Inky: Blog

Heads up (again), Cybook users

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:13:05 GMT

I haven't noticed before, but it turns out Bookeen, creator of the Cybook E-Book reader, has released a new build of the v1.1 firmware almost a week ago. The new build fixes a few things, including the annoying battery-bug some users have been experiencing (including myself). Other new features are hyphenation for Mobipocket formats, and the name of the author will now appear in the header (if it is included in the document you're reading, of course).

More information right here.

Two posts for the price of one

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:37:01 GMT

I had two ideas for posts, but neither were long enough to warrant their own post.. Although that hasn't stopped me before.

Python

So, I've been "into" Pyhon for a while now, and I must say -- It's great. While the naming conventions and such are a bit out of whack sometimes between the various libraries (but what else would you expect from various libraries developed by a lot of different people), I can't say I have been bothered by it that much. It's total bliss not having to type all those semicolons, braces and brackets and whatshamacallems for a while. The indentation is not evil, contrary to what some people believe, and Python actually has decent OOP support!

Recently I've been checking out PyGTK, and I must say that is is incredibly easy to create GUIs using Glade (or GtkBuilder, but I don't have Win32 binaries for that yet). I believe the GTK Treeview may become somewhat of a God object in the near future though..

Train tickets

The past few years there have been a lot of complaints about the train tickets for the Dutch railway system. Basically, the argument/complains boil down to the following: "I bought a ticket for €X, and they didn't even check it! I may as well not buy it the next time ...". It also has become fashionable (especially among teenagers and "young adults") to not buy a ticket just to be cool. Of course this reasoning is completely silly. You don't buy a ticket to have it checked ... You buy a ticket to be transported from point A to B. Just because they don't check it, doesn't mean there aren't any costs to running a nation-wide railway system, you know.

You know you're listening to too much Weird Al...

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:03:46 GMT

... When you listen to the original song, and start to sing along the Weird Al lyrics. Oops!

Hey, our names aren't so crazy after all

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:27:05 GMT

I was just browsing around a bit, when I found a new website by the Afûk, the Academy for Frisian Language & Culture. The website, aimed primarily at parents-to-be, also has an index of Frisian names and their meaning. Here's what I found:

My name, Siebe, means "Victor, Victory, Conquerer";
My mothers name means "Guardian of Victory" (interesting connection with my own name!);
My fathers name means "Magnificant people";
My sisters name, coincidentally, means "People";
My other sisters name means "Child of the Light".

Surpassed 60,000 visitors

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:33:13 GMT

Looks like I had a bit of a recent influx of visitors, putting my counter at over 60,000 visitors. Nice!

Zune Add-In Sources

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:56:50 GMT

I promised to post these sources some time now, but the truth is there has been a lot going onl lately, and I just forgot. Zac sent me a message earlier today however, asking me for the source of my Zune Add-Ins for the purpose of building a Last.FM plugin. Very cool stuff (I had initially planned on making one as well, but I suppose I no longer have to do that now ;-)).

Anyway, here you go. The Zune Add-In Sources (Clicky!). There is no guarentee that it will run out of the box, because the last time that I tested this, I was still using Zune 2.3. Whatever is in the \Content\ folder should be hacked into the shell resources DLL by using reshack (I haven't come around to creating an automated tool for this yet, so for now it's manual). Although I doubt it will be useful as a stand-alone kind of thing right now, it should provide enough information you need to start writing your own "add-ins".

Youre free to use the source in any of your own applications, but please do be a good fellow and include (at the very least) some "thank you" somewhere (even if it is only in your source).

Have Fun!

Job hunting

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:42:42 GMT

I'll be graduating (if no unforseen problems occur) in a few weeks (6-8 weeks). Then, I'll be job hunting. Recommendations for companies are welcome. Bonus points for finding a company that doesn't use PHP (ugh.). Additional bonus points for a cool company in the Netherlands, rather than one far far away. I'm willing to relocate anywhere within the Netherlands, and I wouldn't mind teleworking (i.e. work from home or from a local branch).

My technical skills include the general HTML/XHTML/Javascript/CSS business, as well as PHP, Perl, Python and MySQL. As for less web-oriented languages, I have several years experience with Java and C# (with a little bit of experience of the ASP.Net libraries). Avid Microsoft and Windows Live fan, I know a lot of stuff about the Windows Live platforms and what not. Very interested in web 2.0, but also interested in developing regular console or desktop applications.

I'm fluent in Dutch and English, as well as Frisian (might that ever come in handy).

Go.

Current contemplations:

Microsoft -- Very cool company, would love to work for them. Dev jobs are, unfortunately, not available in the Netherlands
Oberon Medialab - Lots of marketing campaigns, Microsoft partner, in Amsterdam. Did an internship there, too, in 2006.
eBuddy - Who doesn't know eBuddy? Uses PHP a lot, though. Don't know how much I could actually learn at eBuddy.

