Tips, Tricks, Tutorials, and Trivia

Details from Cory Doctorow's CCC talk

2012-01-06T11:48:00.000-08:00

I watched Cory Doctorow's talk "The Coming War on General Computation," and I recommend it if you want any specific details, arguing points, and even a good reminder of very bad recent policies when it comes to protecting ourselves from corporate (and government) invasion into our privacy and security.
Video Transcript

The low-level software he mentions for possible abuse by Big Brother is UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).

Here are the organizations he mentions near the end (at 29:15) (except the "org" which I cannot find):

EFF eff.org
Bits of Freedom bof.nl
EDRI edri.org
CCC ccc.de
Netzpolitik netzpolitik.org
La Quadrature du Net www.laquadrature.net

BTW, I highly recommend his book "Little Brother".

Tips to Avoid Titanium Desktop Errors and Crashes

2011-12-07T14:12:00.001-08:00

My P2P-Docs project is a desktop app currently written in Titanium where I can code the UI in HTML and JavaScript and the business logic in Ruby. Unfortunately, it's very prone to errors and crashes when things get complicated; fortunately, the problems I've seen have been in the interface between JavaScript and Ruby, and I feel like I can keep progressing with this platform if I follow these conventions.

Only pass strings between JavaScript and Ruby, encoding in JSON strings if necessary.
- In JavaScript, call Ruby methods with String arguments. JavaScript ints become Ruby Floats, so just use Strings to avoid potential confusion; JSON arguments will probably work and become hashes, but then you'll have to beware of the types of all the nested objects... if I need multiple values then I either supply them as more arguments or I call the Ruby method multiple times.
- In Ruby, check arguments for RubyKObject type. Sometimes arguments don't have the expected String type, so you'll want to convert them:
if (term.class.name == "RubyKObject") term = term.toString() end
- In Ruby, return String objects; if necessary, encode in JSON. Here's a simplistic method that works for me:
# takes an argument which is any nesting of String, Array, Hash (and nil) # return a String holding JSON representation of the argument def self.strings_arrays_hashes_json(arg) if (arg == nil) "null" elsif (arg.class.name == "String") result = arg result = result.gsub("\"","\\\"") result = result.gsub("\\","\\\\") result = result.gsub("\/","\\/") result = result.gsub("\b","\\b") result = result.gsub("\f","\\f") result = result.gsub("\n","\\n") result = result.gsub("\r","\\r") result = result.gsub("\t","\\t") "\"" + result + "\"" elsif (arg.class.name == "Array") recurse = arg.map { |elem| strings_arrays_hashes_json elem } "[" + recurse.join(", ") + "]" elsif (arg.class.name == "Hash") hashes = arg.to_a.map { |key, val| "\"#{key}\":#{strings_arrays_hashes_json(val)}" } "{" + hashes.join(", ") + "}" else "#{arg}" end end
- In JavaScript, cast the results to a string (ie. toString()) and parse out the JSON if necessary (ie. JSON-js). It's crazy, but even an unused toString call can make a difference.
- Thankfully, you can trust nulls and nils; they convert to one another well.
In JavaScript, call any Ruby methods before playing with the DOM. I've found that, if I have a lot of DOM manipulation, Ruby calls will work up to some point and then WHAM! after that point you get errors or crashes.

BTW, the direct-to-console debugging is your friend; the Ruby puts calls may not get flushed immediately, but this will:

Titanium.API.print("stuff\n");

When you start working this way, you'll notice that you're really pushed into a paradigm where you do simple visual manipulations in the browser as much as possible, but for any substantive changes to data you do a page-submit to pass the values to the same page, then you run your logic during the page initialization and then you rerender the whole page. It's unfortunate, but now I never have troubles. (... at least very few! Just kidding. I haven't had any mysterious Ruby errors or app crashes wherever I take these approaches.)

BTW, every time I hit a glitch, I look more closely at other approaches... but since I figure every tool will have its issues, I'm still sticking with the devil I know. Feel free to ask me later if I'm still sticking to it.

debugging a Titanium problem

2011-11-19T19:12:00.001-08:00

This is my response to Alan's comment here.

What I'm seeing is that my app will completely stop. Here is a video that shows how it stops.

I'll bet it's tough to get error info from the third-party languages; I'm sure that's where the problem lies, because I put console debug output around lines like this one and I see that it gets up to the Ruby method but no further. (I realize this example is a method... if it would help, I'll try to retrieve a problem involving a variable reference.) Even if I wrap it in a try-catch, the app stops, so it never gets to the catch, and I don't get any other info.

You can duplicate this problem in my app; look on that page for the "Test many repos in app" to see duplication steps. (Note that that is a specific point in time in November; I've worked around the problem, but it's definitely not ideal and the problem still stands.)

Below is a stack from OSX.

It could be interesting to help enhance the interface and error reporting in the Kroll system (I assume that's the third-party language interface); if you have any suggestions for getting started, or for other ways that I can help you, I'm all ears.

Thanks.

____________________________________________
Family History P2P Docs appears to have encountered a fatal error and cannot continue.

The application has collected information about the error in the form
of a detailed error report. If you send the crash report, we will
attempt to resolve this problem.

... then I click on the "Send Report" button to see the following:

____________________________________________
Problem Report for Family History P2P Docs

This report will be sent to Apple automatically.

