Monthly Archives: October 2003
Coder or Killer?
I just scored 3 out of 10 on a quiz where you decide based on a photo whether someone is a programming language inventor or a serial killer. My first correct answer was for a photo of Phil Wadler. Since I know Phil and I used to work with him, one would hope that I… Read More »
Rock Paper Scissors Theory
I watched the first half of A Beautiful Mind last night, and I can’t help but think that John Nash might be an avid reader of Think Three magazine, “the leading periodical resource on RPS [Rock Paper Scissors] strategy, culture and style.” Never ones to shy away from controversy, the RPS society takes head-on the… Read More »
Minibar Snacks
Earlier I postulated that local TV reveals all you need to know about another culture. Okay, so if you don’t buy that one, surely you will agree with me that hotel room minibar snacks are the key to unlocking the true nature of the people from other lands. I found these fine, tasty snack treats… Read More »
Blaire Heart Scare
Tony Blair and David Blaine, or is that David Blair and Tony Blaine, were both diagnosed with and treated for an irregular heartbeat. Both were similarly diagnosed with, but not yet treated for, irregular decision making.
Printing and Scanning from Linux
The easy path to getting an Epson Stylus Color 860 printer and an Epson Perfection 1200s scanner working with Red Hat 9 or Fedora.
Global Elegies
A lobster-shaped coffin, ants eating sugar skulls, and a devil getting his teeth removed by skeletons in the Global Elegies: Art and Ofrendas for the Dead exhibit at the Oakland Museum.
Voxilla
Voxilla is a great source for info on new developments related to VoIP, SIP, and other relatively new communication related technologies. Jeff Pulver from Free World Dialup and Ravi Sakaria, CEO of VoicePulse, even have their own forums where they answer questions. One of the areas generating controversy on the website involves the Skype hype.… Read More »
Early Goodbye to Windows
The Plan – By the end of 2003, shift usage of home PC from mostly Windows to mostly Linux. Windows XP forced my hand a little earlier than I had planned. As of late, I have probably been spending about a third of the time booted into Linux instead of XP. However, when I returned… Read More »
DialogXML
A couple of researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Hitachi have written a paper on an extension to VoiceXML to more easily support complex dialog systems. Their focus is on scenarios where you have multiple related dialogs and want to allow for flexible transitions between these dialogs. From the abstract: This paper describes DialogXML, an extension… Read More »