http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog Geek Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:33:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've been playing around with trying to pass HTTP connections through a proxy server requiring authentication from Python and after a few hours of hunting around I've managed to find enough bits of information to cobble together into a working example.  Since I couldn't find such an example myself I've ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/10/27/python-proxy-client-connections-requiring-authentication-using-urllib2-proxyhandler/ I've been doing some reading on artificial intelligence (AI) today as it's the time of the year again when the Turing Test is performed on a handful of selected artificial intelligence systems.  I started putting some serious thought into artificial intelligence design and I've decided that it would be an ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/10/09/artificial-intelligence-project-concept-pie/ If you'd like to try an early version of my port of Tubecaster to Linux, you can download it here. Please see the readme file within the archive for dependency details. Basically run "python tubecasterWX.py" after installing the "ffmpeg" and "python-wxgtk2.8" packages from your distro's package manager. Tested on Ubuntu 8.04. It ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/09/23/tubecaster-first-linux-version/ I've just created a Python script that will take a filename on the command line and convert all of its tabs into the given number of spaces (2nd argument). Click here to download. It doesn't overwrite the original file but instead creates a new file with a "notabs_" prefix.  Script ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/09/21/new-utility-tabs2spacespy/ Whilst digging through some of my old backups this afternoon I came across some old renderings from about 2004 (the same year I gave my 3D graphics presentation to CLUG) that I did in Blender.  Some are kind of corny but some I'm quite proud of.  Here they are: [gallery] -Wayne http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/08/25/old-blender-3d-renderings/ I highly recommend anyone interested in programming as an art form read Donald Knuth's article entitled "Computer Programming as an Art" where Knuth explains the view excellently.  I've just read it and it's definitely inspirational in terms of taking pride in one's code and systems development. Programming can, and most definitely ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/07/30/computer-programming-as-an-art/ I've spent the last few days with the final release of Canonical's latest offering, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS aka Hardy Heron and overall I am impressed.  Unfortunately some crippling difficulties, not all of them directly attributable to Linux or Ubuntu, have prevented me once again from ditching Windows as my primary ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/04/30/hardy-hardly/ The latest Ubuntu release, version 8.04 codename Hardy Heron, has finally arrived!  It's the early hours of Friday morning here in New Zealand (and it's a public holiday... which should really be renamed Heron day :) and my copy is toasting as we speak! www.ubuntu.com Argh, why didn't I just use a ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/04/25/hardy-is-here/ I just wanted to share my excitement at the latest Ubuntu desktop release.  Fantastic!  I have just downloaded and booted the 8.04 Release Candidate and the guys and girls at Canonical really seem to have covered their bases more thorougly.  It's almost as if they read my complaints post ;-) The ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/04/22/ubuntu-804-lts-first-looks/ I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find an e-mail in my inbox from a website called "Uptodown.com" informing me that they had tested Tubecaster and thought that their visitors would find it useful and so had written a mini review for it and provided a download link on their ... http://www.wkoorts.com/wkblog/2008/03/18/tubecaster-reviewed/