Problem Details and System Configuration

Process:         Family History P2P Docs [71611]
Path:            /Users/tlarson/Documents/dev/p2pdocs/p2pdocs/Family History P2P Docs/dist/osx/Family History P2P Docs.app/Contents/MacOS/Family History P2P Docs
Identifier:      info.familyhistories.p2pdocs
Version:         ??? (7.0)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process: ??? [1]

Date/Time:       2011-11-18 20:50:29.623 -0700
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Report Version: 6

Interval Since Last Report:          451670 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           32
Per-App Interval Since Last Report: 31828 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   2
Anonymous UUID:                      8EC49F5A-C2D0-4019-9318-8634B3D2552C

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000081be0f79
Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Application Specific Information:
objc_msgSend() selector name: localizedDescription

Thread 0 Crashed: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   libobjc.A.dylib                   0x97806f87 objc_msgSend + 23
1   info.familyhistories.p2pdocs     0x000221b5 main + 549
2   info.familyhistories.p2pdocs     0x000032ea start + 54

Thread 1: Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96675382 kevent + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96675a9c _dispatch_mgr_invoke + 215
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674f59 _dispatch_queue_invoke + 163
3   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674cfe _dispatch_worker_thread2 + 240
4   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674781 _pthread_wqthread + 390
5   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966745c6 start_wqthread + 30

Thread 2:
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674412 __workq_kernreturn + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966749a8 _pthread_wqthread + 941
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966745c6 start_wqthread + 30

Thread 3:
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674412 __workq_kernreturn + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966749a8 _pthread_wqthread + 941
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966745c6 start_wqthread + 30

Thread 4:
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x96674412 __workq_kernreturn + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966749a8 _pthread_wqthread + 941
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966745c6 start_wqthread + 30

Thread 5:
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667caa2 __semwait_signal + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966a89c5 nanosleep$UNIX2003 + 188
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x966a8903 usleep$UNIX2003 + 61
3   com.apple.AppKit                  0x9910ae2d -[NSUIHeartBeat _heartBeatThread:] + 2039
4   com.apple.Foundation              0x9404a4c4 -[NSThread main] + 45
5   com.apple.Foundation              0x9404a474 __NSThread__main__ + 1499
6   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c259 _pthread_start + 345
7   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c0de thread_start + 34

Thread 6:
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9664eafa mach_msg_trap + 10
1   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9664f267 mach_msg + 68
2   com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x952612df __CFRunLoopRun + 2079
3   com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x952603c4 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 452
4   com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x952601f1 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 97
5   com.apple.Foundation              0x94083224 +[NSURLConnection(NSURLConnectionReallyInternal) _resourceLoadLoop:] + 329
6   com.apple.Foundation              0x9404a4c4 -[NSThread main] + 45
7   com.apple.Foundation              0x9404a474 __NSThread__main__ + 1499
8   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c259 _pthread_start + 345
9   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c0de thread_start + 34

Thread 7: com.apple.CFSocket.private
0   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9666dac6 select$DARWIN_EXTSN + 10
1   com.apple.CoreFoundation          0x952a0c53 __CFSocketManager + 1091
2   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c259 _pthread_start + 345
3   libSystem.B.dylib                 0x9667c0de thread_start + 34

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x9780c7e2 ebx: 0x0001f0de ecx: 0x9977f99e edx: 0x81be0f59
edi: 0xbfffec80 esi: 0x00223690 ebp: 0xbfffecb8 esp: 0xbfffec28
   ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010286 eip: 0x97806f87   cs: 0x00000017
   ds: 0x0000001f   es: 0x0000001f   fs: 0x00000000   gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x81be0f79

