...more recent posts
The much hyped WolframAlpha search engine computational knowledge engine launched last night. This is from the makers of the truly mind blowing Mathmatica software, and is in some ways an extension of those ideas.
I haven't had time to play around with it much, but for sure it's worth a look. The UI is very nice, no doubt about it. But some of the hyperbolic claims of it's makers I'm guessing will turn out to not be true. Still, this looks like it might be a very useful tool.
Had a few minutes of down time just now. Still investigating. Something made MySQL eat up all CPU time. Didn't have to reboot though. I eventually got in via SSH and just restarted Apache which seemed to do it.
I've become a big fan of Stack Overflow where users ask programming questions in a host of different categories and other users answer. Good answers are voted up, and the whole thing is group editable a la wikipedia. Loaded with good info and everything is presented with a nice clean design. Incredibly useful. It's my number one trouble shooting resource now.
Nicejforms is a JQuery translation of niceforms. Uh, nice. I'm using niceforms on a project now and it's pretty slick. Makes your form elements not look as completely craptastic as most of the default browser controls.
Log into the Google Analytics API using PHP and CURL. Hmmm....
I've been using Analytics more and more and I really like it. But this gives me some ideas for a much better way to use it.
What I really need in these tough economic times is a $499 ethernet cable. That may sound crazy, but they do have "signal direction markers" - otherwise known as "arrows" - so you can be sure to put them in the right direction for optimal signal flow.
And I thought Monster Cable was out of their minds.
IBM walked away from the deal, but now Oracle has bought Sun for 7.4 billion dollars. I would have preferred IBM given both companies records with open source software. But aside from my feelings this does make Oracle a pretty big fish. If we're anywhere near the bottom then Oracle got a pretty good deal. Nice time to have lots of cash.
Another in a long series of attempts to rid the world of IE 6. This one is actually pretty clever - it tries to trick the user into thinking they are seeing a legitimate notice to download an ActiveX plugin, but instead upgrades the entire browser. That seems like it might work!
Not sure how much this will help, but this sounds like a good move to me:
Starting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will start with a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base. On Windows XP and Server 2003, the update will be High-Priority. On Windows Vista and Server 2008 it will be Important.Here's hoping people choose 'install' over 'later'. IE 8 is a big improvement.
In other Microsoft news, I think their new anti Mac commercials are pretty well done. Seems like they've finally found a way to hit back.
You can safely ignore this post, just trying to nudge the googlebot to reindex this site. Three Little Birds Music. All other posts, of course, are of supreme importance...