Scott's Blog

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood GNOME-Look.org -- Eyecandy tagged as: [gnome linux] Funkload -- Functional and load testing for web pages, in python tagged as: [agile python testing tools web] Put the fun back into computing -- Gives some Ubuntu hints, like 686 kernel and another firewall tagged as: [article linux] rest2web -- Create web site from RST pages tagged as: [python util web text] Distributed Internet Backup System -- Another backup solution tagged as: [backup linux opensource python] Ludesigner: Porque a revista Veja se vendeu -- Magazine Veja sells out tagged as: [brazil politics] hdup2 -- One more backup tagged as: [backup linux opensource] Bacula, the Network Backup Tool for Linux, Unix, and Windows -- Great backup solution, but overkill for me tagged as: [backup linux] LinkChecker -- Check websites and HTML documents for broken links tagged as: [linux python testing web tools] Umbrello UML Modeller -- Might be...

If you look at this image from far away (about a meter or two) the angry and calm faces switch sides, cool. via Boing Boing

Marshall Brain has released an online book called " Why Does God Hate Amputees? " He also wrote a scary vision of the future in Robot Nation and is the founder of How Stuff Works . His books is 32 pages and the title comes from this idea, we hear about miracles where tumor or some disease is cured, but...: No matter how many people pray. No matter how sincere those people are. No matter how much they believe. No matter how devout and deserving the recipient. Nothing will happen. The legs will not regenerate. Prayer does not restore the severed limbs of amputees. You can read all the medical journals ever written -- there is no documented case of an amputated leg being restored spontaneously. And we know that God ignores the prayers of amputees through our own observations of the world around us. If God were answering the prayers of amputees to regenerate their lost limbs, we would be seeing amputated legs growing back every day. I haven't finished reading but what I have...

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood Barcode Writer in Pure Postscript -- I'll barcode my life tagged as: [util toread] Hydrate Cookbook -- Similar to my xml2ddl in some ways tagged as: [toread library java] A survey of Linux Web development tools -- Quick overview of tools tagged as: [linux programming tools] Ubuntu Me! -- Interesting for me since it shows how one linux user sets up his system. tagged as: [linux article] Howto: Backup and restore your system! -- Easy instructions using tar tagged as: [backup linux how-to] Captain Pork -- Maybe Victor will like? tagged as: [games linux] FlaminTiki: Google Hacks -- Blocked by firewall tagged as: [toread]

I think I want to be freeze dried, it's better for the environment than burying or cremating. It involves freezing the coffin and body to -18C before lowering them into liquid nitrogen at -196C, which leaves them extremely brittle. A vibrating pad is used to reduce the remains to a powder and a magnetic field then removes all traces of mercury and other metal residues from fillings or hip replacements. The remains are then put into a biodegradable coffin made from vegetable matter and buried in a shallow grave, where they will be absorbed into the earth within six to 12 months. Loved ones could plant a tree or shrub on top of the grave, to absorb nutrients from the remains, supporters of the promession system suggest. The cost of the process is expected to be similar to that for a cremation - around one-third of the price of a grave plot and traditional burial. Via Boing Boing

Last week I spent two days making backups to DVD-Rs for my preperation to upgrade to the new Ubuntu Linux. I basically compressed folders with tar and copied them to a DVD. The pain was that I would have to guess or go through trial and error to get images that were less than 4.2 gig in size so they would fit on a DVD. At the same time I did sudo apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade my Linux. This also took about two days of downloading. It took longer because my Internet service provider likes to kill my connection so that I need to turn the modem off and on and then type ifup eth0 . The process was full of errors because of my language settings. It decided that I am using the language en_BR (for English/Brazilian). Which is sort of correct, but it probably wants en_US or pt_BR, which is more common. The install didn't actually fail, it would just complain and then use the US language. So with some trepidation I ignored the messages. Then it found some configuration files that I...

I've hear of technorati before, but never really understood what it's purpose was. Now I know: basically, if you want to search for static information, use google . If you want to search for news or recent information, use technorati. Technorati keeps track of the rss feeds and does a good job of searching that information, google does a lousy job with that. Recently, I saw an article in the magazine "Veja" a was disapointed that they aparently sold out to the gun lobby (more on that later). I did a google search on what I thought was relevant and got nothing of what I was looking for. Later, I did a technorati search and found exactly what I expected - good job.

I'm starting to put little programs in my crontab file so that it executes once in a while. The things I have setup are: Local movies. A little Python program that I wrote a while ago, which I need to update because the site changed format, which grabs the Movie listing from a web site and filters out the ones that are local to my area. Once a week on Thursdays it e-mail me the listing, here's a sample: Cinemark Pátio Savassi ====================== Sala 01: "Deu Zebra" 11h10 - 13h30 (dublado) Original title: Racing Stripes [Comédia,Infantil] Director: Frederik Du Chan Actors: Bruce Greenwood, Hayden Panettiere, Caspar Poyck, Gary Bullock http://cinema.terra.com.br/ficha/0,,TIC-OI5569-MNfilmes,00.html Sala 01: "Virgem de 40 Anos" 15h50 - 18h20 - 21h10 - 23h50* (*apenas 07, 08 e 11/10) Original title: The 40 Year-Old Virgin [Comédia] Director: Judd Apatow Actors: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco http://cinema.terra.com.br/ficha/0,...

