Slashdot Mirror

Rather than one of those complex schemes, why not just enter a free giveaway? We give away a free iPod Shuffle once per month to our newsletter subscribers. All you have to do is subscribe to our very low volume newseletter announcing our specials:

http://www.assortedinternet.com/specials/

Take care,

Brian

I don't have mod points, but damn it, that is funny. Therefore:

+1 Funny

Take care,

Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting

Comment's been on Slashdot all of two minutes and BANG!

You have been redirected to this page during a temporary period of planned downtime. We apologise for any inconvenience this work may have caused you. silicon.com should be available shortly and we encourage you to visit us again soon.

-The silicon.com Team

You've got to give them props for a nice, deceptive/informative error page though!

Brian
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Linux Web Hosting

I've actively used TWiki (http://www.twiki.org/) for a while now and its pretty slick. Its a Perl Implementation and it has a built in versioning system, so it saves all of the revisions of the TWiki docs.

I definitely recommend it for anyone looking at running a Wiki. :-)

Take care,

Brian
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Linux Web Hosting

Looking at the raw images, I don't see even the slightest trace of the items they point out. Seems to me someone just penciled in the tracks and other stuff on the marked up image.

Take care,

Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting

Same here. I own a 2003 Civic Hybrid. I get on average 43-44 MPG driving in the congested streets and Interstates in and around Washington DC. On long highway only trips, I've hit over 50 MPG.

When I read stories of Hybrid owners getting only 30ish MPG - either their car must be messed up, or they are driving like maniacs with all of the economy features turned off. The Civic Hybrid only has a 1.3L engine. You really have to _try hard_ to make it use a lot of gas.

Take care,

Brian
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Linux Web Hosting -> Linux Web Hosting

... tear the damn thing up into little pieces next time. Throw half of it away in one garbage can, the other half in a different one. That's what we do with all of those damn pre-approved credit card apps we get daily.

There you go, Problem solved, your welcome.

Take care,

Brian

--

http://www.assortedinternet.com

Pros:

• The milage is fantastic. We average about 45 mpg with mostly city driving. We have taken 475 mile trips without stopping for gas, and the tank is just about 11 gallons. With gas prices going up constantly, thats a nice thing.
• Power is adequate. The change from the Civic EX to the Hybrid is virtually unnoticable. Acceleration is similar, although different since the Civic EX has a 4 speed auto, and the Civic Hybrid is a CVT automatic. CVT == Continuously Variable Transmission - it never shifts, or rather it always shifts, depending on how you look at it.
• Handling is nice. Its not the same as my 95 Corvette, but neither is a regular Civic. It corners well, drives a straight line and handles bumps pretty well.
• Interior is well designed and roomy.
• Its quiet. Even at high revs, the engine is very quiet. No need to blast the radio to hear it, or yell at your passengers so they can hear you.
• $2000 tax break
• Most states/cities let you drive hybrids in the car pool lane with 1 person in it.

Cons:

• Its small. Well, all Civics are. We have just 1 kid, and already I'm wishing for a Hybrid Accord.
• No fold down seat in the back. The battery bank is right behind the rear bench, so you cannot drop down the seat.
• Small trunk. Same reason as the item above. Batteries take up room.
• Color selection sucks. Only 3 colors. White, Beige and Blue. Lame.
• No sunroof option - not that I miss it much, but its not available.

Hope that's helpful to those considering the Hybrid. We definitely like ours, and should someday Honda do a Hybrid Accord, we'd be first in line for one.

Take care,

Brian
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http://www.assortedinternet.com - CPanel Web Hosting running on Red Hat Linux

Now, the issue of whether AOL runs a competent blacklist is another thing entirely. I do think that sometimes they act a bit irresponsible in deciding who to block.

Obviously you don't run a hosting company. We are getting blacklisted by AOL on and off all the time now. Great. Just what we need right.

We call their Postmaster folks, they run their checks in the AOL database. Of course, they can't tell us what checks they are running. The most we've heard is checking for a valud Reverse DNS entry, and for listings in SpamCop.

So far 9 times out of 10, the rep comes back on the phone and says "Sorry I don't know why you're being blocked. The system DOESN'T HAVE A REASON LISTED."

So we say WTF?!

They say: "Wait a couple of days and it should work again."

That to me is not reasonable. Am I missing something? I don't think so. Their policy has wasted my time and my people's time - which means it has cost us money. Plus we have lost several client's business because of their policy.

