RTFA: http://mjtsai.com/blog/2002/11/25/perl_vs_python_v…

I’m evaluating Python and Ruby as replacements for Perl. I’ve been using Perl for several years and am very comfortable with it, although I’m definitely not an expert. Perl is a powerful language, but I think it’s ugly and encourages writing bad code, so I want to get rid of it. Python and Ruby both come with Mac OS X 10.2, both have BBEdit language modules, and both promise a cleaner approach to scripting. Over the past few weeks I read the Python Tutorial and the non-reference parts of Programming Ruby, however as of this afternoon I’d not written any Python or Ruby code yet.

Here’s a toy problem I wanted to solve. eSellerate gives me a tab-delimited file containing information about the people who bought my shareware. I wanted a script to extract from this file the e-mail addresses of people who asked to be contacted when I release the new versions of the products.

The real gem in this post is the 6-year-old comment thread, where a ton of people have posted versions of the same program in Perl, Python, and Ruby.

Here’s what I have to say: I use Perl5, and it is a natural extension of Unix. Most tasks that I would write in bash are easier to debug and maintain if I do them in Perl. I tend to write wrapper functions for pretty small units of computation, giving them names like “generate_total_from_invoice”, and as a result my Perl code tends to read like English.

Right now, though, I’m looking to write a scalable, maintainable object-oriented project… and I’ve been burned by Perl in the past for this task. It’s sick, but I long for Java’s strict typechecking, abstract interfaces, class properties with inheritance… I am really excited about Moose and Coat, but since they won’t be part of the base language until Perl6, it means most CPAN modules don’t take advantage of a sane OO interface.

Python happens to be really mature by this point, and the community is clearly vibrant. I have seen some really interesting stuff in the web app space, and it looks like Python provides third-party libraries that are comparable to CPAN. The importance of having a community of third-party library developers can’t be stated strongly enough, because it is through CPAN that I have gained great efficiencies by reusing other people’s code.

I think Python OO code looks great - I love the syntax, because it’s absolutely clear how class inheritance works. I think Ruby looks great too, but I think the community is too young and their libraries are too alpha. The Rails community is really exciting, however, and it obviously has a lot of momentum. I don’t like the idea of switching to ActiveRecord for data storage, which seems to be emblematic of a general trend in the Rails community to dictate “the right way.” Of course, I’ve seen some terrible Perl code (mostly my own) and the power to write the same thing in more than one way can burn you… but many times, “the right way” isn’t flexible enough.

In my humble opinion, I will conclude that RIGHT NOW, I think the most attractive language is Python. The bottom line is that any of these three languages will get the job done. Perl5 has a MAJOR problem with OO, and Ruby has a minor problem with the age of its community. I’m really excited for Perl6, because I have seen the future of Perl OO and I completely support it. However, I’m also a little scared to see what happens to the Perl community when the 5-to-6 switch happens (if it ever does). Really, Perl5 OO should be considered to be broken, and Perl6 is a completely necessary improvement.

…but if I’m not mistaken, Perl6 syntax is strangely dynamic to the point that it will essentially be a superset of Perl5, Python and Ruby… and Perl will again be the postmodern language to create a new paradigm for the next decade. IMO Ruby looks the nicest, and Perl is the “best” when you include the community, but Python has it all. Doh!

RTFA: http://gizmodo.com/391794/flying-rc-penis-disrupts…

We had to double check that this wasn’t a story about Second Life, but rather is an actual event in actual meatspace occurring this past weekend in Moscow. As former chess champion Garry Kasparov was giving a speech to unite opposition political forces, a radio-controlled penis flew across the room to some applause and laughter. The fun was ended when a dour-faced man smashed the penis out of the air.

This video is hilarious! By the look on his face, I think he thought it was an assassination attempt at first.

RTFA: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24665015/

LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal Friday and can compete for a place in the Beijing Olympics.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the 21-year-old South African is eligible to race against able-bodied athletes, overturning a ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

…the question was about the energy savings of the “running blades.” …and some people have argued both points, but this guy will be allowed to try out for the olympics. Without getting into either side of the discussion, it seems obvious that these blades aren’t *exactly* equivalent to human legs. …and furthermore, it also seems that they stand to be improved over time.

