About me I've been a computer programmer since I first started typing in program listings on a Commodore Vic 20 when I was about 8. My hobbies include electronics, CNC manufacturing, photography, beer and winemaking.
I live with my wife and lots of left-over parts from unfinished projects in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.]
Blog
19 February 2013, 22:42 UTCOnline Anagrammer with AJAX
At the office, we frequently do a scrambled word puzzle from the
newspaper. Occasionally I overlook the answer for minutes at a time.
In the past I've used various websites or
programs to find solutions to these problems, but now I've written my
own very fast one from scratch. It includes commandline and web
interfaces (including ajax for lightning-fast updates).
You can try it or get the source.
2 May 2006, 23:08 UTCWhine!!!!!!!&exclam;
Having recently tried to write some documentation, I'm a bit struck by how
much all the alternatives I'm aware of suck. All I want is to get a nice HTML
and PDF output of a document with a few tables. Some signs pointed towards
this thing called "openjade", which is a "document style semantics and
specification language" (I guess).
Imagine how unimpressed was when I got a look at the documentation they had
produced—If anybody is going to have good-looking documentation it
should be the people making the "document style" software! At first I thought
of blaming myself because I had a wide screen, but it's even bad on a maximized
window on a 1024x768 monitor, with its black text over a terrible dithered dark
blue background.
I guess I'll go back to writing HTML by hand and using "File > Print" to
produce PDF. Or maybe I'll write LaTeX again and berate people who don't
seem to know how to use xpdf.
11 September 2005, 18:15 UTC in softwareglif: generate client-side gif files from javascript
It probably won't be the biggest thing since AJAX, but I hit upon the
idea of generating images client-side. The current ways to do this seem to
involve using tables or absolute-positioning of very small DIVs. (See, for
example, http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm) My
technique, which I call glif (for GIF and glyph),
generates a gif-format image on the client side.
One application for this that comes immediately to mind is client-side
generation of sparklines-type images, possibly from an AJAX source.
glif.html is a small demo which draws a sine wave in an image (Known not to work in IE) Update: SparGlif demo
14 July 2005, 13:57 UTC in softwareTimestamp-based caching for filesystem-based dynamic websites
aether is nice, but it's a bit slow, especially when many local files
must be parsed to produce a single page. cache.cgi is a simple program that,
in cooperation with any filesytem-based dynamic website, can serve from a
cached copy of the page when it is appropriate to do so.3 July 2005, 18:36 UTC in softwareAethertool 0.6 Released
A new version of aethertool, 0.6, has been released. Compared to 0.5,
it features mostly cleanups.17 June 2005, 19:13 UTC in softwareNew version of aethertool (formerly called commandline tools for Æther)
This version features image rotation and optimization, "put" and
"blog entry suffix" commandline switches, and more16 June 2005, 0:20 UTC in softwareWikipedia-like floating thumbnails for Æther
Adds a family of markup functions for floating images with thumbnails.
It also replaces [image] to include the image's size. This module requires PIL, which is used to find the size of images.5 June 2005, 1:44 UTC in softwareComments for Æther
This module adds comments to Æther blogs and other pages.4 June 2005, 21:26 UTCSwishing revisited
20 May 2005, 16:39 UTCAether commandline tools v2
16 May 2005, 13:36 UTCCommandline tools for Æther
16 May 2005, 3:00 UTCÆther with a real editor
8 April 2005, 1:35 UTCspeaking of busts...
18 March 2005, 17:05 UTCSearching Aether with swish-e
21 February 2005, 3:34 UTCA patch to aether so that the sidebars are visible in IE
25 October 2004, 18:24 UTCFirst Thoughts about Aether
Online Anagrammer with AJAX
At the office, we frequently do a scrambled word puzzle from the newspaper. Occasionally I overlook the answer for minutes at a time. In the past I've used various websites or programs to find solutions to these problems, but now I've written my own very fast one from scratch. It includes commandline and web interfaces (including ajax for lightning-fast updates).
You can try it or get the source.
Whine!!!!!!!&exclam;
Having recently tried to write some documentation, I'm a bit struck by how much all the alternatives I'm aware of suck. All I want is to get a nice HTML and PDF output of a document with a few tables. Some signs pointed towards this thing called "openjade", which is a "document style semantics and specification language" (I guess).
Imagine how unimpressed was when I got a look at the documentation they had produced—If anybody is going to have good-looking documentation it should be the people making the "document style" software! At first I thought of blaming myself because I had a wide screen, but it's even bad on a maximized window on a 1024x768 monitor, with its black text over a terrible dithered dark blue background.
I guess I'll go back to writing HTML by hand and using "File > Print" to produce PDF. Or maybe I'll write LaTeX again and berate people who don't seem to know how to use xpdf.
glif: generate client-side gif files from javascript
It probably won't be the biggest thing since AJAX, but I hit upon the idea of generating images client-side. The current ways to do this seem to involve using tables or absolute-positioning of very small DIVs. (See, for example, http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm) My technique, which I call glif (for GIF and glyph), generates a gif-format image on the client side.
One application for this that comes immediately to mind is client-side generation of sparklines-type images, possibly from an AJAX source.
glif.html is a small demo which draws a sine wave in an image (Known not to work in IE) Update: SparGlif demo
Timestamp-based caching for filesystem-based dynamic websites
aether is nice, but it's a bit slow, especially when many local files must be parsed to produce a single page. cache.cgi is a simple program that, in cooperation with any filesytem-based dynamic website, can serve from a cached copy of the page when it is appropriate to do so.
Aethertool 0.6 Released
A new version of aethertool, 0.6, has been released. Compared to 0.5, it features mostly cleanups.
New version of aethertool (formerly called commandline tools for Æther)
This version features image rotation and optimization, "put" and "blog entry suffix" commandline switches, and more
Wikipedia-like floating thumbnails for Æther
Adds a family of markup functions for floating images with thumbnails. It also replaces [image] to include the image's size. This module requires PIL, which is used to find the size of images.
Comments for Æther
This module adds comments to Æther blogs and other pages.
Swishing revisited
Aether commandline tools v2
Commandline tools for Æther
Æther with a real editor
speaking of busts...
Searching Aether with swish-e
A patch to aether so that the sidebars are visible in IE
First Thoughts about Aether
All older entries
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