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I am thinking of implementing a queue in one of the projects I am working on right now (sorry cannot go into more details until it gets published - hopefully in a few months). Anywyas, this is in C++ which needs to run on Ubuntu and my queueing experience (with C++ or otherwise) is only with MSMQ which is brilliant, but does not help me here as that run only on Windows. I also cannot use something like STL Queue as this will need to run across a number of machines and trying to sync between them would a royal pain. In other words, this needs to be distributed and async “loose” messaging. :-) ...

This is Ottolenghi’s recipe as it was published in the Guardian . Ingredients: Aubergines (about 1.2 kgs) Salt (1 teaspoon) Freshly ground black pepper (1 pinch) Sunflower Oil (120 ml) Olive Oil (100 ml) Medium-hot Green Chillies (2, thinly sliced) Garlic (10 cloves, thinly sliced) White-wine Vinegar (1½ tablespoon) Basil (20 gm, shredded) Coriander (20 gm) Mint (20 gm) Dill (20 gm) Steps to cook the aubergines: ...

Was getting a little bored with the previous WP theme and changed to this one. It does have a lot of defaults in the footer and not had a chance to figure out how to turn it off or customize it. If anyone has any ideas on how to do it then let me know. Also, if you have any suggestions for free and cool WP themes then let me know.

We were cleaning up the house - sort of like spring cleaning, except in Autumn and in old boxes came across a whole bunch of old stuff, which for me was a blast from the past and each with fond memories. Before I recycled/donated/threw it, took a few photos (click on them to see them in the original size). Compuware, the best debuggers in town. Anyone remember a Palm Vx? ...

The latest version of WordPress 3.0.3 and the Redirection plugin (v 2.2.3) don’t play nice together. If you upgraded to the latest version of WordPress the redirection plugin will always show only your last post on your blog’s homepage. Until the plugin is fixed, the only way around this is either not to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress (not recommended), or to disable the Redirection plugin.

Say you are writing a new stored procedure (for MySQL) and when you execute it, you get an error something like shown below - as you probably figured out all it means is that there is a syntax error with in the SQL. Often the error is misleading especially if it is a complicated query. One easy way to help narrow down the issue is to run it in a SQL Console which usually provides a better clue that can be your pointer to fixing the issue. ...

I’m so broke even my computer is low on cache.

I don’t think many people have heard of MOOS (which stands of Mission Oriented Operating Suite); I have been working with it for the past few months as part of my dissertation. And I must admit, the more I play with it, the more impressed I am. It is quite simple and yet powerful. Whilst MOOS’s roots are in robotics ( MRG ) and embedded systems, I wonder if I can extend it to use it some of the grid computing scenarios. Maybe implement a pMapReduce or pHadoop? Or perhaps a .NET implementation. Hmm, just need some time. If you need a robust, cross platform communication layer then check out MOOS .

As you might have heard, the Cray XMT implemented a multithreaded processor architecture (called Threadstorm); these processors are compatible with Socket F which means they can use the AMD Opteron CPUs. The interesting part however is that these Threadstorm CPU’s only execute user code and avoids memory dependency stalls i.e. when the memory dependence prediction goes wrong and stalls the specific load to ensure there is no violation. ...

I have recently started using Doxygen in anger and have been quite impressed with it. In addition to the documentation of code that you would expect, one of the most powerful and coolest features is the ability to create various types of diagrams showing various aspects of the application such as collaboration diagrams object and call graphs, etc. The easiest way to configure your application is to use Doxywizard . On Linux, if you do want the object and call graphs then you would need to choose to enable the DOT option. If you do that you will need to have Message Sequence Charts installed (typically found in /usr/bin/mscgen) and also Graphviz. DOT can typically be found in /usr/bin/dot. ...

Brilliant!

So you have a team (somewhat like mine right now) which is inexperienced with TFS and not very sure about this whole branching, merging, shelveset thinggy and extremely nervous when using it. So, what will you do? Well you might try and train them, show them how to use it, write documents showing how to use it, have processes in place, try and use some tools to help, etc. But, what do they do? Well this seems to be along the lines …. 🙄 ...

I had a need to dump some data I am getting from a real-time sensor network to a database and I choose MySQL - just because it is cheap and cheerful and will fit perfectly with what I am looking for. Now, I have never programmed for MySQL though I have used it in the past as a consumer (e.g. the backend of this blog). MySQL does expose a C API that one can use, but it seems quite arcane to use and does not quite conform to the C++ style (especially when using STL). ...

If you are running Ubuntu and want to modify the services running on the OS using the GUI, the way to do this is via System → Administration → Services. This is all very good, but in my case on one machine the Unlock button on the Services window was greyed out. Sure, I could use the shell to modify this, but when this is something I use quite rarely I need to go and look up the exact command and it can get a pain. Plus, that is the whole point of running the GUI? ;-) ...

Happy that recently my running has been consistent and the weather has been helpful too. Last few days it has turned cold with the temperature down to 4 degrees C. It helps me relax and de-stress and clear my head. Below is a screenshot of the workout profile from this week thanks for iMapMyRun free app for my Android Wildfire (which is small and light enough for me to carry in my pocket when on my run). Still need to build more stamina. ...

I was thinking of getting the latest version of the Kindle, but one of the factors in the decision will be the number of techy books available for the Kindle. Anyone owning one has any ideas? Are there far and few or is there a good selection with more being added? I do read novels, but not as many and if there are not enough techy books for the Kindle right now then that might be a deal breaker.

First post from my brand new Android phone and the Wordpress app. Quite impressed with it so far. I sure do miss the keyboard though. Suggestions for any apps? My phone is HTC wildfire and nothing fancy so the apps should be able to run on this phone.

It continues to surprise me that people who write software for a living these days (i.e professional developers) have no understanding of what byte order marks are and how they relate to different encodings. Most developers I interact with have no clue - including of course how EF BB BF differs from FF FE. Also so few of them have a understanding of linefeeds and how that differs from Unix to Windows. ...

Boolean logic explained

I think many of us can relate to this - including my current project. :roll: Project Management - how to test

Need I say more? Race condition explained

Unfortunately (or fortunately), depending on your perspective, this is so me! Still no sleep

The wife has one of these and can absolutely relate to this!

This is quite cool – now only if MS hurry’s up and incorporated this to Bing Maps. MS Street Slide