The Foo bar

Nov 24

The Internet's "10 commandments"

    Peter delivered the Internet’s 10 commandments on Mount Sinai:

    1. Independence of applications
    2. New applications can be added anytime that’s a core value
    3. Permissionless innovation
    4. Open standards
    5. Accessible and globally inclusive—anyone can use it
    6. User choice—I can choose what applications I use and where I go to with them
    7. Ease of use—I can use it in my language, I can use it in a device I’m familiar with
    8. Freedom of expression
    9. The ability to change rapidly
    10. Trustworthy and reliable is one we have to work on; it’s got to be a core value.

    Are you listening, Microsoft?

    Nov 13

    Using JRebel with Lift

    1. Configure Maven to use JRebel

    On Windows:

    set MAVEN_OPTS=-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -Xmx512m -noverify -javaagent:C:\path\to\jrebel-2.1.1\jrebel.jar

    On Linux:

    MAVEN_OPTS="-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:MaxPermSize=128m -Xmx512m -noverify -javaagent:/path/to/jrebel-2.1.1/jrebel.jar"

    2. Run Jetty

    mvn jetty:run

    3. Start Scala Compiler (in another terminal window)

    mvn scala:cc

    Get a free license here: http://www.zeroturnaround.com/scala-license/

    Nov 07

    How to get a location's coordinates with Google Maps

    Center the location you want on the map, paste the following Javascript code on the browser’s location bar, and press Enter.

    javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));

    Oct 30

    Setting up Hudson on Ubuntu

    First, I installed Hudson:

    1. Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list: 
      deb http://hudson-ci.org/debian binary/
    2. Update the APT index: 
      sudo apt-get update
    3. Install Hudson: 
      sudo apt-get install hudson

    Then, I setup my first project on Hudson. We use Subversion, and some files have non-ASCII filenames; Hudson was choking on the checkout with the infamous

    svn: Can't convert string from 'UTF-8' to native encoding

    error. After a lot of googling, trial and error, I finally fixed it by:

    1. Adding LANG="en_US.UTF-8" to /etc/environment
    2. Creating /etc/default/locale and adding LANG="en_US.UTF-8" to it.
    3. Changing the hudson user’s shell to bash (sudo chsh -s /bin/bash hudson)
    4. Creating ~hudson/.profile and adding LANG="en_US.UTF-8" to it

    Oct 23

    About "Intellectual Property"

    Awesome comment by someone named “John” on TorrentFreak re. so-called Intellectual Property:

    It’s not property and you, sir, are not an intellectual.

    The very idea that something infinitely reproducible could be considered to have value is preposterous and flies in the face of call macro economic theory. Infinite supply results in infinitesimal value.

    Eventually people will realize that what is being called intellectual property is actually the result of a service, then we will all be happier.

    I want to pay the person who provided the service, but pretending that something ethereal is property is not the way to do it. While it is simple to create copies, people will continue to do it and the companies who fight it will lose potential customers.

    Wake up. We are willing to pay for the services rendered, but your prices are ridiculous.

    Oct 07

    “Opinions come quickly to experts and morons. Few of us are experts.” — Dennis Forbes, The Underappreciated Art of Duct Tape Programming

    Oct 06

    “DRM doesn’t stop people from pirating a game, on the contrary. It only hurts legitimate customers since the DRM is removed from the pirate version.” — TorrentFreak post by “Ernesto”

    How to "stripe" the messages pane in Postbox

    1. Find your Postbox profile folder (it’s a randomly-named folder under %AppData%\Postbox\Profiles
    2. Create a folder named chrome
    3. Create a file named userChrome.css with the following contents:
    @namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");
/* set default namespace to XUL */

/* Set Thread pane to alternate row colours
http://getsatisfaction.com/postbox/topics/alternate_background_colors#reply_794176
*/
#threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-row(odd) {
	-moz-appearance: none !important;
	background-image: none !important;
	background-color: #EFEFEF !important;
}
#threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-row(selected) {
	background-color: #BECFEC !important;
}
#threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-row(selected, focus) {
	background-color: Highlight !important;
}

    Sep 22

    Postbox - A better mail client

    Postbox is a mail client for Windows and Mac built over the Mozilla (Thunderbird) codebase, with a few new features and a great deal of polish.

    I’ve been a Netscape Mail user for a long time, then a Thunderbird user (since 0.8 or so), and I’m using Postbox for a week and already love it. The best feature in Netscape Mail and its descendants is the threaded mail view, and Postbox takes it to another level.

    Lots of Eudora orphans are raving about it. I just bought my license; hope they keep improving it, like updating the compatible Lightning extension to the latest version.

    Armadilha

    Tirinha do Laerte