PHP Fatal Flex Scanner Internal Error
Recently when coding in PHP I got this error:
Fatal error: fatal flex scanner internal error–end of buffer missed in [file] on [line number]
Turns out it was because I forgot to close a comment block (forgot the */). Thought I’d post it here in case it helps someone. 
How to Buy Microsoft Office for Cheap
Here are some tips and ideas for getting a totally-legal discount off of the world’s most popular productivity suite:
Option 1: Buy the college student version
Are you a full-time or even part-time college student? Buy Office 2010 Professional Academic for $80. It has the same programs as the $500 Professional edition (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, and Access). That’s an 84% discount! As far as I can tell, there are no non-commercial usage limitations as there are with the Home & Student edition.
If your university has a license agreement with Microsoft, you may be able to get Office for even cheaper. Ask around at your university’s bookstore for more info before buying.
If you’re not a college student, there are still other options…
Option 2: Buy a key card
You can save 25-40% off Office 2010′s retail price by downloading the trial version of Office and then purchasing a discounted Office key card to unlock the trial.
The only downside is that you don’t get a physical disc or the fancy packaging (which is why it’s cheaper), so if your computer ever has a total crash, you’ll need to redownload the Office trial so you can use your key card to unlock it again. But for the major cost savings, it’s worth that small potential hassle.
Option 3: Use the free online versions
If you need only the very basics of Microsoft Office, check out Office Live, Microsoft’s free offering of online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. As an added plus, you can access your Office Live documents from any computer with Internet access.
Option 4: Buy a Family Pack
The disc version of Office 2010 Home and Student is a “Family Pack” that can be installed on up to 3 computers in your household. Since the box is $150, that works out to $50 per license. However, note that the Home and Student edition is limited to non-commercial use only.
Option 5: Buy an old version
If you can do without the latest features in the newest Office release, you may be able to find older versions (like Office 2007 or Office 2003) at a discount at online stores like Amazon.com.
Bonus Tip: If your computer came with Microsoft Works or Microsoft Works Suite, you may be eligible for Office’s upgrade pricing. This means that, using software that likely came free with your computer, you could save another 20-40% off an old version of Office. (This method only works for buying old versions of Office, since Office 2010 discontinued upgrade pricing.)
When combined with the discounts that stores will likely put on old versions anyway, this could represent some substantial savings. For example, as of this writing, you can buy Office 2007 Ultimate Upgrade on Amazon for 62% off the original pricing of the full version of the suite.
Bonus Tip: Use a free alternative
Office isn’t the only productivity suite out there. These free alternatives may be work checking out. Look into Google Docs (which is similar to Office Live but has been around longer) or OpenOffice.org (a free, full-fledged Microsoft Office alternative). Both can export or save to Microsoft Word’s DOC format.
Microsoft Releases Silverlight Plugin
Silverlight, Microsoft’s Flash competitor, is out of beta as of today! According to a PCWorld article:
The 1.0 version of Silverlight, which is being released to the Web, is geared to providing video. Accessible at the Silverlight Web page, it has been available in a beta release. A more potent successor, Silverlight 1.1, will provide for more interactive content, including support for .Net development and transactional capabilities. It remains only available in an early alpha release format.
While Silverlight currently works with Windows and Macintosh, Microsoft is endorsing Novell’s plan to make Silverlight run on Linux clients via the Moonlight project.
[...]
Microsoft cites several differentiators between Silverlight and Flash. Silverlight, Deshpande said, offers high-definition video at a lower cost and functions with Microsoft’s developer tools. The company also is offering a SaaS-based component, Silverlight Streaming by Windows Live.
Whether or not Silverlight will pose a threat to Macromedia’s ubiquitous Flash player remains to be seen, although Microsoft could have the advantage of being able to push Silverlight to Windows users through Microsoft Update (assuming such a move wouldn’t cause antitrust concerns).
Apple’s New “iPod Touch”: A Phoneless iPhone
Yes, they did it. Many of us figured this was coming. And wow, is it amazing.
The thing that blew me away the most is that the “iPod touch” has Wi-Fi web browsing using the same Safari browser found in the iPhone. And it has other iPhone features like the touch interface, the YouTube browser, and Cover Flow (the last of which has also been ported to the “iPod classic,” as it’s now called, and the iPod nano).
It has just about everything the iPhone has except the phone functionality. Which would work for me, since I already have an existing cellphone and cellular plan. However, public Wi-Fi is pretty scarce where I live, and of course I wouldn’t be able to browse the Internet with AT&T’s EDGE network.
