Scott's Blog

I've been playing with FreeMind a free mind mapping program (and a cool name). It's written in Java, but don't let that dissuade you. The user interface is exceptionally well done. You can type in tags as quick as you can think. You can drag and drop links easily and it provides good feedback. You can work very well using only the keyboard or my using the mouse. I'm using it to keep track of notes. I'm thinking of using it to keep track of passwords as well since it has encryption. I'm using PasswordSafe at the moment which works very well and I can access with a Python program, but it's interface is less than ideal.

I'm not a big fan of Sony. When they started making audio players with tape that no other player had I thought they were nuts ( DAT drive). Then they started making cameras that work only with their MemoryStick s. I told people who listened to keep away from Sony cameras since their memory (which was expensive at the time) could only work inside Sony devices. Now that flash memory is cheap it's not as big a deal. Still, it appears that Sony likes to go their own way and prefers it when their customers are locked in to their products and their products only. Now they have two more problems. One is the Sony rootkit fiasco, this has started to make Sony look very evil in some consumer's eyes. Another is their PS3 game console. It looks like they practically have the company riding on this product which most likely will be late. Part of the lateness and expense of the device is their insistance of putting BlueRay into the machine. BlueRay (and HD DVD ) are evil twins

What makes code hard to modify? Short page on some things you shouldn't do: keep unused code, have unfinished code, have no tests, etc. Programming by Coincidence . Basically this is when a developer doesn't understand a complex system and keeps plugging away until it (seems to) work. In the end it sort of works but he doesn't know why. How to Write Maintainable Code . This is writen by the Bittorrent guy, Bram Cohen. Some good stuff here: use less code, encapsulate, reduce preconditions, write in [Python], write test code, create tool, etc.

They've updated the Python.org site with a new logo and font. Much more professional looking, but now a little bland. Looks alot like the java or ruby site. I think the site will over timeimprove some more, definitely a lot more functional.

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood A Shape Diagram Editor -- tagged as: [eclipse article forwork java] ONJava.com -- Eclipse Plugins Exposed, Part 1: A First Glimpse -- tagged as: [development eclipse howto java programming article plugin] Quick tip for Linux users having trouble with Emacs (or XEmacs) copy/paste -- tagged as: [emacs linux hints] Enterprise Java Community: Redirect After Post -- Better way to do post that protects from double posting. tagged as: [development web howto] dp.SyntaxHighlighter - free JavaScript syntax highlighting -- Cool script to put code on a page or blog. tagged as: [ajax css javascript tools] The World: Technology Podcast -- tagged as: [podcast] BBC - Radio - Subscribe to podcast feeds -- tagged as: [podcast bbc] Bearing Trampoline Game: October 2005 -- Looks like an easy fun thing to build tagged as: [diy victor]

Sean Kelly has a great presentation taking about web development. He starts taking about a project at JPL that was done in C++ and the interface part was redone (with much better success) in Tcl/Tk. The rest of the talk gives examples of creating Web apps written in J2EE, Ruby/Rails, Zope/Plone, TurboGears , and Django . His synopsis: J2EE sucks on oh so many levels, and Zope rules. TurboGears, Rails and Django look very good as well. My favorite is still TurboGears which I'm using on my home site . The presentation not only does a Hello World in all environments (through screencasting) but also does an example web site that uses a database in each environment. The style of the presentation is very Lawrence Lessig style, Sean even used the same fonts that Lessig uses in his presentations. The presentation is very entertaining and well done despite being quite long (it's a big download). I recommend looking at the presentation and then giving it to your boss! Some ot

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user scott_kirkwood A Shape Diagram Editor -- tagged as: [eclipse article forwork java] ONJava.com -- Eclipse Plugins Exposed, Part 1: A First Glimpse -- tagged as: [development eclipse howto java programming article plugin] Quick tip for Linux users having trouble with Emacs (or XEmacs) copy/paste -- tagged as: [emacs linux hints] Enterprise Java Community: Redirect After Post -- Better way to do post that protects from double posting. tagged as: [development web howto] dp.SyntaxHighlighter - free JavaScript syntax highlighting -- Cool script to put code on a page or blog. tagged as: [ajax css javascript tools] The World: Technology Podcast -- tagged as: [podcast] BBC - Radio - Subscribe to podcast feeds -- tagged as: [podcast bbc] Bearing Trampoline Game: October 2005 -- Looks like an easy fun thing to build tagged as: [diy victor]