posts brought to you by the category “lego”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database
table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life.
What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated
with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it
will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun
way to find stuff.
Me : A better Photo RDF
The Gnome/Mozilla browser saves bookmarks as an RSS 1.0
document.
The Washington Post on lifestyle porn for the ruling classes.
Homeland security. First there was the agency. Then there was the
department. Now there is the brand.
Ben Hammersley : Contemporaria
It's not about oil, per se, it's about geography.
Me : ASCOPE::Term.pm 0.03
Now, I've never really been one for conceptual art
Ed Hawco : Montréal has a few mythical bus lines
erhaps someone should write an essay about the 29 as a failed
bridge of the two solitudes, going back and forth, empty and
ghost-like, between The Main ... and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : aplomb
Aplomb \A`plomb"\, n. [F., lit. perpendicularity; ? to +
plomb lead. See {Plumb}.] Assurance of manner or of action;
self-possession.
web1913
aplomb n : great coolness and composure under strain; "keep
your cool" [syn: {assuredness}, {cool}, {poise}, {sang-froid},
{self-possession}]
wn
How to hide CSS from buggy browsers
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : bastard
hat
An invisible device that has an overall negative effect
on the wearer, turning her into a bastard.
ex. "What's the matter with them today?" "Dunno, they
must be wearing the Bastard Hat."
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : polymath
polymath n : a person of great and varied learning
wn
Simon Cozens : Mail::Miner
"Suppose every mail you receive gets sent through
a little program before delivery. This little program does several
things. It strips off any attachments, and stores them in an SQL
database, adding a note to the end of the email pointing out the ID
number of the attachment in the database. It also stores information
about who the mail was sent from, the subject line, the date, some
keywords as determined by Text::Keywords, and so on. The add-on
"recogniser" modules get hold of the email and try to pull out various
things - email addresses, patches, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and
so on."
Me : [RFC] wblgml.dtd 0.2
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : aspersion
Aspersion \As*per"sion\, n. [L. aspersio, fr. aspergere:
cf. F. aspersion.] 1. A sprinkling, as with water or dust, in a literal
sense. Behold an immersion, not and aspersion. --Jer. Taylor. 2. The
spreading of calumniations reports or charges which tarnish reputation,
like the bespattering of a body with foul water; calumny. Every candid
critic would be ashamed to cast wholesale aspersions on the entire body
of professional teachers. --Grote. Who would by base aspersions blot
thy virtue. --Dryden.
web1913
aspersion n 1: a disparaging remark [syn: {slur}] 2: the
act of defaming [syn: {calumny}, {slander}, {defamation}] 3: the act of
sprinkling water in baptism (rare) [syn: {sprinkling}]
wn
Kip Hampton : Introducing XML::SAX::Machines, Part One
Salman Rushdie : "Night after night, I have found myself listening
to Londoners' diatribes
against the sheer weirdness of the American
citizenry."
The Connection : The Politics of Cartooning
David Rees, Ted Rall and Barbara Brandon-Croft.
see also :
The Gulf
War
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : gelid
Gelid \Gel"id\, a. [L. gelidus, fr. gelun frost, cold. See
{Cold}, and cf. {Congeal}, {Gelatin}, {Jelly}.] Cold; very cold;
frozen. ``Gelid founts.'' --Thompson.
web1913
gelid adj : extremely cold; "an arctic climate"; "let's get
inside; I'm freezing"; "a frigid day"; "gelid waters of the North
Atlantic"; "glacial winds"; "icy hands"; "polar weather" [syn:
{arctic}, {freezing}, {frigid}, {glacial}, {icy}, {polar}]
wn
Design Your Own O'Reilly Book Cover
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is punctilious
| source : web1913 | Punctilious \Punc*til"ious\
(-y[u^]s), a. [Cf. It. puntiglioso, Sp. puntilloso.] Attentive to
punctilio; very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, etiquette, or
mutual intercourse; precise; exact in the smallest particulars. ``A
punctilious observance of divine laws.'' --Rogers. ``Very punctilious
copies of any letters.'' --The Nation. Punctilious in the simple and
intelligible instances of common life. --I. Taylor. --
{Punc*til"ious*ly}, adv. -- {Punc*til"ious*ness}, n. | source : wn |
punctilious adj : marked by precise accordance with details; "was
worryingly meticulous about trivial details"; "punctilious in his
attention to rules of etiquette" [syn: {meticulous}]
Simple Web Services API Specification
Me : Eatdrinkfeelgood perl-tools 0.1
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is etiolate
| source : web1913 | Etiolate \E"ti*o*late\ v. i.
