tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145468812014-10-04T21:48:53.043-04:00DG4LMCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-9186456038615713202009-09-15T02:58:00.002-04:002009-09-15T03:01:42.017-04:00

MUST (now SNAP) is still in operation. Super user privileges along with unverified certificates means anyone could hack student computers. The alternative, a student driven program called "Gilgamesh" is coming along nicely. Get it here. Alex Schoof has joined with a promise to create a Linux GUI version. We're looking for beta testers. And if you use Vista 64 bit or Windows 7, you might not have

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-61136376986862523692009-08-17T11:22:00.007-04:002009-08-17T11:46:47.079-04:00

Yahoo! Answers and Stack Overflow are prime examples of the resourcefulness of ordinary people. The model: one person asks a question, a dozen experts answer. With a worldwide population approaching seven billion, odds are someone on the planet can help.In particular, Yahoo! Answers and Stack Overflow offer advice on dating and programming respectively. Kind of like a wiki for every question that

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-89745009034822558062009-08-03T12:32:00.002-04:002009-08-03T12:42:54.719-04:00

Philippe Archambault made a nifty Twitter icon with a tooltip using only CSS. Here's a modified version that is safe for Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, Opera, Dillo, Konqueror, ... the list goes on.Demo

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-15372795555516991382009-07-22T22:22:00.007-04:002009-07-22T22:41:36.551-04:00

MUST is now known as SNAP. It's still pesky and invasive: all in all, the same old system. Fortunately, Colin Edwards and yours truly have created Gilgamesh, a free alternative to the MUST Odyssey Client. It logs into MUST automatically. No annoyances, no privacy concerns. The same program also logins to SNAP without any trouble, proof that ITU hasn't changed a thing. Get Gilgamesh here.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-13138332473421361022009-07-16T22:46:00.006-04:002009-07-16T22:53:42.499-04:00

Firefox's strict add-on rules prevent the use of add-ons that don't explicitly declare them future-capable. This is annoying; there isn't a super easy way to just let them run anyway. So I made an add-on that forces Firefox to load old add-ons: VersionX. Of course, there is no guarantee that old add-ons will continue to work with new versions of Firefox. But at least you can try to run them.Enjoy

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-16767432110807100832009-07-11T14:57:00.005-04:002009-07-11T15:23:04.171-04:00

There's a problem with reincarnation. You know how all the good people quit a company, leaving you with the morons and cretins? Well, reincarnation does that too. All the good people quit World Inc. for Nirvana Co. With each passing generation, it's actually getting harder to reach enlightenment. Yikes!Arjuna has issued a trouble ticket. If Sri Krishna confirms it, he may release a bugfix.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-77681335780287332152009-07-08T19:28:00.004-04:002009-07-13T13:40:03.860-04:00

Mac OS X 10.5's new /usr/libexec/path_helper is sloooooooow. For TextMate users, this means something as simple as creating a new file can take a full 60 seconds. Luckily, someone made a fix. To apply the fix, download the TAR.GZ from gist, extract the path_helper.patch file, and run:sudo patch /usr/libexec/path_helper path_helper.patch

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-46163710777050598332009-07-05T17:35:00.004-04:002009-07-13T13:41:04.310-04:00

A drawing I did in MS Paint several years ago.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-52518634483724711132009-06-21T23:06:00.005-04:002009-06-21T23:25:30.623-04:00

Good job, Microsoft. Now you fail on two operating systems. I can't apply critical security updates. I guess I'm screwed if I open the wrong DOCX file.So I hacked to hack the installers.Download Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 (12.1.0). You'll have to scroll down in the Details box to see it. I chose the English DMG.Open the disk image. Copy the MPKG to the Desktop.Right click the

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-29084482970377670592009-06-10T19:27:00.002-04:002009-06-10T19:39:32.777-04:00

C, Java, Python, what have you, they are all limited by their use of strict evaluation. Haskell and other functional programming languages have amazing capabilities because of their nature: lazy evaluation.What is lazy evaluation? It's when you don't care about details at the moment. You're buying a car soon? It does not matter how much the car costs until you actually buy it. Lazy evaluation in

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-77412675593179470612009-05-16T22:40:00.011-04:002009-05-17T01:51:16.906-04:00

It's finally here folks! A semester in the making, Wires Cut is now available. Originally code named SPECTRE, this project has coincided with the Ubuntu Jaunty release, the end of George Mason University's spring 2009 semester, and the start of a highly productive summer. Enjoy!What is it?The Internet is only a few decades old, but it is hard to imagine using a computer without it. Building

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-89233254971549910072009-05-05T22:32:00.004-04:002009-05-05T22:35:52.482-04:00

FMyLife has a typo in their login error message. That's funny, I just got an account and you don't recognize my password. No, it means I haven't activated my account. Try to be more descriptive and less incorect in the future.Update: FML still doesn't recognize my username and password. FFML.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-58287199492394948632009-04-26T16:06:00.014-04:002009-04-26T18:17:30.019-04:00