RTFA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specia…

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government’s forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the “pre-flight cocktail,” as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

“Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac,” says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was “dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose,” according to an airline crew member’s written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards “taking down” a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.

This is evidence of a problem.

RTFA: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/in-a-city-built…

“There’s thousands of cars and you’re just flying by,” said one of the group, called RichToTheIE, by phone on Wednesday. “It’s an amazing feeling.”

The renegade rides are a radical off-shoot of the popular - and often controversial - Critical Mass rides held each month in cities around the world as cyclists grow increasingly vocal in asserting their rights to the road and extolling the environmental and societal benefits of ditching your car in favor of a bike.

Such rides are usually limited to downtown areas, but Crimanimalz are taking them to the freeways of Los Angeles to prove that riding a bike is faster than creeping through bumper-to-bumper traffic.

I love this idea! We all saw it in the intro of Office Space, where the protagonist races an old man with a walker… and loses due to the traffic. Switching lanes repeatedly only seems to make things worse.

Coming out of the Bay Area, I can vouch for this kind of traffic… and at the same time, I can vouch for the amazing time savings of bike travel. So, I totally love this stuff:

The thing is, I totally believe it when they say they’re biking faster than freeway traffic. …and local gas prices hit $4.35 (for the expensive stuff). I can only imagine the arguments for justifying the status quo, but let’s face it: a good idea is a good idea, and one that saves you money and time is a fucking fantastic idea.

Get a bike with smooth tires, a helmet, a good lock, and a bike pump. This will cost less than a tank of gasoline.

RTFA: http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options - all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

enter your email address. your download link will be sent to this email, so please ensure it is a valid address. this will be kept confidential and never used for spam.

I have no idea what is going on with music, but I like it. Things are wildly unstructured, and the most recent offering from NIN is crazy-savvy. Instead of a CD, we have multiple formats, different encoding information, and torrent files.

…not only that, but “the slip” has been released with a creative commons license, and NIN are encouraging a remix ecosystem:

Very impressive work by Nine Inch Nails! …now, to actually listen to the music.

RTFA: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUST…

TOKYO Reuters - Ladies, take your battle for the environment a little closer to your heart with a solar-powered bra that can generate enough electric energy to charge a mobile phone or an iPod.

Wait, doesn’t this mean the bra has to be exposed to sun light? I love the Japanese!

RTFA: http://ssandler.wordpress.com/MTmini/

Don’t have a Multitouch Table yet? Have one, but need something smaller for testing? Building a small portable multitouch pad will allow you to test software and experiment on a smaller scale while building your full table or when away from your multitouch screen. Have fun and make a MTmini! This uses Front Diffused Illumination, with normal ambient light (infrared not required or needed) and a normal off-the-shelf webcam (IR filter can still be in place).

This is the easiest version I have yet seen. I haven’t made one myself, but it looks like the multitouch drivers are available for XP, Linux, and OS X. Totally awesome!

RTFA: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/12/bill-orei…

It should come as no surprise that Bill O’Reilly has always been a screamer, but it’s always nice to have video proof. Below, watch a vintage meltdown from his “Inside Edition” days

A direct quote from Bill O’Reilly: “[this] fucking thing sucks!”

RTFA: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/12/peop…

In the letter, he states: “The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can for me change this.”

Einstein, who was Jewish and who declined an offer to be the state of Israel s second president, also rejected the idea that the Jews are God s favoured people.

“For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything chosen about them. ”

