Author archives: Mike
Day of learning (Nevow live pages...)
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Snaking.
Spent the greatest bulk of the day familiarising myself with the "liveevil" technology from Nevow. It's a javascript + xmlrpc engine allowing one to code a single page application. Going to be trying to use it in Cinemon to produce a number of desirable effects wrt automatically-updating visualisations.
Gentoo fairy visits while I'm out (Bouncing baby KDE 3.4...)
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Tuxedo.
I've had KDE 3.4 built for a long time now, but I hadn't rebooted to start it yet. Since I had the system update itself while I was at PyGTA I figured I'd try the new code (there was at least one KDE library rebuilt during the emerge world).
So far I'm liking it. I ...
Home again, home again (Nappity nap...)
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Vindaloo.
By the time I got home this morning I was pretty much exhausted, so I spent the day on computer maintenance and a nap. Going to have to work almost 1.5 days of time deficit off this week (on top of doing my taxes).
Firefox seems functional again (loads, can display menus and dialogues). Yay! ...
Oh, another idea for assistive technology (Embed RFID chips in all road signs...)
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Vindaloo.
Along the lines of the textual interface client for the blind...
If you've got this little machine working away for you, why not add a very powerful RFID reader. Add RFID tags to every new street and construction sign that have an ID and a typecode describing the message on the sign.
In the initial ...
Assistance for the blind (Universal bluetooth interfaces...)
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Vindaloo.
Just reading a Wired News article on the need for assistive technologies. Here's a thought:
Define a protocol using bluetooth, or some other proximity-based system, such that a "personal client" device can signal to nearby machines that it requires textual interaction (thinking here primarily of displays for the blind). The machines have a very cheap ...
Thoughts on wish lists... (Je pense...)
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Vindaloo.
As XXX and I get to know each other a bit more, I've begun thinking rather deeply about my wish list. I've just reviewed it, and yes, all of those things are attractive to me.
Thing I didn't consider before:
- Fiscal responsibility and compatability
- Kindness to animals
- Methods of recreation and enjoyment
- Musical interests ...
Ah the joys of car-less-ness in the hinterlands (It gets expensive and/or awkward very fast...)
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Vindaloo.
Well, turns out that the only one available to take YYY to Ottawa is lil' ol' me. We're borrowing a friend (Brenda)'s car and I'm driving her (and likely Fuzzy Bear) in to Ottawa in a couple of hours. I'm always a little apprehensive about borrowing someone's car, but when it's someone you don't even ...
Workin' in the free world (Documentation I suppose...)
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Snaking,
Vindaloo.
I'm in ZZZ for a week. So far going fairly well socially, but didn't get any billables done yesterday (though I did catch up on business email and reading), as I spent what time I had trying to get Eric (the Python IDE) installed. It's way too cold to sit outside working, so the puppy ...
Sigh, karked Firefox again (1.0.3 still has the broken dialog windows and now the menus are gone too...)
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Tuxedo.
Firefox just doesn't seem to like this box very much. The upgrade wound up producing this ever-so-cute effect where dialogs show up as error messages, and clicking on "ok" to the error message clicks okay in the original dialog... not ideal for security warnings! That's happened before (bug report dutifully filed), but now even the ...
Just about ready to go (Should be in bed already)
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Vindaloo.
Just the thrill of not sitting in my room all day to work is enough to make me giddy :) . On top of that, get to hang around with a beautiful woman for a week. Apparently I'm getting treated to a movie tomorrow night too. There's even a dog to keep me company while ...
Mike C. Fletcher, the VRPlumber, is a philosopher of design turned computer programmer based in Toronto, Canada. He works primarily in the Python programming language, and maintains a large number of Open Source software packages. You can reach him at: mcfletch@vrplumber.com.