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Showing posts from January, 2007

Friday Night Link Up

PyPlus Creates a python-style C++. This replaces {} with indentation and removes excess parenthesis. Its definately a very interesting project, but how many uses it sees I am not sure of. Tiger Woods Wii: Doesn't look poopy :: DESTRUCTOID :: Hardcore gaming blog One of my favorite games on the Wii has been the golf of WiiSports, but it is very limited and toyish, as fun as it is. The Tiger Woods title looks absolutely fantastic and I've never been a fan of golf or golf video games, but I'll pick this title up on launch day. WiiCade.com - Flash Games on your Nintendo Wii I had hoped someone would do this. Bookmark the website on your Wii and get quick access to lots of web-based flash and java games that are friendly to being played via the Wii and Wiimote. Nothing But Videos: Man Shoots Electricity Out Of His Hands There really isn't much more that I can say about this after the title. He even sets fire to things with his fingertips, and does this on a reg

The Snake Pit is About to Burst

The signs are all over the place. I can count at least five implementations of Python today: CPython, CL-Python, Jython, IronPython, and PyPy. The use of the language is sky rocketting and set to grab real mind-share as the hype over Ruby subsides. Things are looking good for a favorite green snake and british comedy troop reference, aren't they? Trouble is on the horizon in the very ingredients that could push us into true success. Our community and our very language is in danger of segregation, unless we all do something about it and learn to get along. One of the most visible dangers (to me) is being ignored for various political, cultural, and non-technical reasons. IronPython's users are increasingly pushing IronPython-only recipes, libraries, and tutorials. No one is talking about the transition of the alternative implemenations to CPython 3.0 compatability. To make matters worse, we still can not define the language without refering to an implementation. This is very un

MPAA Lobbying for Home Theater Regulations

A depressing and angering article by the same title: MPAA Lobbying for Home Theater Regulations I don't have a whole lot to say about this, but it sure did make me angry. It is a little old, but I had filed it away and planned to write about. I feel strongly enough for it that I'll write about it, even if I'm writing about it late. The basic idea here is that when the MPAA thinks of a home theater, they think in insane terms. If you have a TV over 29", stereo sound, and a couch, they are of the opinion that you owe them money and reporting of the use of your theater, just like the theater at the local mall. That is seriously just fucking crazy. I use such strong language because this is something to feel very strong about and thus to express strongly. My favorite quote is "Just because you buy a DVD to watch at home doesn't give you the right to invite friends over to watch it too. That's a violation of copyright and denies us the revenue that would be gen

I Am Gullible

I want to announce that I must be very gullible. Should be important to point out that I have never in my life even heard of the website, BBSpot.com, and so I had no idea they were a satire news site. With the draconian legislation the MPAA and RIAA try to push on us, is it any surprise that when I then read this article I responded without realizing it was a joke? It simply does not seem past them. Thanks to Jay for pointing out my blunder. Stupid do me think I is.

Python's super() Abused as a Hook

There has been some recent-ish discussion on the python-dev mailing list about "fixing" the super built-in, which is used to access attributes of an object with lookup rules on the superclass of a given class. This is used for different things and in different ways, but the most common usage seems to be as follows: class Foo(Bar): def action(self): super(Foo, self).action() self.actionCalledOnFooInstance = True This causes a call to Foo().action() to call the action method of the next class in the Method Resolution Order. Now, Bar.action might exist, or maybe Bar inherits from Baz and Baz.action() will be called. The point is, you don't have to know. The typical pattern here is the that we are looking for the superclass of the same class we are within ( Foo ) and call the same method we're already in ( action ), which is a repetition some people want to fix. I propose that super() is not broken at all, or even failing, but simply that we are mi

Python on Windows and the PATH

Took me a few hours to track down a problem with importing win32com and getting "ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found" which wasn't very clear. I doesn't even say what DLL it can't find! Long story short, it boils down to python not being able to find the pywintypes25.dll, which is located in C:\Python24, but which is not in the PATH. Seems like having C:\Python25 added to PATH or some other solution would be a good idea. The problem wasn't even with the pywin32 package, which is what I expected and where I kept looking, but in the configuration and runtime environment of the python interpreter.

PJE, I Have Little Time For What I Don't Prefer

Phillip J. Eby , I have a lot of respect for a lot of the things you right, including most of your recent posts . Dimwits refuse to learn, assholes yell at you for suggesting it, and good developers can acknowledge and embrace their faults and ignorance . No matter how much I learn I never want to think I have nothing left worth learning. There are a lot of technologies and solutions I do not use. I'm sure all of them have their good points and their bad points, Zope included. However, I probably won't ever get to know much or anything about them. The time to familiarize myself in any valuable degree with Zope , Django , Turbogears , and mod_python is simply more than I have after using the solutions I actually apply to real usage. Besides the things I can't find time to learn, even if I know they probably have really interesting aspects, there are definitely things I just won't learn or won't learn any more of. PHP is a good example, and many people know just