December 2004 - Posts

29 December 2004
Make Firefox Faster -- Enable HTTP Pipelining
Bob found a great resource for making Firefox faster for broadband users. So why is pipelining disabled by default? Shannon sent me this link explaining some of the caveats involved. I did all the tweaks mentioned except adding the custom " nglayout.initialpaint.delay" key in about:config...I am ok with changing existing keys, but if a key isn't listed, there's probably a good reason as to why it's not. I've already noticed a huge increase in speed on pages with more than a trivial amount of images. Caveat emptor. Read More...
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19 December 2004
The Blog Ate My Homework
Over the years I've grown accustomed to losing saved stuff on my machine...I (usually) have backups, so it's not a big deal. This is one of those rare times when I don't, and one of those rare times when I want to throw my machine out of the window...ok, maybe not the entire machine, but one specific piece of software (who shall remain nameless for now, but it won't be too hard to figure out which application it is). Relax...take a deep breath...don't take it out on friends/pets/family. I have been working diligently on a writeup for Firefox for oh...about a month now. I'm not saying it was an impressive writeup (though it was quite in depth), but I spent quite a bit of time on it. I finished it up earlier, hit the "Post and Publish" button, got a runtime error (something about specified cast is not valid...this exception shouldn't make it to production code IMO), the app promptly crashed, and I lost the entire post. After doing a couple shots of tequila and half a pack of smokes later... Read More...
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19 December 2004
Trillian -- Version 3 Released
Trillian version 3.0 was released yesterday ( more info here , slashdot picked it up here ). I don't exactly remember when I started using Trillian exclusively as my main messaging client (a few years now), but I know that since I started I haven't looked back. It's also one of those rare pieces of software that I didn't mind shelling out the extra 25 bucks for (even though there is plenty of free (as in speech/beer) packages that accomplish the same thing). Yes, there are some incompatibilities between the Trillian client and the respective messaging clients (AIM, MSN, Y!, and ICQ...I don't use IRC so I can't comment on it)...I get some file transfers that hang, webcam usage pretty much doesn't exist (I can't remember the last time I needed that anyways), and there are probably other ones that I don't know about as I haven't used any of the individual clients in some time...but I'm really not what I would consider a hardcore messaging type person. I have approximately 150 contacts, and... Read More...
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17 December 2004
Navarro and I See Eye to Eye
I feel like a giddy school girl; I asked Dave Navarro a question and he answered it! I promise not to react like this every time (if indeed he answers any of my other drivel). Click here (question 5): 5. Who are your picks for best drummer (both classic and modern)? Hard one. Classic: Bonham and Moon. Modern: Smith, Grohl and PERKINS! My picks for classic are Bonham and Bozzio . Modern; I go with Smith , Beauford (trained by the great Buddy Rich ), and Quest Love (believe it or not, he's simply phenomenal live). I'm definitely a Grohl fan, but not a Foo Fighters fan (of course, I was way into Nirvana...Grohl was great with them). I asked Navarro about jazz drummers as well, but he didn't include an answer so I'm assuming he's either not into jazz or just missed that part of the question . Jazz drummers are a whole other ball of yarn, and a seperate post. Regardless, 2 out of 5 isn't bad. Thanks Dave! Side note: I have dozens of solo mp3's by the above artists if anyone is interested. Read More...
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17 December 2004
Mozilla Firefox Ad -- Very Cool
Great job on the long awaited New York Times advertisement from Firefox...looks friggin' awesome. I've done my part by downloading and installing it, have you? [Excerpt] From the email I received concerning the announcement: A preview of the ad: http://www.mozilla.org/images/nyt_ad_large_2004.png The complete PDF: http://www.mozilla.org/press/nytimes-firefox-final.pdf The press release: http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-12-15.html The SpreadFirefox announcement: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/8769 The Mozilla Store is offering a limited edition, high-quality poster of the ad perfect for your wall: http://www.mozillastore.com/products/stuff/nytimesfirefox/ Sweet. Read More...
