Garret Wilson Blog

So I just downloaded Mixx, the open-source DJ software, to try it out. It (so far) doesn't seem to modify my files, so in this aspect it's better than Traktor, which wants to update my entire library rather than maintaining a separate database or creating metadata sidecar files.

HTML5 is turning out to be useful. Well, in theory. If it worked. See, HTML5 comes with all sorts of capabilities, like an <audio> element that plays sound. And this time around, the browsers are setting aside their instincts to be proprietary and, in the spirit of interoperability, they are implementing the same API! Microsoft even loves the <audio> element! So now can we write pages that work the same across browsers? Of course not! While they support the same API, the browsers decided they would only support certain audio codecs—meaning that there is no one audio format that will work on all browsers. As usual, Microsoft's actions here can only be considered malicious and in the spirit of preventing interoperability, not encouraging it.

What is it about Microsoft that, the more they claim their browser is standards-compliant, the harder it is to write code for it that support standards? What is it that makes code just work on all the other browsers, but makes developers jump through hoops to make things work on Internet Explorer? I think it's something of a culture. While other browser developers work towards the spirit of the standards, Microsoft must create an environment where standards-compliance is a forced nuisance rather a goal. Or is something more sinister afoot? Are they actively try to make it hard for developers to create maintainable, standards-compliant applications. Whatever the case, after all the years and years of pain with Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 9 has come along and screwed everything up even more.

I confess that I consider myself more of a software application developer than a computer scientist. I prefer to understand algorithms at a conceptual, intuitive level—how they do what they do, and when they should be used in an application. When I read an algorithm book, my eyes glaze over when presented with page after page of mathematical symbols and proofs. But recently, when a potential client presented me with a string searching problem, I decided to do a little background research and came across a little-known programming data structure that has changed my outlook on playing tricks with algorithms.

Yesterday another earthquake rattled Oklahoma in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. This has been a year of extremes in Oklahoma, including the coldest temperature recorded, the highest winds in history, and the biggest hailstone on record. When yesterday my sister reported that she experienced the latest earthquake during the middle of a tornado watch, my first thought was: where is Pat Robertson when you need him?