May 2002

Earthlink is killing me... I'm working on this web app, and development is going fine on my Mac OS X box, but a good amount of stuff I upload to an earthlink account isn't working. Image::Size, a module I've used for years craps out... as do other things that make no sense... argh...

Maybe more sleep would help...

crusty eye goo is bad, bad, bad...

Truly, Microsoft makes me ill... Microsoft Lobbies Hard Against Free Software... Translation: Microsoft wants the U.S. Govt. to purchase Microsoft software, rather than possibly obtaining better software for free. Wouldn't the U.S. Govt. using only proprietary commercial products result in higher federal income taxes? (Hey, maybe we'll see a candidate with the platform of "Lower Taxes Through Open Source" sometime...) Microsoft seems to be convinced that 'security through obscurity' is the best iadea, but is anyone else? If the U.S. Govt. wants a secure version of Linux, shouldn't they start with FreeBSD? If the U.S. Govt. wants a nice desktop GUI, maybe they should look at Apple, since they could then use Mac OS X, as well as leverage the open source Darwin code, and they could probably port over anything still running under NeXTSTEP, since the spooks in the NSA reportedly still have NeXT boxes doing things... (you didn't hear it from me!)

In related news, I may be on the verge of getting another Windows user to buy a Mac... (Apple, where's my check!?)

I went to the zoo yesterday... it was fun and interesting... it was a field trip... it was neat... go to the zoo. (Unless you believe it's some sort of cruelty to animals thing, in which case you should just 'smash the state' or something like that instead...)

Open Source in Law Enforcement?

My responses to Attack of the blogs. "The average consumer wants to get his news and opinions from predictable and - just as important - reliable outlets" Well, maybe I'm not average then... or maybe the outlets I use are 'predictable' and 'reliable' in my opinion... "...my Web site has a million readers a month and theirs don't..." Well, I've probably read thousands of items from some weblog maintainers in the last 5 years, you weren't one of them - average times I've read something at www.washtimes.com is most likely in the single digits... Translation: I am big media, I am scared, fear me... what I say has clout! blah, blah, blah...

Or something like that...

Many more pages should validate now... yay! Go to sleep...

The system I spend most of my time with at work is know as a Big Ball of Mud. How do you handle a Big Ball of Mud? Oh, there are many ways...

I finally got around to dropping something new into src. If you use jEdit, and Mac OS X, and a web browser, it might be of interest to you. It's over here...

I haven't visited MetaFilter in a long time, and when I finally do, I remember that it's written in ColdFusion, and I thought to myself "I wonder what kind of problems MetaFilter has" since the Coldfusion sites I always have to work on suck, and lo and behold, I get a ColdFusion error... argh... I think the fact that I don't like ColdFusion is well known to ColdFusion, and it seems the feeling is mutual...

My fifteen minutes is up...

Calling all artists who use a Mac and like security... though those two things aren't required: The Mac GPG Icon Contest!

(still compiling... 400mhz is slow...)

Oh, I should mention that after I bumped up my Mac at work from 192mb of RAM to 320mb, there was a massive performance increase. I see than little rainbow cursor a lot less now. More RAM == Better Mac OS X experience...

I've been trying to customize my editing environment, which has changed from BBEdit to jEdit recently, and it's going pretty well. jEdit is highly customizable, but I've been trying to add to it the features I really miss from BBEdit. Some are pretty easy to duplicate like 'Preview in Browser', while others are a bit harder, like BBEdit's tight integration with perl. Nonetheless, as I learn more BeanShell syntax, I'm sure things will get better...

I finally got around to putting XDarwin on my Mac at work, as well as The Gimp and other much needed things... oh, fink r00ls, of course...

Trying to eat healthy, and trying to eat less, is difficult. I've pretty much never really cared before, but it's probably time to start. The female is much stronger that I, but I've pretty much given up soda, which took a long time. I first said "Ok, I'll limit it to no more than 3 cans per day", then eventually it got to 2 and then 1, and now I've gone a least a week with none. I'll probably still have a soda occasionally, but not like I used to. I probably drink about 1/10 the amount of water I should in a day. I suppose the more I drink the more I'll have to walk to the bathroom, which means more exercise. (Luckily I don't have those 2+ hr meetings anymore like some people...) Besides, one of my main reasons for drinking soda was that I needed the caffeine, which obviously lost all affect one me, since I could drink a Mt. Dew and then fall asleep minutes later. So next time Brittany Spears tells you to have a Pepsi, tell her to go to hell...

Emma finished watching Star Wars today, so we've got The Empire Strikes Back and Phantom Menace left to watch. It's my proudest moment...

Wow, I've got lots more to say, but I'm too busy, time for a break!

say is an cool little app. Command line text to speech... Ahhh, the possibilities...

How long before Rael has a blaggplug to have RSS content read aloud to you?

Go read what Doc wrote about Apple... especially for the line "Now this sucker is looking like a moon, quietly sliding in front of the Sun..."

Hey, I just had a talk with a reporter from USA Today about SpongeBob SquarePants... it was for a business story... hmmm, that should be an interesting read...

Macintouch sez an Apple Store is coming to Milwaukee... yay... should I fill out an application?

Emma has been on a Star Wars kick lately. We can't find Episode I so she's watched Return of the Jedi and today started Star Wars. She calls the Ewoks 'Teddy Bears' which I suppose is ok... As always, kids rule...

I hear I might be getting more parts for the Linux pile. This is good. Hopefully I can share some parts with the other wannabe Linux users around the office. Ah, in no time I'm sure we'll be recycling all of our w2k servers... ha!

