Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Wrong wrong wrong
In a move reminiscent of the BBC's decision to use "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed as the lyrics for a music promo, VISA have decided to use "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins for their latest ad. I can't think of a better way to describe the messed up personal credit market than a song about contemplating suicide. Even the tag line: "more people go with VISA" is disturbing.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Metal
I stopped listening to Metallica around 1991 - about the time they released The Black Album, coincidently enough. This wasn't because I grew out of metal music or anything - I love metal - but because it seemed like Metallica was growing out of metal music. In the years that followed, friends kept telling me that they're getting better, going back to their roots, this or that album wasn't as bad as Load, etc. But the truth was, I couldn't bring myself to purchase another album and potentially suffer the disappointment of their mid-life mediocrity.
Sepultura were a pretty good substitute during the 90's - what I now realize was my metal equivalent of Japan's lost decade - but in spite of the merits of any given song, it's really hard to listen to an entire album of theirs without feeling really down in the dumps.
Korn are, well, just OK. I'm not into the metal-music-rap-style-singing genre. Give it to me loud and growly, I say.
Which brings me to Machine Head. They've apparently been around since 1993, but I only heard about them because Apple's Genius sidebar feature suggested some of their stuff. They're great! Loud, crunchy, growly, complex - everything I want in a metal band. I pulled down some tracks from Burn My Eyes, which is a 1994 release, and they're amazing. OK - that's old stuff, so next up I'm going to grab some stuff from their 2007 release The Blackening. It's been compared to Master of Puppets, so I think we're onto a winner!
Let the recovery begin!
Sepultura were a pretty good substitute during the 90's - what I now realize was my metal equivalent of Japan's lost decade - but in spite of the merits of any given song, it's really hard to listen to an entire album of theirs without feeling really down in the dumps.
Korn are, well, just OK. I'm not into the metal-music-rap-style-singing genre. Give it to me loud and growly, I say.
Which brings me to Machine Head. They've apparently been around since 1993, but I only heard about them because Apple's Genius sidebar feature suggested some of their stuff. They're great! Loud, crunchy, growly, complex - everything I want in a metal band. I pulled down some tracks from Burn My Eyes, which is a 1994 release, and they're amazing. OK - that's old stuff, so next up I'm going to grab some stuff from their 2007 release The Blackening. It's been compared to Master of Puppets, so I think we're onto a winner!
Let the recovery begin!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Kbuild
I haven't done anything in Linux land recently: it's been about a year since I've actually used a Linux box and about two years since I've built a kernel. I value the time back. Not that using another OS is potentially any less time consuming than Linux, but Linux does encourage tinkering. I just don't feel that way about my Mac. I do my taxes, read my email and then get to play with my son.
This week I downloaded the latest kernel and unpacked it, just to see what's new. I'd heard there's a shiny new replacement for ext3, for example. Sounds interesting. While I was browsing around, I came across Kbuild again.
Wow - not since sendmail's configuration files have I seen such code. It occurs to me that if you're writing that much code to force make to do what you want, then perhaps it's time to move on. I'm not sure what you'd want to move on to. The only other thing I've ever used on a Linux box was Jam, and that was about as much fun as a sharp stick in the eye. Xcode is nice, but even if it existed on Linux, I'm not sure it could be used to build something as hoary and configurable as the Linux kernel.
The kernel needs a kmake project: a modern replacement for make that allows for the kernel's complex configuration but still does things we take for granted today without having to write a ton of support code: automatic dependency tracking, non-recursive parallel and distributed builds and a sane configuration file format that allows for easy expression.
This week I downloaded the latest kernel and unpacked it, just to see what's new. I'd heard there's a shiny new replacement for ext3, for example. Sounds interesting. While I was browsing around, I came across Kbuild again.
Wow - not since sendmail's configuration files have I seen such code. It occurs to me that if you're writing that much code to force make to do what you want, then perhaps it's time to move on. I'm not sure what you'd want to move on to. The only other thing I've ever used on a Linux box was Jam, and that was about as much fun as a sharp stick in the eye. Xcode is nice, but even if it existed on Linux, I'm not sure it could be used to build something as hoary and configurable as the Linux kernel.
The kernel needs a kmake project: a modern replacement for make that allows for the kernel's complex configuration but still does things we take for granted today without having to write a ton of support code: automatic dependency tracking, non-recursive parallel and distributed builds and a sane configuration file format that allows for easy expression.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Safari 4 Beta
Apple has released a beta of Safari 4. The Javascript engine in there is significantly faster than that in Safari 3 (and every other browser, too, apparently) - Gmail and Google Reader are both noticeably a lot faster than before. Good stuff.
If you'd like your Safari 4 interface to look more like Safari 3's used to, then check out these hints.
If you'd like your Safari 4 interface to look more like Safari 3's used to, then check out these hints.
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