"The Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation will list at $3,400 and is equipped with Sun's Ultrasparc processor, the Solaris 10 operating system, 512
megabytes of memory, a 40 gigabyte hard drive and WiFi connectivity."
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Sun Enters Laptop Game
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
Boing Boing: Toilets of gamespace gallery
I've had fever all of last night, and have vomited twice. The cough is really bad. A large portion of my night was spent vomiting in the toilet! Anything I eat comes straight out. I feel so sick!
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
The tacit dimension of tech support
"From his wife's perspective, Phil said, it looks like he knows how to do everything. But his own, subjective experience is very different. He doesn't really have detailed procedural knowledge of most tasks. He's just very good at discovering that knowledge."
When I worked as a troubleshooter in the early days of college, some people would really piss me off. They would summon me for a simple problem, that could have been solved if they had looked it up on the web. Very frustrating when you get pulled away from another much more important task.
I've been reading Dave Winers blog since 2001, and I find the most interesting thing about him is how readily he breaks and makes friendships. Here is an example of him mending a broken friendship, and on the same day, breaking another. Maybe thats what makes it fun to read his blog.
I still remember his slow transition of Google good, to Google evil. It was quite interesting.
I still remember his slow transition of Google good, to Google evil. It was quite interesting.
One thing I love about Safari on the Mac is that its quite easy to subscribe to an RSS feed in my favorite Aggregator Netnewswire Lite. When a page has an RSS feed, a blue box is shown in the Location bar on top. Clicking on it, adds teh feed to your default RSS aggregator which is configured to be Netnewswire Lite. However, when I use Firefox, this ability is no longer present. Unless there is an extension/setting that someone can tell me, I'll be using Safari as my default browser for the foreseeable future (which means no greasemonkey :(.
GMail Domain Change Exposes Bad Design and Poor Code
"Repeat after me, a web page is not an API or a platform"
Worm outbreak feared after port scanning spike - silicon.com
TCP Port 445 is used by SMB, which Windows uses to share files, printers, serial ports and also to communicate between computers. Microsoft recently released a fix for the "critical" vulnerability in the protocol as part of its monthly patch cycle.
Increased port scanning has preceded major worm outbreaks in the past, Pescatore said. Alfred Huger, a senior director at Symantec Security Response, also said a worm could be on its way.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Dell - Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 now available
I was part of the Dell RHEL testing team for a short time. I did some testing stuff for RHEL 4 Beta's and RC's. Its good to see that they have launched. That was a fun team.
Targeted Trojan-horse attacks hitting U.S., worldwide
"On June 16, the United Kingdom's incident response team, the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre, warned that stealthy Trojan-horse attacks were targeting specific U.K. companies and government agencies. However, similar attacks aimed at other countries, including the United States, have been detected over the past year, according to security firms."
Phil Windley's Technometria | Where's the Control Panel?
"Im sitting here working and my eight-year old asks Dad, wheres the control panel? Hes on the iMac G5. I didnt think he could possible be asking about the real control panel, so I asked why? He says the mouse is too slow, I want to speed it up. I showed him where the system preferences are. It blows my mind that my eight year old knows you can change the mouse speed in the control panel."
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Interview with Marcus Ranum
"I am Marcus Ranum, Chief Security Officer of Tenable Network Security, Inc., the producers of the Nessus vulnerability scanner and a suite of security vulnerability management tools. I've been working in the computer security arena for about 20 years, now, and was the designer and implementor of a variety of security solutions in the past, including firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection systems."
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Slashdot | How to Become A Real-World Superhero
Heh... this is fun.
So a quick list of people who could become super heros would be:
1. Bill Gates
2. Steve Ballmer
3. Steve Jobs
4. Larry Ellison
5. Paul Allen
6. Steve Wozniak
Ofcourse for every hero, you need five or six villians. From the top list, I would put Steve Wozniak as most likely to be a hero. And the rest would be the super villians that Wozman would fight! :)
So a quick list of people who could become super heros would be:
1. Bill Gates
2. Steve Ballmer
3. Steve Jobs
4. Larry Ellison
5. Paul Allen
6. Steve Wozniak
Ofcourse for every hero, you need five or six villians. From the top list, I would put Steve Wozniak as most likely to be a hero. And the rest would be the super villians that Wozman would fight! :)
Alan Cameron Wills' WebLog : How to teach software development
"Software development is teamwork. The most important techniques you learn for project success -- or get wrong otherwise -- are about working in teams. The methods that have made the biggest improvements in development success rates are not tools or technical stuff, they're about how people work together -- most notably, the agile methods. Tools are useful to support good ways of working, once you've sorted out what they are."
Kevin Schofield's Weblog
"Um, let me get this straight. In six days, a research project went from some algorithms in a paper to Microsoft's competitive answer to BitTorrent, to 'vaporware' to an evil conspiracy."
bramcohen: Avalanche
Bram Cohen is the creator of bittorrent. Avalanche is something Microsoft came up with, which is supposed to compete with bittorrent. The above is an article by Bram Cohen in which he talks about Avalanche.
"RSS: Robert ? Scoble"?
"When will Microsoft's marketing departments get the memo? EVERY site MUST have RSS from now on. Got it? No? Pay attention to Dean Hachamovitch's keynote at Gnomedex, OK? He runs the IE team."
A site with RSS is basically a dynamic site with dynamic content. Robert Scobles insists that every Microsoft website should have RSS. Why should Microsoft make all its sites dynamic, does it really need to? Because if it does, then they will have to create content for each and every one of these dynamic sites. Professional quality content that comes from Microsoft, not content that a blogger posts. It does'nt make sense to me why Mr. Scoble insists on RSS "for every site", and I wonder if he would care to explain?
I probably could have worded this better, but my laptops keyboard started to act up. Crap. Now I have to deal with a broken keyboard! :(
Update: Its not the keyboard, it might be Deer Park Alpha 1.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Phisher Tales
"The person talking to C-Power is Christopher Abad, a San Francisco researcher who has spent much of the last six months stalking the phisher underground. (Phishing involves those scam emails that try to lure you into turning over credit-card information to a Web site that, while designed to look like, say, eBay, actually belongs to a phisher.)"
Dave on his OPML editor
"As you may know, I have been working on an OPML Editor. It's an outliner, grown out of last year's open source release of Frontier, and is itself open source, licensed under the GPL."
Gigabyte GV-3D1 Reviewed (Verdict: Overpriced Dead End) : Gizmodo
"Gigabyte%u2019s GV-3D1 is a neat graphics card: it stuffs two Nvidia 6600GT cores onto one card and stitches them together in SLI, without any fussy wires or dual slots. That%u2019s the good part."
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Compressing Javascript with PHP
"By using Rico, I am adding nearly 80k of size per page of delivery of the script. I am not concerned about the load time nearly as much as I am about excess bandwidth."
Its amazing how in the computer world requirements change in a very short period of time. For instance, who would have thought that we would have gone from worrying about the connection that people have on their end (days of dialup when it would take too long to download a web page), to the amount of data that our server serves in a month?
lifestreams
"Gelernter's group takes Gibson's cyberspace and twists it around the temporal axis. You hear this in its description of Lifestreams: 'Every document you've ever created or received stretches before you in a time-ordered stream, reaching from right now backward to the date you were born. You can sit back and watch new documents arrive: they're plunked down at the head of the stream. You browse the stream by running your cursor down it - touch a document in the display and it pops out far enough for you to glance at its contents. You can go back in time or go to the future and see what you're supposed to be doing next week or next decade. Your entire cyberlife is right there in front of you.'"
Why Bloglines is the best RSS aggregator for people on the move
"But that is a small complaint in comparision of how useful Bloglines is. Many thanks to Mark Fletcher for making my life easier. Now take some time yourself and subscribe to Bloglines. It's absolutely free. Tell them Dana sent ya!"
24 Hour Laundry: Yeah, They Are Nice People
"So, in summation. Back off and let them finish baking whatever it is they're cooking over there and save your criticisms for when the product is launched. I think that's fair."
Are Tiger's features compelling enough?
"However, the drawing and painting capability Apple invented for Dashboard and added to WebCore as the new (and controversial) HTML
Phil Windley's Technometria | Where's My Stuff?
