Tramp: Remote File Editing in Emacs (by Jeremy Zawodny)

I had no idea you could do this. Emacs might soon become my favorite editor again! :)
I should've known that emacs would have capability such as this. It includes everything but the kitchen sink after all!

Once you have Tramp installed, I found the following syntax works for logging in:
/[ssh/user@host#123]/dir/filename

MacDevCenter.com: What Is TurboGears (Hint: Python-Based Framework for Rapid Web Development)

Microsoft ships RSS platform

Microsoft ships RSS platform:

This morning Microsoft has released a public beta of version 7 of their Internet Explorer web browser, aimed at developers, although I’m sure a lot of tech-savvy and adventurous users will download and install it as well.

(Via Dave's Wordpress Blog.)

Google denies plans to distribute OS based on Ubuntu

Google denies plans to distribute OS based on Ubuntu:

Reports are circulating that Google "is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business - desktop software." Google has told us that this isn't true.

(Via Ars Technica.)

Wow! Googles had to do a lot of denying today. First they denied that they were in talks with Napster and now this...

IE7 Beta 2 Preview Available

IE7 Beta 2 Preview Available:

If you’re a developer, an IT Pro, or just plain interested, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ to try the IE7 Beta 2 Preview.

(Via IEBlog.)

I'm not installing this just yet. I don't like the interface. It might look good in Vista, but I'm not running Vista. Plus it seems that the install does some weird stuff. I can wait for a bit before I go about installing Beta software.

WoW 1.10 details, weather effects and more!

WoW 1.10 details, weather effects and more!:

1UP has an interview with Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan detailing the upcoming 1.10 patch for World of Warcraft. They have movies and pictures of the highly awaited Weather Effects-system!

(Via digg.)

TUAW Tip: you can rotate windows, too

TUAW Tip: you can rotate windows, too:

For today's TUAW Tip, I thought I'd build on Scott's tip yesterday (concerning the Application Switcher) with a simple tip about cycling windows, not applications. Many of us know (or will soon) that using cmd - tab will switch between applications, but plenty of users still haven't discovered the wonders of cmd - ` (the key right above tab), which allows you to switch between windows within an application. So if you, for example, have a few documents open in Word, cmd - ` will easily let you switch between just those documents, without having to bother with any other windows and apps you have open.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

FINALLY! If only I had known this earlier. Life would have been so much more easier!!!!

KryssTal : The 30 Most Spoken Languages in the World

KryssTal : The 30 Most Spoken Languages in the World


Urdu 22nd hai uss list mein!

GMails Spam filters failing

GMails Spam filters failing:

While Gmail managers to filter out a lot of Spam, it seems lots of blatant Spam emails are getting through the filters, despite masses of the mails getting reported as Spam.

(Via digg.)

I am seeing this problem as well. At least one or two spam mails are now getting through each day. And since I use Gmail POP, its a real pain to have to log in, and then report the mail as spam.

Kill the Big, Bad Dragon (Teamwork Required) - New York Times

Kill the Big, Bad Dragon (Teamwork Required) - New York Times:

As a lead game designer at Blizzard Entertainment for World of Warcraft, the ridiculously successful online PC game that now has more than 5.5 million subscribers, Mr. Kaplan, 33, is a combination of long-term planner, whipping boy, police chief and deity for a rabid global player-base that is about as large as the populations of the cities of Chicago, Houston and Detroit combined.

For some reason I can never really enjoy wow for more than half an hour. Thats a good thing. I know people who are really addicted to the game. I've been playing of and on for a while, and I just reached lvl 20. Which is extremely slow, however I have no problem with this. I've watched friends spend four or five hours in the same place, trying to defeat the same monsters, weekend after weekend. The place is called Molten Core. It seems damn boring. However, these friends are doing this "run" with 39 other players from around the world. I think after you reach a certain level in the game, the entertainment comes from teamwork amongst a large team of players. The content remains the same over and over. I'm just glad I'm not their yet. Losing 4 to 5 hours every friday and saturday night for three or four months seems like a lot of time wasted.

MapWoW.com World of Warcraft Maps

MapWoW.com World of Warcraft Maps

google maps for world of warcraft

New MSN Spaces and other stuff

New MSN Spaces and other stuff:

Most people don’t know who Dare’s dad is, by the way. His dad is the president of Nigeria. The other day Dare’s dad joked around with Bill Gates at Davos.

(Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger.)

