Category: Geek Stuff

RSS Subscriptions to WiredAtom

Just out of curiosity, I pulled the access log from the server to see how many people subscribed to RSS feed to my blog. I was surprised at the result — a whopping 1,400 RSS feeds were served just in the past 4 days alone. I could probably write a shell script to weed out the duplicates to see how many of those feeds are from unique visitors, but I think I am content with just that. I remember pulling the same log and found only 2 feeds a couple of months back.

I hope my thoughts, ideas and day-to-day news are entertaining.

On related news, the Steve Jobs Stanford speech download is still popular. It seems like the downloads have been growing quite rapidly. There are almost 1,000 downloads in the past 4 days. I should do a tally and update the “total downloads” figure on that site. Besides, the page is totally ready for a make-over. Maybe I’ll do that when my homework from SCAD isn’t quite as crazy in a few weeks.

Vienna the RSS News Reader

It’s been a while since I wrote something technology-related. But then again, it’s been a while since I last read technology news and really have the time to reflect on it.

I discovered something today that’s blog-worthy. An open source RSS news reading application, Vienna. Its interface and functionalities are almost exact replica of NetNewsWire, except it’s free.

I just love having one app where I can gather all the news I need and just quickly glance through them every morning (or at least I used to prior to Bryan’s arrival).

via [TUAW]

Blog Interface Update

I added a header with navigation to kind of unify all the misc links I thought were better served as top navigation elements. So I consolidated them. I also commented out “Pages” section on the sidebar.php since it looked kind of annoying. But basically, those pages are exactly the same as what’s on the top nav anyway.

Between Apple and Jef Raskin

I was reading the wrong section of the required reading from SCAD’s online class; but the reading turned out the be a pretty cool section on how users interface with keys. And then the author (Jef Raskin) mentions something about the rationale for his design of one-button mouse:

My design for an interface based on a one-button mouse was refined and extended in discussions with many coworkers… and many adjustments were made based on observations made during user testing and during subsequent development. Some users do have difficulty both holding down a button and simultaneously moving a graphical input device… In the Macintosh deign, the problem was alleviated by having only one large button on the mouse, with low holding force and good tactile feedback. (p. 209)

So there we have it. A design from the 80s was effectively (and stubbornly) carried out well into 2005. But here’s the fun part: even though the book was published in 2000, Jef Raskin had already conceived many of the ideas in the new mouse that Apple introduced earlier this year.

A better mouse might have two buttons on top… a “Grab” button on the side that is activated by squeezing the mouse… Some mice at present have a wheel on top that is used primarily for scrolling. Better still would be a small trackball in that location. The mouse would control the position of the curser; the trackball could be used, for example, to manipulation objects or to make selections from menus that float with the curser. (p. 209)

Sound familiar? Here’s what Apple says about their mouse:

Meet the mouse that reinvented the wheel. The scroll wheel, that is. At $49, Mighty Mouse features the revolutionary Scroll Ball that lets you move anywhere inside a document, without lifting a finger. And with touch-sensitive technology concealed under the seamless top shell, you get the programability of a four-button mouse in a single-button design. Click, roll, squeeze and scroll. This mouse just aced the maze. ((c) Apple Computer)

Somebody give me $500,000 so that I can take the rest of the ideas in Jef Raskin’s book to market! I promise I won’t put all eggs in one basket.

Another interesting fact is something I learned from the database class last night. Apparently the idea of a “database” was conceived by E.F. Codd at IBM in the 70s. He published a paper that pretty much defined how all relational databases behaved today. But IBM didn’t really think the paper was worth the effort to development upon, so they simply shelved the idea (and there simply wasn’t enough computing power to run such design). So in the 80s, some guy came along and decided to implement the ideas in E.F. Codd’s paper, and Oracle was born. And Oracle’s been kicking IBM’s ass in the database market ever since.

Having good a idea ahead of its time is a bitch.

Trixie Update — A Site for Geeky Dads

When I called Brian in Austria yesterday, Birgit was home instead. So we started chatting about the latest baby news and life in general (around the baby, of course). She mentioned a very cool “daddy” site for the geek in all of us daddies — Trixie Update.

I blame Birgit for not telling me about the site sooner. The site is full of data this dad collected of his daughter on almost everything imaginable — patterns on diaper changes, nap times… etc. It’s a fairly complete data on his daughter. The articles are articulate and funny and his images of Trixie are also very very nice.