What would you like in a new client? (UPDATED)

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:31:23 GMT

Here's a bunch of questions for you.

Recently I've been wondering about the state of third party Messenger clients. First things first -- I am subscribed to several development distribution lists, and I can see that every popular client out there is (seemingly) still worked on. However, throughout the years, I haven't actually seen that much progress. Sure, some new features were added, mostly to keep up with the new MSNP versions, but no one did a complete overhaul of its UI, no one polished it, made it shine. I know we don't all want the eye candy, but a lot of people do -- let me correct that, a lot of normal users do.. And with the state of theming technologies these days, how hard can it be?

This pretty much sums up my feelings about some of the current clients:

aMSN: UI hasn't changed in.. years. It's slow, even on my 2.4gHz Duo Core 2, 2 GB machine.
Emesene: Nice clean UI.. But I predict a pile of steaming, unmaintainable, Python code.
Pidgin: Simple, mostly focussed on AIM (as Matt points out in the comments). Could do with better Live support.
MercuryIM: For as far as I know, not really actively developed anymore.. Plus, it's Java... and you know what they say about Java!
Adium: Cool, but based on libpurple, so has the same issues as Pidgin.

Feel free to debate some of my statements with me on IM (if you have me added), or add a comment. Maybe you convince me I'm wrong about your favorite client. Until then, I will remain ignorant and proclaim my opinion is valid.

Either way, this prompted me to ask you the following questions: If someone were to write a new client, which features would you like for it to have? Which features are really lacking from other clients? Should it be open source, or should it just be cross-platform compatible? Which of the previous clients is currently your most favorite one (i.e. which you use the most).. and why? (aside from the obvious "I use Linux/Mac").

Woo! My bugs just got resolved as "Won't Fix"

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:14:38 GMT

Sweet. I too have become victim to the Messenger Team's endless 9.0 silence and marking suggestions as Won't Fix on Microsoft Connect. Thanks Messenger Team, for listening to mine and everyone elses input and not doing a fucking damn thing about it. There, just had to say it. Pardon the swearing.

Curse PHP ...

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:24:07 GMT

... And its goddamn inconsistency!

Read, Indulge, Wonder, Experience

Fri, 30 May 2008 20:56:10 GMT

Stand, High On The Mountain. Lone Wolf appears, standing By The Pond. Reach out.. Too soon. Not yet. Be patient. He will come, He always comes. Travel along the Canyon River, perform the Tribal Dance and experiencing inner peace, joy and wonder for the world around you. Go forth to Echo Canyon, and sleep. Wait until you hear the Morning Call. Lone Wolf will come. Cross the Black Mesa, until you reach Awakening. He will be there for you, waiting, patient as always.

IronPython + VS2005 + Delete menu item

Sun, 18 May 2008 00:26:19 GMT

To enable the context menu item "Delete" for IronPython projects, grab the source and edit/add the following lines:

PythonProject\PythonFileNode.cs
- Line 193, add another "case" for VSCommands.Delete
VisualStudioIntegration\Common\Source\CSharp\Project\FileNode.cs
- Line ~449, add another case with the following code:

case VsCommands.Delete:
return this.ProjectMgr.DeleteItem((uint)__VSDELETEITEMOPERATION.DELITEMOP_DeleteFromStorage, this.ID);

Heads up, CyBook owners

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:28:58 GMT

Bookeen has just released a new version of the firmware of their CyBook device (v1.1). Check out http://www.bookeen.com/support/ebook-support.aspx for more information (requires login).

Why are those URLs blocked on Messenger?

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:09:40 GMT

There was a recent fall-out over the blocking of *youtube.com on the Messenger service. I doubt this was ultimately the result of Microsoft wanting to promot it's MessengerTV service, though, as some conspiracy theorists may have you believe.

Although I've worked at the Messenger Server team (I'll use that name for simplicity reasons) before, I have never heard of a so called partner handling the blocked URLs. Things change, of course, so they might have changed this over the past year. I can also think of valid business reasons for this move: there are companies out there who simply have more knowledge about these nasty URLs, quick-spreading trojans, virusses, and such, and the team in question may simply want to shift its focus back to developing new features for Messenger instead of putting considerable man-power into a single feature which consists (mostly) of adding new URLs and removing some out-dated ones.

It does make me doubt the reliability and quality control of said partner. Such f-ups definitely make the Messenger service as a whole look bad, especially when communities like Slashdot get wind of it ... of course, Microsoft bashing is the #1 favorite past-time over there, but still. Other valid URLs like ebuddy.com are also still blocked, despite questions from the public and eBuddy themselves to unblock the domain. This is where another question kicks in: if YouTube can be unblocked in a few hours, then why is there (presumably) so much red tape and beaurocracy surrounding other domains for it take weeks instead?

Of course, this all assumes the "SPIM Filter" has a legimate reason for existance in the first place. I think it's a good first step, but it definitely needs work.. starting a year ago (remember, the "feature" has been active for a few years now).

