Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

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Another reason to use Firebird.

One by one, my coworkers are switching to Firebird. A few have been using IE, most were Netscape users. It’s been fun listening to them comment to one another as they switch about how very cool it is.

Oh yeah.

For those who still use IE as their default browser, I point to my demonstration of the dangers of HTML mail. I’ve just added to the demo, taking advantage of the fact that IE has access to clipboard contents (via Tim McGuire).

The fun never ends.

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Don’t buy this car.

A guy at work (let’s call him Mike. It’s his name.) just sold his Porsche. The car is sitting in his garage, waiting for the shippers to pick it up, when he finds the car being sold in eBay. Only it isn’t being sold by the new owner. Whoever’s making this fraudulent sale even set up a Geocities web page that copies word-for-word Mike’s web page about the car. The photo on eBay? That’s Mike’s front yard.

Not sure how long this will stay up on eBay, take a peek while you can.

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Must read faster.

The problem with library books is that when I buy a book that I very badly want to read (say, Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver), I feel compelled to finish the library books first. This isn’t really a problem since I read pretty fast, but I start to resent the books that I’m trying to blow through. They’re holding me back. Hennepin County Libraries make it very easy to renew online, but lately I’ve been unable to renew the books because someone else has them reserved.

So this weekend, I must finish The Overseer. This could be tricky, as I never have the reading time that I want on the weekends.

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MFA in software might get somewhere

As mentioned before, Richard Gabriel has been promoting the idea of a Master of Fine Arts in Software.

It looks like it might actually happen: the University of Illinois is seriously considering the idea.

I’ve suggested the idea to computer science faculty I know, but they just smile tolerantly at me, amused that I could be so droll. Clearly I’m talking to the wrong people.

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Blog this.

I’m learning that if I don’t mention something here within a couple days of thinking of it, it might be months before I get around to it.

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List spam rant

I’m on a mailing list that occasionally gets spam. This is ridiculous, it should be easy enough to filter out almost all the spam by requiring that only subscribers can post. Confirm the legitimacy of the subscribers in any way you see fit, and you’re more or less set. But no, there’s this nested list thing, where the members of list B get a copy of every message sent to list A. This is done because presumably the list B members can’t be treated like intelligent adults and expected to subscribe to list A if they want those messages. Setting a requirement on list A such that only subscribers can post somehow interferes with delivery to nested list B, so the most immediately effective anti-spam measure is not available.

Gah.

A software upgrade in the works will allegedly solve the nested list problem, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a lame idea in the first place.

What’s more, there’s this guy who sends an anti-spam message to the list complaining about every bit of spam that makes it through. Worse, he quotes the whole friggin’ message in his complaint, so now we’re treated to the spam twice. As icing on the cake, his replies are sent high priority, just like the spam he’s complaining about. C’mon, people, think!

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Doctor Who is back!

A new Doctor Who series will be on the BBC in 2005.

The new series will be fun, exciting, contemporary and scary. Although I’m only in the early stages of development, I’m aiming to write a full-blooded drama which embraces the Doctor Who heritage, at the same time as introducing the character to a modern audience.

Hopefully I don’t need to tell you how very excited I am.

I missed the last couple Doctors, most of Colin Baker and all of Sylvester McCoy. They were broadcast locally at a point when I did not have a television. So here’s hoping that it won’t be much past 2005 before we see the new series locally.

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TortoiseCVS

I wrote a few days ago about TortoiseSVN, a terrific Subversion client for Windows. It turns out that all this time that I’ve been complaining about Windows CVS clients that suck (I’m looking at you, WinCVS), I’ve been unaware of TortoiseCVS. Now if I must use the unfortunate combination of Windows and CVS, I can do so without too much pain.

Maybe it’s not fair to say that WinCVS sucks. But I hate it. When I find the twisted command line CVS options easier to work with than a GUI. when the GUI is a barrier to entry for something as basic as CVS, it’s a problem.

I still can’t find anything good for the Mac. Command line it is. Which is fine.

Update: Jason Long points me to CVL for the Mac, which looks like it would be good if it didn’t crash whenever I launch it.

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Hydra^WSubEthaEdit

Oh dear. Hydra has been renamed SubEthaEdit. I think I preferred “#####”.

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Wireless Internet at the Library

Hennepin County Libraries are starting to make free wireless internet access available. Yay! I think this just makes sense for a library.

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