One more gripe about the iPod touch: its maximum storage space of 16 GB looks wimpy compared to the cheaper iPod classic’s 160 GB. I know, I know, it’s because it has flash memory, but would it really be worth it to get an iPod that’s more expensive and has one tenth the storage space of another iPod? I guess those iPod touch features come at a high premium.
But still, if I were to get a new iPod, it would probably, just barely, be the iPod touch. 16 gigs would be a tight fit for my music, photos, videos, and podcasts, but it sure would be nice to be able to browse the web, assuming I could find a hotspot.
And plus, the iPod touch is just cool.
iPhone Hacked
According to a “Today @ PC World” blog post:
In an article published in today’s New York Times researchers using WiFi connection say they can gain access to an iPhone ceding control of the device. Researchers also say the hack can be achieved by tricking iPhone users into visiting a Web site with malicious code. The hack, ISE researchers say, can give intruders access to “any file” on the iPhone and allow a remote user to “make calls… or even turning it into a portable bugging device.”
A bugging device! Yikes!
I guess this is what happens when any technology product becomes popular, be it the Apple iPhone or Microsoft Windows.
I wonder if this is due to a flaw in the iPhone’s Mac OS X version, the Safari browser, or some iPhone-specific hardware or software issue.
Browse WordPress 2.2 Source Code
A very useful resource for WordPress plugin developers: Browse the WordPress 2.2 source code at PHPXref.com.
What iThink about the iPhone
Why? Why has the iPhone been so successful? Why has an overpriced, under-featured gadget generated such excitement across the country, with people spending days waiting in line for a chance to spend $500-$600 for it?
After all, the iPhone does have a lot of limitations. As Wikipedia puts it:
iPhone lacks a number of common handheld features, including voice dialing, voice recording, instant messaging, memory card slot, MMS, A2DP (stereo bluetooth), common Bluetooth file transfer, GPS capability, text copy and paste, native games, and support for MP3 files as ringtones.
So what’s the reason?
Although the iPhone lacks much functionality, what the iPhone does do it does really, really well. The iPhone lacks many features common to other phones, but its feature set is sufficient for most people, and most importantly, it implements those features in a superior fashion.
Every product or feature has two conceptual components: the idea, and the implementation of the idea. Other phones may already have the same ideas, but with the iPhone Apple has really nailed the implementation.
And of course, Apple has done a fantastic job marketing this thing. They actually haven’t done a lot of marketing. Instead, they’ve used the consumer base to market the product for them. Everyone was talking about the iPhone. The media. Blogs. Podcasts. The iPhone was the coolest thing ever before it was even released. And as the release date approached, Apple leaked out additional details to keep the excitement going.
The whole campaign was very well done. The campaign was so successful, however, that in my opinion it does raise some concerns about society’s inordinate excitement about “stuff.”
But from a marketing standpoint, Apple has done a great job with the iPhone, even though the product itself isn’t the greatest. Though when a product has as many positive aspects as the iPhone, one is more likely to forgive or overlook the negative aspects.
What would be interesting to see is a technology product that is as close to perfect as possible in both the idea and the implementation, with a great feature set, great implementation of that feature set, and great marketing of that feature set. Who knows? Maybe in the future it’ll be something even more trivial than a cellphone.
Google Wi-Fi Via Your Toilet
This has to be the funniest Google April Fool’s Day joke yet:
Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access [...] via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.
[...]
With professional installation service, you can also have your Google Checkout purchases delivered directly through the sewage network into your bathroom.
[...]
We’re actively developing a higher-performance version of TiSP specifically tailored to small and medium-sized businesses, including 24-hour, on-site technical support in the event of backup problems, brownouts and data wipes.
Hilarious!
They even, uh, use the location of this WiFi access to provide uncanny monitoring:
Your FREE TiSP service includes a Google Toolbar-based analysis of your dietary habits and genetic predispositions, along with recommendations for healthier living.
[...]
To offset the cost of providing the TiSP service, we use information gathered by discreet DNA sequencing of your personal bodily output to display online ads that are contextually relevant to your culinary preferences, current health status and likelihood of developing particular medical conditions going forward.
Read more at Google TiSP (haven’t figured out what it stands for yet…).
Update: it appears that TiSP stands for “Toilet Internet Service Provider.” Makes sense.
Microsoft Starting to Abandon the “Live” Brand?
Microsoft may have finally seen the light, and is killing the Live name in many products, and also jettisoning the honchos who oversee the brand.
Windows Live WiFi, for example, has been renamed MSN WiFi, and Windows Live Shopping, which was once called MSN Shopping, is back to being called MSN Shopping again. Then there’s the MSN Soapbox product, which used to be called Windows Live Video until it was renamed in September.
I agree, Windows and Office Live really are a mess. What Microsoft needs is some organization.