Just before the Oracle vs. Google lawsuit, I started a Java project for my PhD research. It was my first Java project in a while. I do more C++, MATLAB, and Python these days. I chose Java because I know it well and it simplifies cross-platform for me. I considered JavaScript, but this project included (2D) physics. I wasn't convinced by the JavaScript physics engines out there compared to the state of JBox2D.
Well, I'm one of the folks that has been convinced that Java isn't really open source nor independently implementable. If you get in the way of Oracle revenue, they will sue you. That's not open. Sorry.
So, where do I go?
I have a language idea of my own with primary output targets being JS (for client) and C++ (for speedy batch programming or native apps), but I don't really have the time to implement that. I could use haXe. It's the most credible JS/C++ targeting language out there, in my experience, but I'm not convinced I want to go that route either.
My current plan is to improve my C++ skills. Really. Anti-C++ rhetoric is strong in the Java community, but I'm being convinced that it can be used for good instead of evil. I also plan to stay in touch with JS land. And maybe someday I'll make or use a language that targets both (such as haXe).
I just wished I'd used C++ for that 2D physics project.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Mormon Articles of Faith: Number 1
I've recently felt like sharing some of my beliefs about more important things than tech. I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In other words, I'm a Mormon. We get that nickname because of the Book of Mormon, which we believe is a record of ancient Christians living in the Americas. That, among other things, makes us different from many other folks.
We are also called LDS (Latter-day Saints, from the name of the church).
To share our beliefs, I feel like working from our Articles of Faith. (See here for what "articles of faith" are in general and here for the full list of the LDS articles.)
I'll start with our first article:
1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
Here's a great discussion of this subject from Gordon B. Hinckley, who under Christ's direction was the leader of the church at the time of his passing in 2008. He had authority to speak officially for the church, and I don't.
Still, I may continue this thread and speak from my own understanding. If I do that, I may emphasize that it's what I personally believe, not what we believe. Again, I don't have authority to speak for the church, and I definitely don't know everything. But I still try to stay in harmony with the teachings of the church and with the will of God as I understand it. I do my best (sometimes). Note that even President Hinckley (the term we use for the leader of the church) used the phrase "I believe" in his discussion. Despite his authority, I think he also liked to emphasize a personal perspective sometimes. I once listened to President Hinckley speak at a soccer stadium in Guatemala City. (Here's a reference from him to that occasion in Guate.) He said (to the extent I remember his wording), "If you remember one thing from today, remember you heard Gordon Hinckley say that he knows God lives." I actually do remember very little else from his message that day.
Anyway, to summarize my take-aways for the first article of faith: I believe in a personal God, not just universal forces. Even more specifically, there are three distinct persons to which I refer as God. All three can be called "one God" because of their great unity. While I seek to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life, I understand Him less as an individual. That's just where I'm at. The Father and the Son are clearer to me, even if I haven't seen them myself during my time here on earth. The Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth (as discussed in the New Testament in the Holy Bible) as a manifestation of God on earth. He also came to be like us. He knows first hand what we go through. I find that comforting. Further, knowing the Son helps us to know the Father.
If I continue this subject, I'll have more to say about Jesus. Mormons really are Christians in the sense that Jesus is at the center of our belief and worship.
Finally, again, in case anyone skims too much (as I do): Everything I say is my personal perspective. I don't speak officially for the church by any means.
We are also called LDS (Latter-day Saints, from the name of the church).
To share our beliefs, I feel like working from our Articles of Faith. (See here for what "articles of faith" are in general and here for the full list of the LDS articles.)
I'll start with our first article:
1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
Here's a great discussion of this subject from Gordon B. Hinckley, who under Christ's direction was the leader of the church at the time of his passing in 2008. He had authority to speak officially for the church, and I don't.
