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	<title>Preston L. Bannister  { random memes }</title>
	<link>http://bannister.us/weblog</link>
	<description>A personal viewpoint about software, the web, and anything else of note.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:44:16 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>Magnetic propulsion?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Airplanes have always always been an interest, since I was a kid (though theoretic, not actual).
Simple basic facts about aeroplanes: long thin wings tend to more efficient (aerodynamically, not structurally) than wider/thicker/shorter wings. For much the same reason &#8211; propellers are more efficient than jets. Ducted fans are less efficient than propellers, but more efficient [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/03/08/magnetic-propulsion/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Using GMail for mailto: links in Ubuntu</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Create the file $HOME/bin/mailto with the contents: 

#!/bin/sh
gnome-open "https://mail.google.com/mail?extsrc=mailto&#038;url=$*"

Make the file executable.
On Ubuntu Linux (using the Gnome desktop), go to:
System > Preferences > Preferred Applications
Under Internet / Mail Reader select &#8220;Custom&#8221; and enter the command:
/home/preston/bin/mailto %s
(Replace &#8220;/home/preston&#8221; with your $HOME.)
This should open GMail in your default web browser, composing a new message, with the recipient [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/03/04/using-gmail-for-mailto-links-in-ubuntu/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Between Marketing and Engineering</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Brought up a command window in Windows 7, and saw:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

Yep. Windows 7 is in fact Windows version 6. Gotta love those Marketing folk.
]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/02/24/between-marketing-and-engineering/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Multiplexed FastCGI connections?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Does anyone use FastCGI with FCGI_MPXS_CONNS set to &#8220;1&#8243; (for multiplexed connections)?
Most FastCGI backends seems to be written for non-multiplexed connections. (Much simpler, so understandable.) The IIS FastCGI connector apparently does not support multiplexed connections. 
Writing a FastCGI backend that allows for multiplexed connections. Would be a waste of time  if not supported by [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/01/31/multiplexed-fastcgi-connections/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Giving up HTML@W3C</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Got the &#8220;status as Invited Expert in HTML Working Group&#8221; email. This I will let expire. Spent my time tilting at windmills, and do not see any point in continuing.
The HTML Working Group at W3C is &#8230; far too much noise. The HTML5 &#8220;standard&#8221; is going to be a bloated monster, and there is no [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/01/17/giving-up-htmlw3c/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Efficient UTF-8 recoding and secure processing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[An attempt to make a point&#8230;
The use of UTF-8 on the web is common and increasing. Lots of data comes in as UTF-8, and inefficiency in UTF-8 data handling is going to have pretty pervasive impact.
On the flip side, the creators of UTF-8 did a good job. There is nothing really complicated about the UTF-8 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/01/16/efficient-utf-8-recoding-and-secure-processing/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>UTF8/UCS conversion benchmark</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Point of reference&#8230;
UCS (Unicode) to UTF8 conversion, and the reverse, when efficiently coded in C++ clocks in well above 100MB/s on current generation CPUs. If you are getting something much less &#8211; enough to be a problem &#8211; then there are questions you should ask. The following run spans 1 to 6 byte UTF8 encodings.
Recoding [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/01/12/utf8ucs-conversion-benchmark/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Musing about cumulative impact</title>
		<description><![CDATA[About 15 years back I was working on a C++ GUI application with a cyclic workload and a lot of string manipulation. For both performance and reliability I came up with a lightweight string class that did allocations off a free list. The class benchmarked well, and performed very well in practice. About 10 years [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2010/01/08/musing-about-cumulative-impact/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>&#8230;  status as Invited Expert in HTML Working Group</title>
		<description><![CDATA[At one time I had hoped there was a small chance I might be able to nudge the HTML working group in a constructive direction. Over time, what I found is that there are a small number of individuals that are able to invest an inordinate amount of time to this same working group, and [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/12/31/status-as-invited-expert-in-html-working-group/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Almost but not quite &#8230; server-side JavaScript</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bit over three years back I looked at server-side Javascript, and was not enthused with the available choices. 
Three distinct usages I&#8217;d like to cover: optimal performance,Windows web server (IIS) interoperable, and webhosting.
In addition, there are three interesting aspects of optimal performance: throughput, scalability, and stability.
For serving static content, I really like the model of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/12/30/almost-but-not-quite-server-side-javascript/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Wireless network and Linux</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A signpost of sort &#8211; wireless network support on Linux, at least for the Intel 4965AGN adaptor &#8211; sucks.
Went with the Intel adaptor when I ordered this notebook, in part as Intel seems to be actively supporting the development of Linux drivers. In practice, my laptop wireless connection is mostly unreliable, and often near-useless.
I used [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/12/24/wireless-network-and-linux/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Trie in Java &#8211; revisited</title>
		<description><![CDATA[An earlier attempt at writing a fast general purpose Trie in Java gave huge memory use, and disappointing results. Seems a Trie implementation that is both fast and general purpose is not possible. (Translation: For most use a Trie cannot replace a hash table.)
After the prior results, I wanted to see if a less general-purpose [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/12/23/trie-in-java-revisited/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Identifying and documenting bugs in Sun Java Printing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I have had a fair amount of trouble with odd behaviors and bugs in printing with Java. The time I have had to spend at work to eliminate troublesome behavior in a heavily used Java application (both before customers see the problem, and after customers report problems) &#8230; is embarrassing.
After getting stuck on the latest [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/11/30/identifying-and-documenting-bugs-in-sun-java-printing/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Tilting at windmills</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Bought a Canon MX860. Did my research beforehand, and was able to force-install the 32-bit Canon drivers (for printing) on my 64-bit Ubuntu desktop. Getting scanning to work is another exercise as yet not done. The fact that Canon has published sources that (with the exception of a missing library) could be compiled as 64-bit [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/11/23/tilting-at-windmills/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Apples iTunes store hacked?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Just arrived in email.