[imp. & p. p. {Etiolated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Etiolating}.] [F.
['e]tioler to blanch.] 1. To become white or whiter; to be whitened or
blanched by excluding the light of the sun, as, plants. 2. (Med.) To
become pale through disease or absence of light. | source : web1913 |
Etiolate \E"ti*o*late\, v. t. 1. To blanch; to bleach; to whiten by
depriving of the sun's rays. 2. (Med.) To cause to grow pale by disease
or absence of light. | source : web1913 | Etiolate \E"ti*o*late\,
Etiolated \E"ti*o*la`ted\, a. Having a blanched or faded appearance, as
birds inhabiting desert regions. | source : wn | etiolate adj :
(especially of plants) developed without chlorophyll by being deprived of
light; "etiolated celery" [syn: {etiolated}, {blanched}] v 1: make weak
by stunting the growth or development of 2: bleach and alter the natural
development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight 3: make pale or
sickly; "alcohol etiolates your skin"
Some of the joys of dual U.S. - Canadian citizenship, so far :
Me : Blogger::Manila.pm 0.1
Olivier Berger and Olivier Tharan : Chrooted SSH CVS server
HOW-TO
Paul Prescod : Ideas about Subclassing and Inheritance in Generic
Documents
James Gleick : Inescapably Connected
"We find that people look at their watches four
dozen times a day. And at no time do you realize that more than when you
forget your watch. It's not just that you don't know what time it is; you
feel all out of sorts. The rhythm of your day is all thrown off. So we're
thinking, What other kinds of information can you push into that
peripheral channel? Contacts and schedules and things like that are good.
But what about your stock-market portfolio? Or biometric information
about your loved ones, so you can see how your parents are doing, just to
know whether they're having a good day or a bad day."
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is raiment
| source : web1913 | Raiment \Rai"ment\, n.
[Abbrev. fr. arraiment. See {Array}.] 1. Clothing in general; vesture;
garments; -- usually singular in form, with a collective sense. Living,
both food and raiment she supplies. --Dryden. 2. An article of dress. [R.
or Obs.] --Sir P. Sidney. | source : wn | raiment n : especially fine or
decorative clothing [syn: {array}, {finery}, {regalia}] v : provide with
clothes or put clothes on [syn: {dress}, {clothe}, {enclothe}, {garb},
{tog}, {garment}, {habilitate}, {fit out}, {apparel}] [ant: {undress}]
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is ignoble
| source : web1913 | Ignoble \Ig*no"ble\, v. t.
To make ignoble. [Obs.] --Bacon. | source : web1913 | Ignoble
\Ig*no"ble\, a. [L. ignobilis; pref. in- not + nobilis noble: cf. F.
ignoble. See {In-} not, and {Noble}, a.] 1. Of low birth or family; not
noble; not illustrious; plebeian; common; humble. I was not ignoble of
descent. --Shak. Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants. --Shak. 2.
Not honorable, elevated, or generous; base. 'T but a base, ignoble mind,
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar. --Shak. Far from the madding
crowd's ignoble strife. --Gray. 3. (Zo["o]l.) Not a true or noble falcon;
-- said of certain hawks, as the goshawk. Syn: Degenerate; degraded;
mean; base; dishonorable; reproachful; disgraceful; shameful; scandalous;
infamous. | source : wn | ignoble adj 1: completely lacking nobility in
character or quality or purpose; "something cowardly and ignoble in his
attitude"; "I think it a less evil that some criminals should escape than
that the government should play an ignoble part"- Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Jr. [ant: {noble}] 2: not of the nobility; "of ignoble (or ungentle)
birth"; "untitled civilians" [syn: {ungentle}, {untitled}]
brian d. foy : Creating a Perl Debugger
Eiten Cornfield : Themes & Variations, The Radio Documentaries
of Glenn Gould
Salon : "Gibson acknowledges that the pace of change
-- and the fundamental absurdity of the change --
makes it increasingly challenging to do what he does, to imagine a future
somehow off-kilter from the present. He recalls another writer sending
him a note with the news that Michael Jackson had married Lisa-Marie
Presley. "This makes your work harder," read the note. ... Gibson
believes modern life is inseparable from mediated interpretations of that
life. The Internet is well on its way to becoming the vehicle by which
all media is distributed or at least somehow refracted. So Gibson's
current preoccupation with "media" rather than cool hackers zipping
through virtual realities makes perfect sense."
