Archive for July, 2006
Friday, July 28th, 2006
Say Good-bye to McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast
I’ve consumed my last McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast - I’ll never be able to pull the trigger on it again after reading this article on 10 worst fast foods.
McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast is a smorgasbord of bad-for-you foods—including eggs, sausage, pancakes smothered in syrup and margarine, hash browns and a biscuit. In moderation, any of these […]
No Comments » - Posted in Interesting by dkaz
Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Python DSU sorting idiom
One of the more unique Python idioms is the Decorate-Sort-Undecorate (DSU) sorting method used to optimize sorting performance.
PythonWiki describes it’s function as a combination of three steps:
First, the initial list is decorated with new values that control the sort order.
Second, the decorated list is sorted.
Finally, the decorations are removed, creating a list that contains only […]
2 Comments » - Posted in Python, Programming by dkaz
Monday, July 24th, 2006
Smarty variable modifiers
I’m playing around with a PHP framework that uses Smarty Templating Engine to separate logic from its presentation, and I’m very impressed thus far.
Smarty seems to pull off elegant API, powerful features and oustanding performance - a rare triumvirate.
On top of that, it has a vibrant community and a ton of documentation scattered around the […]
1 Comment » - Posted in Programming, PHP by dkaz
Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
ETag and Last-Modified Headers
While building a feed aggregator into a project of mine, I ran into a usage of a HTTP header unfamiliar to me before today.
From the documentation of the (very excellent) python feedparser project:
ETags and Last-Modified headers are two ways that feed publishers can save bandwidth, but they only work if clients take advantage of them. […]
No Comments » - Posted in Python, Programming by dkaz
Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
Peter Norvig. What a Show-off.
If this is not the best resume in Computer Science, I don’t know what is.
1 Comment » - Posted in Programming by dkaz
Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
Tetrominoes
According to Wikipedia…
A tetromino, also spelled tetramino or tetrimino, is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally. This is a particular type of polyomino, like dominoes and pentominoes are. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracube, is a geometric shape composed of four cubes connected orthogonally.
Sound familiar? It should. Here are a couple of […]
No Comments » - Posted in Interesting by dkaz
Sunday, July 16th, 2006
Japan SAQ
If you’re interested in learning more about the Japanese culture, check out the outstanding JAPAN SAQ (Seldom Asked Questions).
Q. My Japanese wife and friend both insist that Japanese babies have a blue spot on their butt when they’re born. Is this true? - Question submitted by Glen.
A. Most Asian babies have blue marks on their […]
No Comments » - Posted in Interesting by dkaz
Saturday, July 15th, 2006
Referencing “request” in Django templates
Django was kicking my ass tonight, as I struggled to figure out how to reference HttpRequest parameters in templates. It’s 2:00AM and I finally arrived at an answer - default TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS in settings.py is missing “django.core.context_processors.request”. You can override the settings by explicitly setting it in settings.py:
TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
“django.core.context_processors.auth”,
[…]
2 Comments » - Posted in Python, Programming by dkaz
Friday, July 14th, 2006
Worst Company URLs
Independent Sources has a hilarious list of Top 10 unintentionally bad URLs.
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net
2 Comments » - Posted in Technology, Funny by dkaz
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
LLUP Protocol - Can’t wait
LLUP Protocol is exactly what Web 2.0 needs to jump into 3.0 mode. Hope Tim Bray rolls up his sleeves and start producing soon.
1 Comment » - Posted in Programming by dkaz
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
Metcalfe’s Law: pwnd
IEEE Spectrum is featuring an interesting article which pretty much dismisses Metcalfe’s Law as hogwash and introduces n log n as a better approximation of the value of a network.
1 Comment » - Posted in Technology, Networking, Programming by dkaz
Thursday, July 13th, 2006
Greek Alphabet
Every once in a while (usually when I’m studying mathematical text) I get motivated to learn the Greek alphabet - from alpha to omega.
Signed,
Δερεκ
1. alpha Α, α (a)
2. beta Β, β (b)
3. gamma Γ, γ (g,n)
4. delta Δ, δ (d)
5. […]