Wow! I'll never see Dare's blog in the same way again!

ONLamp.com: Building Recursive Descent Parsers with Python

ONLamp.com: Building Recursive Descent Parsers with Python

Explore the Linux memory model

Explore the Linux memory model:

Mac Guides: List of Universal Binaries

Mac Guides: List of Universal Binaries

Oh Wow! TextWrangler and World of Warcraft are Universal Binaries! Cool!
I'm surprised Mars edit is on the list, but not NetNewsWire.

Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - MSN Spaces Updated

Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - MSN Spaces Updated:

As Mike Torres notes, a BIG update to MSN Spaces just shipped. Below is a list of some of the features from his post.

Red Hat to make Linux run on Intel macs

Red Hat to make Linux run on Intel macs

2 out of 3. Now we wait for Windows. Then its time for:
buy a mac and triboot time!

Linux.com | CLI Magic: OpenSSH + Bash

Linux.com | CLI Magic: OpenSSH + Bash

This is truly an important combination of tools for system administrators. I have used this to automate tasks via a central server on remote servers.

34 design flaws found in Intel's Dual Core chip

34 design flaws found in Intel's Dual Core chip:

Uh oh. It appears that in the first twenty days of launching the Intel Dual Core chip in Apple's iMac, 34 design flaws have been found in the chip itself. While Slashdot, where I found this, points out that design flaws in Intel's chips aren't exactly a new thing (which could be good or bad), it is significant that Intel apparently knew about the flaws before releasing the chip. Check out the report at Geek.com for more deets and stay tuned for more information on the severity and impact of this hiccup in this new chip's launch.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

IE to Support Native XMLHttpRequest object

IE to Support Native XMLHttpRequest object:

Sunava Dutta on the Internet Explorer team has written about their support for a Native XMLHTTPRequest object in IE 7.

(Via Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life.)

Hush-a-boom

Hush-a-boom:

There are many examples (or at least cliches) about (and here's one: "it will happen so fast, you'll never see it coming") how something which should be obvious gets lost in the noise (there's another one). Technical or product innovation or adoption is another example of this.

(Via Sun Bloggers.)

Where are the software reviews? PC Magazine has just become a catalog for digital cameras! Byte is behind a paid subscription wall! I never read PC World, and still don't. What happened to good magazines that reviewed interesting commercial software?

41 years of inexperience

41 years of inexperience:

Thanks to Michael Coates for wishing me happy birthday. I started out in this crazy world 41 years ago. Hey, I’m not even as old as the mouse!

(Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger.)

Happy Birthday to Robert Scoble! :)

Google Talk Federates

Google Talk Federates:

The much awaited Google Talk federation is live.

(Via Om Malik's Broadband Blog.)

Linux.com | CLI Magic: Learn to talk awk

Linux.com | CLI Magic: Learn to talk awk

Stefano's Linotype ~ On the Quality of Metadata...

Stefano's Linotype ~ On the Quality of Metadata...:

I find this discovery a little ironic: the semantic web, by adding more structure to the model but increasing the diversity at the ontological space might become even *more* messy than the current web, not less. Google built their empire on the tag, but at least there was an tag to work with that every HTML page contained! The RSS world is already starting to see that Babel happening: Apple, Yahoo, Google and Microsoft jumped on the bandwagon and started to add their own RSS extensions and I don't think Sam's validator is going to stop the distribution of the RSS variations from following a power law, it will just help making the distribution's slope higher, but that's about it.

So, are we doomed to turn the web into a babel of languages? and are we doomed to dilute the quality of pure data islands by simply mixing them together?

Luckily, no, not really.

Google, You Tube & Dark Side Online Video

Google, You Tube & Dark Side Online Video:

Online video is hot, and you can judge that from the break neck growth of You Tube. The San Mateo, California company was founded in February 2005, and a year later it is serving more than 3 million video views a day, receiving about 8,000 video uploads a day from users and transferring 16 terabytes of data a day. Add to the mix Google video and half-a-dozen others, and you get the idea that video-sharing is the hottest thing on the Internet. But many of these videos that are being shared are infringing on copyrights of some content creators.

(Via Om Malik's Broadband Blog.)