RTFA: http://ece.uprm.edu/~andre/insert/

As part of our recent work on the trust hierarchy that exists among email providers throughout the Internet, we have uncovered a serious security flaw in Google’s free email service, Gmail. This vulnerability exposes Google’s email servers in a way that allows an attacker to use them as open spam and phishing relays. This issue is related to the risk of a malicious user abusing Gmail’s email forwarding functionality. This is possible because Gmail’s email forwarding functionality does not impose proper security restrictions during its setup process and can be easily subverted. By exploiting this problem an attacker can send unlimited spam and phishing (i.e. forged) email messages that are delivered by Google’s very own SMTP servers. Since the messages are delivered by Google’s own servers, an attack based on this flaw is able to bypass all spam filters that are based on the blacklist / whitelist concept. We were able to confirm that this vulnerability is indeed exploitable by crafting a proof of concept attack that allowed us to send forged email messages unrestrictedly through Google’s server infrastructure. We have also verified that this flaw allows attackers to bypass spam filters by using our method to send messages that are usually flagged as spam. While sending these messages directly from our network in the traditional way had the messages classified as spam, by sending the very same messages using our exploit, the messages were delivered directly to the victim’s inbox, thus bypassing filters. All email providers that offer Google’s SMTP servers any special level of trust (e.g. whitelist status) are vulnerable. We have contacted Google about this issue and are waiting for their position before releasing further details. Read our draft paper on the issue.

All of the details have been redacted from the draft…

RTFA: http://dev.jquery.com/~john/processing.js/

I’ve ported the Processing visualization language to JavaScript, using the Canvas element.

I’ve been working on this project, off-and-on now, for the past 7 months - it’s been a fun, and quite rewarding, challenge. The full scope of the project can be broken down into two portions:

The Processing Language

The first portion of the project was writing a parser to dynamically convert code written in the Processing language, to JavaScript. This involves a lot of gnarly regular expressions chewing up the code, spitting it out in a format that the browser understands.

It works “fairly well” (in that it’s able to handle anything that the processing.org web site throws at it) but I’m sure its total scope is limited (until a proper parser is involved). I felt bad about tackling this using regular expressions until I found out that the original Processing code base did it in the same manner (they now use a real parser, naturally).

This is a neat language I’ve watched for several years. This javascript implementation runs slow as hell in Firefox 2, but whatever - it’s still in development. The important thing here is that it works in javascript, whereas it previously required a browser plugin to play. This is definitely a cool step.

…in this image, you see a demonstration of the “classic” Substrate visualization.

RTFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev

the President of Russia, inaugurated on May 7, 2008. He won the presidential election held on March 2, 2008 with about 70% of the vote.

Medvedev was appointed first deputy prime minister of the Russian government on November 14, 2005. Formerly Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, he was also the Chairman of Gazprom’s board of directors, a post he has held (for the second time) since 2000. On December 10, 2007, he was informally endorsed as a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections by the largest Russian political party, United Russia, and officially endorsed on December 17, 2007. Medvedev’s candidacy was supported by former President Vladimir Putin and pro-presidential parties.[3] A technocrat and political appointee, Medvedev had never held elective office before 2008.

Meet the new Russian president. Don’t worry. Putin is still overlord.

RTFA: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howabou…

The Get Out Clause, an unsigned band from the city, decided to make use of the cameras seen all over British streets.

With an estimated 13 million CCTV cameras in Britain, suitable locations were not hard to come by.

They set up their equipment, drum kit and all, in eighty locations around Manchester - including on a bus - and proceeded to play to the cameras.

This is a great way to externalize the cost of production.

RTFA: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

Firefox Add-ons

Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience. Take a look around and make Firefox your own.

I don’t know if it’s clear from this image, but there are about 20 firefox addons that have created new buttons in the various toolbars. This is sortof overload, and it comes with quite a learning curve. The future of the Internet looks like this?

RTFA: http://www.bagsofcrap.com/wootsound.htm?item=Strai…

Strait-Line Intersect Laser Level
2.4% Left!
$12.99 + $5 shipping
The’re almost gone!
Quantity Guess (experimental) : 100
Quantity Guess (based on previous sales) : Not Enough Information… This item may have never sold in a wootoff before…
Time Remaining Guess : 0:0:47 Left.
Estimated sellout time : 05:33:13
Froogle:
Yahoo: 9.99

If you don’t know what woot.com, then let me explain. You are a capitalist pig. You are feeding at the woot trough. Usually, there is one item per day on the site, but occasionally, woot.com runs a “woot-off.” This is your opportunity to get a bag of crap, or possibly a screaming flying monkey. If you want to have a chance of getting the BOC or the SFM, you need to use a woot tracker.

…also, this is a chance for me to test my new applescript droplet for resizing and watermarking images.