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16 December 2004
Dave Navarro Has a Blog -- Incredible
I feel like I'm always late to the party. For those of you taking notes, famed guitarist Dave Navarro has a blog . In case you were living in a cave in the 80's/90's (or have never heard of Jane's Addiction or Red Hot Chili Peppers), here's a brief bio . Like most other celebrity blogs I've come across, his is very down to earth and relaxed...just another person in the blogosphere. I like that...it just goes to show you that they're people like everyone else, plus I like his writing style. Plus, he's married to Carmen Electra...ok, so maybe that one eclipses most of us. I grew up listening to both Jane's Addiction and the Chili Peppers (granted, Navarro was not yet with the Peppers when I was really into them...John Frusciante was pretty kick ass in his own right though; I liked him enough that my fake last name on my fake ID (when I was 15) was Frusciante...pathetic eh?). Two of my all time favorite rock albums from the 80's/90's belong to the Peppers: Mother's Milk ('89) and Blood Sugar... Read More...
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15 December 2004
Blockbuster Dropping Late Fees
Per CNNmoney ( full article here ): Blockbuster Inc. announced Tuesday it is abolishing late fees on all its video tapes, DVDs and video games as of Jan. 1. This is another prime example of a brick and mortar store feeling pressure from similar internet based businesses; namely NetFlix . Neither model really suits me (I'm a Blockbuster member (who isn't), and I was a NetFlix member for the first few months of their launch a few years back)...I like owning stuff. I will only rent a DVD A) if it's something I haven't seen, and B) if there is a remote chance that it will suck. When I was a member of NetFlix, I just didn't really use it as much as I thought I would, though I remember their selection being leaps and bounds above Blockbuster. Why rent when you can own? I take pride in my collection and am always looking to add new titles. A model that I would consider is renting a new DVD (original/complete jacket, paper media, etc) for a nominal fee (say, 5 bucks)...if I like it, that fee is... Read More...
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15 December 2004
How Many Stanford Researchers Does It Take...
...to analyze 5.7 million lines of Linux code and come up with a crock of sh*t? According to this article , 5 researchers...4 years...for a combined total of 20 man/years. What that means is that if I started a line by line analysis of the Linux kernel when I was 6 years old, I would have just recently finished the task. Their conclusion? "... the Linux kernel programming code is better and more secure than the programming code of most proprietary software..." First off, to substantiate this claim, the same team (or a team with the same evaluation constraints) would need to evaluate a similar subset of proprietary software code (in this case, the NT kernel in Windows)...without this type of comparison, their "conclusion" holds no water whatsoever. Yes, I'm sure the Linux kernel code is indeed better and more secure than most (generic) proprietary software, but I'm pretty sure the equivalent Windows kernel code has been pretty well groomed over the decade + of its existence and is better... Read More...
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14 December 2004
Oracle to Acquire PeopleSoft
[Update] More coverage here . From the New York Times : he Oracle Corporation announced early yesterday that it would acquire PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion, ending a bitter takeover fight that had lasted more than 18 months. It's amazing how 10.3 billion can make a company hum a different tune in the end. Well, I guess firing your CEO (who was against it) helps a bit. I wonder how this will affect stock prices? Read More...
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12 December 2004
Copy/Paste DDL From SQL Server Ent Mgr
Scott came across a cool trick to get DDL from SQL Server Ent Mgr ( post here ): ... from the Tables listing, hit Ctrl+C on a table name and then go to a text editor and hit Ctrl+V and get the appropriate CREATE TABLE SQL syntax for the “copied” table (which includes constraints)... Gave it a whirl with the blog_Content table of the database that drives this blog, and it does indeed work correctly. DDL generated: CREATE TABLE [blog_Content] ( [ID] [int] IDENTITY (145, 1) NOT NULL , [Title] [nvarchar] (255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL , [DateAdded] [smalldatetime] NOT NULL , [SourceUrl] [nvarchar] (200) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL , [PostType] [int] NOT NULL , [Author] [nvarchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL , [Email] [nvarchar] (50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL , [SourceName] [nvarchar] (200) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL , [BlogID] [int] NULL , [Description] [nvarchar] (500) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS... Read More...
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