First Windows Vista Security Update Released

First Windows Vista Security Update Released:

Bard Of Vim writes "Microsoft has issued critical security patches for beta testers running the Windows Vista December CTP (Community Technology Preview) and Windows Vista Beta 1, and warned that the new operating system was vulnerable to a remote code execution flaw in the Graphics Rendering Engine. The Vista patches address the same vulnerability that led to the WMF (Windows Metafile) malware attacks earlier this month. The recent out-of-cycle security update for the WMF vulnerability (see slashdot coverage) makes no mention of Windows Vista being vulnerable, but with the release of this weekend's patches it is clear that the poorly designed 'SetAbortProc,' the function that allows printing jobs to be canceled, was ported over to Vista."

(Via Slashdot.)

Security Patches for a Beta OS? What does Beta mean these days?

Security Fix - Brian Krebs on Computer and Internet Security - (washingtonpost.com)

Security Fix - Brian Krebs on Computer and Internet Security - (washingtonpost.com):

At the ShmooCon gathering in Washington, D.C., today, old-school hacker and mischief maker Mark "Simple Nomad" Loveless released information on a staggeringly simple but very dangerous wireless security problem with a feature built into most laptop computers running any recent version of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

Here is the slashdot thread.

Perl.com: What is Perl 6?

Introduction to Reverse Engineering Software

Gmail lockdown in sector 4

Gmail lockdown in sector 4:

he other day I showed my old pal Rob Mitchell how I use Gmail. He was intrigued by its search, tagging, and desktop independence, but couldn't see how I'd allow myself to get locked into an unsupported service. I explained that I'm not locked in, and we went through the setup.

(Via Jon's Radio.)

Whats New in Python 2.5

Everything you ever wanted to know about C types, Part 1: What's in a type?

Everything you ever wanted to know about C types, Part 1: What's in a type?:

DDJ>Thoughts on Language Design

DDJ>Thoughts on Language Design

Constraint Programming | Lambda the Ultimate

Constraint Programming | Lambda the Ultimate:

It is not only a nice introduction into a promising field, but also a demonstration of how language design issues can be (to some extent) separated from high-level fundamental intuitions.

Raganwald: What I've learned from failure

Raganwald: What I've learned from failure

Goodbye, WMP for Mac OS X

Goodbye, WMP for Mac OS X:

Yesterday, we wrote about the extraordinary generosity that Microsoft displayed by distributing the Flip4Mac player available for free. Flip4Mac is a tool that allows you to play WMV files with Quicktime. Before you get a warm fuzzy for Microsoft, check this out: They've suspended development of Windows Media Player for Mac OS X. No big loss, of course, especially now that we have an alternative.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

The approach that Microsoft seems to be taking towards Mac software seems like a really good one to me. They have stopped working on applications that already exist for the Macsuch as Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player for the Mac. There are already have good default applications available to replace Microsoft offerings such as Safari and the Quick Time Player. It would make a lot of sense for Microsoft to instead offer just the wmv codec. It is all that is requireed for playing the Windows Media on a Mac. This way Microsoft can work on software for the Mac that matters. Like MSOffice.

Here is Robert Scoble wondering how to react to this. I think this is good!

Closures and the professional programmer

Closures and the professional programmer

21 Important Blog Platform Features

21 Important Blog Platform Features:

I'm listing (below) some of the features that either I or my clients need. My question to Performancers is what features do you want/ need that your current blogging platform(s) doesn't have?

(Via Performancing.com - Helping Bloggers Succeed.)

Beginner's guide to Portlets

Beginner's guide to Portlets:

If you are new to portlets, here is a good place to start with: http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Portlet/JSR168FAQ

(Via Sun Bloggers.)

Mozilla Calendar revisited

Mozilla Calendar revisited:

When we last spoke with Brendan Eich on the Gillmor Gang show, I mentioned that a version of Mozilla Calendar packaged as a Firefox extension was the lone obstacle standing in the way of my upgrade to Firefox 1.5. So now I've upgraded to the standalone version of Mozilla Calendar, Sunbird, and it seems to be working nicely on both Windows and OS X. That enabled me to switch permanently to Firefox 1.5, which in turn enabled me to try out the experimental Sunbird packaged as a Firefox-1.5-compatible extension. Conclusion: although both the standalone and extension versions are in an "alpha" state, the standalone version is better (stabler) for now.

(Via Jon's Radio.)

