Poverty and Education in politics on Thu, Mar 27. 2008
I suggest more poverty-base grants for the very poor B student to at least manage a community college associate degree,
so they can make $20 an hour job fixing cars or wiring houses instead of $7 an hour as cashier, which is the difference
between two 30-hour a week jobs where you can't pay the rent, and a 45-hour a week job where you can and even save a
little.
Conspiracy Theories in politics on Tue, Feb 5. 2008
There are always conspiracy theories. Here's what I think.
Anyone who thinks that the rich and powerful secretly control large sections of the world isn't paying attention. That's sorta like claiming the chairman and board of IBM secretly control IBM. Of course rich and powerful people control the world, they just do it out in the open informally, not in secret back room meetings where they laugh maniacally.
Anyone who thinks that the rich and powerful secretly control large sections of the world isn't paying attention. That's sorta like claiming the chairman and board of IBM secretly control IBM. Of course rich and powerful people control the world, they just do it out in the open informally, not in secret back room meetings where they laugh maniacally.
My adoring fans in politics on Fri, Nov 2. 2007
I am apparently the coolest person evar. Or, at least, everyone agrees with me.
Firefox: Trivial User Interface Extensions in firefox on Sun, Oct 7. 2007
Firefox, as it comes be default, has several inane UI choices, so I'm going to list some extensions here that make it a
good deal saner:
Continue reading "Firefox: Trivial User Interface Extensions" »
muss in mush on Sun, Sep 16. 2007
muss is a concept for the sharing of common code between mu* servers.
Specifically, it will follow the musix standard. Only code following the standard will be put in there.
Whether or not it will be a true library, or simply a source file, is unknown.
If a source file, all functions in it will be able to be disabled so that servers can continue to use their own if they wish.
muss stands for MU* Shared Source, if it's not obvious.
Specifically, it will follow the musix standard. Only code following the standard will be put in there.
Whether or not it will be a true library, or simply a source file, is unknown.
If a source file, all functions in it will be able to be disabled so that servers can continue to use their own if they wish.
muss stands for MU* Shared Source, if it's not obvious.
musix in mush on Sun, Sep 16. 2007
musix is a proposal for a standard set of functions that exist on all MU* servers. There are many identical functions
that already exist, and more importantly there are plenty of nearly identical functions that could be made identical
with very little tweaking.
An example would be the htab interface. It predates the forking, and has remained basically unchanged. A few features have been added to different implementations, but those can either trivially be added to others or left out of the musix standard.
It's important to note that musix doesn't require any sharing of source, each function could be implemented separately on different servers. Source sharing is in muss
No existing function names will be used. They will obviously be considered, but will be prefixed with a msx_
Over time, especially with muss, it's hoped that server code will be charged to call these standard functions instead of their own. (Even if the standard function is just a macro to their own) in the hopes of writing code that can be shared much more easily between servers.
The name 'musix' comes from 'posix' and stands for MU* System Interface.
An example would be the htab interface. It predates the forking, and has remained basically unchanged. A few features have been added to different implementations, but those can either trivially be added to others or left out of the musix standard.
It's important to note that musix doesn't require any sharing of source, each function could be implemented separately on different servers. Source sharing is in muss
No existing function names will be used. They will obviously be considered, but will be prefixed with a msx_
Over time, especially with muss, it's hoped that server code will be charged to call these standard functions instead of their own. (Even if the standard function is just a macro to their own) in the hopes of writing code that can be shared much more easily between servers.
The name 'musix' comes from 'posix' and stands for MU* System Interface.
Compatible string functions on PennMUSH and TinyMUX in mush on Tue, Aug 21. 2007
If you know what this is, you know what it is. If you do not, you do not.
Continue reading "Compatible string functions on PennMUSH and TinyMUX" »
Firefox: Keyword Search in firefox on Sat, Aug 18. 2007
For the first in this series, I'll talk about Keyword Search. This is actually a built-in feature of firefox, made more
useful by an extension called 'Smart Search'.
The feature is explained on the keyword searches. That page explains in in a rather odd way, so I will try to do it better.
The feature is explained on the keyword searches. That page explains in in a rather odd way, so I will try to do it better.
Firefox in firefox on Fri, Aug 17. 2007
Here's I'm going to tell you about all the Firefox extensions I use. I've repackaged them all and have them locally, so
you can install them from here, and I've also included links to their page so you can go over there. Sometimes I'll
write articles about more than one extension, and I'll additionally have all of them packaged into one file so you can
download them at one time.