Steve Brown & Geoff Lightfoot : "Users perceived that their
personal standing within the organization
could be enhanced or diminished by the quality of
their electronic communications. E-mails were not seen as ephemeral, like
telephone calls, but as highly durable records which required careful
crafting since they could be archived, forwarded throughout the
organization and retrieved at some future date, to the potential cost of
the sender. E-mail has increased rather than reduced the number of
face-to-face meetings since meetings are now held to resolve disputes
emerging from electronic communication." see also :
Technology, work and surveillance: organisational goals, privacy and
resistance
Steve Spicklemire : Zope SWF Output Object
"Zwiff uses two existing products to bring on the
fly swf output to Zope. Zwiff is a subclass of PythonMethod so that it
works just like a Python Method... but it adds a new "module" (zwiff_mod)
that contains all the functionality of "ming", a swf output library..."
Cybridputo #3
"We don't have a Web site! Get the fuck off the
Web!" see also :
Courtney
: "How am I supposed to compete with 'Jennicam?' She's funny, she's
gorgeous, she's got better furniture. This really, really sucks."
Mordecai Richler : O, woe is Montreal
"In Montreal, only Schwartz's is capable of
warning us of the horror that could be coming our way. So, if you should
drive past and see a FERMÉ/CLOSED sign in the window, start your cars,
Montrealers. Quit town. The end is nigh." To his long list of accolades,
Mr. Richler can now add the much sought after and prestigious Aaronland
Shut the Fuck Up Award. This is either just incoherent gibberish about a
couple of professional sports teams or nostalgic pining for the olden
days when everything was better; atleast better than it is now. Worst
case, it is both. The 60's and 70's are over, kids. Montreal and Quebec
are different places now, and we don't all think singing
Gens
du pays
or going to the pubs on Crescent Street will solve all our problems.
O'Reilly Beta Chapter : Perl for System Administration
developerWorks : Transforming XML documents
into HTML, SVG and PDF documents. "In the future
we'll expand this tutorial to include TeX, the emerging VoiceXML
standard, and Wireless Markup Language (WML). Although this isn’t
an exhaustive list of target formats you might want to support,
it’s enough to show you how transformations work. Our range of
sample targets include online, printed, and audio formats. Some convert
one XML vocabulary to another, while the rest convert XML documents into
non-markup language formats." ( bobo-level registration )
Brad Wieners
"Now, I'm not saying there aren't some
certifiable militia-ready technolibertarian assholes out there among my
peers -- there may be some who even claim Charlton Heston as their prez.
But too many of the swing votes, the ones that could really turn
technolibertarianism into an epidemic, are my sort of "make the world a
better place for all" guilty yuppie bohos. We weren't actually born with
silver spoons in our mouths, and we'll come around." The sooner the
better. I swear to god, I may have punch the next internet-weenie I see
spouting benevolent fatalist dom.com marketing gospel to anyone who will
listen.
Andrew Gavil
"There's no clear precedent for vacating a ruling
after it has been issued. Once the ruling is entered, you lose
containment. There's no guarantee that another judge in another district
where a suit is being tried would agree that the ruling is withdrawn."
A philosopher's café is not a philosophy lecture
"[T]he philosopher presides only as a moderator,
to maintain the conversation on a philosophical footing. The discussion
is thoughtful but nontechnical. You will be challenged to defend your
beliefs or opinions, but you will not be asked to refer to a list of
philosophy books in order to support your views. In fact, the opposite is
usually true: Instead of showing off your erudition by referring to great
works you may have studied, you will be obliged to think for yourself, to
give your own reasons for the views you hold." via
ed's
weblog
Michael Boyle : True Facts about Montreal
"You can't rent a room at Hotel de Ville no
matter how tired you are. And Rue Hotel de Ville is nowhere near it,
really." It is hard to explain just how happy I am to be back. Every ten
years or so, any given Montrealer will wig out and scream blue murder
about how the city sucks and how everyone is too pessimistic. Some will
even move somewhere else for a little while. The thing is, though, that
Montrealers are rarely if ever happy anywhere but home now matter how
many nice people they meet or excellent opportunities they are presented
with. I am guilty on all counts.
John Udell : Can XML Simplify Auto-Grabbing Web Mail?
Mother of Perl : Mac Daemons in Perl
"Speaks the currently running processes at 15
second intervals." The best part about example code is dreaming up ways
to use it in more interesting pranks.
Thomas Friedman quotes Michael Sandel
"Now business is growing to global dimensions,
but governments are still national -- so government is again struggling
to keep pace. In a world without walls, we are going to have to come up
with new ways for government to rein in the power of global corporations,
and prevent them from buying up democracy. Instead of just being dazzled
by these mega-mergers, there should be a nagging voice in us all asking:
Is democracy going to be bought up too?"