What do you think? Should Microsoft remove the filter completely? Or should it be replaced with a different way of blocking malicious URLs? Do you think it should be intergrated with the Phising filter used by Internet Explorer?

Inky 0, Zune 1 :-(

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:36:48 GMT

Don't get me wrong, I'm still extremely happy with my Zune, and the software it comes with. Heck, the XNA 3.0 CTP was released this week, and now I have games on my Zune. Yay! (Although most games I tried still crash.. I guess that's what you get for using experimental software).

There's just one minor detail about the recently released version 2.5 of the Zune software... it includes the "Now Playing" feature for Messenger. Yeah, great work boys! Obviously my whole Zune project has suffered a bit of a setback, and to be honest, now that they added the feature, it has obviously become less of a priority for me to finish my own stuff... I do have other stuff to do!

Ah well, it was great while it lasted. I might release it some day, or I might release the source in a few days. We'll see.

(Appologies for the lack of links to the CTP, previous blog posts and what not, but I'm too lazy right now to add them.)

Three things that should scare the crap out of you

Wed, 07 May 2008 08:07:39 GMT

1. A programmer with a soldering iron;

2. A manager who codes;

3. A user who gets "ideas".

P.S. Don't worry! The Zune stuff is on the way. I will be releasing a build as soon as I finish the installer.

My recent Web 2.0-ness

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:53:41 GMT

The last few weeks I have noticed I have signed up for a few additional Web 2.0 services, such as Digg, Last.fm, Live Mesh, and stuff. Not that I really use them, or want to use them.. But most sites require their visitors to sign up in order to post comments (whatever happened to post as an anonymous coward?)

I still vehemently refuse to use Twitter though. I'm afraid the world might end up a little less sane if I do.

The Zune stuff is coming along nicely. I'm adding Last.fm support today, which should be a cool addition. I'll add some more options for the Now Playing add-in, and then I'm ready to build the actual installer. It should be interesting to try and build it using Zune's own UI framework, which might result in a purdy application!

Inky 1, Zune 0

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:59:21 GMT

The Zune software is cool. It looks sleak, works great. There is just one drawback: It doesn't implement the Now Playing feature for Windows Live Messenger. Of course, a well-motivated geek doesn't just give up. Instead, I've created what I call "Zune Add-Ins". A few lines of magic in the Zune resources has allowed me to pretty much implement, touch, iterate over, and what not, every object in the Zune software.

Très cool. So how does this all work you ask? The Zune software implements what is called Iris -- A UI framework based on MCML. Iris adds several improvements over MCML, including the ability to run scripts.. And the best thing is, Iris is written entirely in .NET! So, the first step was to let the Zune software load my own DLL. This was reasonably straightforward by adding a new Script tag, and adding a reference to the DLL as a namespace. The second part was adding a small "Add-Ins" link next to the settings link/button in the top-right corner. When clicked, it launches a new dialog.. And this is where the real magic kicks in.

Intead of putting the whole dialog in the ZuneResources DLL, isntead I opted to one-time import my own XML file containing IML (Iris Markup Language). From this XML file I can create, manage, etc., the settings dialogs for Add-Ins, by letting Add-Ins give me the path to their own XML file. This way, you can actually create neat little Zune dialogs for your Add-In settings.

The Add-Ins themselves simply reference a special .NET library which contains an IZuneAddIn interface, and are stored in the /AddIns/ folder. My code simply walks over all the DLL files in that folder, dynamically loads them and checks if there are any classes implementing the special interface. If so.. Voila! Your Add-In has been sucked into the Zune software. Cool!

Either way, here is the result so far:

I'll work on it a bit more, and then release it for BETA. This will probably be sometime next week.

Drafts

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:18:32 GMT

... and still no way to filter on drafts -- posted december 2006!

Spam, ugh!

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:14:53 GMT

It's not big secret that we use Google Apps (GMail, etc.) for our bot2k3.net domain. Nick once set it up, and it works fine, so I'm hesitant to move over to a different solution (such as Windows Live Domains.. does that even still exist?), or running our own mail server (we did that for a few years, and it was a pain to maintain properly). Seeing as I always access my e-mail via Outlook (POP3), I never really checked out the web front-end.

So, today I had to log in from work, and not wanting to set up Outlook I figured I'd give the web front-end a go. I finished what I had set out to do, but then my eye caught the spam count.. 3,500 (and then some)! Wow. I never got all those spam e-mails via POP3, so Gmail is doing a pretty decent job with it. I still can't believe I'm receiving that much spam, though, but by the looks of it they are pouring in (2 or 3 every 10 minutes or so.. Yikes!).

My e-mail address must be sitting on a fair number of web pages. Including my blog. Shit.

Good thing that my primary e-mail address (my ISPs) doesn't receive that much spam (maybe only one or two a day), and isn't listed anywhere un-obfuscated.

Ninentdo/Wii GamerCard?

