The Cave

Install a 2nd revision of an application that needs a slightly updated shared library – GTK, Qt, or one of a billion other packages – and you’d better pray that updated dependency doesn’t conflict with anything else currently installed and using it. … But most often it’s simply people routinely not caring, developers lacking the experience and expertise to know the (usually minor) efforts and techniques to retain compatibility or the lack of tooling and technologies that enable (let lone expedite) compatibility.

Database of hidden (or just plain obscure) settings for Mac OS X.

Barak did not declare outright that there would be a ground offensive, but said that he could not presume to guess what Hamas’ next move would be and therefore was preparing the military for any contingency. and Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Sky News that he would not rule out widening the offensive in the Gaza Strip to include a ground invasion… …… The war on terrorism is an ongoing one, and we will have to stand firm in order to change the situation in the south,” Barak said Saturday, one day after an Egypt-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel expired. and Israel has said it will call up 6,500 reservists to support what is the largest offensive in the Gaza strip in decades.

[~] python -c “from __future__ import braces”

File ““, line 1

He has a chat with a friend who works in marketing and he offers to make a TV ad for Wilson’s Nails. … He turns to face the camera and says with a grin “Use Wilson’s Nails, they’ll hold anything.”

if (host_statistics(host_port, HOST_VM_INFO, (host_info_t)&vm_stat, &host_size) !

… natural_t mem_free = vm_stat.free_count * pagesize;

if (argc < 2 || (argc >= 2 && strcmp(argv[1], “-valgrind”) !

… int retVal = UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, @”PeepsAppDelegate”);

Simplest Objective-C program (for Mac): #import int main( int argc, const char* argv[]) { NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; NSObject *object = [[NSObject alloc] init]; NSLog(@”Created Object: %@”, object); [pool release]; return 0; } and how to compile it: gcc main.m -o main -ObjC -framework Foundation The -framework parameter is the obscure part.

Handy.

Mass Move utility for Mac OS X Leopard: mmv is command-line tool which allows the user to move, rename, copy, append and link large amounts of files with a single command. The tool is especially useful when you need to rename a lot of files that have similar filenames, yet subtle differences. Some examples here. [...]

Photos galore! Working on revising the site a bit, including new photos from Xmas morning!

Malbolge is a programming language, but not just any programming language: Malbolge is a public domain esoteric programming language invented by Ben Olmstead in 1998, named after the eighth circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno, the Malebolge. The peculiarity of Malbolge is that it was designed to be the most difficult and esoteric programming language. [...]

From here : From the numbers in the summary, a fully-charged one of these would supply enough energy to propel a 3300lbs (1500kg) car from 0 to 1100mph (500m/s) Ahhh you must be from the Theoretical Physics Department, over here in Engineering we have wind resistance, friction and efficiency to worry about.

…And don’t you dare talk to marketing, both of you will confuse them and those idiots will go out telling everyone we can go 10,000 miles and charge in 6 seconds for -$10.00.

I could share stories on how this very thing came up (twice) at MA, and I advocated this approach (and got p*ssed on for it). … Ask me another time (preferably with alcohol on the table…)

The contest opened for the next great hash algorithm. Good stuff.

Nice .

Hot Damn! This article is fascinating. I’d never heard of this before, but it makes perfect sense: I’m referring to funds that, for whatever reason, a company you worked for or an insurance company that owes you dividends — among many such possibilities — cannot find you. Sometimes these excuses are absurd as in the [...]

The only times I use Hungarian Notation are a handful of prefixes (e.g. in C++): m_ => member (instance) attribute g_ => global (static/class) attribute p => pointer (N-times, e.g. int**ppNumber; ) I’ve never used thread_local (yet, though I have used the Win32 TLS API ), but I’ll have to add that to my list. I find myself using a similar but alternative style of notation in Objective-C: _name => Objective-C (@interface) attributes that are Objective-C objects name => Objective-C (@interface) attributes that are C data types At least, so far.

But if we’ve got games they find appealing, I’m sure there’ll be something in the mix I’ll enjoy on the occasions I use it. … Sorry, David was just doing the ‘race’ game, and doesn’t quite have the concept of jog in place quite down – he kept inching forward as he jogged, eventually kicking and stumbling over the Wii fit.

And they play nicely (for the most part) – it’s Sydney’s turn at Wii Fit and David asked nicely if he could play with her Leapster (and she said yes). … If it wasn’t windy with 3+ inches of snow on the ground with pretty much the whole region shut down (like the past 4 days), then I’d probably already be on the road to find some more Wii toys.

Lesson of the day: the difference between a monorah and a Hanukia .

From here: Taoism: Shit happens. Confucianism: Confucius say, “Shit happens.” Buddhism: If shit happens, it isn’t really shit. Zen Buddhism: Shit is, and is not. Zen Buddhism #2: What is the sound of shit happening? Hinduism: This shit has happened before. Islam: If shit happens, it is the will of Allah. Islam #2: If shit [...]

Wow. How nice. I think I’ve used almost every single one of these.

Welcome to the global economy. Enjoy your stay.

Sin City. 300. Pirates of the Carribean 3. X-Men 3.