Binary Images:
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   0xb6000 -   0x16bfe7 libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib 0.9.7 (compatibility 0.9.7) /usr/lib/libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib
0x7fb000 -   0x7fcff5 +com.vmware.FusionVMDKPlugIn ??? (416484) /Library/Contextual Menu Items/FusionVMDKPlugIn.plugin/Contents/MacOS/FusionVMDKPlugIn
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0x9122c000 - 0x9167dfef com.apple.RawCamera.bundle 3.7.1 (570) /System/Library/CoreServices/RawCamera.bundle/Contents/MacOS/RawCamera
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0x917dc000 - 0x91839ff7 com.apple.framework.IOKit 2.0 (???) <3DABAB9C-4949-F441-B077-0498F8E47A35> /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit
0x9183a000 - 0x918e2ffb com.apple.QD 3.36 (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/QD.framework/Versions/A/QD
0x91c35000 - 0x91c40ff7 libCSync.A.dylib 545.0.0 (compatibility 64.0.0) <287DECA3-7821-32B6-724D-AE03A9A350F9> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libCSync.A.dylib
0x91c48000 - 0x91c4bff7 libCGXType.A.dylib 545.0.0 (compatibility 64.0.0) <4D766435-EB76-C384-0127-1D20ACD74076> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libCGXType.A.dylib
0x91c4c000 - 0x91c68fe3 com.apple.openscripting 1.3.1 (???) <2A748037-D1C0-6D47-2C4A-0562AF799AC9> /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/OpenScripting.framework/Versions/A/OpenScripting
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0x920db000 - 0x920dbff7 com.apple.ApplicationServices 38 (38) <8012B504-3D83-BFBB-DA65-065E061CFE03> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/ApplicationServices
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0x921df000 - 0x921e2ff7 libCoreVMClient.dylib ??? (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libCoreVMClient.dylib
0x921e3000 - 0x9227bfe7 edu.mit.Kerberos 6.5.11 (6.5.11) /System/Library/Frameworks/Kerberos.framework/Versions/A/Kerberos
0x9227c000 - 0x922a6ff7 com.apple.shortcut 1.1 (1.1) /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Shortcut.framework/Versions/A/Shortcut
0x922f7000 - 0x92379ffb SecurityFoundation ??? (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/SecurityFoundation.framework/Versions/A/SecurityFoundation
0x9286e000 - 0x92890fef com.apple.DirectoryService.Framework 3.6 (621.11) /System/Library/Frameworks/DirectoryService.framework/Versions/A/DirectoryService
0x92891000 - 0x92893ff7 com.apple.securityhi 4.0 (36638) /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SecurityHI.framework/Versions/A/SecurityHI
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0x94560000 - 0x94569ff7 com.apple.DiskArbitration 2.3 (2.3) /System/Library/Frameworks/DiskArbitration.framework/Versions/A/DiskArbitration
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0x94978000 - 0x94a34fff com.apple.ColorSync 4.6.6 (4.6.6) <7CD8B191-039A-02C3-EA5E-4194EC59995B> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ColorSync.framework/Versions/A/ColorSync
0x94a35000 - 0x94e4bff7 libBLAS.dylib 219.0.0 (compatibility 1.0.0) /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libBLAS.dylib
0x94e58000 - 0x94e9cfe7 com.apple.Metadata 10.6.3 (507.15) <460BEF23-B89F-6F4C-4940-45556C0671B5> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Metadata.framework/Versions/A/Metadata
0x94e9d000 - 0x94eafff7 com.apple.MultitouchSupport.framework 207.11 (207.11) <6FF4F2D6-B8CD-AE13-56CB-17437EE5B741> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MultitouchSupport.framework/Versions/A/MultitouchSupport
0x95224000 - 0x9539ffe7 com.apple.CoreFoundation 6.6.6 (550.44) /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/Versions/A/CoreFoundation
0x953a0000 - 0x953f0ff7 com.apple.framework.familycontrols 2.0.2 (2020) /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/FamilyControls.framework/Versions/A/FamilyControls
0x953f1000 - 0x953f4ffb com.apple.help 1.3.2 (41.1) <8AC20B01-4A3B-94BA-D8AF-E39034B97D8C> /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Help.framework/Versions/A/Help
0x953f5000 - 0x953f5ff7 com.apple.CoreServices 44 (44) <51CFA89A-33DB-90ED-26A8-67D461718A4A> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/CoreServices
0x954a0000 - 0x954a0ff7 liblangid.dylib ??? (???) /usr/lib/liblangid.dylib
0x954d2000 - 0x955d3fe7 libxml2.2.dylib 10.3.0 (compatibility 10.0.0) /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib
0x955d4000 - 0x955d8ff7 libGIF.dylib ??? (???) <2123645B-AC89-C4E2-8757-85834CAE3DD2> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libGIF.dylib
0x955d9000 - 0x9561dff3 com.apple.coreui 2 (114) <2234855E-3BED-717F-0BFA-D1A289ECDBDA> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreUI.framework/Versions/A/CoreUI
0x9561e000 - 0x956b0fe7 com.apple.print.framework.PrintCore 6.3 (312.7) <7410D1B2-655D-68DA-D4B9-2C65747B6817> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Versions/A/PrintCore
0x956d3000 - 0x956e1fe7 libz.1.dylib 1.2.3 (compatibility 1.0.0) <33C1B260-ED05-945D-FC33-EF56EC791E2E> /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib
0x956e2000 - 0x95715fff libTrueTypeScaler.dylib ??? (???) <0F04DAC3-829A-FA1B-E9D0-1E9505713C5C> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libTrueTypeScaler.dylib
0x95716000 - 0x957c4ff3 com.apple.ink.framework 1.3.3 (107) <233A981E-A2F9-56FB-8BDE-C2DEC3F20784> /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Ink.framework/Versions/A/Ink
0x96560000 - 0x96596fff libtidy.A.dylib ??? (???) <0FD72C68-4803-4C5B-3A63-05D7394BFD71> /usr/lib/libtidy.A.dylib
0x965de000 - 0x9664dff7 libvMisc.dylib 268.0.1 (compatibility 1.0.0) <595A5539-9F54-63E6-7AAC-C04E1574B050> /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/libvMisc.dylib