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:37:08 GMT

Hmm. As you can see, I have an XBOX Gamercard thingamajig on my blog. Seeing as I also own a Wii, I wondered if there was something similar for that console. After some searching there doesn't appear to be, and it looks like Club Nintendo also does not expose the data via an API of sorts (which sucks!). Does anybody know of any alternatives?

Tagged by Embee

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:11:59 GMT

I've been tagged by Embee. Now, supposely, I need to write 10 random things about myself, and I need to tag someone else, and I can't tag back. Or something along those lines. I don't react too well to "tags" however. I've done it once, in a distant past (or was it just over a year ago? oh well), and now I consider it to be a form of spam -- Something along the lines of "Send this to 10 people or you'll never find the love of your life". Yeah, right.

She (Embee) did finally add Windows Live Alerts to her blog, though, which is super cool stuff. Everyone who has a blog should offer the alerts: I love getting these alerts on Messenger, instead of having to deal with ten different applications to track my communications. E-mail and IM (+ Alerts) is pretty much all I need and want. And if I ever decide I want to know about new blog post on the go (i.e. via mobile), Windows Live Alerts let's me do that as well!

(Yes, I know Outlook and IE now offer RSS support, but I don't like the interfaces).

I love my e-book reader

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:10:33 GMT

I'm lazy when it comes to buying stuff -- when possible and conventient I try to get it online. Books are no exception. I've picked up on reading a few years ago, focussing on English books to improve my overall English reading skills. Having read a fair few books since then, I decided to buy an e-book reader late last year.. Mostly because I was quickly running out of space on my bookshelf, and I got a bit tired of dragging around pocket books on every trip: they fill up space.. especially when traveling by plane.

So, I browsed around and finally stuck with the CyBook Gen3, a small and portable ePaper device (and it's damn lightweight!). It has some internal memory which is good for a dozen books, and it can very easily be extended with an SD card. Currently I have a 512 MB one, but I'm contemplating upgrading to 4GB so I'm pretty sure I'll never run out of space again. The obvious advantage is that if you want to drag around a dozen books or so, you don't need an extra backpack. The books are also a little bit cheaper for me, seeing as most English pockets are around 12 euro, whereas I can get them online for around 8 USD. You do the math (it's about a 50% saving though!).

The device is easy on the eyes as well: it uses ePaper, which is a technology that enables the device to render once, never having to refresh the screen (which is done in monitors, TVs, etc.). This also means it uses very little power.. which I definitely noticable. I haven't really recharged the battery since I got it, besides a few minutes from time to time to put a new book on the SD card (yeah yeah, I didn't have an SD card reader on my old laptop).

So if you like reading, and don't mind using a device rather than having the "real deal" in your hands, definitely check it out :-)... You need to be willing to fork over some money for it though, most e-book readers go for around 300-400 USD. Ouch.

360voice.com is really cool

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:36:34 GMT

After browsing around, visiting some sites about XBOX 360 (and games) I found http://www.360voice.com. After creating a blog with them, they start generating the content of your blog as if your XBOX is actually blogging! It's really cool (granted, it takes a while for your blog to be populated, but alas), and has some pretty advanced statistics, too.

I've added a link to "my" 360Voice blog on the right side of my space --->

Now I'm waiting for the first content to be generated ...

The Experiment is back

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:01:06 GMT

Tagging is back!

If you haven't added me to Messenger yet, but want to try it out, anyway, you can now click here to start an anonymous conversation with me over the web. Type !help (the old !tag also works) to get started.

I've made a bunch of changes which makes it easier for me to manage, and allows me to add more statistics later on. I'm contemplating creating a dynamic tag cloud (a small one, of course) and put it in my display picture.. That would be pretty cool.

Welcome To The Experiment

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:59:33 GMT

If you have me added to Messenger, that is.

I've just created a simple add-in (using the deprecated WLM Add-In stuff, yay) that implements tagging for Messenger. Basically, it allows anyone to open a conversation with me, and type "+tag" or "-tag", where "tag" is the word they want to bump or bash. I am interested in seeing how it will go, how much abuse it will get, what people will tag most, etc.. I reckon it should somewhat represent my contact list demographic, that is, more technical tags, oriented towards specific topics.

If you have me added, feel free to type "!tag" to get some information about tagging. Bump and bash tags by typing "+tag" or "-tag" (e.g. "+car" or "-car"). The two most popular tags are shown in my personal message. To prevent spamming, I've set it so you can only tag a word once every ten minutes (you can tag other words in that period, of course).

Have fun, and let me know if you have any good ideas for it :-)

Update: I've taken it temporarily offline to make some changes, but a lot of people were interested, cool!

Pcking up blogging again

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:30:06 GMT

Hopefully I will be picking up blogging again. I have some more free time nowadays, so that's no excuse anymore. In the mean time, be awed by the awesome Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 (as featured on Mess.be): http://www.sonyericsson.com/x1/. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one when my current mobile contract expires this fall.