"This is a worthy experiment and one I'll continue to follow with some interest, but I've taken a different path, at least for now. My Powerbook is my only workstation. I take it with me everywhere. I don't even use a PDA since my laptop is almost always within reach. My development environment is on my laptop as are all of my files, email, etc. Sure, I use things like del.icio.us and other network tools, including my blogging software and my wiki, but I'm not going out of my way to avoid my Powerbook. Right now, I don't think either of these approaches is wrong they're just different. "
I am of the same thought. I prefer to use my own Machine. I have a Powerbook G4, that I carry with me about. I've tried the moving to online services, so that I dont have to depend on my own machine, but it just does not work for me. I have no PDA, or a fancy cell phone as well. The laptop is always within reach.
Jon Udell: Personal operating systems
"Teams use common applications and data, but there's no easy or natural way to pool our personal customizations of those resources. Why shouldn't systems adapt to teams as well as to individuals?"
I've always wondered when we will be able to do some simple things like what Jon Udell talks about above. The first time I saw this idea in action was in Star Trek: The next generation. In one episode, as Geordi LaForge the engineer comes up to the bridge, he transfers his workstation (desktop in other words) from a station in engineering of the ship, to the bridge. We still cant do that with out computers. Though there are things like VNC or Remote Computing, its not seemless. When will it be seamless?
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Geek News Central Revealing Links & Useful Technical Information
"All eyes are going to be on Seattle this coming week as I received a phone call today from a listener who filled me in on some information that he had received. Expect some very HUGE announcements, to happen during Gnomedex from at least two companies."
Is this a how-to for generating hype?
Temporal Data (and some great resources on it)
You see, in a payroll system, you need to know not only what "Dan"'s salary is Today, or what it was on January, you also need to know what you "knew" about Dan's Salary regarding January when you created the payroll for February (assuming today is March, for example). You actually need to keep tabs on time in two dimensions: The actual time, and the history of the actual time. (I always think of it like a comet and it's tail - the comet being the place in time you want to know about and the tail - the value in that time's history you want to know about).
Were you just able to wrap your head around that last paragraph?
wingedpig.com - Mark Fletcher's Blog: Stealth Start-Ups Suck
"Why go fast? Many reasons:
- First mover advantage is important.
- There is no such thing as a unique idea. I guarantee that someone else has already thought of your wonderful web service, and is probably way ahead of you. Get over yourself.
- It forces you to focus on the key functionality of the site.
- Being perfect at launch is an impossible (and unnecessary and even probably detrimental) goal, so don't bother trying to achieve it. Ship early, ship often.
- The sooner you get something out there, the sooner you'll start getting feedback from users."
Friday, June 17, 2005
Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out by Neal Stephenson
"IN the spring of 1977, some friends and I made a 40-mile pilgrimage to the biggest and fanciest movie theater in Iowa so we could watch a new science fiction movie called 'Star Wars.' Expecting long lines, we got there early, and found the place deserted."
Adware makers exploit BitTorrent
"Chris Boyd, a security researcher who runs VitalSecurity.org, discovered that (copyright infringing) music tracks, TV episodes and porn videos distributed on BitTorrent have been bundled with Direct Revenue's Aurora adware program."
UK trojan siege has been running over a year
"The gang, which many experts say is either being headed up by a computer master criminal or a spy chief, has been responsible for well over a 1,000 computer break-in attempts over the last few months and has so far attacked 50 countries across the globe."
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Apple and Nokia: Who approached who?
For some reason all these moves that apple seems to be making is causing a whole bunch of people to think that something is afoot. First there was the deal between Apple and Intel (and the cringely article), and now Apple and Nokia and the Russell Beattie article.
Interesting times.
Interesting times.
Open Source Smack-Down - Forbes.com
"Poor guy. Did he not get the memo? This is what open source software is all about: creating knockoffs and giving them away, destroying the value of whatever the other guy is selling. "
night elf female
To celebrate the launch of the Battlegrounds System, Blizzard is giving away a rare, life-size mannequin of a Night Elf female.
User Profiles and Exploratory Testing
"When the tester moved on to other things, I spent time in their work environment to see if there was something else I was missing. I found that their test device had connections that weren't fully seated, and they had stacked the embedded device on both a router and a power supply so the device gently rocked when you typed. I went back to my desk, unseated the cables so they barely made a connection, and while installing a new firmware build, tapped my desk with my knee to simulate the rocking, and presto! Every time I did this on a build that this tester had been using the bug appeared. I collaborated with a developer and he went from saying 'that can't happen' to 'uh oh, I didn't test if the system time is back in time, *and* that the connection to the device is down during installation to trap the error.' The time offset and the flakey connection were causing two related unrepeatable bugs. This sounds simple, but it wasn't from the perspective of the source code. These areas of code were completely unrelated and weren't obvious when testing at the code level."
Yahoo Debuts New Tool for Searching the Invisible Web
"Yahoo! has quietly rolled out Yahoo! Search Subscriptions
- a tool that enables you to search access-restricted content such as
news and reference sites that are normally not accessible to search
engines."
Terra Nova: Longitudinal Census Data at PlayOn Blog
"Several researchers at PARC (who I'm working with this summer) have devised an automated system that cycles through 3 servers for both Alliance and Horde and performs a census about every 16 minutes. This longitudinal data provides a way to answer far more interesting questions that the static data is unable to."
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
The Fading Memory of the State
"But it's doubtful such a record would be preserved today, because it would likely be 'born digital' and follow a convoluted electronic path. A modern-day J. Edgar Hoover might first use a Web browser to read an online version of the Washington Post. He'd follow a link to the Weinstein story. Then he'd send an e-mail containing the link to a subordinate, with a text note: 'What do we know about Weinstein?' The subordinate might do a Google search and other electronic searches of Weinstein's life, then write and revise a memo in Microsoft Word 2003, and even create a multimedia PowerPoint presentation about his findings before sending both as attachments back to his boss."
Flash / JavaScript Integration Kit (with Open License)
"Well, as many noticed last week from the Flash Platform whitepaper, we have released a beta of the Flash / JavaScript Integration kit. The kit allows you to call functions from Flash to JavaScript and JavaScript to Flash, all while working cross browser, and supporting passing complex data types."
10 vulns - three critical - in MS patch batch
"Microsoft's patch bandwagon rolled into town yesterday loaded with three critical updates and seven other new bulletins."
New flickr features?
"In the next few weeks Flickr will introduce the ability to algorithmically sort photographs using criteria such as the most commented posts, the most popular photo publishers, and the structure of a user's social network."
PHP Application Documentation using a Wiki
"Paul Jones has written an interesting piece about documentation in the PEAR project, in which he argues very convincingly for using wikis for end user documentation."
PHP bind support via stream context
"Up until a few days there was no way to tell PHP from which IP address to submit requests when making connections on a multi-ip server. PHP would automatically pick the 1st external IP and use it deliver external data. To address this limitation, I've added a context option that allows to you to bind an IP from the available local IPs and use it, rather then the default to initiate the connection."
Google bundles WinZip with toolbar and desktop search - The Office Weblog - office.weblogsinc.com _
"BetaNews reports that Google has bundled the popular WinZip utility with its toolbar for Internet Explorer and its Desktop Search utility.
DVD software maker Intervideo and Real Networks have also bundled Googles tools."
an apache trick
"Over the weekend I learned that serving gzipped files in apache is as simple as adding a single line to my .htaccess file."
back to 1989
"I told the audience at Reboot that it feels a lot like 1989. Back then, if you wanted to create content on a computer, you probably needed a spreadsheet program, a word processing program, and a presentation program. All from separate vendors. All with a separate user interface."
Thats the feel one gets from web applications. I wonder if Avalon is Microsoft answer to this problem.
Google to launch an web video clip search
"Those using the video search will be shown around 10 seconds of the video content before being pointed to the host site. With video expected to be the next big market for online advertising, it is thought by some that this will be a prelude to Google streaming content, complete with adverts:"
MacInDell Part Quatre
"I've been lax this morning because the OS X Intel torrent finally downloaded. I approached my computer with apprehension and palpable turgidity could this be the fabled x86 OS X ISO? Had I found the Grail of legend, the last disk from which Steve Jobs accessed data before he passed from this world into the darkling plain of the superego?"
vskype
"One of the more interesting aspects of vSkype is that you can do one-to-one or one-to-many video conference calls. P2P and group video for up to 4 users service is likely to remain free. This cannot be good for NetMeeting or Web-Ex, which will have tough time competing with a much lower cost offerings. "
Tolkien wrote a letter to Milton Waldman
"In 1951(ish), Tolkien wrote a letter to Milton Waldman expressing his motivations for writing The Lord of the Rings: 'I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched."