Billed To:
          preston@bannister.us
          Preston&#160;Bannister
          14 Vallecito
          Foothill Ranch, CA 92610
Order Number: MGLN2G836G
     [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/11/20/apples-itunes-store-hacked/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Shallow or deep?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The current trade dispute between China and the US &#8211; on the surface &#8211; really makes no sense.

China to investigate U.S. car subsidies
China is preparing to launch a trade investigation into whether US carmakers are being unfairly subsidised by the US government, according to people familiar with the matter.
The move comes at a time of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/11/10/shallow-or-deep/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>GTK bug in Ubuntu 9.10</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Upgraded my desktop from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10. That was a mistake. I could really use an &#8220;undo&#8221; button right about now (as ZFS users have for large scale file system changes).
The problem is buttons. A change in GTK+ 2.18 broke Eclipse, and anything based on Eclipse.
There are a number of bug reports tracking this [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/11/08/gtk-bug-in-ubuntu-9-10/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What&#8217;s Wrong with the Culture of Wall Street? &#8211; TIME</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Reflections of an Anthropologist on the Wall Street mindset.

What&#8217;s Wrong with the Culture of Wall Street? &#8211; TIME
Before this crazy crash of 2008, bankers always landed on their feet, almost always. Job insecurity isn&apos;t the same thing for the average American worker. They often experience downward mobility or don&apos;t land on their feet.

]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/30/whats-wrong-with-the-culture-of-wall-street-time/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Moon rocks and a bit of math</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ran across a copy/article on extracting oxygen from moon rocks. The interesting bit:

New Device Extracts Oxygen from Moon Rocks &#124; Universe Today
Fray anticipates that three reactors, each a meter high, would be enough to generate a ton of oxygen per year on the Moon. Three tons of rock are needed to produce a ton of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/28/moon-rocks-and-a-bit-of-math/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>First impressions &#8211; Google Wave</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Basically, Google Wave is a full and natural merger of messaging, on the web. Before you say &#8220;oh, only that&#8221;, think this through. This is a pretty big deal. Put differently, this is messaging where:

Conversations are a first-class concept, and each message is a part of a conversation.
Each message can be presented by a different [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/24/first-impressions-google-wave/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>PrinterJob.pageDialog() in Java is broken?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[More specifically, the handling of margins, PageFormat, and the PrinterJob.pageDialog(PageFormat) seems to be broken.
Fixing up an old Java desktop application for viewing old &#8220;green-bar&#8221; reports. Should be pretty simple &#8211; the reports are all fixed pitch text. Given I like to do things that &#8220;just work&#8221; (from the users perspective), I&#8217;d added live &#8220;smart&#8221; definition [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/16/printerjob-pagedialog-in-java-is-broken/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Example &#8211; general purpose Trie in Java</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Run across mention of the Trie data structure in a slightly random discussion. Had no notion of how performance of a Trie compares with the usual hash table, so wrote a general-purpose Trie implementation in Java (sources in an Eclipse project) with a bias toward performance.
The results are not encouraging. From a test run:

=== words
14 [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/05/example-general-purpose-trie-in-java/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Concurrency and threading is the new thing, again.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Tim Bray is writing a series of posts, taking a run at the concurrent programming problem, with a focus on languages. I think Tim is aiming in the right direction, but has his focus set at the wrong distance.
There are good reasons to take a run at the problem. Physics is changing what we can [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/10/02/concurrency-and-threading-is-the-new-thing-again/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>BusinessWeek Online</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Left the videos from the BusinessWeek Online site running in background. 
In contrast to the MSNBC and WSJ sites, the videos came across as politically neutral, and not so much into the financial orthodoxy. Seemed aimed roughly at the interests of middle management.
Not getting a lot of insight, but also not as much propaganda.
]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/09/23/businessweek-online/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Wall Street Journal Online</title>
		<description><![CDATA[After a news item took me to the Wall Street Journal site, I left the site up as it cycled through recent videos (while I was working on something else). I have not spent a lot of time listening to videos from Wall Street Journal, so had no overall opinion of the site.
In comparison to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/09/23/wall-street-journal-online/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>MSNBC</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Went looking for video of the latest Apple product announcements, and ended up on the MSNBC site. After the Apple-related video played, I left the site up as it cycled through recent videos (I was working on some code while it ran). I quit watching TV news many years ago, never had much interest in [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/09/13/msnbc/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>When hardware guys write about software</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My father sent a link to an article in a hardware-oriented magazine &#8211; EDN (Electronic Design News) &#8211; about the upcoming Power7 CPU from IBM.

