Tech of the day: software nostalgia

I've just read that software company Borland was sold recently. That name certainly brought back a lot of good old memory. Borland was the developer of the DOS utility SideKick, which was highly raved by reviewers back in the 80s because it allowed user to quickly open or hide it, pretty much like multi-tasking on Windows but that's before the days of Windows. I have almost completely forgotten about it.

I think the most famous software made by Borland is probably Turbo Pascal. Every computer enthusiast from the 80s have played with it! I bet it introduced a lot of them to programming. And that was not lame programming (read: BASIC) but real programming with a speedy compiler/editor and a real language! Borland sold off its compiler business and it is now owned by Embarcadero. You could download Turbo Pascal for free from them.

Another product I almost forgot was Paradox. That's the database software I taught in college for a living.

BTW, there is another article about old-school programming techniques. Fortunately I haven't done much of those at work. I am not qualified as old timer!

Topic of the day: South Park mocked Disney

Whether you like "South Park" (the animated TV series) or not, you gotta admit these guys "get" pop culture. They know what buttons to push to create controversies. Their parody of Tom Cruise and his "religion" is certainly legendary. The episode that made fun of High School Musical was also hilarious. And the latest one that I couldn't stop laughing was about Jonas Brothers and the stupid purity rings that they wear to symbolize the fact that they won't have sex under marriage. It was said in the episode that the purity rings were pushed so that the company could sell sex to teenagers! You might wonder why it isn't the opposite. I thought so for a second but then I understood! Let's face it. All these teen boy bands have was their good looks, in other words, sex appeal (don't tell me it's their talent) What could make them more acceptable to parents than "purifying" the appeal? It was a clever idea but it is also too superficial. Just think about what happened to all those teen idols who vowed for no sex until marriage. How many of them got pregnant before marriage?

And I want to give more credits to South Park by putting the blame on the company rather than the performers (Jonas Brothers in this case. They don't look that bad in that episode) You could watch it on their website. It is the first episode of the 13th season.)

Topic of the day: Journalism today (and the story of Japan town)

This article named "S.F. searches for solution to Japan Center woes" appeared in San Francisco chronicles yesterday. If you read the article (and it's pretty obvious judging by the title), you might think something is really wrong with Japan Center (the name of the shopping center in Japan town) The articles portrayed the place as having an outdated look. It even used the word "dead zone" to describe the neighborhood.

However, I could tell you such descriptions couldn't be more wrong (and most commenters agreed. In fact they were outraged!) I just went there this Sunday (my first visit in 3 years.) The stores and restaurants were all busy. The iconic Kinokuniya Book Store has been expanded to a 2-floor operation!

It seems to me all that needs to be done was rebuilding/reinforcing the parking garage so that it meets the current earthquake standard. That makes me wonder what the motivation of the writer of that story was. Do you think he is unbiased?

BTW, on the topic of quality of journalism today: it sank to a new low when it was discovered that a student's Wikipedia hoax quote was used worldwide in newspaper obituaries! The quote was:

One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear

It was made up by a student who added it to French composer Maurice Jarre's Wikipedia page. So apparently journalists are using Wikipedia as their source these days. Laziness? Incompetence? or both?

Tech of the day: My VM has lost its voice

As I previously mentioned, I run Arch Linux in VirtualBox on my Windows machine. I could playback audio after I installed the ALSA tools and made the adjustments (see my old post) However, it stopped working after I moved the VM to a new HP notebook. When I try adjusting the PCM channel through amixer, it was simply not there. Again, I found the solution from the same ALSA entry on ArchWiki (thanks!) The section was about making sure the sound modules were loaded.

Basically I found from lsusb that my sound module is: snd_intel8x0

So I modified the MODULES line in /etc/rc.conf to this:
MODULES=(snd_intel8x0 snd_pcm_oss)

And reboot, unmute and adjust the channel volumes through amixer again. Voila! I got audio back!

To make the Amixer settings permanent, follow these steps.

And I have found a post about getting EMU 0404 USB (my external sound card) to work in Linux. Guess that's something I should try in the future.

Tech of the day: Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem was a very popular first-person shooter game in the 90s. (Even a casual gamer like me knows about it!) Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to the latest and greatest version of the series and was supposed to be released in 1998, but it was never released, to this day. And it has become a joke in the industry and a synonym to vaporware (software that was promised but never delivered)

Nevertheless, there was still hope among Duke Nukem fans that it would be released someday as long as its creator, 3D Realms, is still around. After all, subject of another perennial vaporware joke, Guns 'N Roses' new album Chinese Democracy, was finally released last year. Well, that last hope was dashed because 3D Realms has just closed its door.

Music of the day: Exposures - In Retrospect and denial

This was a double CD released by melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity in 2004. The second half contains live performances. I've been to their concerts twice and they never disappointed. I could hear the same kind of energy from these live tracks. And the first half contains previously unreleased or "B-side" material. I wonder why they were left out of the previous CDs 'coz these are pretty good stuff.

Topic of the day: teacher appreciation week, cinco de mayo and mother's day

What do they have in common? For one thing, they all happened in the past week. More importantly, I believe they are celebrated/promoted/marketed heavily because of business interests! I am pretty sure a lot of flowers, cards, beers...... were sold for them. I gotta admit I am not a big fan. All these pressure to appreciate your teacher, your mom and Mexican culture is just a little bit too superficial. Cinco De Mayo is not even celebrated in Mexico! And how come there is no software developer appreciation week during which our clients sent us flowers/gift card/breakfast? I know why: they have paid our employers already! Back in my days (I know, my "good old days" talk again) we had one "official" teacher appreciation activity for the whole 6 years of high school. And of course, great teachers' efforts were always appreciated with or without such activity. In fact, one of our favourite teacher told us we should have been more frugal when we picked the place for celebration because we were just students.

每週一噏：棋壇喜與悲

今週發生了一件中國圍棋界十分振奮的事﹐指的當然是古力奪得首屆BC咭世界圍棋賽的冠軍﹐原來此前中國棋手從未在任何世界圍棋賽的首屆奪標。而古力本人亦保持另一個驚人的紀錄﹕就是六次打入世界圍棋賽決賽均成功摘冠﹗

而日本棋壇一代怪傑﹑榮譽棋聖藤澤秀行今週病逝﹐全球棋迷自不然感到失落。藤澤老師在92年以67歲高齡衛冕王座﹐成為史上年紀最大的大賽奪標者﹐是一項驕人的紀錄。相信中國棋手對藤澤老師會特別懷念﹐皆因當年他帶領一班日本棋手訪華﹐該年代的中國棋手獲益不淺﹐藤澤老師這種無分國界地熱心推廣棋藝的精神﹐實在令人肅然起敬。