I finally moved into my new apartment. I had signed a lease for the 25th of last month (May). It was in the same apartment complex. Just before I was about to move into the apartment, the maintainence found a sweage leak under the apartment, and they ripped out the floor boards of this apartment. The apartment itself smelled horrible. They let me live in the old apartment, until they had the problem fixed. Two weeks into it, I decided I had enough, and asked them to either give me a new apartment or let me out of the lease. They gave me a new apartment, which is actually quite a nice apartment so I'm happy. Last night was spent moving stuff from one apartment to the other. I got up late today, and came in late to work, which sucks since I've never been late before. But alls well that ends well.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Will Apple use LaGrande to lock down OS X?
"According to VUNET, Gartner just released a report suggesting that Apple may use Intel's LaGrande to lock OS X to Apple hardware. Since the Apple-Intel announcement, I thought that this was a no-brainer if Apple is serious about keeping OS X off of commodity PCs. But it's not yet clear that Apple intends to do this."
I certainly hope they dont.
Yahoo seems to be on a buying frenzy. Its going to be interesting to see which of the three survive (Yahoo, Google, or MSN) in the long run. Each of them are quite big companies at the moment.
Blo.gs now Owned by Yahoo!
Yahoo! Buys Dial Pad, Not Skype
They have already bought flickrand oddpost.
And then there is this.
Google is also buying.
Blo.gs now Owned by Yahoo!
Yahoo! Buys Dial Pad, Not Skype
They have already bought flickrand oddpost.
And then there is this.
Google is also buying.
Precision Computing - Getting started - customize your prompt
Lots of good Monad stuff on this blog, such as customizing your shell prompt in Monad.
Howto get Monad
"1. You will need need a passport account. If you do not have one yet, you can sign-up for one at the beta website listed below.
2. Goto http://beta.microsoft.com
3. Log into the site using the following guest ID: mshPDC
4. Select Microsoft Command Shell
5. Select Survey in the left column
6. Register with a valid email address.
7. Wait for the information to be sent to you through email. (May take a day or two)
8. Once you receive your confirmation email, log back into http://beta.microsoft.com for the content"
aseigo: wonderful support
At the above link, you can witness open source innovation in action. For me, KDE developers are the most unique, talented and gifted programmers. The KDE environment has improved leaps and bounds with each new version, and I have no doubt they will do a great job with KDE 4.0.
Great Site Ranking in Google The Secrets Out
"How many years did you register your domain name for?
If it's only one then that's a point against you in Googles eyes.
Why?
Because the majority of Spam websites only register a domain name for one year. A domain registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site."
Java Generics, Arrays, and Comparables
"Brace yourself. At one point, I threw OReilly's (pretty good actually) Java 5.0 Tiger: A Developer's Notebook across the room and when Lauren looked askance, I apologized for missing the fireplace."
Jon Udell: Lever and fulcrum
"But if the Web has degraded our experience in some ways, it has utterly transformed it in others. Nowadays we're not just using the Web, we're colonizing it. Data isn't stuff we only consume, we also produce it. And the user experience doesn't live only on our PCs, it must roam freely and be shareable with everyone. These are the sources of the next tenfold gain in leverage."
Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey: Thanks Dave!
"My thanks to Dave Winer for his visionary role in the development of weblogs, RSS, podcasting, SOAP, XML-RPC, OPML, and outliners."
Branden Robinson's Irrational Exuberance : Debian/stupid_shell_tricks_01.html
"I recently found myself thinking (itself a noteworthy
occurrence)...I've started a what turns out to be a long-running
process at a shell prompt and I don't want to visually monitor it. It
didn't occur to me that it would take a long time when I started it,
and it would be nice to have audio notification of its completion. The
problem is, it's already running."
javascript creator, brendan eich, blogs the future of javascript
If you're interested in the future of JavaScript, head over to Brendan's blog and read his latest post "JavaScript 1, 2, and in between."
PHP Speed Optimizations - SitePoint PHP Blog
In my searching around for actual benchmark data, I found this page of PHP Benchmark Tests. Interestingly, the statistics shown on this page are live - the raw figures shown are computed by the server each time you load the page.
Not everybody is a tablet PC user, as I found out on my flight during my vacation. There was this gentlemen who had a tablet PC, and for the duration of the 3 hour flight, he kept flipping the tablet PC so that it became a tablet and then a laptop. He spent more time switching then actually doing something productive with the machine.
Maybe it was just this particular machine, which seemed bulky. Maybe tablet PC's are as good as Scoble says, just not this particular one. Anyways, this guy was really fidgety as it is, and while I tried my best to get some sleep on the flight he kept moving and squirming in the seat next to me. Man was I glad when we finally arrived at the San Hose Airport.
Maybe it was just this particular machine, which seemed bulky. Maybe tablet PC's are as good as Scoble says, just not this particular one. Anyways, this guy was really fidgety as it is, and while I tried my best to get some sleep on the flight he kept moving and squirming in the seat next to me. Man was I glad when we finally arrived at the San Hose Airport.
Friday, June 10, 2005
excluding listing of files from ls
ls *[!"c && sh && o && 0 && 1"]
The above command should list all files other than those that end with a "c, sh, o, 0, 1".
Tested on solaris 8 && OS X (bash shell).
The above command should list all files other than those that end with a "c, sh, o, 0, 1".
Tested on solaris 8 && OS X (bash shell).
I've been keen to find out what people on blogs are saying about world of warcraft. Is it just me, or are others surrounded by friends who can only talk about their lvl 60 characters? So I went to Pubsub, and created a search on World of Warcraft, and added it to my aggregator (NetNewsWire Lite).
I have seen the popularity of the leeroyjenkins movie go up these past few days. Here is an interview with the real Leeroy Jenkins. I also noticed other bloggers, who wish to play but are scared they might get addicted . They like being productive (much like me they think gaming is a waste of time). Then there is the social aspect of these games, and the fact that they are not male dominated games. Then there are workings of a virtual economy to study. As the game picks on with younger families, the effects of MMORPGS will impact family life. Maybe this is a gradual shift from noninteractive entertainment (Television) to interactive television (MMORPGS). Interesting times.
I have seen the popularity of the leeroyjenkins movie go up these past few days. Here is an interview with the real Leeroy Jenkins. I also noticed other bloggers, who wish to play but are scared they might get addicted . They like being productive (much like me they think gaming is a waste of time). Then there is the social aspect of these games, and the fact that they are not male dominated games. Then there are workings of a virtual economy to study. As the game picks on with younger families, the effects of MMORPGS will impact family life. Maybe this is a gradual shift from noninteractive entertainment (Television) to interactive television (MMORPGS). Interesting times.
Too many bad ideas to count
"It looks to me like Richard started out in assembly, and his exposure to OOP has been through the marvelous examples provided by C , Java, and C#. In those languages, you get OO as the supposed main play, but it's surrounded with stupidity like primitive data types, 'final' class definitions, etc, etc - it's no wonder he's come away with so many bad ideas"
Deranged and Dumb on any Processor || The Mac Observer
"I wonder if the Atlantic ocean has as vast a collection of spineless jellyfish as seemingly comprises significant portions of the Macintosh user base and its ass-kissing punditry. With far too few exceptions, this is a group that just days ago was smugly debunking, dismantling, and railing against the notion of Intel processors in their Macs, only now to squirm and slither out explanations that provide justifications to the contrary."
I just hope that Mac x86 does not end up ending Apple, and that it was worth the move considering we might have lost the chance of having Cell based Macs. Personally I think I am good for another two years. I just bought myself a Powerbook earlier this year. Hopefully that will last me as my primary machine for another year and a half. That should be enough time for things to settle down for the migration from PPC to x86. And I certainly hope that Apple has prepared for the lull in sales during this time.
Here is the slashdot thread discussing this article. Should make for some interesting reading.
CNN.com - Hackers use Jackson rumor to spread virus - Jun 10, 2005
"The e-mail asks recipients to click on a link that takes them to a Web site which secretly installs malicious code on their computers."
Yahoo Expose SERPS Features to Non-Logged-In Users | Threadwatch.org
"This is pure supposition, but I imagine that if this service takes off, that the information gathered in relation to blocking sites may be used to influence the search results - which if done properly should help improve the quality of results..."
WIL WHEATON dot NET: Where is my mind?: voices ring the halls
"For example, when an actor works on a TV show (commercials are a much more complicated beast, so I'll stick with TV for this example) the initial fee that actor earns usually includes one or two re-airings by the producer. If the producer chooses to run the show again, a cycle begins, where the producer pays the actor a residual, or re-use fee, that slowly diminishes over time. The logic behind this is that if producers are re-running an old show, rather than creating a new one, actors have fewer opportunities to work. Also, if a show is re-run very often, the producer will continue to profit from advertising sales, while the actor gets over-exposed as one character, which can severely hurt that actor's chances of being hired in different roles. I suppose one could make the argument that, in that case, it is profit-sharing, but I think that's largely semantic as well. The point is, producers and actors have had this residual payment agreement for my entire career, and it's not exactly a controversial issue."
