XML Tutorials

Whenever I need to refresh my memory on some XML technology like XSLT or XPath I head on over to the tutorials at zvon.org Although they don't get into the many sticky intricies of some of the technologies, they do provide excellent, and brief tutorials that cover the basics. There are even interactive labs available to help your understanding. Its definitely a nice resource to have in your pocket.

(2004-09-21 14:00:43.0) // Permalink

Roaming Fingers

Its fascinating what your subconscious mind is capable of. I have two different keyboard layouts that I use. The UNIX layout at work on my SPARC and Opteron boxes. And then the PC layout on my PC and home and my Laptop. I'm a die hard Emacs (Xemacs) user, and anyone who knows Emacs knows the Control key is very commonly used. Of course we all know that the Control key between the two layouts is in different locations, Control and Caps Lock swap places, and yet my fingers don't seem to have a problem finding the right location where ever I'm sitting. What's kind of interesting though is that my subconscious mind somehow includes a geographical element to deciding where the Control key is because recently I tried swapping my UNIX keyboard at work for a PC layout, and I just had all sorts of problems. I gave it a few days figuring my brain would eventually retrain itself, but I couldn't stick it out. It was a battle to get 14+ years of the UNIX keyboard at work out of my brain, quite an uphill battle. After less than a week, I gave up. Looked around for a SunRay that had a UNIX keyboard and swapped it. Ahh, all is good again.

(2004-09-17 14:26:21.0) Comments [2] // Permalink

Hilarious AMD Advanced Virus Protection Video

I've noticed on the radio lately AMD advertisements which mention their processors have an Enhanced Virus Protection feature. I just started looking for some info on this, and found this Amazing Video which explains it all. Ok well it hardly explains anything since its only a flashy animation but, if you look closely you will see a bad bit in red, which attempts to infiltrate the processor and apparently gets sand boxed in and destroyed. And of course its all done with some catchy techno/dance music in the background. Anyways, I found the video on the AMD 64 and Enhanced Virus Protection page.

(2004-08-31 14:37:36.0) Comments [2] // Permalink

Helpful GAIM Hackers.

I was looking for some help with one of the remaining issues I have with the RSS Plugin for GAIM I have been working on. The issue is that I cannot pop up a Conversation window programmatically. I tried subscribing to the gaim-devel alias on SourceForge and posting a message but was getting frustrated because no one has responded. Then I noticed on the GAIM site a blurb that mentioned to try the developers in the #gaim room on ICQ at irc.freenode.net. What the heck, I'll give it a try, expecting to find no one available. To my surprise, there were maybe 50 people in the room. A few of them seemed quite interested to help too. One in particular datallah actually spent maybe 10 minutes or so working on ideas after I had described my problem, and gave me some suggestions. What's even better, his suggestion worked. Who hoo! Thanks datallah, where ever you are!

(2004-08-05 12:57:51.0) Comments [1] // Permalink