Phantom Messenger Syndrome

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 01:43:10 GMT

There is an (apparently) well-documented phenomona called the Phantom Vibration Syndrome, or Vibranxiety for short. Sufferers from this syndrome often think their mobile is vibrating (indicating a call or a new text message) when it is not (more information here).

So, while we are defining such syndromes, I would like to add one: the Phantom Messenger Syndrome, or Messerxiety for short (yeah, I just made that up).

Or maybe I'm just nutters. Either way, every now and then I look at my screen from a different angle (or when I'm really focussed on a small area of the screen, such as when working in Photoshop for example). It is then that I can clearly see one of my Messenger windows is blinking orange ("seeing" is blink from the corner of my eyes). Of course, when looking down to the taskbar, no one actually sent me a message (boo!), and there are no blinking items -- at all.

Do you suffer from this syndrome as well?

Inquiring minds want to know!

"My Dream"

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:39:23 GMT

Take me to my dream
Love is everything
Where there is no war
And then children sing
Love is all around
It's the only thing
In a dream that must come true

MSN Netherlands can't get the facts straight

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:27:52 GMT

Short but très funny: There is a quiz on MSN Netherlands which determines your "Mesenger IQ". It features six questions about all aspects of Messenger.

However, one of the questions/answers is just plain wrong. The question goes "How many buddies can you have?" with the following answers: 400, 500, 600. Which one would you pick? As a fanatic Messer I'm sure you would pick 600, the last known number of buddies. Whoops! According to MSN the limit is 500. Of course, 600 should be the right number of buddies, and, even more embarrisingly, the real number of buddies isn't even in the list.. The limit is actually 1200 buddies, although I'm not sure if this limit only applies to either Messenger of ABCH (where your address book is stored).

Another question is "with how many buddies can you chat simultaneously". I didn't even know there was a limit. I'm fairly sure there is a "theoretic" limit of infinite conversations. Of course, they could mean the maximum numbers of buddies per conversation, which is something else all-together. They say the limit is 20 buddies.. Has anyone actually tested this?

Oh, and the test is buggered up, anyway -- Wrong answers will show up as "correct" (but won't count towards your x/6 questions right score)

Happy anniversary, mom & dad!

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:24:54 GMT

This day in history: 30 years ago, in 1977, my parents got married (that means diamonds!). Yay! Party!

Microsoft ships X. Company Y did it first.

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:05:46 GMT

Sometimes I can get very annoyed at the short sightedness of people. This time it is about the constant bickering when Microsoft ships a cool new product (be it software or hardware, but mostly hardware) that a different company ("preferably" either Google or Apple) has done it all before. However, most of the time the product by the other company isn't around that long (say, a couple of weeks, maybe a month or so at most). One of the most heard complaints is: "Microsoft probably copied this from company Y, again."

A great example of this is the Zune v2 with touch screen (versus the iPod Touch and iPhone). Okay, seriously, reality check here. How long do you think it takes to design, manufacture, write software for, and ship a product like the Zune v2 with touch screen? Certainly not the small amount of time between the release of iPod Touch and the announcement of the Zune v2. Yes, there were rumours, but not for very long befor Apple announced its products. Then tell me how Microsoft could have possibly copied this "idea" (which has been around for ages ayway, so Apple isn't very innovative, either!) in the space of maybe a month or two?

Yeah, Microsoft has copied some ideas from other companies in the past. It is not like Apple or Google (or IBM, or Sony, or ...) ever borrowed ideas from someone else. If it's a good idea and it sticks, then why not use it (or something similar)?

Another often-heard complain is "Finally, Microsoft gets it", usually after a product announcement. Huh, say what? You don't think Microsoft has enthusiastic and smart people who get it? Of course it does! But obviously designing a product (sometimes from scratch), getting all ideas worked out, etc. etc., take a lot of time (and, granted, there is some office politics to be done as well). Microsoft got it, the teams and people got it -- just because there isn't currently a product that makes use of <insert hip technology here> doesn't mean they aren't working on it.

[EOB].

Dive into Python

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:34:42 GMT

So I took a dive into Python a week or so ago. So far I like it, it is very clean, and reasonably fast (equal to or faster than Perl, anyway). Yea, I keep comparing it to Perl, because that is still one of my favorite languages, and comes reasonably close to Python in genre.

I like the *.pyc thing where Python source files are stored in byte code, speeding up loading (not execution, though). I'm also drooling over the fact that Python has proper multithreading support, and not the crap Perl has (memory usage goes through the roof). It's also totally awesome it has operator overloading (Java, I'm looking at you!).

I have encountered some things I'm not too happy about, however.

The first is the support for classes in Python. While okay, it is not the best implementation of OO I've seen either. Heck, I could argue that Perl's class (or rather, module) support is cleaner (or clearer, anyway). While Python does support inheritence (neat!), it also does support multiple inheritence.. and that's where things get yucky. Also, I miss having properties and static methods. Yes, there are "decorators" for that, but it feels hacky and like and afterthought.