I started watching TNG (Yes I was extremely bored!) yesterday. Farpoint station. Since startrek TNG used to play a lot on cable, I wonder how much of the proceeds went to wil wheaton. It must be hard to keep track of all the re-runs being done, and who to pay.
On making pkgadd smarter
"IMO, one of the things that [this table] suggests is that the Solaris (SVR4) packaging software needs to be enhanced to have automatic update capability. For instance, the funny thing about pkgadd(1M) is that although it performs dependency checking nicely, it doesn't know how to do anything helpful with what it finds out."
Bitching, Moaning, & Complaining
"Then of course you had people bitching about the moaning, and moaning about the complaining, and complaining about the bitching. And people complaining about the moaning about the bitching...you get the idea. By my rough count Gretchen's article had 36 comments saying she was a genius and 11 saying she was an idiot; Microsophist had 21 saying he was the second coming of Einstein vs. 9 saying he was a classless ho; and Mini-Microsoft's comments were 16-to-2 in favor of dude-liness (preaching to the converted, he must be)."
Using the Manual at PHP.net
"When I first wandered into PHP territory I tried to use 'the manual'. While being the most comprehensive resource available I was unable to deal with it. I could not find the help I needed nor was I able to understand much of what it was telling me. I asked a friend to provide me with a reading list and I'm still waiting for it to arrive in my email."
Burningbird ? Making Do
"As you may have noticed, I've re-designed my site. Again. Compared to the flames, the look is actually rather conservative, although I prefer to think of it as subtle."
Finally, I can scroll burningbird as easily as other websites. Those flames were just too much for the fox (firefox that is)!
Tabbed browsing in MSN Toolbar not MSN Search toolbar
"A while ago I installed the MSN Desktop search engine, which came with a Desktop bar and an IE Toolbar. Now I see this announcement and I think, Well cool, I've already got the MSN Toolbar installed so I'll just update it and get the tabbed browsing.
WRONG
The tabbed browsing is only available in the MSN Toolbar, I have the MSN SEARCH Toolbar. Which is apparently a different beast."
If we keep installing toolbars, there wont be any screen real estate to browse!!!! Lets see, MSN Toolbar for the tabs, Google Toolbar for pagerank/blogthis functionality, and MSN search toolbar for an alternative search engine. More toolbars, I want more! I dont browse, I just use toolbars!
Thank God for firefox/safari.
Work safe vs. non work safe posts
I've been noticing an increase in the non work safe posts being posted to blogs I read. Thankfully, I work in an office without others around, but my back is to the door, and I hate having to furitively look back to see if someone noticed what was on my screen! People should really post a warning with a link on their blog, instead of posting the damn picture!!!!
Here is an example of a non-work safe post.
This one is not so bad.
BoingBoing and Halleyscomment are two blogs that have had such posts. I guess I could stop complaining and just make an after work folder! I mean non-work safe posts are fun after all!! Maybe I just needed an excuse to post those links :)
Here is an example of a non-work safe post.
This one is not so bad.
BoingBoing and Halleyscomment are two blogs that have had such posts. I guess I could stop complaining and just make an after work folder! I mean non-work safe posts are fun after all!! Maybe I just needed an excuse to post those links :)
Wired News: This Blog Is 100 Percent Solar
"Over the past several years, these boutique firms have carved out a 'green' niche in the crowded web-hosting market by running data centers powered entirely by solar panels."
I've spent a significant portion of this week, installing/configuring and playing with qmail. Needless to say I've been reading a lot of Life with qmail.
beta.technorati.com
New Technorati Public Beta
Here are some of the highlights of this beta release:
We've improved the user experience, making Technorati accessible to more people and, specifically, people who are new to blogging. We've tried to make it very simple to understand what Technorati is all about, and make it easy to understand how we're different from other search engines.
We've learned from the incredible success of tags, and brought some of the those same features into search, as well as expanding tag functionality. Now, if your search matches a tag, we bring in photos and links from flickr, furl, delicious, and now buzznet as well.
We now have more powerful advanced search features. You can now click the "Options" link beside any search box for power searching options.
We've added more personalization. Sign in, and you'll see your current set of watchlists, claimed blogs, and profile info, right on the homepage, giving you quick access to the stuff you want as quickly as possible.
New Watchlist capabilities have been added. For example, you no longer need a RSS reader to watch your favorite searches. Now you can view all of your favorite searches on one page. Of course, you can still get your watchlists via RSS, and it is even easier to create new watchlists. You can also get RSS feeds for tagged posts, just check the bottom of each page of tag results!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
PBS | I, Cringely . June 9, 2005 - Going for Broke
PBS | I, Cringely . June 9, 2005 - Going for Broke:
I love conspiracy theories. Though I am surprised though at why Apple did not wait for the Cell processor. If they have waited this long, why not a little while longer.
"That's the story as I see it unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates. And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company."
I love conspiracy theories. Though I am surprised though at why Apple did not wait for the Cell processor. If they have waited this long, why not a little while longer.
whatever ? Bedtime
whatever ? Bedtime: "What I'm considering is eating dinner around 7:30, having an hour of playtime with Mommy and Daddy, then a nightly bath and story, and then bed around 9.
I think lately things have gone kind of crazy because Julian and I have both been playing World of Warcraft and the tendency is to get involved in the game and maybe not adhere so closely to the schedule that we had set."
The changing face of family life due to broadband/computers/games. No more sitting in front of the couch. Now u interact. I was surprised to find that when my roommate is dueling it out in world of warcraft, he has audio. And you can tell that a significant portion of his gang is women.
I think lately things have gone kind of crazy because Julian and I have both been playing World of Warcraft and the tendency is to get involved in the game and maybe not adhere so closely to the schedule that we had set."
The changing face of family life due to broadband/computers/games. No more sitting in front of the couch. Now u interact. I was surprised to find that when my roommate is dueling it out in world of warcraft, he has audio. And you can tell that a significant portion of his gang is women.
Teeny, tiny PCs? | Threadwatch.org
a breakthrough that might one day lead to high-powered computers the size of a postage stamp.
Asa Dotzler on msn toolbar now with tabbed browsing
"I just downloaded and have been playing for about 15 minutes with the MSN Toolbar. My initial reaction: it sucks."
I dont have a XP system where I can try the toolbar out. Oh well, this is Microsofts first try at tabbed browsing. Keeping Microsofts track record in mind, they have two more tries to get it right! :)
Google's Polite and Human Take Down Notice (by Jeremy Zawodny)
"Many tech companies could learn from this example. The notice is polite, explains the situation, and was sent by a non-lawyer."
Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2
Software Firewalls: Made of Straw? Part 1 of 2:
"The concept of a firewall still brings to mind the picture of an impenetrable brick wall, the unsurpassable magic protector of all that is good. The bold statements made by today's security vendors only emphasize this, with claims of complete and automatic security, with a wall able to block all perils dead in their tracks using logic that perhaps didn't exist two years ago. But what if in reality the wall of the firewall is made of straw?"
Bink.nu | MSN Toolbar now provides Tabbed browsing for IE
Bink.nu | MSN Toolbar now provides Tabbed browsing for IE
More and more reasons to turn of Google Toolbar, and install this. The Tabbed browsing is a biggie.
More and more reasons to turn of Google Toolbar, and install this. The Tabbed browsing is a biggie.
Bookslut | Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Asra Q. Nomani
Bookslut | Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam by Asra Q. Nomani:
"It seems unfair to judge Standing Alone in Mecca as a memoir when it's clearly unfinished. It tells us the history and the recent dispatches of battles within Islam, but the story's barely begun."
Metroblogging Karachi: Street Art
Metroblogging Karachi: Street Art:
Cool paintings.
"These paintings were done by school children a few years back as part of a festival celebrating Karachi, called Karavan Karachi."
Cool paintings.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
EOF - If You Don't Believe in DRM, It Can't Hurt You | Linux Journal
EOF - If You Don't Believe in DRM, It Can't Hurt You | Linux Journal:
"In this crazy business of ours, every once in a while, companies go into a frenzy to sell technology that doesn't work to customers who don't want it. In the 1990s, did customers want overpriced UNIX from bickering vendors or stable-any-day-we-promise Windows NT? Sorry, neither one works for us. Support Linux, please. Or on-line services. AOL or Compuserve? We'll take the Internet, thanks."
