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Putting the eval into Java
“eval” (short for evaluate) is usually the name given to the method in dynamic languages which makes it possible for the programmer to access the compiler / runtime. Here are a few links to the documentation for the function in different languages: Javascript Perl PHP Python Ruby LUA They are usually used to quickly evaluate…
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Update to the Blogger Tag Cloud
A small PSE (Public Service Announcement): if you were using the Blogger Tag Cloud I’ve put together based on the WP-Cumulus plugin, you might have noticed that it stopped working some time ago (I’m not entirely sure when, since I didn’t notice it, until a reader commented and brought it to my attention – thanks…
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“Funny things I found while browsing the web” post
The Geek/Nerd/Dork/Dweeb Venn Diagram (via Joel Esler’s blog): BTW, here is a quick way to convert JPEGs which should be PNGs or GIFs (because they aren’t photos!): simply use a photo editing software (like the GIMP or IrfanView / Paint.NET) and reduce the color depth without dithering. This should pretty much get you there. You…
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Updated YARPG
This has been sitting in my queue for some time: almost four years ago (it’s incredible how time flies!) – amongst the first posts I’ve published on the blog – I’ve written a random password generator in Javascript which I’ve named YARPG (for “Yet Another Random Password Generator”). The advantages to using it are the…
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Sending an X-Face email with Perl+GMail
In the latest Software Freedom Law Show Bradley mentioned the X-Face email header and challenged listeners to send them an email containing the X-Face header. So here is the small Perl script I’ve whipped together to send them an email trough GMail: use strict; use warnings; use Net::SMTP::TLS; my ($from, $password) = (‘…@gmail.com’, ‘MySuperSecretPassword’); my…
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Performance optimization techniques for Java code
Yesterday I gave a presentation at the Transylvania JUG about using profilers and different techniques which you can use to work around the discovered performance problems. Below you can find the embedded presentation. If you are interested in the code samples (as you most probably are, since a big part of the presentation were demos),…
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Solving mathematical puzzles with brute-force and Perl
After talking a lot about optimizations and selecting the right algorithm, here is a little brute-force code. This particular one gives the answer to the following puzzle from Richard Wiseman’s Blog (one well worth following BTW): Can you make the number 24 with the number 5, 5, 5, and 1 (again, you cannot join the…
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RHUB review
RHUB is a company which offers “meeting recording, Web Conference, Remote Access, Webinar software Delivered in Appliances”. It is an interesting model, especially given that there are a lot “software only” solutions in this space (GoTo meeting for example, just to name the biggest of them). They tout the simplicity of the product, especially that…
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String.intern() – there are better ways
I don’t want to write a “considered harmful” article (because they are harmful), but after experimenting with different solutions I do have a strong opinion that there almost no reason to use String.intern() in Java. But let us proceed step-by-step. First of all, what does String.intern() do? Go read the Javadoc for it and also…
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alreadyhosting.com review
There are many “web hosting review” sites out there and alreadyhosting.com is one of them doing reviews for Dedicated Server Hosting. These sites usually get their revenue by using affiliate links in their lists, and this particular one is no different. In general such lists are a good starting point, but you should always be…