December 2004 Archives

The Story Of Apple’s Graphing Calculator

There’s a fascinating story behind Apple’s “Graphing Calculator” application. Here’s an extract:

In August 1993, the project was canceled. A year of my work evaporated, my contract ended, and I was unemployed… …I was frustrated by all the wasted effort, so I decided to uncancel my small part of the project. I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple’s doors, so I just kept showing up… …they asked, “Who do you report to? What group are you in? Why haven’t we seen this earlier?” I explained that I had been sneaking into the building and that the project didn’t exist. They laughed, until they realized I was serious.

Go read it. It’s a great story.

Playing Lord of the Rings, in The Flat

I’ve been pulling old videos off of devices I used to use. This came from an early-2000s mobile phone, back when mobile phones were REALLY bad at video. It features Paul M, Ruth V, Matt R, JTA, and Claire M playing a single turn of the Lord of the Rings boardgame (it was a complicated turn).

I’m not sure whether they won in the end, or what the final score was, but I’m sure I’ve got it written down somewhere.

Also available on YouTube.

Geekiest Christmas Card Ever

Just recieved this e-card from my mum’s boyfriend.

Conversation Of The Day With A Client

Fictional, of course. None of our clients are actually this stupid, and I wouldn’t be silly enough to publish a real event like this on my blog, ever.

A client phones up and asks to speak to me.

Client: “I’m using the ‘Data Export’ tool in… [part of application I wrote, new version recently deployed to him] …it was my understanding that it always used to export Excel files.”
Me: “Umm. Yes. Well, actually, it exports CSV files – that’s Comma Seperated Values. Excel will open them, and if you have it installed, it becomes the default application for opening such files.”
Client: “Mm-hmm. It seems to think they’re text files.”
Me: “Text files? You mean they’re opening in Notepad?”
Client: “Yup.”
Me: “Ah; okay – well, we just have to tell it to open them in Excel, then. Right-click on the file, and select ‘Open With…’: ‘Excel’.”
Client: “It’s not there.”
Me: “Oh. That’s odd. Okay then, just open Excel from the Start Menu.”
Client: “I can’t find it.”
Me: <thinks> “Which computer are you using?”
Client: “The server.”
Me: “Do you have Excel installed on the server?”
Client: “No.”

Thanks to Task Tracker, SmartData‘s funky in-house timesheeting tool, and it’s drill-down reports, I’m able to look back over the last year and work out exactly how much more work I’d have gotten done if our clients were even slightly computer-literate and didn’t need to keep calling up for help with trivial things every ten minutes. Ah well.

GMail Invites

I’ve got nine GMail invites. Does anybody want one? Check the comments to this post to see how many have gone, and leave a comment to this post if you want one.

Statto Plays With Blacklight

Statto has an article on his blog about using his digital camera to take infared pictures which is worth a look, if you’re even vaugely interested/bored/geeky/a physicist/all of the above. He’s taken some fascinating pictures of infared remote control beams and things through filters, and provided a little bit of an informative background as to why it all looks like it does, too. Go look.

Man And The Machines

There’s a fascinating article on LegalAffairs.org (the self-styled “magazine at the intersection of law and life” on artificial intelligence and legal/ethical/socialogical considerations relating to it. Despite disagreeing with a few of it’s points, it’s well-written and excellently-presented. Go read it.

In case the site stops publishing the article, I’ve made a copy, below. Click on the ‘next page‘ link to read it here.

Pages: 1 2

Scoville Units For Dummies

For the benefit of they that asked: a Scoville Scale worth seeing. I’m impressed that I own a bottle of the hottest sauce they do that’s actually intended for consumption.

If I had £140, I still wouldn’t spend it on a bottle of Blaire’s 6A.M.… when a pepper sauce is contains three times the capsaicin level of police-grade pepper spray, it’s not designed to be used as food. I mean, really.

Bug In Internet Explorer… But How Do I Tell Anybody?

