The Dark Balloon

A weblog by Hao Lian.
A terrible secret guarded by golems.
A note that thanks you for being born, all those years ago.

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Making light of horrific phenomena.

Mitch had installed his last shower door of his career. He went downstairs, only to find a surprise party waiting for him. “Congratulations, Mitch,” read the sign hanging from one door to another at a pleasantly hyperbolic curve. “We’ll miss you,” said one card. And, “You’re a-door-able.” Mitch smiled and did everything to seem happy with the fine people of Ajax Brothers Shower Door Installation Company. But inside he seethed; these people would all see his fury. When the Mitch Barrum Shower Door and Frame Installation Company crushed these worthless peons, there would be pain oh yes lots of pain buckets of it in fact.

Incorrectly installed shower doors can apparently cause the glass to give out from underneath itself. The internet doesn’t provide many details, but the resulting effect is akin to an explosion. And if there are children around, basically it turns into an unforgettable disaster. (via IATE)

[(2008 August 8) .]

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If it were a cat, it would be urlgogetiturself.

What follows is part of a patch against the twitter.py file from the awesome python-twitter project. You can download the entire patch if you so choose. With it, you can have read from Twitter from Google App Engine. I have not experimented with writing (posting) yet. By default, you get problems using urllib2 on GAE, which I bypass here like a stealthy lightning ninja greased with the body fat of my enemies. It’s part of my Quo Quo status project, which I’ll release soon enough.


+    method = urlfetch.GET
+    data, params, headers = {}, {}, {}
+    if post_data:
+      method = urlfetch.POST
+      data.update(post_data)
+
+    for x in (parameters, self._default_params):
+      if x: params.update(x)
+
+    url = self._BuildUrl(url, extra_params = params)
+    if method == urlfetch.POST:
+      mime = 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'
+      headers.update({'Content-type': mime})
+
+    # Skip the cache, we're on GAE. This hack by shadytrees.
+    data = urllib.urlencode(data)
+    url_data = urlfetch.fetch(url, payload = data,
+                              method = method,
+                              headers = headers,
+                              ).content
[(2008 May 26, 1!) .]

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Update #1 from the 2008 psychic frontier

Google’s suite of office software will continue to suck.

dotfloofy dotblog

TRUE. My psychic predictions are coming true earlier and earlier each year. Soon, they will happen before I predict them. Or did I just blow your mind? Anyway, Hank Williams agrees that Google’s suite will soon cede to Adobe’s plans for world domination. And, in the weblog tetrahedron (Contrary to your stupid and tiny-minded thoughts, it’s not a sphere.), two people agreeing on something is tantamount to it being true. You know, I should start picking stocks. I hear chicken looks good this time of year.

[(2008 April 2) .]

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The definitive list of what will happen in 2008

dfdb is proud to expand to politics and music and culture and current events this year.

  • Despite the best efforts of America’s women, Obama will become president of the United States and, by proxy, the world. His vice president? Some white person nobody cares about.
  • The Funnelwhich will get a quantity of updates that is a multiple of three. Maybe.
  • New Amsterdam will get canceled even though it’s a damn good show.
  • Google’s suite of office software will continue to suck. TRUE
  • Apple will learn how to make iPod nanos not look like the fat chick nobody likes. Also, gray? Seriously? Gray’s going away.
  • People will continue to enjoy pornography in novel and exciting new ways despite the best efforts a new production company, n-girls + n-1 cups.
  • foobar 0.9.5.2 will be released to much “fanfare.”
  • Franz Ferdinand and The Fratellis will release their new albums. Somebody will make yet another postmortem album for Elliot Smith.
  • There will be no new Windows OS release because most scientists agree such an event would cause a permanent rip in the very fabric of Bill Gates’ pants. And nobody wants to see his butt.
  • That’s right, I’m making this public: Bill Gates goes commando on a daily basis. ♫ Thonnnng. ♫
  • House will get renewed despite crappier writing and even crappier medicine.
  • The next version of Mac OS X will contain, let’s say, Firewire support. And better icons than those in Leopard. And a TCP/IP Stack®.
  • People will continue to not care about any of the Linux operating systems.
[(2008 April 1) .]