This is out of our fields, but interesting.
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6686259.html?nid=2435&#038;rid=8150303
I liked the one comment: &#8220;the generally horrible code from the Microsoft world&#8221;.

My characteristically reserved response:

Yes, it is usually cute when hardware guys talk [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/09/03/when-hardware-guys-write-about-software/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Building things</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Took off this week and last with no specific plans. Might have gone driving (might still), but I made several trips in the last year, so &#8230; (shrug). Guess I have been on a bit of a home improvement kick. Imagining a new bit, and &#8211; much work later &#8211; seeing an entirely satisfactory end [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/08/26/building-things/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>How improve both oil production and the economy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Part of our economic mess starts with the huge flow of dollars sent outside the country to buy oil. We could produce oil from domestic sources, but the base cost is higher than pumping oil out of the ground and shipping halfway around the planet. If the market price is high enough, investing in production [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/08/22/how-improve-both-oil-production-and-the-economy/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Extending the Pearson hash function to larger values</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My favorite hash function is without doubt the Pearson hash. In my measurements, for my usage, custom hash tables built using a Pearson hash to index into a power-of-two-sized table, have always performed better than the best alternatives. (For not-small tables each table slot is the root of a binary tree.) Certainly this result is [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/08/18/extending-the-pearson-hash-function-to-larger-values/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Installing Pidgin with support for Microsoft IM</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Needed to get IM working from my Ubuntu Linux boxes to my employer&#8217;s Microsoft Office Communicator (2007?) service. Was using the Microsoft Messenger 4.7 client in a VM hosting Windows, but of late this seems to not work well enough for some of my coworkers (since I am often not actively using that VM).
I had [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/08/05/installing-pidgin-with-support-for-microsoft-im/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Why so much from Nigeria?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
On a related note, why are all scammers in Nigeria? Has anyone received the scam emails from ANY other country? I&apos;m frankly dissapointed with the criminals in other countries. Where are they and why aren&apos;t they trying to scam us too?
via Consumerist &#8211; It&#8217;s Now Completely Impossible To Sell A Laptop On Ebay &#8211; eBay.

]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/06/21/why-so-much-from-nigeria/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Tigers of Granularity</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Several months back, I wrote up a speculation about the granularity of what we call &#8220;reality&#8221;. Since then I have tended notice more those instances of a perceptual gap &#8211; where my mental record departs from the smoothly deductive model of reality. 
(An odd trap, when deductions &#8211; of a sort &#8211; lead to speculation [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/06/18/tigers-of-granularity/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Subversion, CVS, and tags</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In the process of converting a group of programmers to Subversion, I ran across a surprisingly awkward bit.
As a regular practice, before generating a build to go to customers, I always carefully review all the changes to the program sources since the last customer release. Using CVS the command line is simple (run from the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/06/17/subversion-cvs-and-tags/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What makes for &#8220;Global Competitiveness&#8221;?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Top Countries in Global Competitiveness: article, slideshow
An observation &#8211; a number of the small countries with outsize rankings are noted as having high taxes. So high taxes need not harm &#8211; and when the tax revenues are used effectively, may benefit &#8211; competitiveness (at least as measured by this group).
On a more speculative note, Britain [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/06/16/what-makes-for-global-competitiveness/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Video from our local Registrar of Voters</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In Orange County (California) the process of collecting the vote is managed by the Orange County Registrar of Voters. Only after this latest election (last Tuesday) did I find that the OCROV has a channel on YouTube

While the above video is only slightly interesting, of note is the guy in the suit &#8211; Neal Kelley [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/05/22/video-from-our-local-registrar-of-voters/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Another take on the class system</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Reading about the British class system, was surprised at one aspect. Pretty much anyone who reaches a notable level of achievement can get knighted. The class system in Britain &#8211; across generations &#8211; is not static.
We have an unresolved problem. At the start of life and career, we want rough equality of opportunity. But ability [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/05/20/another-take-on-the-class-system/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>I am not a Scientist</title>
		<description><![CDATA[What is a Scientist?
I have a clear notion. There are two parts. The first part is a pattern of thought. The second is depth of training in a particular area of expertise. My college degree is in Physics, but only a four-year degree. In Physics a four-year degree is only a fraction of the way [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/04/22/i-am-not-a-scientist/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>kitchen tips</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you have no idea (like me) what size KitchenAid mixer is sufficient, and what size is excessive &#8211; I can tell you with certainty that a 300 watt mixer will struggle with a kilogram of wheat flour in pizza dough. 
I can also tell you that there is something on the underside of the [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/04/18/kitchen-tips/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Maybe Bill Gates was smarter than I thought?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My second job out of college was at Burroughs &#8211; then the second largest computer company in the world, and still growing strongly. Interviewing at Burroughs was fun! I went in at about 9am, and did not emerge until 8pm. In between I got to talk to smart people in many different areas. Later I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://bannister.us/weblog/2009/04/13/maybe-bill-gates-was-smarter-than-i-thought/</link>
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