10 Programming Suggestions You Shouldn't Follow?!

Here's an interesting link I found on Digg today, its an article called the Top Ten of Programming Advice NOT to follow.

It's an interesting read but remember, it's only the author's opinion, not a paradigm for programming.

So enjoy.

Read on

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Hey kids!! Let me introduce you to my friend Scratch....

So.....pretty ambiguous title huh?
Now, why would you be reading this? Because of the kids? Because of the word "Scratch"? Maybe because you're bored and will read anything I write? Who knows.....

Anyways if you haven't Googled it yet, Scratch is a new programming language!!! But wait!!! (that means you Zi). It's not for everyone, especially Professional Developers. It's actually designed for kids, as an entry level language designed to be much easier than many of those high level languages we were all taught/learned.
Apparently (read as: I haven't read it yet), Scratch takes a more GUI approach, with kids able to develop apps by "snapping" blocks together in Duplo type fashion (I would've said Lego, but Duplo is more appropriate, no?). It kinda separates the code from the kids as the code is all stored in 'blocks', therefore not really being programming but teaching them the theory of OOP and design. I'm also guessing it will help kids to develop logical thought processes and maybe even help them in general learning. So sounds good....

So if you have any kids, know of any, or have little nieces or nephews running around, it might be nice to introduce them to this.

Read what I couldn't be bothered to here: BBC Science & Technology Article

Check it out direct from MIT: http://scratch.mit.edu/

and dont' forget:


The children are our future.


Thanks to Digg for the linkage.

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Orgoo

So here's a new web app that might interest some of you. It's called Orgoo, and it supposedly integrates web mail and instant messaging into one web page. Think of using a mixture of Outlook and MSN Live Messenger, or GMail and GoogleTalk, or Yahoo....oh wait, who uses Yahoo?! I mean, come on, their Yahoo Mail Beta is utter shit...

Anyways it apparently supports most of the popular IM clients and web mail hosts, so should be good if you have many different accounts. Think of it as like Meebo, but with email.

Check it out: www.Orgoo.com (sadly the open BETA is full at the moment)

and here's an article about Orgoo (just so you can read about what you're missing).

Seacrest out!!!


Thanks to Digg for linkage.

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Possibly The Best Winamp Skin.....EVER!! [Updated]

Well, my last post was March 26th 2007.....long time huh? Sorry for being suck a lazy f**k recently. I've just been finding that the lack of news mixed with work, and my general lack of enthusiasm (translate to "yeah I'm a bit tubby so what! You wanna fight about it!"), and also the release of Final Fantasy XII has severely crippled my blogging.
But with the encouragement of Zi and my lovely girlfriend that I have decided to start blogging again....although I might have to start blogging at home...(I'm sorry FF, I love you really). Oh, and by encouragement I mean holding a gun to my head at dinner in Pizza Express while slightly drunk....

Ummm....this post is kinda long, if you wanna skip the "/rant" scroll down to the flashing gold text. If the text doesn't flash, then your browser is crap or IE (Microsoft Internet Explorer), that's an example of a synonym kids. Don't say I don't teach you nothin'....ingrates

