August 2007 archive

Moving to NetBeans (from Eclipse)

NetBeans Projects Pane

I’m trying out NetBeans 5.5.1 as a Java IDE and I’m very impressed so far. Thought I’d cough up some related thoughts on programming environments and free software, mixed with some personal history:

MS Visual Basic

I began my corporate programming career using Visual Basic 4, and moved on up to VB6, which I continued to use at home until last year. I really liked VB for GUI programming and quickly putting together various utility programs. I’ve probably made over a hundred more or less complicated VB programs for my personal use, in addition to the huge program I worked on at my job many years ago.

Java

While still using VB on the job, I started learning Java and have done a fair amount of …

Inside the Library

Just to show that you shouldn’t always judge a book by its cover, and that the inside can be more warm and inviting:

This is part of the children’s section at our local public library. I hope our daughter will have happy memories of going to the library and visiting all of the worlds it offers. Of course there is this magical Internet universe (multiverse?) now, but I think–I hope–that paper books will still have their place.

For a while yet, anyways.

Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license

Related: This Building is a LIBRARY

This Building is a LIBRARY

In case there were any doubts.

Stark, institutional, and maybe we would say ugly, but functional. You can, in fact, find, read, and check out books here.

It is certainly easier to identify from the road than some other buildings, and there is something to be said for that.

There is also a 2816 x 2112 version of the picture.

This photo is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 license, because much like the building, this web site exists to freely share information, knowledge, and culture, while at the same time not necessarily pursuing aesthetics as its highest priority.

Related: Inside the Library

Citibank: You’re on Notice

Updated, 29 September 2007: See below…

Citibank: Support free software–by supporting open standards and making your web site accessible–or become dead to me.

Free software users: please take the time to complain loudly but politely when you are prevented from using web sites that “require” Microsoft Windows plus Internet Explorer or Macintosh plus Safari or whatever combination of proprietary operating system plus web browser. Insist that they should support open standards.

I was having trouble this weekend with the login page for bill payments on citicards.com, probably because of their use of Flash. I first complained to my (long suffering) wife about this. I said now I was going to have to write and complain about it, and that it’s a challenge because I don’t want to spend that much time drafting …

Who will own (and police) our digital future?

So the RIAA and MPAA want the colleges and universities (and corporations and your grandmother and etc.) to enforce our out-of-control copyright laws. It’s disturbing how much power these organizations already wield, and how much more power they think they should have in dictating how free the flow of information should be. Our future is digital, with infinite possibilities for freedom, but these guys would prefer that artificial scarcity rules the game.

(via Against Monopoly)

[…]

Reid’s amendment is a clear illustration of the effectiveness of lobbying. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think the trade groups actually wrote the text of the law. It vests in these groups a vast amount of money–taxpayer money–and, hence, power.

…

Perfectly Cromulent Image Cropping with the GIMP

Make that extracromulent.

I’m guessing that most people with a digital camera or a web site have spent time cropping pictures. There are lots of programs that can do this. Often we start out by using the ones that happen to be installed, and we manage for better or worse with the functionality they happen to have. In this post I hope to show you that the GIMP is a great tool for cropping pictures. I’m sure Photoshop has similar abilities, but instead of paying $700 (or whatever it costs now), why not use the free GIMP, available for GNU/Linux, Windows, and the Mac.

Don’t limp along: get the GIMP.

GIMP Home PageGIMP Wikipedia Article

The GIMP is the 800-pound gorilla of free software graphics …