Ninjamurai

Nicely done extension to allow posting of text from a page to one’s Wordpress blog. This is a good extension to look at for how to communicate to a server via an extension.

At Splasho blog, an intrepid user decided to see what would happen if one installed 100 Firefox extensions at one time. Whoa!

 Not surprisingly, it worked fine, though apparently there was some slow down when loading pages. Browser appears stable and has not crashed so far. Sweet! Check it out here at Splasho.

This may be the single greatest tool ever made for adding to Internet Explorer’s functionality. Add-In Express allows developers to use a GUI based environment to build test and deploy IE addons. Whoa. Normally it is done with a ton of C++ code and etc. and this tool really helps to cut the “crap” so to speak. You still have to do programming logic in C++ usually but heck more than half the battle is just getting the dang interfaces all lined up and working. This tool ROCKS!

Ok, seriously, STOP using Windows-1252 for the default encoding for web pages. At this late a date, one should be using Unicode and the encoding format UTF8. Word likes this mutant strain of the ISO-8869-1 standard and many other Microsoft utilities do as well. Argh! Stop it!

I just spent the better part of three hours fighting with some issues I would not wish upon my worst enemy–all thanks to Windows-1252.

 One more time in case y’all missed it. Use Unicode for your text. Save the file and mark the text as UTF8 encoded. Use Unicode data types in SQL databases and the nchar, nvarchar and ntext types in SQL Server. Please. I beg you.

This section opens with the original American release theme from “Star Blazers”. This show is responsible for the beginning of my Ninjamurai nature. Star Trek, nah.Star Wars, not so much.STAR FORCE! Oh yeah baby!

Danger lurking everywhere,but we know we’ve got to dareEvil men with evil schemes,they can’t destroy all our dreams.Through all the fire and the smoke,We will never give up hope,We will keep peace alive,With our Star Blazers!  

Now, this is actually a show called 宇宙戦艦ヤマと or Space Battleship Yamato. It was and still is a very popular show in Japan with oh, let’s see, 5 TV series, 7 Movies and at least 4 separate manga. Whoa.Here is Isao Sasaki singing the original version. I really love it and it certainly didn’t hurt that every time my karaoke club met for about 2 years this was the song we all sang at the end of the night.For a taste of why this show stays with me always, have a look at this video. It is a great use of 10 minutes of your time. The music and scenes here convey the depth and breadth of one of the best animes to ever be made. It is one of the greatest. Jump to 6:55 and watch to the end to see why a kid like me would want to be in the Star Force. The song you hear during this passage is a classic and has been played for Kings, Queens and Emperors, its name is “Rebirth” and was written by the great Hiroshi Miyagawa.As I said previously, this show really shaped my thinking and is one of the prime reasons I am a Superman type rather than a Batman or Wolverine type. I believe in justice. I believe the strong must protect the weak. I long for Camelot and Arthurian court. I carry a sword and shield in my heart.I can’t say it any better:

When the cold dark waves on the shores breakI am around you, found youA gold sword fires and night expiresA long night surrounding youA gold shield glistens and your breath quickensI stand close by over you  

Though not from Yamato, the lyrics of that song “Alchemy of Love” sum up the Star Force and why I am, in my heart, a member of that group of valiant heroes. Silly. Maybe, but considering how many today only think of themselves or their money or ally with evil can you really say it is not a good thing.

Oh wow, can’t believe I found this. I used to sing this song as a duet with one of the girls from our karaoke group.

The name in Japanese is “Towa ni Towa ni Hoshi no Yume”.
It means “The Never Ending Dream of the Stars”.

It is the song Ryoko sings when she is wishing her dream world, in which she has acquired her love, Tenchi, would never have to end. In the scene she is staring up at the stars from a ferris wheel. Sadly, she knows her dream must end and she and Tenshi must return to their own world. It is a very sad song in context and Ai Orikasa does a great job conveying that emotion.

This song has been one of my favorites for a long, long time.

Great song from Donkey Xote, a Spanish animated movie. I think I have been listening to this for about, oh, 10 times in a row now. Nice melody and great lyrics. I have been trying to find the lyrics for ya but no dice. The title means “Where my dreams are”, roughly ( or so Google says ). I don’t speak Spanish though so I can’t verify.

Absinthe is a tool for discovering the schema of a database via blind SQL Injection attack. It is quite the tool to have and a good way to show people just how much info people can get from your database even if they don’t work for you.

A group of sharp developers have recently released an add-on for Visual Studio to help with add-ons in World of Warcraft. OMG! WTF!

This seriously rocks and already has support for Ace2, Intellisense completion, Dependencies etc. Wow, pun intended.

 Check it out AddOn Studio for World of Warcraft and Visual Studio

Tiobe keeps a nice page which lists the top programming languages in the world. They have pretty decent metrics for the polling and are considered about as good as one can get on telling the popularity of a particular language. It makes for an interesting page to check now and again.

TIOBE’s Top Programming Language List