0x9664e000 - 0x967f5ff7 libSystem.B.dylib 125.2.11 (compatibility 1.0.0) <2DCD13E3-1BD1-6F25-119A-3863A3848B90> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
0x967f6000 - 0x96902ff7 libGLProgrammability.dylib ??? (???) <04D7E5C3-B0C3-054B-DF49-3B333DCDEE22> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGLProgrammability.dylib
0x96f98000 - 0x96fc9ff7 libGLImage.dylib ??? (???) <0EE86397-A867-0BBA-E5B1-B800E43FC5CF> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGLImage.dylib
0x96fca000 - 0x96fcaff7 com.apple.Carbon 150 (152) /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Carbon
0x96fcb000 - 0x96febfe7 libresolv.9.dylib 41.0.0 (compatibility 1.0.0) /usr/lib/libresolv.9.dylib
0x96fec000 - 0x96fedff7 com.apple.audio.units.AudioUnit 1.6.7 (1.6.7) <838E1760-F7D9-3239-B3A8-20E25EFD1379> /System/Library/Frameworks/AudioUnit.framework/Versions/A/AudioUnit
0x96fff000 - 0x9736aff7 com.apple.QuartzCore 1.6.3 (227.37) /System/Library/Frameworks/QuartzCore.framework/Versions/A/QuartzCore
0x9736d000 - 0x97382fff com.apple.ImageCapture 6.1 (6.1) /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageCapture.framework/Versions/A/ImageCapture
0x97383000 - 0x9745dfff com.apple.DesktopServices 1.5.11 (1.5.11) <800F2040-9211-81A7-B438-7712BF51DEE3> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/DesktopServicesPriv
0x97477000 - 0x9747bff7 libGFXShared.dylib ??? (???) <801B2C2C-1692-475A-BAD6-99F85B6E7C25> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGFXShared.dylib
0x9747c000 - 0x9748aff7 com.apple.opengl 1.6.13 (1.6.13) <025A905D-C1A3-B24A-1585-37C328D77148> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/OpenGL
0x974ec000 - 0x974f2fe7 com.apple.CommerceCore 1.0 (9.1) <521D067B-3BDA-D04E-E1FA-CFA526C87EB5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CommerceKit.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CommerceCore.framework/Versions/A/CommerceCore
0x97801000 - 0x978aefe7 libobjc.A.dylib 227.0.0 (compatibility 1.0.0) <9F8413A6-736D-37D9-8EB3-7986D4699957> /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib
0x978af000 - 0x978c3fe7 libbsm.0.dylib ??? (???) <821E415B-6C42-D359-78FF-E892792F8C52> /usr/lib/libbsm.0.dylib
0x978c4000 - 0x978ceff7 com.apple.HelpData 2.0.5 (34.1.1) /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/HelpData.framework/Versions/A/HelpData
0x978cf000 - 0x978cfff7 com.apple.Accelerate 1.6 (Accelerate 1.6) <3891A689-4F38-FACD-38B2-4BF937DE30CF> /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Accelerate
0x97b05000 - 0x97be5fe7 com.apple.vImage 4.1 (4.1) /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vImage.framework/Versions/A/vImage
0x97cb8000 - 0x97cbfff3 com.apple.print.framework.Print 6.1 (237.1) /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/Print.framework/Versions/A/Print
0x98dcf000 - 0x98e12ff7 libGLU.dylib ??? (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGLU.dylib
0x98e64000 - 0x98f58ff7 libiconv.2.dylib 7.0.0 (compatibility 7.0.0) <061ABF36-8BA9-79C1-6CE7-EC69A4998F51> /usr/lib/libiconv.2.dylib
0x98f59000 - 0x9983cff7 com.apple.AppKit 6.6.8 (1038.36) /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/AppKit
0x99876000 - 0x998f6feb com.apple.SearchKit 1.3.0 (1.3.0) <2F5DE102-A203-7905-7D12-FCBCF17BAEF8> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SearchKit.framework/Versions/A/SearchKit
0x998f7000 - 0x99916ff7 com.apple.CoreVideo 1.6.2 (45.6) /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreVideo.framework/Versions/A/CoreVideo
0x99917000 - 0x999b2fe7 com.apple.ApplicationServices.ATS 275.19 (???) <9FA31967-CF14-B033-EB8D-570561D12A13> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ATS.framework/Versions/A/ATS
0x99b36000 - 0x99b3aff7 IOSurface ??? (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/IOSurface.framework/Versions/A/IOSurface
0x99c62000 - 0x99c62ff7 com.apple.Cocoa 6.6 (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/Cocoa.framework/Versions/A/Cocoa
0x99ceb000 - 0x99e6dfe7 libicucore.A.dylib 40.0.0 (compatibility 1.0.0) /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib
0x99e6e000 - 0x9a030feb com.apple.ImageIO.framework 3.0.4 (3.0.4) <027F55DF-7E4E-2310-1536-3F470CB8847B> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/ImageIO
0x9a0e8000 - 0x9a0e8ff7 com.apple.Accelerate.vecLib 3.6 (vecLib 3.6) /System/Library/Frameworks/Accelerate.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/Versions/A/vecLib
0x9a0e9000 - 0x9a40dfef com.apple.HIToolbox 1.6.5 (???) <21164164-41CE-61DE-C567-32E89755CB34> /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/HIToolbox
0x9a40e000 - 0x9a448ff7 libcups.2.dylib 2.8.0 (compatibility 2.0.0) <6875335E-0993-0D77-4E80-41763A8477CF> /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib
0x9a449000 - 0x9a46dff7 libJPEG.dylib ??? (???) /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libJPEG.dylib
0x9a4a8000 - 0x9a4aefff com.apple.CommonPanels 1.2.4 (91) <2438AF5D-067B-B9FD-1248-2C9987F360BA> /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/CommonPanels.framework/Versions/A/CommonPanels
0x9a4af000 - 0x9a4baff7 libGL.dylib ??? (???) <3E34468F-E9A7-8EFB-FF66-5204BD5B4E21> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib
0x9ab3c000 - 0x9ab57ff7 libPng.dylib ??? (???) <25DF2360-BFD3-0165-51AC-0BDAF7899DEC> /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libPng.dylib
0x9ab58000 - 0x9ab64ff7 libkxld.dylib ??? (???) <9A441C48-2D18-E716-5F38-CBEAE6A0BB3E> /usr/lib/system/libkxld.dylib
0xffff0000 - 0xffff1fff libSystem.B.dylib ??? (???) <2DCD13E3-1BD1-6F25-119A-3863A3848B90> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

