Archive for June, 2004
Freudian?
I’m writing a lot of python these days. However, when typing the word “python” at the command line or in an editor more than half the time I type “pythong”. Distracted? Maybe.
In the stocks
eWeek has started publishing a Top 10 Spammers List based on data collected by IronPort’s SenderBase product (more camel-case!). I enjoy it because it’s sort of a combination of pie-in-the-face and putting the dumb criminals in stocks in the town center. Everone can see the evil-doers and chuck tomatoes at them.
It’s also extra-hilarious that they try to do the fully Casey Kasem intro to it each week. “Our big mover this week, up 15 spots to number 9…” Soon you’ll be able to call in a special spam dedication.
My favorite browser
Version 0.9 of my favorite browser, Mozilla Firefox, has been released. Hooray for that! It’s really amazing to me that some truly moronic companies have stopped developing browsers almost completely, even after making considerable investments a few years ago to crush competitors. Now, even though the browser is the average Joe’s only portal to the Internet, MSIE is rapidly falling behind. If you want to use a fast browser that displays the web like it is supposed to, and doesn’t expose you to weekly security bugs, get Firefox.
Packet loss made funny
Just overheard over my cubicle wall:
“Crap. 70% packet loss to Rackspace.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know those packet thingies we rely on? 70% of them aren’t getting to Rackspace.”
It doesn’t look like Tom’s day is going to go too well, but at least he has a sense of humor about it. That is why I like working here. Also, nobody here is insanely dork-tastic.
Low-tech high-tech
I’ve joined the GUI group at work to help them hit some deadlines. I’m already having fun and cranking out a little code using a cool web framework and a language that I’m still not all that familiar with. It’s a bit of an adventure. The cool thing about the group is that they have solved the documentation problem in cross-platform development. No longer does anyone need to drop piles of money on crappy software just so you can connect two boxes with an arrow. In fact, you don’t need to “learn” any new software at all. You go out, you buy a $200 4-megapixel camera, and you take pictures of the whiteboards you used to draw the flow diagrams in the first place.
JPEG’s are cross-platform, intuitive, lightweight and über-cheap (especially next to the $500 Viso licenses). Plus, they have the added benefit of making your new team-members laugh out loud at the pure elegance of the solution the first time they see one.