The second I am somewhat annoyed about is not having a clean "system" namespace. It's all thrown into seperate packages, with very descriptive names like urllib, urllib2, etc. Then, of course, there is httplib, ftplib and other whatshamacallems. Why aren't they in a hypothetical shared package, something like web.url, web.http, web.ftp, etc.? Also, really, why do we need package2? This, to me, is just bad naming. Either use the new version of the library/package, or stick to the old one. Mixing them up is bad. Offering something new in package2 while the old interface/classes/constants haven't changed is bad too. I just want one package, with some versioning, is that too much to ask for? (Perl solves this nicely with the $VERSION in modules).

I'm somewhat afraid Python is going in the direction of PHP when it comes to packages, classes, and function names. They are a mess (Exception vs. Error, anyone?). If someone doesn't step in and cleans up the stuff (and keeping it clean by reviewing all packages that come with the default Python distro) it will only get worse.

The wlwebmessenger Space is fake

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 13:58:59 GMT

Just a heads up. The Windows Live Space "Windows Live Web Messenger" (located at wlwebmessenger.spaces.live.com) is fake, and definitely wasn't created by the guys who actually create web messenger. It even sports a Facebook group (come on, who here thinks it makes sense for a Microsoft blog to use a Facebook group?! Use your brains!).

Unfortunately, some sites have already quoted from it, and linked it to as being the "official Web Messenger blog". Sigh.

Wait, that's not an API!

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:56:45 GMT

Today a new "API" was added to MSDN for Windows Live Spaces, called "BlogIt" (clicky!). So let's take a look at the definition of API:

"An application programming interface (API) is a source code interface that a computer application, operating system or library provides to support requests for services to be made of it by a computer program"

If you take a look at the documention on MSDN, it quickly becomes clear that all their BlogIt API does is redirect the user to their Windows Live Space and populates the certain fields according to the query parameters in the URL. This is not an API. It's called a redirect. It doesn't let an application post to a Space. You won't be able to use this is from anywhere but a website.

Furthermore, because everything is passed to Spaces via the URL, there are severe limitations on the amount of data that can be "passed in" (URLs can only be so long, it's different per browser, but usually the limit won't be enough for a blog post).

Sigh.

First time tubing

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:38:55 GMT

I went tubing. No, it's nothing dirty, although I admit it might sound like that to the inexperienced (hah!). Tubing, as described by Wikipedia, is "is the recreational activity of riding an inner tube, either on water, snow, or through the air. The tubes themselves are also known as "donuts" or "biscuits" because of their shape.". In this case it was on the water.

It was awesome. I so wanna do that again. The water was awesome (not cold at all). Unfortunately I had to dive in with my regular clothes though, because I didn't bring any swimgear (or spare clothes for that matter, eek) -- Thank you Casey for letting me borrow some shorts and a dry tshirt! Also, next time I will make sure to wear shorts which don't almost come off half-way through the ride.

Update: The arms.. They hurt!

Thinking about buying a Zune

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:55:07 GMT

Hmm. So, the white Zune (the brown Zune is just ... plain wrong) looks pretty good. I don't know the regular retail price, but I can get it for 200$ (which I think is a bit cheaper, but I'm not sure). Anyway, seeing as I already have a decent MP3 player (the Creative Zen Microphoto) I was wondering if anyone else here has a Zune already and is willing to share the pros/cons with me.

Some pros I can think of is the 30GB (vs. the 8GB I have right now), the relatively long battery life, built-in wifi (although nothing really spectacular is being done with it right now) and the great screen. The only con I can think of right now is that I bought my Zen like a year ago, so it's not old or anything yet (so I'm wondering if buying a Zune is just a waste of money). Oh, and maybe that it's a "first generation" Microsoft product *rolls eyes*.

Natasha Bedingfield, Soulmate

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:42:19 GMT

Who doesn't long for someone to hold
Who knows how to love you without being told
Somebody tell me why I'm on my own
If there's a soulmate for everyone

If I command the moon ...

Sun, 27 May 2007 02:06:36 GMT

If I command the moon, it will come down;
If I wish to withold the day, night will linger over my head;
If I wish to embark on the sea, I need no ship;
If I wish to fly through the air, I am freed from my weight.

Superman types Superfast

Tue, 22 May 2007 22:45:55 GMT

In some episode of Lois & Clark, The new adventures of Superman we see Superman type super fast to finish an article. Now, I haven't seen this episode in a long long time, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't copy from paper. This poses some interesting problems.

In order to type that fast (his keyboard nearly melts) he also has to think really fast... Otherwise whatever he is typing is just random gibberish. Now I'm not the greatest writer in the world, but I do know that creating a good article takes some time -- Finding the right words, etc.

So, if he can think so fast, why does he appear to be relatively slow in figuring some things out (plan X to save person Y, etc.)? This does not make sense. If he could really think that fast, he would be able to process all variables, situations, etc. before a normal person could even say gabberwocky.

