ConorMulligan.com / Blog http://conormulligan.com/blog technology, politics, film Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:35:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 en Obama: Headlines around the World http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/rg-SvwH9uLY/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/07/obama-headlines-around-the-world/#comments Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:47:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/07/obama-headlines-around-the-world/ headlinesraman amplifier

Some 700 prominent newspapers leading on Obama’s victory on November 4th are available to view спалниhere.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/07/obama-headlines-around-the-world/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/07/obama-headlines-around-the-world/ The 44th President of the United States http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/hh9ikB6_wzY/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/05/the-44th-president-of-the-united-states/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:43:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/05/the-44th-president-of-the-united-states/ barack-obama-bw

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/05/the-44th-president-of-the-united-states/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/11/05/the-44th-president-of-the-united-states/ The State of the Race http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/SygQY4PszCg/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/10/20/the-state-of-the-race/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:24:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/10/20/the-state-of-the-race/ I’m of the opinion that Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidential Election about a month ago and, with 15 days to go, it seems my lack of caution may be appropriate.

Visiting FiveThirtyEight.com, an impressive project by Chicago-based statistician Nate Silver, the mathematics of the race becomes clear; Silver projects, using his exhaustive simulation model, that Barack Obama wins the election between 90% and 95% of the time (these figures are derived from 10,000 election simulations run by FiveThirtyEight.com). His poll averages have shown Obama consistently ahead for weeks.

Silver’s results were remarkably prescient during the Democratic primaries, and his method of aggregating polls is more sophisticated than other solutions like the Pollster.com composite or the Real Clear Politics average (both of which also currently project an Obama win).

At any rate, barring some major event, Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/10/20/the-state-of-the-race/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/10/20/the-state-of-the-race/ Multi-process Architecture in Google Chrome http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/6DGXFeAk9kc/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/12/multi-process-architecture-in-google-chrome/#comments Fri, 12 Sep 2008 22:19:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/12/multi-process-architecture-in-google-chrome/

The folks over at Chromium Blog have posted a lengthy write-up on multi-process architecture and how it applies to Google Chrome. It’s a must-read if you’re interested in this kind of thing.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/12/multi-process-architecture-in-google-chrome/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/12/multi-process-architecture-in-google-chrome/ Palin’s first gaffe http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/AdN3eWX8Emw/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/palins-first-gaffe/#comments Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:07:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/palins-first-gaffe/

At a McCain rally today, Governor Sarah Palin made what many are already considering her first gaffe.

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers."

Huffington Post

This is a terrible mistake to make, given all the press focusing on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac takeovers, but I think some may be making hay where none exists. I don’t buy that she does not know the relationship between the Federal Government and these institutions (anyone paying even loose attention to the credit crunch for the last few months would be more than informed), and I suspect this was simply a verbal misstep.

Frankly, I’m much more interested in her record (or lack thereof).

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/palins-first-gaffe/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/palins-first-gaffe/ A Wasillan on Sarah Palin http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/LBLQbvpQx-4/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/a-wasillan-on-sarah-palin/#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:24:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/08/a-wasillan-on-sarah-palin/ Anne Kilkenny, A resident of Wasilla and Sarah Palin acquaintance, has written up an extensive debrief over at The Huffington Post on the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee. The result is not particularly pretty, with a number of her positions and actions seemingly well-placed to undercut the McCain campaign’s message of reform, tested stewardship and fiscal responsibility. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Experienced: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than city council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.

  • Political maverick: not at all. Open and transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.

  • A greenie: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

  • Pro-infrastructure: no. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards. Pro-small government: no. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.

Anne Kilkenny, The Huffington Post

It should be noted that Ms. Kilkenny is a self-described opponent of Governor Palin’s, but such a scathing critique from an Alaskan is noteworthy. Read the rest of the article at HuffingtonPost.com.

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I think the interview has been a success so far, but we’ll see how things pan out next week (although the interview was taped in one sitting on Thursday afternoon, the folks at Fox have decided to air it over four days). Obama didn’t blink when O’Reilly went after him on the surge and Iranian diplomacy, although I wish he’d taken it to O’Reilly a bit more on his overly simplistic interpretation of Obama’s stance on both issues. It does bode well for Obama’s debate performance though; his answers need to be a bit more concise and soundbite-able, but the substance is there.

