Zyca

For those who don’t read slashdot and haven’t had the misfortune of being pestered about this by me, Mozilla Labs has released one of the most amazing products that ever will be: Bespin (Code in the Cloud).  I highly recommend watching the presentation (just wish the video was higher-res so you could actually read what was on the screen … )

What is Bespin?   In simple words, it’s a web-based IDE (based on eclipse).  You log in and you are presented with the dashboard.   At the moment, it’s really just a file browser.   You can created projects and add/edit/delete files (html/js/css are the only ones that have context highlighting at the moment) to these projects.  Basically what one does in a basic IDE.

Bespin Dashboard

Bespin Editor

What I love the best?  It keeps my files open where they were when I logged out.  Meaning I can shift from computer to computer and still have the same files open just as it was one I last logged on.   Wow.  I can also export a project as a zip or tgz archive.   Which is awesome (I can get the code out).   If there was a way to integrate these projects with local SVN on the hosting server it would be even better.   The command line is such a nice idea.  Combined with their keyboard shortcut Ctrl-J, I don’t need to use the mouse.   I love that function.  Just love it.

What I don’t love.   Speed.   It’s alpha software so I expect this to be resolved when I either run it on my own servers (which I can do see these instructions) or when Mozilla puts more horsepower behind it.  It could be something to do with the multiple tabs I have open in my browser too with the memory requirements of Canvas … I have no idea.  I just know it’s virtually unusable at the moment.  Secondly, I don’t have access to the same commands I have in the file editor that I have in the dashboard.   For example, I can’t logout or create a new file from the dashboard — or at least I haven’t figure out how.   This can be done from the command line on the editor page.   Also, I have a pencil stuck in the middle of browser screen on other pages now … kind of annoying.   However, once again, it’s an alpha project.   I’m not so thrilled with where it is today, but where it will be tomorrow.

Think of real-time collaboration possibilities of something like this?   What if I could “shared” a project with others.   I can use something like skype and talk to them while I make changes to the code that they see real-time.   Think of the teaching functionality of that … and the spying capability.  QA guys/mentors don’t have to wait until you’re finished.   They could just passively monitor your coding as if they were sitting the cube looking over your shoulder.    With IM/Skype/Whatever, the abilities to have spread out teams collaborating from all over the globe (usefully) could be real in a later version of Bespin (or the like).

“Why do you have standards?   If you don’t, a user says I like Joe’s program,
but not Steve’s.  Another user says the exact opposite.  What we want a user to say is Steve’s and joe’s programs are both the same, and they both suck.  That’s standardization.”

– Ted Witiuk (Oracle Instructor)

To the bastard who threw a half eaten burrito on my car,

People say one should turn the other cheek.   They also say the best revenge is living a good life.   They are, as you might guess, idiots.  The best revenge is revenge.   I will find you;  I will pay you back ten-fold.   Even if you manage to escape my grasp, Karma is my winged bitch; pray I find thee first.

Mozilla Labs has released version 0.2 of weave.  Weave is an interesting Firefox extension designed to syncronized Firefox profiles between several computers (ie: work, laptop, home).  This version, at least according to reports, is more stable and doesn’t cause the browser to crash after a few hours.   It also apparently has a very interesting installation wizard.  The only concern I have, at least at the moment, seems to be that it is using a third party for the syncronization and doesn’t have the option to setup your own server to handle the syncs.  However, it does encrypt things using RSA public/private keys and AES and lets you set the passphrase … so … maybe okay.  Oh, and it seems to use Captcha … which, as we know, is dead.

However, those of us interested in building extensions might want to disassemble the extension to see how they did the setup wizard.  I doubt it is that complex.

Great article over on the Guardian about how captcha is broken.   Check it out: Captcha is broken - now what?.

Co-worker: “I am away tomorrow and next week so you may not want to disperse any tickets my way.”

Me: “I don’t see why I wouldn’t.”

Co-worker: “Oh look! There is a man at the door with a baseball bat, I think its for you….”

For those of you who haven’t watched Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, it is a very odd movie. It doesn’t have the themes one would usually find in a kids movie, death being paramount among them. Don’t get me wrong, death is one that shows up from time to time, Bridge to Terabithia is one recent example. This was different. It overshadowed all by a few minutes of the movie at the beginning and the very end. It had typical kid themes as well like believing in yourself and a couple aimed at the adults, ie: grabbing onto what is magical in the world and remember what promise and wonder the world once held in your youth. Ultimately, though, the movie was about death and dealing with it. It even had an amazing discussion about death, which referenced Shakespeare’s King Lear. How many nine year olds do you know who would get the references to or care about King Lear? How many adults? However, it was an amazingly well written scene. Magorium is talking about his eminent death and he says that it is the end of his story. When Shakespeare told the world that King Lear was dead, he wrote simply “He dies.” And that was all. End of story.

This, though, is not an posting about Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. This is a post about Gary Gygax. I can hear the question marks appearing for some of you who don’t recognize the name. He was the co-creator of the most successful RPG of all time, Dungeons & Dragons, upon which all RPG games - computer and pen & paper - are based. He established the pattern. He was vilified by the press and adored by gamers.

On March 4, 2008, Gary Gygax died.

I found another one of those ads that Fyn put up.

I … don’t know who paid for this or why, but they put it all over the transit out here. lulz.

Oddly enough, when I see snow, I groan and mutter. The roads will be slick and full of idiots who can’t drive. Visibility will be reduced. My car can’t go as fast or handle as well. It is winter, and snow normally means it is a mild day, so at least that’s a plus, but snow never makes me happy. However, when it snows in Baghdad, it’s cause of great happiness and celebration. Bah! Fools. I guess if it snow here once every one-hundred years, I would be a bit more excited myself … but it is fairly regular and nothing but trouble