Waggle Dance

After getting into a discussion about coding styles and conventions, I figured I better get some clearer definitions for mixed case names in code:

• studly caps - an arbitrary capitalization of letters. sTudLyCapS
• camel case - run together words with the first letter of each of the word capitalized. CamelCase
• lower camel case - like the above camel case, but with the first letter remaining lowercase. lowerCamelCase
• bicapitalization - studly caps cooped by marketing type to distinguish product names and brands from common usage such as NeXT or DymlerChrysler

Other variations or synonyms include MixedCase, InterCaps, BumpyCase, and HumpBackNotation,

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I’m in the process of moving my blog to WordPress from MovableType. While I wish the authors of MT the best of luck with their new pricing model, I have to agree with Mark Pilgrim and his reasons for switching to WordPress. I still need to tweek the fonts and such to match my site better, but, I’ll get there… sometime…

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While our sysadmins run around trying to save the exchange server from yet another NetSky variant, I can’t help but gloat (just a little as I connect to out qmail server (we use both) with evolution and wonder what a virus looks like. While I know “pride goeth before the fall” and all that, It’s nice to know, at least this once, I made a good choice when I decided to back Linux. I’ve used Linux as my work, developement, and play desktop almost exclusively since ‘98 and, for the most part, it hasn’t let me down. I haven’t alway been able to do all the things my counterparts in the Win32 world can do (et. la. shockwave, directx games) but they rarely can do what I take for granted (loopback file systems, open just about any disk format, tun/tap wizardry, use a real shell, etc, etc, etc…)

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Pamela Jones is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Groklaw with an pretty good overview of the SCO vs. the World lawsuit(s) and Groklaw’s unwaivering support of the truth through all of the silliness coming out of Lindon, Utah. I’d like to acknowledge this momentous occasion by standing up and saying, “Hi, my name is Chris, and I am a Groklaw addict.” (everyone respond - “Hi, Chris!”)

I’m not sure when I became an addict, I can’t really remember the first time I read Groklaw, or when it became a “three check-a-day” habit, but I can’t imagine life without this island of sanity in a mad, mad, mad, mad world! Like most addicts, I’ve rode the highs and the lows, felt the jitters when it get’s too long between fixes, tried to quit only to find myself putting the RSS feed on my web site and my Evolution summary. While SCO’s future is looking gloriously bleak, I can see one dark cloud hanging over the inevitable conclusion of the case - Who’s going to sponsor the 12-step program to help us addicts deal with being forced to go cold turkey!?

The good news (well, really, the bad news) is that I doubt that SCO is the last bastion of stupid attempts to stave off the natural evolution of software developement through litigation. OSS has happened, it’s here, and it’s not going away. When the tide is coming in, it’s crazy to ignore it, build a wall against it, take the ocean and moon to court, or try to convince others it’s evil and unconstitutional. It makes far more sense to learn to float, swim, or better yet, get a good surfboard and enjoy the ride!

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One of the side effects of being a computer geek seems to be the proliferation of junker computers on the home network. Currently we have 4 machines running pretty much full time and another 3 that get used off and on. While these machines are on all/most of the time, it doesn’t mean they are doing anything useful, they basically idle, burning electricity and wasting CPU cycles. I’m not the 1st to notice this “waste”, there are a number of “distributed computing” projects designed give those bored computers a reason to live:

• Seti@Home
  While not the first, this project put distributed computing into the mainstream with it’s cool screensaver and the chance of finding ET by scanning radio telescope data for intelligent signals
• Folding@Home
  Following on the success of S@H, this project hopes to understand the processes that turn the long chains of protein created using DNA instructions into the complex, chemical “nanomachines” that makes life possible. While the direct result of any one computer’s work isn’t as exciting as finding ET, the rewards are higher, because understanding protein folding will lead to tailor-made therapies for everything from Mad Cow disease to old age.
• Distributed.Net RC5
  While not as noble as proving we are not alone in the universe or ridding the world of disease, Distributed.Net’s goal of breaking RC5 encrypting keys by brute force has lead to higher standards in encryption key sizes and security in general. A 56 bit test key fell in 250 days, a 64 bit key took 1757 days, and a 72 bit keys is being chip away at a rate of about 147,300,000,000 keys per second!
• More Projects
  The above are just some projects I’ve tried, but there are many more. The above link lists many of them.

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