It is important to frame Obama’s performance in context; this is a somewhat-hostile audience (Republicans and conservative Democrats), so any inroads he makes here is progress at John McCain’s expense. Also, Thursday’s Factor had the shows second greatest ratings to date, so it is an enormously large somewhat-hostile audience.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/07/obama-on-the-oreilly-factor/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/07/obama-on-the-oreilly-factor/ A working class hero… http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/z2pQnC7RdRU/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/06/a-working-class-hero/#comments Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:14:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/06/a-working-class-hero/ …is what Joe Biden’s going to be from now until November.

He’s pretty damn good at it. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric Democrats need this year, and there’s no better messenger than the senior Senator from Delaware.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/06/a-working-class-hero/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/06/a-working-class-hero/ The story behind Chrome http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/nFoqnsRtspU/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-story-behind-chrome/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:33:38 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=156 Wired.com has an extensive write-up on the people and reasoning behind Google Chrome. It’s an interesting read, and helps put the whole venture in context.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-story-behind-chrome/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/04/the-story-behind-chrome/ Google Chrome Lands http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/cEO1Zg_Vfss/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/03/google-chrome-lands/#comments Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:54:13 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=154 Google Chrome

Google’s answer to the question no-one asked landed today with the launch of their Chrome web-browser. And it’s actually quite good. It’s light, very fast, very easy to use, and does have some features to love.

Getting the most attention is V8, a new JavaScript interpreter Google engineered from the ground up for raw speed. It’s noticeable too, pages with a lot of client-side code are demonstrably faster than in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Other distinctions include a very tidy interface that looks great on Windows Vista (Chrome is also available on XP; Mac and Linux users will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on the beta) and a nice model wherein each tab operates within it’s own process; if the tab content is slow or crashes, the rest of the browser remains unaffected. It even includes a task manager to view the memory and cpu usage of all active tab and plugin processes (in fact, if you have other browsers open, it will include their resource information along side Chrome’s).

It’s not perfect, and is clearly still in beta. While stable, many killer features are still missing, like bookmark management, RSS feed integration and a proper plugin model. Also, the lack of a dedicated search box is really annoying for longtime Firefox users, although this concern may fade with extended exposure (Chrome’s navigation bar doubles as a search box, using keywords and shortcuts to choose a search provider). On the other hand, it does automatically add search engines to it’s collection when you use them (go to amazon.com, and moments later amazon search is listed in your search engine providers).

Overall, Chrome is a very promising entry into the competitive browser market, and while obviously an early product missing some important features, it is stable and usable for those who don’t require some of the complexities associated with Firefox.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/03/google-chrome-lands/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/09/03/google-chrome-lands/ PHP implemented in 100% Java http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/lPwNNNz-5Jk/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/17/php-implemented-in-100-java/#comments Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:31:38 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=151 Oh God.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/17/php-implemented-in-100-java/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/17/php-implemented-in-100-java/ IconWorkshop Lite for Visual Studio 2008 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/qp3E7s1dLB8/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/12/iconworkshop-lite-for-visual-studio-2008/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:19:29 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=148 As part of its dramatic User-Interface overhaul, Windows Vista added support for high-definition 256×256 pixel application icons. Unfortunately, Visual Studio 2008’s lackluster icon editor offers no support for the new standard.

Thankfully, the Visual C++ Team Blog brings word of a free ‘Lite’ edition of the impressive IconWorkshop from Axialis Software. IconWorkshop Lite even integrates directly into Visual Studio 2008.

The software is available here, and the Visual C++ Team Blog announcement is here.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/12/iconworkshop-lite-for-visual-studio-2008/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/12/iconworkshop-lite-for-visual-studio-2008/ Someone needs to let McCain know The Cold War is over http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/AD6RaYnWHnY/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/08/10/someone-needs-to-let-mccain-know-the-cold-war-is-over/#comments Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:32:36 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=147 When  asked to respond to the escalating conflict in Georgia, John McCain took a much harder line on Russia than Obama, the Bush Administration, Europe and The UN:

While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia.

