Saturday, November 29, 2008

Trygve's homepage.

Trygve's homepage.: "This marks the fulfillment of the BabyUML goals and marks the beginning of a new project, BabyIDE. The new project could well be very large and take many years. I am in my 78th year. My great great grandfather planted an apple tree when he was 93. He was very particular about the kind of apples he wanted. His family pointed out that it would be 10 years before this particular kind would give its first fruit. My great great grandfather could not see the relevance of this argument. So I follow a family tradition when I dig into yet another new project. I will post intermediate and incomplete results as they appear. Just in case."

Trygve/MVC

Trygve/MVC: "I made the first implementation and wrote the original MVC note at Xerox PARC in 1978. The note defines four terms; Model, View, Controller and Editor . The Editor is an ephemeral component that the View creates on demand as an interface between the View and the input devices such as mouse and keyboard."

Trygve 1975

Trygve 1975: "MODELS - VIEWS - CONTROLLERS
Xerox PARC technical note December 1979"

E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The strengths of the academic enterprise (EWD 1175)

E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The strengths of the academic enterprise (EWD 1175): "My third remark introduces you to the Buxton Index, so named after its inventor, Professor John Buxton, at the time at Warwick University. The Buxton Index of an entity, i.e. person or organization, is defined as the length of the period, measured in years, over which the entity makes its plans. For the little grocery shop around the corner it is about 1/2,for the true Christian it is infinity, and for most other entities it is in between: about 4 for the average politician who aims at his re-election, slightly more for most industries, but much less for the managers who have to write quarterly reports. The Buxton Index is an important concept because close co-operation between entities with very different Buxton Indices invariably fails and leads to moral complaints about the partner. The party with the smaller Buxton Index is accused of being superficial and short-sighted, while the party with the larger Buxton Index is accused of neglect of duty, of backing out of its responsibility, of freewheeling, etc.. In addition, each party accuses the other one of being stupid. The great advantage of the Buxton Index is that, as a simple numerical notion, it is morally neutral and lifts the difference above the plane of moral concerns. The Buxton Index is important to bear in mind when considering academic/industrial co-operation."

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ranch Bean Dip - Allrecipes

Ranch Bean Dip - Allrecipes: "INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
* 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
* 1 cup sour cream

* add to recipe box Add to Recipe Box
My folders:
* add to shopping list Add to Shopping List
* add a personal note Add a Personal Note

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small saucepan, combine beans, cheese, ranch dressing mix, and sour cream. Heat the mixture over a medium heat, stir until the ingredients are well blended and warm."

Zesty Bean Dip - Allrecipes

Zesty Bean Dip - Allrecipes:
"INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
* 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
* 1 tomato, chopped
* 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

* add to recipe box Add to Recipe Box
My folders:
* add to shopping list Add to Shopping List
* add a personal note Add a Personal Note

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix refried beans, taco seasoning mix and tomato. Allow the mixture to simmer approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Spoon the mixture into a medium serving bowl. Top with Cheddar cheese and serve warm."

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Perspectives - Facebook: Needle in a Haystack: Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos

Perspectives - Facebook: Needle in a Haystack: Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos: "An excellent talk that I really enjoyed. I used to lead a much smaller service that also used a lot of NetApp storage and I recognized many of the problems Jason mentioned. Throughout the introductory part of the talk I found myself thinking they need to move to a cheap, directly attached blob store. And that’s essentially the topic of remainder of the talk. Jason presented Haystack, the Facebook solution to the problem of a filesystem not working terribly well for their high volume blob storage needs."

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Dean Kamen's Water Purifier - Biography of Dean Kamen - Esquire

Dean Kamen's Water Purifier - Biography of Dean Kamen - Esquire: "The inventor of the Segway and more now has an idea worth tens of millions of lives. But no one cares. Tracking Lord Dumpling's genius on his seceded island of geekery."

Sunday, November 23, 2008

UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE

UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE: "One inch of magnetic tape, the input medium for Remington Rand UNIVAC, holds even more information than a punched card. One reel holds 1,400,000 numbers or letters. Two 4-drawer tabulat-ing-card files, storing more than 20,000 cards, are compressed into a single eight-inch reel."

Texas Embassy cantina - London

Texas Embassy cantina - London: "The building now housing the Texas Embassy is the former home of the famous White Star shipping line, owners of the Titanic. When the Titanic sank it was to this very building friends and relatives came to view the lists of survivors. An actual black and white photo of this time is hanging on the wall to the right of the main exit from the Cantina.
But our story really begins back in the early 1800's, in a vast and lawless wilderness ruled by Mexico. Bold Americans and Europeans settled the land and called their home TEXAS."

Anarchy at Sea - William Langewiesche

Anarchy at Sea - William Langewiesche: "The sea is a domain increasingly beyond government control, vast and wild,
where laws of nations mean little and secretive shipowners do as they please -
and where the resilient pathogens of piracy and terrorism flourish."

Friday, November 21, 2008

iSerenity - Environments

iSerenity - Environments: "iSerenity Environments

Choose a sound and image experience to relax or work by.

Six new environments to enjoy. Some of the old favorites are now down towards the bottom as the newcomers get top billing. We even have included Typewriters the Sequel, (carriage returns included). Feedback is always welcome and don't forget to tell your friends about iserenity."

Thursday, November 20, 2008

pldoc: Utility for generating PL/SQL code documentation

pldoc: Utility for generating PL/SQL code documentation:
"pldoc is an open-source utility for generating HTML documentation of code written in Oracle PL/SQL."

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian: "The curious thing about Ericsson's study is that he and his colleagues couldn't find any 'naturals' - musicians who could float effortlessly to the top while practising a fraction of the time that their peers did. Nor could they find 'grinds', people who worked harder than everyone else and yet just didn't have what it takes to break into the top ranks. Their research suggested that once you have enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. What's more, the people at the very top don't just work much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder."

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian: "'In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals,' writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, 'this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.'"

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Timeline twins, music and movies

Timeline twins, music and movies: "Watching Star Wars today is like watching It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in 1977. It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for an Oscar the following year along with Ethel Barrymore (b. 1879) and Lilian Gish (b. 1893)."

Seven Crown Resorts Houseboat Rentals Lake Mead, Lake Shasta, Lake Mohave, California Delta

Seven Crown Resorts Houseboat Rentals Lake Mead, Lake Shasta, Lake Mohave, California Delta: "Available at:
Lake Mead - Echo Bay
Lake Mohave - Lake Mohave Resort
California Delta - Paradise Point"

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Ideas

Ideas:
"There are basically three ways of judging sources of information.
One is internal evidence--does the author sound like a competent, well informed person who takes reasonable care to make sure that what he says is true?
A second is external evidence about the information--does it fit other things I have reason to believe are true?
A third is authority--do I have good reason to believe that the source of the information is reliable?"

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Jac: What are the scariest pieces of classical music?

Jac: What are the scariest pieces of classical music?: "That's the question for today, since this Music Friday happens to fall on Halloween."