This morning, I found a bug in Internet Explorer. I wasn’t using it, of course, but I’d sent a Macromedia Flash file to a colleague by e-mail, who opened it in IE, but couldn’t.

It turns out that Internet Explorer can’t cope with opening Flash (.swf) files from the local file system, if the filename contains an apostrophe (e.g. “Dan’s Pictures.swf”). Crazy little bug, but I’ve tested it a little and it seems that this really is the case. But how do I report it?

Microsoft‘s web site, despite a redesign, is a sprawling mess. Eventually I gave up and submitted it as a ‘feature request’. I submitted PNG-support as a feature request, too, because it would be nice if sites like Abnib looked as good to the unwashed masses of IE users as it does to users of real web browsers.

Board Games Making A Comeback This Christmas

Board games are making a comeback this Christmas, reports the BBC. That’s interesting news. So go “Have Your Say” already, and tell them what your favourite Geek Night board game is!

Headache

My head really hurts. Ow.

Which D&D Character Are You?

I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Elf Mage Druid

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral characters are unstable, and frequently insane. They believe in disorder first and foremost, and will thus strive for that disorder in everything they do. This means that they will do whatever seems ‘fun’ or ‘novel’ at any given time.
Race: Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class: Mages harness the magical energies for their own use. Spells, spell books, and long hours in the library are their loves. While often not physically strong, their mental talents can make up for this.
Secondary Class: Druids are a special variety of Cleric who serves the Earth, and can call upon the power in the earth to accomplish their goals. They tend to be somewhat fanatical about defending natural settings. (could equally be secondary class: Bard)
Deity: Azuth is the Lawful Neutral god of wizards and mages. He is also known as the High One, and is the Patron of Wizards. His followers believe that a systematic approach to magic is the best, and they strive for calm and caution in order to avoid accidents. They wear shimmering robes, and are well-versed in magic, as well as typical priest spells. Azuth’s symbol is a hand with a raised, glowing index finger.

Which D&D Character Are You?

I still loathe D&D.

Nightmare Day, Part Two

The horror continues:

1. Still no fix for Andromeda. SmartData‘s web site is currently a temporary holding page I knocked up, and everybody’s e-mails come to my desktop to be sorted and delivered to them by hand. The hosting provider still hasnt gotten back to me with anything but excuses, despite my calling them every hour to “remind” them to pull their collective fingers out.

2. I have a killer headache, which is making thinking through this morning’s problems somewhat more difficult than it should be. And I haven’t even started the work I need to get done today, yet.

Review of Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC CD)

This review originally appeared on Amazon. See more reviews by Dan.

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (PC CD)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Moderately Amusing; But Somewhat Repetitive

Sadly, the dramatic graphical improvements over the previous ‘Larry’ games is countered by a significant reduction in playability. Most of the sub-quests come down to one of five or six of the same mini-games, over and over again. The scenes and situations that little Larry Lovage finds himself in are amusing, and after a while you’ll find yourself playing the games just to see more of the plot unfold.

If you like playing the same old “bash the buttons in the correct order” mini-games again and again, this’ll suit you. But if you’d rather just see the plot tick by you’re better spending your money on seeing a movie.

Nightmare Day, Part One

1. Andromeda (Smartdata‘s main online server) goes down, taking our web site and e-mail with it.

2. The hosts are slow and arsey and aren’t much help at all. “I can ping it,” says one. “Yes, well I can ping it too,” I reply, coldly, “But apart from that, it doesn’t seem to have any purpose other than to help keep your building warm!” I finally persuade them to go and look at it.

3. Oh yeh – did I mention that this happened, taking (as I said) our web site down, just as we launch some national publicity? My boss doesn’t look happy.

4. Why do letters with windows in them so rarely contain, like, Christmas cards and other fluffy things? Mine, today, was from the council, insisting that, no, really, I do have to pay them one-and-a-half people’s council tax for the next two and a half years.