Older blog entries for Sunir (starting at number 15)

I've been working on Jabber lately, trying to see where it fits into the Big Picture. I've been developing a SVG Whiteboard for the last month.

I'm rather worried about jabber.com's survivability given the most recent news. I hope they survive because Jabber is really good. Not as an instant messaging system (like, who cares?) but as a protocol layer.

6 Nov 2000 (updated 6 Nov 2000 at 08:41 UTC) »

I tried writing this eloquently--lyrically even--but I don't think I could pull it off. In fact, I think I detracted from the contribution of others.

The news: I believe MeatballWiki, the online community about online community (and other society <-> technology dynamics), has hit critical mass. MeatBall:RecentChanges is jumpin'.

I can't keep up with it, and I'm the worse RecentChangesJunkie out there. And the conversations are good--I want to reply to everything. I'm awfully proud of the quality.

So, yes, this is an indirect plug, but I would be happy just to publically credit the contributions of others. Good work, folks.

I recently acquired a turquoise Photon light from ThinkGeek. Currently, I am up pulling an all-nighter writing a paper that is due in seven hours. Getting a little woozy, I decided to blow turquoise photons onto my retinae in order to shock myself awake.

A few seconds of that was enough. I got up, walked around, came back and noticed that my screen had deep yellow splotches on it. Not making the connection, I degaussed it. No change. Crap!, I thought. I hope my monitor isn't fried.

Then I moved my head. The splotches moved. One neuron talked to another and suddenly I realized my retinae were fried.

Cool!

Maybe my brain is fried.

Right, so I'm doing a little hacking at MeatBall:CrystalPalace tonight instead of studying for my midterm (having achieved brain freeze), and I get to the point where I need to do a HTTP redirect. No problem, I just do a simple

     print "Location: $url\n\n";

which adequately makes MSIE4 load the right page. All is good...

Until I read the location bar. Instead of pointing to crystal.pl?Foo%20Bar, it's pointing to just crystal.pl! Crap!

I'm dieing everywhere trying to trace this bugger. Then I remember seeing and fixing the same thing when Cliff upgraded UseModWiki to do the same thing. "How did I fix it?" I wonder. "How did I fix it?"

Bammo. I remember. I close MSIE, reopen it, try it again. Sure enough, the location bar shows the correct URL. What was wrong? MSIE4's cache. @?$#(*&!!!

28 Sep 2000 (updated 28 Sep 2000 at 07:13 UTC) »

It's job hunting season again here in the backwoods of Ottawa. Us young co-ops are off looking for work come January in order to keep us warm in the snow.

Looking at the co-op board, it is as uninspiring as ever. "Blah blah blah Java blah blah blah HTML blah blah blah ASIC blah blah blah Software Verification Specialist." But then again, I'm kind of burnt out.

Or maybe I just hate Java on Linux eBusiness solutions for an exciting pre-IPO opportunity. Whatever.

I would like doing some pervasive computing (maybe even with pie-in-the-sky BlueTooth) or writing articles about online culture. If I was smart, I'd try to land a job doing that.

I definitely don't want to go through another JustaStudent round. That would make me angry.

Finally, I have managed to get something up at http://sunir.org/sunir. It even looks good in Netscape, the useless browser, which is amazing considering the amount of cascading style sheets I used.

You know, at some point, people are going to notice that I only write diary entries on Advogato that shamelessly plug stuff I'm doing. I've turned into an evil marketroid. Crap.

Can't help it. I write enough about myself as it is. I have another diary on MeatBall:SunirShah. And another monthly one on SunirShah. All I need now is a webcam. No, all I need now is sleep. 'night.

25 Sep 2000 (updated 25 Sep 2000 at 04:35 UTC) »
cla: WikiAddicts know how to twist grammar to make the links work. If you were one, though, you'd know about MeatBall:WantedPages (WantedWikiPages). Don't worry though. It isn't bad until MeatBall:AllPages (WikiList) turns purple.

P.S. On Advogato, you have to surround your InterWiki links with <wiki></wiki> tags.

ErikLevy: Remember that you don't make money from selling software. You make money from solving people's problems. Volunteerware solves the volunteers' problems. There will always be a need for companies to cater to the rest of the populace.
ErikLevy: You may be interested in my counterpoint argument on MeatBall:InformationWantsToBeFree.
22 Sep 2000 (updated 22 Sep 2000 at 05:39 UTC) »
eskimoses (er, Scott): I tried very hard to make my reply on Advogato:art icle/173.html as small and tight as possible. I hope you appreciate the effort. And thanks for the kind words about MeatballWiki. Have you played with MeatBall:RandomPage yet? Methinks you'll like it. It's kind of scary how many times a day Cliff and I have been slamming it.

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