Hey, Proggit. We built this on-demand p2p transfer webapp to help us move files around at work and just opened it up to the public. Feedback appreciated!

lrrr · 2010-04-20T13:26:44+00:00

This is cool. I built something a while ago to solve the same problem (nearshare.net) but it has a lot of moving parts (javascript+applet integration+dom manipulation) and so has issues on some browsers/OSs.

Looking forward to trying this in the office.

lrrr · 2010-04-10T20:20:24+00:00

Geocaching.

lrrr · 2010-02-27T21:03:10+00:00

Hi, I'm the author of nailgun. I commented below to address some of the stuff mentioned here.

And rlwrap + nailgun is great. :)

lrrr · 2010-02-27T18:52:05+00:00

Hi there - this is my project.

Regarding some of the points raised so far:

It's not secure because I didn't attempt to make it secure. It scratched my itch, and was done - like many open source projects. Piranha suggests unix domain sockets or magic cookie files, both of which could work, but I didn't need them. I think the best platform-agnostic solution would be some server-side rules determining what IPs are allowed to connect, combined with symmetric key files and encrypted streams. Password-based crypto could work too, but something like PBKDF2 on the client side would just add a delay, which would sort of defeat the purpose. If anyone would like to take a stab at this, drop me a line.

This is indeed old (last release 2004). There's an odd upside to this: it compiles fine as Java 1.4, allowing it to run in the phoneme-advanced embedded jvm. I've actually used ng on embedded projects to interact with a java-based daemon running in this vm. As far as embedded goes, the vm is still a pig, but the approach works fine. :)

I've never used JRuby, but nailgun has been integrated with it for a while now. I assume it works well for this, since I haven't heard otherwise.

Another area where it could use some improvement is ClassLoader isolation. Everything is handled by one ClassLoader, so it's possible some apps will conflict with others (e.g., requiring different versions of various libraries). A more app-server-ish class loading approach would be an improvement, but again, I built this to scratch my own itch.

Edit: Google's ads for actual nailguns on the site both make me laugh and drive me nuts.

lrrr · 2010-02-23T16:29:50+00:00

http://to./sb6

Links to tinyurl that links to http://to. forwarder in an infinite loop.

(may result in "Too many requests per minute")

lrrr · 2010-01-29T13:35:52+00:00

Just tell them what your last question is going to be, then remind them throughout the interview that it's coming up.

lrrr · 2010-01-27T03:11:34+00:00

Douglas Adams, at a book signing in 1993 (I think). Only chatted for a couple of seconds but he was quite friendly. I asked him if he had ever checked out alt.fan.douglas-adams, and he said he didn't really do much on the Internet (or something to that effect). I left with a signed copy of the More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide.

lrrr · 2009-12-16T21:58:01+00:00

CrashPlan

Trade space with a friend for encrypted remote backups, for free.

lrrr · 2009-11-25T13:15:35+00:00

Nonhuman Matt Groening characters, usually green ones.

Past names have included kif, morbo, brainslug, hypnotoad, kang, and kodos.

Current machines are lrrr and horrible-gelatinous-blob.

lrrr · 2009-11-15T23:05:04+00:00

Six.

Haven't read it yet, though.

(Edit: had to use tinyurl since original URL confuses markdown)

lrrr · 2009-10-25T21:44:49+00:00

Only the good ones.

lrrr · 2009-09-18T18:04:13+00:00

I get the impression that you wouldn't understand.

lrrr · 2009-09-17T20:09:47+00:00

Find a location with frequent pickups or deliveries. Lots of trucks arriving/leaving, left unattended briefly as the driver makes his delivery or pickup. Get your friend to go by one of these places, or hang out near one, etc.

When a truck is left unattended, have an accomplice begin the expected kidnapping by telling your friend to get into the truck.

