nvidia + macbook pro = shaved nuts + needles + rubbing alcohol

title says it all…feel my pain

element plugins for browsers

here’s what we need, not sure if it’s a *good* idea tho.   allow browser plugins that can interpet custom tags.  this way browser can be extended with new tags, but then what about competing or non-compatable tags, how would one stop this?  seems like it would create more problems than it’s worth

computing makes our lives easier?

where did this notion come from?  all computers are guarantee to do (other than taking up space) is process some set of instructions really really fast (hopefully faster than we can, otherwise what’s the point?).  Depending on the circumstances, even computing the wrong answer is still the right answer, that is the intent.

been awhile…

it’s been a while since my last post, busy on this crazy project from the 9th level of hell.  despite the craziness, I managed to find time to create my very own RESTful engine.  It currently encodes and decodes several formats, effectively separating the front-end and back-end from the middle.  That’s a helluva 3-some in programming terms

Handling POST data in bash cgi scripts

Handling incoming POST data in a bash script is no-brainer.   Just keep in mind all the same rules about dumping the contents of a variable differs depending on which (or lack there of) quotes you use.

—-[snip]——————————————————————————

#!/bin/bash

echo “Status: 200 OK”
echo “”

POST_DATA=$(</dev/stdin)

echo “${POST_DATA}”
—-[snip]——————————————————————————-

this is beyond easy

cgi scripts in bash…w00t

Imagine my delight when I realized that anything executable by the OS can be a cgi script (well not sure about Windows, don’t care either).   One of my favorite scripting languages to use for prototyping on a daily basis is Bash.  This combination makes it insanely easy to construct RESTful resources.

Some of you, and quite a few at my work are like oh noes!@#!$  y0u g0tz noez sekurity when y0u use teh BASH.   Excuse me Mr. (php|ruby|c|perl|python|dotNet) code monkey?!?  That issue exists for anything that can be executed as a cgi script, so go away.

The bad thing about using cgi scripts is that it reloads the whole thing in memory for every request.  It’s not the reloading that really sucks, it’s the incurring the cost of disk access.  )-;  This is easily mitigated by moving them to a ram disk (including the she-bang) upon every reboot.  Just make sure you preserve the same ownership and file modes, otherwise you will get 0wned.

Improving Mac OSX GUI: Window on Top

At the turn of the century an IBM commercial featuring  dude that played Commander Sisko from DS:9 demanded to know where his flying car was; how come there were no flying cars; where were the flying cars?!?

After all isn’t this the 21st century??

Leopard came and went.  Spaces isn’t too bad, but come the fuck on Apple.  WHERE IS MY WINDOW ON TOP FEATURE?  WHERE’s A REAL VIRTUAL DESKTOP SOLUTION.  The current shit is so broke even after 10.5.2.  It sucks balls.   Ok fine, you don’t have to implement it (right), but at LEAST allow us to fix your broken crap before we start confusing you with Microsoft.

And no, i’m not installing Insanity crapware.   I shouldn’t have to, this is basic feature of any x11 window manager, even the retarded one support it and sloppy focus.  Yeah I know this isn’t X11, but it underpinnings is STILL UNIX.

I long for the day of a hybrid gnome desktop with apple finishing touches too.  Except for the fool that did the finishing touches for the “stacks” in the initial leopard release, you should be fired for leaving out LIST view option.  Classic example of NOBODY at apple really uses this worthless feature.

bad apple

about damn time i got something accomplished

Just spent 36 hours, littered with countless smoke breaks, fueled on 12 double espressos, and my very own coca-cola pyramid.  Promised myself I wouldn’t pull all-nighters this week after spending the last 3 weeks working non-stop at a minimum of 96 hours per week.  Yikes!!! But it was TOTALLY WORTH the effort as the last of the business requirements are tricking in to help complete and tie together the design of an inordinate number of jigsaw pieces created over the last 6 months.  May not be pretty but it definitely a super model when compared to my first wife.

TSA restricts lithium batteries for meth?

It would appear that Thousands Standing Around (TSA) will start restricting the amount of lithium batteries you can take on a plane.  Only thing though is that the FAA has banned these batteries since 2004 as cargo on passenger planes.  As usual, folks online were damning the man.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy damning the man too, but for different reasons.

What’s confusing about this restriction, is it for safety or security?  Most of us heard it from TSA first, only to find out later it was passed down from the FAA.  TSA doesn’t even mention this was handed down by the FAA, leading everyone to assume it’s a security issue; and a silly one as that.

What’s even more odd is the TSA listing out your traveling allowance of lithium in grams…IN GRAMS?  Hell I’m geek and I don’t know how many “grams” of lithium are in my batteries.  I wonder how many “grams” are in a Duracell.  Somehow I don’t think is gonna cut it, people already have a hard enough time making sense of ingredients chart on the side of their favorite food, much less even care.  Plus most people aren’t even aware of what an MSDS is, much less be able to interpret it correctly for it to be even remotely useful.

The one theory I haven’t seen raised regarding this restriction, is the transportation of some quantity of lithium is being moved around for the manufacturing of methamphetamine?  There are several popular recipes for making meth, one in particular is known as the Cold/Nazi method.  Two crucial ingredients lithium and ammonia (but you have to extract the water out first) are far easier to obtain from everyday household items and in much smaller quantities as opposed to getting significant quantities of red phosphorus.  Point is lithium in “grams” is more familiar to meth cooks than your average joe.

So I guess the question is now, safety, security or manufacturing?

hell just froze over…Internet Exploiter 8 passes ACID2 Test

Hell has frozen over…it would seem that internal builds of the upcoming would appears the upcoming release of Internet Exploiter 8 passes ACID2.  Being standard compliant is great and all, but it doesn’t make any sense if it continues to allow authors to write broken pages.  Even then, standards compliance doesn’t necessarily equate to a quality product.  Opera passed this test almost 2 years ago, and it’s still a crappy browser.

Microsoft only does something when itself benefits, including becoming “compliant” with “standards”.  A new browser war is about to be waged, and it’s probably not gonna be pretty.  Who’s gonna be first casualty?

R.I.P. Opera