By the way, I do not want the prior post to cast any sort of negative light on my boss, who is awesome and whose hair is not remotely pointy. (Indeed, he has no hair at all.) And no, I’m not saying that because I have to.
Read more...Released my first Ruby app last night…
http://code.google.com/p/itunes-control/
…it’s just a simple command line controller for Windows iTunes, but the groundwork is laid for much cooler stuff. After jumping through some hoops I was able to make it a standalone app (no Ruby installation required), in addition to an ordinary Ruby gem. Future releases will likely have installers for Mac, Linux, and Windows alike, with no additional switch-flipping on my part.
Read more...Did anyone ever actually try to build an app with JAX-RPC before it was unleashed on an unsuspecting world? You wouldn’t believe the contortions I have to go through to do a simple thing like altering SOAP headers.
I desperately want to switch to the newer JAX-WS, but that framework no longer allows the message format that our vendor wants. (Yeah, there’s a good sign.)
Read more...*&*&$&%*&*%*&*&$&%*&*%*&*&$&%*&*!!!!!
You’ve probably seen “purewhitenoise.com - Distant Thunder” as my currently playing music a few times… it’s simply an hour-long recording of a thunderstorm. I have it set up to loop on my MP3 player, and I listen to it through the most soundproof earbuds I can find, for my entire workday.
Do you know why I go to such lengths to block out external noise? I mean, aside from the constant blabbing emitting from my neighboring cubicles? I’ll tell you:
CornNuts.
There is a lady a couple cubes over. She meets the Webster’s definition of “cat lady”: single, probably always will be, owns multiple cats, and likes to bore people with stories about them. And aside from constantly coughing like she’s going to die tomorrow, she chews CornNuts. She does so loudly (for there is no other way to consume something so crunchy, except maybe swallowing them whole).
So in addition to the yammering, coughing, and banging of drawers by my neighbor (who I think takes his aggression out on his furniture so he doesn’t go postal, but that’s another post), I get to listen to loud chewing noises all day. This is not a recent development; she’s been grinding away on these things for the year and a half I’ve worked here, probably longer.
What I really want is a ban on open-plan offices, but failing that, I would settle on a ban on CornNuts. I’d just ask her to stop, but I’m afraid I’d look crazy.
Maybe I am crazy. But it’s the CornNuts that made me that way.
Read more...Guess when we re-implemented this process in JAX-RPC.
prop NOYB sent_dtime 2003-06-25 record [Update successful.]
[Thousands of succesful updates snipped.]
prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-18 record [Update successful.] … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-19 record … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-19 record No action found for property ‘NOYB’ … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-19 record Unknown record type: ‘airport’ … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-27 record Couldn’t create SOAP message factory due to exception: javax.xml.so ap.SOAPException: Unable to create message factory for SOAP: Provid er org.apache.axis.soap.MessageFactoryImpl not found; nested except ion is: Couldn’t create SOAP message factory due to exception: ja vax.xml.soap.SOAPException: Unable to create message factory for SO AP: Provider org.apache.axis.soap.MessageFactoryImpl not found … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-27 record java.net.URL … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-27 record HTTP transport error: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused : connect; nested exception is: HTTP transport error: java.net.Co nnectException: Connection refused: connect … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-03-30 record HTTP transport error: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.secu rity.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.s ecurity.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to fi nd valid certification path to requested target; nested exception i s: HTTP transport error: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun .security.validator.ValidatorException: PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target … prop NOYB sent_dtime 2007-04-05 record JAXRPC.TIE.04: Internal Server Error (JAXRPCTIE01: caught exception while handling request: javax.xml.rpc.JAXRPCException: SOAP Header element not found.)
…And I still don’t have the connection working. All this is in the dev environment, at least. Gods help me if it went to production like this.
Read more...To Do...
-Reach the top 10 on FreshMeat/SourceForge. -Give a talk at OSCON. -Get a book published by O’Reilly. -Have at least 10 developers ask for autographs of said book. -Have lunch with Yukihiro Matsumoto.
…At least, that’s the current plan.
Read more...I followed Diana out into the living room. I thought she was in the mood, which was good, but as I looked around I thought we were in a stranger’s house, which was bad. She was saying something to me insistently, but I have no clue what.
It was only after I’d already been fiddling with the cables for more than a minute that I realized we were at home, that Diana was actually asking me to fix the XBox, and that it was 3 AM and I was groggy as hell.
Read more...Well, I didn't wonder how I stood it until NOW...
> “Now we look back on medieval peasants and wonder how they > stood it. How grim it must have been to till the same > fields your whole life with no hope of anything better, > under the thumb of lords and priests you had to give all > your surplus to and acknowledge as your masters. I wouldn’t > be surprised if one day people look back on what we > consider a normal job in the same way. How grim it would be > to commute every day to a cubicle in some soulless office > complex, and be told what to do by someone you had to > acknowledge as a boss—someone who could call you into their > office and say “take a seat,” and you’d sit!”
http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html
This is an article about founding startups, by the way. And in it, the author explicitly advises anyone with a family NOT to do so.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
[Edit: Wait a minute… who cares? I’m more likely to get my name out there with an open-source project than with a startup anyway.]
Read more...More wisdom...
Find someone you respect, and emulate them. Your brain won’t work right if you don’t exercise your body.
Read more...We’re housesitting for Diana’s dad, who has a huge Mitsubishi HDTV… Like so many HDTV owners, they were watching standard-def shows, stretched to widescreen (which I can’t stand, but apparently no one else notices). After much poring over the manuals, I figured out how to set it up correctly. (The digital cable box was routed to the TV through co-ax, and the component cables (Monster brand, no less) were sitting unplugged behind the TV.)
Anyway, we’ve been watching that Planet Earth series. It’s the only decent hi-def content we can seem to find, but any description short of “fucking amazing” doesn’t do it justice. The color, sharpness, and detail are incredible - even Diana’s jaw dropped.
I don’t know how we’re going to go back to standard-def in a few days. Not only can we not afford new equipment, there wouldn’t be much content available if we could, and we might find ourselves locked into the losing side of the HD-DVD format war.
The HD revolution really will be amazing, but we’re going to be stuck in the lo-res ghetto for quite a while.
Read more...