VH

<1 min read

[@027]
MoviesVan Helsing

We went to see it over the weekend. We both really liked it. We saw a preview for The Chronicles of Riddick, which looks a 1000 times better than Pitch Black.

Sounds like this summer is going to be good for movies, so far we've earmarked:

and I'm sure there will be more.

Kill Bill v2

<1 min read
[@893]
MoviesKill Bill v2 We went to see Kill Bill v2 on Saturday afternoon. Bleh. MacXCode & Panther I finally managed to install 10.3 on our iMac DV. I got new set of Panther disks a while back, but never got around to it. We'll probably try it on Vik's G4-upgraded iMac next. I also installed Xcode 1.2 which seems very nice. I quickly built a few sample Java projects and was pleasantly surprised. When I have chance I'll try converting a few of my old CodeWarrior projects. I really loathed ProjectBuilder, but I can definitely see myself using Xcode for Mac-centric projects.

Hellboy

1 min read

[@039]
MoviesHellboy

We went to see Hellboy last weekend. Lots of laughs, but not enough action for my taste. We're planning on seeing Kill Bill v2 next.

Javajvmstat

Have you tried jvmstat? You really should.

visualgc (pictured) is quickly becoming one of my must-have tool.

jvmstat

JavaInstall4J Rocks

I've been putting together an installer for a new project. Normally I would use InstallAnywhere. Since I needed to install a daemon/service, I decided to give Install4J a try instead.

I have to admit that I'm seriously impressed. Install4J's UI is very straight forward, no fluff.

Somehow I always end up having to write plugins for IA. The whole process is quite laborious and tedious. On the other hand, Install4J's API is a breeze. Simple and to the point.

I did have to create a few custom screens. Swing is really not my forte, but I managed (with a little help from Diego — Thanks!)

Install4J

I also found a small issue under OS X, which was fixed by Hannes right away.

What else can you ask for? Oh yeah… It's a lot cheaper too. :-)

Busy

1 min read

[@769]
UsAmcrap Part Deux

In case you wondered, Vicki's train was delayed by… get this… 5 1/2 hours last Friday night. Apparently they got stuck behind a freight train somewhere down the line.

If something like that happened in France, people would undoubtedly revolt and bring back the pitch forks. Geez.

MeBusy

I've been pretty busy as of late. My linkblog updates have been spotty. Sorry about that.

MoviesThe Punisher

The PunisherWe went to see it on Saturday. We both liked it. Incidentally it was my first theater movie of 2004. We also want to catch Hell Boy and Kill Bill v2.

DSL on the Fritz

1 min read
[@981]
InternetDSL Back! My connectivity is back, full speed! Yippee! :-) [@584]
InternetDSL on the Fritz My DSL connection is acting up. I started noticing it around 4pm yesterday. I've diagnosed the source of the problem to CRC errors on most RX packets in the WAN interface. Line noise. I've called in a trouble ticket, but I have no idea when it will be fixed. I'm supposed to call the central office to get a status update later on today. I'm going through major net withdrawal, not being able to surf, etc. Unless the problem is fixed soon, I won't be able to update my linkblog. It currently takes about 10 minutes to load any given page. Unbearable. The weird part is that a couple nights ago I was blabbing all about how happy I was with my DSL service to some friends. Go figure.

24

1 min read

[@651]
TV24

They preempted 24 because of Bush's speech. Arghhh…

At least Angel is back on tonight.

[Update] Matt tells me that 24 will air this Sunday at 9pm.

JavaGosling

Gosling weighing in on The Settlement is not impressing me. I put very little credence into his interpretation of decisions which are obviously made way above his pay-grade.

Life goes on.

DevelopmentLinear Thinking

It's amazing how people who mostly use scripting languages have such a linear approach when it comes to software development. The concepts of concurrent threads and autonomous processes are so foreign to them.