Kris Amico's Weblog

Thanks, epicware

Just wanted to thank epicware for creating Fire. I have been using it a long time now without having to pay a dime. It is, without a doubt, the best multi-service chat client there is. From the great look to the gpg support, this app has really come a long way since its humble beginnings.

Goodbye, Fred

You've travelled to a place too far and too close to be reached; only felt. Absent from me when you were here, present now that you are gone. Your teaching went ignored when I was young; surely I will learn it now. Always I will remember you; it is thus you will live yet and Death will die hence.

Photoshup Phun

The NSA/CIA/WTF is hard at work analyzing their little photos of Iraq:

What a Fisheye Lens and Time to Waste Can Do

Awwwwwwwww!

It Came from Under the Bridge...

I just read a post in a weblog at Unsanity.org containing a rather irresponsible and unscientific comparison of Carbon and Cocoa. The assertion is that the former makes "faster" applications than the latter. Toolism is something that burns me, so I felt a need to respond:

Respectfully, this post is, in my opinion, a whopper of a troll. The comparisons of various applications made in the article were very poor indeed, focusing on the APIs engineers chose to write to; the effects of which on a product pale in comparison to other, more important issues. Product requirements, allocation of engineering resources, timelines, and engineering strategies and tactics are the things that make applications fast or slow, elegant or clunky -- not application programming interfaces.

After years of using the Mac Toolbox, Carbon with PowerPlant, and now Cocoa, I have acquired a dislike for "toolism". It is the hands at the keyboard and the dynamics of the software-making process that make the code what it is after it has been compiled and put into the Customer's hands.

PhotoShop Phun

I grabbed a photo from some local news concerning a "false alarm" at the Hanford nuclear plant. I'm not an expert or anything, but it certainly doesn't seem like everything is "fine" over there:

Extreme-ly Impressed

I received my Airport Extreme base station last night and I am pleased as punch. The thing has the following ports:

Ethernet port for WAN
Ethernet port for private network (networkable printers and such)
Antenna port (this could be fun to play with)
Modem port (I have heard you can dial IN now. Wow.)
USB port (for sharing USB printers over the wireless network)

This thing has a PPP server for remote access to your network and a print server BUILT IN. I was even more impressed by the fact that this base station was $50 less than the one it replaced, which had hardly any of the above features!

I have not gotten the chance to try out 802.11g as I as yet have no Airport Extreme cards, but that should be rectified soon enough.

The Pr0n in our Heads

I thought these "low-res paintings" made an interesting statement. Both the use of the medium and the composition are very relevant, though other artists make this same statement using more subtle means. Thanks go to reverse cowgirl for this link. I hope she has more luck selling her TV show.

A Dream Burns Up on Reentry

I am still thinking about Columbia. It may be some time before I can express my feelings about it, hence my previous T 'n' A post so thinly veiled with insubstantial ruminations of abnormal psychology. It was a sleight of hand; a distraction from more unpleasant thoughts.

Girls with Guns

This fascinates me because it fascinates other people and I am trying to understand why. To be honest, I think this one would look a lot hotter *without* the pistol. The self-loader she is holding is cocked, her finger is on the trigger, and it looks like she is about to blow her face off! This picture does not turn me on -- it scares me to death. Perhaps the proclivity for fetish or at least fascination for this sort of thing is ingrained in the human male at an early age with the help of influential forbears. Mmmm... Boobies... Guns...