A simple yet horrific dream.
The only thing I remember is being engulfed by a red flare, or energy. It was pure pain. I couldn't escape, couldn't shake the flare off me. I was all twisted and contorted. And hurting.
Then I woke up and it was one in the morning and I couldn't sleep for a while.
- Buck
Cookies. Lots and lots of cookies. Yup. I dreamed of cookies.
I was in a big room full of cookies. All types of cookies. The room looked like an oven. And the oven door came down and a big face came into view and told me to have as many as I want.
Cookies. Go figure.
- Buck
Not sure what I can say about Firefox that hasn't already been said. It's the best web browser available? It greatly enhances the web browsing experience? It was the first tabbed browser? It's simple, intuitive, customizeable and absolutely free? Yes to all of the above. But that's nothing new.
I guess what I can say is GET IT NOW and try it for yourself. If you don't have it, get it. If you do have it, upgrade to 3.6. The new skinning feature, Personaes, is f'ing fantastic and the browser is faster than ever.
If you are new to Firefox, you'll need to know that some of Firefox's best features are not included by default. They are add-ons, called extensions, that are written by third parties. Below are some of the best extensions IMHO. So after you install Firefox, search for them from the help menu.
If you are still using Internet Explorer, you are inflecting pain on yourself for no reason. Make the switch today!
- Buck
A friend of mine at work gave me the idea of posting coding tips and techniques, or "cheats" as she put it. ;) I liked the idea, so my first will be an RPG ILE tip for the System i: using a subprocedure as a indicator.
One of the great things about subprocedures in RPG ILE--and there are many--is being able to use its return value in an expression. This technique allows for some handsome code. In this post, I will demonstrate how to define and use a subprocedure which returns an indicator type variable.
First, the prototype. "Things_R_Good" is an example of a validation routine. Notice the "N" in the data type column, and the absence of any length.
//-----------------------------------------------------
// Verify that things are good
//-----------------------------------------------------
D Things_R_Good PR N
Now, the subprocedure. The way this works is that normal validation will occur, and when there are any issues, the local variable "got_error" is set on. As we know that things are NOT good if we got an error, we return the opposite of "got_error" at the end of the subproc.
//-----------------------------------------------------
// Things_R_Good - Verify that things are good
//-----------------------------------------------------
PThings_R_Good B
D PI N
// Local variables
D got_error S N
/Free
// Do the validation
...
Return not got_error;
/End-free
PThings_R_Good E
What happens is when got_error = *ON, we return *OFF, and vice versa. Then we use the subprocedure in the mainline, or other subprocedure, as follows.
// If everything is good, continue processing.
If Things_R_Good();
...
EndIf;
Notice that because the subprocedure was named as it was the code becomes extremely readable: "if things are good".
- Buck
First off, yes it's been a year since my last post. I decided to start posting again. Not that anybody is actually reading this. :\ OK, now that that's out of the way....
I friggin' hate 3D movies and videos. Yes, amidst the biggest draw for a 3D movie in history--what up, James Cameron--I am saying that this is the worst move in entertainment technology that we could be making. Allow me to demonstrate.
3D is an old technology! 3D movies have been around for 50 years and coming up on 60! And although the technology has been improved somewhat, those improvements are not worthy of five decades of upgrades. This is the year 2010! We should be out near Jupiter haggling with HAL about how to save the Discovery but no we're stuck in terrestrial movie theaters awed by hot pokers coming out at us from the big screen.
Which brings me to my next point. 3D movies are typically--can't speak for Avatar yet because I haven't seen it--lame as the scripts are written to provide as many gimmicks as possible, thereby all but ensuring the story is shit.
And now 3D television?! Talk about impractical. Are all our guests for the big game or movie night going to have to bring their own glasses? Do manufacturers and content providers expect us to don glasses whenever we watch TV? WTF is going on here?
Speaking of glasses, can there be a less attractive and more nerdy facial accessory than a pair of 3D glasses? And what of our visually impaired friends and family? I can't believe wearing 3D glasses on top of prescription glasses is at all comfortable.
No, my friends, we truly missed the entertainment boat when it was decided to chase 3D tech over holographic. That's where we should be: in theaters watching holographic movies with our bare eyes! I say we boycott this trend now before it's too late and my wife has to purchase tiny 3D glasses so the damn dog can watch AFV in 3D!
- Buck
I love Open Source applications. Whenever I can use an Open Source app over a costly mainstream one, I'm on it. Therefore, I decided that I will post reviews of the top Open Source applications I use personally.
Today, I am praising GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is an awesome, feature-rich, image editor. I use GIMP to create and edit images for my web site, cover art for my stories, and for creating profile pics and avatars for sites like Facebook. It is extremely powerful, and loaded with more tools and functionality than I will probably ever use.
I can't say that it does everything Adobe PhotoShop does, but I know it costs less: PhotoShop on Amazon.com is roughly $200-$700, whereas GIMP is free. I highly recommend downloading GIMP before you go out and purchase PhotoShop or similar software. You may find that it does everything you need, and you'll save $$$.
I also think the name is pretty cool. :)
- Buck
Yup. Dreamed I was attacked by a mountain lion. I would find things to throw at it, distract its attention.. sometimes it would eat what I threw--bones or something, I can't remember. But it would finish with things quickly and come back at me, over and over.
That's it. That's the dream.
I woke up at midnight. Took a while to get back to sleep.
- Buck
I've been a Palm user for almost a decade, and it's been quite a while since they have done anything really innovative. (No, I don't consider the Centro an innovation.) Giving up the rights to their Palm OS was a blow to us hardcore fans of Palm. The OS hasn't been updated in ages. I've been expecting the company to fail and go under for a while now.
Then today I learn that they have unveiled a new smartphone, with a brand new OS called WebOS. Thank you! It's about time. (I just hope it will support Palm OS apps, but I may be dreaming there.)
Apparently, this new phone has a large touch screen (like the iPhone) but also has a pull out keyboard. And it is the first phone I know of to use wireless recharging technology.
Palm may have finally pulled ahead of the pack. I'm psyched.
If you want to learn more, Google "WebOS" or "Palm Pre". You'll find plenty of articles with more details than I am going to go into here.
Yea!
-Buck
...now all I have to do is write it.
Normally, I don't have a story complete in my head before I start writing it. But this time, I have it from start to finish. Between having an upset stomach, and this story bouncing around in my head, I woke up and was unable to get back to sleep.
So, I'm putting that novel on hold again until I can finish spilling this latest story into my computer.
It will be entitled Recognition.
OK, may as well get busy now. Later.
- Buck
Happy New Year, People!
OK, not to get all sappy and crap, but I hope everybody has a great 2009. Much love, laughter and luck.
As I have said before, I don't make New Year's resolution any longer. I don't think it makes sense to pick January 1st for a date to start making changes. Do it any time.
That said, I do think I will adopt the wise and immortal words of Bill and Ted: Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!
Peace.
- Buck
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