Friday, 30 August 2002

Moofies two thumbs up for "XXX", but not for "signs" two thumbs up for: "the bourne identity", and "the sum of all fears". thumbs down for "insomnia". [what's next?] I'm definately seeing XXX, and Bourne Identity, but pass on the others. I don't think i can really stomach a saving-the-world-from-mass-destruction moofie, or a Mel Gibson trying to be a farmer moofie. I have no idea what Insomnia is. But then again, we do live in the third world here in Oz - movie release schedule wise at least. 3:16:47 PM

ALife Article Artificial Life Perspective [GameDev.net] [Stephen S Kelley's Web Surfing] Thanks to Steve for finding these articles in an area I am very interested in and thanks also for linking me (found you in my Referer logs). Rss subscribed. [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] Loved the article. My only question for today, when am I going to hit 200 RSS feeds? 2:23:28 PM

In the end, it will be Intertwingly Wiki musings. [...] I like the SnipSnap integrated Wiki-Blog idea, I'm going to explore integrating this with JIRA so you can do rapid knowledge sharing along side your bug tracking - all nicely crosslinked. [...] [rebelutionary] Hmmm. Is that a bug tracking system in your pocket, or are you just knowledge sharing for the fun of it? ;) 2:07:21 PM

Quantum Fractalness Quantum fractals. Most of you probably know that I do J2EE and Java stuff. Most of you probably don't know that I do quantum physics too. Put them together and you get stuff like this: Quantum Fractals EEQT Wave lab The quantum fractals applet is based on this paper that outlines EEQT (Event Enhanced Quantum Theory), which might be a way to merge quantum mechanics with classical physics. The fractal applet is kind of unique in that it renders the fractals on a sphere instead of in a plane, and the patterns you can get are pretty remarkable, since they contain quite a number of the platonic solids. The Wave Lab is, as far as I know, the first wave simulator that shows a 3D view of wave propagation. Most of you have probably seen a 2D view of what it looks like (a sine curve basically), but I can tell you that the 3D view is much more interesting. Tip: when you run the applet, do "File/New" and switch to 3D, then add two potential walls, and run it for a while (let t>100000). If it's moving too slowly, go to "View/Configure/Viewer" and increase the frame step to 1000 or something. After the wave has bounced around for a while you will see that a standing wave is very different from what you'd expect: it's a rotating spiral. And you can only see that if you do this in 3D. And as above, this is one of the few simulators (possibly the only one) that does wave simulation and rendering in 3D. Nifty. (If you're wondering what the colors in the Wave Lab are all about, well I'm not going to spoil that one for you. Play around with the parameters and see what happens.) [Random thoughts] That's, errr, truly warped. 11:35:51 AM

WikiBlog Java WikiBlog. Dave Cramer told me about SnipSnap. It's Java. It's a Wiki. It's a Blog. All are Good Things. A personal content management system and WikiLog. It's easy to install and has a powerful text formatting system. See install to run it yourself. This software will primary serve our needs.... [bob mcwhirter] Hmmm. That could be fun. 11:34:51 AM

HCI goes direct Scientists Create Lullabies From Brain Waves [Slashdot] Cute. I wonder how long before we get mass produced brain caps. I can think of a hundred uses, but most basically I am hooked on the ideas of new human computer interface possibilities... 11:25:38 AM

Windows API Critique of the Windows API. Diomidis Spinellis. A critique of the Windows application programming interface. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 20:1-8, November 1998. This is not a language critique, but many of the issues raised are programming language dependent. I always said Windows is a programmer hostile environment; this paper gives ample evidence in support of this conclusion. To quote Petzold, In a sense, the whole history of new programming languages and class libraries for Windows has involved the struggle to reduce the windows hello-world program down to something small, sleek, and elegant. (Programming Microsoft Windows with C#, Microsoft Press, 2002, p. 47). [Lambda the Ultimate] I want to read this, but it would appear to have died. Ugh. 10:46:32 AM

Go Moz Go Validation. I feel so tremendously validated right now in all my criticisms of Netscape vs. Mozilla. I told Netscape management that if the Netscape beta shipped without popup blocking that CNet would write an article on it. They didn't believe me (or didn't care). Sure enough, the article appeared right on time. I blogged about two main annoyances when installing Netscape 7: the lack of popup blocking and all of the annoying advertising spam on the desktop and in the toolbars. I warned Netscape that they needed to take steps to correct this problem. They didn't listen. Take a look at the CNet review highlight that describes The Bad part of Netscape 7.0: Displays AOL ads everywhere; doesn't let you turn off pop-up windows like Mozilla does; devours 30MB of disk space. Plenty of other engineers at Netscape (as well as managers) complained about these problems and fought with those higher up to correct these problems. We lost every battle. The simple truth is that the people in charge of running the Netscape browser are incompetent. They don't understand how to make a good browser, or they don't care. Their engineers tell them what they're doing wrong, and they don't listen. Maybe you'll listen to the public. How about eWeek's article, Netscape 7.0 Shrivels Under Mozilla's Shadow? Are you paying attention now, you ignorant, stupid, incompetent buffoons? "I told you so." never felt so good. Maybe they will sit up and take notice now. If they do, well, it's about fucking time. And people wonder why I quit working for AOL. [Confessions of a Mozillian] The truth of the matter is the browser war is back, and it is the Open Source community against Microsoft. Again. Still. Same bloody war. *sigh* 10:39:47 AM

Rendezvous MacCentral: Apple to release Rendezvous code as open source. [Hack the Planet] Rock on. (I wonder how Mickeysoft will attempt to embrace and extend this one? Not that I care, I'd be quite happy having linux and MacOS X boxes working together easily. :) 10:38:29 AM

Bunch o links It looks like I made it onto Ron's bookmarks page. There are some good links on this page. How cool is that? :) 10:29:41 AM

© Copyright 2002 Brett Morgan.

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