Wednesday, 16 June 2004, 16:14:36 EDT
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Maybe it is just the geek in me but I love reading good articles by fellow programmers. Joel Spolsky is one of the best; his articles are funny and usually spot on. His latest one is about the direction software development is heading and why he believes Microsoft is in danger of missing out, or rather, why Microsoft's biggest product is not looking so good to developers any more. He states that more and more developers are moving to web based development because their work is just easier in the long run. When one develops for the web he knows that the users are all going to be using the same version because he controls which version is used at all times. The user can only access the application through a web agent. This also gives the benefit that the user does not have to use the same operating system as the developer nor any of the other users. This is why I have grown to enjoy web development. I can write some decent applications that, while not as interactive as I would like, work everywhere. I don't have to worry about the platform the user is on, although I sometimes have to work around IE bugs and lack of support. Recently, though, I have started wanting to write some "rich," to put it in Joel's words, applications that work in conjunction with web applications. For example, I am currently writing a web application that will allow users to log ... (view rest)
Thursday, 03 June 2004, 22:36:22 EDT
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I dislike laptops. I generally find them to be slow and cumbersome. It is mostly the hard drives that tick me off because they lag really badly. I am used to being able to let an `apt-get upgrade` run in the background downloading and upacking new packages while I compile applications, like MPlayer, or just use the machine in general and that is not possible with every laptop I have ever used. But, today I find myself wanting something I never thought I would want — an Apple Powerbook. Last week I installed Windows XP in Virtual PC on a student's Powerbook 15". I was chatting with the guy and a friend of his, who evidently works where I do, about the machine and how it sucks that all the software written for textbooks and for use in school is written for Windows. The guy with the Powerbook loved the thing, he eschewed Windows and everything about it because he finds it cumbersome and does not like the applications written for it. While I loathe Windows as well, I expressed my ineptness with Macs and my preference for Debian.
Reading that you may be thinking to yourself, "So how does that relate to you wanting a Powerbook?" Well, read on.
Today I read an article written by an ex-Microsoft employee and later a weblog entry on his web site. This guy's enamoration with his Power Mac prompted me to reflect on my experience with the Powerbook last week. Their design is absolutely amazing; you would have to actually operate the lid on one to know why I am talking about but, the thing is structurally solid and operates better than any Dell or any other PC laptop I have ever used. The keyboard is a little light but I could get used to it. And the screen, oh man the screen is delicious. And, amazingly, the thing is light considering size of it; the 17" is only 6.9lbs and that is amazing. I could live with 6.9lbs when the screen is a wide 17". I would also like to give Mac OS X more of a chance. I have cursed it quite a bit at work trying to use the Mac we have there but I was t ... (view rest)
Monday, 10 May 2004, 19:54:37 EDT
My Aunt Leslie and I were talking yesterday at my Mother's house about Linux, basically a continuation of our conversation last Christmas, and she expressed interest in trying it out but does not wish to erase the hard drive in her machine just yet. She wants to get rid of Microsoft software on her computer but she does not want to do so until she is comfortable with something else. I mentioned that Knoppix would be a good way to try it without having to commit to anything. Last night I tried to download the ISO from the Knoppix web site but when I awoke this morning I still had about twenty-four hours left on the download. So, this afternoon I hit up a BitTorrent tracker and got a copy much quicker. I just burned it to a disc using a method I had hitherto not used before. I right clicked the ISO on my desktop and clicked "Write to CD..." That is just too damn easy. I knew that Nautilus, the file manager that I use, had the capability to do so ... (view rest)
Wednesday, 18 February 2004, 12:41:01 EDT
Have you heard about the recent leak of the Microsoft Windows 2000 source code? No, I did not download it - nor would I. I don't want to have anything to do with it. I did, however, wonder what the comments would be like. Well, I received my ... (view rest)
Thursday, 12 February 2004, 11:08:55 EDT
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Internet Explorer is now just about the most secure browser available, says Microsoft - because so many security holes have been filled. ... (view rest)
Wednesday, 20 August 2003, 16:25:54 EDT
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Damn the monolith and its buying power. Damn it straight to hell. It seems they have gobbled up the rights to a remake of one of my all time favorite games: ... (view rest)
Monday, 18 August 2003, 00:12:44 EDT
So it seems that Microsoft and Sony revel in being completely too large to do anything right.
Rewind about three years Christmas time. I bought this lovely little jewel: NW-MS7. One year later the battery died. The real kick in the nuts is that this is the last model they made which does not have "user replacable" batteries. I spent two damn years trying to find some place that would replace the dead as fuck battery. Finally one of my room mates said, "Oh, my uncle could do that. His shop is a SONY authorized service center." Well hot diggity damn! I get to use my walkman again (this thing is great for going out to town and not having to hear eveyone's annoying ass little kids).
So, today John brings my walkman back from Agusta with a brand-damn-new battery in it and the mother-fucker works. Yippie!
I spent the rest of the day trying to get some sort of system up and running that will allow me to actually put audio on the memory stick [this is where Microsoft comes in]. The second [hard] kick to the balls is that this model only works with Windows 98. Not Windows 95. Not Windows 2000. And, most assuredly, not Windows XP. "Noooo problem," I said to myself, "I'll just install Windows 98 in VMWare and be happy." WRONG! After I got Windows 98 and the OpenMG software installed in VMWare and got the two to recognize my walkman I find out that VMWare has a known bug, number 1541 so it says, that prevents the OpenMG software from copying audio cds into the ARTRAC3 format my walkman requires.
Well bend me over and put it where you like.
Attempt number one being a resounding failure I put a new harddrive in my laptop and loaded XP on it [I was under the impression that the OpenMG 2.0 disc I have would work with XP and the N(o)W(ork)-MS7]. After I had XP installed I found out that I have to have the Windows 2000 patch applied to my walkman in order to use it under XP. If you scroll down to the seventh link on the above linked page you will see that I actually have to ship my walkman off for around fifteen days to get this "free" firmware upgrade done.
Attempt number two: FAIL.
So, now I loaded Windows 98 on my laptop. Nvidia does not provide GeForce 2Go drivers for Windows and Dell does not have drivers available for Window 98.
Attempt number three: FAIL. Can you see where this is going?
After all of this I check back with a post I had made to vmware.for-linux.experimental on news.vmware.com asking if anyone knew of a way around the bug. It seems that if you use ide-scsi for your cdrom instead of straight up ide access you should be able to disable VMWare's legacy cdrom support and it ... (view rest)