April 2008
3 posts
New home for my blog (again) →
Why shouldn’t I be allowed to eat trans-fats?!?! →
There’s an interesting discussion over at the bad astronomy blog where the author, Phil Plait, bemoans the lack of taste in HoHos (whatever they are) because all the transfats have been…
Back again →
I’ve been posting off and on over at my other blog on tumblr. I do like the handy scriptlets available to quickly post links to interesting pages. Does anyone know if similar shortcuts are…
March 2008
5 posts
What Will Life Be Like in, er, November? →
Running Tomcat →
Doh, this bit me after I reinstalled Tomcat on my MacBook. Unfortunately, I changed a few of the shell scripts to be executable, but not all of them. ‘chmod +x *.sh’ is your friend.
Late Breaking iPhone SDK Rumors →
I posted my predictions before this came out - seriously! They might still be wrong, but I’m more confident now in my core predictions.
SDK Predictions
I haven’t committed to any Apple predictions in the past, but here’s what I’ll bet for tomorrow’s announcement: 1. SDK will be part of Mac-only XCode, available in beta tomorrow for download. Must be a free ADC member. 2. All apps require a digital signature to run, tied to the ADC membership 3. Any app can be installed on an iPod/iPhone (I’m actually thinking this...
Consolidation
Whew, I’m finally able, after about 5 years, to start pulling together all of my archived files to my laptop. For years, I’ve been storing old files on my archive drive - stuff from my computers at university, various desktop computers I’ve owned, old research files…. I can undoubtedly delete a lot of the stuff for good, but between my pack-rat tendencies and my lack of...
February 2008
6 posts
Twitter / docrobertson →
Room to breathe
Well, my new hard drive showed up at the door today before lunch, so like the geek I am I shut down my laptop and switched drives by 12:30 PM. One of the nice things about the Mac operating system Leopard on my MacBook is that it automatically backs up everything every hour to my external drive. So, I was able to restore my last back up to the new drive, and by 3:00 PM I had logged back in with...
garfield minus garfield →
Very very funny…
250 gigs of sweetness
I went ahead and ordered the new hard drive for my existing MacBook. I figured for $150 I can delay buying a new machine until at least the next round of laptop updates. Rumors are for a summer release, corresponding to the next processor release from Intel. Hopefully I’ll get the new hard drive before the weekend, as I’d like to get it installed before I leave for Newfoundland.
Disappointment...
Well, Apple released new laptop computers today, as incremental updates to their existing MacBooks (MBs) and MacBook Pros (MBPs). I was pondering for the past couple of months whether I should upgrade - my current 1st gen MB is a year and a half old and a bit long in the tooth. However, the updates have left me disappointed. I wanted an excuse to upgrade to a 15-in MBP, but for $700 more than a...
Stairs Bookcase →
Sweet….
January 2008
2 posts
How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending... →
I am very tempted to get this book by Daniel Wilson. Apparently he talks about defending against pirates too. Ninjas and pirates! I wonder what Dr. Wilson has his Ph.D. in….
December 2007
11 posts
Enabling PHP in Mac OS X 10.5 →
Although I haven’t yet followed the steps here to enable PHP, I did find out that upgrading to Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) changes the location of the web server. So when I tried to access my personal web page, I instead saw an access error. Copying over my personal configuration file from the old location to the new solved the problem.
World Wide Military Expenditures →
Interesting that the US military budget accounts for over half of the world wide military expenditures. Canada is of course well down the list. Assuming the US is about 10x the size of Canada, the US spends 6x more per capita.
Simple Post →
This is a test post - any postings on Wordpress should now show up in my tumblr blog as links… let’s see if this works.
This blog...
I have mixed feelings about this blog. First, I don’t post much, so I doubt anyone reads it. I would like to have a useful and interesting blog, but without the inclination to really develop it, it’s not going to happen. I have mixed thoughts on tumblr - it’s a nice site with easy posting ability. A little Javascript bookmarklet let’s me link to another site with a couple...