After pounding my head against the desk over some perl I wrote last week, I still wasn't getting my code utilizing HTML::Template to work right. I printed the source, thought I found the problem, rewrote it, tested it, and then started to rewrite it again, then read some docs, then tried something else. Then I'm not sure what I did, but I ended up going back to my original code, and tweaked it enough to get it to work. Hurrah! We're getting closer...

I talk to this guy who is all happy and cheery about how I'm helping him with this web app, and then 10 minutes later I get call from his boss telling me that he is very unhappy, because the system is slow and hard to use. Ok, well, it's web based, and like anything that is network based, it has to work across the network, so it will be slower in some ways. Of course we do store your data centrally, manage it and back it up, and make it available company wide, and in some ways, worldwide... that never seems to matter. As for the hard to use, sure it's got usability problems, every application does. Part of it is because we actually force you to put in valid data, rather than the garbage that used to go into the databases around here... it's all one big argh....

I have no plans to see Spiderman. You see, Spiderman sucks. Ok, he doesn't suck, I just don't like him. Sure, when I was a kid I watched the live-action series, and the Spiderman, Iceman, Firestar show, those were ok, but I could not stand the Spiderman cartoon. The one where everytime he snuck up on the villian, he'd wait until the villian would say something about his evil plan, and then ol' Spidey would say "Not this time [insert villian name here!]" and then they would fight. I always thought "Dude, you're sneaking up on him, shoot a web, bonk him on the head, and capture him, how hard can it be!?" But alas, he never wised up... And besides he does not do "whatever a spider can..." sheesh....

The Windows guy here at work was installing Red Hat 7.3. And this isn't your ordinary Windows guy, this is someone who (almost) worships Microsoft. It's amazing... I almost had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st.

Also on the Linux front, the machine I found in the dumpster recently had 32mb of RAM and Windows 95. So far I've taken out the ram and will be using it, along with the CD drive (if it works) to build a new machine. Oh, I've also traded a SCSI card for a 2gb hard drive. So right now it looks like I can build a Linux box with 48mb RAM and 2gb of drive space. It's a Pentium 133 so it's no speed demon, but it should run XWindows ok...

And if I'm lucky, I'll have enough spare parts left over for a low end Linux box with no XWindows abilities...

I've pretty much switched from using BBEdit to jEdit. I'm not 100% there, but pretty close. BBEdit is better in some ways, and jEdit is better in others.

I needed more RAM for my G4 at the office, so I was preparing the justification, as is needed in these economic times. Of course RAM is cheap, so I was hoping it wouldn't be a big deal. See, it's still a little strange to me that I have to ask someone else for something like RAM. At my previous place of employment I'd just put a gig of RAM in my Mac and forget it. So I said "I need more RAM" and the IS guys says "Here." Could it be any easier? So today, right now, go ask for something... you might get it.

Boy, those Java apps should really fly now!

The kids and I went out dumpster diving yesterday, as we needed some empty cardboard boxes. I managed to find another computer. It looks like some no-name pile of junk. A Falcon 3? If nothing else, it's got some coponents that will probably work. I'll try to boot it today and see what happens.

We had a bonfire over the weekend. The female's parents live out in the wilderness, where there are no laws. So me and the kids drag all sorts of branches and trees into the firepit, throw on some pine needles, and let it go. We've gotten flames of at least 12 feet. We had to stand back at least 10-12 feet when it was really blazing, any closer and you start to get too hot. Fire is neat.

We all know the best thing about Mozilla is the sidebar. It's the hidden nugget of gold in that thar browser project. Many have been working on embedding the sidebar in every single part of the app, heck some even openly admin that the goal of Mozilla is to embed every part of the app into every other part of the app. I think it's time for Sidezilla. The goal of Sidezilla is to embed every part of the app into the sidebar. You won't need to switch to Navigator, Mail & Newsgroups, IRC Chat, Composer, or the Address Book. The main interface for Sidezilla will be the sidebar, and in this sidebar will be all of the components listed above, as well as the usual assortment of sidebar goodness, and more! We might even think about making the sidebar a 'mainbar' as it were, if it gets to be that there is too much going on over there. That's fine, it can become the mainbar... as long as the mainbar has a sidebar for other things...

I've heard that a few of the guys at work have wiped Windows from at least one of their home machines to replace it with Linux. One of them is probably one of the most vocal Microsoft supporters I've ever seen. So this is a big deal. Stay tuned...

(Note to self: I wonder if we could put Linux in the sidebar... Hmmm...)

(Note to self: See if there's interest in at least embedding Lynx in the sidebar...)

Robert Blake + Hell Town + current events = some joke that has not yet been written...

The wonders of modern computing and the Summary Service:

Input: I tend to ramble on and on, I wonder if Summary Service could help me with this. I repeat things. Over and over. Like a broken record. Help! Do I keep going? Should I do it again? I tend to ramble on... Repeating the same thing. I can be a bit verbose sometimes.

Output: I tend to ramble on and on, I wonder if Summary Service could help me with this. I repeat things. Over and over.... I tend to ramble on... Repeating the same thing. I can be a bit verbose sometimes.

I finally got the lava lamp plugged in on my desk at home. Now just sit back and watch the productivity soar!

I wouldn't need the lamp if someone (Apple seems the most likely) could create a keyboard where the letters light up. Talk about productivity soaring!

jEdit's ability to fold text freakin' r00ls...

Visit mozdev.org...

April Updates