Disqus - Latest Comments for AndrewBurton

Re: Choosing the next G.I. Joe Classified Series specialty figures

AndrewBurton — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:18:08 -0000

Doc and Dial Tone get my vote, but I'm mostly biding my time for Mainframe and Covergirl

Re: 20160302

AndrewBurton — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 07:47:47 -0000

Has it really been two years?! I knew it was last Valentines that Rayne burned the dojo down... Time flies.

Re: Why can't we run software that was written 25 years ago?

AndrewBurton — Sun, 13 Sep 2015 13:03:34 -0000

Is it a generational problem or a patent/copyright problem? Running old Hypercard files would be no harder than running old Nintendo games except you'd need Apple to release the source or format docs to write newer software to read those old files.

Re: We need a Dropbox for servers

AndrewBurton — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:13:32 -0000

There also seem to be Rsync wrappers written for Node (or is it "for npm"?), which makes me think a noderunner pairing might give Dropbox a run for their money. Hmm. I have been looking for a Node project...

Re: Least I Could Do: the Comic

AndrewBurton — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 10:35:24 -0000

This strip assumes a 67 second meeting is a bad thing. I disagree completely. ;-)

Re: Least I Could Do: the Comic

AndrewBurton — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 10:34:01 -0000

Where was the helicarrier when he was ship shopping?

Re: 20150523

AndrewBurton — Sat, 23 May 2015 20:45:19 -0000

That comic is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Nobody buys Galaxy Squad LEGO. Hah!

Re: 20150519

AndrewBurton — Tue, 19 May 2015 09:54:10 -0000

And thus construction on Rayne's house begins.

Re: How many Internet users know what RSS is?

AndrewBurton — Fri, 01 May 2015 09:43:08 -0000

I don't know if this is the right way, but this is how I do it: http://wccs.edu/api/rss_cal...

Re: 20150328

AndrewBurton — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 21:15:57 -0000

Better to end than to Achewood. I love Achewood, but I don't want Rayne stuck in the back of a van for a year. I'll take a happy ending.

Re: Every reporter should be able to start a blog

AndrewBurton — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:49:55 -0000

I can't help but wonder if trying to do everything online and in a browser was what sent tech down another one of those "re-invent the wheel" paths that happens every generation or two. So much of what I see in the client-side world of JavaScript is getting HTML up to the same standards desktop apps had ten years ago. It's probably too late to put that genie back in the bottle, to go back to the desktop, but might the world be closer to having such user-friendly software if it had stayed the dominant platform for a couple more years before succumbing to the web.

Not that this is a new idea or hasn't been talked about before. I just always get a little nostalgic for the software that might have been if Ajax and Google Maps hadn't wooed so many developers into the browser.

Re: .NET Rocks!

AndrewBurton — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 13:48:10 -0000

Great show. It was especially cool to hear about Johnny Five. One thing I'm guilty of thinking is that loading Windows 10 on IoT devices is the coolest way to develop in that space, but there will be a need for control interfaces for these devices that may not have more than an LED or two for output. Languages like C# and frameworks like WPF can be leveraged on the user end as C++ and ASM on the device. Thank you for the reminder!

Re: JavaScript type coercion fail

AndrewBurton — Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:35:08 -0000

If you want to save a few keystrokes: (x+"").toLowerCase() gets you where you want to be.

Which is the long-but-hopefully-helpful-way around saying that it's always struck me as ridiculous that the quickest way to make a number a string is to stick +"" on the end of a variable. Even before I had an idea how toString() functions worked.

Re: Money is the New Morality | Scott Adams Blog

AndrewBurton — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 13:19:20 -0000

So you have the moral high ground. He still has the money. I declare him the winner.

Re: A smart phone with no phone

AndrewBurton — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 11:36:41 -0000

Have you considered building one with a Raspberry Pi? You'd have to get someone to design a case for you to get printed in 3D for the screen and board, but then you could buy all the parts (camera, USB wifi dongle, screen, RPi, and battery case) on Sparkfun for about the same cost as an iPhone. Bonus point: the RPi will run Node.js, so you can serve files from your not-phone.

Re: Use Dropbox in place of iTunes

AndrewBurton — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 12:57:07 -0000

This may fall into the "more trouble that it's worth" category, but have you looked at Amazon's music app? It'll let you download files local to the phone, control playlists via the phone or web, and their music cloud will let you upload songs (manually).

Re: Young technologists love lock-in?

AndrewBurton — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 17:00:18 -0000

Any world populated by people who prefer something like OAuth over RSS is a world I'd like to exit at the next stop.

Re: What language to learn?

AndrewBurton — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 10:48:58 -0000

I think on Windows you can run JavaScript/JScript without installing anything courtesy of the Windows Script Host.

Re: How many Internet users know what RSS is?

AndrewBurton — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 11:49:11 -0000

It took me years to understand XML after I learned HTML. I understood the rules but didn't grasp that HTML was for people (so to speak) and XML was for programs. For years after that I understood XML but didn't really know why you'd use RSS. RSS was for news, XML was for programs. When I realized that RSS could hold more than just news, it could be used for calendars ("I can have more than one category element?"), sharing pictures ("I can have a single item?"), etc. it opened up my perspective in much the same way grasping the difference between HTML and XML did.

Full disclaimer: I don't use RSS to it's fullest capacity.

If I were going to ask a (mostly rhetorical) questions about numbers I would ask, "How many developers who know what RSS is know it can do more than news?"

Re: Politics necessarily creates divisions

AndrewBurton — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 16:15:16 -0000

This whole thing, vis-a-vis JavaScript, makes me think of Tom Lehrer's song about Wernher von Braun.

Re: Roy Wildstein

AndrewBurton — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:12:34 -0000

(I apologize in advance that I only have enough to say for comment and a blog post.)

Nice post.

Re: Microsoft and netbooks

AndrewBurton — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 18:51:29 -0000

My XP netbook is five years old and still my main, personal laptop. My Nook is great, I like it with the default or N2A flavor, but nothing beats the netbook for every reason you listed. I dread the day it won't boot.

Re: <i>Person Of Interest</i> turns conspiracy theory into art

AndrewBurton — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 23:48:59 -0000

For The Machine to constantly update itself to be able to get into the latest security systems, Harold had to have already solved P=NP.

Re: Spec: A simple Dropbox-based web service

AndrewBurton — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 20:59:00 -0000

Count me in. I'm very proud that my Dropbox account is old enough to have a Public folder.

Re: How to fix healthcare.gov, quickly?

AndrewBurton — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 11:57:13 -0000

I'm reminded of your posts about Whitehouse.gov when the president was first elected, and how you were hoping for a publicly inclusive version of the site. I wonder what Healthcare.gov would have been like if it's just been a very well documented API for anyone to make an interface.