This is what most of the Internet might look like, if SOPA passes.

Ok, I've written a quick little client-side Javascript function that will simulate what a SOPA/PROTECT-IP Internet may look like. Feel free to link it into your website and help spread the word.

Demonstration Page: here
Code: Github Repository

AmericanCensorship.org Infographic
Electronic Frontier Foundation Campaign

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome %U --disk-cache-dir="/dev/shm"

Which is handy for not writing cache junk to your SSD.

Limited User Account installations: On Windows XP x64 Edition (and probably other versions), trying to install the default Web Install package from here fails with the message "Google Update installation failed with error 0x80070003". Whatever that means. I have a hunch that on Windows Vista, and Windows 7, the User Account Control stuff might intercept that the installer wants privilege escalation and automatically pop up the right dialog for this.

What you see if you try to install the default Web Install package without running as Administrator.

If I click on the link "Show me help for this issue.", there's not much help there. Oddly enough, I was just reading Microsoft's "Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines". The section on "Error Messages / Error Codes" applies here.

That's useful.

I know what you're trying to say, Google Update is a system service, so it probably wants Administrator rights to my system. It would be nice if it didn't, maybe if it ran under the Limited User's profile only. I understand that's less secure, but ok, I try installing the package with the "Run As" option to escalate privileges to the installer.

Let's try it this way.

The installer completes, as the Administrator account. But wait, where's the icon in my Limited User Account? Oh no, the default Chrome installer package only installs to the account whose credentials were used to run it! e.g. Only the Administrator account has Chrome now.

Catch-22. So I uninstall you.

Then I see that there is an "Alternate (offline) Google Chrome installer (Windows)", which allows me to download one version of the installer that installs Chrome "for your own user account only" or a version that installs Chrome "for all user accounts on your computer".

The first package doesn't work, for the same reasons the Web Install package doesn't work.

The second package works, when installed as Administrator, which makes sense. However, when the Installer starts the Chrome Browser for the first time right after installation, it runs the Browser instances as the Administrator account, not as the Limited User Account.

When I go to start it with the Limited User Account, I get two errors. First, "Failed To Create Data Directory, Google Chrome cannot read and write to its data directory." Second, "Your preferences can not be read. Some features may be unavailable and changes to preferences won't be saved."

Profiles missing for accounts not used during the install.

I select a different directory for my preferences, using the directory chooser.

When I close and restart Chrome, I get the same error, because the --user-data-dir in the Google Chrome shortcut in my Limited User Account somehow gets reset.

Adding --user-data-dir=(somewhere) to the shortcut allows Chrome to work in a Limited User Account.

If I add --user-data-dir to the Quick Start shortcut, it somehow/sometimes gets reset to something without the --user-data-dir flag the next time Chrome is started, but after that it doesn't get reset. (I'm not going to debug why this is so.)

If I add --user-data-dir to the shortcut located on my Desktop, it doesn't get reset.

I have a hunch here that the multiuser installation will work under Windows Vista and Windows 7 because of that weird profile virtualization stuff Microsoft built into them (and which annoys the heck out of software developers, because we never know where a profile's files are actually stored).

In any case, after all of that, the browser does work fine, but the taste of a bad install experience does not cast a good first impression.

Here's the Google Street View of the places.

[click to open in a new window]

In the first restaurant, we ordered fresh steamed fish in soy sauce with green onions, fried salt and pepper prawns, and some bamboo with shiitake mushrooms (by mistake). In the second restaurant, we ordered pork blood with pig intestines (a rarity almost everywhere outside of Thailand or Taiwan), ma poa tofu, and fried water spinach (also a rarity). I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

There are three settings that I used to fix this up, with a marked improvement in visual quality. Note: With vertical sync enabled, the UI might feel just a few milliseconds more sluggish than before, because it will wait slightly until the next sync pulse to refresh. This takes a little getting used to, but the overall improvement in the feel of the UI can be worth it. e.g. No more flickering!

Setting 1 is the "Sync To VBlank" item in the CompizConfig Settings Manager:

Setting 2 is in the "X Server XVideo Settings" panel of the NVIDIA X Server Settings control panel.