Still, I may continue this thread and speak from my own understanding. If I do that, I may emphasize that it's what I personally believe, not what we believe. Again, I don't have authority to speak for the church, and I definitely don't know everything. But I still try to stay in harmony with the teachings of the church and with the will of God as I understand it. I do my best (sometimes). Note that even President Hinckley (the term we use for the leader of the church) used the phrase "I believe" in his discussion. Despite his authority, I think he also liked to emphasize a personal perspective sometimes. I once listened to President Hinckley speak at a soccer stadium in Guatemala City. (Here's a reference from him to that occasion in Guate.) He said (to the extent I remember his wording), "If you remember one thing from today, remember you heard Gordon Hinckley say that he knows God lives." I actually do remember very little else from his message that day.
Anyway, to summarize my take-aways for the first article of faith: I believe in a personal God, not just universal forces. Even more specifically, there are three distinct persons to which I refer as God. All three can be called "one God" because of their great unity. While I seek to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life, I understand Him less as an individual. That's just where I'm at. The Father and the Son are clearer to me, even if I haven't seen them myself during my time here on earth. The Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth (as discussed in the New Testament in the Holy Bible) as a manifestation of God on earth. He also came to be like us. He knows first hand what we go through. I find that comforting. Further, knowing the Son helps us to know the Father.
If I continue this subject, I'll have more to say about Jesus. Mormons really are Christians in the sense that Jesus is at the center of our belief and worship.
Finally, again, in case anyone skims too much (as I do): Everything I say is my personal perspective. I don't speak officially for the church by any means.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Mac OS X Lion goes full screen
As a former Amiga user, I've long been a fan of full screen apps. This is also an area where Windows and Linux have outshined Mac with its not-really-even-a-maximize-button user interface. So this new plan full screen apps plan for Lion is really interesting to me.
Sadly, I fear the Mac App Store is just the first step toward completely eliminating traditional application distribution on the Mac. We'll see where they are in 10 years.
On a side note, I do still need to pardon Apple since they removed the draconian anti-Flash clause for iPhone app development. Can't ignore them, though. They'll likely be back at things along those lines (or other troubles of similar magnitude) before too long.
Sadly, I fear the Mac App Store is just the first step toward completely eliminating traditional application distribution on the Mac. We'll see where they are in 10 years.
On a side note, I do still need to pardon Apple since they removed the draconian anti-Flash clause for iPhone app development. Can't ignore them, though. They'll likely be back at things along those lines (or other troubles of similar magnitude) before too long.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Wishing for TextPad bookmarks in Eclipse ...
There's one feature of TextPad that's just wonderfully convenient and helpful. It's called bookmarked lines.
You can mark lines by search (meaning by regexes), you can cut or copy marked lines, go forward/backward to next marked line, see them visually of course, and do other similar things.
What's the point? It means you don't need to drop down to a shell for things like grep or such like. They're really nice, actually. I used them just constantly when I was regularly on TextPad. I can't say enough nice things about them, really.
Please, please, please, please, please could someone put them in Eclipse? (Sorry for being a beggar rather than a helper.)
If Eclipse weren't already too complicated, I'd recommend an easy swap technique between different bookmark categories. Sometimes I would want to remember certain markings when temporarily moving to others. One option is to open the same contents multiple times (such as by copy and paste to a new document), but that was a pain really. But I'm afraid that anyone in Eclipse land would make a horror out of trying to manage multiple marker categories. So just one would be great for now.
And as another point, current Eclipse bookmarks are _nowhere_ near as good as TextPad's, despite a superficial similarity. But they could perhaps be improved to provide real service.
Thanks in advance!
You can mark lines by search (meaning by regexes), you can cut or copy marked lines, go forward/backward to next marked line, see them visually of course, and do other similar things.
What's the point? It means you don't need to drop down to a shell for things like grep or such like. They're really nice, actually. I used them just constantly when I was regularly on TextPad. I can't say enough nice things about them, really.
Please, please, please, please, please could someone put them in Eclipse? (Sorry for being a beggar rather than a helper.)
