My First Firefox Extension: ViewSelected: 0.2 Update

I've updated ViewSelected, which is my first Firefox extension. The main changes include:

• Added an options dialog for configuring whether selected text is shown in a new window or a new tab
• Fixed the context menu to only display 'view selected' when text is actually selected
• Some code cleanups

You can download it here

Siemens MicroMovie AWARD

The Siemens MicroMovie AWARD is a competition which was created by Siemens. It provides mobile phones to schools and filmmakers and they use the phones to make a film which must be less than 90 seconds long.

The Australian Version will be shown at the St Kilda festival in Melbourne, but you can already see the 12 contesting films.

Its worth taking a look at some of these, although the quality does vary quite a bit.

Number Puzzles: Sudoku

I bought The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday and they had an article about a puzzle called Sudoku. The game rules are very simple, but the game itself can be pretty challenging. The basic rules are:

• The game consists of a 9x9 board, which is divided in 9 3x3 groups
• Within each group you must have the numbers 1-9, with no duplicates
• Each row of the larger 9x9 board must also have the numbers 1-9
• Each column of the larger 9x9 board must also have the number 1-9

Here's an example board:

I gave it a try with a puzzle included in the paper and it proved very addictive. Apparently many newspapers in London have started including Sudoko puzzles and it is becoming more popular world-wide. I guess this is because it is a problem that is easy to understand but despite being solvable using only logic and the initial configuration of the board, it is not trivial to solve.

For a demo try out the Java Applets at Puzzles Japan.

Looking down from the 3rd tee at Hilltop, Mollymook. The first few holes have very nice scenery.

The first tee at Hilltop golf course in Mollymook.

Star Wars ASCII Art

With the pending release of the new Star Wars episode 'Revenge of the Sith' I thought about some ASCII versions of Star Wars that were doing the email rounds a while back. Here's a sample:

• Episode 4: A New Hope
• A few ASCII art pics

As an aside, there is an interesting spoiler/review of the new episode available here. It sounds like this is going to be the best episode of the new three.

Source control for your life (and beyond)

Most software developers have used some sort of source code control system, but recently I've been reading The Pragmatic Programmer and they suggested an idea that I've heard before but never been motivated to try.

The suggestion is to use a repository to store all information that you create on a computer, even at home. A quick web search revealed a guy who has done just that for the last five years (Keeping Your Life in Subversion):

"For the past five years, I've checked every file I've created and worked on, every email I've sent or received, and every config file I've tweaked into revision control"

I had a think about it and there were four main benefits I could see to having my own repository:

• Organisation: When you're checking files into a structure, you need to think a bit more about it than when you're just working on something temporarily
• Backup: I have two machines so I can just sync the repostory on both machines and I've got an instant backup
• Multi-edits: I can edit a file from either machine and check it in. There is no overhead copying files between each one.
  
• History: I have the usual benefits of a SCCS, namely a revision history so I can track changes and ensure I don't lose something accidentally by saving over it.

So I'm trying it out now. I'm using Perforce, which is commercial software but it has a 2 machine, 2 user license which is free. The main benefits:

• It has Windows and Linux clients and servers
• The clients have a nice GUI especially in windows
• The server is very robust and works great

So far I have some config files, scripts, my Firefox extension, a backup of this blog and that's about it. I don't think I'll go to the level of keeping every single email, but hey, you never know.

Microsoft is already researching recording everything interesting about life in My Life Bits, which does the following:

"The experiment: Gordon Bell has captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally. He is now paperless, and is beginning to capture phone calls, IM transcripts, television, and radio."

Maybe one day we'll all be recording our lives as the digital camera craze extends into other mediums.

Mozilla + Firefox extension development

The Mozilla + Firefox extension development blog contains some info that is useful for developing FireFox Extensions. Other sites of interest:

• Packaging Firefox/Thunderbird Extensions (Ben Goodger)
• XUL Planet (good tutorial)
• Mozilla-zine - Using Preferences

Google Blog

The official Google Blog sometimes has some interesting stories. As an example, I didn't know that Google Video was around yet. It claims to be able to search 'recent TV programs'. After a quick play I soon realised that it doesn't have many decent programs there yet. My searches for "Buffy" yielded kid's programs and when I searched for "Friends" I got 'CNN Presents | Homicide in Hollenbeck'.

After a quick look at the site it looks like there are only a few stations that have signed up to provide content and there aren't too many videos available yet.

Still, it is worth checking out the official Google blog every now and then, along with a trip to Google Labs.

Fermat's Enigma

After reading 'The Code Book', by Simon Singh, I picked up a book called "Fermat's Enigma" expecting something similar. After a casual glance it seemed to be very much about maths. As a result, I put the book back down again for about a year before deciding to give it a read.

It turned out to be a fascinating story about a guy called Andrew Wiles who spent 7 years in almost isolation working on the solution to a problem problem that was set by a someone called Fermat 350 years before, who also hinted that he had solved the problem but a solution was never found.

The problem might have been difficult to prove, but the attraction for many mathematicians is that it is so simple to explain. We all know the familiar Pythagoras equation x² + y² = z² and we can easily find a solution which involves whole numbers, for example x=3, y=4, z=5.

Fermat stated that if you extend this equation to cubic, quartic, etc. powers, there is no solution. In other words:
xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ for n=3, 4, 5, ... [NO SOLUTION]

The book includes a detailed background of some relevant maths, a history of attempts to solve the problem and the ordeal of the final solution. Andrew spent 7 years to solve the problem and then during the publishing process found an error which took him 14 more months to corect, under intense public scrutiny.

For more info Take a look at Simon Singh's website