bem's blog

We are pleased to respond to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s inquiry dated July 31, 2009, requesting information regarding Apple’s App Store and its application approval process. In order to give the Bureau some context for our responses, we begin with some background information about the iPhone and the App Store.

Apple has posted a rather interesting and enlightening response to the FCC's questions. It would be nice if it didn't take the FCC for them to actually communicate better about why applications are being rejected, because when they actually do give an explanation, it sounds pretty reasonable.

So if you're looking for a really, really, primo racing bike, he's selling a bike that's worth more than $10k for like $6k. He's got lots more info over at craigslist.

This function decorates a function with tail call optimization. It does this by throwing an exception if it is it's own grandparent, and catching such exceptions to fake the tail call optimization.

Sometimes I wonder why a whole bunch of Scheme loving folks use Python. Then, I see rather clever things like this, and it starts to make more sense. I do wonder how much of a performance penalty something like this incurs, though.

Ever since I discovered a widescreen mod that lets me play classic computer role-playing games at modern screen resolutions, I've been on a mission to find the perfect portable platform on which to replay the great isometric RPGs of yore. I have found that platform, and it is +10 awesome.

Now I wish I had $1300, because after that article, I want one of those Samsung UMPCs more than anything else. I would so love to play all the way through games like Fallout I&II and Planescape: Torment, and even the Baldur's Gate games, since I never managed to do so back in the day. And this seems like the absolutely perfect control scheme.

For those of you that use Macs and do use Snapfish, you may have been frustrated by how annoying it is to have to first export your pictures before you can upload them, or to navigate iPhoto's labyrinthine directory structure to find your pictures. Well, we've finally released an iPhoto export plugin to actually make it easy. I haven't tried it yet, since I don't have my Mac at work, but given that the really early alpha version I had access to like a year ago worked fine, I can only imagine that this is better.

If Usain Bolt was ever on cops, they'd have trouble catching him in their cars.

We the undersigned oppose spending half a billion dollars on the current Oakland Airport Connector (OAC) project at a cost of $ 500-700 per new rider. We urge BART, the Oakland City Council and the region's transportation funding agencies to review the significant changes that have occurred in this project immediately and to halt movement forward until alternatives are studied.

I don't even get what's wrong with the AirBART bus... I've taken it many times, and it's conveinent, easy and cheap. Anyways, if you agree with me that the new Oakland Airport connector is one of the worst ideas you have ever heard, sign the petition.

I've been waiting for this for so long. I'm definitely going to have to use my translink card tomorrow on BART and see how it works.