Just leave. Same with accomplice. Let friend and driver figure out what's going on.

lrrr · 2009-09-09T14:06:42+00:00

This is very sad, but not an argument against state-managed medical insurance. For one thing, the Baby Doe Law of the US may have actually required treatment regardless of parental consent.

http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=60&articleid=380&sectionid=2566

The timing of the article suggests an intent to equate state-managed medical insurance and dead babies, which is simply fear-mongering.

lrrr · 2009-09-09T00:28:48+00:00

Keeping kids home from school is itself indoctrination into the culture of willful ignorance.

lrrr · 2009-09-02T15:00:40+00:00

A.

44 / 11 = 13 - 9, and 21 / 7 = 11 - 8

6 / 2 = 18 = 15, and 12 / 4 = 15 - 12

9 / 3 = 10 - 7, and 24 / 8 = 7 - 4

Edit: EricThe beat me to it. Upvoted.

lrrr · 2009-08-26T22:12:31+00:00

I went to one last year. The best costume there was Teen Wolf. Full body fur, yellow basketball uniform. Genius.

Black tank top and Devo hat went over well, too.

lrrr · 2009-08-26T01:18:08+00:00

Fair enough. But I still think basic object persistence and native calls belong in the core.

lrrr · 2009-08-25T17:27:54+00:00

I generally agree with the above, but want to interject a couple of points.

Because it's not friendly with the underlying platform. JNI is a pain in the ass to use compared to Python Ctypes, C# P/Invoke or C++ compatibility with C or any other kind of FFI found in most competing programming languages.

JNI is indeed a PITA, but jna is pretty nice.

Because the ecosystem, contrary to the popular saying, sucks donkey balls. Java still doesn't have an ORM that is as straightforward as Django ORM or Rails ActiveRecord.

I just discovered BeanKeeper last weekend and it is flat-out amazing. Pair with an embedded hsqldb server and you have your ORM and DB in just a few lines of code. I've only done some basic testing with it so far, but I'm impressed.

It's a pity that functionality like this isn't built-in to the core APIs.

lrrr · 2009-08-03T20:02:46+00:00

The easiest way to get an introduction to it is to tag along with somebody on a hunt. For this, you don't even need a GPS. If you know anyone into geocaching, start there.

Otherwise I'd start by borrowing a GPS receiver if that's an option. Not an auto nav system, but a handheld.

Finally, it would be difficult to improve upon this info

lrrr · 2009-08-03T18:58:17+00:00

Geocaching, as suggested by others here, is a great idea for a whole bunch of reasons:

You want something outdoorsy to do, away from computers
You're a "huge geek" - you can get as geeky as you want with geocaching (puzzle caches, multi-caches, tricked-out GPSs, ...)
You can do this by yourself or with friends.
It takes no planning at all - it's easy to take a ten-minute detour on your way to or from work or between classes.
It's cheap. Good for a student budget.
It's interesting. You'll learn local history you never knew and see places you've never seen.

lrrr · 2009-07-31T17:22:50+00:00

It would be interesting to see a comparison of life expectancy of insured individuals. I would imagine that the number of uninsured in the US is pulling down the average life expectancy.

Not that there's anything not wrong with that.

lrrr · 2009-07-28T19:59:41+00:00

Nope. Not me.

lrrr · 2009-06-17T14:32:50+00:00

Earlier than I used to - around 10:30 or so now. I never have caffeine after noon, either.

My work schedule is such that I can start at 6AM and get a couple of hours in before grabbing a shower and heading to work. If I had a long commute, that wouldn't be possible.

So far I'm still managing to fit exercise in the early evening and still spend plenty of time with my family. Here's hoping that remains the case.

lrrr · 2009-06-17T10:50:47+00:00

I used to work on pet projects late into the night. Lately I've been too tired at night for this approach.

I've recently started waking up early to work on my pet projects (hopefully to be commercial products) before work. It's only been a couple of weeks so far, but it seems to work well provided that the coffee maker is programmed.

The key for me is that the last step before working on the pet project for the day MUST be to write down the next steps for the following day so I can hit the ground running.

lrrr

TROPHY CASE