Coding In Paradise

Pornzilla 0.9.1 "The goal of the Pornzilla project is to make Mozilla into a great porn browser." Interesting...

Technology Access Center -- Ruple "Ruple provides a foundation for applications to collaborate transparently and independently by selectively and securely sharing documents over the existing Internet infrastructure and technology. By leveraging a simple, SOAP-based interface for reading and writing documents to and from the space, implementing reads based on content instead of physical address, and building on document-level security, Ruple is a first step in fulfilling the great promise of the Internet for collaborative business applications." Ruple is a Linda space (the same thing as Java Spaces implements), but which works with XML technology and XML queries. It is a commercial technology from Rogue Wave.

OnclaveŽ : : Collaborative Weblogging "Here's the situation: You have a site with a weblog, but now you want something that's more manageable, better organized, and collaborative. You want to create a weblog, and share editorial responsibility with a few friends. You want tools to manage the content easily and syndicate to another site with your own design. Do it here."

SWT: The Standard Widget Toolkit "SWT is the software component that delivers native widget functionality for the Eclipse [www.eclipse.org] platform in an operating system independent manner. It is analogous to AWT/Swing in Java with a difference - SWT uses a rich set of native widgets."

Jini-like discovery for RMI "This article walks you through a Jini-like discovery mechanism for your RMI development."

The Participatory Economics Project "Participatory economics (or parecon for short) is the name of a type of economy proposed as a desirable alternative to contemporary capitalism." - My issue with these kinds of centralization and democratization of economics is they issue roadblocks to those who want to do interesting things, and just create a new kind of dicatorship (like the dictatorship of the proletariat). I'd like to see an interesting mix of participatory economics that is way more decentralized.

Freedom or Power? "Your characterization of anarchism is unfounded; it is not about defining freedoms, it is about the expectation that human beings are not children to be sheparded through their lives by external conventions or traditional modes of living, thinking and feeling. Anarchism, as a mode of thought, simply expects people to be grown-ups. Most people who have anything to say about the subject--which is to say, most people who are not in any shape or form an anarchist--fail to notice this component of it in their mad rush to disavow any possibility that human beings can live this way."

World Travel Guide - Cuba - History & Government "Cuba has enjoyed an impressive reputation for the quality of its health care and social services, though not for its overall quality of life or tolerance of opposition."

East: Corruption Flourishes In Former Communist Countries "Survival instincts, Palmer says, forced people to adopt a degree of moral dishonesty during communist times because speaking truthfully about the political system was not prudent. In addition, stealing from the state was not regarded as a crime, but rather as a way of retrieving something from a system that stole so much from its own people."

Graph of the Week: World Productivity Inequality "The richest countries in the world are all located in the temperate zones--and all escaped having communist governments."

Lonely Planet World Guide | Destination Ethiopia | Introduction "Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that has never been colonised"

This is my motorcycle that I drive around Kamala:



Here's a pic of my house; over on the left there is the hammock I put up a few days ago:

I drank whiskey with the local police department here tonight. My Thai friend Somchai took me to where all the local police live, and we drank and got tipsy. Then they strapped on their guns and headed out to work on their night shift! I feel safe now!

I've been having trouble sleeping, so I've been interested in getting a natural herb or food supplement, like Valerian Root or Melatonin. I headed over to the pharmacy today, and asked the pharmacist for melatonin or valerian root; she said they didn't have any, but then wanted to give me Xanix (a serious serious habit forming anti-anxiety drug) or anitriptyline (an anti-depressant) to help me sleep! I told her that this was serious stuff, and that I wanted something natural; she was like "Don't worry, this is what we take in Thailand when we can't sleep!" Fricken Xanix! Then it got worse; I asked for a basic over-the-counter anti-itch cream for some ant bites I got, and she wanted to give me a seriously powerful _steroidal_ cream that would require a prescription in the states! Steroid creams are serious shit; they have all sorts of serious side-effects and can kill you. Nasty stuff. I told her no thanks. Man pharmacies are crazy in third-world countries. I grew up near Mexico and I think you could get morphine there over-the-counter until just a few years ago (not sure though since I never asked for it!).

Bush Says War May Go Beyond Afghan Border After the president's remarks [that America would take the war beyond Afghanistan], Specialist Norlan Calmona said Mr. Bush's words "make me want to go out and kill some enemy."

"Can't hardly wait," Specialist Calmona added.

[Them be smart folks, eh?]

Bush Says War May Go Beyond Afghan Border "Afghanistan is just the beginning on the war against terror," the president said to thousands of members of the storied 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles, which already has troops deployed in Pakistan. "There are other terrorists who threaten America and our friends, and there are other nations willing to sponsor them. We will not be secure as a nation until all of these threats are defeated. Across the world, and across the years, we will fight these evil ones, and we will win."

Picture-O-The-Day; Click on it to see a larger version: