BlackBox : Category general

Learning Techniques

Warner Onstine — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:29:59 -0700

A friend of mine passed this link on to me from the Wired site - Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm - which is a very interesting article on a Memory technique (and the man behind it).

After some digging on the corporate Web site I found the “free” version which is actually a pen and paper version that you can use. I also shared this with my friend Kate who told me about a similar method called Pimsleur - but it is only available for languages.

After reading through this I have decided to give it a shot on an upcoming Computer Science course I’m taking this summer on Discrete Structures (basically a math course disguised as a CS course). I’ll continue blogging regularly on this so I can actually track my progress with it. As Kate said “We need a Mac app for this.” Twould be nice but I don’t have time.

Not happy with Linux

Warner Onstine — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:26:00 -0700

So at work I’ve been using Ubuntu on my desktop as my primary computer. I have primarily been a Windows user at work (because I have been forced to) and an OS X user at home because I prefer it. At first I kinda liked it, at least a little better than Windows. Then I began to hate it for the following reasons:

It works just like Windows (and looks almost like Windows)
Except when it doesn’t - then it sucks because it doesn’t work in a predictable manner

Here are some key problems I’ve had with Ubuntu:

It can never quite remember my monitor settings properly - every time I remove a monitor or want to switch a display it loses everything or goes extremely flakey
We play Unreal here afterhours and the audio just “disappears” - if I futz with the monitor settings then I lose Audio, hunh? Reboot required to get audio back
No common UI - dialog boxes behave differently, things just feel “off” depending on which program I’m using
Katapult is a poor replacement for LaunchBar or QuickSilver (which started crashing repeatedly on me on the last update so switched to LaunchBar)
Installing an application takes command-line work - blech

The are a few good things, but not enough for me to love it:

Wow, a real terminal - but I have this in OS X
Updates are painless - again I already have this on OS X
It’s stable - again I already have this on OS X
That’s about it - otherwise, eh

This isn’t to say I don’t use Linux, I use it for my server, but I can’t see using it as a desktop replacement, not by a long shot. In order to win me over they have to really be thinking out of the box and not just duplicating what Windows or OS X has done - which they really haven’t yet (yes I know about things like Compiz Fusion - but that isn’t the whole user experience that’s just one small part - yes I said small).

So, I’m using a G4 machine right now to VNC into my work machine for specific apps I can’t install (or don’t want to) and will be upgrading the laptop to either a MacBook or MacBook Pro in the next few months. Then I’ll be really happy.

Looking for a good CMS

Warner Onstine — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:54:15 -0700

I’ve been working on a project for a family member and need a good Content Management System for them to use. Here are my requirements:

Easy to understand interface
Generates URLs that are human readable - no blah.php?page_id=123 crap
Easily supports internationalization as the site itself will need to be translated into multiple languages
Preferrably Java (but open to Rails, and not really interested in PHP)
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to create and edit site templates

What I’ve looked at so far has been:

Radiant CMS - too simple, with code embedded and no Rich Text editor that they won’t understand
Magnolia - Waaaay too complex, nice for an enterprise solution but not for what they need it for

Just downloaded Liferay and will be taking a look at that, Daisy and JBoss Portal. Another suggestion made to me was to possibly use Contribute, which I think I’ll have them download and try out to see if it works for them (but then I’ll have to do the whole locale thing through Apache).

I’ve looked at the CMSes listed here.

Jahia - ok, after relooking at it I may download it and try it out
Magnolia - too complex for my needs
InfoGlue - looks complex just like Magnolia
Apache Lenya - had a very bad experience with this in the past and the interface looks just as awkward to use as it did before - pass
Daisy - looks interesting
MMBase - no online demo and I wasn’t wild about the screenshots I did see, passing for now

What I’ve found so far with alot of these (just through using their online demo) is that the interfaces are very complex. I don’t know if this is supposed to go along with their “Enterprise” tag or not, and of course a fair number of them tout their JSR-170, 168 compliance. Ok, JSR-168 might be important to know, but do I really care if they are a fully compliant Java Content Repository? Nah, not really, I just want it to work and have a usable interface. Some may care about that but to me it isn’t a selling point. I respect the CMSes who put up an online demo, it gives me a chance to play with it first to see if it’s even close to something I want, those that don’t I look for screenshots, and most likely move on anyways.

Gary Gygax (1938-2008)

Warner Onstine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:30:17 -0700

I was saddened to hear the news today that Gary Gygax passed away yesterday. For those of you not familiar with the name he is the co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons (now owned by Wizards of the Coast).

I spent much of my youth playing D&D and later AD&D as well as many other role-playing games. These games helped me become more socially interactive with people who became close friends. They also led me into programming and writing - where I wanted to recreate some of the cool images in my head in some way. If it hadn’t been for D&D (and Wargames West the local gaming shop in Albuquerque, NM) I don’t know where I would be right now.

Thanks Gary for all the fun I had as a kid (and as an adult!), I never met you but you changed my life.

New Job!

Warner Onstine — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:25:42 -0700

Late last year I decided, kind of on a whim, to look around for a new job. I contacted one of my friends and former managers to see if they had any opportunities at VMS. It turned that while they weren’t actively advertising they were looking for people so I submitted my resume plus some of the code that I had done recently.

VMS is an interesting company that looks boring on the surface but are doing some really interesting things. They are basically a marketing company that collects advertising and news for clients. This extends to all types of media (print, TV, radio, etc.) so this has some interesting challenges for data collection and for presenting that data to users in ways that make sense to them.

