BUH Blog

Win an original Star Wars script

Okay, you Star Wars nerds (you know who you are!) - this is a great opportunity - a chance to win an original Star Wars script.

From the site:

This is your chance to win movie history along with donating money to a good cause. MovieSquares is holding an online charity prize draw open to anyone who wishes to enter.

Digg the story here

Depeche Mode on CSI

I was watching CSI (Las Vegas) on Tivo this morning - the werewolf episode - and was surprised to hear a new Depeche Mode song being used in the episode. No kidding - it was “Precious” from their new CD “Playing the Angel”. CSI does use a lot of good (IMHO) music. In fact, check out the songs used in CSI - wow! Right now they have the song listed as “I want it all” by DM, but I am pretty certain it was “Precious”.

Pretty interesting, since I saw Depeche Mode in concert a couple of weeks ago - rock on CSI!

As an aside - I have to admit I originally thought the idea for CSI was a bad concept. That was, until I saw the first episode.

Deploying Java software - how to do patches to deployed software?

Zoinks. I have been using InstallAnywhere 5.0 (yes, 5.0) for three years now to deploy a custom Java application I have developed for a customer. It does what I need, so I have not thought much about it. Well, except it doesn’t support packaging Java 1.5 VMs, but that is a different concern as I won’t go that route for a little while longer. However, the application is evolving and having the ability to update - upgrade - patch software that is ALREADY deployed would make my life much easier. So, I toddled over to InstallAnywhere.com and I found that it has been bought by Macrovision. Groan. Whenever I think of Macrovision, I think of the aweful copy protection that fuzzed up my rental movies back when I was rentiong VHS tapes.

Since I already have a license for InstallAnywhere, I wanted to see if there was a inexpensive upgrade path to what I need. Well, it does not look like the newest versions of InstallAnywhere (either Enterprise or Standard versions) have any update - upgrade - patch distribution capabilities. However, it looks like they have a service called FlexNet Publisher Update Service Module that does what I am looking for - or I think it does. Ah ha - *Module* is the key word here. It means I have to buy the FlexNet Publisher - $$$ - okay, I am seeing the whole picture now. You know it is expensive when instead of saying “It is $9.99.”, they say “…pricing depends on the specific functionality you need.” Alas, that means talking to a salesman, which in turn means it has to be expensive enough to pay a salesman to want to talk to you.

I have started to search, but by no means have I been comprehensive - Is there a tool out there that will allow me to create updates - upgrades - patches for PURE Java applications?

Lexxe - Question answering engine

Lexxe claims that it is the “World’s first and only search engine that offers short, exact answers directly from webpages” and that it is “powered by advanced natural language technology”.  Well, I can certainly say that Lexxe was not the first, as that was the unique selling aspect of askJeeves (they were not the first either - I have to find out who was…) and they most certainly are not the “only” one who attempts to deliver.

Errr…  I tried several different queries and was not impressed.  This is a difficult task - no doubt, but they are not there yet.  Perhaps the technology would be better demonstrated with a niche to more fully show the potential.  A generic anything is always going to be less powerful than a niche-optimized technique.  Try it out and see what you think.

Help Andrea go to college

Andrea has a blog - It’s Just a Dollar - Help Me Pay for College - where she is trying to get donations to help her continue her college education. Granted - this is has been done before - many time before, but what the heck - send a dollar her way if you get a chance.

PS - Andrea has another blog -> Planet Andrea

retrievr - example based image search

Okay, so you are looking for a picture of a bunny rabbit.  How do image searches work today?  Well, go over to Google’s image search and it is all based on keywords associated with images on web pages.  However, just because someone tags an image as “bunny rabbit” does not mean it will be a bunny rabbit.

Enter retrievr - example base image search - where you draw what you are looking for and it trys to find images that match your sketch.  retriever is an experimental image search that is using Flickr images to search.

Experiment with retrievr and see what you can find.  It isn’t great - but it is fun and like any technology that is not mature today - give it some time and I am sure there will be some real progress.

Blog Reporter - Digg like interface

Blog Reporter is a web 2.0 application (that means AJAX) that allows you to submit blog related articles that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted, based on popularity, to the main page.  Go check it out and submit some stories.

Java library for manipulating PowerPoint

I have been looking for a pure Java library that will allow me to create PowerPoint files.  Alas, not much out there and none of it is open source or free.  What I have found is Tonic’s Java PowerPoint library - but it is around $5,000.  Yikes.

Has anyone else seen anything similar, open source or cheaper than $5K a pop?

This is more of a “note to self - find PowerPoint library for Java”.

Social Bookmarking

Sites like SlashDot have had a great deal of power since the “early” days of the web. SlashDot was wonderful, but the main problem with it was the stories were filtered through editors who chose “appropriate” stories to post on the site. The good part about this was they did a pretty good job keeping the SPAM and other trash stories off the site. The bad aspect was many useful, interesting or meaningful stories never saw the light of day.

Well, that has changed with the introduction of sites that allow their users to vote for and promote useful web sites or stories for publication on the coveted front page.

Some examples are del.icio.us and Digg - both very active communities.