Thursday, July 29, 2004

FindBugs - A Bug Pattern Detector for Java

"a program which looks for bugs in Java code"

A Taste of Computer Security

(via /.) Long, read later.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

SUPER MARKETING: Ads from the comic books

Classic ads from your favorite (mostly 1970's, from what I've seen) comics. What could be nerder than that?

Monday, July 26, 2004

World Ends as we know it - Yahoo & Google go 503

This just happens to be the first blog I read that mentioned this. I suspect someone has DDOS'd Google for their IPO. As for Yahoo, were they still using Google for searches anyway?

MacGyver Swiss Army Knife

No-one is quite sure exactly which Swiss Army Knife MacGyver used on the show

Friday, July 23, 2004

Firefox

I've finally switcged from Mozilla to Firefox as my default browser. I was using Mozilla 1.5, and needed to upgrade because of a bug that was getting in the way of doing my job, so I figured if I've got to install a new browser it may as well be Firefox as Mozilla 1.7.

Atlanta Radio Update

Update on the Atlanta Area Radio site that was blogged yesterday. This information is from reliable sources:

From: [CENSORED]
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 9:06 PM
To: [CENSORED]
Subject: Re: dr. leach question


Quoting [CENSORED]:

> hey [CENSORED] i was trying to remember something -- someone pointed out
> that Dr. Leach's home page has a page where he lists a bunch of atlanta
> radio stations but not WREK. i was surprised in since i think he even made
> a lot of the equipment at wrek. but then i somehow remember that we had
> some kind of "falling out" with him over some issue -- am i recalling
> correctly?
>
>
There was a falling out on his side, but he never told anyone what his problem
was. So we have no clue. Odd thing is I saw him walking over near WREK
(Coliseum studio) yesterday. Sunday night is last show at the old place.
Trying to get KK to come down since he should be around (he's playing Smith's
on Sunday afternoon.)


Trends in Enterprise Development


Like most of TheServerSide's cartoons, it's not really very funny, but at least it's more fun to look at than a cartoon version of James Gosling.

Pegasus Mail

Pegasus Mail, the email client of choice back in the DOS days, is still around!

Thursday, July 22, 2004

TheServerSide.com - TSS Featured Entry

JavaBeans is such a wildly successful component model that we now barely think about using it. We don't say "I'm going to write a JavaBean to do blah"; we usually just say "I'm going to write a class to do blah", and then unconsciously follow the JavaBeans conventions. We long ago forgot the original definition of a JavaBeans container (BeanBox, anyone?), and use JavaBeans just about everywhere. The JavaBeans definition is part of Java culture more than it is part of any JCP specification.

Flvxxvm Florvm will enchant your world

Apparently the closest thing to a Flvxxvm Florvm fan website. Presumably auto-generated content designed to turn up in searches?
If you want to change your life, enjoy and let yourself lifted into the highest clouds by Flvxxvm Florvm.

Atlanta Area Radio

No longer updated, but full of stuff that I plan to read. This is an example of the kind of info that is in here:
In fall 2003, Salem converted the failed "gospel WGKA" into an neocon talk station which now competes with AM 1340. After purchasing WGKA in 1997 for what was reported to be $2 million, bored cake frosting magnate Joe Weber proceeded to run the station into the ground with an unpredictable diversified format where rock, opera, classical, folk, jazz, and you name it, were played in what seemed to be random order. Now that the format was a flop, Weber sold WGKA to religious broadcaster Salem Communications for what was reported to be $8 million. The sale became final at the end of Feb. 2000. On April 4, the format became "gospel WGKA," with programming from the religious Salem Radio Network. Salem also owns WNIV and WLTA, which simulcast in Atlanta. Salem CEO Edward Atsinger, of the political steering committee known as the Council on National Policy, is said to have bankrolled Republican Party campaigns in California in the '90s, including over $528,000 in '98.
One does wonder, though, what the hell is going on when this page is located at Gatech.edu yet it's list of local stations contains no mention of WREK.

Southern Gospel Music Radio Stations

Atlanta used to have a Southern Gospel station, "WGKA - The Mighy 1190", which sadly turned into a conservative talk station in 2003.

Radio Station Formats

All of the radio formats measured in Arbitron listening surveys.

Adam Curry's Weblog - Formats - What Napster Really Needs

Almost everything in here is outdated (it was written in 2000 about the "old" Napster) but it's still interesting.

TvRadioWorld - Radio Formats

A radio format, or programming format, or programming genre refers to the overall content broadcasting over a radio station. Some stations broadcast multiple genres on set schedule. Over the years, formats have evolved and new ones have been introduced. In today's age of radio, many radio formats are designed to reach a specifically defined segment or niche of the listening population based on such demographic criteria as age, ethnicity, background, etc.

Adult Album Alternative?

Well, Z93 (see here, and here) is gone. They are now something called "Dave FM".