I'll also talk about some of the overlooked and useful features built in.
If anyone has suggestions as to extensions or features, feel free to add them in the comments.
I'll also talk about some of the overlooked and useful features built in.
If anyone has suggestions as to extensions or features, feel free to add them in the comments.
About Politics in politics on Sun, Aug 12. 2007
As I said in my introduction, I consider myself somewhat a Progressive.
There are people out there that think that's just another way to say 'Liberal', but in reality progressive political thought and liberal political thought are often at loggerheads, which I will probably write about at some point in the future. The 'New Left' is, at this point in time in this country, comprised of both traditions. I also hold a few liberal views, including some that the left doesn't!
There are people out there that think that's just another way to say 'Liberal', but in reality progressive political thought and liberal political thought are often at loggerheads, which I will probably write about at some point in the future. The 'New Left' is, at this point in time in this country, comprised of both traditions. I also hold a few liberal views, including some that the left doesn't!
Software I Use: Notepad++ in software Comment: 1 on Fri, Aug 10. 2007
The Notepad that comes with Windows is a prime example of how Microsoft doesn't understand what sort of software is
supposed to come with operating system. A useful text editor is right up there at the time, but Notepad is broken and
defective by design in so many different ways that this would turn into a rant if I listed them all.
So, instead, I shall list Notepad++. Download it, install it, use it, and stop worrying.
So, instead, I shall list Notepad++. Download it, install it, use it, and stop worrying.
Software I Use in software on Fri, Aug 10. 2007
This series is going to be talking about stuff I use on my computer to get my work done. Sometimes they're not the most
popular, and I'm sure others will take issue with them, but I'm not issuing awards or anything, I'm simply saying that
I, personally, use them right now. My computer is running Windows XP, so you can assume all the software here will work
on it, although I'll try to note if there's some other OSes supported.
A lot of this software will be free software, either as in beer and/or as in speech. Some of it won't.
A lot of this software will be free software, either as in beer and/or as in speech. Some of it won't.
Welcome in all on Fri, Aug 10. 2007
Well, I've finally installed some blogging software instead of using straight HTML. We'll see how it works out.
This site is going to be a confusing combination of talking about some vaguely progressive politics, configuring a moderately-sized mail and web server, some PennMUSH stuff, and random rants about whatever I want. I'll also be putting up stuff I've written in the past in various places, with a randomly chosen date of the state of the year.
I'll try to actually have useful categories so people can just read what they want, and I plan to start each category with a sort of overview post that will tell people what to expect.
Usually I'll have comments off, except when I am actually using this thing like a blog and commenting about someone else's blog posts. I'm not planning on requiring or even allowing user-registration.
This site is going to be a confusing combination of talking about some vaguely progressive politics, configuring a moderately-sized mail and web server, some PennMUSH stuff, and random rants about whatever I want. I'll also be putting up stuff I've written in the past in various places, with a randomly chosen date of the state of the year.
I'll try to actually have useful categories so people can just read what they want, and I plan to start each category with a sort of overview post that will tell people what to expect.
Usually I'll have comments off, except when I am actually using this thing like a blog and commenting about someone else's blog posts. I'm not planning on requiring or even allowing user-registration.
Ticking time bombs in politics on Thu, Jul 12. 2007
So, right now, we have crazy people who have come up with a single specific example that is supposed to be justification
for legalizing torture.
The premise that there is a bomb set to explode in two hours, and that we have the guy in custody, and we need to torture him to find out where it is to disarm it.
This is stupid on a number of levels.
The premise that there is a bomb set to explode in two hours, and that we have the guy in custody, and we need to torture him to find out where it is to disarm it.
This is stupid on a number of levels.
Software patent rant in politics on Mon, Jan 1. 2007
Here's a rant I made some time back about software patents. It's still true:
You think I'm about to start talking about software patents and how they retard the industry. But I think that's been amply covered. Or I could talk about how they are basically patenting math, but that's been amply covered also. Instead, I will talk about how they don't even work like patents.
You think I'm about to start talking about software patents and how they retard the industry. But I think that's been amply covered. Or I could talk about how they are basically patenting math, but that's been amply covered also. Instead, I will talk about how they don't even work like patents.