Not So Let Down Any More
With the help of some links from Les Orchard, I've managed to enable the extended desktop on my iMac. →
September 2003
Let down...
For the first time since buying the iMac in February, I have a reason to be disappointed in it. This is the first thing about the machine that hasn't "just worked" for me. →
Introducing: Dysfunctional Programming
A quick newbie's guide to this exciting new coding paradigm. →
Paid By the Keystroke?
Problem: I have a list of objects. I want to create another list containing the id property of those objects. Solutions in seven and a half languages. →
Music Consumption
I was thinking last night that I haven't really bought many CDs lately. I guess it's partly because (IMHO) the music scene is going through one of those downturns during which it doesn't produce much that I actually like. Or perhaps it's just that I'm finally getting older and my ability to adopt new music has atrophied. →
NAT and Security
I'm not a big fan of Network Address Translation. Its security benefits are minimal compared to a similarly configured firewall, and its disadvantages are legion. It's a tool that's blocking the free flow of data, segmenting the Internet and bloating protocols, while at the same time being misused as an excuse not to improve the infrastructure surrounding it. This is just a bad thing. →
Procrastination
Probably the most glaring of my many character flaws is my ability to procrastinate pretty much forever. Over the years, this has led to me putting up with situations that most people would just do something about, because I was always going to "do something about it tomorrow". →
Ditching AVS Networks
Wherein Charles discovers he really isn't as keen on his hosting provider as he previously thought. →
SneakerNet Lives
I recently bought a keyring-sized 256Mb USB flash drive. This got me thinking about just how portable our data is going to become, even without networks. →
Mind Your Step
I'm beginning to wonder what we expect from our fellow man. →
Apple Expo: New 15" Powerbook
Finally, Apple have updated the 15" Powerbook. →
Verisign: the Ultimate in Typo-Squatting
Verisign, it seems, have the trump-card. By putting a wildcard DNS on '.net' and '.com', they are redirecting every single domain typo to their own search page. I can't even begin to describe how much this whole idea annoys me. →
Basic Mathematics
I sat staring at the screen for a very long time. It seems that ten years after leaving school (and five since I last studied mathematics in any meaningful way) my mathematical skills have atrophied to the point where I'd forgotten how the hell sine and cosine really worked. →
How toLowerCase and isLowerCase Interact: Not a Bug.
This is not a bug. The Javadoc for the Character Class explains that the toLowerCase() method does not necessarily return a lower-case letter. It returns either a lower-case letter, or the original letter if it has no lower-case equivalent. →
It's Better to Beg Forgiveness...
Your application should quietly do what it's told, but provide a way for the user to recover from mistakes. Make your actions undo-able. Make your deletions un-deletable. →
Democracy in Bug-Tracking?
I've visited this subject before, but it's worth repeating. In my experience, the most useless feature in any public bug-tracking system is the ability to vote on bugs. →
Fight Club Fanboys
Dear world. Fight Club was not a grand endorsement of nihilism. It was not there to reassure you that it was OK to hate the world and your life. Fight Club was a satire! →
A Sense of Wonder
For several years now, my Slashdot signature has been: "The more I learn about the Internet, the more amazed I am that it works at all." →
The URL is Not Enough
I'd say it's quite significant that I, someone who spends more of his life than he will comfortably admit to online, have never felt even remotely like visiting a URL chalked on the sidewalk. The same goes for the plethora of URLs that appear in print and television ads. Never bothered with them. →
Bayesian Filtering: The Spam Fights Back
This email was obviously written with Bayesian filters in mind. It's seeded with around 150 random, long words of the kind that you'd not expect to find in a spam, but that are varied enough that it's quite likely that at least _some_ of them will be in your filter as high indicators of non-spamness. →
Reverse Engineering Is Not Theft
Copyright does not prohibit reverse-engineering, except (thanks to the DMCA) where the thing being reverse-engineered is a copy-prevention mechanism. This is because copyright law is all about the making and distributing of copies. Under regular property law, once you have bought something, you're perfectly within your rights to take it apart and see how it works. →
Social Technology: A Parable
I was in the pub last night playing pool. At some point during the game, my opponent mentioned something about Bronski Beat (after a few beers, you're lucky I remember this much), and my Father and I both got stuck trying to remember who the Hell the lead singer was. So I tried Google... →
One Sun Way?
"Fragmented" is a spin word. It has powerful negative connotations, implying that something that was once whole has broken into pieces. I would like to replace it with a better word: "competitive". →
Chemical Burn
I had the weirdest dream the other night... →
Thankyou, Cat-Lovers
I would like to personally thank all the cat-lovers (even those without cats) for making "Post Pictures of Your Cat To Javablogs Day" such an enormous success. Join us same time next year, when we post candid snapshots of our favourite celebrity elbows! →
Path MTU Discovery
Symptom: when you're trying to access a webserver, you can connect fine, send the HTTP request fine, but then the client waits forever for a reply. Interestingly enough, if you upload a really small (Say, 10 byte) file to the server, you can retrieve it without fail. Possible Cause: something is blocking Path MTU Discovery. →
My Cat Rocks
This is my cat. Her name is Cassie. She has nothing to do with Java. →
So You've Had An Idea...
So you've had a really great technical idea that's going to change the world? Here's a very simple sanity-check. →