The format of this station is probably best described by this blog post which appears to have now been deleted, so you have to get it from Google's cache:
Wanna hear a scoop? It's so cool to actually have a scoop for the first time here at regularguys.com. OK, better get to it because everyone will be calling me soon for details.

And it's not good news for me or you.

Z93 is gonna fire everyone and change format in the next few weeks. The format is called DAVE FM, AAA format. To you non-radio jargon folks that is Adult Album Alternative. Whatever the DJs and people over 40 who wear black and dye their hair black think is cool. Sort of Little Five Points Meets Chastain. And the DAVE part? The result of some fucked up focus group abstraction that radio executives are dumb enough to believe is good branding.

So fuck. Doesn't look promising for me. My style of talkradio--I call it Larry FM--does not fit in with DAVE and morose-sounding older Cure Fan DJs


When I first heard their total lack of local on-air talent (no morning show, no DJs to even tell you what songs they just played), my assumption was that it must be one of those radio stations that is programmed from the home office of the company that owns it, and that there is nothing atcually here in Atlanta but the transmitter equipment and some guys to keep that running. But apparently, according to this story, they do in fact have a program director. Maybe the refreshing lack of a goofy morning show is only temporary. Apparently there is also now a trend of naming radio stations things like "Dave FM", "Jack FM", etc. I wonder if there's a Jeff FM anywhere.

They describe themselves as "rock without rules", "cool rock", and "rock for your generation". They don't bother to say which generation that is.

Songs I've heard them play include (in no particular order):

"One Way or Another" - Blondie
"Learn to Fly" - Foo Fighters (twice in a twelve hour period)
"Train in Vain" - The Clash
"Watchin' the Detectives" - Elvis Costello
"Roam" - The B52s
"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2
"Let's Dance" - David Bowie
"And She Was" - Talking Heads
"I Wanna Be Sedated" - Ramones
"Because the Night" - by someone who was not Patti Smith

And a shitload lot of 90's and newer songs of which I can't remember the names, including some ska-like stuff and some Dave Matthews.

With a couple of exceptions, it's obvious that their formula is to take bands that are (or were at some point in the 80's or 90's) considered to have a lot of hip punk/new-wave/alternative credibility, but then play only the most mainstream possible songs by those bands, songs that your grandma has heard dozens of times. So it ends up pleasing both you, the aging wanna-be-hipster, and grandma.

So far it seems to be working on me. It's familiar enough to not be too distracting listen to while doing things like driving and painting my kitchen cabinets, yet not gag-worthy like the "lite" radio stations.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

SteveAlbiniweb.mov

Steve Albini (*) talks about digital versus analog recording. I haven't listened to the whole thing.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Making Light: Prophetable colors

I’ve known people who think official color reassignments are a
conspiracy theory. The short answer is that they are a conspiracy, but
they aren’t theoretical. I submit as evidence the assigned colors for 2004, 2003 and 2002. And here are some recent specimens of the new range, to give you a better idea of what they look like when in use.
(via Boing Boing)

ApologetiX- the Christian Weird Al Yankovic

Yes, that is how this band bills themselves.

Parodeities: Christian Parodies of Classic Rock Tunes

The term "Parodeity" is the obvious merging of the two words "parody" and "deity" to imply a Christian-based parody of some song. Although parodies are usually humorous or satirical, Parodeities generally are not; they are simply lyrics that tell a Bible story or some personal testimony by attaching new lyrics to an existing song. Most of the Parodeities on this page were written to the tunes of classic rock songs, although other genres are present as well.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

mezzoblue § Mobile CSS

Except for one little thing. The web capabilities stink. Okay, now I get blue underlined links instead of black ones; is that all 3 years buys me? The browser is a lot more integrated in this model since other (mostly useless) things like ringtone and game downloading rely on it. But even those pages are a stark black-on-white contrast to the animated colour imagery that forms the menu system of the phone itself. Something doesn’t fit here, and it’s the second-class citizen they’re calling a browser.

Monday, July 12, 2004

My Turbo CSS design for the Zen Garden has been linked from the Themes and Look–alikes page.

Stopdesign | Overused Lists?

CSS can be used to override almost every default rendering of any HTML element. But with the use of CSS comes the responsibility to ensure the content is still accessible, navigable, and easy to use when style information is ignored or not supported. If CSS is used to style an element beyond the point that it’s still recognizable as that element, perhaps it’s time to question the use of that element?

SimpleBits | SimpleQuiz

I thought I’d try out a new series here called SimpleQuiz (I know… but it’s better than “Markup Quiz” or “Web Standards Quiz”). The objective is to ask some questions about markup and generate some discussion about preferred methods.

