posts brought to you by the category “microsoft”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database
table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life.
What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated
with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it
will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun
way to find stuff.
Ben Hammersley : "Life is too short and summer is too precious to
spend it inside dealing with a development community quite so socially
dysfunctional."
document(//a/@href[contains(., '.html')])/html/head/title
The Sunday Edition : What It Means To Be a Liberal
a panel discussion with Michael Ignatieff and Charles Taylor
(real audio)
Scott Wiersdorf : Term::Twiddle.pm
Always fascinated by the spinner during FreeBSD's loader
bootstrap, I wanted to capture it so I could view it any time I
wanted to--and I wanted to make other people find that same joy I
did. Now, anytime you or your users have to wait for something to
finish, instead of twiddling their thumbs, they can watch the
computer twiddle its thumbs.
Me : XML::SAXDriver::vCard.pm 0.01
The Connection talks to Paul Krugman
www.webserviceoftheday.com
Props to Elliotte Rusty Harold for outling the changes in XHTML
2.0
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : fanfaronade
Fanfaronade \Fan*far`on*ade"\, n. [F. fanfaronnade, fr. Sp.
fanfarronada. See {Fanfaron}.] A swaggering; vain boasting;
ostentation; a bluster. --Swift.
web1913
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : turpitude
Turpitude \Tur"pi*tude\, n. [L. turpitudo, from turpis
foul, base.] Inherent baseness or vileness of principle, words, or
actions; shameful wickedness; depravity. --Shak.
web1913
turpitude n : a corrupt or depraved or degenerate act or
practice: "the various turpitudes of modern society" [syn: {depravity}]
wn
Norman Walsh : DocBook Wiki
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : the dog's
"The dog's bollocks," meaning the very best. British
Slang.
ex. Did you see Dave's new car? It's the
dog's.
Me : Net::Google.pm 0.1
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : proclivity
Proclivity \Pro*cliv"i*ty\, n. [L. proclivitas: cf. F.
proclivit['e].] 1. Inclination; propensity; proneness; tendency. ``A
proclivity to steal.'' --Abp. Bramhall. 2. Readiness; facility;
aptitude. He had such a dexterous proclivity as his teachers were fain
to restrain his forwardness. --Sir H. Wotton.
web1913
proclivity n : a natural inclination; "he has a proclivity
for exaggeration" [syn: {propensity}, {leaning}]
wn
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is :
write-only
Unreadable or indecipherable. Something of sufficient
complexity that it is incomprehensible. Often applied to someone
else's style of writing software.
ex. I've spent an hour trying to figure out what your
freaking write-only PERL script does: lean to use some comments for a
change!
Radio Crankypants 18-19 : Not Invented Here
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is prink
| source : web1913 | Prink \Prink\, v. i. [imp.
& p. p. {Prinked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Prinking}.] [Probably a
nasalized form of prick. See {Prick}, v. t., and cf. {Prig}, {Prank}.] To
dress or adjust one's self for show; to prank. | source : web1913 | Prink
\Prink\, v. t. To prank or dress up; to deck fantastically. ``And prink
their hair with daisies.'' --Cowper. | source : wn | prink v 1: dress
very carefully and in a finicky manner 2: put on special clothes to
appear particularly appealing and attractive [syn: {dress up}, {fig out},
{fig up}, {deck up}, {gussy up}, {fancy up}, {trick up}, {deck out},
{trick out}, {attire}, {get up}, {rig out}, {tog up}, {tog out},
{overdress}] [ant: {dress down}]
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is acerbic
| source : web1913 | Acerbic \A*cerb"ic\, a. Sour
or severe. | source : wn | acerbic adj 1: sour or bitter in taste [syn:
{acerb}, {astringent}, {sharp}] 2: harsh or corrosive in tone; "an
acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid
comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words";
"blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political assassination,
talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation" [syn:
{acerb}, {acid}, {acrid}, {bitter}, {blistering}, {caustic}, {sulfurous},
{sulphurous}, {venomous}, {virulent}, {vitriolic}]
George Sanderson : Apache::RedirectDBI.pm
"allows you to create a virtual path in your
document hierarchy. All requests for access to this virtual path should
require a username and password to access. When the user attempts to
access this virtual path their username is looked up in one or more
database tables. The table in which the username is found in determines
the physical path from which files are served."
