A rant about PHP compilers in general and HipHop in particular →

February 8th, 2010 Comments

People seem to want to know if HPHP is widely useful outside of Facebook, and some people are saying “no”. I disagree strongly. In order for HPHP to be useful, you need to have a PHP application which is suffering due to PHP interpreter performance. That matches Facebook perfectly, and they’ve always been the canonical example I use to explain why PHP compilers are interesting. But you don’t have to be Facebook size or scale to have performance problems.

via Bad Nomenclature » Blog Archive » A rant about PHP compilers in general and HipHop in particular..

Computers shouldn’t make people feel like idiots →

February 4th, 2010 Comments

For those of us surrounded by the minutiae of computers all day, it’s easy to forget there’s a world of people out there who just don’t get it. And it’s not their fault. It’s ours.Apple has decided it’s worth throwing out advanced features in order to get these people onboard.

via Computers shouldnt make people feel like idiots – 37signals.

→How to recognise a good programmer

January 30th, 2010 Comments

  • Passionate about technology
  • Programs as a hobby
  • Will talk your ear off on a technical subject if encouraged
  • Significant and often numerous personal side-projects over the years
  • Learns new technologies on his/her own
  • Opinionated about which technologies are better for various usages
  • Very uncomfortable about the idea of working with a technology he doesn’t believe to be “right”
  • Clearly smart, can have great conversations on a variety of topics
  • Started programming long before university/work
  • Has some hidden “icebergs”, large personal projects under the CV radar
  • Knowledge of a large variety of unrelated technologies may not be on CV

via How to recognise a good programmer.

Project Kenai: as good as dead

January 29th, 2010 Comments

Project Kenai, however, will be discontinued for public use. Oracle will continue to use it internally and look for ways that our customers can take advantage of it. The timeline for users to migrate their data and projects off of Kenai will be posted at kenai.com. Please see the FAQ there for more details when available.

via Sun and Oracle: Overview and Frequently Asked Questions for the Developer Community.

Mutt for GMail IMAP on Mac OS X

January 27th, 2010 Comments

Mutt is an advanced email client for *nix systems that runs in a terminal . Here’s how you can use mutt on Mac OS X [Snow] Leopard  and configure for GMail account with IMAP.

All mail clients suck. [mutt] just sucks less.

First download and install MacPorts. Open a terminal window and install Mutt 1.5.20 using the following command.

sudo port install mutt-devel +compress +date_conditional +deepif +gdbm +gpgme +headercache +idn +sidebar +smtp +ssl +trash +sasl

Now open up your favorite editor to create ~/.muttrc – You can use the following muttrc as a starter or you can use muttrcbuilder to create the file and copy it to your ~/.muttrc file.

Make sure that you create the ~/.mutt/cache and ~/.mutt/certificates before you start mutt.

#account settings
set from="YOUR_GMAIL_ADDRESS"
set realname = "REAL_NAME"
set imap_user = "YOUR_GMAIL_ADDRESS"
set imap_pass = "PASSWORD"
set smtp_url = "smtp://GMAIL_USERNAME@smtp.gmail.com:587"
set smtp_pass = "GMAIL_PASSWORD"
 
set folder = "imaps://imap.gmail.com:993"
set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set postponed = "+[Gmail]/Drafts"
set trash = "imaps://imap.gmail.com/[Gmail]/Trash"
set record = "+[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
set header_cache =~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir =~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file =~/.mutt/certificates
 
set move = no  #Stop asking to "move read messages to mbox"!
set imap_keepalive = 900
 
# Header related stuff
ignore "Authentication-Results:"
ignore "DomainKey-Signature:"
ignore "DKIM-Signature:"
hdr_order Date From To Cc
 
ignore *
unignore from: date subject to cc
unignore x-mailing-list: posted-to:
unignore x-mailer:
 
# Sorting, Markers etc.
set markers=no # don't put '+' at the beginning of wrapped lines
set pager_index_lines= 10 # how large is the index window?
set sort = 'threads'
set sort_aux = 'last-date-received'
 
# Set which Editor to use for composing Emails.
set editor= '/usr/bin/emacs'
 
# set up the sidebar
set sidebar_width=24
set sidebar_visible=yes
set sidebar_delim='|'
set sidebar_sort=no
 
# which mailboxes to list in the sidebar,
# you can add your Labels in Gmail to the Sidebar.
mailboxes =All\ Mail =INBOX =Drafts =Sent\ Mail  =Trash
 
# color of folders with new mail
color sidebar_new yellow default
 
#Sidebar Navigation
bind index \CP sidebar-prev
bind index \CN sidebar-next
bind index \CO sidebar-open
bind pager \CP sidebar-prev
bind pager \CN sidebar-next
bind pager \CO sidebar-open
 
# b toggles sidebar visibility
macro index b 'toggle sidebar_visible'
macro pager b 'toggle sidebar_visible'
 
# Remap bounce-message function to "B"
bind index B bounce-message
 
#make mutt colorful!
color attachment brightmagenta default
color error      brightred    default
color hdrdefault red          default
color indicator  brightyellow red
color markers    brightcyan   default
color message    brightcyan   default
color normal     default      default
color quoted     brightblue   default
color search     default      green
color signature  red          default
color status     yellow       blue
color tilde      magenta      default
color tree       magenta      default

Here’s how it is going to look like:

Some useful commands to get started:

? - Help
b - Toggle Side Bar
m- New Email
q- Close current 'pane' or Quit
c - Change to a new folder
y - Send (After composing the message)

RIP Sun Microsystems

January 21st, 2010 Comments

The end of Sun Microsystems, Image via James Gosling’s Blog

Matte Nano theme for iPhone

January 21st, 2010 Comments

The best theme for iPhone I’ve used so far

My Love

January 20th, 2010 Comments

My love is like an iron wand
      That conks me on the head,
My love is like the valium
      That I take before my bed,
My love is like the pint of scotch
      That I drink when I be dry;
And I shall love thee still, my dear,
      Until my wife is wise.

Quote: War vs Peace

January 12th, 2010 Comments

In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance.  In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace — and what did they produce?
The cuckoo-clock.
– Orson Welles, “The Third Man

→ Letters of Note: Your pal, John K.

January 11th, 2010 Comments

In 1998, aged just 14, aspiring young cartoonist Amir Avni decided to get in touch with the creator of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi. Being a hardcore fan of Kricfalusis work, Amir sent him an introductory letter along with a few cartoons hed drawn, some of which contained relatively unknown characters of Johns. To call Kricfalusis response generous would be an understatement …

via Letters of Note: Your pal, John K..