Not to mention they have wasted the time of hundreds of my client's - and no doubt cost them money too.

I can totally see a spam blocking policy being a smart thing for them to do. But when a legitamate ISP/Host calls them, they should at least be able to tell you why you've been blocked!

There are a lot of small ISP/web hosts out there like us that rely on our services to put food on the table. Its hard enough to do a good job without garbage like this wasting our time and costing us money.

Thanks - Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/

Anybody got a mirror??

Thanks - Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting/Dedicated Servers

The Legend of Zelda

In fact, even more than 15 years later, I still think that The Legend of Zelda is the best video game I've ever played. Bar none.

Nintendo, if you're listening, I would pay another $50 to see this game ported 100% exactly to my GBA or even PC - assuming I could get an authentic 2 button controller to go with it. :-)

(Yes, I've played it on Mame, and the sound and gameplay isn't quite the same.)

Thanks - Brian
--
CPanel Web Hosting
CPanel / WHM Bulk Reseller Hosting
CPanel / WHM Dedicated Servers

Speaking as a Web Host - I wouldn't mind this one bit. We run suEXEC on our servers, so any commands that they execute under this CGI-Shell would run under their own permissions anyhow.

They can do no worse running this script than they can already do on the command line. Since we use fairly tight permissions on the server, there isn't a lot they can do to disrupt things anyways.

A PHP Shell script has been around for a while - THAT version can cause some security issues since typically PHP runs as nobody. Then the trick is making sure nobody doesn't have any special permissions that could cause a server issue.

Basically, if your diligent, this script shouldn't cause any more problems than any other CGI script.

Take care,

Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/

Speaking as a Web Host - I wouldn't mind this one bit. We run suEXEC on our servers, so any commands that they execute under this CGI-Shell would run under their own permissions anyhow.

They can do no worse running this script than they can already do on the command line. Since we use fairly tight permissions on the server, there isn't a lot they can do to disrupt things anyways.

A PHP Shell script has been around for a while - THAT version can cause some security issues since typically PHP runs as nobody. Then the trick is making sure nobody doesn't have any special permissions that could cause a server issue.

Basically, if your diligent, this script shouldn't cause any more problems than any other CGI script.

Take care,

Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/

$200 for an entry level server with 30GB/mo. Great web-admin if you want it, and their customer management portal is awesome as well.

They kick ass.

How about $249/month for a more powerful server with 300 GB/month?

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/economy-de dicated.jsp

Or perhaps $349/month for the same server with CPanel and Web Hosting Manager installed.

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/silver-ded icated.jsp

Oh, and all servers are actively monitored, so if anything should go wrong, they will be fixed automatically. Most providers, including Rackspace don't actively monitor servers. They just fix them when you call and tell them its crashed. :-)

Take care,

Brian

$200 for an entry level server with 30GB/mo. Great web-admin if you want it, and their customer management portal is awesome as well.

They kick ass.

How about $249/month for a more powerful server with 300 GB/month?

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/economy-de dicated.jsp

Or perhaps $349/month for the same server with CPanel and Web Hosting Manager installed.

http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/silver-ded icated.jsp

Oh, and all servers are actively monitored, so if anything should go wrong, they will be fixed automatically. Most providers, including Rackspace don't actively monitor servers. They just fix them when you call and tell them its crashed. :-)

Take care,

Brian

Look, you may not realize this is a total ripoff, but I installed a network, so I do. These people are buying T1s for hundreds of dollars a month, then selling us a lousy 3Mbps for $80/mo. That's a rediculous amount of profit! We need to contact our government representatives, and do something to prevent this sort of gouging now, before it's too late.

Hmmm...

T1 = 1.54 Mbps = approx $500/month
DSL = 3 Mbps = approx $100/month

What the hell are you complaining about again??? DSL is a bargain - really. I know that everyone thinks they should get an ethernet drop to their house for $19.95 per month, but get real.

Brian
--
100% Linux Web Hosting Solutions:
http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/
--

• Anti-virus: $50
• Backup: $40
• 100MB of online storage: $60
• 15MB of email storage, forwarding and
• POP/IMAP access: $40+
• Home page creation and hosting: $60

Sure you _could_ spend that much for each item individually if you really wanted to. But hell, you can get that and a lot more for just a few bucks a month with a good web hosting company.

You could definitely get more in the way of disk space for the same cost, and you'll be able to use your own domain name as well as things like PHP, CGI-BIN, etc that I'm sure your .Mac account won't have.

