Tuesday April 29, 2008 Links for 29th April 2008
A couple Sun related ones.
- World's First Open Storage Platform
Now you can apply the same reasoning for choosing open source over a proprietary solution, when you need storage. Incorporates ZFS and Sun Fire X4500 storage servers.
- Reduce storage costs by 90%
- Freedom from vendor lock-in
- Open Storage Community support
- NetBeans IDE 6.1 Now Available
Specific release highlights include:
- Advanced JavaScript™ Editing Support
- Semantic Highlighting
- Code Completion and Type Analysis
- Quick Fixes and Semantic Checks
- - Refactoring
- Improved Performance
- Up to 40% faster startup
- Smarter parsing for faster code completion
- Less memory consumption
- Built-in Spring Framework Support
- Integrated Support for RESTful Web Services
- New MySQL™ Support in Database Explorer
- Significant Ruby / JRuby Support Enhancements
- Java Beans Support (back by popular demand)
- JSF CRUD Generator (back by popular demand)
- Javadoc Code Completion
- Sharing Projects (AKA Sharable Libraries)
- New Update Center Modules for ClearCase, AXIS, Hibernate, and SOAP UI
- Advanced JavaScript™ Editing Support
[Technorati Tag: Open Storage]
( Apr 29 2008, 08:16:00 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink
Tuesday April 22, 2008 Links for 22nd April 2008
- Walter Bender Resigned from One Laptop Per Child!
"Apparently, rumor has it that Nicholas Negroponte is close to abandoning Sugar and Linux in favor of Microsoft XP, to spur sales of the XO laptop. Negroponte thinks that many more laptops need to be sold and a partnership with Microsoft is the way to achieve that goal.
Jeez.
- Molly the Three Legged Pony
(Thanks Michelle).
- Cool Package Design
The "big books" truck was my favorite.
(Thanks Kartik).
[Technorati Tag: Accessibility]
( Apr 22 2008, 02:37:27 PM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
Monday April 07, 2008 Links for 7th April 2008
Finally worked my way through all the old Sun news letters. After this, I'll take off my Sun hat and return you to your normal scheduled program.
- JavaLobby Highlights 10 Java Apps Deemed Amazing
Trying to be neutral, I'd argue that there are freely available good non-Java versions of most (if not all) of these too.
- Learn To Create Web Apps Using MySQL Database In 30 Minutes
All my database knowledge is out of Date (very old database joke there). I need to get familiar with the current offerings. This looks like one way of doing it.
- Features Which Could Be Introduced In Java SE 7
[Technorati Tag: Sun Microsystems]
( Apr 07 2008, 02:46:11 PM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [2]
Friday April 04, 2008 Links for 4th April 2008
I'm catching up with old Sun related news again.
- 2007's Top 10 Underreported Tech Stories
Good that Snyder considers Sun is back in the game (we've sort of known that for a while now). Bad that he considers Java the new Cobol. Lots of interesting news there though with Open Source strategy and Blade servers.
- OpenOffice.org 2.4 PDF Import Extension
Well, maybe I'm not smart enough, but I couldn't work out how to import a simple PDF file into OOo Impress. I kept ending up in oowriter with the contents of the file represented as text. Maybe mine is not a "typical" PDF. Maybe this option isn't there by default with OOo 2.4 (RC6). Sounds like it would be a nice feature if I could get it to work.
- Stanford Linear Accelerator Center buys a
BlackboxSun Modular DatacenterOne of my favorite local geeky places which has a great tour (or rather had, as I see it's now suspended), buys one of my favorite Sun products.
[Technorati Tag: Sun Microsystems]
( Apr 04 2008, 11:28:09 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink
Tuesday March 18, 2008 Links for 18th March 2008
Three Sun related ones.
- Small and Medium Business (SMB) Initiative
After seeing the problems that some small businesses have had trying to buy Sun equipment directly from us in the past (as opposed to going through partners and channels), I've been hoping that we'd address this. Apparently we have.
"We're making it easier for you to buy with quick response, competitive pricing and fast delivery times".
This initiative is aiming at new customers to Sun who have not bought Sun products in the last two years, but hopefully those others who have tried in the past, will give us another chance or at least give us constructive feedback on this new process.
