I've gotten quite fond of using mouse gestures in Mozilla Firebird. For those who aren't familiar with mouse gestures, they are ways of executing keyboard shortcuts by moving the mouse in a particular sequence while holding down one of the buttons.
I have grown so fond of mouse gestures, in fact, that I often find myself trying in vain to execute them in nearly every other application that I use -- only to stare blankly at the screen and wait patiently while nothing happens.
Until now.
A quick Google search turned up the following link: http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/
StrokeIt is a utility that sits in your system tray and waits for you to perform a gesture. You can customize gestures on a program-by-program basis, or you can establish "global" gestures that work any time, anywhere.
I use four gestures frequently: forward, backward, top of page, bottom of page. I am now no longer restricted to just using these gestures in Mozilla Firebird.
And I am a happier man because of it.
I have an idea for a new type of DoS attack on SCO -- an analog one.
The author of the popular network scanning utility Nmap has revoked SCO's rights to distribute that program -- in other words, it cannot be included with any software distributions that SCO offers. Additionally, support for nmap on any of SCO's platforms has been discontinued. The full story is here (orange callout box at the end of the article).
This was done under the auspices of Section 4 of the GPL, which states (in part): You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
Now, imagine for a moment what would happen if other popular software developers who released programs under the GPL or similar licenses did exactly the same thing. Consider staple applications such as Apache, Samba, GNOME, KDE, BASH, Perl... soon there would be little left for SCO to distribute with and run on its systems.
Denied.
UPDATE: This concept has been featured in the "Good Morning Silicon Valley" section of SiliconValley.com, a technology news website. Have a look at the column for Friday, March 26, under the "SCO takes Hypocritic oath" heading.
Can someone please explain why it is that doing a search on MSDN for anything with "vb6" or "visual basic 6" in it returns half the results as references to Visual Basic .NET? ("Upgrade Considerations from VB6 to .NET" and "Plan Your .NET Migration Now" for example.)
Yes, I know that they are trying to push VB6 developers towards .NET -- and I'm sure it's a wonderful new technology. But I am actually trying to get work done in VB6 and don't need a sales pitch in the technical manual.
Grrrrrrr....
The following page promises a free copy of Knoppix Linux 3.4 and a free linux sticker to anyone who links to it on a webpage or forum. So let's see if it works:
http://www.loadux.com/freeservers.html
I will submit my information, then post back if/when the promised CD and sticker arrive in the mail.
I have noticed a trend in television comedies. I refer to it as the Honeymooners Dictum. Anyone who currently watches or has previously watched situation comedies (aka "sitcoms") regularly will be able to catch on to what I will describe.
The Honeymooners Dictum refers to a situation in which an incredibly stunning female is dating/married to either an overweight, insensitive misogynist or a nerdy, goofy-looking guy who keeps getting beaten by society.
Not surprisingly, this dictum has its roots in one of my all-time favorite programs, "The Honeymooners". The four main characters in this show -- Ralph & Alice Kramden, Ed & Trixie Norton -- exemplify the phenomenon. We have Alice (Audrey Meadows), a beautiful and eternally patient housewife, married to Ralph (Jackie Gleason), a large, loud, and overbearing bus driver. Similarly, we also have Trixie (Joyce Randolph), the sultry and sarcastic wife to Ed (Art Carney), the goofball who perfected the "hat, vest, and undershirt" look.
Even a cursory glimpse of sitcoms from the last 30 or so years can see this happening time and time again. Here are a few more examples, with links to photos to help drive the point home:
- The Flintstones: Admittedly, this cartoon is based largely on The Honeymooners. We have the same beautiful redhead (Wilma) married to the boisterous behemoth Fred. Betty and Barney Rubble also fit the bill, though Barney isn't quite as much of a loon as was Ed Norton.
- All In The Family: Rob Reiner played the role of the idealistic yet underachieving "Meathead", married to the cute and perky Sally Struthers. One can also see echoes of Ralph Kramden in Carroll O'Connor, though his wife (Jean Stapleton) was more plain-looking.
- Newhart: Set in Vermont, the story of a balding, middle-aged innkeeper (Bob Newhart) and his Amazon-esque sweater-clad wife, played by the late Mary Frann. What kept her there? Was it his subtle charm and dry sense of humor?
- Perfect Strangers: Another entry on my list of favorites, this show gave us a guy named Larry (Mark Linn-Baker); a short and easily-frustrated aspiring author, who happened to live in an apartment just downstairs from his unbelievably gorgeous flight attendant girlfriend (Melanie Wilson). A jet-setting supermodel-like twentysomething in Chicago settling for a struggling writer with too-long curly hair and bug eyes? At least the romance between Mary Anne (Rebecca Arthur) and Balki (Bronson Pinchot) was somewhat palpable -- an air-headed flight attendent with a boyishly-cute yet supremely self-confident out-of-towner.
- Just The Ten Of Us: The quintessential story of a good Catholic family, led by a hairless and overweight Coach (Bill Kirchenbauer) and his attractive stay-at-home wife (Deborah Harmon -- can't locate a picture). We know it must be true love, since the couple have 8 kids together -- though perhaps nobody could explain why.
- The King of Queens: Even though star Kevin James has been on a recent weight-loss kick, there is no earthly explanation as to how he would end up with someone like Leah Remini. Words fail me -- just look at the pictures, and sob quietly to yourself.
- According to Jim: This show is pretty funny, I must admit. In it, we have a father figure played by Jim Belushi (John's younger brother) and his adorable and talented wife (Courtney Thorne-Smith). The Honeymooners Dictum is acknowledged in this show, when Jim Belushi's character admits to "marrying up" -- marrying someone higher than himself in social graces.
Why are these images used to portray American relationships and families? Who knows? Perhaps it gives hope to Every Man, to know that he may one day end up with a supermodel as well.
Just ran across the following article on the BBC News website: Earth almost put on impact alert.
"Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month."
Yikes.
Just stumbled across a neat website that deals with memorizing -- specifically, techniques to help you memorize different things. It is run by Andi Bell, who has the title of "World Memory Champion" (at least, according to his website)
I am starting to get really annoyed by whichever variant of the NetSky virus is sending itself as an encrypted zip attachment. I've had about a dozen of them hit my network so far today.
Very creative message -- refers the recipient to the attachment for further details, stating that it is password protected for security.
Not bad enough that users need to be told not to run unknown attachments, but apparently there are people out there who are willing to open an encrypted, password-protected zip file in order to be able to run an unknown attachment.
Linux, anyone?
[Correction: Actually, it seems to be the latest variant of the Bagle virus, not NetSky. Apparently the teams behind the 2 viruses are duking it out in cyberspace.]
