I said those because with them you have an end-to-end solution that can do pretty much anything. You have the OS, you have the internet server and you have the client that can talk to the internet server. Missing, possibly, is a programming language and environment but I see less of a threat of death against programming languages than I do against the operating system, server and client.
Naturally the OS covers quite a range of sub-projects including all the bits that make TCP/IP, routing etc. go on the internet. Within Apache too you can argue what is integral to it and what are sub-projects or add-on modules. I also listed Mozilla and not just Firefox because an email client, Thunderbird, is quite important and Mozilla also covers XUL and other supporting frameworks that can be used to create new and existing client applications.
I would have liked to have included Ruby on Rails and Java in the list because they are why I am employed. But I am just one person and the other three projects have broader scope.
Though one could say if you just listed an operating system and a programming language and environment you would have everything covered as together they could create the server, clients and everything else. But that is a bit too high-level and so much has been already done in Apache and Mozilla that to loose them and start again would be a severe blow to computing technology.
I just spotted Kottke Komments and had a further little idea; Create a site that allows anyone to punch in a feed URL and start commenting on the items. So Kottke Komments but any feed URL.
Some problems would be multiple feed URLs for one conceptual feed (e.g. an Atom and an RSS 2.0 feed URL), objections by the author of the feed (would that be an issue?), good old spamming (though I guess spammers wouldn’t get the page-link authority score as it isn’t on the original site) and just general abuse (Kottke doesn’t want comments on his site, maybe he doesn’t want comments on any of his posts?)
I’ll see if I can whip up a prototype and launch it this week. Anyone want to help?
A handy tip for getting documentation on your Ruby gems is to use gem_server which fires off a local server which you can access on http://127.0.0.1:8808. Very handy. Another way is to run gem environment gemdir to get your gem install dir, append doc onto the end and the gem documents are all in there e.g. /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/doc
I ordered some Coudal Pinsetter buttons and they came the other day. I really like them, simple, fun and pretty cheap. I bought I A F R I C A and they throw in the heart and coudal button for free. So I can walk around like a total dork with “I [heart] Africa” on my jumper.
Talladega Nights - Ballad of Ricky Bobby is one of those stupid movies that somehow make you laugh all the same. Ali G… sorry, Sacha Baron Cohen, wasn’t quite as funny as I was hoping but it was well made up for by John C. Reilly aka Shake and Bake!
An hilarious and surprisingly insightful exchange was the highlight for me:
Mr. Dennit: Ricky, your little obscene gesture is going to cost you 100 points. Do you know how much that costs us in sponsorship dollars? Ricky: With all due respect, Mr. Dennit, I had no idea you’d gotten experimental surgery to have your balls removed. Mr. Dennit: What did you just say to me? Ricky: What? I said it with all due respect! Mr. Dennit: Just because you say that doesn’t mean you get to say whatever you want to me! Ricky: Yes, it does! Mr. Dennit: No, it doesn’t! Ricky: It’s in the Geneva Convention, look it up!
BarCamp South East (of Ireland) happened this past Saturday and it seemed like a success. A fair number of people turned up, most speakers did their bit and there was a good buzz about the place. Well done to Tom and Keith for setting it all up. The juggling balls, and juggling master, was a great idea.
My talk, Ruby on Rails: Outside of its comfort zone, didn’t go down too well. The problem was that out of the 7 people listening to me only 1 had done any serious amount of Ruby on Rails. I had to scale it way back and even then it was too technical. Hopefully those who listened got the general idea though that Ruby on Rails works fine outside of its defaults (e.g. Oracle databases, non-Rails database naming standards, non-Apache/Linux hosting etc.) It also didn’t help that most of the technical people at the BarCamp were tied up at the WordPress.com talk which ran overtime. Next time I’ll pick a less technical topic.
Crikey, the Nintendo Wii is seriously fun. A co-worker had one upstairs and I spent a few minutes playing tennis. It took me a few minutes to stop worrying and just start swinging the controller like a real tennis racquet. The next thing I knew balls were going over the net, serves were being made and it was so natural. When you make contact with the ball the controller in your hand even rumbles giving you some real tactile feedback.
I then watched as two co-workers beat each other senseless in a game of boxing, all with two controllers and some deft moves.
XBox 360, Playstation 3, start running for your lives boys ’cause the Wii is what you aren’t; fun.
If you are in or around Phoenix, Arizona tomorrow (the 17th) then I’d be in your debt if you attended a Microsoft and NewsGator event and reported back.
I normally launch TextMate through a terminal window with “mate *” in the project directory. That brings up TextMate with the folder list showing all folders and files in the project directory. It works nicely but often there are directories in your project that you don’t need to edit but which are cluttering the view.
So just the other day I learnt that instead of “mate *” you can type “mate dir1 dir2 dir5″ and TextMate will load with just those folders shown. e.g. in a Ruby on Rails app you generally only need to edit the app, config and public folders, ignoring the log, vendor, test etc. folders until you need them later. So you can type “mate app public” for a Rails project.
Feed comment
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007I just spotted Kottke Komments and had a further little idea; Create a site that allows anyone to punch in a feed URL and start commenting on the items. So Kottke Komments but any feed URL.
Some problems would be multiple feed URLs for one conceptual feed (e.g. an Atom and an RSS 2.0 feed URL), objections by the author of the feed (would that be an issue?), good old spamming (though I guess spammers wouldn’t get the page-link authority score as it isn’t on the original site) and just general abuse (Kottke doesn’t want comments on his site, maybe he doesn’t want comments on any of his posts?)
I’ll see if I can whip up a prototype and launch it this week. Anyone want to help?
Posted in AAA, Atom, Comments, Feed, feeds, kottke, kottke komments, rss | Comments