- World's Largest Supercomputer
Yes, this is old news (by Internet standards), but it still is awesome (and if you don't know me, I rarely use that word). This puts the Sun Constellation entry way in the lead, and by an order of magnitude for some ratings. It's catchup time for IBM and Dell.
Check out Jonathan's posting on this for more details.
- NetBeans 6.1 IDE Beta
"NetBeans 6.1 Beta adds a rich set of features for JavaScript(TM) technology development. The JavaScript technology support is based on the dynamic language support added for Ruby and includes: semantic highlighting, code completion, type analysis, quick fixes, semantic checks and refactoring. It also includes a browser compatibility feature that makes it easy to create JavaScript software code that works in the popular Mozilla Firefox, Windows Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari Web browsers. "
And with the recent hiring of Python and Jython developers, Ted Leung and Frank Wierzbicki, I'm hoping to see NetBeans Python support improvements too.
[Technorati Tag: Sun Microsystems]
( Mar 18 2008, 08:57:23 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [5]
Tuesday March 04, 2008 Links for 4th March 2008
Four quick links from the MAKE and HACKS blogs that impressed me:
- Genuine Authentic Victorian Apple Reproduction
I'd call it steampunk if it was steam powered.
- Bookcase Staircase
As a family that has 24 bookcases full of books, we are always looking for innovate approachs like this. Unfortunately it wouldn't work with our staircase.
- One-handed Wii controller
- View YouTube in high-res
I think they really mean higher-res.
[Technorati Tag: Accessibility]
( Mar 04 2008, 07:34:07 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink
Wednesday February 20, 2008 Links for 20th February 2008
- Time Conversion Around the World
Ever needed to setup a meeting across multiple time zones and want to help the meeting attendees by showing the meeting time for each of those countries? This site will help you here. Here's the example for the accessibility meeting that was held on IRC yesterday.
(thanks Will). - Python Powered Accessibility
A copy of the article by Steve Lee that appeared in the December 07 (not 08 Steve) edition of Python Magazine
- Nine Animated GIF Backgrounds
If you're prone to seizures, don't look at these.
(thanks to the person on the xDesign mailing list who originally pointed these out). - The 101 Best Graphic Novels
According to the book by Stephen Weiner.
( Feb 20 2008, 07:50:37 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]
Saturday January 19, 2008 Links for 19th January 2008
This is what happens when you start off trying to do one thing, and get distracted. That first thing was read my email. Somehow I ended up on del.icio.us looking at their most popular tags.
That took me to:
- Simply Recipes: Cheesy Bread Recipe
which turned out to be our lunch. Even though we halved the ingredients we still have enough for another meal, so take that into consideration when preparing this.
We also recommend two other things. Firstly, cut down on the amount of butter. It was a tad too "greasy". Secondly, don't heap the mixture on the bread. Just a thin spread will do ya.
Whilst I was at del.icio.us, I checked out their games bookmarks and via a post to the random GNOMEs' lair on 100 excellent free games in bloom, I discovered this addictive little game.
- SubTerra
Simple controls. Lots of different challenges on lots of different levels. And time to think how to solve the puzzle without being turned into a dark stain by something large and rabid.
I setup the game on Duncan's Windows laptop but I thought I'd also like to try it on my Ferrari under Ubuntu (rather than have to boot into Windows XP to run it). So for the first time, I tried:
- Wine
Installation is trivial and just a few mouse clicks away via the Synaptic Package Manager.
For some reason I had it in the back on my mind that I was going to need to install a version of Windows on top of it, but no, all I had to do to install the SubTerra game was run:
% wine sub_inst.exeand follow the installers instructions (just like Windows).
It left an icon on my desktop that I can now double click on to start up the game. Graphics work great and so does the keyboard, mouse and sound. I was quietly impressed. I'll have to look for other things that I can now run via Wine.
( Jan 19 2008, 01:21:36 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]
Friday January 18, 2008 Links for 18th January 2008
- Astronomy Picture of the Day
I stumbled upon this cool image, and am now taking their daily feed
- How to make a vacuum tube
Almost from first principles. Sure helps to have all those tools and that equipment lying around. Or course I would have been more impressed if he's started by smelting the metal (just kidding).