Setting 3 is in the "OpenGL Settings" panel of the NVIDIA X Server Settings control panel.

var HOST  = 'localhost';
var PORT  = 80;
var API   = "/api/user/create";

var tobi   = require('tobi'),
    vows   = require('vows'),
    assert = require('assert');

var newbie = function() { return tobi.createBrowser(PORT, HOST) };

// -------------------------------------------------------------
// Macros.
// -------------------------------------------------------------

var macroPostOnlyApiChecks = function(url) {
	return {
		'GET': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				browser.get(url, this.callback);
			},
			'should fail.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.not.have.status(200);
			}
		},
		'Empty POST': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				browser.post(url, this.callback);
			},
			'should fail.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.not.have.status(200);
			}
		}
	};
};

var macroCreateUserOk = function(suite) {
	return {
		'Create user': {
			topic: function() {
				var browser = newbie();
				var data = { signupUsername: '', };
				
				data = JSON.stringify(data);
				browser.post('/api/user/create', data, this.callback);
			},
			'should succeed.': function(res, $) {
				res.should.have.status(200);
				console.log(res);
				
				// Pass created user credentials back to
				// the calling suite for later use.
				if (suite) {
				}
			}
		}
	};
};

// -------------------------------------------------------------
// User API Test Suite
//
// Run me with: vows api.user.create.vows.js --spec
// -------------------------------------------------------------

var suite = vows.describe('User API Test Suite');

// Batches  are executed sequentially.
// Contexts are executed in parallel.

suite.addBatch(macroPostOnlyApiChecks(API));
suite.addBatch(macroCreateUserOk());

suite.export(module);

Here's what that looks like:

#include 

typedef int (* const decorableFnType)(int paramOne, int paramTwo);

int functionOne(int paramOne, int paramTwo)
{
	printf("functionOne: %d, %d\n", paramOne, paramTwo);
	return 0;
}

int functionTwo(int paramOne, int paramTwo)
{
	printf("functionTwo: %d, %d\n", paramOne, paramTwo);
	return 0;
}

int functionThree(int paramOne, int paramTwo)
{
	printf("functionThree: %d, %d\n", paramOne, paramTwo);
	return 0;
}

int decorator(int paramOne, int paramTwo, decorableFnType originalFn)
{
	printf("decorator precondition!\n");
	originalFn(paramOne, paramTwo);
	return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
	printf("hello, C decorators!\n");

	functionOne(1, 2);

	decorator(1, 2, functionOne);
	decorator(1, 2, functionTwo);
	decorator(1, 2, functionThree);

	return 0;
}

The output of which is:

vilimpoc@funky:~$ ./c-decorators
hello, C decorators!
functionOne: 1, 2
decorator precondition!
functionOne: 1, 2
decorator precondition!
functionTwo: 1, 2
decorator precondition!
functionThree: 1, 2
vilimpoc@funky:~$

This might be a bit simplistic, in reality, you'd probably want to decorate a function with a signature like the following, so that you can just change the structure and not bother w/a bajillion function declarations:

typedef int (* const decorableFnType)(SomeStruct * data);

Again, not super elegant, but handy.

As a use case, imagine you want to restrict a certain set of functions to only run if you are logged in. Doing stuff like this is ridiculously easy with first-class functions.

Here's a generic decoration example:

(function()
{
	var original = function(paramOne, paramTwo) {
		console.log('original: ' + paramOne + ' ' + paramTwo);
	};

	var decorator = function(originalFn) {
		return function(paramOne, paramTwo) {
			console.log('decorator: ' + paramOne + ' ' + paramTwo);
			originalFn(paramOne, paramTwo);
		};
	};

	var fnTable = {};
	var registerCallback = function(url, callback) {
		fnTable[url] = callback;
	};

	registerCallback('/abc', original);
	registerCallback('/def', decorator(original));

	fnTable['/abc']('one', 'two');
	fnTable['/def']('three', 'four');
})();

Update: Here's the specific way you'd do this with node.js/Express:

Since all of the URL handlers you register have the same signature, it's easy to add precondition checks to the handlers via decorators.

var decorator = function(originalFn) {
    return function(req, res) {
        if (req.session.userLoggedIn) {
            originalFn(req, res);
        } else {
            redirectSomewhere(res);
        }
    }
}

app.get('/url', decorator(original));
app.post('/other', decorator(original));

You get preconditions essentially for free, which is a damn sight better than adding the if() block to each and every handler function. Also, if you need more preconditions in the future, you can just stack them.

Useful when developing localized web apps.

It's pretty busy at lunch time, as they have good deals for comfort foods like Spätzle, Schnitzel, meatloaf (Hacksteak), and Königsburger Klopse (€6,90!). The portions are a good size, but aren't so large that they'll put you to sleep at your next meeting. There's always a good selection of freshly made salad sides such as: mixed bean salad, fennel and cabbage salad, or potato salad. Additionally, each of the lunch menu items usually comes with a mixed salad of some sort, with your choice of vinaigrette or yogurt dressing.

p.s. Don't mind the crappy photos, that's what I get for using a Motorola Milestone to take them.

Directions

Repke Spätzlerei
Bleibtreustrasse 46
10623 Berlin

Opening Hours

Daily from 11:30h