Posts

The Emacs JDE is a useful package for people who use Emacs as their editor to write Java code. Forget those IDEs. If you think that Linux distributions are for the weak of heart, check out Linux From Scratch. Hey, some people like to build a car out of parts. The Mozilla people is working on adding support for Scalable Vector Graphics to Mozilla. This could have interesting implications for people who are dedicated to Macromedia’s Flash platform. Of course, if SVG does become very popular, Macromedia will just rewrite their tools so that they can export files in the SVG format and life will go on virtually unchanged for everyone. ...

Here’s an article that explains something that I always wonder how to do – direct mail to a program (under Unix of course). As a dedicated Perl hacker, I’d be out of line if I didn’t point to What’s New in 5.6.0. A problem I’ve been thinking about recently is mapping objects (like Java objects) to relational databases. As soon as I realized that this is a big problem, I realized that it’s probably a problem lots of other people have solved. I found a number of papers published on the Web about it, like Foundations of Object-Relational Mapping. If anyone has any pointers to other methods of solving this problem, let me know. ...

Here’s something I didn’t need an analyst at Forrester to tell me … most dotcom CEOs are vapid but greedy. The quote at the end of this article is a little bit off base. The problem has nothing to do with age. Greedy, clueless people with a gold rush mentality will get stomped by people who actually understand how to build successful companies regardless of how old they are. The complaint lodged against the George W. Bush spoof site at gwbush.com was dismissed by the FEC, thank goodness. The ridicule must go on. ...

Sometimes, the title of a paper says it all: Providing Reliable NT Desktop Services by Avoiding NT Server. The Python onslaught continues … the O’Reilly Network has opened a Python DevCenter. Soon we’ll all learn this language whether we want to or not. You know those stories about the rocket car? Here’s one claiming to be the true story: Rocket Car. It’s so funny that I don’t even care whether it’s true. I was reading up on Alan Kay, and I found out something interesting that I didn’t know. Everyone already knows that Steve Jobs got the inspiration for the Macintosh during a visit to the Xerox PARC in 1979. What I didn’t know is that he gave Xerox $1 million in Apple stock options to pay for the privilege of visiting the lab and viewing their projects. What a bargain, given that the visit was the direct inspiration for the Mac. ...

Jim “Assasination Politics” Bell really pisses me off, and until I this morning, I couldn’t figure out exactly why. Now I’ve got it. Here is a man who has cleverly packaged two core beliefs that are a total anethema to me: That a small number of people should be able to anonymously use money to unduly influence the political system. That assasination is an acceptable means of achieving one’s political goals. When you get past all of Bell’s cypherpunk crap, that’s really what it boils down to. If that’s the sort of political system he’s looking for, then there are plenty of countries that he can emigrate to that should serve him just fine. What’s uglier than a tabbed interface? How about two tabbed interfaces, stacked on top of each other. ...

Hey, if anyone can tell me why windows on my home computer (running Windows 98, unfortunately) start looking like this or this after awhile, I’d be much obliged. I’ve had similar problems with other applications as well. (By the way, Homesite is a terrible application when it comes to window management. If Homesite is the active window and you click in another window to bring it to the front, sometimes Homesite stays in front but the other window becomes active. Wonder what they’re doing to break things like that?) ...

This article over at Microsoft seems to indicate that they won’t be dumping Java, contrary to those nasty rumors spread by the Gartner Group. Shame on you, Gartner Group! (Unless the rumors turn out to be true.) A company that provides outsourced customer support for ISPs has passed on opening a facility in Gillette, Wyoming, because the people there are too knowledgeable. They want to go someplace where people are more ignorant, and therefore cheaper. ...

I really plan on reading the essay Computer Programming for Everybody by the author of Python, Guido van Rossum, when I get some time. Maybe this weekend, maybe next year. Look kids, it’s an Easter Egg and a massive security flaw! Open source software, anyone? Reversal of fortune? InTouch is suing Amazon.com (and a host of other sites) over a couple of patents that they claim give them the exclusive right to offer samples of music to help people decide whether to buy a particular CD. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more stupid. What a bunch of greedy bastards. ...

Jeremie is working on a nice set of DOM tests that you can use to test how well your browser conforms to the DOM level 1 standard. Glenn Davis expounds on Microsoft’s lack of standards support in IE over at DevX. Glenn’s theory: the reason Microsoft refuses to break rendering of existing content in any way is because so many other Microsoft products are built around the existing peculiarities of Internet Explorer. Sounds completely plausible to me. ...

Web standards are once again big news as Netscape has released the first preview of Navigator 6, and Microsoft has released the beta of IE 5.5. When testing the two browsers, you might want to check out the W3C CSS1 test suite. Of course, there are other standards as well, but I don’t have good links for the tests right now. (Netscape posted some tests on their site, but I don’t trust Netscape any more than I trust Microsoft.) ...