Schneier on Security: Public Disclosure of Personal Data Loss
Schneier on Security: Public Disclosure of Personal Data Loss:
I was wondering why all this stuff was in the news, and why the journalists were making big news out of it!
"It might seem that there has been an epidemic of personal-data losses recently, but that's an illusion. What we're seeing are the effects of a California law that requires companies to disclose losses of thefts of personal data. It's always been happening, only now companies have to go public with it."
I was wondering why all this stuff was in the news, and why the journalists were making big news out of it!
Jon's Radio
Jon's Radio:
"To a thumping electronic beat, the WEP-cracking screencast shows you how to use: kismet to locate a victim; aireplay to generate the requisite hundreds of thousands of WEP initialization vectors; aerodump to save the traffic to a file; and aircrack to analyze the file and recover the WEP key."
aseigo: wonderful support
aseigo: wonderful support
Artist mockups and such if you follow the "kde-artists.org forum" link. Some very cool and interesting ideas.
Artist mockups and such if you follow the "kde-artists.org forum" link. Some very cool and interesting ideas.
Accelerate Your Macintosh! News Page - 6/8/05
Accelerate Your Macintosh! News Page - 6/8/05:
"The machines do not have Open Firmware. They use a Phoenix BIOS. That;s right, a Mac with a BIOS.
(I asked if the Bios had any tweaks like Memory Timing which is common for many PC motherboards, although Intel OEM motherboards don't usually have any end user tweaks like that.-Mike) They won't tell us how to get in the BIOS. I'm sure we can figure it out when out dev kits arrive."
Slashdot | I am the Most Spammed Person in the World
Slashdot | I am the Most Spammed Person in the World
The thread from the first post is pretty funny.
The thread from the first post is pretty funny.
FPS on the PSP
FPS on the PSP:
"The coolest thing is the four person death match, via WiFi (as shown in the 2nd video). A few weeks ago, Diego, Mike, Martin and I spent a long time in a dark room playing Halo. That was fun, but it was sort of an effort to get us all in the right place with the right equipment to play. It'd be sooo much cooler to be able to start up a match completely ad-hoc: 'Hey, we're having a barbecue this weekend, don't forget your PSP!' :-)"
Ali's Weblog: Standish Group
Ali's Weblog: Standish Group:
"I see these numbers stated a lot, but what I find interesting is that these numbers are from 1994. Why do people use statistics about project failure from 11 years ago today? Mainly because the Standish Group charges $5k to get a recent report."
30 Years Celebration
30 Years Celebration:
30 years is a long time. I got my first computer in 1995, so a decade for me.
"Recently, Richard Friedman started writing about his 40 years of
experiences with computers [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
This reminded me that this month is my 30 year anniversary of being a
computer professional, so I thought I'd reminisce about my formative
years. With 30 years under my belt, I can also now officially go by the
moniker of old curmudgeon."
30 years is a long time. I got my first computer in 1995, so a decade for me.
Secrets of Product Development and What Journalists Write (by Jeremy Zawodny)
Secrets of Product Development and What Journalists Write (by Jeremy Zawodny):
"Journalists like to paint this as a rapidly moving chess game in
which we're all waiting for the next move so that we can quickly
respond. But the truth is that most product development goes on in
parallel. Usually there are people at several companies who all have
the same idea, or at least very similar ones. The real race
is to see who can build it faster and better than the others."
Symantec files suit in adware case:
"Symantec seeks a court ruling that will support its right to detect and label certain Hotbar program files as adware, and consequently enable its customers to remove those files from their computers."
Insects and Entropy
Insects and Entropy:
The very thing happened to me. I was really overloaded that semester, taking OOP (Object Oriented Programming), OS (operating systems) and SE (Software Engineering) with two other courses. Needless to say, I had very little time. In the OOP class, we had to write a robot that would compete in a game called RoboWars. My roommate was an extremely hard worker, and put in a great number of hours in those projects. He always managed to finish a week early than the due date, and then would sit optimizing the code. When it came time to compete in the game, he spent a week optimizing the robot and all. I barely had time to finish the project or optimize it.
When it came time to load the robots, well, my roommates would not load. My robot finished 3rd. Heh. Thankfully for my roommate the game itself was meant for extra credit so he did'nt lose out, and I got the extra credit :)
"This story was told to me by Jon Miller (UNIX sysadmin) in the
first person. It has stuck with me as an excellent illustration of the power
of simplicity and the devil that is the human tendency toward
complexity."
The very thing happened to me. I was really overloaded that semester, taking OOP (Object Oriented Programming), OS (operating systems) and SE (Software Engineering) with two other courses. Needless to say, I had very little time. In the OOP class, we had to write a robot that would compete in a game called RoboWars. My roommate was an extremely hard worker, and put in a great number of hours in those projects. He always managed to finish a week early than the due date, and then would sit optimizing the code. When it came time to compete in the game, he spent a week optimizing the robot and all. I barely had time to finish the project or optimize it.
When it came time to load the robots, well, my roommates would not load. My robot finished 3rd. Heh. Thankfully for my roommate the game itself was meant for extra credit so he did'nt lose out, and I got the extra credit :)
The Old New Thing : Can you trust the Man on the Street interview?
The Old New Thing : Can you trust the Man on the Street interview?:
"That story from On the Media
reminded me of a related incident back when the hype surrounding
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was building.
The New York Times sent a reporter to cover
the people who had been waiting in line for months.
The first person interviewed is Sangay Kumar,
who claims to have flown in from Bombay just to see the movie.
A friend of mine read the article and started laughing.
Because my friend knows Mr. Kumar,
who it turns out is not actually from Bombay.
He's from Baltimore.
He was just waiting in line with everybody else and saw
a reporter coming and decided to put on a campy Indian accent
and make up a nutty story.
And the reporter bought it."
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Blizzard Entertainment Launches Battlegrounds for World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment Launches Battlegrounds for World of Warcraft;:
"Blizzard Entertainment(R) today announced the release of the first two player-vs.-player (PvP) Battlegrounds for World of Warcraft(R), its record-setting subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Featuring distinctly different map designs and game objectives, these highly anticipated PvP battlefields provide an entirely new dimension of competitive gameplay for both expert and new World of Warcraft players. "
Buggin' My Life Away : Flipping Out
Buggin' My Life Away : Flipping Out:
"I've seen quite a few people comment in blogs that the endian issue I mentioned yesterday won't turn out to be much of an issue. Well, you can't say I didn't warn you about drinking the Kool-Aid, but it you still have some lingering doubts that there isn't a significant number of developers out there who are going to have issues, go wade your way through this stuff."
XCode 2.1
Apple Developer Connection
XCode 2.1 can be downloaded from the above link. This version of XCode has support for compiling for Mac OS X PPC and x86. Have fun!
XCode 2.1 can be downloaded from the above link. This version of XCode has support for compiling for Mac OS X PPC and x86. Have fun!
business2blog: iEmotions
business2blog: iEmotions: "
Video game industry knows that its always competing with Hollywood, and is always looking for ways to make their games more engrossing, at least visually. What they have not been able to do is capture the emotional drama of a Hollywood block buster. However, those days might be coming to an end, thanks to a very convenient marriage of gaming with artificial intelligence, creating a new kind of almost real virtual reality."
Linux on board: Breathe new life into an old machine
Linux on board: Breathe new life into an old machine:
"Enter, stage left, an old Gateway box (I mean no disrespect for Gateway). In October of 1997, I spent nearly $3,000 on what was at the time a top-of-the-line laptop. Boasting a Pentium� 133, 32 MB of high-speed SDRAM, and an 800x600 TFT LCD display, the machine had 1.15 MB of video memory -- just enough to allow 16-bit color at the 800x600 resolution of its on-screen display"
Om Malik�s Broadband Blog � The damage DDoS does
Om Malik�s Broadband Blog � The damage DDoS does
Somebody has to pay for all those packets. If somehow we could get the originator of the packets to pay instead of those on the receiving end.
Somebody has to pay for all those packets. If somehow we could get the originator of the packets to pay instead of those on the receiving end.
Google Sitemap vs. Ping Servers (by Jeremy Zawodny)
Google Sitemap vs. Ping Servers (by Jeremy Zawodny):
"Google Sitemaps (BETA, of course) has me scratching my head a bit. Rather than build on existing work, it seems that Google wants people to build up and submit sitemaps to them so they can increase the freshness and coverage (or comprehensiveness) of their web search index."