Ben Smith, The Politico

This is not the first time John McCain has taken a curiously confrontational stance on Russia; his calls for The Federation to be expelled from the G8 is particularly alarming (especially considering that no other G8 nation has any intention of complying with McCain’s proposal, and as such must be construed as an example of personal animosity rather than a well-reasoned political maneuver or posture). Someone needs to let McCain know The Cold War is over.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/07/20/145/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/07/20/145/ Unit Testing Zend Framework Applications http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/cG-EvK8a00Y/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/07/03/unit-testing-zend-framework-applications/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:25:16 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=144 CodeUtopia has some thoughts on Unit Testing Zend Framework applications.

There are some good points made, particularly on the difficulty of realistically testing Controller classes:

Controller testing can be the most difficult part, and this is where you may need to perform some refactoring if your design is not suitable for testing. For example, you may have a lot of logic in your controllers, which might be better off in your models or library code. Testing the whole idea of getting out the correct output or redirects may be difficult.

Zend probably should have had a Unit Testing strategy when developing the Framework initially, but, as always, the community fills in the holes. This also highlights another problem developing PHP applications: there is no standard build process, in which scripts can be unit tested, compiled, optimized, packaged, etc. There are solutions available (Phing is popular, it’s even possible to use Ant) but this is an area where Zend could show real leadership and come up with their own industry-standard, solution (maybe even as part of the Zend Framework, or Zend Studio). I’m not holding my breath, but you never know.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/07/03/unit-testing-zend-framework-applications/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/07/03/unit-testing-zend-framework-applications/ James E. Hansen: almost too late to stop the “global warming time bomb” http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/LTCwfmM0tYI/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/23/james-e-hansen-almost-too-late-to-stop-the-global-warming-time-bomb/#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:42:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/23/james-e-hansen-almost-too-late-to-stop-the-global-warming-time-bomb/

Dr. James E. Hansen is a World-renowned climatologist at NASA, widely praised for being one of the first scientists to recognise the effect of man-made carbon-dioxide production on the environment in a congressional testimony in the 1980’s.

Today, Dr. Hansen is back before congress, renewing his 20-year-old call to action:

On Monday, Dr. Hansen, 67, plans to give a briefing organized by a House committee and say that it is almost, but not quite, too late to start defusing what he calls the “global warming time bomb.” He will offer a plan for cuts in emissions and also a warning about the risks of further inaction.

The New York Times

Although he is vilified by some on the right for his stance on global warming, Dr. Hansen is one of the most credible climatologists in the World, and deserves to be heard. He is currently the director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Al Gore’s chief science advisor.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/23/james-e-hansen-almost-too-late-to-stop-the-global-warming-time-bomb/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/23/james-e-hansen-almost-too-late-to-stop-the-global-warming-time-bomb/ Allow sites to hide the navigation bar in Firefox 3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/gUCxZR-GK0Y/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/allow-sites-to-hide-the-navigation-bar-in-firefox-3/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:29:06 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/?p=142 By default, Firefox 3 now blocks Javascript code from hiding the browser navigation bar. The idea behind this is simply to stop malicious popups from emulating a native OS window.

But, for advances users well aware of what constitutes a malicious popup and what it looks like, the ever-present navigation bar can be distracting. Fortunately, you can disabled it by altering a setting in about:config.

  1. Type about:config into the navigation bar and press Enter (ignore the warning).
  2. Type dom.disable_window_open_feature.location into the filter textbox. A single entry should remain.
  3. Change the value field to false.

You can now close the about:config window; popups can now hide the navigation bar like in previous versions of Firefox. To restore the default setting, simply change the value back to true.

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/allow-sites-to-hide-the-navigation-bar-in-firefox-3/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/allow-sites-to-hide-the-navigation-bar-in-firefox-3/ Obama’s first general election ad http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/YAi4ZLwO-WU/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/obamas-first-general-election-ad/#comments Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:28:09 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/141/

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]]> http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/obamas-first-general-election-ad/feed/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/19/obamas-first-general-election-ad/ Debugging PHP in Eclipse PDT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conmulligan/blog/~3/DClOlNCl5V4/ http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/18/debugging-php-in-eclipse-pdt/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:41:00 +0000 conmulligan http://conormulligan.com/blog/2008/06/18/debugging-php-in-eclipse-pdt/ IBM has posted a new tutorial on the developerWorks site showing you how to debug PHP using the Eclipse PHP Developer Tools (PDT) plugin. Check out the article here (note: you need an IBM ID to view the full tutorial).

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