Death by fire

Yet another reason for hating on Microsoft: NTLM. Specifically, that some folks insist on running SOAP services protected by NTLM. More particularly, SOAP services that are intended to be consumed by platforms other than Windows. And especially that no cross-platform scripting or programming language has native support for NTLM. With the coup de grace being…

Vibratory wrist

I’m experiencing alert fatigue. For the last 50 or so minutes, my watch has been buzzing me every 30 seconds to keep me abreast of the Leicester City vs. Tottenham score. Soccer does not move that fast. Please, just tell me when the score changes. Similar issues with hockey and football games. Once Google Now…

Fail-state = FAIL

Using Ubuntu 14.04 which is the current LTS release I was able to install Gnome-Do [1] and basically rock it. Gnome-Do is a port/clone of the Quicksilver app for Macs. It’s a launcher but so much more. It follows a subject/predicate/[object] syntax activated by a key combination. It’s also scriptable. Suddenly the mouse/touchpad becomes an…

The odds

There is a significant non-zero chance that my work laptop is going to be accidentally dropped into a bathtub or the toilet before it is life-cycled next August. With every [un]docking turning into an exercise in willing the video driver to not BSOD I’m just about ready to hasten its demise. This crap doesn’t happen…

Com

I don’t know how they did it, but Canonical turned the normally frustrating and inane Eclipse environment set up into a god damn dog’s breakfast rotting on the steps to the portal of hell. I used to want to do a little brushing up on my Eclipse/Struts/Ajax skills but now I mostly just want to…

Befuzzlement

I jokingly called Mirriam-Webster [1] a tool of the descriptivists in the middle of a grammar war. And then someone literally made my brain asplode. [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/ [2] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

XAML

What I love about XAML: Magic glue and event routing. What I hate about XAML: Magic glue and event routing. When it all works it’s really slick. When it doesn’t, finding out what bits of magic need tweaking really sucks. As in a full work day of suck. At least there’s home made chicken pot…

Monetizing the fan base

I don’t think I’ve expressed much love for MLB since 1994. I enjoy the game of baseball. I like some of the teams and players. I just absolutely hate the governing body of professional baseball. A lot. Another exhibit in the bottomless stack of reasons why I hate MLB is this bit of spam I…

Odd pastime

I like to make snarky comments to the spam email I receive. It must be some vestigial thing left over from the days before email spam—when every email you received had been laboriously typed by someone you had a reasonable expectation to be corresponding with. Like there’s someone on the other side of this who…