Hurray for free things! Hurray for developers who work for no pay! Hurray for open source!Octave is a nice replacement for MATLAB. No, that's not right. What I mean is Octave is better than calc.exe if you have no money. Octave has potential as a substitute for MATLAB, but it's not quite ready.Installing Octave on Mac OS X requires the following steps:Download and open the Octave disk image.Copy

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-28790439936416702132009-04-07T00:06:00.004-04:002009-04-07T00:13:20.054-04:00

Gilgamesh trumps the Odyssey Client! The MUST login page is no longer a problem. Colin Edwards wrote a handy Python script to automatically login. Taken one step further, we have an application that sits in the menubar logging in every twenty minutes. Odds are, you won't even see the UAC/MUST page again. Get it at YelloSoft.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-51910280514434452102009-03-25T19:43:00.001-04:002009-03-25T19:44:54.974-04:00

I tweaked the KOPIMI logos a bit and made several wallpapers. Get them at deviantART.Preview:

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-50459903580032985892009-03-25T04:51:00.011-04:002009-04-08T18:49:27.111-04:00

Python has:if __name__=="__main__": print swatch()Ruby has:if __FILE__==$0 mainendBut Newlisp doesn't have anything like it. But Newlisp does have (main-args) and (find). Together, these can produce something similar (also posted here).#!/usr/bin/env newlisp;; Andrew Pennebaker;; file: module.lsp;; Calls main only if this script is being run by itself,;; not if the script is being loaded by

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-83100317184405502742009-03-20T00:08:00.003-04:002009-03-20T00:09:51.622-04:00

This is what students see when they submit assignments electronically.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-26784740248716918182009-03-11T15:32:00.004-04:002009-03-11T16:07:36.101-04:00

At 10:30 am, the environmental science lab began. The instructor setup equipment and clarified the steps we students would be carrying out. "What a fine day for Science!" as Dexter would say. Halfway through the experiments, a female lab assistant offered some Ritz cookies to the others. They accepted them, munched on the yellow circular treats, and got back to work.Wait, did she say "Ritz

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-77853439703144472312009-03-10T01:17:00.008-04:002009-03-10T01:50:35.506-04:00

Ever since Microsoft noticed the insecurity of Windows, it's been developing smarter and faster ways to piss off users. UAC gets in the way exactly how gksudo doesn't. There is no simple way to run commands in Administrator mode. Runas requires at least three extra parameters to work, and it can't even do DOS commands. It only does processes. Yes to "some_script.exe", no to "copy file1 file2".I

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-86234425588324763052009-03-04T21:32:00.002-05:002009-03-04T22:03:13.099-05:00

Yes, I opened up 1000 tabs. I had to, to manually benchmark Safari 4 beta. It has some goodies, and some bugs, but best of all it's damn stable. Opening up that many tabs, each with the Top Sites Core Animation view drained my RAM, but did not cause Safari to crash or even slow down too much.Goodies:Tabs, and how! They're not as customizable as Firefox's, but they are an improvement.Top Sites,

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-47249729074142524522009-02-25T21:31:00.002-05:002009-02-25T21:48:20.750-05:00

I have reached the end of the Internet. No disrespect to conservatives or liberals, this isn't about politics. This is about stereotypes. I believe in America, the media has made it appear that we are separated neatly into two political camps. The truth is that we are not. But someone made this website, and someone thinks it is worthy of contribution.Enter Conservapedia., a forward-thinking wiki

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-58781943057056978572009-02-23T15:07:00.006-05:002009-02-23T15:10:40.384-05:00

Name a sound more annoying than a construction vehicle backing up. It was a bad idea picking a dorm next to a parking lot perpetually in progress.P.S. I can't tag this post properly. Blogger's autocomplete is forcefully overeager.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-83294365259219339632009-02-17T16:47:00.005-05:002009-02-18T21:32:33.766-05:00

Interactive environments are wonderful. They encourage experimentation and rapid development. Python and other scripting languages are famous for having interpreters, but even Unix tools like nmap have similar capabilities. C also has an interpreter called Ch.Unfortunately, not everyone has hopped on board. Languages such as Prolog, PLT Scheme, and Octave have terrible command line interfaces.

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-54707447103674674592009-02-15T17:53:00.006-05:002009-02-15T18:21:46.523-05:00

My server has been locking up in read-only mode every few days. It was hard to track down the problem, but today I realized exactly how it happened. This is a relief, especially after weeks of sending YelloSoft links to my friends and finding out the very next day that instead of content they see this:YelloSoft uses a PHP-based web framework which tries to send email on occasion. I had previously

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14546881.post-34335065672660059672009-02-07T15:01:00.005-05:002009-02-08T21:02:20.281-05:00

that LaTeX is helpful, but the evidence is to the contrary. LaTeX is a typesetting system for creating scientific documents. It has support for displaying complex mathematic equations, generating headers and a table of contents, linking footnotes, endnotes, and a bibliography. It does for reports what HTML does for websites.Theory:How do you do?\\My name is $power^2$Compiles toHow do you do?My

MCAndrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10025555896996100599noreply@blogger.com0