If Eclipse weren't already too complicated, I'd recommend an easy swap technique between different bookmark categories. Sometimes I would want to remember certain markings when temporarily moving to others. One option is to open the same contents multiple times (such as by copy and paste to a new document), but that was a pain really. But I'm afraid that anyone in Eclipse land would make a horror out of trying to manage multiple marker categories. So just one would be great for now.
And as another point, current Eclipse bookmarks are _nowhere_ near as good as TextPad's, despite a superficial similarity. But they could perhaps be improved to provide real service.
Thanks in advance!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Some 2005 violent death statistics
Apologies on the weak formatting, but here we go:
Feel free to add to or improve the data or to find better sources.
- US penal executions: 60 - http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-united-states-2005
- Iraq & Afghanistan coalition military deaths: 1,028 (including overlap with terrorism deaths?) - http://icasualties.org/
- Worldwide terrorism deaths: 14,482 - http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2009/140902.htm
- Iraqi civilian violent deaths: 14,975 (including overlap with terrorism deaths, I think) - http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/
- US murders & nonnegligent manslaughter: 16,692 - http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_01.html
- US auto accident deaths: 42,636 - http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
- US abortions: 1,198,960 - http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/family_planning_abortions.html
Feel free to add to or improve the data or to find better sources.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Oracle: We've got a bill of sale right here!
This is what Oracle reminds me of:
Cell phone Java a la Pete's Dragon follows.
Oracle: We got a bill of sale right here that says he belongs to us!
Google: You don't love him. All you've done up 'til now is break his heart. You'll abuse him, and just use him.
As for me, I'm sick of the corporate shenanigans in Java. And why didn't Google buy Sun when they had the chance? I'm getting tired of Java in general. But sorry Miguel, that doesn't mean I'm running to Mono. There are plenty more fish in the ocean.
Cell phone Java a la Pete's Dragon follows.
Oracle: We got a bill of sale right here that says he belongs to us!
Google: You don't love him. All you've done up 'til now is break his heart. You'll abuse him, and just use him.
As for me, I'm sick of the corporate shenanigans in Java. And why didn't Google buy Sun when they had the chance? I'm getting tired of Java in general. But sorry Miguel, that doesn't mean I'm running to Mono. There are plenty more fish in the ocean.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
In-Mouse Accelerometers
From the leaked Windows 8 plans, it seems that Microsoft is looking at a future with richer sensors on personal computers. I would love to see this happen. I'm a big fan of Apple's popularization of accelerometers in mobile devices, too. Interaction can be so much richer than just keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speakers. Ubiquitous cameras and microphones would be sweet, though creepy.
On that topic, someone in my research lab recently made a comment about how cool it would be to put accelerometers and gyros in mice. Potentially you could go without the light sensor entirely. See IMUs for more. The Wii remote is sort of like this. And accelerometer mice have been made before.
The counter argument (from someone else in my lab here) is that full accelerometers and gyros would be much more expensive than current mouse technology, especially for the same amount of reliability and precision. But accelerometers and IMUs aren't completely off the charts for price. Maybe you could go cheap and just augment normal mice with accelerometer only for now. (And the raw part is even much cheaper than the breakout boards.)
I mean, it would be sweet if you could pick up your mouse and wave it around for 3D control in certain apps and games, right?
Logitech, Microsoft, Apple, someone, please get this out there. Thanks in advance.
On that topic, someone in my research lab recently made a comment about how cool it would be to put accelerometers and gyros in mice. Potentially you could go without the light sensor entirely. See IMUs for more. The Wii remote is sort of like this. And accelerometer mice have been made before.
The counter argument (from someone else in my lab here) is that full accelerometers and gyros would be much more expensive than current mouse technology, especially for the same amount of reliability and precision. But accelerometers and IMUs aren't completely off the charts for price. Maybe you could go cheap and just augment normal mice with accelerometer only for now. (And the raw part is even much cheaper than the breakout boards.)
I mean, it would be sweet if you could pick up your mouse and wave it around for 3D control in certain apps and games, right?
Logitech, Microsoft, Apple, someone, please get this out there. Thanks in advance.
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