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is grandiloquent
| source : web1913 | Grandiloquent
\Gran*dil"o*quent\, a. [L. grandis grand + logui to speak.] Speaking in a
lofty style; pompous; bombastic. | source : wn | grandiloquent adj 1:
lofty in style; "he engages in so much tall talk, one never really
realizes what he is saying" [syn: {magniloquent}, {tall}] 2: puffed up
with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner"; "overblown oratory";
"a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical
hooey"- Newsweek [syn: {overblown}, {pompous}, {pontifical},
{portentous}]
N.Y. Times : Interview with Stefan Fatsis,
author of "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph,
Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players."
(real evil g2)
Am I the only person who can't watch Ari Fleishcer without being
convinced he is lying?
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is fob
| source : web1913 | Fob \Fob\, n. [Cf. Prov. G.
fuppe pocket.] A little pocket for a watch. {Fob chain}, a short watch
chain worn a watch carried in the fob. | source : web1913 | Fob \Fob\,
v.t. [imp. & p. p. {Fobbed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Fobbing}.]
[Cf.Fop.] 1. To beat; to maul. [Obs.] 2. To cheat; to trick; to impose
on. --Shak. {To fob off}, to shift off by an artifice; to put aside; to
delude with a trick."A conspiracy of bishops could prostrate and fob off
the right of the people." --Milton. | source : wn | fob n 1: a pocket in
a man's vest to hold a pocket watch [syn: {watch pocket}] 2: an adornment
that hangs from a watch chain 3: short chain or ribbon attaching a pocket
watch to a man's vest [syn: {watch chain}, {watch guard}] v : pull a fast
one, play a trick on somebody; "We tricked the teacher into thinking that
class would be cancelled next week" [syn: {trick}, {fox}]
Websign: hyperlinks from a physical location to the web
"By using a simple form of augmented reality, the
system allows users to visualize services related to physical objects of
interest. The websign system provides infrastructure not just for
detecting websigns but also for creating and deploying them. In this
paper we present the concept, an overview of the prototype and the
algorithms used in the implementation."
(pdf)
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is brackish
| source : web1913 | Brackish \Brack"ish\, a.
[See {Brack} salt water.] Saltish, or salt in a moderate degree, as water
in saline soil. Springs in deserts found seem sweet, all brackish though
they be. --Byron. | source : wn | brackish adj : slightly salty; "a
brackish lagoon"; "the briny deep" [syn: {briny}]
Brad Marshall : System Authentication using LDAP
Maneesh Agrawala and Chris Stolte : Rendering Effective Route
Maps
Improving Usability Through Generalization. via
xblog
Bruce K. Alexander : The Roots of Addiction in Free Market
Society
"In order for "free markets" to be "free," the
exchange of labour, land, currency, and consumer goods must not be
encumbered by elements of psychosocial integration such as clan
loyalties, village responsibilities, guild or union rights, charity,
family obligations, social roles, or religious values. Cultural
traditions "distort" the free play of the laws of supply and demand, and
thus must be suppressed. In free market economies, for example, people
are expected to move to where jobs can be found, and to adjust their work
lives and cultural tastes to the demands of a global market. People who
cannot achieve psychosocial integration develop "substitute" lifestyles.
Substitute lifestyles entail excessive habits including-but not
restricted to-drug use, and social relationships that are not
sufficiently close, stable, or culturally acceptable to afford more than
minimal psychosocial integration. People who can find no better way of
achieving psychosocial integration cling to their substitute lifestyles
with a tenacity that is properly called addiction." see also :
The Big
Mac Index
Would you buy food from this guy?
Mike Richter : Primer on CD-R
"The following is intended to be parts of a
primer on recordable Compact Disc formats. I have favored simple
expression over technical detail. For that, I urge you to check other
resources, as found in the URLs. In particular, the information from
vendors is authoritative, where the following is not. The focus is on
PC's and Windows; those with Unix or Mac systems are welcome to translate
to the extent possible. (I try not to write about things I don't know.)"
also available as a
159-page
PDF file
.
Paul Lukas : Inconspicuous Consumption
"It's about deconstructing the details of
consumer culture -- details that are either so weird or obscure that we'd
never see them, or so ubiquitous that we've essentially stopped seeing
them. ... Every month, this column will use products like these -- some
of them eccentric, many exceedingly ordinary, but all worthy of close
inspection -- as a way to look at consumer culture in excruciating
detail." This month's topic is the almost forgotten, but amazingly
topical, hole puncher.
