Building simplicidade.org: notes, projects, and occasional rants

Notes

last update:

And now there are two

With the recent arrival of HTML5-style SQL access in Webkit, we now have two approaches to the problem of offline storage available to us. Comparing the HTML5/Webkit version with the Google Gears version, personally I prefer the Webkit one due to the async nature of the API. With Gears, database access is a synchronous operation that might delay a critical event-driven application. By making those operations async, your Javascript event handlers can fire off a couple of queries and keep on doing their work.

Zee pain

My problems with pain in the right arm are still here, and I've reduced my laptop-time. So don't expect many updates in the coming weeks.

4740

Hi, my name is Pedro and I'm a Pixel Lover Anonymous. I can't get enough of them, and its ruining my life. Latest update of my workstation display setup brings the total usable display width to 4740 pixels across. The setup started with a Matrox DualHead2Go Digital Edition to span a single DVI output across two 20" Acer Wide LCDs (see a Flickr set with two 24" I used to test it) but the results where not that good.

MySQL Community server with CentOS 5

In case I need this again. After installing the official RPMs from the MySQL site for Redhat Enterprise Linux 5 on a fully patched CentOS 5, the startup script does not work properly, failing to start the server: [root@centos5 log]# /sbin/service mysql start Starting MySQL Couldn't find MySQL manager or server [FAILED] One possible solution is this patch. To apply do: cd /etc/rc.d/init.d patch -p0 < PATH_TO/mysql.rc.patch And be done with it.

RSI update

So after two days of tests, apparently I don't have RSI. The symptoms where similar but as far as the doctors can see from the tests they did, the problem is in my neck. I have a strange twist in my neck, its bent in a strange direction and that causes tension to the tendons of the right arm, causing the continuos pain I feel. In turn, that causes the rest of the arm to hurt, specially working at the computer.

.Mac renewal date

My .Mac renewal date is approaching, but after 4 or 5 years as a paying customer, I don't think there is enough value to keep it. I think I'm going to look at the direct competition, it seems to be heating up.

Amazon Music Store

Amazon unveiled a beta version of their new music store. The specs look good: no DRM;decent bit-rate;MP3 format;simple Mac-based download app that places your songs into iTunes for automatic iPod synchronization.So I'm happy. We finally have competition in the online music store market. From Apple point-of-view, I don't think this will be a big loss: their profits come from the iPod, iTMS itself is not profitable enough to justify the cost of operations.

On the move: XMPP and email

Just an heads up: I'm moving the XMPP and the email service between two servers. XMPP will be down for a day or so, email should be a painless move. There will also be some changes: XMPP domain simplicidade.org will move to ejabberd: much lower resource usage than the current Wildfire;email will start to be routed through Postini.So I might be "off" for a day or so until everything catches up.

Nothing to see, move along...

As expected, Apple unveiled the iPhone in the UK. It will be using O2 network, and EDGE for connectivity, not 3G. I understand that EDGE is less power-hungry than 3G, and I can see it too. My Macbook battery goes from 5 hours to less than 2 when I plug my USB 3G card. But the problem for me is that as far as I know EDGE coverage in Europe is very poor compared to 3G, and there is no way I'm going back to GPRS.

CSS Play

I follow the CSS Play site in a low-priority mode. I don't see all the articles but some get my attention. One of the last ones is awesome: a cops and robbers game, entirely in CSS. I admin that I don't understand the mind of a person that takes the time to build this :).