Model: MacBookPro6,1, BootROM MBP61.0057.B0C, 2 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.66 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.57f17
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, PCIe, 512 MB
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, Built-In, 288 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x93), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.42.4)
Bluetooth: Version 2.4.5f3, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: AirPort, AirPort, en1
Serial ATA Device: APPLE SSD TS256B, 233.76 GB
Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-898
USB Device: Hub, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfa100000 / 2
USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x0236, 0xfa120000 / 4
USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000 / 3
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8218, 0xfa113000 / 5
USB Device: Hub, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfd100000 / 2
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0xfd120000 / 4
USB Device: Built-in iSight, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8507, 0xfd110000 / 3

Last 2 SLC Tech Breakfasts

2011-11-18T08:47:00.001-08:00

"Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids" (Trent) surveys twin-adoption studies and asserts that nature surpasses nurture in most long-term qualities of life
EconTalk podcast interviewed that author, and other researchers to get the economists view

Henry Shrapnel invented bombs (Josh)

Recent Ping Identity Summit (Josh, from Rearden Commerce)
- OpenSSL, Josso
- potential for OpenID providers to manage the user's identity

AccountChooser.com is Google's widget for easy site authentication

"Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy", where engineered livestock has desire to be eaten

SOPA is yet another piece of legislation to empower the RIAA to shut down websites

Project VRM by Doc Searles aims to build consumer-oriented identity management
Other consumer-centered projects (which aggregate demand): Google Offers, Groupon.com, HomeRun.com

Interesting projects from Rearden Commerce: enterprises typically use SAML, and there are problems trying to pass customers between sites who shouldn't have info from each other

Wouldn't it be nice to have things centralized! (But that's what we're avoiding.)

Internet Identity Workshop is an influential conference in the identity field

_____________________________________________________________
These notes are from last month:

Ryan: using git submodules (like svn externals) vs subtree merges
Linux started with BitKeeper, then wrote his own git
http://xkcd.com/963/
The daily WTF

The best way to run a company is to not only encourage loyalty and
staying with the company but also encourage people to grow and
possibly leave.

Ryan: open-source RockBox project, with great audio features for old
iPods and trying to migrate it to modern players (iPhone, Android)

Seniors: won't use a computer, but will use email on their phone
'cause it's easier; there's a service that gives you a printer connected
to the network and downloads and prints emails from some account

Using rsync when scp keeps failing

2011-09-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm trying to scp a file from a less-than-reliable server that drops my connection so that I can never get the whole thing. Here is Kem's answer to that problem:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby while true do puts `rsync -av --progress --inplace --rsh='ssh' --bwlimit=100 #{ARGV[0]} #{ARGV[1]}` result = $? if (result.exitstatus == 0) puts "file copy done, exiting" break; end puts "retrying again -- result: #{result}" end

SSL installation checkers

2011-09-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Here are the two SSL checkers recommended by Kem & Makani:

http://www.digicert.com/help/
http://www.sslshopper.com/ssl-checker.html (because Makani says this one found a problem the other one missed)

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2011-08-19T09:56:00.001-07:00

Dan: Where is virtual reality?

Video search
One big part is speech recognition Sphinx (CMU) http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/
Why store text? There are good reasons (Josh and Matt are doing a project on all this)

Augmented reality
- SixthSense from MIT http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/
- Dan recommends Robert Heinlein - Double Star

Phones seem to be changing how we do things, eg. calling rather than working independently

The G2X phone is fabulous - Matt

There are headphones that stick near the ear so you can feel vibrations (without bugging someone).

There's a higher ratio of female engineers in India vs America

Other events
- Utah Code Camp http://pcamputah.org/ (though it may just be more ads; not a good impression of Newmont by people)
- Product Camp Utah http://pcamputah.org/
- Roots Tech http://rootstech.familysearch.org/
- UTOS Project Day http://project-day.utos.org/

Chromebook is out, about $500
Google is offering it for about $28/chromebook/year for organizations ($20 for schools)

Google says Javascript is not the bottleneck any more
- Trent is using knockout.js (also looked at backbone.js)
- Matt uses GXT (GWT version of ext.js), though the rendered code can be confusing (with synchronous events)

concatenating lines in a pipe

2011-08-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

I often have to munge multiple lines together, and I finally found a good way:

echo -e "1\n2" | awk '{ ORS="+"; print; }'

Note that this adds the separator on the end, so I have to handle that:

echo -e "1\n2" | awk '{ ORS="+"; print; }' | awk '{ print $1 "0" }' | bc

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2011-07-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

Bitcoin, the distributed currency

Technical pioneers that suddenly went dark:
- Satoshi Nakamoto (Bitcoin)
- why the lucky stiff (Ruby)

What motivates us? Dan Pink says Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose: http://www.danpink.com/drive

New OSX features in Lion, such as versioned filesystem and saving to the cloud

The Obviousness of Anarchy: http://faculty.msb.edu/hasnasj/GTWebSite/Obvious.pdf

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2011-06-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

From today's SLC Tech Breakfast:

Ruby fibers vs threads, and a web server Goliath that allows you to write in a more comfortable linear fashion.

Testing methodology and unit tests, and how we improve software and really engineer while handling business needs and reality.

Dan: can we train developers to schmooze with managers? See maker's schedule vs manager's schedule
(See the video on "the internet in a box".)

Developers get better with age.

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2011-05-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

From today's SLC Tech Breakfast:

Staying secure with guns; Dan recommends TheBoxOTruth.com for gun education

passwords and sharing
- SpiderOak (Makani doesn't recommend for UI)
- LastPass.com (password sharing)
- locking password file: KeePassX, OnePassword, LastPass

For security, Dan wants a hand-held retina-scanner (not a hand-held-retina scanner)

Quantum entanglement, Dan will look up whether a recent experiment that supposedly allowed faster-than-light communication

Sharing code from different languages
- one way is to use JVM-based languages that can be compile-time checked (Josh)
- in C# shop, wants to use Java tool (Flying Saucer) to convert documents, used IKVM.net, also see JNBridge.com (Dan)
- make web-services the architectural organization (Josh)... that's how we organize in FLUX networking (Ryan)

Enterprise security: we share an encrypted DB (KeePassX), but if an employee leaves...?
The best solution is an OAuth-style, revokable auth

OAuth is recommended for phones, too... including web auth (Josh)

How good are your unit tests? (Dan)
- We have over 10% coverage with Sonar (Josh)
- Continuous build: Hudson, Cruise Control

How do we manage DB versioning? (Dan)
- custom system, which builds at any version (Makani)
- each DB change represented by create SQL and hopefully reverse SQL, table with version number in DB (Josh & Makani)
- potentially: make each change a non-breaking change with previous version, so code roll-back is easy, eg. rename is add followed by drop later (Makani)

"No fluff just stuff" conference downtown SLC (Josh)
Jsconf JavaScript conferences
Defrag conference in Denver (Trent)
Javascript libraries: Require, Promise interface, dojo for apps (Josh)

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2011-02-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

From today's SLC Tech Breakfast:

create a secure internal network, still open to neighbors:
- use two routers, a secure internal one behind an external open one
- open WRT or DDRT
- by default they're all bridged, which can be changed
- might be easier to do with multiple SSIDs

RiffTrax (funny running movie commentary) came up again... maybe we should create our own

parselet, a PEG (vs LALR, etc) parser

Payvment.com: your own shopping cart with items from other sites with a rich API

pidye.com, with this (beta) that's 100% client-side javascript cart

Google create specifications for searching/indexing rich AJAX web-pages
(Update: I just noticed a storm of complaints about the hash-bangs, eg. Tim Bray.)

HtmlUnit: java testing for web-pages

search engines for the large invisible web (eg. where structured data may take a few steps to access)

blekko.com (which Josh mentioned but I had to leave... can anyone summarize in the comments)

Star Tours door numbers

2010-11-26T13:37:00.000-08:00

The doors on Disneyland's Star Tours had the following symbols below the numbers given. I still can't figure out their pattern, but I hope to someday.

1  00   1

2  00   11

3  000  1

4  00   111

5 0 0111

Some Spammers I Know

2010-11-18T07:24:00.000-08:00

At my company we have to deal with spammers. They cause problems for everyone in a variety of ways. So here are some people who have used spamming techniques against us, for all the world to see.

Morgan Fagerman, morgan@ShopForGroceriesForFree.com, ShopForGroceriesForFree.com, 727-230-4930
David James, Echod Graphics Inc., David.j.j@EchodGraphics.com, www.EchodGraphics.com, 877-963-7446
James Hughbanks, James Hughbanks & Associates, james@jameshughbanks.com, www.jameshughbanks.com, 941-896-3239

Today's SLC Tech Breakfast

2010-09-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

These links may only make sense to those of us who were there.

Setting up network booting securely (Ryan)

PXE Preboot eXecution Environment for Intel machines
GPXE open-source version
TPM (Trusted Platform Module)
Polar SSL Embedded SSL generator, but bad random number generator

quantum cryptography hacking (Trent)

lockpicking for any lock (Ryan)

SSL: Do people mistake communication security for trustworthiness? (Ryan)

XKCD.com

setting up a site to gather people's passwords (since people use the same ones many places) (Josh)
What if GPS systems worked like Windows progress bar? (Trent)

joindiaspora.com for personal ownership of social info (Trent)

... which references this enlightening interview of Eben Moglen at P2P Foundation (Trent)

Kynet and "Pull" by David Siegel, about the Semantic Web (Trent)

RiffTrax (Josh & Ryan)

Here is the calendar for future SLC Tech Breakfasts (next on Oct 8), and here's the announcement post I always reference with that and other relevant information.

Mac annoyances (for a developer)

2010-08-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

I'm switching to a Mac at work, mostly because it is recommended by other developers I respect. But when it comes to productivity, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference: there are a bunch of features I had on my previous Linux (Ubuntu 10.4) laptop that just don't work well on the Mac. Here is my list, in case Steve Jobs asks me later.

Apple has that stupid custom COMMAND button, just like Windows has their stupid custom START and MENU buttons. It wouldn't be so bad if I could ignore it or use it in place of ALT, but it's used in most of the keyboard shortcuts, and the placement of the ALT and COMMAND keys on a connected keyboard is exactly reversed from the laptop keyboard. I'm afraid I'll have to remap the keys whenever I connect my keyboard. Ug. I would love a good solution to this one.
Speaking of buttons, why doesn't the default keyboard have DELETE, HOME, END, PAGE-UP, and PAGE-DOWN? I'll live since they usually work on my connected keyboard, but I emphasize "usually": for example, the HOME and END buttons do nothing as I'm writing this post in my browser. Great... do I start learning Mac shortcuts for those?
Depending on the focus, keyboard shortcuts for enclosing windows don't fire. For example, in Safari, if my cursor is in a text box, then I cannot switch to the next tab using my keyboard. I get the same behavior in Eclipse... I just get stuck if my cursor isn't in just the right place. Ouch.
I often want to resize a window by grabbing it's border on, say, the left side... or somewhere besides the bottom-right corner.
It's hard to navigate through the menu bar. To get into a menu, I have to get to the menu bar, then type the first letter of the desired menu, then hit ENTER; on my other systems, one key combination will take me to the desired menu (eg. ALT+F for the "File" menu).

The menu bar contains many different sections: app operations, services, time, the Apple menu. Why can't I separate them out and put the time where I'm accustomed to seeing it?
Any why does the menu bar always have to be at the top? I'm accustomed to accessing system applications (eg. services) on the bottom. Also, I put my dual screens on top of one another... luckily I can configure the menu bar to go at the top of my second monitor, or I would have been outright pissed (since it would have been in the middle of both screens).

I admit to being a Mac newbie, so I appreciate if you know any solutions that help with this stuff. (But if you're going to say that I should buy a Mac keyboard or learn The Mac Way, please realize that I'll always do development work on some of my own machines where I run Linux (and I regularly hop on other people's Windows machines), so totally converting myself to the proprietary Mac approach isn't very attractive.)

Maybe I'm the wrong audience for this thing!?

Ruby memcached client on Ubuntu

2010-05-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

It was a pain to figure out how to install a Ruby memcached library. Here's the error in 'irb' for requiring the basic library:


irb(main):001:0> require 'memcached'
LoadError: no such file to load -- rlibmemcached
   from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/memcached-0.19.5/lib/memcached.rb:19:in `require'
   from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/memcached-0.19.5/lib/memcached.rb:19:in `'
   from (irb):1:in `require'
   from (irb):1
   from /usr/bin/irb:12:in `'

Finally, I found this README where I realized I could install it as a gem:

sudo gem install memcached --no-rdoc --no-ri

This gave a ton of 'make' output, ending with this error:


...
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:12375: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:12380: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:12385: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments
rlibmemcached_wrap.c: In function ‘_wrap_memcached_generate_hash_rvalue’:
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:12415: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments
rlibmemcached_wrap.c: In function ‘Init_rlibmemcached’:
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:13285: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘sasl_client_init’
rlibmemcached_wrap.c:13285: error: ‘SASL_OK’ undeclared (first use in this function)
make: *** [rlibmemcached_wrap.o] Error 1


Gem files will remain installed in /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/memcached-0.19.5 for inspection.
Results logged to /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/memcached-0.19.5/ext/gem_make.out

So I tried installing it in my home directory instead of globally for my machine:

gem install memcached --no-rdoc --no-ri

Then I have to do something different with the gems so that my default 'irb' session will find it:

export GEM_HOME=/home/trent/.gem/ruby/1.9.1

I expect this will make it so no other system-level gems will work. Ah, well. At least I can get their example to work.

GlueCon 2010

2010-05-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Eric Brewer (originated CAP theorem)

Since we almost always need partitioning, the choice is consistency vs availability (meaning availability for updates).
Turns out the CAP theorem rules out relatively little. (He talks about probabilities of catastrophic failure, like half your nodes.)
Facebook approach to consistency with backup: reads may be stale, until your own write after which read from master
Real world: weak consistency + delayed exception + compensation

Mike Stonebreaker (Ingres/Postgres)

Myths:
- SQL is too slow
- want key-value interface
- SQL systems don't scale
- no open-source implementations
- ACID is too slow
- in CAP, choose AP over CA

VoltDB is a current example

2 reasons for slowness:

* interface: don't use ODBC/JDBC; use stored procedures instead
* services (eg. disk buffer pool, crash recovery, locking, multi-threading)

A modern DB on TPC-C benchmark, only 12% of time spent in useful work; other 88% was spent on buffer pool, latching, locking, & recovery. ACID is 1/3 of the cost; get rid of it to speed up 50% (see reference 1 here).

NoSQL
2 criteria:

no joins
no complex transactions

"SAML, OpenID, Facebook Connect: When to use what"

Facebook Connect is simplest 'cause they're the sole provider
OpenID is open with different providers, and you have already it with Google, Yahoo, etc.
SAML is the mother-of-formats using tokens and allowing all kinds of granularity
OAuth secures APIs, RESTful
WS-Trust secures web services, SOAP

Douglas Crackford (creator of JavaScript, JSON)

"The only way we can get things done is to avoid doing anything at all."
"One reason JSON worked is that it tried to solve the intersection problem rather than the union problem."
Web standards mandate security holes.

Safe JavaScript subsets:

These have been incorporated into ECMAScript Fifth Edition.

DOM is a big hole, so must fix DOM as well as JavaScript. HTML5 is making things worse:

new modes of attack
new capabilities of attack
long standards process

We should reset HTML5.
We must kill IE6.
30 days after all browsers have stable versions of ECMAScript5, let's stop supporting IE6.

Ross Turk

To get around the toll-cost per SMS, let's allow bundling of the API with ad access so provider shares in the benefit (revenue share).

3 calls-to-action if you have ideas:

redg.snodgrass@alcatel-lucent.com
openapiservice.com
ross.turk@alcatel-lucent.com

Monica Keller, Facebook

Facebook allows your app to be notified of your user's changes & updates. It's not PubSub, just an HTTP callback.

Dustin Whittle on YQL

Very easy to try out and have them host your scripts.
datatables.org

Chris Messina on XAuth

Not for authentication: it's a central server telling the user's available services.

Brad Fitzpatrick on WebFinger

Try it out at webfinger.org

recommendations for Utah native plants

2010-05-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Brandon at J&L Nursery gave me these recommendations for native plants:

big tooth maple (tree)
mahogany (tree)
zelkova (tree)
rocky mountain maple (tree)
mahonia (low)
holly hocks

He said I should avoid these:

mahonia -- obviously I've done something wrong because that's also on the top list... I'll find out...
squaw bush
golden rod
yarrow

My Favorite Dishes at My Favorite Restaurant: Z'Tejas

2010-05-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

Z'Tejas is my wife's and my favorite restaurant. There are a few dishes I highly recommend, including many appetizers; note that (in SLC) appetizers are half-price before 7 PM... we often go and just get a meal of those.

Appetizers
- Grilled Shrimp & Guacamole Tostada Bites
- Cast-Iron Skillet Dumplings
- Crab & Spinach Skillet - new on their"spring" menu, and ends on June 7

Entrees
- Diablo Chicken Pasta
- Chorizo-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
- Ancho-Rubbed Pork Tenderloin - usually not available, so if you see it on special, get it!

Now, I don't know the deal with the Crab & Spinach Skillet, and why it's not a permanent part of the menu. I was blown away by the taste, and that's my new favorite dish... so I'm hoping others will enjoy it enough that we can make it permanent! At least, here in SLC. ;-)

A friend just recommended the Gorgonzola New York Strip, so I'll try that if I ever go out of my comfort zone.

Cheers!

BTW, @ZTejas on Twitter is very active, replying to people's comments, which reminded me that I wanted to wrote this post. Plus the fact that they post the recipes for some of their dishes... I'm impressed. (If they put their news items in RSS, I'd follow it.)

Tech Breakfast miscellany

2010-04-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here are my quick notes from today's breakfast (along with the people who brought up the topic, in parens).

We started on UI...

Actionscript, Blaze DS (Phil)
GWT 2, Google Closure, Ext JS (Josh)

... then HTML 5, and the Ignite SLC event including a rap...

Mobile App Dev RAP BATTLE (Trent)

... and security, how we in tech tend to be lazy when it comes to security...

Web Security: A Big Case of ...OOPS... (Trent)

... so maybe these books will help us with the issues...

Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson (Dan)
Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Trent)

... and luckily we have new tools for managing authorization...

... and maybe some verifiable anonymity?

We discussed relationships, and tinychat.com and chatroulette.com came up.

Other... miscellany:

Silicon Snake-Oil by Clifford Stoll (Dan)
Archer Farm in Logan (... a historical farm here locally? Maybe someone can elaborate in the comments.)
"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence." -- Napoleon Bonaparte (Phil)
Fear the Boom and Bust, a rap battle between economists Keynes and Hayek (Trent)

command to join multi-line output with awk

2010-03-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

This outputs a single line with a colon separating the files in the listing:

ls /usr/local/jira/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/lib/* | awk '{ ORS=":"; print; }'

What are the OpenOffice Basic functions?

2010-02-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

I just wrote an OpenOffice function and could not find the right documentation for Basic functions! Here's my documentation until I can find them.

To convert a string (eg. "3") into it's numeric value, use ASC (not ASCII nor VALUE).

Why the anonymous spam comments?

2010-02-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

I've been getting a bunch of anonymous spam comments on my blogs, and I cannot figure out their intent. I'm not talking about the ones that include a link back to some online pharmaceutical; no, these are written by Anonymous without any link to any external site. And I'm pretty sure they're just automated; I'm sure some are because they've been posted on other blogs, both owned by myself and by others.

What would be the purpose of doing such a thing? I've looked around but can't figure out what they accomplish.

Here are some examples (you can see them on this post or on it's comment page):

It was very interesting for me to read the post. Thank author for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read more soon.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Keep on posting such stories. I like to read stories like that. By the way add some pics :)
Hi, very useful tip! Thanks [originating here]

PS: here is another interesting example of spam. The comments (originating here) seem relevant to the topic and were posted twice with slightly different wording while it was in my moderation queue, but they're suspect because they include links to shopping sites and the thought sequence is exactly the same with just a few phrases modified. It is pretty good; they triggered this post about the other ones. Here are both comments for easy comparison:

My friend and I were recently talking about how modern society has evolved to become so integrated with technology. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.

I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as the price of memory decreases, the possibility of downloading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.

My friend and I were recently discussing about technology, and how integrated it has become to our daily lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.

I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further advances, the possibility of uploading our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about every once in a while.

HTML 5 intro

2010-01-06T13:52:00.001-08:00

Here are the highlights from an HTML 5 intro today (by Adam Welling at iCentris):

The new doctype in its entirety (and probably usable today):
Many new input types give us built-in browser functionality (obviating much JavaScript): date/time, sliders, email, search
JavaScript library Modernizr will help old browsers get much of that functionality
IE has no 'canvas' right now, but we can use the ExplorerCanvas (AKA excanvas) library
XHTML 2.0 is dead
No need to self-terminate tags; eg.
is OK (I don't really like this one.)

Presentation PDF is here.