Low-tech Magazine: Email in the 18th century →
… and I thought the ‘clacks’ from Terry Prachett’s Discworld were his own invention.
Deaf demand right to designer deaf children -... →
This is just… wrong.
AppleInsider | Using iPod & iPhone Video Out →
Finally, a detailed investigation into the different video out options of iPods. I was wondering why my iPod touch would not display video through my older universal dock, and now I know. Maybe our cheap knock off dock will do the trick.
Gravity Force Inside a Spherical Shell →
The Hollow Earth Theory →
Oi. Someone should tell these ‘scientists’ how gravity works. Inside a hollow shell, the effect of gravity from that shell is zero. It’s easy to prove with this mathematical technique called Calculus. Perhaps they haven’t heard of it.
J. I. Packer: Global Realignment; Who we Are and... →
J. I. Packer is a great writer…
Text without context is pretext... →
This video is a good summary of the issues facing the Anglican church. I totally agree with the conservative side, simply because it is the most faithful to God’s revelation in the Bible. As soon as we pick and chose what to believe, the power of the message falters. If the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God, then we aren’t at liberty to accept some as truth and some as...
November 2007
11 posts
Do Canonical Web Designs Exist? - Bokardo →
A good discussion. Which sites do you think of when you envision a ‘great’ site?
The Problem with Spaces - Dave Dribin's Blog
... →
I disagree with him - I think Spaces is fantastic as is. Okay, there are a few bugs (i.e. IntelliJ), but in general it is the feature I use the most and find most useful.
I bet there won't be an 'anti-fan' option...
Apparently businesses can now set up a Facebook page, and people can add themselves as ‘fans’ to that company. Now, Any Business Can Tap 53 Million Facebook Users (For Free) Now, as much as I like Apple’s products, or say I enjoy Starbucks coffee, I never see myself as flogging their wares on Facebook. Seriously. I just don’t get it. In any case, I wonder if someone will...
Universe / by Jonathan Harris →
Very interesting site. It’s an exploration of different UI conventions when interacting with information on the web. Give it a try. Also try “We Feel Fine” by Jonathan Harris…
Blogbody: Leopard Spaces + IntelliJ IDEA = Sadness →
Well, I got Leopard installed - eventually the hard drive appeared in the installer, and all was a go. I’m encountering a few issues: NetInfo is gone, so all of my machine name mappings are also gone. I can’t get synergyKM to sync to my Vista machine. And clicking on IntelliJ does not swoosh back to the correct Space. But overall, Leopard is looking good.
Love for Biz - Leopard missing hard drive bug →
I was bitten by this… or at least I hope that’s the problem. I will need to reboot to see the hard drive shows up after waiting. Leopard, here I come!
Getting gouged...
The Apple Store (Canada) - MacBook I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the high prices of the Apple’s computers, but I am. I don’t mean the standard meme of pricing differences between Macs vs PCs. Macs are generally better built, more stylish, and come with better software than an off-the-shelf PC, so I expect a (slight) premium. No, what I am referring to is the price...
101 Ways to Save Apple: Ten Years Ago at Wired |... →
Some interesting suggestions from Wired to Apple in 1997. I guess with 101 suggestions some would be quite close to the mark, but in general most are similar to what Apple actually did.
When Printing Kills →
Internet Explorer can be such a pain to web designers. Because Microsoft decided to give up serious browser development for a while, IE 5.5 and 6 are both widely distributed and very buggy. Here, Eric Meyer describes one of the subtle bugs we need to deal with…
Gametrailers.com - Halo 3 - Landfall Trailer →
Hello Beonewf... welcome to tumblr.
Just a short test posting to welcome myself to tumblr. I have a blog on wordpress, but it is a bit of a pain to post anything. Perhaps the easier nature of tumblr will encourage me to post more.