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Web Log: |
attempts to rip/watch bluray movies in ubuntu hardyI hit a dead end trying to watch BluRay discs under hardy, but here's some links and the issues I had.
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gotchas with ubuntu hardy release candidateA couple of disappointing aspects of Hardy that do not appear to be getting fixed before release.
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heads up for potential XBox 360 buyersA friend of mine just returned his XBox360 and got a PS3 instead. Why?
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recent drops in DishHD audio and video qualitySome weird artifacts, robot voices...
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Matt's Bargain Basement Summer Of CodeSome small things I would like to fund, if anyone is interested. It only counts if it is approved by a source/package maintainer and/or included in Ubuntu's repository. Inclusion in the upstream repository would also be nice. Note the dependencies between some of these.The units here are in EUR, by the way. Please contact me via email at matt<>use!net if you are interested.
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a standard set of refactoring steps for C and C++While working on a large C++ project with another consultant, I started trying to codify some iterative steps for what we have been doing.
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using Visual Studio 2003 SP1 with the XDKI am familiar enough with VS2003 to know that SP1 is a necessity. Unfortunately, the XDK will only install on a naked VS2003. Here's how I worked around it.
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bypassing the visual studio 2003 upgrade checkMany moons ago, I had my Visual Studio 2002 CDs and was able to use my VS 2003 upgrade. Those CDs are long gone and I had to cheat a bit.
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xbox game reviews for 2007Geoff and I played a number of great XBox games this year, many of which were really good and $2-$10 at the local Gamestop. I've added a number rating by reader request.
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oh, it's moving..amusing work snippet
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HOWTO: skype 2.0 under kubuntu with an HP pavilion web camSkype 2.0 is working with the web cam integrated in my HP laptop! under KUbuntu Gutsy, even! This was enough of a chore I wanted to document it for the search engines. |
tech predictions for 2008A few tech predictions for 2008..
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thoughts on the November 2007 xbox360 backward compatibility updateMore of a mixed bag than other updates, but welcome nonetheless. |
what I'm watching on TVThe TV shows I'm enjoying right now, am not interested in, and am disappointed by.
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what programming language are you?An amusing quiz with a surprising result.
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my book is out!The book project I worked on for about a year is now available.
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my xbox360 xmas wishMy wish(es) for the rumored Xbox360 Ultimate Edition.
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javascript fun fact: sticking the wrong things into style properties will silently fail (almost)Some major head scratching with my pair this week when a style.height assignment in JavaScript just wasn't taking hold.
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more iframe JsUnit testing suckageYet another way IFRAMEs can get in the way of doing JsUnit tests..
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2003 time capsule: clusterable, fault-injecting virtual machinesIn 2003, I spec'd out a full product design and implementation plan for a fault-injecting virtual machine to automatically find exploitable bugs in a highly scalable fashion with little to no false positives. Here are my thoughts 4 years later now that similar ideas are being made public.
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book review: Secure Programming with Static AnalysisFortify, a commercial vendor of static analysis tools, has produced a book on static analysis. Is it just a long-winded advertisement and extended manual for their tools? Read on to find my opinion.
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usage of top.location can screw up Selenium testsIf a web app has code to try and break out of an iframe, it will be difficult to test in Selenium.
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should you upgrade to JUnit 4.x?I did an internal talk recently about JUnit 3.8 versus JUnit 4.3. Here's some notes and the verdict.
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rant on java's genericsSun had better get their act together, and I don't mean by putting out yet another refactoring IDE or slowly interpreting scripting languages.
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analyzing Ruby 1.9's bytecodeSome of my initial thoughts on how to approach binary code analysis for Ruby 2.0 and its x86 JIT.
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C#/CLR question: does the readonly keyword help the JIT at all?After scouring books and blogs, I can't find a real answer to this question: does the readonly keyword in C# help the JIT optimize better at all?
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mysql fun fact: you don't need tolower(), and indexing slows substring criteriaOn MySQL 5.1, substring matches are case-insensitive, so tolower() does nothing except slow things down. Further, if you are doing substring searches and you index the columns searched against, the query will be twice as slow.
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javascript fun fact: "" == 0 == falseA quick fun fact about JavaScript I learned last week.
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PlayStation3 gets "upscaling"A software update to the PS3 gives its PS1 and PS2 emulation upscaling and filtering. In short, it's totally bogus and not anything approaching the 360's real upscaling.
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hardware review: Creative Labs X-ModCreative Labs has a new product called the XMod
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book review: Professional RootkitsMy professional acquaintance, Ric Veiler, has written the best book on writing Rootkits I have read.
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hybrid gas mileage revisedThe EPA has revised their gas mileage measurement process, bringing hybrid MPG estimates down quite a bit. It doesn't match up with my experience, though.