James Fallows : Inside the Leviathan
If there is something you love or hate about
Microsoft programs, don't thank or blame Bill Gates; some specific member
of the Microsoft team decided to "own" that feature and include it in a
program. There is even a person who created the "It looks like you're
writing a letter" auto-annoyance feature in Word. I had to sign a
separate confidentiality clause promising not to name him.
Speaking of packaging
NY Times : Welcome to the Internet, the First Global Colony
"If the United States government had tried to
come up with a scheme to spread its brand of capitalism and its emphasis
on political liberalism around the world, it couldn't have invented a
better model than the Internet."
Ars Technica
"Actually using DP2 is akin to logging into a
demented Xterm running a poorly designed window manager theme meant to
look something like Mac OS. Launch a Cocoa application and you feel like
you've been warped into NEXTSTEP, again running that funny window
manager. Run a classic applications and it's like being in a slightly odd
version of Mac OS 9, with that alternate NeXT universe still visible in
the background. Pull up the command line and you start to think that all
of this is one big facade running on top of good old Unix."
www.priss.org
For every protest
The WTO Cam
Oh, look honey <a href =
"http://www.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=101 ">tear
gas</a>!
Eye : Build your own toboggan
"Our sensible friend Julia points out that a
toboggan's front must be curved, or else it will dig into the snow and
flip its passengers head over heels. Ouch. She's right. Luckily, I have
the fluted lid on a big plastic garbage pail, hanging around our kitchen
unused. A few pieces of duct tape later, and the toboggan has a curved
front." mmmmm...
duct
tape
.
Salon : Same old worm in the Apple
"So how could Time have been proved wrong so
fast? The answer is that, increasingly, in a time of skyrocketing market
indicators, company heads have become celebrities, and are marketed as
vigorously as any of their products. ... The details hardly matter."
Dave Beech talks to Keith Tyson
NY Times : Is Linking Always Legal?
"Until the courts provide clear guidelines, the
experts say, powerful intellectual property owners like movie studios
will fill the legal vacuum with their untested assumption that deep
linking is illegal."
NY Times : Tough Rules Stand Guard Over Canadian Culture
" 'This isn't just cars or refrigerators for
sale; this is ideas,' [Norman] Jewison said. "And when you start
exporting ideas, philosophies, behavior, products, ways of living, it
becomes an assault on the culture. Americans have to understand that.' "
Le bal des cerfs-volants
My friend JB's father is a kite-maker in
Montreal. The story goes that the
SRC
asked him to do a kite-show in the parking lot of their Montreal studios
some years ago. He showed up at the
Maison
Radio Canada
, got a kite up and soon someone came along and commented on the kite and
[Claude] asked him he'd like to fly it. Now there were two kites in air,
and after the next person stopped there were three. Eventually, the whole
sky was full of kites!
Bloc Pot
"«On ne veut pas convaincre les gens de fumer un
joint, précise le chef du Bloc Pot, ce n'est pas de nos affaires, mais on
veut les convaincre que le traitement actuel du cannabis n'est pas le
bon.»"
wtf?
-
dude, where's my car
This document uses
CSS
kung-fu and a small amount of JavaScript for rendering its
contents. Efforts have been made to separate the form from the
content so if you are viewing this in a text-based browser it
shouldn't be an issue.
On the other hand it may look funny if you are viewing it in a
browser with incomplete
CSS
and/or JavaScript implementations. Internet Explorer 6 comes to
mind.
It's not that I don't love you. However, my time is limited and
I no longer feel very good about spending it working around any one
browser's inconsistencies with little, or no, confidence that they
will ever be fixed or otherwise made more inconsistent at some
later date.
On the other hand, if something is down-right
unreadable
please let me know and I will endeavour to fix it.
-
yes, we have no bananas
This page may not validate. It's not that I don't care, it's
just that I'm not aware of it yet. Part of the reason that I
rewrote the entire back-end for managing this site is that the old
stuff made it too easy for these kinds of mistakes to slip through
the cracks.
See also :
W3C::LogValidator.pm
-
it's the software, stupid
Use the source, Luke.
Commentfield but it is deliberately verbose and you can win a little extra space by doing things like removing new lines. If your description is very long you could even stick it in a separate file and point to it as a external resource. I don't really like those kinds of solutions but atleast a reference to the data is embedded in the image itself which is a good deal better than having to remember [insert clever secondary file for image meta-data scheme here]. see also :/usr/local/bin/jhead -ce