Wordform � About Wordform
Wordform � About Wordform
I kept reading Shelly Powers posts on Wordform in my aggregator and the work she has been doing on it, but had no idea what it was. Well, now I know, and so do you! :)
I kept reading Shelly Powers posts on Wordform in my aggregator and the work she has been doing on it, but had no idea what it was. Well, now I know, and so do you! :)
A great defense of LAMP
A great defense of LAMP
While I spend my time doing system administration, writing shell scripts, and system updates I am also learning and gaining experience in LAMP. At the same time, my .Net and Java skills are starting to rust. My friends on the other hand, are gaining experience in writing web services in Java and .Net. I certainly hope the experience I gain with LAMP is worth the effort. At the same time, its time to start some fun projects to keep the Java and .Net skills sharp.
Those three words, "fun", "Java", and ".Net" in one sentence. Weird! :)
While I spend my time doing system administration, writing shell scripts, and system updates I am also learning and gaining experience in LAMP. At the same time, my .Net and Java skills are starting to rust. My friends on the other hand, are gaining experience in writing web services in Java and .Net. I certainly hope the experience I gain with LAMP is worth the effort. At the same time, its time to start some fun projects to keep the Java and .Net skills sharp.
Those three words, "fun", "Java", and ".Net" in one sentence. Weird! :)
Debugging SOA By Jon Udell
Debugging SOA By Jon Udell:
"�The super-programmers of the next few years,� Bowden said, �are going to be those who keep track of all the reusable applications and know how to glue them all together.� We agreed that in this service-oriented environment, debugging and error-handling are going to be major challenges. The same issue came up at InfoWorld�s SOA Executive Forum, in my panel on application development, and it played out in contrasting ways."
Scripting News: 6/7/2005
Scripting News: 6/7/2005:
I'm not so sure. What about if Mac OS X does run all kinds of x86 hardware. It gives an alternative to the people who want to turn away from Windows but dont want to pay Apples hardware prices. Also, it gives the adware/spyware/virus writers access to an operating system that previously ran on PPC hardware only. For the next couple of years this change is no big deal. But who knows what will happen. Maybe OS X is a more secure OS than windows and the spyware/viruses will not effect it. I guess we will have to wait and see.
"When the Intel CPUs ship the Mac will perform better, but they were going to ship machines that perform better no matter what. For the vast majority, yesterday's event was Apple theater, nothing more."
I'm not so sure. What about if Mac OS X does run all kinds of x86 hardware. It gives an alternative to the people who want to turn away from Windows but dont want to pay Apples hardware prices. Also, it gives the adware/spyware/virus writers access to an operating system that previously ran on PPC hardware only. For the next couple of years this change is no big deal. But who knows what will happen. Maybe OS X is a more secure OS than windows and the spyware/viruses will not effect it. I guess we will have to wait and see.
See your site on a Mac | Threadwatch.org
See your site on a Mac | Threadwatch.org
For those web developers that dont have access to a mac machine, here is a site that will show you screenshots of what your site looks like in three mac browsers.
For those web developers that dont have access to a mac machine, here is a site that will show you screenshots of what your site looks like in three mac browsers.
Push Button Paradise
Push Button Paradise:
"In any case, Apple has addressed the negative perceptions, going out of their way to open things up. WebKit, WebCore, and JavaScriptCore are all open, with world-readable CVS (including full history). It's live, and can be built today."
43 Folders: Call for Windows hackers (yes, Windows)
43 Folders: Call for Windows hackers (yes, Windows):
"That means I�m on the search for a few good VBScript, C#, and just general Wintel modders.If you�re interested, post a note about it here in comments or email me with a pointer to something cool you�ve done, and let�s talk."
Monday, June 06, 2005
mod_perl, Solaris 8, relocation error
mod_perl, Solaris 8, relocation error:
I'm having a real hard time getting mod_perl to install. I installed the package for Sun Solaris 8 of perl from sunfreeware.com. And well, I keep getting a "relocation error" when apache tries to load mod_perl. I am recompiling perl as we speak, lets hope it solves the problem.
Update:
Recompiling did not help. I still kept getting the error. So I uninstalled binutils, leaving the only version of ld as the one in /usr/ccs/bin. Then, I recompiled all of apache from scratch. PHP balked on my during this recompile, having problems with mysql. So I uninstalled the mysql package from sunfreeware, recompiled MySQL, and then recompiled PHP. mod_perl was not compiled until now. I restarted apache and everything worked.
Then I recompiled mod_perl. During compilation ld complained that it did not recognize the -E option. Crap. I looked about googling and such but nothing worked. Nothing for it, so I reinstalled binutils from sunfreeware. Expecting to have the same problem with the relocation error which was supposed to be their because GNU ld. But the error never showed. And I now have mod_perl 1.29, latest mod_ssl and latest php (4.3.11) installed with Apache 1.3.33. Two wonderful days wasted recompiling a whole bunch of packages! Ugh!
"This problem is only known to be caused by installing gnu ld under
Solaris.
Other known causes of this problem:
OS distributions that ship with a
(broken) binary Perl installation.
The `perl' program and `libperl.a' library are somehow built
with different binary compatiblity flags.
The solution to these problems is to rebuild Perl and extension
modules from a fresh source tree. Tip for running Perl's Configure
script, use the `'-des'' flags to accepts defaults and
`'-D'' flag to override certain attributes:
% ./Configure -des -Dcc=gcc ... && make test && make install"
I'm having a real hard time getting mod_perl to install. I installed the package for Sun Solaris 8 of perl from sunfreeware.com. And well, I keep getting a "relocation error" when apache tries to load mod_perl. I am recompiling perl as we speak, lets hope it solves the problem.
Update:
Recompiling did not help. I still kept getting the error. So I uninstalled binutils, leaving the only version of ld as the one in /usr/ccs/bin. Then, I recompiled all of apache from scratch. PHP balked on my during this recompile, having problems with mysql. So I uninstalled the mysql package from sunfreeware, recompiled MySQL, and then recompiled PHP. mod_perl was not compiled until now. I restarted apache and everything worked.
Then I recompiled mod_perl. During compilation ld complained that it did not recognize the -E option. Crap. I looked about googling and such but nothing worked. Nothing for it, so I reinstalled binutils from sunfreeware. Expecting to have the same problem with the relocation error which was supposed to be their because GNU ld. But the error never showed. And I now have mod_perl 1.29, latest mod_ssl and latest php (4.3.11) installed with Apache 1.3.33. Two wonderful days wasted recompiling a whole bunch of packages! Ugh!
Ross Burton
Ross Burton:
"What an evening! Not only did Apple
actually switch to Intel processors for their laptop and desktop
ranges, but Debian Sarge has actually been released!"
I reinstalled OS X Tiger over the weekend. I read about the upgrade version of OS X Tiger does not do some stuff that a fresh install does (like use lookupd). So I said what the heck, and did a complete fresh install. I lost my book marks but it definitely seems faster during bootup. Overall there are some slight changes, which are all good.
The problem I had been having with ssh taking too long to make an initial connection with a server is still their though, and it might not be an OS X problem.
A year till an Apple x86 machine. I guess I have a lot of saving to do.
The problem I had been having with ssh taking too long to make an initial connection with a server is still their though, and it might not be an OS X problem.
A year till an Apple x86 machine. I guess I have a lot of saving to do.
Wired News: Hollywood Orders: Apple Wed Intel
Wired News: Hollywood Orders: Apple Wed Intel:
"Transitive's QuickTransit allows any software to run on any hardware with no performance hit, or so the company claims.
The techology automatically kicks in when necessary, and supports high-end 3D graphics. It was developed by Alasdair Rawsthorne."
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Steve Jobs, like Howard Hughes, Mystifies
Steve Jobs, like Howard Hughes, Mystifies:
"First, this deal is going to be all about the laptops, especially those which can handle OS-X nicely, are light weight and consume less power. Because if that was not so, then Apple could as easily have signed a deal with AMD, which makes better x86 chips for the desktop. IBM has failed to deliver the low power consuming yet muscular versions of its G5 chips fine tuned for Powerbooks. Secondly, I think Apple will exploit Intel's chips for often rumored Tablet PC, that could have features in common with Nokia 770 tablet. I would not be surprised that Monday morning, the announcement circles around XScale, or low powered Centrino chips"
Daring Fireball: Intel-mania
Daring Fireball: Intel-mania
The way I see it their is a solution to the problem of software. There is software that is just as easily ported to the mac x86. Its open source software. That should give us some apps on the x86. Further, it seems that Adobe, had weened itself of the mac towards x86. This might bring Adobe back to OS X.