Microsoft promises 5 years of Office development

Microsoft promises 5 years of Office development:

During today's keynote, Jobs brought a Microsoft rep up on stage who announced a promise to develop Office for OS X for another five years (make of that what you will). They also announced that a new version of Office as a universal binary will be available later this Spring (March I believe), and that a Rosetta-optimized version would be available either today or very soon from Mactopia.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Mastering recursive programming

Mastering recursive programming

The AskTog Bug House: Ten Most Wanted Design Bugs

The AskTog Bug House: Ten Most Wanted Design Bugs

HOWTO: Automatically Create Affiliate Links | Performancing.com

HOWTO: Automatically Create Affiliate Links | Performancing.com

Advanced CSS Layouts: Step by Step - WebReference.com

Advanced CSS Layouts: Step by Step - WebReference.com

Phalanger: PHP .NET compiler revealed

Phalanger: PHP .NET compiler revealed:

Tomas Matousek and Ladislav Prosek talk about their PHP .NET compiler, Phalanger. These guys don't work at Microsoft, Charles Torre ran into them at a recent CLR compiler lab held on Microsoft's main campus. Very cool stuff. You can learn more on their Web site.

PHP Easter Egg (Works On Digg!)

PHP Easter Egg (Works On Digg!):

Well, it just so happens that if you add ?=PHPE9568F36-D428-11d2-A769-00AA001ACF42 to the end of any URL that is a PHP page you will see a funny little picture of a dog. Try it right now with any URL on digg!

(Via digg.)

Annotations in Tiger, Part 1: Add metadata to Java code

Annotations in Tiger, Part 1: Add metadata to Java code

Computer Programming Algorithms Directory

Computer Programming Algorithms Directory:

It looks like they want to have a 1 in all place for Algorithms. The website looks crappy but it's a good idea unless there's a better website out there.

(Via digg.)

Computerworld reports on Intel laptops that...

Computerworld reports on Intel laptops that...:

Computerworld reports on Intel laptops that have 11-hour batteries.

(Via Scripting News.)

Infocus: Windows rootkits of 2005, part three

Infocus: Windows rootkits of 2005, part three:

(Via SecurityFocus News.)

MacDevCenter.com: The Power of mdfind

MacDevCenter.com: The Power of mdfind

IP Telephony: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

IP Telephony: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet:

Developers now have the right tools and the right motivation to build a wide range of new desktop applications, telephone services, and corporate phone systems that integrate voice with the Web, IM, WiFi, and more. Ed Stephenson talks with program cochair Surj Patel about what's emerging in telephony, and what you can expect to learn at O'Reilly's upcoming Emerging Telephony Conference.

(Via O'Reilly Network Articles.)

Getting started with Folder Actions

Getting started with Folder Actions:

I'm finding myself spending more and more time at Apple.com/pro, as there are some truly useful tips for getting things done in OS X. Take this tip for example, that C.K. just sent my way: Adding Automation Through Folder Actions. Y'know those Enable/Configure Folder Actions options that show up any time you right-click (ctrl-click) a folder? Well this tutorial will help explain what those are about by getting you started with setting up a simple action that notifies you when a file has been placed in a folder. Handy for a workplace environment where coworkers are placing items in your shared Drop Box. If I remember right, you can also attach applescripts and even Automator Actions you create or download as folder actions as well, which can really open up the doors for simple folder-based automation. Check out the brief tutorial to get your feet wet with the (geeky) goodness of automating OS X.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Microsoft releases WMF update

Microsoft releases WMF update:

Ladies and gentlemen, update your computers!Microsoft announced that it would release a security update to help protect customers from exploitations of a vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) area of code in the Windows operating system on Tuesday, January 2, 2006, in response to malicious and criminal attacks on computer users that were discovered last week.

(Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger.)

Optimized Mac Firefox builds for G3, G4 and G5

Optimized Mac Firefox builds for G3, G4 and G5:

They open much faster and have much less of that irritating delay on opening new windows. Get 1.5, not the latest, because they are of 1.6 alpha 1.


(Via digg.)

Apple notebook reliability study, courtesy of Macintouch

Apple notebook reliability study, courtesy of Macintouch:

MacInTouch has released a comprehensive, in-depth report on the reliability of Apple's portables throughout the years. They apparently logged over 10,000 notebooks from 41 models, covering the gamut from iBook G3's to the latest Aluminum PowerBook family (basically anything that can handle OS X), as well as thousands of reader comments. Their survey included what years a notebook had to be repaired, how many times or if something broke down and the owner simply decided to deal with the situation, such as an optical drive they no longer need.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2005 Team System

Unit Testing in Visual Studio 2005 Team System:

Unit testing is one of the tasks that every programmer worth their salt needs to do. Wei-Meng Lee shows you how to use the new Unit Testing feature of Visual Studio 2005 Team System to auto-generate the code needed to test your application.

(Via O'Reilly Network Articles.)

Creating XML with Ruby and Builder

Creating XML with Ruby and Builder:

Mike Fitzgerald gets the new year started right with a look at generating XML in Ruby using Builder.

(Via O'Reilly Network Articles.)

Blogger Exposes Exploit In Windows Live Mail

Blogger Exposes Exploit In Windows Live Mail:

MediaPost reports that a blogger exposed a security hole in Microsoft's Windows Live Mail beta over the weekend. It prompted hundreds to gain unauthorized access to the closed beta. Work in tech PR? Then occasionally your weekends will belong to the bloggers. They're 24/7.

(Via Micro Persuasion.)

LONGHORNS #1!

We're NUMBER #1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:D


SI.com - 2005 NCAA Football Bowls - Young carries Texas over USC for national title - Thursday January 5, 2006 12:29AM

Free MacUpdate for all of 2006

Free MacUpdate for all of 2006:

MacUpdate.com is offering a free membership to anyone who registers in the month of January. The membership will last through the entire year. That's a nice New Year's gift.

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Switching to windows

Yep, a few days ago I went down to MicroCenter and bought myself an HP Pavilion Windows XP Media Center computer and brought it home to replace my Mac mini. And when I get back to work this week, I'm going to request a new Windows computer to replace my PowerBook. I tried living in the Mac world for the past year (I got my mini last January) but I just can't deal with not being able to be on the bleeding edge anymore. As my list of new Windows software that I wanted to use grew longer and my frustration with the Macs lack of power and speed as well as the exorbitant hardware prices grew more intense, I decided that I couldn't deal with it any longer and made the big decision to swap back.

I've been feeling this myself. I'm going to wait it out though. I don't want to buy a laptop right now, and regret it when Vista, or OS X (x86) come out. My list of software isn't that long either so I can afford to wait.

And in my case, I'll be switching to Linux/Windows.

Which half of your brain you use more left or right?

Which half of your brain you use more left or right?:

The human brain is bifurcated down the middle into two parts, popularly known as the left brain and right brain respectively. We know that different parts of the brain control different bodily and mental functions.

People who use right half more: imaginative, intuitive and creative
People who use left half more: logical and analytical in their thinking

But this does not mean that a person who is left or right brain dominated does not use the other part of his brain. For most people, the two parts of the brain work in tandem to enable them to function as well-rounded personalities. Do you know which part of your brain you use more?
Worth knowing! Fun exercise for the new year. Wish you a very happy new year 2006!

(Via Sun Bloggers.)

Of mice and blogs…

Of mice and blogs…:

Slowly he took out something that looked like a wood block. He said “this is the first mouse.” I couldn’t believe it. This thing belongs in the Smithsonian. If put up on an eBay auction I’d expect it to get $250,000 or more. It is one of the most important computer artifacts I’ve ever seen. And here it was sitting in front of us and Doug was encouraging us to play with it.

(Via Scobleizer - Microsoft Geek Blogger.)

Why does the template on my blog keep changing these past few days? Because I keep trying to import it into wordpress which changes the original template and fails. I just wanted a backup of the blog. Anyways, I'm not going to do it again.

This time I thought I'd go with a dark theme.

The man who created IRC

The man who created IRC:

Ever wonder who created Internet Relay Chat? Here's his humble web page. A very short history of IRC can be found there. A longer history can be found here: http://daniel.haxx.se/irchistory.html

IRC has been a part of my life ever since I was first introduced to it in 1995. Let's all give a heartfelt digg to the man who created it!

(Via digg.)

adnanwasim.com

I bought adnanwasim.com last week, and it is now pointing to this blog. Yahoo is selling domains right now for $2.99 a year! Its a pretty good deal.

msdn c# video game development webcasts

msdn c# video game development webcasts:

"Video Game Development - Learn to write C# the fun way." is a series of 11 1-hour long msdn webcasts starting jan16th, needs registration (c# express is free, 430mb iso here)

(Via MetaFilter.)

The blog as resume and autobiography

The blog as resume and autobiography:

On my winter vacation this week, I've been spending some of my time sketching out a book proposal. The idea would be to explore the professional blog as a literary form that grows out of, and extends, two traditional forms: the resume and the autobiography

(Via Jon's Radio.)