Also, could he possible be faster than the CPU of a modern computer system? If so, I know of some people who could use a hand. Also, if he is, then I very much doubt the computer he was using would be able to process the insane number of keystrokes per second.

Eurovision /song/ or Eurovision /show/

Fri, 11 May 2007 19:33:58 GMT

So, I like to watch to the Eurovision Song Contest every year. For those who are not familiar with it (i.e. those who are not from Europe), please check out the article on Wikipedia. The last couple of years however, the contest has been more and more about show than song, which bothers me, and begs the question: should it be Eurovision Show Contest?

Until 1997 an official jury (per country) gave points to the various participants, which were then added together, etc. In 1997 however, the jury system was abandonded, being replaced with just televoting (and more recently voting via SMS as well). The last 3 or 4 years however the contest has seen a lot of crappy songs however, with just a really 'good' show. Unfortunately these kinds of songs were often rewarded for their show -- Too much so.

This is very annoying, especially because a lot of countries that have recently joined have strong ties with their neighbouring countries (think: the balkan). The majority of the votes from those countries are simply because country X is the neighbour of country Y, not because the songs are good or bad. This sucks, badly.

The resulting situation is that now over 42 countries compete. First there is a semi-final among the countries which did not end up in the top 10 last year. Countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, etc, no longer stand a change to go through to the final (all neighbouring countries already went through to the finals, so who is going to vote for us purely based on the song quality?). Only balkan and ex-Soviet countries (including Turkey) went through to he finals this year (10 in total).

Another crappy idea is that the four major contributors, which are the UK, Germany, France and Spain respectively, go through to the finals automatically. This is completely unfair, seeing as lot of other countries often help out the hosting country as well (the Netherlands usually provides a lot of help with camera work).

Meh.

Annoying Windows Update behavior, Part 2

Thu, 10 May 2007 19:15:37 GMT

Recently I wrote about my bad experience with Windows Update, and now I'm back with more.

After my rant about the way Windows Update did updates on Windows Vista (and probably other Windows version as well) I turned off the automatic updating, and let Windows only notify me. That way I could best pick the moment when I want to install the updates. So, this morning I received a notification of updates.

Just now, I left my laptop unattended for several hours (I was playing Gears of War). I come back, and all of the sudden Windows is prompting me when I want to restart because it has applied updates. SAY WHAT NOW? It applied updates WITHOUT my consent (probably because I didn't look at it in time -- but that's MY problem, right?), even when I had the "only notify me" option ticked!

This is so annoying, and is really bad product design. Sorry guys, but Vista sort of is turning out to be the next Windows ME.

What's wrong with "http://inkysblog.spaces.live.com/home" Part 2

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:46:15 GMT

So like 2 weeks ago I made a quick post about the new Home feature of Windows Live Spaces. I dislike the URL they have given it, as it reminds me of the horrors the first versions of Windows Live Spaces had (http://spaces.msn.com/members/alias, ugh). Joost Bon, a Microsoft employee who is a PM on the Windows Live Spaces team commented on my blog entry with the simple question: "Why?"

Personally, I think the URL is way too long to just type into your browser, so now I either have to make an entry in my favorites (which I admit I hardly use, and are often not available on other PCs) or go to my own space, sign in and then perform several more actions before I get there.

I like the idea of having a small URL that points directly to your "Home". Something I can type in my browsers address bar, hit Enter and be done with it. Even something like "http://home.inkysblog.spaces.live.com" or "http://inkysblog.spaces.live.com/home" would be better than "http://inkysblog.home.services.spaces.live.com/". Why is there a "services" part in there for example? I don't care whether it's a service or not -- I just want my Home. Also, why does the "home" part come AFTER my space alias (to me that gives the impression my blog is "hosted" on my home, while it should be the other way around!).

As an aside, when does that "Welcome" message dissappear? It says "P.S. This welcome message will go away after a few days.", but it has been more than 2 weeks now and it's still there. As a second aside, why is there no freaking way to make text go to the default formatting without going into HTML mode? The default font (grayish) and font size (9pt?) aren't available via the picker buttons.

I do have to give props to the Windows Live Spaces team, though. So far they have probably produced the best online Windows Live product (especially UI-wise .. *points and laughs at WL Q&A*) including preferences, a "home", blogging service, photo albums and what not. I like it, and somehow I can imagine parts of Windows Live Spaces will be used in the future for all Windows Live users, not just those who own a Windows Live Space.

Background checks

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:34:31 GMT

Sigh.

Right now I am in the process of obtaining a visa for my internship next summer. Unfortunatly, before they can send the me appropriate documents, they need to do God knows how many background checks. Social Security Numbers, previous addresses, previously used aliasses and other names, counties (not countries) I worked in, etc. Now normally I wouldn't make much of a problem out of it, but so far they had to ask me for the same (or equally similar information) stuff like 3 or 4 times.

