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December 2007

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My Blog, Or Is It?

By barneyb on December 13, 2007

I wanted to thank everyone who read, and especially commented on, my My Blog, My Rules post a couple weeks ago.  It's nice to know that people care, and even better to know that they appreciate what I've done.  And apologies to Charlie for the firestorm.
So is this my blog?  Or is it everyone's site, [...]

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Programming Creativity

By barneyb on December 12, 2007

Creativity is an interesting characteristic, because it means so many things.  Bach was creative.  So was Picasso.  Da Vinci.  Shakespeare.  Thompson and Ritchie?
Is computer programming a creative endeavour?  My instinct says yes.
Merriam-Webster defines "creative" as "having the quality of something created rather than imitated".  So by definition, everything that is created is the result of [...]

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Music…

By barneyb on December 12, 2007

I have musical talent of a very mediocre degree, but I love listening.  Popular, rock, choral, new age, instrumental, anything that's interesting.  But what makes it interesting?  What about music evokes feelings?  Why are some collections of noises beautiful while some are appalling, even if they're made up of the same constituents?  A very perplexing [...]

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Tokamak is Offline

By barneyb on December 12, 2007

I've had a Linux workstation (named tokamak) as my primary computer for the past several years, and until this past year, work was exclusively Linux as well.  Tonight, for the first time in literally years, I took tokamak offline.  It'll come back on, rest assured, but it's off, and it's weird.
I got a new Thinkpad [...]

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iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. None

By barneyb on December 12, 2007

I used to carry a cell phone, but I haven't for the past year.  I don't miss really miss it.  Being able to whip it out and call someone any time I wanted to is nice, but not being able to call someone any time I want to is nicer, I think.  In our hyperconnected [...]

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I Am A Guitar Hero

By barneyb on December 12, 2007

Simeon, fine purveyor of electronic distractions, got me hooked on Guitar Here III last month.  I went over to his house for a Saturday of Halo and then some Chang's for dinner.  But unfortunately, his network wasn't cooperating, so we bailed on Halo and started playing Guitar Hero.  I have to admit that I was [...]

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The Custom Tag Body-Scope

By barneyb on December 7, 2007

I was working with FlexChart a little this evening and ran into an interesting situation with a potentially very useful solution. I don't claim to be the first to think of it, but it's the first time I've used/seen it.
I added a date preparation tag a while back, but I thought it'd be nicer [...]

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