RTFA: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/08050…

An analysis of the genome, published today in the journal Nature, can help scientists piece together a more complete picture of the evolution of all mammals, including humans.

The platypus, classified as a mammal because it produces milk and is covered in a coat of fur, also possesses features of reptiles, birds and their common ancestors, along with some curious attributes of its own. One of only two mammals that lays eggs, the platypus also sports a duck-like bill that holds a sophisticated electrosensory system used to forage for food underwater. Males possess hind leg spurs that can deliver pain-inducing venom to its foes competing for a mate or territory during the breeding season.

“The fascinating mix of features in the platypus genome provides many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes,” says Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of the The Genome Center at Washington University and the paper’s senior author. “By comparing the platypus genome to other mammalian genomes, we’ll be able to study genes that have been conserved throughout evolution.”

The platypus represents the earliest offshoot of the mammalian lineage some 166 million years ago from primitive ancestors that had features of both mammals and reptiles. “What is unique about the platypus is that it has retained a large overlap between two very different classifications, while later mammals lost the features of reptiles,” says Wes Warren, Ph.D., an assistant professor of genetics, who led the project.

Comparison of the platypus genome with the DNA of humans and other mammals, which diverged later, and the genomes of birds, whose ancestors branched off an estimated 315 million years ago, can help scientists fill gaps in their understanding of mammalian evolution. The comparison also will allow scientists to date the emergence of genes and traits specific to mammals.

Things are getting crazy. This article includes a link to the raw DNA data. I find that fact, by itself, to be insane. …not to mention the fact that this is an insight into the craziest “mammal” in existence: the platypus.

RTFA: http://www.hemmy.net/2008/04/19/the-impossible-art…

Chinese artist Li Wei from Beijing started off his performance series ‘Mirroring’ and later on took off attention with his ‘Falls’ series which shows the artist with his head and chest embedded into the ground. His work is a mixture of performance art and photography that creates illusions of a sometimes dangerous reality. Li Wei states that these images are not computer montages and works with the help of props such as mirror, metal wires, scaffolding and acrobatics.

Insane. Dangerous! Cool.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_fe_st/po…

RIVERDALE, Utah - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. “We were told the gun is the chief’s personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn’t know anything about the gun,” Lewis Walker said.
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Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked.

“Right then, I was very leery, because there’s no need to have live ammo in a gun in the class. But I figured he’s the chief, so he must know what he’s doing,” Ulm told the Standard-Examiner of Ogden.

Hansen held the Glock 40 under a table to disassemble it when a bullet fired, Walker said.

The chief cried, “I’m hit,” and fell over. Students who were screaming “Officer down!” were urged to call 911.

Yea, I’d say that was careless. I’m surprised the police chief disagrees.

cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/

This volume pulls together and republishes, with some editing, updating, and additions, articles written during 1978-86 for internal
use within the CIA Directorate of Intelligence. Four of the articles also appeared in the Intelligence Community journal Studies in Intelligence during that time frame. The information is relatively timeless and still relevant to the never-ending quest for better analysis.

The articles are based on reviewing cognitive psychology literature concerning how people process information to make judgments on incomplete and ambiguous information. I selected the experiments and findings that seem most relevant to intelligence analysis and most in need of communication to intelligence analysts. I then translated the technical reports into language that intelligence analysts can understand and interpreted the relevance of these findings to the problems intelligence analysts face.

RTFA: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_043008…

So they’re implying, ladies and gentlemen, that Operation Chaos, the operational pause was due to their report. I can understand. I can understand a local television station wanting to think they’re a factor in a major nationwide operation, and they’re doing a hard-hitting investigation out there, that’s what local TV news is known for. I don’t want to deflate them. I don’t want to ruin their day out there in the newsroom at WISH-TV, but the operational pause in Operation Chaos was due strictly to the Obama press conference yesterday while we awaited what I knew was going to happen, media reaction, because we had to determine what course of action we would order next given the media reaction to Obama yesterday. And I can just tell you, the operational pause is now lifted. Operation Chaos is back at full speed, and we have no change in direction, orders from headquarters remain exactly what they are: You are to go out and sustain the Democrat primary season by virtue of voting for Hillary Clinton. Nothing has changed, ladies and gentlemen, nothing whatsoever.
END TRANSCRIPT

When did Limbaugh become so outwardly crazy? I mean, I completely understand the utility of what he’s describing: means justify the ends, realpolitik, etc. The part that’s insane is the manner in which it is presented. Because Limbaugh’s broadcast is so personally identifiable, he is inextricably entwined with this effort to undermine the democratic process. Don’t get me wrong - there’s much worse than “Operation Chaos,” which is, in the end of the day, just a media prank.