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood Varsha - Making DVD on Linux -- tagged as: [dvd linux video java] DVD Slideshow Examples -- How to Make a JPG slideshow to DVD tagged as: [dvd slideshow] setuptools - The PEAK Developers' Center -- This is the page for creating setup.py tagged as: [python reference setup] Titles By : all -- Need to download the screenshots, via Python tagged as: [toget games] Protecting Files at Home Using Encrypted Containers | Linux Journal -- tagged as: [linux toread security] Slashdot | Sun Eyes PostgreSQL -- tagged as: [database postgres] Comparison of SQL database management systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- It's short, but up-to-date tagged as: [database sql postgres oracle mysql] HenPlus documentation -- Universal sqlplus like tool written in java tagged as: [java sql tools database] Installation Guide - Oracle 10G on Ubuntu Linux -- Installing Oracle 10g on Ubuntu linux tagged as: [...

"Each half-cent will cost about 0.81 of a cent to mint, creating an unnecessary deficit every year," detractors of The Bush complain. "And it looks so much like a penny, The Bush will facilitate widespread dishonesty. The Bush is doomed to be a miserable failure." ... The traditional slogan "In God We Trust" is replaced by "Trust Me" on The Bush, which will make it highly sought after by collectors of U.S. coins with oxymorons. link

As part of the OpenSUSE project they are publishing video of actual usability studies done showing users unfamiliar with Linux, using Linux. What a great idea, developers can look at that and see areas that they could improve. I don't see Microsoft ever doing that. via Slashdot

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood Varsha - Making DVD on Linux -- tagged as: [dvd linux video java] DVD Slideshow Examples -- How to Make a JPG slideshow to DVD tagged as: [dvd slideshow] setuptools - The PEAK Developers' Center -- This is the page for creating setup.py tagged as: [python reference setup] Titles By : all -- Need to download the screenshots, via Python tagged as: [toget games] Protecting Files at Home Using Encrypted Containers | Linux Journal -- tagged as: [linux toread security] Slashdot | Sun Eyes PostgreSQL -- tagged as: [database postgres] Comparison of SQL database management systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- It's short, but up-to-date tagged as: [database sql postgres oracle mysql] HenPlus documentation -- Universal sqlplus like tool written in java tagged as: [java sql tools database] Installation Guide - Oracle 10G on Ubuntu Linux -- Installing Oracle 10g on Ubuntu linux tagged as: [linux oracle] X-Moto -- A ...

There's an article at IBM saying that garbage collection (like what Java does) is better than C++ and Malloc. The article is a little deceiving and incorrect. It's a little ironic but I did learn a few years ago that GC can be better than allocating on the heap or even the stack. When it comes to allocating memory the stack is the king when it comes to speed. The only problem is the stack is has lots of limitations, that why in C++ we use the heap. But if you follow what the memory manager does on the heap you can see that it will take a bit of time. The trick here is to use a pool, if possible (and it usually is possible). A pool can be quite fast. Another trick used in C++ is reference counting. This looks pretty fast but turns out that doing any calculation is too much calculation when it comes to memory allocation. Also, with reference counting you can forget to count correctly, which happens a lot with COM, for example. Python, my favorite language, uses reference counti...

I've released an updated version of wxOptParse for your downloading pleasure. This is part of my strategy of releasing early and often. I just realized making this post that there was an index.php file in the directory, so if you go to the directory without entering index.html it'll say that my project doesn't have a homepage, ouch. I removed that file so everything should be alright now. The neat addition in this version is an example running any program using wxOptParse. I give an example using the GNU find command which is particularly handy since you use find a lot and it's always too many parameters. Also I put in some useful help in the dialog. I noticed creating this blog entry that I have a few problems with the install. First, the wxversion is causing problems on the Windows version. Also, the setup.py file doesn't seem to do the right thing on windows, I'll have to look into that a bit more.

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood SourceForge.net: Project Info - pyExcelerator -- tagged as: [python library] Cedar Backup -- tagged as: [backup linux tools python] Get-E.org -- tagged as: [enlightenment linux] Enlightened Gnome: The Ultimate in Ubuntu Eye Candy - Ubuntu Forums -- tagged as: [linux desktop enlightenment] DVD ripping and transcoding with Linux -- tagged as: [dvd linux video] DVD Backup Script -- tagged as: [backup dvd linux] How to create ISO images from your HD CD DVD - Ubuntu Forums -- tagged as: [linux dvd] DVD for Linux Links - CSS and LiViD -- tagged as: [linux dvd opensource] dvd::rip - A full featured DVD Ripper GUI for Linux, written in Perl -- tagged as: [dvd linux opensource] poedit -- tagged as: [i18n opensource python programming linux] NPR Sci Firday Podcast -- tagged as: [podcast science] Linux Desktop: Using DPMS to reduce your power-bill (Linux Reviews) -- tagged as: [linux util video money] Katamari Damacy - ...