July 2005

Sajax makes Ajax easy!

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The pseudo-standard "AJAX", which is just a buzzword for Javascript + XML (which was done for years without the fancy name) is a bit tricky at times. For most simple needs, though, the Sajax API makes life extremely easy, especially if you use multiple languages (PHP, Python, ColdFusion, etc). Well worth learning, it makes life just so easy!

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Computer hardware failures suck!

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This truly sucks! In the same day we had both a harddrive and video give up the ghost. The drive is out of warranty but the video card will be replaced/fixed by the store we got it from. The drive luckily didn't have anything irreplaceable on it, ironically I had put a lot of what was on it onto DVDs the other day, good timing or what. So, time to get our backup routine in order. <knocks-on-wood>

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Hardware failure: decisions, decisions

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Last week I mentioned that we had two components of our main computer die - a hard drive and the video card. I sent the video card back for replacement and it turned out that particular model is no longer produced. Instead I'm being offered a comparable product, which uses the same "chipset" (i.e. same card, different sticker), or a refund. I'm going to go with a refund because in the six months since we bought first our card the prices have dropped significantly, so much so that we now have a choice in what to get:

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Watch Irish TV for free?!?

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Here's a cool one. A completely free Windows program for playing TV stations via the Internet. Most of the stations available are regional US or Russian stations, but one of them is called "Ireland Live TV"! I'm not going to try it at work, but I'll definitely let you know how it works when I get home, I'm really interested to see if it really is an Irish TV station.

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Updated graphics program looks cool

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If vector graphics editing gets you going, you might like to take a look at the latest version of Inkscape, a completely free vector graphics editor for Linux, Windows and MacOSX. They've added a whole bunch of stuff to the latest edition, many of which are explained in the screenshots section of their website along with, well, screenshots of what the effects do. Nifty.

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An excellent take on Hillary vs GTA

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Here's an excellent letter to Hillary Clinton on her case against Grand Theft Auto, the M-rated (17 year olds and older) computer game, that democrats were buying for their 5 year olds, that had some hidden content that could be accessed if you a) were technical enough, b) had lots of time to waste.

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Happy SysAdmin day

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Today is the day when we celebrate that rare of species, systems administrators, the one day a year when it is encouraged to be nice to the people who say "sorry but you do have to use a login password" and "no, it is not our policy to let you take home computers, even if your five-year-old is a whiz with them". So, be nice to them us, we're all that stops you from certain doom the first time you delete an email that you really, really wanted. So happy systems administration day, my fellow freaks! :-)