December 2011
3 posts
It doesn’t get its own ideas →
Since 1958, the Netherlands has undertaken an enormous series of projects called Delta Works, to build storm surge barriers and dams to protect their land from flooding. One of the most recently…
Exceptional Australia →
Is the Australian economy exceptional? Possum Comitatus writing at Crikey argues that it is: So this is our economic reality – we are the wealthiest nation in the world with 75.5% of our adult…
Correlation or causation? →
Classic infographic by Vali Chandrasekaran at Businessweek: Correlation or causation? Need to prove something you already believe? Statistics are easy: All you need are two graphs and a leading…
October 2011
1 post
How to tell an iPhone 4S from an iPhone 4 →
Having picked up my new iPhone 4S last week, I was struggling to find what the physical difference was between my new phone and my friends’ old (and oh so outdated) iPhone 4 models. It turns out…
September 2011
1 post
UDP port forwarding with socat →
This morning I was trying to do what should be a trivial operation with any modern operating system: forward traffic destined for a UDP port on my machine to a different port on the same machine….
March 2011
1 post
“The news that he had died instantly was a terrible shock to all of us, but who...”
– Bruce McLaren, From the Cockpit (1964)
August 2009
1 post
Why software quality is important →
Even though he’s talking just about the development of his iPhone application, Buzz Andersen hits the nail on the head about why quality matters for the long-term success of any software product:
May 2009
2 posts
On a slow boat to China →
Early next week, Liz and I are heading off to China for a long holiday. We’re travelling for eight weeks, with only the loosest of itineraries. It’s going to be an exciting adventure into the land…
Smart Quotes: library for curly quotes in Java →
Recently, I’ve become a fan of using proper punctuation in web pages. This includes simply expanding the range of punctuation I use to include a variety of dashes, fractions and symbols,…
April 2009
1 post
Oracle acquires Sun, Java →
Yesterday, Sun was acquired by Oracle for $9.50 a share. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is quoted in the New York Times: He said Java, the language used in most computer science schools and a…
February 2009
1 post
The infamous Turkish locale bug →
I discovered a quirky comment today in Confluence’s Permission.forName(String) method:
// use the english locale to avoid the infamous turkish locale bug
String upperName =...
November 2008
1 post
Wiki visualisations with JavaScript: Processing.js... →
Once every few months, Atlassian holds a “FedEx day”. Developers are free to work on a project of their choosing, with the aim being to deliver something within 24 hours. For the October FedEx day,…
October 2008
1 post
HTML 5, headings and sections →
Tonight there was a presentation at the Web Standards Group by Lachlan Hunt about some of the new facilities provided by new and upcoming web standards: HTML 5 and CSS 3. One point that…
September 2008
6 posts
Webjam 8 roundup →
Webjam 8 was the first Webjam I’ve been to, and I had a great time. Frenetic 3-minute talks from inspiring presenters and chatting to loads of web guys about their work — what could be more fun? …
SpringSource has a new business model →
The Server Side broke the news a few days ago that SpringSource is changing their maintenance policy for the Spring Framework source code. In essence, they’ll no longer make public patch…
iPhone 2.1 adds SVG support to Mobile Safari →
The latest software upgrade to the iPhone, version 2.1, finally brings SVG support to the iPhone. Why is this useful? Well, I first noticed that it was working on Dmitry’s Raphaël demo site,…
A small victory for plain English →
Tesco, the British supermarket chain, has bowed to grammatical pressure and decided to correct the signs in its stores which indicate service for customers with “ten items or less”. According to…
Open Web podcasts →
Today I finally found time to listen to the Open Web podcasts, put together by Dion Almaer, John Resig and Alex Russell. I’ve listened to the first two episodes of the four published so…
Diffie-Hellman key exchange →
Cryptography is very very old. Over two thousand years ago, Julius Caesar used the Caesar substitution cipher to encrypt communications with his generals. There are examples of similar ciphers going…
August 2008
17 posts
CSS layout fundamentals, part 5: floats →
This is the fifth part in my series of articles on CSS layout fundamentals. Designed to rid the world of table-based layouts forever, you can find the other parts here: Part 1: the box model
Viral marketing at work: Nikon D90 →
Chase Jarvis has written a fantastic article about the new Nikon D90, which he has been testing prior to its release. The most compelling part of the review for me was the video produced with…
Web pages which track mouse movement →
I came across two really interesting pages yesterday that seemed so intertwined I needed to write about them together. The first is a neat jQuery plugin called jParallax for producing parallax…
CSS layout fundamentals, part 4: positioning →
This is the fourth part in my series of articles on CSS layout fundamentals. Designed to rid the world of table-based layouts forever, you can find the other parts here: Part 1: the box model
Education and the web →
My parents always used to tell me: I could achieve anything if I put my mind to it. The funny thing is, with the web at your fingertips, often you don’t need to put your mind to work to achieve…
CSS layout fundamentals, part 3: block and inline... →