VMS’s primary platform of choice is currently Tapestry 4 so that makes me happy on a number of levels. While I haven’t done any Tapestry work here yet I look forward to it very shortly.

When I started Scott mentioned that they were also looking for someone to do some UI work for them and that they really liked their last UI person who did a lot of wireframing mockups - which is something I’ve had a lot of experience with. After talking with Scott we decided to have me to half-time UI work and half-time regular programming, which I think fits in to my overall goals of where I want to go. I have been a strong advocate of Usability for a long time but have never had it be part of my job so I am very thrilled to be doing this. Plus it’s a nice change of pace :-).

I will also be looking at some of our stuff to see if we can leverage Groovy in any way (from DSLs to just plain making our jobs easier) and I look forward to evaluating Tapestry 5 soon.

New RAM more speed

Warner Onstine — Sat, 12 May 2007 17:44:14 -0700

I just wanted to apologize to those who suffered through my incredibly slow server viewing my blog posts. There were a few factors involved in this problem, but the primary one was the fact that I was running only on 256 mb of RAM (I thought it was 512 but after I pulled it I noticed it was a mere 256 which explains alot). I got some new RAM from Crucial and it’s now at 2 gb! Yay! You should notice a dramatic speed increase and I will be posting more often now that I don’t have to worry about people getting the incredibly slow render time on things. I’m going to be working on the other factors that caused the slowdown this weekend (I have a Confluence instance running for my local JUG that was running off of HSQLDB instead of MySQL, so that’ll be changing soon).

Thanks to everyone who stuck through with me on this one and suffering the slow loads, they should be all gone now! And I’ll be making more frequent blog posts so stay tuned I have several in my box including one on Tapestry 5, my thoughts on bi-directional code generation, some of the work I’ve done with CLIBuilder for Chama and more.

Why I won't be buying an iPhone

Warner Onstine — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:01:00 -0700

Yeah, I know that this seems really behind the times, and it is. I started writing this just after the iPhone announcement and then forgot about it altogether. But given the fact that I’m looking at phones again, this irks me to no end. T-Mobile’s selections for phones just plain sucks, and honestly I don’t think I’m going to get the SK III as I first thought and have been kinda eyeing the BlackBerry Pearl.

First, let me say, if you’re tired of reading about the iPhone then just skip this entry altogether. These are my personal thoughts on why I won’t buy it, if you don’t care that’s perfectly fine.

Some of you who know me are probably a little surprised that I wouldn’t even consider buying an iPhone. I’ve owned a SideKick 2 for the past 2 or 3 years and really like it alot. I use it when I go back and forth to class browsing some of my favorite blogs and use SMS/Chat to send short messages to friends. When I first saw the iPhone I thought “Damn! Apple has really done the UI right, finally.”

So, why won’t I buy an iPhone?

A lot of the questions that have been coming out are now somewhat answered by David Pogue’s Ultimate iPhone FAQ. I’ll highlight the ones that are Nos that until they are turned to Yeses mean I will not be buying one anytime soon.

Can it be used with anything but Cingular? –No.

I’m sorry but this really irritates me. I’m locked into T-Mobile because Danger has an exclusive deal with them and that pisses me off. Plus I’ve heard nothing but extremely bad things about Cingular since they “merged” with AT&T (they sucked when I was on them before).

Will there be a non-Cingular version? –Not within the first two years.

This just tells me that Apple is playing the Cell providers game and not setting the playing field themselves as they have in the past (read iTunes Store).

Can it run Mac OS X programs? –No.

Mildly irritating, but definitely understandable.

Can I add new programs to it? –No. Apple wants to control the look and feel and behavior of every aspect of the phone.

This is the biggie for me, this is like buying a computer with software that only Apple provides. It’s like them telling me to shut up and like it, well I don’t. This also means that I can’t develop for it which irritates me to no end.

Does it connect to iChat? –No.

Whaaat?!!?

Does it have games? –No.

See previous entry.

Does it have GPS? –No.

Again, WTF?! Come on every new phone out there now (at least that I know of) has this. Come on Apple!

Voice recognition? Voice dialing? Voice memos? –No, although this could change by June when the phone ships.

Ok, if you aren’t going to give me freakin’ buttons to dial with then make it easier to dial.

Does the Web browser support Flash or Java? –No.

I understand the Java part, but no Flash stuff, grrr. On this note, there is nothing that says this won’t do JME (Java Micro Edition) stuff.

Can you change the battery yourself? –No. You’ll have to send the phone in to Apple for battery replacement, just as with the iPods.

Ok, I’ve had 3 cell phones batteries go out on me on previous phones and have been able to replace them. However, I just noticed on my SideKick 2 that I cannot change the battery on this one very easy either. So, hrmmm, oh well.

Now that I’m looking at phones again (specifically ones for T-Mobile) I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I originally thought I’d go with the SideKick III, but after seeing the iPhone I want something with a much better (and bigger) screen and a freakin’ decent web-browser. Just FYI here’s what I use my SK II for: browsing blogs, text messaging, and occasionally sending an e-mail of a link or something interesting (and calling of course).

Also, just noticed an update to the FAQ, good read and some more disappointing answers. I don’t know, I think when it comes down to it I’m going to wait until the iPhone 2.0 comes out and they “fix” some of my gripes, or someone will have come out with a phone that I really like (unfortunately the iPhone is the closest anyone has come since my SK II).