Apple should know better than this. Taking something that was free, adding no (real) value and then charging for it is NEVER a good idea.

Brian

Maybe now my shares of RHAT will actually gain some value! :-) Red Hat has been making a lot of critical partnerships like this recently.

Say what you will able Red Hat vs. other Linux distributions - it is the partnerships and support of other Enterprise-sized vendors that is going to make or break Linux. Being that Red Hat is smart enough to make these partnerships, my money is on them to be "the" premier Linux vendor for the corporate market.

Take care,

Brian
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100% Linux Web Hosting Solutions
--

If it was hosted on one of our beefy web servers, it wouldn't have died so easily.

I think Linux Journal needs to get some (more?) VC so they can upgrade their puny web servers. Or maybe we should all be buying the magazine if we read it online as someone here suggested. :-)

Take care,

Brian

Writing good comments can be accomplished by applying one very simple rule:

-> Write the comments before you write the code.

If your writing a sorting function, take the 5 minutes required and write the comments for what your going to do before you do it. You'll be amazed what a difference such a simple step can make. Plus, you'll see the holes in your logic form quickly if there are any.

Also when making changes to existing code, the same simple rule applies. Write out all of your code changes in the comments first. Then implement the changes. The same benefits apply in this case as in when writing new code. But there is an additional, very important benefit in this case: comments in code are kept up to date. How many times have you seen source code that has _incorrect_ comments? Plenty I'm sure - and in most cases that happens because someone fixes a problem or change logic without updating the comments. Very bad. So, by commenting first when working with existing code, you solve this problem as well.

Take care,

Brian
--
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/

... will spammers go to spam us with their Ads? I mean that is all that this spyware really is - is another form of spam. Visit and Support sites like: http://www.scumware.com

They have a wealth of information on how to fight back against the Ad-ware, Spy-ware, Scum-ware or whatever we are calling it today!

Take care,

Brian
--
--
100% Linux based Web Hosting
Friendly Service and Knowledgeable support

... Now all we need is a REALLY, REALLY long extension cord, and we're good to go.

Brian
Unlimited Bandwidth? No.
Cheapest Prices on the Net? No.
Fantastic Customer Service? YES! Read what our clients are saying:
Quality Linux Based Web Hosting Solutions

Lame. Real Lame. At least in previous years, the Joke story was somewhat unpredictable... Come on guys, you used to be much more clever!

Brian
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Killer Linux Web Hosting Solutions, by geeks, for geeks...
--

... but then again, I'm smart enough not to use it either! :-)

Brian
--
100% Linux Web Hosting for Geeks, by Geeks
--

Brian
--
Linux Web Hosting, By Geeks, For Geeks
--

You cannot compress a truly random data set. Every compression algorithm relies on somelevel of data redundency in order to acheive the compression. Here is an excellent site about a $5000 data compression challenge that has yet to be won:

http://www.geocities.com/patchnpuki/other/compre ss ion.htm

Take care,

Brian
--
100% Linux Web Hosting Services - We Don't Do Windows!
--

Its been VERY good. I now have an excellent, stable and fast browser on my desktop. Internet Explorer.

Netscape's failure had much more to do with their product being lousy than it did with Microsoft giving theirs away.

Take care,

Brian
--
Last 2 Days to get a Free Palm m100...
--

The article is pretty high level, but interesting none the less. I'm skeptical that is really as secure as they say it is. It would seem that any building which relies on outside connections would be vulnerable if those connections were cut. Not to mention that the air towers that were mentioned could be closed off, etc.

It seems to me that the best defence would be geographically distributed datacenters synced up on a regular basis. Of course you would have to deal with data syncing, and perhaps a master-slave relationship amongst the datacenters, but these are relatively simple problems to solve, compared to preparing for a nuclear or other attack...

Take care,

Brian
--
Only a few Free Palm m100's left...
--

In a somewhat related topic, I wonder if December 26th is eBay's highest listing day? I mean, you would think that there are millions of people who undoubtedly got stuff for X-mas that they didn't want right? Well, what better place to dispose of it than through eBay.

Even if it isn't their highest listing day I bet it is one of the highest...

Take care,

Brian
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We only have a few FREE Palm m100's left...
--

At least that's what I've been told and found. We have Dish Network and I'd love to get a PVR like Tivo, but no one supports them. Them being Dish Network.