Bootleg Objects

(via BoingBoing)

Friday, July 09, 2004

Progressive Rock Ultimate Discography ... with MP3 and reviews

This should provide adequite sustenance for the Doctor Who marathon... er, search for more diggety dank music.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

I've compiled a montage of diggety dank music.
The MP3 is on the same page as the MIDI

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The GIF Pronunciation Page

It's pronounced like "jif". Period. The end. That's final. End of story.

1970 obsession

Usenet thread from 1999 about the diggety dank 70's metal rythym.

Goes into only vaguely related discussions about which of Deep Purple or Uriah Heep was more influential, etc.

Bloglines is screwing with things. If they want to add blog hosting to their services, fine). But don't do it in such a way that it messes with people who were just linking to their Bloglines profile. I don't want to have to have an extra blog over on Bloglines just to be able to have that "bloglines" link on my blog do something.

How many times can I say the word "blog"?

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

RUGBURNS - ME & EDDIE VEDDER Lyrics

For some reason, I thought of this song recently. Looking at the lyrics now, it's obviously pre-Kurt-Cobain-suicide, in almost the exact same way that anything produced before 9-11 and dealing with terrorism is so dated.
I wanna die wasted
In a room with eddie vedder
We could both die together
But he’ll go first
Yeah eddie’ll go first
’cause he’s more famous

Tucker Woods Association

This is my first pure web design project for (other than my own homepage/blog) in about 10 years.

Click cancel to continue

This is an example of the kind of things that people end up designing in a web app, where Javascript only provides a single "OK/CANCEL" dialog.
Click OK to quit setup... all unsaved information will be lost. Click cancel to continue
Click cancel to contiue what? Continue the "setup" process that you were thinking about cancelling? Or to continue with the cancellation, and hence not continue the setup process?

Friday, July 02, 2004

Today I watched as an IE-using colleague downloaded Firefox specifically so he could use LiveHTTPHeaders. (Wait'll he gets hooked on tabbed browsing, though!)

SWT: The Standard Widget Toolkit

I interrupt the heavy metal for some Java-related content. This forms part of my argument in a discussion currently taking place at work. My contention is that the wisdom of this article applies as much to native code used in "enterprise" systems (such as a legacy application that can only be accessed through a DLL interface) as it does to GUI toolkits.
JNI is the standard mechanism used by all Java programs to invoke code written in C. SWT goes one step further by enforcing a one-to-one mapping between Java native methods and operating system calls. The fact that this mapping is strictly enforced is one of the most critical factors in the success of SWT.

You know that riff that every metal/hard rock band plays? You know the one.. it sounds vaguely like this MIDI file. I call it the Diggety Dank. Because that's what it sounds like. The music sounds like someone should be chanting:

DANK DIGGETY DANK DIGGETY DANK DIGGETY DIGGETY DIGGETY DANK!

Examples in roughly chronological order:

Jeff Beck Group, "Beck's Bolero"
Led Zeppelin, "How Many More Times"
Black Sabbath, "Black Sabbath"
Deep Purple, "Child in Time"
Led Zeppelin, "Achilles Last Stand"
Metallica, "Am I Evil" (bonus track on reissued versions of the "Kill 'Em All" album... not sure where else it might be available)

It (apparently) started out as a Bolero, but somewhere along the way picked up associations with Holst's "Mars the Bringer of War". It's usually not played in 5/8 time like Holst's version, though. (Listeners who don't know anything about Holst probably think it sounds like the Imperial March from Star Wars, although it doesn't really)

Does this thing have a real name?

now playing..

Deep Purple In Rock

If you think you know Deep Purple, but all you've heard is "Highway Star" and "Smoke on the Water", you ain't heard nothin'. This is just amazing. Richie Blackmore's playing is so much more intense and impressive than on any other Purple I've ever heard, that it makes me wonder what the hell happened to him after this album.

In case you can't tell, I'm on a deliberate quest to listen other "metal" bands from the same era as Zep and Sabbath. Anybody who could've inspired Spinal Tap. Next stop: Uriah Heap. Then if I'm still interested, Budgie. I've been meaning to do this for years.

Once I complete this, I may finally go and get some real knowledge of Hardcore (something else I've been meaning to do and putting off for about 15 years).

Thursday, July 01, 2004

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Microsoft

Remember when Internet Explorer 4 was the coolest thing ever invented because of it's support for stylesheets, positioning, and DOM?

I'm Your Fan

Yesterday we went to Big Lots and bought two cheap electric fans.

One of them, the semi-transparent plastic of the blades reminds of a materials of a medical muzak system that my grandfather once acquired to use at his engineering firm. ("Pharmaceutical grade, not that crunchy herbal rave shit.")

The other fan, which is intended for our bedroom, smelled when it came out of the box exactly like the Tasco microscope I got for my birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese's when I was 9. It came with Sea Monkeys and dead fruit flies (the microscope, that is).

Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard

"If you like cats, and you like *fat* cats, you should go see Garfield"