I’ve picked up a fair number of languages over the years, like anyone in the industry. The latest has been Python (and, for anybody that wants a quick introduction to Python, it is really hard to beat Dive Into Python), and, of course, I am always completely enamored with the latest new language that I [...]

The alpha state is bliss. Do you know what I’m talking about? That time-is-meaningless, flowing state that you reach when your in the midst of a creative process: the one where the hours seem drift by you as insubstantially as a breeze, where you look outside and are astonished to realize that it’s dark, you [...]

Why can’t I find a bug that makes me feel smart? If you think you’ve hit a problem where Apache sessions are just suddenly not working, totally borked, be sure to check your cookie paths; or, go to your browser and make sure you don’t have multiple cookies for your site. How I know this, [...]

There is apparently a variant of IEPlugin making its way around that Lavasoft Adaware doesn’t remove properly, and since I couldn’t find anything on the mass that was Google, I had to track it down. The symptom were the following lines being inserted into multiple locations in the registry (and always being flagged by Adaware, [...]

Started noticing a lot of bees banging into my window late at night and a indistinct humming, but didn’t think about it, until I finally ventured into the backyard (don’t do that very much — not that it’s all horrible or anything, but I just don’t spend a lot of time in the backyard). Discovered [...]

Tuesday design rant. Fitt’s Law (discovered in 1954![1]) is a simple formula that describes the amount of time that will be needed for the average user to click on a target on the screen. From the UsabilityFirst.com glossary: T = k log2(D/S + 0.5), k ~ 100 msec. T = time to move the hand [...]

An update from my previous review on Exposé (or Expose) for Windows: two new programs. But first… I mentioned in the review for WinPlosion that it had a number of bugs, and that I would try to reach technical support in order to get them fixed. I made two attempts to reach them and never [...]

Last Friday I went to see The Passion of the Christ, deciding that anything this controversial would have to be interesting, if nothing else. I just had to write an article about this — not that I will be able to say anything different or novel, but just to get it out of my head. [...]

Sometimes, you read something on the web that just sounds so intriguing yet unlikely that you have to prove that it’s incorrect. From a discussion in Metafilter I ran into a site that claimed that all of the U.S.’s power needs could be met with a 50 square mile solar array in Texas. Just on [...]

Horrible, horrible hack to automatically parse the “Recently Played” section of an iTunes XML file, convert it to HTML, post it to a web site. Uses regex instead of a proper XML parser! Has everything inline instead of using Text::Template! Gross, gross, gross! I have it set up to run every hour; it checks the [...]

Updated 5/8. WinGlance and Powertoys reviewed, and notes on WinPLOSION at the latest review. A review of three different programs that provide Expos� (or Expose) for Windows. Exposé is cool. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth going down to the nearest CompUSA or Apple Store and playing around with the new systems, just to [...]

Really, this whole tweaking-Blosxom thing is one enormous timesuck, a gaping black hole just devouring hours with nary a burp. Nonetheless: Modified the “find” plugin to show relevant context (i.e., not the entire story) and highlight the matching search terms Wrote sideblog to automatically parse the “links” directory and show them in the sidebar Modified [...]

Duloxetine, Lilly, and Suicide This is a story that is going to get bigger: Gregg Easterbrook rails against Lilly[1] in the New Republic, claiming that they have led to the death of a healthy 19-year-old student in Indiana. He makes some salient points, but is probably over the line, especially by his last few paragraphs [...]

So, for the past week I’ve been twiddling with my Blosxom configuration; not writing actual content, you understand, because content is really secondary: it’s all the CSS sheets and getting just the right functionality and layout and picking out aesthetically pleasing colors. Content? For the wimps and poseurs. I think that a blog is like [...]

Set up this blog once again, using Blosxom this time. Previously it was MoveableType, which was powerful but also seemed baroque… not to mention that I kept forgetting my administrative password and could never figure out how to get it back again. Frustrating, the second time. Although, to be fair, anything would seem baroque compared [...]

White socks mate. This is the conclusion I’ve come to after looking at my sock drawer, which is entirely inhabited by white socks. I am convinced that I did not buy all those socks. I believe that they mate and reproduce when I go to sleep at night. Alas, black socks do not mate in [...]

Long Nanowrimo rant here. On Friday, I worked on my novel. Ah, my novel. I think I’ve mention in scathing terms how I feel about doing a romantic comedy. Nonetheless, even though every word is forced out with blood, I’ve managed to keep up fairly well, even hitting 25,000 words on Saturday, exactly to schedule. [...]

Nanowrimo get together in Cupertino. I made it there late, and I walk into the back of Coffee Society and the place is absolutely packed with writers, all writing away. There were a few other people that were working intently on their stuff and looking around, wondering what the hell was happening and why all [...]

Got a new notebook today. Please excuse the capitalistic ranting below. It seems a little extravagant, but nonetheless I needed one, especially with this project that I’ve been working on. A couple of weeks ago I had a brief fling with a Compaq notebook, but returned it two weeks later — it was just absolutely [...]

Oddly enough, a significant percentage of my head space is being taken up by long term relationships… specifically, I’m trying to find a laptop with which to commit. I’ve just had a bad run of luck, and it makes me kind of shy about it all. I was walking through Fry’s, not particularly interested in [...]