anderson solves divide by zero problem by... →
“Imagine you’re landing on an aeroplane and the automatic pilot’s working,” he suggests. “If it divides by zero and the computer stops working - you’re in big trouble. If your heart pacemaker divides by zero, you’re dead.”
If your on an aeroplane and the automatic pilot’s working and it divides by zero and you get a value that is not a real...
Adobe sees full shift to Web | Tech&Sci |... →
people still confusing the word ‘web’ and the word ‘network’ I can’t imagine adobe reimplmenting photoshop in html,javascript and css to run in your web browser.
Former UK prisons inspector backs call to legalise... →
it’s a start.
Australian Tax cuts of $34 billion →
Tax cuts are never a good idea and are an obvious sign of incompetence in government. If the Australian government has that much money that they can’t find a use for then they have no imagination.
Introverts →
“But once an introvert gets on a subject that they know about or care about or that intrigues them intellectually, the opposite often takes hold. They get passionately engaged and turned on by the conversation. But it’s not socializing that’s going on there. It’s learning or teaching or analyzing, which involves, I’m convinced, a whole different part of the brain from the socializing...
Richard Stallman - Homeless people excluded in... →
“Canada nominally offers universal health care, but the requirement for a “health card” means many homeless people are excluded. The usual requirement for obtaining a health card includes proof of address and a govermment photo ID. This requirement is gratuitous and unjust.”
This is quite a strech for a definition of unjust.
Sitting On A Washing Machine →
”get on to get off”
Questions from Web Programming...
“State 2 advantages of storing data in a file as compared to a database” 1. You don’t have database as a dependancy for your applications 2. You get the fun of implementing and testing most of the functionality of a database in your application.
“List five things to consider and document when designing a website” Open ended?
”..identify what processes occur...
Senator online - An Australian direct democracy... →
It’s interesting that a party is doing this. I wonder how secure this is, and how verifiable it is for the voter.
BitTorrent: Bypass any Firewall or Throttling ISP... →
“You need an SSH account in order to get this working. You can try one of these free shell providers from this list. I currently use silenceisdefeat which requires a small $1 donation. However, the account is immediately activated and works fine for me.”
lol, I’m sure they’ll cut your account pretty fast when you start sending large amounts of traffic through your account....
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”
– Virginia Woolf
lol, no women on the internets
“I find it impossible myself as an Australian, as Prime Minister, and as an...”
– - John Howaord - National - theage.com.au
As an Australian I find it disturbing that our prime minister is under the impression that Australians support captial punishment, seeing as we have laws prohibting captial punishment.
Swiss Believe They've Found Foolproof Encryption... →
The problem with electronic voting is that it’s techical so it is required that it is managed by techical people. Voting currently works by having trusted members of the community manage the voting, but with electronic voting you need highly technical people that are also trusted members of the community, which is much fewer people.”
Via nelix:There is a solution, public key...
Swiss Believe They've Found Foolproof Encryption... →
This is not a solution to the problems electronic voting. Nobody can listen in or modify the results, but they can still modify the trusted machines that are sending in the results.
The problem with electronic voting is that it’s techical so it is required that it is managed by techical people. Voting currently works by having trusted members of the community manage the voting, but with...
Red Hat sued for patent infringement!! →
Finally, it has happened! Red Hat and Novell have been sued for something that we are so much used to. Multiple workspaces!!
Is it not obvious, if you have windows that you could arrange them in any way, and that arranging them to be displayed in groups would be one of the useful ways?
An African root bark may offer clues to addiction →
The continuing negative effects of the ‘War on drugs’.
Programming Languages →
I like the ideas in haskell, but I also hate the way it looks. I like C for it’s similicity, but then I hate the way simple tasks tend to require more work than other languages. I hate php, but I really do hate it. I’ve never tried perl, but I don’t think I’d like it. I don’t like python, ruby, Java, .NET because the dependancies are huge. I like the ideas behind...
“Steve Ballmer also noted that sites such as Geocities, an online community that...”
– Times Online. Ballmer, Via http://cameron.io/
Ballmer is an idiot, but I completely agree.
The Spinning Silhouette Optical Illusion →
“This is a very bizarre optical illusion. At first glance the spinning lady appears to be circling in a clockwise motion. But if you look long enough - she will appear to change direction and start spinning counter-clockwise.”
I can make it change direction direction and back again with a little focus.
Right Brain v Left Brain | Herald Sun →
I see the dancer spining clockwise. Tell me if you see anything different.
Don't get me wrong...
I’m all about connecting with people online. If you ask me, the internet is for putting stuff out there for people who are interested to find. And that is a great starting point for real conversation between real people. “Social Networks” breed a much shallower type of interaction. I like your pic. I made you my friend. I made you my friend too. Ok now we’re friends....
“Comment left Sep 16, 2007: “Yeah, I know how that feels. Everyone keeps...”
– Girl Baby Names - Jessie - Jessie, its origin, meaning and popularity I
I get the opposite problem, people are always putting ‘i’s in my name.
PHP in contrast to Perl →
Arguments and return values are extremely inconsistent
PHP has separate functions for case insensitive operations
PHP has inconsistent function naming
PHP has no lexical scope
PHP has too many functions in the core
PHP lacks abstraction and takes TIMTOWTDI to bad extremes
“PHP is a really cool server side scripting interface with loads of options and...”
– CipherSkull’s bag: php on IIS 6
A great example of why people like php, because it’s not as shit as VBscript ASP. Just like how vomit is better than rotten meat.