Munden's Bar

The following is very kewl. John Resig last month released processing.js, a Javascript implementation of the Processing language, an open source programming language for people who basically want to do what Macromedia Flash (and similar products) do without needing proprietary software tools.

John's code only works properly in Firefox 3, basically works in the latest I.E and Opera, and sort-of works partially in earlier versions of those browsers, primarily because only Firefox 3 really supports the new HTML5 Canvas API. It also kills your machine if you do anything complicated! But it does point the way forward for non-plug-in based graphics and such like without licensing fees.

Have a look at some of the demos! (but only if you're running a modern browser!)

And if you want to play with the language, try obsessing, which provides you an environment to programme graphics within the browser, and is now running on processing.js!

So Wednesday went according to plan, got a pile of CDs from kimeros, had a coffee and a chat met her akido friend. Discussed martial arts, and that doing them would be a good idea for someone of my sedentary habits. Was encouraged to buy clothes at Glassons. :)

Walked down to Lueven and hung out reading Linux Developer and drinking Hoergarten until stephanie_pegg turned up. She was looking well, and we both proceeded to order their croque monsieur. Mmmm, gruyere and ham! Finished that, and popped across the road to The Feathers, where we met up with the Phoenix crowd. Lots of talk and laughter, good to see (almost) everyone again after the break.

Thursday continued the trend, I met up with a Trade Me seller's flat-mate to pick up some animé DVDs, and then wanderd a bit before settling down at JJ's to wait for people to arrive for BBC. Ran into someone I didn't expect to, when JB convinced the group she was with to change cubicle with us, as we were overflowing our tiny one.

adrexia was already at Dawaat by the time the BBCers stumbled down to it, and the Kingfisher Strong was quick to come out. I had a beef buna ghost this time, and had, as usual far-ranging discussions.

Whilst having a clove outside I was approached by a person from one of the other tables who asked who we were, so I told him. He'd actually heard of us, and was there with another IT group.

I also got evangelized about Ruby, an OO scripting language that was pushed to me as somewhee between Java and PHP. So today I spent some time looking at it, and found it had some very interesting features, such as the ability to dynamically add methods to class instances.

Not ready to give my verdict yet on the language itself yet, that will take some usage time, but I thought I would mention the hilarious Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. I'd say this is worth reading even if you're not normally interested in new programming languages!

Tonight it's Katipo, though probably not a late night, I need to upload a whole pile of updates to the KapCon website. I've done them all but I can't FTP to the internet from work, so the uploading will have to be done tonight.

I have to admit that I am beginning to agree with panda_pitt that Cowboy Bebop is the best animé ever! The soundtrack has to be the best, no other anime I've seen has so many great tracks. Gonna Knock a Little Harder kicks ass and takes prisoners!

P.S: I picked up my glasses today. One's specially made to deal with my odd and unmatched eyes. The resolving power of my right eye is almost three times that of the left, and has been since I was told when I was about fifteen that wearing glasses wasn;t going to make any difference anymore.

But now that both eyes are aging and thus changing more radically than they used to, it seems that there's a chance that the under-utilixed eye could now be nbrought up to speed and act as a back up for the other whihc is getting long-sighted (normal aging, or so I'm told). And I need the magnification anyway for detail work and reading, it might as well be the right magnifcation for each eye.

I can't wait to see what looking at a 25mm figure will look like through these glasses. My computer seems like it has so much more reolution now, there's all these little thngs I haven't seen before in the icons!