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June 23, 2003

Multi-monitor flight simulator

Amazing setup for running MS Flight Simulator across (many) multiple monitors using the Wideview software, which lets you use multiple networked machines as a single virtual flight simulator. Check out the Boeing 777 cockpit setup.

Posted by Brian at 4:55 AM |

June 10, 2003

Python Stuff

Some interesting new Python tools found on the Daily Python-URL:

Dave Kuhlman has written a package to provide support for the Amazon.com web services API (both SOAP and XML/HTTP).

dnspython is a toolkit for making DNS queries, written by the guys at Nominum for use in testing the BIND 9 server. That makes it quite likely that it will be of high quality.

msnp is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's MSN Messenger protocol. Unfortunately, it (like every other non-Microsoft implementation out there) doesn't support the Exchange Instant Messaging (XIM) protocol yet.

Posted by Brian at 9:46 AM |

June 9, 2003

Eclipse 3.0 M1 Released

The M1 milestone release of Eclipse is now available. Quite a few cool new features to be found. I'm still partial to IDEA, but Eclipse is really coming on strong as a Java IDE.

Posted by Brian at 3:04 PM |

pexpect -- "expect" in pure Python

Pexpect is a pure Python module for spawning child applications, controlling them, and responding to expected patterns in their output. Pexpect works like Don Libes' Expect too, but for Python rather than TCL. Pexpect allows your script to spawn a child application and control it as if a human were typing commands. (found on bbum)

Posted by Brian at 3:02 PM |

An Inside Look at the "Slammer" Worm

Wired takes a detailed look at the "Slammer" SQL server worm that ravaged the Internet a few months ago. Very interesting stuff, but some will say it can be used as a cookbook for future worms.

Posted by Brian at 2:59 PM |

June 6, 2003

Gamespot preview of the new Buffy video game...

Gamespot takes a look at the upcoming "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" video game for consoles (looks like this one will be for PS2 and GameCube as well, instead of Xbox-exclusive like the first "Buffy" game). Looks pretty solid, although SMG and Alyson Hannigan won't be contributing their voices (although Nick Brendon, Tony Head, Amber Benson, and Eliza Dusku will!). I was very impressed with the first "Buffy" game on Xbox, and spent a lot of time playing it, so I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Posted by Brian at 1:57 PM |

June 5, 2003

Beginning AppleScript Studio

Cocoa Dev Central has a quick tutorial on getting started in AppleScript Studio, resulting in a working application.

Posted by Brian at 4:34 PM |

June 1, 2003

Fyodor Interview

Slashdot has a terrific interview with Fyodor, creator of the incredibly popular security tool nmap. He gives lots of great information for those interested in starting a career in network security, as well as a lot of technical and political "behind the scenes" info about nmap. While there is some evidence that Fyodor is not above participating in "black hat" behavior, he still has a lot of worthwhile things to say.

Posted by Brian at 4:15 PM |