Quietude

R.J. Lorimer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:48:40 -0700

Sorry for the overwhelming quiet here on RealJenius.com - I’m getting married in two weeks now, and it has been a bit of a time-consuming ‘project’.

Unfortunately, that probably also means that the next two to four weeks will still be quiet.

Rest assured, I haven’t died.

…. and I also got Mass Effect, which might also be a slight additional time-sink in my life ;)

Boyd Coddington Has Died

R.J. Lorimer — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:01:36 -0800

Boyd Coddington (whom many people know from American Hot Rod) has died at age 63.

Boyd was a very influential member of the custom car/hot-rod industry in America, and it’s sad to see him go.

Moved to Google Apps

R.J. Lorimer — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:38:17 -0800

Tonight I officially kicked off the process of moving to Google Apps for my email, calendar, and also for google docs, which I use quite a bit.

I plan to blog on it more, but for now I will say the process was relatively simple, although moving from a fully configured GMail account to a Google Apps account should be less painful than it is.

Did You Know: JFace ArrayContentProvider

R.J. Lorimer — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:45:36 -0800

When coding in Eclipse RCP or, for that matter, any JFace based UI, you often times are implementing viewers, which require a content provider and a label provider. In most cases, you’re dealing with the IStructuredContentProvider API, which would be appropriate for both the ListViewer and TableViewer classes.

If you have a need to populate these views with data that is effectively static, you can use the org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ArrayContentProvider class to get you up and running quickly; and it is really quite functional in many cases.

Comments and Contact Broken - Uhh... Whoops?

R.J. Lorimer — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:26:23 -0800

Okay, so I guess my CAPTCHA has been broken on realjenius.com for a while now. I don’t know how long because nobody was able to comment or for that matter contact me through the contact form… because the CAPTCHA was broken.

I’d say I’m sorry, but… well, I’m not really. Anyway - you can comment again - enjoy!

Live Action Akira

R.J. Lorimer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:32:09 -0800

Autoblog.com has posted that a live-action adaptation of the Akira manga is in the works.

Amidst all the great animes we’ve been exposed to, Akira stands out. Set in post-apocalyptic Tokyo, the neo-classic featured everything we’ve come to expect from Japan’s animation wizards: stunning artwork, imaginative plot lines and absolutely killer conveyances - particularly the bikes which easily put Tron to shame.

Internet Explorer, 'Has Layout', and Me

R.J. Lorimer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 09:33:51 -0800

This week at my Clark-Kent-day-job, I was working with JQuery, which is usually a pleasure. However, in this particular occasion, Microsoft, circa 2001, stepped in and defecated all over my happy times.

Head Tracking on VR Displays

R.J. Lorimer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:43:47 -0800

This was the 2nd time this video came up in Google Reader (this time via Neatorama, so I figured I should watch it. When he first showed what the version with VR head tracking, I was immediately convinced - this technology needs to show up in video games soon. I know I’d pay for the extra peripherals. (Neatorama link)

Bye-Bye HD-DVD

R.J. Lorimer — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:07:29 -0800

Well, at least according to C|Net Crave the format wars are now over. Toshiba has (unofficially) closed the lid on the coffin for HD DVD.

Overall, I’m glad that this is finally happening; the industry doesn’t need competing, incompatible media formats for long. It’s just a shame that I dislike Sony so much…

Friday Flicks: A Little Tool

R.J. Lorimer — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:51:13 -0800

Here are just a few more interesting videos from the lineage of Tool.

Danny Carey Interview

A few years back after Lateralus was released, Danny Carey (the drummer from Tool) did an interview with Jeff Ocheltree for ‘Trust Your Ears: The Drum Tech Explorations of Jeff Ocheltree’, during which he plays the climactic section of the title track of the album (one of my favorites of their entire collection).