Robert A. Uhl

The nightmare which is Windows

Fed up with worms, viruses, spam and spyware, people are giving up their computers, or at least giving up the Internet. Well, that’s what they get using Windows. If you stick a petri dish out in an influenza ward, you’re gonna grow junk; if you stick a vat of Lysol out there you won’t. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t get worms; I don’t get viruses; I don’t get infested with spyware. Read more →

The plasma mug

Thinkgeek have a plasma mug: a glass mug which acts as a plasma ball. Extremely cool. Read more →

Neuros Digital Audio Computer

I want a Neuros. Completely open; has a mike; transmits FM; plays Ogg Vorbis. A bit pricey, though: $280 for the full bundle of player, flash backpack, earphones, belt clips and a charger. Read more →

How to write unmaintainable code

Recently found How to Write Unmaintainable Code; it’s an amusing compendium of how not to write code. I’ve a nasty feeling I’ve done some of it, too … 07 February 2018: updated URL Read more →

Caml

Caml appears to be an interesting programming language. Programs written therein are supposed to be strictly verified for a whole slew of potential bugs — and thus they are apparently much more reliable than those written in other languages. That’s the theory, anyway. Read more →

The Great Computer Language Shootout

I recently discovered the Great Computer Language Shootout, a very cool collection of benchmarks for various programming languages. My one quibble is that it normalises the results to a ten-point scale, when a twelve-point would obviously be superior. Other than that, quite slick. Read more →

Robin — Remote Operating System Built in Netscape

Robin is a desktop-like interface coded in XUL which runs on Firefox. It is, quite frankly, incredible. Imagine where this could lead in half-a-dozen years … 06 February 2018: and it no longer works, now that XUL is unsupported🙁 Read more →

X Prize Won!

The Ansari X Prize has been won by the SpaceShip One team. Civilian space flight is coming, slowly but surely. I expect that it will be several decades before it really comes into its own, but this is wonderful news. I wonder how many centuries it’ll be before we figure out some form of faster-than-light travel. Read more →

Grace

Grace is a cool little graphing tool. It can’t do 3D plots like gnuplot can, but its 2D plots appear a bit nicer. Read more →