FFI for ruby

Matz - he is the guy that created Ruby. In case you thought that this is some sort of fetish blog

ruby-ffi is now available. I am not sure how it works yet (haven't looked at the code) but it works as advertised. I have already wrapped up some C libraries and there are more to come. I am thinking about trying out the Sybase/SQL server freetds libraries next. Using ODBC/freetds sucks for ruby - it takes too long to configure.

I used to program a lot in Lisp, and the FFI libraries were pretty nice (FFI, UFFI, etc.......), but I think that Ruby has started to replace a lot of what I liked in Lisp. It has plists (well, simple to use hashes) and metaprogramming. Plus, I don't have to deal with parens all the time. I don't care what all of the cool people say, parens can get pretty hard to read. Python is really cool, and it is supposed to be fast (well, not on my OLPC, which is a piece), but I have grown eyes for Ruby. Thank you Matz.

Encore Marketing International and ProFlowers

I wish my flowers looked half this good

If you have to order from ProFlowers.com. If someone points a gun to your head and tells you that you have to order shitty flowers and get bad service from that dreck of a company. If you are about to be dipped in acid unless you waste your money on ProFlowers.com and their wretched service

watch out

The pictures are pretty and the service looks great, and what was supposed to be a nice set of flowers for my wife was pretty embarrassing. My wife was embarrassed by the flowers I sent her. She didn't want to say who sent them. Yes, they were that bad. Bad flowers in a cheap pot - looked nothing like the pictures.

Thank god I had time to call a real florist.

So, no more ProFlowers.com. Ever. Really. Well. Maybe if you are holding me over a pot of boiling oil.

But, the real story. 2 months later I notice that there is a charge on my credit card for $14.95 from a company named 'Encore Marketing International'. Strange, I think, I have never heard of that company.

So, I do a search on the internet and I find that there are people popping up all over the place with the same charges on their credit cards. It is tied to ProFlowers.com. Apparently, when you fill out the order form on the website there is something there that says you agree to pay $14.95 for a few months when you buy flowers. I never saw that, but apparently it is there.

So, 2 months later I call American Express and the Better Business Bureau and I get some of my money back from Encore Marketing International. I get a letter from the BBB with an attachment from Encore Marketing International stating that I was signed up for something called EasySaver Rewards. The people from Encore Marketing International (who only sign the letter as 'Customer Service') give me a really snarky answer on how they are going to refund some of the money for a service I never signed up for and never used.

Just watch out. Really. There are sleazy companies that will just attach themselves to your credit card bill.



Thanks, ProFlowers

WebDav File Sharing

Samba, Novell NCPFS, FTP, etc. They all are solutions people use to share files, and each has its own shortcomings. Either the protocol is proprietary or insecure. Do you want to base your company's file sharing solution on something proprietary or insecure?

The solution? Use webdav. Great protocol. Use http, or you can use https for secure transfer. Windows, Linux, Mac OSX all understand it, and - best of all - you can use any authentication back-end you want. ldap, /etc/passwd, plain text file, sql database, crazy xml file format that you Java and C# people LOVE.

Java is now GPL

and I have just become a Java developer. Sure, I have worked on Java projects (some very large Java projects) but it always made me feel dirty.

Great language, great virtual machine. Way to go Sun! I can't wait to start hacking on some new Java projects!

GPLv3 carries the spirit of the GPLv2

I just read a comment on slashdot that pointed out something important. From the GPLv2:

"For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. "

(http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=197256&cid=16162805)

DRM takes away that freedom. Why don't the kernel developers seem to understand that? It is not just about the top developers and the companies that they represent - it is about all of us and the freedom to modify and distribute the code.

Mulholland Dr. in a sentence

Big dream sequence. The part in the middle, where the girl is caught masturbating in her jeans, is where she moves out of her dream and into reality. The rest takes place in her head. Too many people have told me that there is "so much more to the film" and there really isn't. Now, I am not saying that it is a bad film. I enjoyed it - I enjoyed the underlying story about regret.

What a Pussy

Read this planet GNOME:

After waiting a year and a half for the paper work to go through, it’s official:

Thanks to my mother being a Canadian citizen, I have now successfully claimed my dual citizenship. Next up I can get a Candian passport, and travel as a Canadian, instead of as an American, something that is more in more important in light of how well… loved the US is right now by the rest of the world.

I guess that there is something wrong with me, but I go out of my way to NOT be identified as Canadian or European. Sure it might be uncool to be an American (USAian or whatever they call us nowdays) but if you go through life really caring what people think about you, you will miss so much of what life has to offer. Part of who I am in an American, and to deny that would be to deny a part of myself. I am also an atheist, a father, and a big fan of Chinese food. If I went around claiming that I didn't like Chinese very much because it offended other people then I would be lying to myself. Remember folks, when you lie to others you really are lying to yourselves. If you are a US citizen and are worried that other people may not like you because of it, chances are that you probably do not like yourself. And you can't run away from yourself.

You can now call me Dr. Parker

I am planning on writing a book on a concept that I have been working on called "Future Focused Manifestation", which is a totally new concept that will show you how to attain all of your goals and make your dreams a reality.

Dr. Parker has his doctorate in applied metaphysics and automated autonomous healing. He is an accredited healer and mao shang du expert. His first book, "Future Focused Manifestation: Getting What You Really Want" is set to be published next year.