Posts

Adam Langley slams JXTA at openp2p.com. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. RMS explains how priorart.org is actually a hindrance rather than a help in the struggle against software patents, even the ludicrous kind. I find his argument interesting because I, at one time, considered creating a project to aggregate prior art in a central location. (Frank Bennett’s response sheds even more light on the issue.) Kevin Guilfoile clears up a lot of confusion about Norse legends in his McSweeney’s piece. Between Guilfoile’s helpful primer and a recent episode of Xena I caught, I think I’ve finally got the whole pantheon of Norse mythology pretty well figured out. ...

I added “one year ago today” and “two years ago today” links to the little grey nav box in the right hand column. The links are mainly there so that I can look back and laugh at myself. Try them out, maybe you’ll laugh at me too.

After a semi-exhaustive search, I’ve discovered that lowly vim is the best editor for JSP files. I’d love to use Emacs to edit them, but html-helper-mode is semi-bizarre, especially when you add JSP into the mix (I’ll never understand how indenting works in hhm). I realize that HomeSite is the conventional choice, but I’m of the opinion that it’s a bloated piece of crap. More patent trouble: Worlds.com has been granted a patent on certain aspects of 3D client-server environments. The patent could apply to MMORPGs like EverQuest, Asheron’s Call, and a whole spate of similar upcoming games. ...

So, we’re facing a looming deadline at work, and our product is in QA. Unfortunately, my singleminded devotion to fixing defects has caused me to neglect this site a bit. Expect for updates to be sparse for the rest of the week, I’m not even finding time to read Today’s Papers. So what’s up with all this talk of the energy crisis? How can it be that nobody was talking about the energy crisis until Dubya was elected? If I had time, I’d do real research on this, but since I don’t I wonder if you guys can. If anyone knows of good links pointing to evidence of an energy crisis or the lack of an energy crisis, please forward them along. (My preconceived notion on this is that Dubya wants to manufacture an energy crisis to help out his buddies in the energy and power generation sectors.) ...

If you’ve ever wondered what tools they use internally at Yahoo, skip down to the (improperly named) Public Domain Software section of the Yahoo! Contributors page. They don’t credit Apache, but I’ve heard that Yahoo does, in fact, run a heavily modified version of Apache as their Web server. Mozilla 0.9 is out. Here’s a link to the release notes. I couldn’t get to Yahoo Travel last night, and it turns out I can blame that on a blackout. It’s going to be a fun summer, isn’t it? ...

Gore Vidal is going to attend Timothy McVeigh’s execution. Apparently the two became friends after McVeigh read one of Vidal’s articles in Vanity Fair. RIP Clifton Keith Hillegass, the creator of Cliffs Notes. Quoth Mr. Hillegass: “A thorough appreciation of literature allows no shortcuts.” The Smithsonian’s Conservation Research Center (mentioned here the other day) has been granted a stay of execution due to political fallout from the announcement that it would be closed. ...

A couple of interesting Perl 6 items. First, Apocalypse Two, the second installment in Larry Wall’s ongoing review of RFCs for Perl 6 is out. Second, there’s Damian Conway’s design document for Perl 5+i, a hypothetical design for Perl 6. Evans Data is reporting that Visual Basic is losing ground to other languages, and that Java and XML are on the grow. I take all of these market surveys with a grain of salt, but if this is true, I imagine people are freaking out in Redmond. The drops in Visual Basic usage in the study results are extreme. ...

The Smoking Gun has a collection of dressing room requirements of big name singers. All things considered, Tina Turner is my kind of gal (chocolate milk and ribs, yum). Reading it reminds me of the time a certain wunderkind from a big name Internet company came to visit a startup where I work, and his assistant phoned ahead with his personal list of requirements: sticky buns for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and Coca Cola. Oh, how we guffawed. ...

**[Free Rides Now Pass They’re screwing us again. Apparently the Baby Bells have bribed some Congressmen to introduce a bill that will put the Internet under the same regulatory umbrella as the rest of the services that the RBOCs have monopolized. That sounds like consumer-friendly legislation. Bitter, party of one. Word from Salon is that David Talbot was misquoted in the NY Times article I linked to earlier today. They’re not looking at going to an all pay model next year at that price or any other. ...

The End of Free is an interesting project. Check it out. Today on Morning Edition, the final story was about changes at the Smithsonian Institution. These changes will include the elimination of the Conservation and Research Center, which researches endangered species in hopes of successfully reintroducing them into the wilderness, and the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, which studies the preservation and restoration of recent and ancient artifacts. The justification for eliminating these research centers seemed pretty dubious to me. The federal government funds the Smithsonian to the tune of about half a billion dollars a year. When you compare that amount to the $1.5 billion helicopter carriers Trent Lott is buying for the Navy whether it asks for them or not, it seems totally insane for the Smithsonian to be eliminating programs instead of getting the money it needs to continue them. ...