The Phantom City

This is an extremely odd post about OLPC (One Laptop per Child):

The processor is more than fast enough to run software written in capitalistic programming languages like C++, but the majority of the user interface is written in slow left-wing languages like Python. - Errata Security: Why the OLPC promotes terrorism

I mostly program in ColdFusion at work. I like to think of it as a feudal language.

Link courtesy of Global Nerdy.

Holy unexpected transactions, Batman!

Link courtesy of TheCrumb.com.

Rest in peace, Netscape. (Or at least official support for Netscape by the company that currently owns the name.) Arguably you were responsible for me doing what I do for a living.

Hey, I work across the hall from this guy! He’s got a window, but since he’s published I won’t begrudge him that.

The article is a good tutorial on the CFEclipse plugin for the Eclipse IDE, which I use for ColdFusion coding at work. (Eclipse and I have come to a pause in our struggle and are trying to normalize relations to avoid future conflict.) I had been ignoring the snippet feature for a while, since I didn’t see a lot of time savings with it, but Jim’s article convinced me to use it again.

Anyway, if you want more about ColdFusion, check out TheCrumb.com.

Rumors have been swirling for quite a long time that Google was coming up with a hardware competitor for Apple’s iPhone. Apparently not. They’ve just announced Android, a collection of OS, UI, and applications for mobile devices that is meant to run across various hardware supplied by major mobile device makers. They’re planning to release an SDK for developers in November, with phones based on the platform showing up later in 2008.

So, software for mobile phones that allows third-party applications? Sounds like a direct shot at OS X on the iPhone. I wonder if Apple will get their SDK out there a little earlier now? (Too bad they didn’t work together. That would have been interesting.)

Link courtesy of Planet Intertwingly.

LOLCats has given birth to LOLCode, which I’m pretty sure is the programming language of the future. Consider:

I HAS A <var> ITZ …

Declare a variable. Note the following:

• Every variable is an array.
• ITZ … has been reserved for future usage and should not be used (except possibly for initialization of single-element arrays)
• At present, all arrays are heterogeneous (they can have different types of values in them). This may change in the future!

All values are typed, and the types are:

• NUMBAR (signed integer, at least 32 bits wide)
• YARN (string)
• ARRAY (contains NUMBARs and/or YARNs and/or ARRAYs)

Currently the interpreter and/or compiler does type checking at compile and/or runtime. This may get nailed down to one or the other in future recommendations.

There is also a .NET compiler.

I’m going to be lucky if I can get through the day without typing CAN HAS or KTHXBYE into my code.

Update: Good examples of code.

Link courtesy of Boing Boing. Title courtesy of PawSense.

more funny pictures

And this is how you win a format war: Target Bets It All on Blu-ray.

It’s not about consumer choice or minor technology advantages. It is about marketing and business development with content providers, electronics suppliers, and retailers. Microsoft hasn’t gone all out in supporting HD-DVD — leaving it out of the XBox 360 except as an add-on — even though they were among those who backed the format. Sony, on the other hand, is making sure when we see a HD disc or player, it’s Blu-ray. Blockbuster has dropped HD-DVD from its stores for now, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see others follow suit.

In Europe, according to the article, HD-DVD players are outselling Blu-ray 3 to 1. Will Toshiba and Microsoft be able to take that advantage in hardware sales and convince stateside retailers there’s an advantage to working with their format? Will Europe end up getting stuck with a bunch of Betamax players, or will that market be strong enough to decide what happens in the U.S.? (Or, even more likely, will we just end up seeing a basic format difference between Europe and the U.S., much like with PAL and NTSC?)

Starting at Year 0, could you help advance civilization? I like to think my Civ IV skills would help, but somehow I have a feeling I would die pretty quickly as a result of a smelter accident…or maybe just looking at someone the wrong way. This quiz thinks I might be useful, though.

Quite good. Starting from the year 0, you might be able to advance civilization to the 17th or even 19th century. You are technologically useful.

Must have been all those “science” books I read as a kid. I wonder if they still have books just about Science?

Link courtesy of The Tom Kyte Blog.