Adam's Blog

And so the real race begins. Yesterday, Opera software announced via blog post that their post Opera 9.5 builds are passing the ACID3 test. Cool! But alas, the Webkit team - who really have a great track record of being successful with bleeding edge, one upped them by not only passing the test, but releasing the code. So behold, this is Webkit nightly for Windows, build 31368 from 2008-03-26. We know that Safari 3.1 doesn't and Opera 9.5 won't pass ACID3. We know IE8 is a long way off. We know Firefox 3 is still pretty far from it too. But now we have browsers that can do it. The the big question is, who will have the first stable general release that does it? Safari 3.2? Opera 10? It's an exciting time in web development, and I hate to admit that I think it's largely due to IE8. If the IE team steps it up, some of themes technologies have the potential to reinvigorate the web. No serious e-commerce site would alienate all IE users - even today, they make up 80% or so of internet users. But as things progress here, we're likely to start seeing some incredible...

Throughout the internet, you'll find a slew of geeks who refer to their projects by "code name." Realistically, this isn't GI Joe, so there's no real reason to need a code name for your projects, right? I'm here to argue that. Since I'm involved in several web endeavors, there is always a lot of development code on my computers. When I start something like a sethadam1.com redesign or something much larger, like an OSNews redesign, it doesn't make sense to have a hundred folders called "osnewsv4" or somesuch littered about. I used to date the folders, but osnewsv4-tuesday doesn't help. And something like osnewsv4-20071017 doesn't help much either. Now it gets even more complex: what if I build something and then decide to approach it differently? How will I know which folder is the one that contains relevant code? Enter codenames! When I knew I was going to build a brand spankin' new version of OSNews, I knew it would eventually be called version 4, so it made no sense to start calling the first code off my fingers "v4." As it turns out, there were actually almost 10 versions of "OSNews version 4" before we accepted a codebase. The...

In my previous foray with chicken fried steak, I found that round cuts, at least, unaltered, made for a poor dish. After consulting some recipes, I found that a much longer tenderizing period could be a solution, or using a "needling device" to create your own cube steak. In opted, for my experiment, to use cube steak purchased from the local supermarket. A few tips I can share: get the cube steak patty slightly wet, salt and pepper, flour, egg wash, and put it back into the flour. But here's the kicker: use your hands. Be gentle, but pat the mix in. Make sure it's evenly coated. This stuff isn't glue, it will unevenly coat unless you do it properly. My only objection, I'm afraid, is that my sawmill gravy was a little thin. I made it with leftover oil, flour, chicken broth, and whole milk, but I suspect I used a little too much broth or a little too little flour. Either way, it tasted great, it just was too thin. Nonetheless, the dish was an overwhelming success. Image hosted by Flickr

I have an idea for an application I think could be really cool. Ideally, it would be Mac-based, since I exclusively use Macs at home, but it could exist just the same on Windows or Linux or any other platform. The problem is, I'm not a programmer - at least I can't build native apps, only web ones. So my question is, ? Should I post it here? Submit it to OSNews? I've contacted the developers of MarsEdit, because that's the closest thing that exists to my idea, but he opted out without hearing the idea, so I'm kind of at a loss. What should one do if they have an idea for a potentially useful application?

I have recently come to love Thomas Jefferson. A progressive thinker, one of the primary architects of the United States of America and the Constitution, a brilliant, forward-thinking leader who forsaw the problems of government years, decades, even centuries before they arose. Jefferson, who is one of the founding fathers of the US, had these to say: On religion: "But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.... What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law. I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvres to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another. Religion is a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved. I have considered it as a matter between every man and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to intermeddle. I am really mortified to be told that, in the United States of...

Ah, the joy of humor. What do you get when you combine Apple and Steve Jobs with a little George Bush? Answer: comedy gold!

Vista SP1 was over 435 megabytes for me, making it larger than any Microsoft Service Pack ever, larger than any Mac point release, larger than many OSes themselves. Installation took well over an hour in three stages, which is suspicious, as again, I've installed OSes in less time. But it went smoothly and did it all on its own, which was nice. Click the link for a larger picture Booting up, there's nothing immediately different. I tried copying a 28MB file over the network to check on time. It copied the first half in light-speed, but then stopped. I called the guy whose machine I copied from: "Hey, did you just shut down?" His response, "Negative, I lost connection all of a sudden." Uh-oh, I thought. But alas, after he rebooted, I copied the latest ISO of gOS, which weighs in at 535MB, and it told me 60 seconds, and by jiminy, it took about 60 seconds. Thus far - after 30 minutes use - I've only noticed one new feature, it appears Vista SP1 has some new "modes" of desktop wallpaper display, and can finally "stretch" wallpaper. Thanks God, because my larger secondary monitor always had stripes with Vista...

This week has already seen a slew of releases: first came an updated Airport Express (I want one). Then today, Apple unleased Safari 3.1, which vastly extends support for bleeding edge web standards like CSS3, HTML5, and expands support of ECMAscript. Finally, not to have all headlines stolen this St. Patrick's Day, Microsoft loosed Vista SP1 to Windows Update. I have installed Safari 3.1/Win and this evening I will upgrade at home on the Mac. I am currently downloading Vista SP1 for my work PC. Reviews to follow, for certain.

What's yours? I have to agree with Zach Braff, whose favorite swear word is "motherfucking cunt pussy-licking tit-fuck bitch face".

Having had a chance to reflect on Tuesday's American Idol Top 12 performances, featuring music from the Lennon/McCartney songbook, I feel I can now properly and more accurately express myself. The Beatles are likely the most covered band of all time. But for some reason, some covers just work and others just don't. Take, for example, Katharine "Kat" McPhee's take on George Harrison's Abbey Road masterpiece, "Something." No doubt McPhee can sing, she can actually hold a note in tune longer than most the "most talented top 12 evar!" But the song was scary bad. Why? First of all, she committed the cardinal sin of adding her own lyrics to a Beatles by closing the song with "...it's in the way he moves" over the song's signature lick. Secondly, she changed "she" to "he," which is another no-no. And lastly, she kept the song mostly the same while changing some of the intonations punching different syllables. In a package, it was painful. On the other hand, Ramiele Malubay's take on "In My Life," universally panned as "boring" was actually a nice, albeit unadventurous and sleepy. It was unintrusive. Compare that to David Hernandez, whose run-infused, manic take on "I Saw...