Insightful post from the creators of Structure 101:

http://www.headwaysoftware.com/blog/2008/11/software-erosion-findbugs/

I recently came across dropbox while scouting around for online storage solutions. It’s hit the nail on the head with its current feature set, it’s got a slick user experience… and best of all – it’s got tight Linux support.

I think it’s recently come out of an invite only beta…

Congratulations to JetBrains on releasing IntelliJ IDEA 8 – I have been using their EAP build for a number of days prior to the official release – and am excited with the speed and stability. I know the 7.x releases have taken a bit of a beating for having a slow and bloated feel. Redemption yay! Take a look at the new features.

(upgraded Wordpress; Added Flickr / Last.fm sidebars…)

Skype is a quite popular at work – used for most of our online conversations with the Seattle office.

This means I tend to have bothкомпютри Pidgin and Skype active at any one time. As well as having a single consolidated view of all my I.M. accounts… I personally prefer the Pidgin interface;

Just came across Skype API Plugin for Pidgin – created be Eion Robb.

UPDATE: after using this for a few days… I turned it off again. Pidgin was unstable, Skype didn’t always start automagically in the background.

I’ve really been missing this feature for my Mac. Zooom.

It enables resizing and moving a window with keyboard shortcuts. Similar to the “Alt + Left Click” window drag and “Alt + Middle Click” window resize I’m familiar with in linux.

At work I’ve been using the Tambur MMS Library to encode and decode MMS messages. Recently I encountered an unusual bug; some data parts were not being encoded correctly. The bug was related to how the MMEncoder sets the indicated data length of the image/payload.

The packaging date of the MMS Library on the website says 18th April 2005 – So for anyone using that version of the library be aware of the bug. And heres how to fix it:

MMEncoder:

protected static void encodeUintvar(ByteArrayOutputStream res, int l)
throws Exception {
    //.....
    for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
        if ((buf[i] & 0xFF) != 0x80)
            res.write(buf[i]);
    }
}

It should read:

protected static void encodeUintvar(ByteArrayOutputStream res, int l)
throws Exception {
    //.....
    boolean hasWrittenOnce = false;
    for (int i = 0; i < buf.length; i++) {
        if (hasWrittenOnce || (buf[i] & 0xFF) != 0x80) {
            res.write(buf[i]);
            hasWrittenOnce = true;
        }
    }
}

I keep in regular touch with a good friend and former work colleague of mine Caelen King. He frequently visits the office and from time to time we’re lucky enough to enjoy a few drinks and talk about all things centric to us.

Caelen has been working very hard at his online startup Reva Health Network. Reva help people to find and compare hospitals, clinics and many forms of medical treatment throughout the world and facilitate people getting in touch with those endpoints directly. Reva’s current focus is on dental treatment – which I’m not too shy to say I’m going to be looking at in more detail very soon for myself.

My most enjoyable and valuable year of working life to date was my first year at NewBay. It was made so by people like Caelen King. I wish him the best and if anyone can transform the medical tourism industry…

Paddy Benson pointed me to [anobii.com] – the latest in social networking / online communities. It all revolves around your bookshelf.

I’ve signed up and aNobii currently lists a slice of mine.

Just came across the following comic site while browsing Wi Wheaton’s site. It’s at http://xkcd.com/. It’s got so many facets.

Four days ago now, an Irish Dublin based company called steorn took out a full page ad in The Economist claiming to have discovered a means of creating ‘free energy’ – i.e. perpetual motion – i.e. defying the first law of thermodynamics. They, through the ad, are trying to attract a top team of 12 scientists to come and test their technology. I’ve read similar stories on slashdot – and I occasionally buy the cheap ticket for admission into this ride, which is thinking about the incredible impact it would have on all.

I’ve also noticed steorn watch has been put up online…