Even though I know Murdza might find the site cool (as did I), I just don’t see he’s dorky enough to maintain a site like that.

There’s one very cool feature he has on his site I must mention openly: The author has a feature on the photos of his daughter that takes you back to exactly one year ago of the same date. You can really see how Trixie’s grown when looking at the photos in succession like that. Here’s an example. Simply click on the “One Year Ago Today” link on the upper right hand corner of the page. Awesome!

Speaking of “phone calls” over long distance, Skype is your friend.

CG Wonders

One of the reasons I didn’t go into the CG/visual effects industry was because of its intense and long work hours. And quite frankly, I was already getting more into systems administration stuff than actually creating 3D models or texture maps. But sometimes I do wish I was still in the creative industry, especially after sites like this sprouts all over the place. The forums showcase some of the greatest CG works I have ever seen.

But I still don’t miss setting up or skinning a skeleton. And I don’t miss having to redo work for every other new version of Maya (backward incompatibility).

Paypal Phishing

This week I must have received 6+ emails from crooks who pretend to be Paypal via those Paypal-official-looking emails which direct me to a fake Paypal site. The objective, of course, is to get me to provide my user name, password and other juicy information such as credit card numbers. I think I prefer the numerous “business offers” I’ve been getting from military generals in Nigeria and/or Congo (VERY attractive business deals, I must say).

Seriously, I think crooks like that should be put in jail for so long that even their mothers forget they exist. They are in the same league as spammers and people who sell your telephone numbers to tele-marketers.

Speaking of tele-marketers, Grace has been complaining about the number of tele-marketing calls we have been receiving. So I registered our number at the National Do Not Call Registry (U.S. only). The neat thing about the registry is that once it takes effect, for every call you receive from tele-marketers, you get to take down their information and report them. And you get to tell them that you are on the registry (and they’ll remove your name from their call list immediately). Each “Do Not Call” number they call, they get hit with a stiff fine from the FCC (or whatever).

I love laws that punish jerk merchants for making our lives less enjoyable.

Politics and I

I did a political matrix test once a few years ago on where I was politically. I think I was on the extreme side of the liberal spectrum. So I thought I’d try to find out what’s changed now. I found this The Politics Test and gave it a try.

Result:

You are a Social Liberal (70% permissive)
and an Economic Liberal (16% permissive)
You are best described as a Socialist

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.

Some charts to go with the result.
Political Matrix result
Political Matrix result
Political Matrix result

Another test I took shows that I am a Moderate Liberal. I guess it all depended on what buttons they pushed during the questionnaire.

UPDATE 04/19/2006: I took the Moral Politics political test again, and the result this time is consistent with the fact that I am a socialist!

Blog Interface Refinements

Tweaked the css file to make the following changes:

1. Calendar: Added a border to “Today”.
2. Calendar: Lightened the background on “Today”.
3. Sidebar: Added cosmetic treatments to the sidebar titles.
4. Content: Added underline to the entry title for better definition.
5. Content: Added entry divider for better readability.

Updated Galleries

I spent some time updating templates for most of the gallery pages. I have replaced tables with style sheets, which are a lot easier to maintain and update. One thing that took me a while to figure out was this: when working with JavaScript functions, it’s not a good idea to name css attributes that begin with numerics (i.e. 2003).

After updating the templates, I also added new albums to the New York and California galleries. In addition to that, I added a few more pictures to Bryan’s September album. Eventually I will unify everything under one PHP file with some kind of dynamic updating when I upload new albums to the directory.

Enjoy.

花了一點時間把照片的網頁部份整理了一下。這次把 < table> 全部換成了 CSS 的語法。這樣以後也比較好整理。過一陣子再整理成 PHP 的動態網頁, 這樣一來會更好維持。我在 “紐約” å’Œ “加州” 的部份多加了一些新的照片。當然詠熙的部份也多了一些九月份的照片喔。

Classes Universities Should be Teaching in CS Programs

Dan Zambonini published an article on what he thought would be useful classes in computer science programs in colleges and universities.

To Mr. Zambonini’s credit, I can relate to most of this suggestions. My brother told me most of his CS classes at Purdue University are heavy on theory, light on practice. I had to really squeeze practicing PHP out of him. Fortunately the classes I am taking at UCSC are really market driven and practical (Java + XML, JavaScripting, Securing Java… etc). But being able to get into one of those classes is another story.

via [Slashdot]