Anyway, back to the matter at hand:
So, in my years of advocating the use of mp3 (although I wasn't there for the initial release of Winamp, I think I may have joined at around version 2.x or something, so let's just say a decade), I've not really strayed from using good ol' Winamp, as it had all the basic features I needed.
But then came the iPod and iTunes, which I felt obliged to use, as I got a 20Gb 3G iPod (the best design IMO, I hate that "click-wheel" thing, it's all about the Touch Wheel 4 Life). But the constant 'updates' of iTunes, led me to stray away back to Winamp. Especially because Apple kept deciding to add and remove features from iTunes (copy from to iPod to Hard Disk anyone?). The main reason for me not using iTunes, was it's inability to actually update my ID3 tags, instead choosing to store the data on a local XML file.....annoying. Plus they have that bloody "Sync your iPod to 1 computer ONLY" crap!!
Then I was all about Media Libraries (carried over from iTunes), so I started to use a combination of iTunes, Winamp, and Windows Media Player 11.
But then I got tired of having to use iTunes because I couldn't add or move songs from my home Library to my work library without using my iPod like an external hard drive. Although it's easy to download an extractor program or write one yourself (all the mp3's are stored in a series of hidden folders, and then you can rename then via the ID3 or the library.xml on the iPod), I didn't want to have to run multiple apps to do what should be a simple job. Plus it has that annoying CD Cover rolodex thing which would only work properly on Macs or PCs with good graphics cards. Then there was the whole issue about having to download a new version because is has "fixes", aka iTunes 7.1.1.01.13 fixes problems with this and that...
I initially like WMP11, but it eventually the Library started to annoy me, especially the search for album details online feature. It became a chore to use, and having to pick the correct album version that you wanted from a list of multiples was tiring. Then there was the whole problem with trying to change the tags after some had already been set, as it would always only find the details that you selected before. Also, being a Microsoft product, it didn't support the iPod as an attached porable media device. Eventually WMP became my choice app to play all those crappy proprietary Microsoft/Windows formats (asf, wmv, wma)...
So now I'm back to Winamp as a player and a library. With the addition of The Godfather or Tag&Rename, to do group tagging and renaming; and then Amazon, Wikipedia and Play to find tracklists. Oh, don't forget the 3rd party Winamp iPod plugin: ml_ipod for all your iPod needs (direct drag & drop from explorer without having to add to your library, copying to your hard disk, and now with better repair and format features). I use this as the inbuilt one (pmp_ipod) sucks, even though it has one of the original ml_ipod devs, it's still lacking features.

/end rant

Hahaha!!! I f*cking hate people that do that!!
or /sarcasm
or /joking
"I'm so cool and nerdy/geeky, this comment will be awesome!!!" (titters in excitement) *tappity* *tap* *tap* *tap* "OMG! I typed '/endrant', hehehe"

Losers...they can so suck a fuck! (bonus points for anyone who can name where that's from)
[NOTE: Points awarded from J's Megagig Wondertron are not redeemable for anything. You might be able to buy J a latté though.]

Finally here we are!!! THE BEST WINAMP SKIN EVER!!!!

Anaheim Player 01

It's a Haro from the Gundam anime, or was it Gundam Seed? I don't know, I've never watched any of the Gundam series'.
The best thing about it is when you put it in 'mini' mode the actual skin animates to the music!!
[NOTE: To put it in mini mode, click the circle in the middle of it's mouth. Between the forward and back buttons]
Apart from that, it's a very well made skin, and well thought out.
To get some sweet laughs, listen to Beat Box by Matisyahu, it's track 7 on the Live at Stubbs album. It's so funny firstly because he's crap at beat boxing, and secondly the Haro goes f*cken crazy at some points....enjoy

Here's another skin from the same guy: Quadelic.

I suggest everyone download Winamp and the Anaheim Player 01!!!! NOW!!!

Peace out.

Thanks to takanory for the awesome skin-age and to Nullsoft for Winamp

[Update]: Added a quick fix for skipping my rant. Couldn't be arsed to add an anchor and a link coz the post is shown on 2 different pages. Also added the Matisyahu stuff.

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Stoopid Amounts of Hard Drive Storage

Well, I just bought me 2 320Gb SATA2 Western Digial hard drives. I couldn't be bothered to put them into a RAID as I'd lose 320Gbs of space.
But if I had these babies, I would have only needed 1 drive and not worry about RAID.

I won't spoil it by telling you how big these new HD's are but I'll tell you this, they are stoopidly massive!!!!

101 Easy Ways to use Google's New Website Optimizer

Well apparently Google has some New Website Optimizer thingy, and here's an article that gives you 101 easy ways to use it.

Read it here

I can think of a few people at work (especially that one guy) who may need to read this.

Peace out.

Sucks to be Swedish, Awesome to be a Pirate

So there's been all this controversy about www.allofmp3.com, and the mp3 downloading thingy that it does. I've never personally used it, so wouldn't know what all the fuss is about.

But it seems that a Swedish ISP called Perspektiv has bowed to pressure from somewhere, and has banned allofmp3's ip's from its servers. So now, none of its users are able to access and download songs from allofmp3.

Did they think that would be the end of it?

Oh no, no, no.....

The awesome piratebay heard about this and have now banned all of Perspektiv's ip's from accessing their servers. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Check out the story here, which also includes the PHP code to block Perspecktiv's servers. So do your part and join the Pirate Party.

Aaarrrrgggg!!!!