This is the third part in my series of articles on CSS layout fundamentals. Designed to rid the world of table-based layouts forever, you can find the other parts here: Part 1: the box model
Intel demonstrates wireless power →
Intel demonstrated their new technology for wireless transmission of power which uses magnetic induction to transmit power without cables. It showed a power loss of only 25% when lighting a 60 W…
CSS layout fundamentals, part 2: the visual... →
This is the second part in my series of articles on CSS layout fundamentals. Designed to rid the world of table-based layouts forever, you can find the other parts here: Part 1: the box model
…
CSS layout fundamentals, part 1: the box model →
Part of my strongly worded advice to all web developers was that you absolutely should not be using tables for page layouts in web pages in 2008. This is great advice, but unless you know how…
Muxtape pulled down by RIAA →
Muxtape, the awesomely simple music sharing website, has been pulled down by the RIAA. It’s a real shame. It was a simple, useful and well-designed site. I had created my own muxtape…
MobileMe doesn’t use SSL but don’t worry →
There’s been a bit of a ruckus recently over MobileMe not encrypting its pages. Allegedly, this leaves your email open to abuse by all the internet’s miscreants. Fortunately, this just…
Don’t talk to the police →
This video of an American criminal lawyer, Professor James Duane, has a compelling explanation of why you should never talk to the police if you’re a suspect in a criminal case. If you can spare…
10 things every web developer should know →
Now that web development is well into its second decade as a profession, the field has changed enormously. Savvy web developers are more keen on standards-compliance, multiple browser support, use…
Raphaël: the JavaScript vector graphics library →
One of my colleagues, Dmitry Baranovskiy, has spent his 20% time working on a cross-browser JavaScript library for manipulating vector graphics called Raphaël. The first release was…
Flickr’s magical geotagging switch →
After getting your confirmation, the iPhone 3G helpfully tags all photos it takes with longitude and latitude. Your photos will then store EXIF information about where they were taken. This is…
Back from Thredbo →
I’m back from my skiing holiday in Thredbo. I had a great week, staying in the village with Liz, the Hodzics, and Stewart and Nadine. The snow was amazing, but surprisingly the resort was almost…
Starbucks in Australia →
This week, Starbucks closed the majority of its Australian stores. Included in the 685 staff who were dismissed, one of my friends lost his job—his first full-time position since he moved to…
July 2008
27 posts
Online TV and advertising →
CBS announced the results of a survey last week that showed that making their shows available online would lead many people to watch the show on broadcast television: Key findings of the CBS…
From the archive: iPod shuffle →
Here’s an article that I wrote back in July 2005, but never got around to publishing. Not sure why, actually. Yesterday I succumbed to the desire to be hip and joined the crowds of…
iPhone music tips →
I’ve heard a few gripes that the iPhone isn’t that great for listening to music. It’s not as good as a dedicated iPod. I agree that the lack of dedicated controls for music changing can be a hassle,…
iPhone application black market →
This article has a good summary of the problems with the Apple’s current iPhone SDK and App Store. It also lists many of the useful applications that won’t run on the iPhone until there’s…
Couldn't care less →
I was always been interested in watching The West Wing, but never seemed to find the time while it was showing on TV. Fortunately, a friend recently lent me the season one DVDs, so I’ve been…
iPhone 3G pros and cons →
I’ve been away from the blogging a bit this week. I’ve been a bit sick and a bit distracted by my new toy, Apple’s iPhone 3G. So I figure it’s time for a bit of a review. Pros: the user interface …
Mandarin cheat sheet →
This Wednesday, I’m starting the second stage of my Mandarin lessons at USyd’s CCE. This ten week course will focus on relearning all the stuff we covered in the first term, but this time to…
My iPhone story →
Yesterday, I finally got an iPhone. And I queued a lot longer than I expected, which was a bit of a shame. After walking past a few Optus stores on launch day last Friday, I decided I was going to…
Browser market share →
You can never be too sure how accurate these figures are, but I came across some interesting statistics while researching another article: Internet Explorer
73.01%
Firefox
19.03%
Safari
…
Making Adium look hot →
One of the things I do when I set up a new computer is installing and customising Adium, the Mac chat client. Adium is an amazing application. It connects to all the major chat networks, has a…
Still no iPhone for me →
Despite picking my plan early last week, long queues have on several occasions put me off getting an iPhone since they went on sale last Friday in Sydney. Originally, I was planning to head up to…
ICFP programming contest 2008 →
This year I organised another team from work for the ICFP programming contest. Our team, The Unchecked Exceptions, this year consisted of Chris, Jed, Tom and me. I’ll write up a more thorough…
Benefit #35 of open source software →
Several years ago, while I was still working for a bank and writing Java code in Eclipse, I found myself wanting split-screen editing in Eclipse. I found the relevant improvement request: Bug…
Artistic JavaScript →
I came across this amazing JavaScript art project this morning, Algorithm Ink. Have a read of Aza’s introductory blog post, which explains how to use the tool: In honor of the the release of…