A note to industrial designers
and persons thinking about buying a Visor: Why
the f*ck can't I put the protective cover back on my Visor when there is
a module in the fancy magic koolaid module slot we all got excited
about?!?! Either redesign the cover or make modules that take the
dumb-ass finger hook thingy into account. I think I am going to start
marketing myself as a high-tech bullshit detector because companies would
do themselves a favour if they didn't release products with such idiotic
and
brain-dead mistakes
.
This Morning talks to Niall Ferguson
author of "The Business of Politics and the
Economics of Democracy" (real audio)
Michael Stutz : Managing Documents With SGMLtools
That's a perfectly reasonable point
even if I don't agree with it. I do not think
that there is only one way to make an argument convincingly. You betray
yourself, however, when you feel the need to refer to your subject as
"stupid frogs". I'm not sure that the
O.L.F.
has set up a
joual-o-meter
yet; if anyone, they would be the ones to do such a thing.
Rex Murphy : Dot-com looniness, phantoms of avarice and
appetite
"The most self- regarding generation of all
history is going to live forever; jog till it's 90; chemically extend its
furious sexual capacity; replace and enhance all body parts and get
continuously rich forever. It is this happy exceptionalism that has made
the practice of building hopes and dreams on the stock market, and in
particular that portion of it known as the NASDAQ, such a delightful
habit for so many North Americans." Is it just me, or does it frighten
anyone else how much Rex Murphy looks like
Prime Minister Poutine
?
Justin Fox
Profits, Darwinism, and the Internet
A word about Amazon
I have so far refrained from signing any of
the
growing number of boycott Amazon petitions
circulating on the net. Not because I like Amazon, but rather because I
have *never* liked Amazon and make a point of only buying stuff from them
when there is no other alternative. Adding my name to the list of former
customers would be sort of moot. I have never thought that that Amazon
was looking out for anyone but themselves. I find their software and
data-mining invasive and the friendly spam they've sent me annoying and
saccharine. To those who are suddenly surprised that Amazon is acting
like a big greedy company, I can can only say this : Duh. Meanwhile, the
Public Radio Music Source
finally has an (not very elegant) online ordering system in place.
Tigert Labs : Gimp Tutorials
Paul Krugman : Being Bob Forehead
"So why can't people like Steve Forbes simply
declare victory and go home? The well-off would, of course, like to see
even lower taxes -- which George W. Bush, his life made easy by the
revenues a booming economy generates, promises to deliver. (Is he
sincere, or is he just doing this because that is what Republicans are
supposed to do? Who knows?) But there is one important thing that the
supply-side movement has not gotten, and still desperately wants:
intellectual vindication."
Rick Salutin : Is there a fin-de-siecle media style?
"Those who grew up before the nineties still have
some sense of a world which can be interpreted by super-personal schemas:
communism, social democracy, fascism, Catholicism, surrealism, whatever."
It's Canada Day :
which means it's Garbage-picking Day in Montreal.
Most of the city rents, and about an overwhelming majority of the leases
start on July 1st. To celebrate moving day, the Montreal Mirror has a
special feature on
houses you won't be moving in to
.
The MoebiusShop
wtf?
-
dude, where's my car
This document uses
CSS
kung-fu and a small amount of JavaScript for rendering its
contents. Efforts have been made to separate the form from the
content so if you are viewing this in a text-based browser it
shouldn't be an issue.
On the other hand it may look funny if you are viewing it in a
browser with incomplete
CSS
and/or JavaScript implementations. Internet Explorer 6 comes to
mind.
It's not that I don't love you. However, my time is limited and
I no longer feel very good about spending it working around any one
browser's inconsistencies with little, or no, confidence that they
will ever be fixed or otherwise made more inconsistent at some
later date.
On the other hand, if something is down-right
unreadable
please let me know and I will endeavour to fix it.
-
yes, we have no bananas
This page may not validate. It's not that I don't care, it's
just that I'm not aware of it yet. Part of the reason that I
rewrote the entire back-end for managing this site is that the old
stuff made it too easy for these kinds of mistakes to slip through
the cracks.
See also :
W3C::LogValidator.pm
-
it's the software, stupid
Use the source, Luke.