Oh well. We'll have to stick with good old-fashioned VCR's. :-)

Take care,

Brian
--
Just a few free Palm m100's left...
--

After all the risks that were taken to put this thing in space - it would be a shame for it to go to waste. (Risk = putting 75 LBS of plutonium within a few miles of crashing down onto the earth.)

NASA is having a rough time with it lately. There have been a lot of pretty expensive and embarasing failures. If NASA were a private enterprise I'd suspect a management shakeup. Since it is a government body - I'm not sure what can be done. Clearly something should be done...

Take care,

Brian
--
We are almost out of Free Palm m100's...
--

There are a few of ways to do it:

1) Shut off the incoming heating vents to the room in the Winter. Then reopen them in the summer when you don't heat your house, or when you have the AC on.

2) Make sure any outgoing vents are open so that air from the room is circulated out.

3) Fans in the window (in case the room really gets hot.)

4) Thermostat controlled fans or AC unit in the window.

Take care,

Brian
--
We are almost out of Free Palm Pilots...
--

That should do it. Nothing like killing your coworkers in a video game to spur team building, and fun.

The addition of beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks can only enhance this effect. Just have barf buckets handy - Quake induced motion sickness and alcohol can be messy!

Take care,

Brian
--
Limited Time Only - Free Palm m100's!
--

DSL wasn't such a bad way to go after all. Verizon isn't going away anytime soon, the service is fast, reliable and always on.

Maybe this will be how the battle of DSL vs Cable will be decided - in bankruptcy court.

Take care,

Brian
--
Come and get a free Palm m100 --

I don't see any competition on the market at all. Fortunately, it isn't really a bad thing since the GBA and GC systems are pretty cheap, as are the games.

Take care,

Brian
--
Do you want a free Palm m100?
--

Actually I think the supply issue CmdrTaco is refering to is just better planning on Nintendo's part. The Gamecube uses less powerful, more widely producable parts, and therefore I think they can keep up with demand better.

Having said that - good luck finding one in Northern VA where I am. You can't.

Take care,

Brian
--
Do you want a free Palm m100?
--

It is just amazing to be that this area is supposed to be one of the most high-tech in the country, yet you cannot use a cell phone half the places you go.

Take care,

Brian
--
Want a Free Palm m100?

So if you hire private security guards to protect your house, do you expect them to forcibly keep out the FBI when they have a warrant?

No, of course not. But I think the point is that the FBI doesn't need a warrant to bug your computer with a keystroke logging virus. They should. Anything else should be considered breaking and entering - even if it is the government that does it...

Take care,

Brian
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Do you want a Palm m100? Get one Free now...

Nice post. I often wondered what people have enough time or energy to try to max out on Karma t Slashdot. Don't you kiddies have video games or something to play with?? Sheesh...

Take care,

Brian

We are giving away free Palm m100's...

Roadrunner is pretty decent. I've used them twice in two different cities. If that is indeed what ends up happening, then it won't be the worst thing in the world.

Take care,

Brian

We are giving away free Palm m100's...

Transmeta never had a competitive advantage in the marketplace. They could never claim that their CPU's were better enough in any respect to make them a suitable replacement for a comperable Intel CPU.

Their key angles of low heat/longer battery life were true, but the extent with which they were true wasn't enough to get anybody's attention.

For example: If Transmeta's CPU would have made my laptop last 8 hours on a charge vs 4, then THAT is worth making a switch, even if it means lost CPU power. I don't think they ever produced that kind of difference.

In order to compete with Intel, Transmeta had to have a REAL competitive advantage. They never had one good enough to make them a viable option. So, I'd have to agree that they may not belong for this world...

Take care,

Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/
--

I thought it was interesting how the author discussed the mid-release swap out of VM code in the 2.4 series kernel. He mentioned that Linus had felt that the AA version of the code was better than the existing version and wholesale swapped it out.

Does anyone know why Linus did this? Are there some empirical results somewhere that dictate a reason to do this? Certainly, it would seem that there would be, but the author didn't point it out.

Also the author pointed out that 2.2.x kernel's break at very high load levels. Is there documentation somewhere discussing what that might be?

Take care,

Brian
--
100% Linux Web Hosting
--

The first question that comes to mind is:

When has a new Windows release EVER performed faster than a previous one??

Where is the news here??

Take care,

Brian

Brian
--
http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/

With Linux, customers "end up being in the operating systems business," managing software updates and security patches while making sure the multitude of software packages don't conflict with each other," Miller said. "That's the job of a software vendor like Microsoft."