The way I see it their is a solution to the problem of software. There is software that is just as easily ported to the mac x86. Its open source software. That should give us some apps on the x86. Further, it seems that Adobe, had weened itself of the mac towards x86. This might bring Adobe back to OS X.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - The Next Version of Start.com is Out
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - The Next Version of Start.com is Out
:
"The next version of MSN's experimental RSS reader is available at http://www.start.com/3. You have to?solve the questions before getting access to the next version of the site but?once that's done you get access to the juicy goodness."
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger:
Oh man... I cant help but get excited about this. OS X on x86. Wow! This is awesome news! Is it true! Is it?!? Can't wait till Monday.
"Already I see skepticism from my readers behind Apple's move to Intel.
Make no mistake. This is a real story and I've gotten confirmation from people who know. I can't say more, though, cause I don't want Apple to sue me to find out my sources."
Oh man... I cant help but get excited about this. OS X on x86. Wow! This is awesome news! Is it true! Is it?!? Can't wait till Monday.
ante lucem: Games that matter
ante lucem: Games that matter:
Economics of a virtual world. Gotta love what technology has done for us! (or not!)
"Many of my friends in #teamslack have been playing World of Warcraft. From everything I hear about WoW, it sounds lacking. Today, we were arguing about the fact that most good items are bind on pickup, meaning that when you are killed, your items say with you. The reason they do this in WoW is to remove the motivation for Player vs. Player killing (PvP) and to help regulate the economy. This way, people can't just buy in-game gold on Ebay and use it to buy products they couldn't otherwise get in the game."
Economics of a virtual world. Gotta love what technology has done for us! (or not!)
ridiculous_fish ? Blog Archive ? Mystery
ridiculous_fish ? Blog Archive ? Mystery:
"None of it's pleasant, but what's the worst part? The mySQL results. I know it's painful - you don't have to look again. All right. So why was the G5, at best, 2/3 the speed of any of the other machines?"
Friday, June 03, 2005
Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com
Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips | CNET News.com:
Ummm... WOW!
If this is true I'll be in Triboot heaven, a step up (or is it down) to booting OS X, Linux and Windows on the same machine!
In other news, on Monday, the sky turns green, pigs fly, up is down, down is up and Hell has frozen over!
"Apple has used IBM's PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel's chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said."
Ummm... WOW!
If this is true I'll be in Triboot heaven, a step up (or is it down) to booting OS X, Linux and Windows on the same machine!
In other news, on Monday, the sky turns green, pigs fly, up is down, down is up and Hell has frozen over!
I was trying to compile php5 on OS X Tiger, and I kept running into a problem. I have libjpeg and libpng installed via fink. I gave the configure script the arguments --with-jpeg-dir=/sw/lib and --with-png-dir=/sw/lib but the script kept complaining that it could not find libjpeg or libpng. The right arguments to give were --with-jpeg-dir=/sw and --with-png-dir=/sw.
When safari is started fresh its memory usage is 11.68MB. After two days of constant browsing, the browser is 125MB in size. This is real memory we are talking about not virtual memory. All browsers are memory hogs, and you cant have them running constantly without them increasing their memory usage. I have seen this with firefox, and Internet Explorer as well.
Linux dispute boils over to MySQL, other projects - Computerworld
Linux dispute boils over to MySQL, other projects - Computerworld:
"A looming deadline following a dispute between two prominent open-source developers has forced database vendor MySQL AB to consider changing how it develops its software, and it will also force scores of other open-source projects to consider a similar move within the month."
Hackers plot to create massive botnet | The Register
Hackers plot to create massive botnet | The Register :
"Confusingly, the Glieders and Fantibag Trojans are both known as Bagle downloader variants by other anti-virus vendors. Altogether it%u2019s been an exceptionally busy week for new computer viruses. As well as the attack described by CA numerous new versions of the MyTob worm have also been produced. These variants typically pose as warnings from sys admins about the misuse of a potential victim's email account with Subject lines such as '*DETECTED* Online User Violation, Your Email Account is Suspended For Security Reasons and Account Alert.'"
Schneier on Security: Attack on the Bluetooth Pairing Process
Schneier on Security: Attack on the Bluetooth Pairing Process:
"There's a new cryptographic result against Bluetooth. Yaniv Shaked and Avishai Wool of Tel Aviv University in Israel have figured out how to recover the PIN by eavesdropping on the pairing process."
ldd on solaris 8
A mighty useful tool.
ldd - list dynamic dependencies of executable files or shared objects.
ldd - list dynamic dependencies of executable files or shared objects.
bash-2.03# ldd libphp4.so
libpq.so.3 => /usr/local/pgsql/lib/libpq.so.3
libmysqlclient.so.10 => (file not found)
libpng.so.3 => /usr/local/lib/libpng.so.3
libz.so => /usr/local/lib/libz.so
libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/local/lib/libjpeg.so.62
libssl.so.0.9.7 => /usr/local/openssl/lib/libssl.so.0.9.7
libcrypto.so.0.9.7 => /usr/local/openssl/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.7
libresolv.so.2 => /usr/lib/libresolv.so.2
libm.so.1 => /usr/lib/libm.so.1
libdl.so.1 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.1
libnsl.so.1 => /usr/lib/libnsl.so.1
libsocket.so.1 => /usr/lib/libsocket.so.1
libc.so.1 => /usr/lib/libc.so.1
libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/local/lib/libgcc_s.so.1
libmp.so.2 => /usr/lib/libmp.so.2
/usr/platform/SUNW,UltraAX-i2/lib/libc_psr.so.1
Membranophonists Ramblings - Smart Folders and Spotlight
Membranophonists Ramblings - Smart Folders and Spotlight:
"Creating and Editing Smart Folders"
as simple as possible, but no simpler: Drip: IE Leak Detector
as simple as possible, but no simpler: Drip: IE Leak Detector:
"Drip -- an Internet Explorer leak detector."
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger:
I think Todd at ActiveWin has it wrong. I think the press is letting itself get manipulated by what Scoble says. Thankfully I only disagree with about 50% of what Scoble says, and he is honest so its not that bad.
"Todd over on ActiveWin thinks I'm possibly manipulating the press. Hmmm. I've never demanded a link. I put my content out there and let everyone know about it. It's your choice whether to link to it or not."
I think Todd at ActiveWin has it wrong. I think the press is letting itself get manipulated by what Scoble says. Thankfully I only disagree with about 50% of what Scoble says, and he is honest so its not that bad.
Vic Gundotra - Simple, Safer and Sexier
Vic Gundotra - Simple, Safer and Sexier:
Yes all well and good. The problem why others are not excited is because they have already seen all of this "innovation". It already exists on the Mac OS X, and Linux/KDE. So sorry but one has to say... ***YAWN****
"The Longhorn team will get credit for simplifying many daily activities. Managing music, photos, documents, feeds, and other sources of data will become much easier in Longhorn. The shell team in particular has made significant strides in allowing users to navigate their digital data. The simplification also applies to programming model improvements. Rockford Lhotka's blog entry on the simplification provided by Indigo is just one example of the cleanliness of the .NET programming model we are trying to achieve."
Yes all well and good. The problem why others are not excited is because they have already seen all of this "innovation". It already exists on the Mac OS X, and Linux/KDE. So sorry but one has to say... ***YAWN****
Read/Write Web: RSS Ripoff Merchants: SuperFeedSystem Responds
Read/Write Web: RSS Ripoff Merchants: SuperFeedSystem Responds:
"To summarise the issue so far... a few nights ago I came across a website called SuperFeedSystem that was written in an overtly Informercial-like manner. The gist of it is they are pitching a product that automagically turns RSS feeds into content for websites. Sounds fine, right? Well yes, except they're talking about other peoples RSS feeds!"
Slashdot | Korean MSN Site Hacked
Slashdot | Korean MSN Site Hacked:
"'CNN is reporting that MSN's Korean website was hacked in order to allow usernames and passwords to be stolen. Microsoft is initially blaming unpatched, outsourced servers. Just another embarrassment to Microsoft's security push.'"
A Standards Based Solution to Google Hijacking | Threadwatch.org
A Standards Based Solution to Google Hijacking | Threadwatch.org:
"If you followed the recent hilarity over Google itself being Google Hijacked then you'll be aware that despite what Google have said about their persistent 302 bug, it's not just spammers that are affected. With that in mind, Mike Majorowicz has proposed a standards based solution to the problem. The solution uses the Content-Location header..."