Particularly when paired with Limbaugh’s egomaniacal delivery, Operation Chaos is a seriously morally questionable action.

RTFA: http://techdirt.com/articles/20080430/003115984.sh…

While Marvel s lawyers have been doing plenty of work on their own to hurt interest in the new movie Iron Man, some are suggesting an even more interesting scenario: that the release this week of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV to excellent reviews will have an impact on how many people are willing to buy tickets to Iron Man s opening weekend. Certainly, the target audience is similar and you could definitely see some gameplayers being more interested in exploring the game than going out to the theater.

Interesting, I think they will probably start factoring games releases into the marketing strategy. They already do this with other films, I.E. two big titles try not to open the same weekend.

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7377002.stm

Some computer keyboards harbour more harmful bacteria than a toilet seat, research has suggested.

Consumer group “Which?” said tests at its London offices found equipment carrying bugs that could cause food poisoning.

Out of 33 keyboards swabbed, four were regarded as a potential health hazard and one harboured five times more germs than one of the office s toilet seats.

Microbiologist Dr Peter Wilson said a keyboard was often a reflection of what is in your nose and in your gut .

During the Which? tests in January this year, a microbiologist deemed one of the office s keyboards to be so dirty he ordered it to be removed, quarantined and cleaned.

It had 150 times the recommended limit for bacteria - five times as filthy as a lavatory seat tested at the same time, the research found

RTFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretat…

From 1880 to 1896, the price level in the U.S. economy fell by 23% (deflation). Farmers suffered because the prices they received for their produce declined while their debts grew. This fueled vigorous political debate between those who supported a move to a gold standard and supporters of the existing system of bimetalism - where the value of the dollar was tied to both gold and silver in a fixed ratio. Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan supported bimetalism, summarized in his Cross of Gold speech. However, Republican William McKinley won the presidency and the gold standard was introduced.

Historian Hugh Rockoff interprets the story of the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in the Journal of Political Economy:

Dorothy: America, with its traditional values
Toto: Prohibitionist party (also called Teetotalers)
Scarecrow: western farmers
Tin Woodsman: industrial workers ( iron mines in Western Australia
Cowardly Lion: William Jennings Bryan ( British Lion in Australia
Munchkins: Citizens of the East ( Sydney and Melbourne)
The Lollipop Guild: National Labor Union [Note: The Lollipop Guild does not appear in the book (see Chapter 2: The Council with Munchkins), only the 1939 movie by MGM.] Horse racing communty, jockeys
Wicked Witch of the East: Grover Cleveland
Wicked Witch of the West: William McKinley(Broome town Western Australia)
Wizard: Marcus Alonzo Hanna
Oz: abbreviation for ounce of silver or gold (Australia)
Yellow Brick Road: Gold Standard, established by William McKinley Road from Perth Western Australia to Kalgoorlie
Cyclone: economic panic following the Dust Bowl
Winged Monkeys: Plains indians ( Australian Aboriginals)
Emerald City: Washington, D.C. (Sydney)
Emerald Palace: The White House( Canberra)
Silver Slippers: The silver coin system: Free Silver
Monkeys: child labor
Poppy Field: Rise of the Opium trade ring (Tasmania poppy fields)
At the end of the story, Dorothy finds her way home, but it is not by just following the Yellow Brick Road. After her journey, Dorothy finds that the Wizard is incapable of helping her or her friends. In the end, she finds that the magical powers of her silver slippers help her. Since the silver slippers are the vote, she realizes that she had the power to fix the problems all along.[2]

This is a cool interpretation of the characters in Oz. It appears the movie took some different turns, of course.