Comments for Bob Sutor

Comment on Really setting the default browser on a Mac by Rob

Rob — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:24:42 +0000

What, you can’t just go in and edit the registry on those things? :-)

Comment on A winter walk on the Erie Canal by Bob Sutor

Bob Sutor — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:36:18 +0000

Scott, thanks and fixed! The camera is a “Canon PowerShot SD780IS12.1 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Black)”. I’ve only had it a month and I like it, though it is so small I’m always afraid I’m going to lose it.

Comment on A winter walk on the Erie Canal by Scott Lovenberg

Scott Lovenberg — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:52:59 +0000

Bob, great pictures! What camera are you using?

Also, not to nitpick, but you’ve got a typo “The water level in the canal is dropped in winter starting in November, and it if raised [...]” Sorry, I’ve got OCD with typos :)

Comment on Post mortem on the 2009 vegetable garden by -

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:43:19 +0000

what weed? post a pic. somebody who comes across the pic, will recognize the species. from that, research your strategies.
or post the pic at a plant/garden/hort/id site :-)

Comment on Post mortem on the 2009 vegetable garden by Jason Hibbets

Jason Hibbets — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:06:17 +0000

Great notes. I had a killer year in my vegetable garden here in Raleigh, NC. Vegetable equates more to salsa garden. I grow tomatoes and peppers. I took out two trees that we to the North of the garden and it really improved my productivity. I think the garden is really digging the captured rain water instead of the city water, see http://hibbets.net/pics/events2008.php?category=7&curPage=1.

I made a similar mistake you mentioned the first year I had the garden. I tried growing corn, okra, pumpkins, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and peppers. Too much, not enough space. So I second the advice, only grow what you can. (But I also think you need to try in order to realize what your limits are.) I strategically place plants so that early bloomers and late bloomers are near each other so I can pull the early bloomers, giving the late ones more space later in the season.

Thanks for sharing,
Jason

Comment on The 6th International Conference on Open Source Systems, May 30 to June 2 by Chris Ward

Chris Ward — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:17:14 +0000

On the other side of the coin, https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=194906 is an upcoming “Webinar” sponsored by the UK Institute of Physics on “Why software fails in scientific research, and how to fix it. ”

From the invite, “In the 60 years since the invention of the digital computer, millions of lines of code have been developed to support scientific research. Although an increasingly important part of almost all research projects, most research software is barely fit for purpose compared to equivalent systems in the commercial world. The code is hard to understand or maintain, lacking documentation and version control, and is continually ‘re-invented’ as the code writers move on to new jobs. This represents a tremendous waste of the already inadequate resources that are put into its development. We will investigate how this situation has come about, why it is important to the future of research, and what can be done about it.”

My thoughts are that there is a lot of confusion as to where ‘value’ lies. Clearly, IBM OS/2 saturated its market, and there is no longer significant value in trying to sell more copies of it; http://www.ecomstation.com/ is a ‘niche market’, no more likely to sell in volume than typewriters and card punches.

So what’s in the future ?

Comment on Thinking about open source: There are three types of software … by Bob Sutor

Bob Sutor — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:35:50 +0000

Yes, I had that in mind when I was giving my simplification caveat at the beginning.

Comment on Thinking about open source: There are three types of software … by rabidbadger

rabidbadger — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:33:38 +0000

“Whoa!, you might say”

I do. There is another category of software entirely: that in the public domain. Not all developers sup with the copyright devil.

Comment on Books about proper word use and grammar in English by Rob Weir

Rob Weir — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:55:15 +0000

Maybe “The Lexicographer’s Dilemma: The Evolution of ‘Proper’ English, from Shakespeare to South Park” by Jack Lynch. Not so much a style or usage guide, but a history of the genre of English usage and style guides. You won’t learn much English usage, but you will learn a bit about those who write usage guides. A fun read.

Comment on Life with Linux: Adapting to the smaller screen on a netbook by Jakub Safar

Jakub Safar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:10:17 +0000

NoSquint found at http://urandom.ca/nosquint/ might help with Firefox zooming.

Comment on Daily links for 02/22/2010 by W^L+ (Walt Hucks)

W^L+ (Walt Hucks) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:04:29 +0000

You might not have seen this, but Julian Lombardi wrote about the asset risk to institutions building in third-party worlds like Second Life. http://julianlombardi.blogspot.com/2010/01/better-cover-your-assets.html

Comment on Three Google Chrome extensions to get you started by Ian Wesley

Ian Wesley — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:56:53 +0000

Many thanks for the XMarks recommendation; a great little add on which I have desperately needed

Comment on Life with Linux: Adapting to the smaller screen on a netbook by James Sparenberg

James Sparenberg — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:57:42 +0000

In Firefox use Tiny Menu. compresses the menu bar into a single word which becomes a pull down menu. Then you take all the buttons etc from the navigation bar and put them in the top bar next to the word menu and hide the Navigation bar.

Comment on Life with Linux: Adapting to the smaller screen on a netbook by Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:43:17 +0000

There’s a Firefox extension called Autohide Tabbar, which does what it says on the tin.

I also use another one called Bookmark Bar Toggler. This gives a button which toggles the Bookmark Bar on and off. (This extension is still listed as “experimental” at the moment though.) Ctrl->B will do this in Chrome.

Comment on Life with Linux: Adapting to the smaller screen on a netbook by Hunger

Hunger — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:28:09 +0000

I’ve found that you don’t need to access the top panel that often if you use Gnome Do. I have my top panel hidden (with unhide via a corner button). I do use the bottom panel though (and I have some stuff in the bottom panel that was originally in the top panel).