What's wrong with "http://inkysblog.spaces.live.com/home"

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:16:52 GMT

Or something similar? Now we're stuck with "http://inkysblog.home.services.spaces.live.com/". Yuck. Even something like "http://home.inkysblog.spaces.live.com" would be better.

What motivates people to write this kind of code?

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:03:12 GMT

I often read the The Daily WTF (or Worse Than Failure as it is called now), especially the "CodeSOD" articles (which are more code-oriented). Today, I saw the following code, and I seriously started to wonder what drives people to write this kind of code.

Private Shared Function subtractMonth(ByVal evaluationDate As DateTime) As DateTime
    Dim s As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder

    s.Append(evaluationDate.Year.ToString())
    s.Append("-")
    s.Append(evaluationDate.Month.ToString())
    s.Append("-01")

    Return Convert.ToDateTime(s.ToString()).AddDays(-1)
End Function

This is clearly .NET code (VB.NET). So, the developer would have the whole framework to their disposal, including the operations that already built into the DateTime class (or, wait, it's a struct, isn't it?). For example, DateTime.Subtract. Or heck, there is even an overloaded operator, "-" to do subtraction. Unfortunatly I also see this kind of floating by every now and then at college.. and remember I'm in the third year (out of four) of a Computer Science major.

As an aside, this code would probably cause bugs on platforms (seeing as Convert.ToDateTime probably uses the default date/time settings for that particular Windows install) where the date format isn't Y-M-D (such as Dutch systems, where the date format is D-M-Y). Oh, and also, some people start abusing the StringBuilder class after hearing it is more effecient. Seriously, don't use if you're just concatting two or three strings.

Ads begone! Paying to get rid of ads in Windows Live products?

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:47:53 GMT

Those of you with an MSN Premium account will be familiar with the concept: if you own a Windows Live Space you can rid of the ads at the top of the page. So why is Windows Live Spaces the only product team that has implemented this yet?

I don't really like the ads in products like Windows Live Messenger, Mail Desktop, etc (mainly because they take up my precious screen estate -- and no I can't get a second monitor because I'm on a laptop). However, I also know they provide a source of income for the product teams, so I don't apply a patch to get rid of them (if you have created a patch to do just that, shame on you!). I never click the ads though, so they aren't really earning any money from me anyway.

So recently I wondered, how many people would pay for an MSN Premium account if it would allow the user to remove all ads from all Windows Live products (I would, I would!)? Most of these people who want the ads gone never click on them, so the product teams aren't making any money. However, if the same users would pay Microsoft to get rid of the ads, then at least it would have a guaranteed steady stream of income per month.

Hmm...

Edit: I stand corrected. According to Chris from Liveside, Windows Live Messenger is the odd one out if you have a WL Hotmail Plus account.

Where's the IM integration (@WLSpaces "messaging" feature)

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:38:38 GMT

The Windows Live Spaces feature is kinda cool. It allows people to message the owner of a blog without needing the owners IM address, etc. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, you can simply try it: click on the little "Send a Message" button/link at the top of my Windows Live Space and voila (you might need to sign in).

The owner of the space will receive an e-mail (if the Windows Live ID can be used to receive e-mail that is) of a new message. Another option of discovering new messages in by editing your space (it will show "You have x new messages") at the top of the page. However, this is not very convenient for some (I receive enough e-mail as-is, and I don't edit my space every day).

So where is the IM integration?

Of course I wouldn't want my visitors to see my Windows Live ID and vice-versa. But that's not a problem, right? I can still remain anonymous, but it would require some tweaks on the Windows Live servers. A simple button could allow me to invite the other user to add me to their Messenger list. In this fashion, if I'm online, I can receive the messages and reply instantly. When I'm offline I could receive the messages as offline IM's (unless they are marked "read" on the servers after I read them through my browser).

Just my $0.02.

Maintaining a high-profile news website is harder than it looks

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:29:59 GMT

Besides the occational post on Mess.be, I never really put much time into gathering news for it. However, now that Dwergs is on holiday I have taken over his role as main-poster on the website for a little while.. And let me tell you, it ain't as easy as it looks. Of course, I'm no journalism major or anything, but still.

I suppose I also do not have the same resources as Dwergs has. Although I'm pretty well-connected in the Messenger "scene", all news suggestions and reports still end up in his inbox, not mine. Thus, people do not e-mail me with their latest messenger news, making the job even harder.

I'm not complaining though, I really like posting on Mess.be, even though it takes a while to write up a news item. Now, I better start thinking of stuff I can post until Dwergs gets back (on monday).

The Fountain

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 22:17:10 GMT

Wow. Just.. Wow. The Fountain was on my list of movies to see for a while, and I finally got a chance to see it. It is an absolutely stunning movie, mind boggling, and even (for me at the very least) inspirational. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely go see it... but please don't read any of the reviews or summaries from the web first :-)