So, if you use Microsoft, what business are you in? The pay through your nose business or the pray that my system will not crash horribly today business...

This quote makes it seem like you can use a Windows OS out of the box with no work at all. OK raise your hand the last time that happened. I've never had a new machine fresh out of the box running some variation of Windows that didn't need a patch right away. Windowsupdate or not, Windows machines are just as much if not more work than Linux machines as far as keeping up with the OS releases...

Take care,

Brian
100% Linux Web Hosting

I think Slashdot's backout plan is to move the servers back into CmdrTaco's basement, and to run the site off of his DSL line. :-)

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see what does happen to this place if/when VA goes under. I would miss this site. I've been coming here for a long time now.

Time will tell...

Brian
100% Linux Web Hosting...

I thought I'd give it a try. Especially when I saw how small the download file was (less than 4MB).

I guess what I was hoping for was the lightweight, fast, and standards based Netscape that NS 6.x was supposed to be. Well, what I found out was that it is nothing of the kind. In fact, it doesn't even really work.

It failed trying to import my IE favorites. (I have more than 512 - that is a no, no in K-meleon.) Then it refused to load any pages. Oh, and it cannot figure out how to work with a proxy config file either.

Stay away. Even NS 6.2 cannot be this bad...

Take care,

Brian
--
100% Linux Based Web Hosting

I can understand the IT department's headaches from users who screw up their machines, but developers are typically smarter than the average Outlook user (hopefully??) and can manage their own computers just fine. Computers as company property and subject to coroporate/IT policies is one thing... coding with my wrist chained to the chair is another.

I wholehartedly agree with your post. I also particularly like this last section.

The fact of the matter is that most developers are more experienced and more knowledgable about the setup and usage of their machines than the IT staff is. I've always found it to be ironic that some 19 year old moron with no formal computing education and no previous work experience could be empowered and trusted to have Admin rights on an NT/2000 system, when the developer who works on it cannot.

I've been in that kind of environment, and as many folks here have pointed out it KILLS productivity. You instantly create a huge bottleneck in your work by always waiting for the IT guy to come and run a command for you, or install an application. It sucks. It sucks. (It's worth saying three times.) It SUCKS!

Take care,

Brian
Web Hosting Solutions running on 100% Linux Servers...

Wow. This sounds amazingly familiar to a consulting company I used to work for. They did the same thing. Hire like mad, pimp themselves to VC's and all of a sudden the contracts all dried up. Out of the 70 or so employees, only 6-8 were billing. Of those, 3 were working for a client who wasn't paying its bills. Fortunately, I was one of the other 5 - but still. You could just tell we were going nowhere REAL fast.

Needless to say, I made haste and got out of there.

Lucky for me, this was more than a year ago, so there were still plenty of jobs to be had. If I were in the same situation now, I'd be worried. There are not nearly as many opportunities, and tons of H1-B Visa holders who will take work for 1/3 of what I would rather than go back to their home country.

Take care,

Brian

Clic Here Now for 100% Linux Web Hosting...

I don't see how a car can become obsolete. Especially after just 1 year. Cars, like computers are quick depreciators, but they can last a long, long time with proper care.

As other posters pointed out the Computer industry is becoming a slow growth industry. There just isn't the level of innovation and performance gains today that we were seeing 3-5 years ago to justify a new computer every year.

The Auto industry is the same way. My 1993 Dodge Ram is just as good as a 2001 Dodge Ram. I have AC, Automatic, etc. Sure, the newer Ram looks prettier, but it is just eye candy. The FUNCTION of the truck is what matters, and it works and drives just as well as the new one.

Unless you like throwing away your money, you should seriously consider purchasing a car and running it until it has a catestrophic failure. That may mean owning the same car for 8, 10, 15 or even 20 years. (!) If it still gets you to work, Tae-Bo lessons, and the grocery store, what reason do you have to upgrade?

Take care,

Brian

100% Linux Web Hosting

I don't think so. Lawmakers who support the draconian DRM measures will be voted out of office, and they will be replaced with more citizen friendly policies.

Laws that are passed which overstep the rights of citizens will be repealed by courts.

Users will choose not to purchase and use DRM protected media. (Remember DIVX?)

Savvy users will break the DRM Schemes and post the cracks to the net effectively destroying the technology.

DRM won't work. It has no benefits to end users, no one wants it and everyone will resist it. Its a bad idea, plain and simple.

Take care,

Brian
--
100% Linux Based Web Hosting: http://www.assortedinternet.com/hosting/