erik.wiffin blogs

I recent news, ruby is bamf. It’s a “book” about ruby. Props go out to Why for writing cool shits. Haven’t finished it, but I’m looking for a project to experiment with ruby in now.

proxy stuff
so the idea is that you sign up for this here dandy little proxy, and any pages you go to get filtered through my server. at that point, I add/edit the HTML so that whatever your downloading is made more betterer. The point of all this diddling around is that you can add extensions to your browsing, with no real overhead. Also, you could set this up on any computer in a matter of a few seconds, on any browser. cross browser extensions, so my dear dear opera no longer gets the shaft. Possibly revenue stream: I’m watching everything you do, means I can sell some pretty nifty stats to interested parties.

super recommendation engine
This is a bit less technically impressive, but plausibly more implementable.Started with a conversation I had with a friend earlier today. The idea started with, you provide my database a list of things in your closet, I tell you what to wear today. I would base this on what the weather is like, whether or not you need to laundry (yes it keeps track of that too), etc. “It’s a nice day out, wear some tight jeans to woo the ladies.” This mentally progressed to something that would keep track of pretty much everything about you, and save you the mind numbing task of actually thinking. What to have for lunch, should you bring an umbrella, what websites should you visit, what book should you check out from the library. Possibly revenue source: again, copious amounts of meta data sold to interested parties. (yes, if you tell me your habits I will sell them to the highest bidder. I am a horrible keeper of secrets. [I wonder if there is a market for stealing secret journals from 7th graders])

hacking into livejournal to blackmail preteens for their deepest darkest secrets
not even sure I could use ruby for this, but the possibilities are endless.

So. Going to make an effort to actually post to this thing. If anyone stumbles accross this anytime soon, I would like to warn you/defend myself.

I am a programmer web developer coder MAGICAL COMPUTER SHAMAN. Not a writer. I can’t write. This will be painful. Bear with me please.

This will be in part an experiment in SEO, as well as an attempt to contribute back to the internets from whom I have learned so much. I’ll post a lot of links (that whole sentence was supposed to be links but I can’t think of any).  Maybe somebody links to me? That would be nice, but until I can think of something interesting to write about, I wont count on it.

Today’s Code:

http://betterexplained.com/articles/swap-two-variables-using-xor/

apparently:

a = a xor b
b = a xor b
a = a xor b


Will switch a and b without needing a temporary variable. this is all well and dandy, but until proven otherwise, doesn’t work in php.  Which means that either php suffers a fundamental problem with some pretty basic elements of programming (= and xor) or I’m doing it wrong. Normally I’d go with option B, but lately I’ve found php to more and more wonky, doing things I wouldn’t really expect. So I’ll play around with it a bit more, see if I can’t get the darn thing to work, but I wont get my hopes up.