Jim Roepcke's weblog have browser, will travel (est. 1999)

have browser, will travel

Today's update comes from Netscape Navigator for Linux running under Mandrake Linux. This isn't your granddaddy's Linux installation... it's running inside VMWare 1.0.1 for Windows NT. Yep, Linux on top of NT. I'm pretty sure I'll be buying VMWare once my 30 day eval runs out

VMWare keeps warning me that performance will be unacceptable because I don't have a PII, and because my processor isn't at least 266MHz. Well... In full-screen mode, this setup is completely usable. Now if Brent could show me how to get Frontier running in Linux, I could flip over for good!

Update: I don't know if Brent heard me or what, but his weblog now says "The next story I plan to write is about getting Frontier set up on WINE, so you can duplicate my set-up." Yay!

have browser, will travel

This Afternoon:

Yesterday I played tennis for the first time since August of 1998. I got a knee brace a few weeks ago, so now I can safely play sports again.

Here's an excellent picture (and description) of my knee brace, the GII Extreme. It's pretty huge... Mine is robo-cop silver though, not blue/purple.

I used to play all the time, until I blew out my knee in May of 1995. After that I wasn't able to play until August of 1997, when my knee was finally strong enough to play again. A series of minor but confidence-crushing re-injuries in August 1998 made me stop playing.

Before I left my last job I found out my medical coverage there would pay for 100% of the cost of a knee brace.

Playing tennis rocks. And last night, I got to watch a great tennis match between Agassi (he's been my favourite player since he started playing professionally) and Kafelnikov. Agassi is a true champion, and is truly the greatest tennis player in the world.

Here's a picture of my tennis racquet. I would have linked to the page on Head's site with the info picture on it but their site doesn't work with bookmarks. Not too smart.

have browser, will travel

Evening Update:

Instant Python, by Magnus Lie Hetland. This is a great mini-tutorial that cuts to the chase immediately, and doesn't stop until after it thinks it's finished.

I think I learned the essential Python in just 15 minutes! Yes! Thanks Magnus!

Free idea: people should get together, write similar documents for all programming languages (okay, say the top 30 or so) and put them into an O'Reilly book.

Next: Zope. I think I better read through the ZopeNewbies site...

have browser, will travel

Another wacky meeting on the net:

Yesterday, my parents visited us, and Mom told me she recognized a name on a "crafter's" mailing list she's on. She asked the person if she had worked at (name of municipal gov't branch in Edmonton which I've forgotten) in the winter of 1975, and she replied Yes and she remembered my Mom as well! Turns out this lady comes to Victoria every year with her husband, so they'll get together with my parents for coffee this summer!

It's a small world afterall!

Now I'm getting farklempt. Discuss amonst yourselves, I'll give you a topic: Have you found any long-lost friends or relatives, or bumped into neighbours on the Internet? Discuss...

have browser, will travel

A new site that should become an excellent resource for WebObjects developers: WODeveloper.com

have browser, will travel

Life is good in the new place.

While playing an online game last week, a person asked me where I'm from. (He didn't ask me for any particular reason, just being friendly.) To make a long story short, it turns out we've actually met each other once, we have a common friend (a co-worker from my last job), and until I moved last week, he lived 1 block away from where I lived for the last 2 1/3 years! Wild!

have browser, will travel

This is very cool! Check it out: http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/

That should seriously help them build market share. Now they need to get the caching proxy servers at ISPs like @Home to cache it so that @Home users (using the proxy server) can download it in SECONDS.

have browser, will travel

Internet literacy test urged for teens - you've gotta get the net before you can graduate!

I found the link above at a top-secret private weblog which I hope goes public soooooon.

have browser, will travel

Dan Gillmor, on the Merc: "By giving away its Internet Explorer and effectively killing Netscape, it has achieved a dominance in Internet software."

Dave Winer, on Scripting News: "Wait a minute. Wasn't Netscape free too? I know they said it wasn't free, but couldn't you download the browser from Netscape's website, for free? Dan talks about Microsoft apologists in his piece, is Dan being a Netscape apologist?"

Netscape Navigator was NOT free. If a company wanted to use Netscape's products they had to pay for them. I worked at Shell Canada when they made Internet access available to their employees from their workstations... if I remember correctly the Royal Dutch Shell Group negotiated a world-wide contract with Netscape for Navigator licenses... it was probably on the order of 100's of thousands of licenses they paid for.

I used Netscape at my home business (since IE wasn't around in 1995.) Because I never use unlicensed software, I too bought a license for Netscape Navigator for my home computer.

The last place I worked at got their Netscape software for free because they were considered an educational organization. If they weren't considered educational, they would have had to buy copies for every desk as well.

have browser, will travel

Our big move was today. All went well! If you need moving in Victoria, call Mac's Moving. They're in the Yellow Pages. Very good people, reasonable rates, and they really take care of your stuff.

This move has taught me that programmers and movers are on polar ends of the back-muscle-development scale. Ouwwie!

Tomorrow my computers will be set up and "all will be well again".