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  • 1 min read

Baseball rules

I guess it's the time of year, but I came across this site for Baseball umpires which is a fun entertainment if you are into the esoterica of Baseball. For the more obvious (seemingly) questions that still stump me, Wikipedia is a good resource. For example, do you think you know what a balk is? Or what a cutter is? Technorati Tags: baseball

  • 1 min read

Finally, a simple cell phone!

My Treo 600 recently died a hard death. I had to learn a new cell phone, a relatively low end one, and it was a serious undertaking. Someone I know recently did a 90 minute drive in 3.5 hours because their car's GPS inadvertently was set in the 'avoid highways' settings and they were in unfamiliar territory, without a map, and so had no choice but to follow the long way. I've seen this idea suggested elsewhere, but how a cell phone for people who don't read manuals? Why can't a cell phone be as easy to operate as a regular telephone? (Yes, the new home cordless sets with built in answering machines are almost as complex as cell phones!) It seems someone has finally done it! Thank you KDDI, Kyocera and Toshiba.

[eminimall products="cellphone mobile phone cell"]

  • 1 min read

ID: Part Deux

If you are interested in the Intelligent Design debate, this is an fascinating and somewhat surprising article about a survey done by the Pew Research Center for the People. As usual with this kind of thing it is useful to know the bias of the folks doing the survey, which I have not looked into at all.

"Despite these fundamental differences, most Americans (64%) say they are open to the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in the public schools, and a substantial minority (38%) favors replacing evolution with creationism in public school curricula." (from "Religion: A Strength and Weakness for Both Parties")

Interesting reading. Technorati Tags: intelligentdesign, science

  • 1 min read

Making it sound better

Ever notice in restaurant menus how the dish descriptions are made to sound fancier and fancier by adding adjective? "green beans" are not as good as "fresh green-beans", which are not as good as "native fresh green-beans", which are not as good as: "hand-picked native fresh green-beans", which are of course the best! Is this a similar phenomenon in geek-world? It seems like you can tack "X driven development" or "agile Y" or "object oriented Z" to make anything sound cooler and more a-go-go. Why has no-one written the papers on "agile idea driven development" or "agile concept-driven object-oriented debugging" yet? Or have they? Technorati Tags: funny, Geeky

  • 1 min read

[GEEK] JDemo: Java Demonstration Framework

This is pretty cool: a framework to easily manage the demonstration of UI elements, inspired by JUnit. Here's what they say:

"As supplement to test driven software development, JDemo provides a new approach of demo driven development : When developing software, you write short code snippets (demo cases) that use your new API. The demo then demonstrates both: how to use the API and what happens when you execute the code. So you can for example interactively test the usability of GUI components." (from JDemo web site)

Pretty cool. Check it out!
Technorati Tags: cooltool

  • 1 min read

Funny: Banana Problem

This is from a dictionary:

Banana problem : noun

A situation of uncertainty about when a task is complete and therefore when to stop working on it

The term banana problem is often used in computing when talking about badly written or incorrect conditions for the termination of a computer program. It has also been applied in website development, referring to a situation in which a designer adds so many different features that the whole thing looks messy, for example: 'If you insist on adding that video clip, I'm afraid we're going to have a real banana problem on our hands.'

Background

The term originates from the story of a little girl who said 'I know how to spell 'banana', but I don't know when to stop!'

In the computing world reference is often made to a one-banana problem, a phrase which looks similar but in fact has a completely different meaning. This term derives from the idea that those with less-skilled jobs in the IT industry, such as computer operators, can be compared to monkeys, and incentives given to monkeys (bananas) can be used to describe the level of difficulty of a task. A one-banana problem is therefore the simplest, for example: 'It's only a one-banana job'. In contrast, two- and three-banana problems would constitute more complex activities."

Technorati Tags: funny

  • 1 min read

TiVo whining?

I've come across a flurry of commentary on the fact that apparently TiVo has added content protection allowing a broadcaster to protect any program as it is broadcast. The result of this is:

"[A program] recorded with a red-flag next to it (an icon I've never seen before). When I selected the episode, I got a message to the effect that "the copyright holder prohibited saving the episode past date mm/dd". (from PVRBlog)

Read the whole post to see a good explanation and rundown of what apparently is going on. I'm a TiVo fanatic and truly hope that they survive. It's a wonderful product which unfortunately is under pressure and from where I sit is at risk. One other thing. Down lower in the post I see the following self-righteous comment which seems always to be the first refuge of people getting upset about any kind of copy protection:

"It treats all TiVo customers like they are criminals with big scary warnings about what you can and can't do. "

Boo-hoo. The louder people complain about being treated as criminals. the biggest offenders I suspect they really are. I mean I grant that copy protection or DRM is a pain in the butt, but let's admit that it's totally within the right of the publisher. iTunes, Windows XP, and now TiVo. Boo-hoo. Technorati Tags: tivo

  • 1 min read

[QUASI-GEEK]A trip to the market

Do you follow Ben Hyde's blog? I recommend it - he has always fascinating intellectual tours-de-force. I guess it was a slow day in the Hyde office when there were no world-changing problems to be addressed, so check out this analysis of what it costs you to use your car. Interesting, relevant in today's $3.00+ per gallon world, and (intentionally?) funny too! (And someday I will be able to parse the sentence "Ascription is Anathema to any Enthusiasm 🙂 Technorati Tags: funny, gasoline

  • 1 min read

Mystery Ball

Yesterday, this appeared on my Mac desktop: Picture 2-5 Here's a little movie showing you what it does. http://s3.media.squarespace.com/production/1075723/12829350/weblogs/weblog/images/mysteryball.mov.mov Pretty weird. It's like a UFO. I don't know where it came from or what it does. Is it a virus? Spyware? Some undiscoverable bit of Mac UI? If you know, please, people want to know!

Update: Intrepid reader Duncan Wilcox identified this as the "Floating Expose Blob"! Huh? I don't know what I did to turn this thing on, and indeed, it is yet another undiscoverable bit of Mac UI. Now I like the Mac as much as the next guy, but what's up with all these hidden features? Technorati Tags: mac, UI