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

ONLamp.com on Rexx

ONLamp.com: Rexx: Power Through Simplicity

That was a nice flashback. Back in my OS/2 days I did a lot of Rexx scripting. It's quite an enjoyable scripting language. OS/2 later added ObjectRexx, which was an OSA-compliant scripting language (yes, OSA, the open scripting architecture, the foundation for AppleScript) you could use to script OpenDoc documents in OS/2 (yes, OpenDoc shipped as a standard part of OS/2 Warp v4, imagine that!)

Years ago driving on I5 in the USA, I stopped at an outlet bookstore and found a copy of the "The NetRexx Language". It's still on my bookshelf. Mike Colishaw, the inventor of Rexx and an expert on decimal arithmetic, is also one of the driving forces behind the improvements java.math.BigDecimal in Java 5.

IBM: NetRexx 2

Rexx Language Association was given ObjectRexx under an open source license from IBM recently.

IBM's main REXX page.

HTTP is an obscure protocol according to Google

This page: HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol Overview appeared on page four of the search results on Google for the query "HTTP".

The first result? Microsoft. Second... AltaVista! Third, Yahoo. Oh, I hadn't noticed, the W3C was 4th. Apple appeared on page 3 just below www.whitehouse.gov and above slashdot.org.

None of the titles or descriptions for the pages above the page about the HTTP protocol contain the word HTTP, and the only ones closely web related are W3C, PHP and Apache.

Contrast those results from the results of the same query on MSN Search.

The page HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol Overview appeared as the second result. The first? Fitness Network UK of course, who else?!

Maybe the web just isn't relevant anymore. HTTP is dead, long live HTTP!

Buying the game twice

A Gamers' Manifesto (via Wes)

It's a really good article, but here's my favourite part...

YES! This absolutely drives me nuts. I bought Project Gotham Racing 2 for the Xbox, and found out I couldn't actually race that Enzo Ferrari on the box until I worked for days driving other shitty cars to earn kudos I could use to buy the car.

Um, I already earned dollars by spending my time working my real job so I could afford the time to play the damn game I paid for with said dollars. I haven't bought Forza Motorsport yet, even though it looks like a great racing game, because I cannot stand the idea of having to drive to earn credits to buy and upgrade other cars. There needs to be a toggle that switches between "give me everything this game has" and "i'll play your stupid skill game".

I still don't have one of the cars because I'd have to spent about a week of solid game time driving every level on the hardest difficulty, and I still don't have all the maps. This despite hundreds of hours of game time. Do I have to grab my ankles?

Oh, and if I take my game to my friend's house we can't use all the cars and maps I've unlocked because that information is locked on my hard drive. This is something Xbox Live should be solving. Put that information on their server and let me log into my profile on from any Xbox so I can have my progress available there too.

Napoleon Dynamite and Bill Gates video

WSJ.com: Intel CEO Extols Patience; Yahoo Stresses Personalization; Bloggers Take Center Stage (via )

Lucky!

I must see this video! If you know where to find it, please e-mail me a link.

Sure, Apple's cool with Mac OS X and iPod, but does Steve Jobs make flippin' sweet videos like that? No! Dang!

Faxing working in Tiger again thanks to AppleCare technical specialist

Well it wasn't that issue I linked to before. Not sure what happened. I did some more digging and my PowerBook uses a different .kext for the modem than the one people were reporting problems with.

The problem I was having that was the same as others was the Internal Modem disappeared from the Fax List. After getting nowhere with a 1st level AppleCare support person and being transferred to a technical specialist, the problem was solved.

They kept on insisting I needed to have the Internal Modem turned on in my Network location configuration, that the Internal Modem wouldn't be "turned on" unless it was enabled in the Network Port Configuration! I insisted that was unrelated to faxing, and furthermore, that was never necessary in Panther or other versions of Mac OS X.

Finally, the specialist tried the "Reset Printing System" command in the Printer Setup Utility, and that did it. It wipes out everything in your printer list and fax list, but when you first try to fax something, the Internal Modem fax configuration will be regenerated.

It was a good thing I called, because I hadn't linked my AppleCare plan to my PowerBook yet...

Internal modem broken in Tiger 10.4, 10.4.1, cannot fax

Apple - Discussions: Cant recieve faxes with 10.4.1

It appears (the link above is not the only place I've seen this report, on Apple's support site or otherwise) Apple screwed up the internal modem driver in 10.4, as a result I cannot send faxes with my PowerBook.

I'll be calling Apple Canada support in the morning.

Bram Cohen places "Kick Me" sign on rear

Wired News: Next for BitTorrent: Search (via Slashdot)

That's exactly what I thought when I read about this on Slashdot. Why does he want this kind of headache? Does he really think the revenue is going to offset the trouble he could get into (whether or not he deserves the trouble is another matter).

Dallas is insane

dallasobserver.com: Bozo Rules (via Plastic)

The cops in Dallas are suing business owners who call 911 too often because it makes their stats look bad. Seriously.

Belinda Stronach a Liberal!?

CBC News Indepth: Belinda Stronach - Newly Liberal (via )

Excuse me while I pick up my jaw, I seem to have dropped it.

BBC NEWS: Canada defection boosts coalition

ONJava.com article about Spring

Bruce Tate, on ONJava.com: Five Things I Love About Spring (via Josh)

BTW, Bruce is a co-author of of Spring: A Developer's Notebook, one of the books I recently picked up and am reading.