Why Sun Doesnt Need VMs
Why Sun Doesnt Need VMs:
"And the lesson for us is this: Its the APIs stupid. And our Java
APIs are not dependant on a VM. VM technology is still useful, even
advantageous to us today in a world of mixed platforms but its just a
technical solution to a particular problem-- portability. If the problem
goes away we can still be highly sucesssful if we have established
our APIs as the preferred way of programming the content."
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Adam Bosworth's Weblog: Ajax reconsidered
Adam Bosworth's Weblog: Ajax reconsidered:
I think this is a big one from a system administrators perspective. Consider the amount of traffic generated by Ajax apps that are set to pole the server every second or so. These apps will just eat up bandwidth like crazy. We already dealt with this problem occuring with RSS, will the same thing work for Ajax apps?
To implement the event driven model, you would need standards. Then you can blame the browsers for not being standards compliant when an Ajax app that is event driven brakes. Without standards, we are probably going to have each browser having its own event driven model. Ajax (XMLHttpRequest rather) should be standardized and extended.
"Secondly, the browser isn't a good listener to external events. If you want to build an application, for example, to show you instantly when someone bids or a price changes, it is hard. You can poll, but poll too frequently and the application starts to feel sluggish and it isn't easy to do this. What you really want is an event driven model where in addition to the events like typing the page can describe events like an XMPP message or a VOIP request or a data-changed post for an ATOM feed."
I think this is a big one from a system administrators perspective. Consider the amount of traffic generated by Ajax apps that are set to pole the server every second or so. These apps will just eat up bandwidth like crazy. We already dealt with this problem occuring with RSS, will the same thing work for Ajax apps?
To implement the event driven model, you would need standards. Then you can blame the browsers for not being standards compliant when an Ajax app that is event driven brakes. Without standards, we are probably going to have each browser having its own event driven model. Ajax (XMLHttpRequest rather) should be standardized and extended.
Right In Front of You - The Daily WTF
Right In Front of You - The Daily WTF:
"The introduction of AND, OR, and NOT operators to programming languages has really made code a lot easier to read and write. By now, it should be no surprise that certain programmers prefer not to deal with the plethora of Boolean operators and their inherent complexity, instead utilizing elaborate, nested IF blocks. But what makes today's example (from David Koontz) so neat is that the proper solution is commented right above the actual solution ..."
MC Raid1 01
Here is the pic of the 40 odd people I blogged about here.
This is the guild called "Theatre of Pain", and my friend is Hautaurn a lvl 60 warrior.
This is the guild called "Theatre of Pain", and my friend is Hautaurn a lvl 60 warrior.
Anyone ever notice how much memory dashboard apps on OS X use? I barely even use the dashboard as it is. I was shocked to see majority of the apps I had running were taking 30 or so megs of real memory. Now I'm all for cool lookings apps, but these are freakin memory hogs! After killing all the apps that I never used, the activity monitor showed 126 MB free! Wow! Now I have two apps that I use a lot. The calender app, and weather app. Come to think of it, I dont need the calender app either, since I use iCal.
Skype CEO for Nobel Prize?
Skype CEO for Nobel Prize?:
Freakin' bubble! Why do we let these bubbles form?
"Now that's a noble thought (pun unintended!) Just a tad naive. Or so I think! After all phone has been around for a while, and thanks to high tariffs the communication has been difficult. Never mind that Skype is cheap way to communicate if you can afford to spend a few hundred dollars (or life time of earnings) on a computer type device, and then spend atleast a $20 on broadband. I know Jeff meant well, but still, to think of these gentlemen in the same vein as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, well I guess it was a trade show. As someone wagged, these comments are a good measure of how close this bubble is to bursting and you can see that in the swollen egos in the industry. Fifteen minutes, shall we say?"
Freakin' bubble! Why do we let these bubbles form?
What Comes After a 10:1 GOOG Stock Split?
What Comes After a 10:1 GOOG Stock Split?:
"In any case, I'm now using Yahoo as my primary web search engine (still using Google for news). Results seem slightly better. A query on, say, 'gaming mouse' doesn't put something written six years ago in the first spot, as is the case on Google. And there's less spam. As I'm using Firefox to initiate queries the barrier to exit is zero and retraining is minimal, as Yahoo mimicked many of Google's tricks. With Firefox I've given up on the Google toolbar and never looked back."
Google: "It's not about Search anymore"... | Threadwatch.org
Google: "It's not about Search anymore"... | Threadwatch.org:
"Google: 'It's not about Search anymore'..."
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Jon Udell: Web-friendly rich Internet apps, continued
Jon Udell: Web-friendly rich Internet apps, continued:
But the main problem with flash apps remains. They are slow, and the wait for the flash app to update is irritating. Each time you load the page, the flash app takes a few extra seconds to update. It distracts from the article you are reading. For rich internet apps which are not primarily used for reading, but for other work this might be ok, but for a blog or an article this is quite irritating.
"Last fall I asked a question that I'll probably keep on asking in various contexts: Can rich Internet apps be web-friendly?. In response, Macromedia chief software architect Kevin Lynch created an example showing how the state of a Flash app could be exposed on the browser's URL-line, and thus made available for bookmarking, deep linking, and scripted integration. There was also some follow-up discussion on integrating this technique with the browser's navigation history."
But the main problem with flash apps remains. They are slow, and the wait for the flash app to update is irritating. Each time you load the page, the flash app takes a few extra seconds to update. It distracts from the article you are reading. For rich internet apps which are not primarily used for reading, but for other work this might be ok, but for a blog or an article this is quite irritating.
Reviews of MMO Games are Fundamentally Flawed - Joystiq - www.joystiq.com
Reviews of MMO Games are Fundamentally Flawed - Joystiq - www.joystiq.com:
"A quick primer on end-game content. In WoW (and most other large MMOs) players band together into groups so that they can access content that no single player could do on his own. Some of the content in WoW requires raids�40 top-level players all working together in a coordinated, organized fashion."
Sun/Java certification and testing - Sun Solaris Part II
Sun/Java certification and testing - Sun Solaris Part II:
" How do you list registered RPC programs? pg. 2-19
***--- rpcinfo -p"
John Battelle's Searchblog: Forms and Feeds
John Battelle's Searchblog: Forms and Feeds:
I dont like the idea. I want RSS to just be a stream of news that I can scan. I dont want no stinking forms, which might lead to other things like Flash/Animated images. I just want the news. If I like what you write, I'll visit your site, and watch all the flashy stuff and fill out the form and what not. This is a bad idea!
"Russell is playing with adding forms to his feeds, based on thoughts from Scot. I like this idea. I've often wondered when RSS will be hacked to the point it sort of mutates into another variant of the browser - when it does, then publishers might see it as just another window into their world, and stop worrying about RSS and learn to love it. "
I dont like the idea. I want RSS to just be a stream of news that I can scan. I dont want no stinking forms, which might lead to other things like Flash/Animated images. I just want the news. If I like what you write, I'll visit your site, and watch all the flashy stuff and fill out the form and what not. This is a bad idea!
Donating to the EFF
Donating to the EFF:
"In the end, I can only justify it because no one else cares. Yes, it's self-interest on the part of the digerati... but that doesn't make the Bill of Rights in the age of mechanical reproduction any less important. I can barely make intelligent, well-educated, First Amendment-loving non-techies even understand the issues, much less shell out buckage to fight the forces of Big Media and the police. And other interested parties, like librarians and small music publishers, don't have massive financial resources to contribute. So I guess I'll continue to squeamishly write my end of year checks, and follow the stories, and hope that the EFF's finger in the dike buys us some time... but it's sad that we have to pay money to wage a small rearguard action on behalf of the Constitution."
IT giants accused of exploiting open source | CNET News.com
IT giants accused of exploiting open source | CNET News.com:
"Jesus Villasante, the head of software technologies at the EC's Information Society and Media Directorate General, said that big companies such as IBM, HP and Sun are just using the open-source community as subcontractors rather than encouraging the community to develop independent commercial products."
Asus P505 Sighted : Gizmodo
Asus P505 Sighted : Gizmodo:
"This tri-band GSM smartphone is compact and quite shiny. However, there was an odd menu item on the main screen�a Skype client."
Plogress | Gadgetopia
Plogress | Gadgetopia:
"Found somewhere in my feed list today: Plogress.com. Plogress takes data from THOMAS and turns it into a bunch of blogs, one for each member of Congress. Now you can subscribe to the RSS feed to find out what your elected officials are doing on your behalf. When it comes re-election time, you'll have much more to go on than what circus animal your congressman likes."
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