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updating my KUbuntu 6.10 (Edgy) to 7.04 (Feisty) betaUnlike the upgrade from 6.06 to 6.10, I had some significant issues during this KUbuntu upgrade.
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xbox game review: ObscureWe beat ObsCure a few months ago, here's my take on this neat adventure-horror game.
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dear microsoft, please do better.The new XBox 360 revision is disappointing to me, at best
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hex editing xbox games to upgrade their resolution to (at least) 480pHolding onto your XBox until the 360 is worthwhile? Here's how to squeeze some extra high definition out of your existing XBox games!
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integrating QA and testing roles in eXtreme Programming, part 1My opinions on integrating QA into XP and possibly other agile processes.
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concert review: Of Montreal at Bottom of the Hill in San FranciscoGeoff and I saw 'Of Montreal', an up and coming band, in San Francisco the other night.
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more bug finding with google code searchSome javascript-oriented regexps to help find cross-site scripting bugs.
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poem: You Are DreamingThis came to me while walking the dog this morning.
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refactoring with courageI've been working in a strict eXtreme Programming team on a client site, which is very nice. Here's some condensed observations and lessons from the last 2 weeks, with a focus on the JavaScript aspects of our work.
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automated code analysis audience prep (updated)Our classes on finding exploitable bugs with automated code analysis are in demand. We'll be teaching it again, as well as doing talks, at various points during the year. For people attending some or all of these things, here's some reading to prepare you.
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narcissistic nerd archaeology, part 1While moving, we started getting stuff off of old ZIP disks so we could toss them. One amusing find.
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album review: Duran Duran, "Astronaut"Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of Duran Duran. Here's I think of their last album, Astronaut, which was recorded with the re-united original band members.
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simple tests with Gimpel's online PC-Lint analysisGimpel, makers of PC-Lint, have a nifty web form where you can submit a chunk of code and see the PC-Lint output. I decided to see what its limits are by running some of the bugreport test cases through.
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album review: Weird Al Yankovic, "Straight Outta Lynwood"Finally an artist and record company understands that providing more value in the physical product is the way to get people to buy it. The album's pretty good, too!
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finding buffer iteration bugs with google's new code searchThere's been a couple of articles and blog posts about finding bugs with google's new code search. Here's some interesting queries and results around one of my favorites: buffer iteration bugs.
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most browsers can't print web pagesI found what appears to be a simple page that only one browser thus far can print correctly.
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initial impression of findbugsfindbugs is a binary static analysis tool for Java bytecode binaries. I used it on my project for the last few days, here are some initial impressions.
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xbox game review: grabbed by the ghouliesGeoff and I beat Grabbed by the Ghoulies for XBox a few days ago. Read on for the review.
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quoted in an article on Mono (updated)I was quoted in an article about Mono usage in the enterprise. Here are some additional thoughts and clarifications that weren't printed.
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using the Refactoring bookRefactoring is a great book and reference, but it can be intimidating to approach. Here's my recommendation.
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Zune vs iPod, why I don't careWhy the music player dick-fight between Apple and Microsoft still doesn't matter to me.
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Playing XBox games on XBox360Emulation, shmemulation. Why wait for Microsoft to perfect XBox emulation?
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observations from re-re-re-re-reading Harry Potter Years 1 & 2Getting a bit more from a stone in the nth re-reading of the Harry Potter books. This may be spoilers for some people, so don't read unless you've read all the books so far. Also, it might not make sense unless you have ;)
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bugreport project to be released under GPLv3 at defconLuis and I gave the proof-of-concept code from our BlackHat class to the students. We'll be releasing it to the public at Defcon.
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funding PCSX2 on the XBoxI want to play a PlayStation 2 game on my XBox. I'm funding some open source development to make that happen.
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The Stickiness of the Stack emulationLuis made a blog post explaining some difficulty he was having in evolving the design the code he's working on for the class. While I can't give him incredibly direct information, here are some general tips.
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TDD parsing the x86 opcode mod R/M byte, part 1The mod R/M (modRM) byte in x86 is a hairy proposition thanks to inconsistencies, undocumented things, and bit-level hackery. How do we deal with it in a TDD fashion?
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I am the SlimeI found an article mentioning one of my favorite Frank Zappa songs that I wanted to share.
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getting a C# 2.0-compiled NUnit running under monoMono's built-in NUnit can't deal with C# 2.0-compiled binaries. I need this functionality for the Linux and MacOS users in my class. Here's how I went about fixing this.
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One-look TDD guidesI found some great, simple one-sheet TDD guides.
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I Heart New York CityGeoff and I are in NYC spending the weekend with our friend Celeste. An accoint of our Saturday night follows.
