csummers.org

It's nice to see Oracle tipping it's hat to PHP over the last year or so. PHP is very good at meeting specific web needs in the enterprise, and Oracle acknowledges this by including it in their Oracle HTTP Server (Apache, really) package. See the PHP Developer Center for more Oracle/PHP goodness.

I've been learning the Ruby language lately. This language started in Japan, but I think it's catching on like wildfire over here now. It seems to have such a pure way about implementing its features.

Some helpful Ruby references:

• Programming Ruby - online book
• Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby - book with cartoon foxes!
• Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know - helpful tips
• Ruby-GNOME2 - GNOME/GTK bindings for Ruby
• Ruby Articles - I suggest reading Blocks and Closures and Dynamic Productivity

I've recently been reading Linux Kernel Development (2nd Edition) by Robert Love.

I'm not a kernel hacker, and it's been a while since I've coded in C, but I picked this up to learn more about the nitty gritty details of the operating system I use everyday. I like the special attention given to overall concepts and how certain aspects of the kernel came into being. A good read.

Heard about this on the radio: Intellifit (warning: annoying Flash site) has adapted airport scanning technology to measure your body dimensions to suggest correct clothing sizes. Using your scanned dimensions and your fit preferences (baggy, slim, etc.), the machine gives a list of compatible clothing.

This would be great for online shopping. You could get scanned at a local mall and your size and preferences could be made available to several online vendors. I'll never have to shop offline again!

For about a week now Windows Update on my work machine has failed to download or install the latest security patches. I've tried Automatic Updates and going directly to the windowsupdate.microsoft.com site, but both methods start to download and then fail with no error messages. Perfect.

So, I did some digging and found that the update log lives here (in default XP Pro): C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log

Scrolling down through this text file I find the 9th column over to show the error number: 80264005

Google then brings up Ali's helpful blog entry: Windows update gives a 80246005 error

Basic rundown: Stop the Automatic Updates service, delete the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore, restart the Automatic Update service and try the download/install of updates again.

Worked for me. Thanks, Ali.

So for Father's Day I bought my dad the Bela Fleck - Live at the Quick DVD. A friend had let me borrow this DVD for "inspiration." This same DVD has now made it through the hands of each of the members of the worship band at church. General consensus: Wow! — especially Victor Wooten burnin' it up on the bass. I don't know that I've been inspired, though. Maybe greatly humbled.