I went hiking the other day, up to Heather Lake. It was a pleasant hike, but there were just a couple more things I wished I had taken. Here’s the complete list for posterity’s sake, and so I have it handy next time I go hiking.

• pocketknife
• water
• snacks
• camera & mini-tripod
• tissue
• layers
• extra socks
• rain protection

One of the great things about Linux is its high degree of customizability. But what about when you move to a new computer? To alleviate some of the culture shock I’ve posted some of my favorite config files. This way, wherever you go it’ll feel just like home.

:: .vimrc			what’s this?
:: .zshrc			what’s this?
:: user.js			what’s this?
:: userChrome.css			what’s this?
:: userContent.css			what’s this?

• Les Misérables :: Victor Hugo
• Watership Down :: Richard Adams
• Atlas Shrugged :: Ann Rand
• The Invisible Man :: H.G. Wells
• More by Robert Heinlein
• The Pragmatic Programmer :: Andrew Hunt
• Who Moved My Cheese? :: Spencer Johnson
• Good To Great :: Jim Collins
• Frankenstein :: Mary Shelley
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde :: Robert Louis Stevenson
• Bonds That Make Us Free :: C. Terry Warner

Revisit:

• The Count of Monte Cristo :: Alexandre Dumas

It’s easier to fall behind than to keep up..

Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind :: Hayao Miyazaki :: 2006-06-15 :: 9
Mad Hot Ballroom :: Marilyn Agrelo :: 2006-06-08 :: 5
Howl’s Moving Castle :: Hayao Miyazaki :: 2005-08-11 :: 7
When Worlds Collide :: Rudolph Mat :: 2005-07-01 :: 6
Whale Rider :: Niki Caro :: 2005-06-30 :: 6
The Best Years Of Our Lives :: William Wyler :: 2005-05-02 :: 7
To Catch A Thief :: Alfred Hitchcock :: 2005-05-01 :: 6

As much as I have enjoyed anime by Hayao Miyazaki, I can’t really say I enjoyed Millennium Actress.

The story jumped around quite a bit, not only through space but also time. I found the complete disregard for space and time continuity throughout much of the film difficult to figure out, and distracting at best.

Admittedly, I don’t know much about Japanese film history, which I guess Millennium Actress was something of a tribute to. Perhaps this added to my confusion.

I was expecting more..

Most of the tips offered in this book are basic. As a senior majoring in CS, there was little that I had not heard before. One strong point of the book, however, is how Gunderloy ties together all the loose ends of the development cycle. This book gives an excellent high-level overview of everything that should be happening throughout a development cycle, from project conception to release date and beyond.

The book is very heavily tied to VS .NET 2003; many chapters are little more than listings and explanation of VS add-ons and extensions, giving little value to anyone not using this particular IDE.

I find myself constantly digging through the Firefox Add-ons site looking for the same extensions. Since they don’t have a list on their site linking to just the extension I like, I thought I’d put one on my site.

• Adblock or Adblock Plus
• del.icio.us (the basic version)
• Firebug (one of the best)
• Google Gears
• Greasemonkey
• Mouse Gestures (essential)
• Remember The Milk
• Speed Dial (thanks, Opera!)
• User Agent Switcher (can you believe some sites /still/ deny service to Linux Firefox users?!?)
• Web Developer

Here are some I’m just trying out:

• All Your Maps Are Belong To Us
• Google Calendar Quick Add
• Map This
• FoxyProxy
• Personal Menu

Windows only:

• Auto Copy

Retired:

• Aspellfox (functionality included since Firefox 2)
• ColorZilla
• Forecastfox (cute, but not necessary)
• View formatted source (format source extension) (Firebug is better)
• View Source Chart (use Firebug)
• WebMailCompose (sandbox’d)

Themes

• Firefox Tango Theme
• Qute

Search Engines

The default list is really pretty good. I always add:

• dictionary.com
• wikipedia.com

Greasemonkey Scripts

• Amazon SPL Linky
• Amazon KCLS Link
• Geocaching Improved View Map Link
• Userscripts.org Favicon
• View Old Travel Bug Maps