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imeem job over, looking for new workMy current eXtreme Programming Lead job is over and I'm now looking for work.
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Zappa Plays Zappa in Los AngelesGeoff and I were in Los Angeles (his hometown) to see his family. We also saw the 'Zappa Plays Zappa' concert. A brief review follows.
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test list to unit tests to drive implementationIn a previous post, I talked about making a test list. People have emailed me saying they don't see the path from the test list to an implementation. Here's the next step.
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How TDD related to Inversion of Control and Dependency InjectionIn a private email discussion, a friend asked about my thoughts on how TDD and IOC/DI relate. Here's that email, edited, with additional commentary.
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nextgen consoles opinion: the PlayStation 3Initial thoughts and current opinions on next-gen consoles such as Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBox360, and Sony's Playstation 3.
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investment in open source companiesI read an article on VC investment in open source companies and posted a comment on the article I'm reproducing here.
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making a test list to drive featuresI have delegated code-related things in my BlackHat class to an old friend. I am going to help drive the development with tests, and here is what I came up with at the dog park on Sunday.
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working with kubuntuI settled on KUbuntu 6.06 as my new linux distro for my laptop. Here are the good, the bad, and the ugly things about it so far.
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switching my linux distroI've been using gentoo for a couple years now on my laptop (a Dell Inspiron 600m), and while I'm not incredibly unhappy other than things mentioned in previous posts, I think I should try some other distros. Today, I tried KUbuntu 6.0 Flight 7 (http://kubuntu.org), SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 beta 10 (aka SLED10 -- acquired privately), and Fedora Core 5 (http://fedora.redhat.com).
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making karaoke from your CDs, part 1How to use Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition to take obscure songs you like and make them into CDs you can take to karaoke!
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Google Summer of Code suggestionsGoogle's Summer of Code, an aboslutely wonderful program, pays students to work on open source projects over their summer vacations. Here's some ideas on how it can improve over last year.
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NUnitForms, continuous integration, and modal dialogsA landmine to watch out for when using NUnitForms with continuous integration environments like CruiseControl.NET, Draco.NET, etc.
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subscribing to this blog via RSSUse this link to subscribe to my blog via RSS: http://wiki.yak.net/535.weblog_rss |
a test suite for code analysisThe static analysis market is not innovating fast enough, and I think I know what can be done to help things along.
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what I need from a linux distro right nowGentoo just isn't what it used to be, so I'm looking to switch to another distro soon. Here's my checklist and initial thoughts.
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xbox game reviews for 2005Geoff and I beat Prince of Persia for XBox this weekend, and I figured I'd give it a little review along with the other games we finished in the last year in reverse order of completion.
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on the road to NUnitAsp supporting JavaScriptNUnitAsp doesn't support JavaScript or AJAX-like things, but HttpUnit does. I gotta fix that..
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best software magazine I have readBetter Software magazine is probably the best software-related magazine I have read to date.
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new job @ imeemI started my new job last Monday as an XP Lead at imeem.
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Test-Driven Development from the TrenchesI have an article in the January issue of Software Test & Performance magazine on the Test-Driven and Extreme Programming aspects of developing BugScan.
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Pair Programming is RadioactiveI never expected I would need to remove Pair Programming from my resume.
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Showtime's Masters of HorrorIf Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series didn't grab you at first, watch the "Homecoming" episode.
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HttpUnit issues with OpenRicoRan into some issues with HttpUnit and JWebUnit while on a job in Miami last week. Here's how to mostly work around them.
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all linux projects should be using valgrindA call to action for Firefox, Thunderbird, and other projects: USE VALGRIND AND FIX THE BUGS IT REPORTS.
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GO SEE HELLBENTA slasher movie like any other, except that all the people are gay.
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linuxworld san francisco 2005went to linux world today (wednesday)
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QA nightmare story #1sweet whiskey jesus, how did I survive that fuqn place?
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knowledge is not wisdom and love is not musicReviews of some albums I listened to recently, switching to Mozilla, and gearing up for BugScan.next
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the linux experience 2 years later, and infoworldGeoff got a new Athlon64 machine and we tried putting Linux on it. God help us.
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VS.NET is winking at me..Figuring out the Reflection and Debugging APIs took a year off my life, at least.
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the west wing and separate but equalAll the queers to the back of the bus.
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around the world, across the nation, and up your street...Sundance, Blackhat, and Bowie in LA..
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agile XP MO TDDThe journey to making agile development work for me..
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QA nightmare story #2Static schmatic analysis, runtime funtime paralysis
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who the fuq is the half blood prince?who the fuq is the half blood prince?
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the missing 10 minutes of the azkaban movie"Harry Potter 3", as my ticket called it needed 10 more minutes to be perfect.
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| (last modified 2009-05-04) [Login] |