kasia in a nutshell

Now this is amusing, a feedback item received at dslr:

Hi, I am Radhika from <removed> site. We came across your site, where there are some links to <removed> from the page Could you please remove <removed> links from your site as we don’t want any incoming links to our site. Kindly remove the links ASAP. Thanks & Regards Radhika G, iGlobalMedia Group Email: radhikag@iglobalmedia.com

A google search on the domain (removed from the text) provides a usenet full of their spam, comment spam all over weblogs and well, if they don't want a link then my mother is a turkey! (sorry mom).

Obviously geared at websites with hope the owners will fall for it and write a "Haha, look at these idiots, they don't want a link" article with, of course, a link.

Sneaky, sneaky.

Posted by kasia at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This is a first.. an attempt at patenting something I could produce prior art for! Me and thousands others!

Patent Application:

Herein is described an implementation of an object persister, which serializes an object to preserve the object's data structure and its current data. The serialized object is encoded using XML and inserted within a message. That message is transmitted to an entity over a network. Such a transmission is performed using standard Internet protocols, such as HTML. Upon receiving the serialized object, the receiving entity deserializes the object to use it. Rather than include copies of referenced objects within the serialized object, the object persister includes references to those objects. This avoids redundant inclusion of the same object and potentially infinite inclusion of the object itself that is being serialized.

.. and since when is HTML a protocol.

[via Ray]

Posted by kasia at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

This story opens up an interesting question. Are you still protected by privacy laws after you die and should you be?

On one hand you have the family who lost their son and only wish to have all that remains of his memory, on the other a man's legitimate assumption of privacy, dead or alive. To me, the answer is pretty clear. Had he wanted his family to have these emails, he would have either made the password known or sent the emails to them.

There is a second angle to this story that is not mentioned in the article. The soldier is dead, but what of the people he corresponded with? Do they lose a right to privacy once the recipient dies? Of course, yet another angle is can anyone legitimately claim email is private in the first place.

Before siding with the family, I think everyone should think of their most embarrassing email and then imagine their mom reading it. Yah, I thought so. Go Yahoo.

Posted by kasia at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

usage: mt_close_comments.pl [options]
options are
  -f                      Fake mode - don't actually do anything, just
                          provide feedback on what would have been done.
  -h                      Print usage and exit.
  -t                      Close trackbacks too.
  --days=num              Close entries older than these many days (default 15).
  --db-type=type          Type of database default is mysql
  --db-host=host          Database host  default is localhost
  --db-user=user          Database user name
  --db-pass=pass          Database password

This script closes movable type entries to comments and trackbacks with a simple
SQL query.

This is meant to be used from a cron job, sample cron entry:
# Close movable type entries that are older than 15 days to comments once a day at 4am.
#
0 4 * * * mt_close_comments.pl

Posted by kasia at 09:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBacks (1)

I haven't been attending a full time job in the last few weeks, one might think that should give me quite a few hours of free time, right? Not so! It appears I'm far more busy now than I ever was working. I just don't get paid as much doing it.

I think I found a new disorder:

Out-of-work-so-I-have-tons-of-time-for-all-kinds-of-projects-itis.

I wake up in the morning with the idea that I have all these free hours to do all these things I have always planned on doing, except it turns out once my day fills up.. well, it fills up.

I need a job so I can start to relax again!

Posted by kasia at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

1. If your new employer buys books, take advantage! Read them!

2. Work extra hours to finish a project that's off-schedule, it will come in handy when it's time for a performance review.

3. Always document your code, you never know when someone else might need to read it.

4. Keep daily notes on your progress, it comes in handy when you need to take a few days away from a project.

5. Take advantage of any training your employer provides, it makes you a more valuable employee.

6. Start your work day early, you can get more done in the morning before the office fills up with coworkers.

7. Don't abuse company resources, that next raise may depend on it!

.. and finally ..

8. Keep your personal items at work to a minimum, it's easier to carry out when it all fits in one box.

9. Label your office supplies, that way you can claim them as your own when it's time to pack your box.

10. Accrue your vacation days so when you get laid off you have extra paid time.

Posted by kasia at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (2)

Technically, two weeks, since I missed one last week.. and it's my cat taken with my new Motorola V710 cell phone. Crappy camera, good phone! Crappy verizon for crippling bluetooth!

Picture of the week archive

Posted by kasia at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A degree from a bogus university.

This google search is entertaining.

I have to wonder about this guy.. his other PHD is probably quite real.

Posted by kasia at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This morning, as I was paying my bills, I came up with a whole list of annoyances with the bill payment system my bank uses. I'm pretty sure it's their own custom software, and well, it sucks. So i thought of writing them an email listing all the little things (like say, adding a payee should not be a 10-step process) that annoyed me.. then it occurred to me.

That's a Java-based website.

I'm a Java programmer.

I'm looking for work.

They're based in Connecticut.

hey..

But how exactly do you do that? "Excuse me, your website sucks, I could fix it, hire me!"

Speaking of job searches, I went on one whole job interview so far, they offered me a position (and it's a good one) provided they can find me a project to work on within the big company they work for. So.. it's a "maybe" job. Maybe I'll have a job, maybe I won't. I do keep my fingers crossed.. if they have room at the office near me, it's less than two miles away, the pay rate they offered me is pretty good and their benefits are excellent.

Posted by kasia at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

My bloody coffee maker died this morning. It led a good, long life of over 10 years, but still.. I can't be without coffee in the morning!

Posted by kasia at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)