- Open source game development
This is potentially interesting. Early days yet. I'll check back in a few months.
( Jan 18 2008, 09:20:20 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]
Friday December 21, 2007 Links for 21st December 2007
Probably the last post of the year as Sun shuts down next week for its Winter break (here in the U.S. at least), and I intend to take a blogging break (famous last words).
All game and puzzle related.
- Passion For Puzzles
They also have an interesting blog, if you want to try a different puzzle each day.
- TwistyPuzzles.com
A site for "sequential movement puzzles", otherwise called "hand-held puzzles (you know, like the Rubik's cube). Lots of links to other related sites.
- Games Magazine Online
I've sent away for a subscription to the magazine for next year too.
( Dec 21 2007, 07:41:34 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink
Monday December 03, 2007 Links for 3rd December 2007
All GreaseMonkey related:
- GreaseMonkey Wikipedia Page
- Best of: Greasemonkey Scripts
I've mentioned this one before. There are some great scripts here, the only problem is the speed of retrieval from the UserScripts.Org web site.
- GreaseMonkey compiler
The potential of being able to run a GreaseMonkey script without having first had to install the GreaseMonkey extension is definitely worthwhile. It's worrying that this hasn't been updated since 2005. There are a couple links on the Wikipedia page but one of them is an online conversion tool, and the other is dead. Perhaps there are better GreaseMonkey compilers around, and I just need to keep googling...
( Dec 03 2007, 12:42:23 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink
Tuesday November 27, 2007 Links for 27th November 2007
- Monday Inspiration: User Experience Of The Future
... we present some of the outstanding recent developments in the field of user experience design. Most techniques may seem very futuristic, but they are reality. And in fact, they are extremely impressive. Keep in mind: they can become ubiquitous over the next years.
I bet the developers haven't yet thought out how to make these UI's accessible.
(thanks Jim).
- ASUS Eee PC 4G Notebook PC (7", 512 MB RAM)
This looks like a fascinating possibility for a reasonably priced, very portable accessible PC, running something like Ubuntu and Orca.
- Stephen Fry's Blog
An entertaining blog, by one of my favorite authors.
(thanks Geoff).
( Nov 27 2007, 01:19:32 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink
Thursday November 15, 2007 Links for 15th November 2007
- Make your Linux desktop look like Leopard
Probably should work with the new OpenSolaris Developer Preview too. I know what I'll be trying out tomorrow.
- Scribd: Funny Internet Stuff - Silly Photos, Funny Cartoons
A varied collection; some better than others.
- Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites
It reminded me of that old Australian TV ad for "B.P. The Quiet Achiever" that always used to be on the telly no matter when you looked. If you know about them, how can they be undiscovered?
( Nov 15 2007, 03:06:08 PM PST ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [1]
Monday November 12, 2007 Links for 12th November 2007
- Scribd: Unusual Pictures
- Scribd: Cute Photos: When They Are Asleep
I want one of the blue ones.
- Hack a Day: Guitar Hero Guitar Controller
I was in the local GameSpot the other week with Duncan, getting a new game for his Nintendo DS, and there was a teenager playing the new Guitar Hero III on one of the in-store systems. He was good and was attracting quite a crowd.
The Wii version is a serious contender for one of this year's Christmas presents. For me that is. Duncan might even like to play it as well.
- Bad Designs
All designers should be forced to view this web site in its entirety. Including software designers. (Thanks Jeff).
( Nov 12 2007, 09:40:29 AM PST ) [Listen] Permalink
Tuesday October 16, 2007 Links for 16th October 2007
- Pervasive Health Monitor (Got Granny?)
(Via Hack A Day).
This is such an awesome "hack". I hope this guy gets venture capital to turn it into a real product.
- Money Origami
Folding paper money to make things like spiders, eyeglasses, sailboats and rings.
- The Jack Vance Information Page
It hasn't been updated in over a year and should really be gone over with a link checker to remove all the dead URLs, but there are some great pointers here. Don't miss the "More ..." link at the bottom of the first page.
Jack Vance is my favorite author. It worries me that there hasn't been anything new from him in quite a while. I hope he's okay.
- The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century
Updated to show the book covers, as generated by the Lists of Bests book list to HTML script.
( Oct 16 2007, 07:54:55 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink
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