Just wait until criminals and/or bored kids know where these things are embedded... the metal box they're going to need to protect it from damage is probably going to block any chance of a wireless signal from coming out;-)
While this sounds like a cool idea, I see too much room for abuse... Besides, they're using it to track all this traffic activity... do you want to use the government's internet connection so they can track that part of your life, too?
Mac OS X is slick and all, but I cannot afford the hardware to do what I need to do on a mac. I really don't mind windows, since I'm security conscious, don't use Outlook Express for email, and don't install so much junk I make it crash all the time (Win2K is actually a decent product despite my general distaste for MS)...
I just built a new and powerful machine for under $500 (I didn't have to buy a 3d video card, I already have a relatively decent one - Ti 4200 - that I'll move over to this machine)... This machine will quite likely compare to or beat out any mac but the better G5's in Photoshop performance, etc etc...
I'm a windows user (but not zealot.. if *nix did what I wanted easily on a day to day basis, I'd prefer it)... I was just poking tongue-in-cheek fun at the immediate onslaught of "IT STEEL SUX0RZ";-)
If macintosh computers and OSX got as popular as Windows, there'd be more incentive for worm-writers to write one.
Your machine was not infected with that worm because it was written for the OS that dominates the vast majority of machines connected to the internet and would therefore do more damage...
I like both Macs and PCs.. but the above fact is only true because of the fact that OSX popularity has not compared to that of Windows...
I forget the name of it, but a new n-gage like competitor is coming out that supposedly may cost as little as $100... It also won't require you to remove the battery just to change games...
MAME is cool and all, but man... even geeks don't seem to like the N-gage (they hate it more than most).. I wonder why someone bothered with this...
You know, it's not like just because it's "write once read many", it's useless.
Imagine a new CD or DVD format where the media doesn't have to be spun. Portable music / video players could be nearly solid-state and thus more durable and compact and require far less maintenance.
I'd happily move to a new format of music where I could carry something like a pack of gum filled with "sticks" of music and pop one into a tiny player even smaller than that of the iPod....
Furthermore, this sort of thing is great for archiving data, which is the main purpose anyone talked about in the article. More data archived in less space = good, period... it takes up less bookshelves or whatever...
My only concern is that with the "fuse" design, how susceptible is it to be ruined by an errant static shock, etc?
Whether or not it's a good thing to turn off messenger is irrelevant. You're ignoring the issue either due to your strong pro-AOL stance, or more likely your strong anti-microsoft stance. I share the latter with you, but with a dash of sanity thrown in.
What about if AOL decides that you shouldn't be using file and printer sharing, or countless other features?
Giving someone the right to modify your system "if it's in good intention" will create a domino effect. I don't think people are overreacting when they're upset by this, because good intention or not, it's breaking the law - the same laws other people (smaller fish to fry, too) are in jail for. There's really no debating that.
I didn't read the article yet, but my guess is that they're doing this for the purpose of reducing stupid tech support calls - not just to "help their customers".
If they're worried about their postings proving false, then haven't they not researched them enough to be posting them just yet?
I like the idea of distribution of information using P2P and all, but the tone of this post implies that people knowingly want to post articles that they know may be proven wrong... Isn't that what Weekly World News is for? I don't seem them getting served with subpoenas:-)
One thing I found that helped me during college, and I wish I did it more, was to go do work somewhere else...
At home, I had the distractions of TV, my own computer (with games or other timewasting stuff on it, hell I'd sort my mp3 playlist to waste time), my guitar, etc, and I found it very hard to get work done... the hardest part was starting to do it...
So, what I'd do when I finally got smart about things was go to a library, a computer lab, or even a coffeehouse to get work done. The coffeehouse was probably the least effective only because I was plenty content to people-watch there, it's a hobby of mine, but all of these places were usually better than home. I went to those places with a purpose, and it's almost like having walked to that place was the act of "starting" my work, since I fully intended to do so once I got there... it helped blur the line between wasting time and actually starting my work, I guess...
I still find myself going back to that difficult state today, and since now all work I do for my job is on computers, I'm stuck at home (no more college computer labs, no laptop to go to a coffeeshop with)... So, now it's a matter of will more than anything else.. I just have to force myself and remember that once I'm a couple minutes into having started the work - it really is usually downhill from there... it's just starting that's SO damn hard...
hope that helps some... obviously all of this is still going to require a change in you, and not some magical solution to the problem... they say alcoholics are always alcoholic and must battle it for the rest of their lives... well, be prepared to battle procrastination/sloth for the rest of your life too.. it's tough...
For all of you complaining that they require a valid email address - If you're that concerned, you can just wait until July 7th when you can register by phone, rather than using the 'net...
Of course.. you'll have to speak to an actual human being.. but hey, you can't win 'em all;-)
I think this would be much harder to implement here in the US.. too much space, geographically, and an economy that's already in the dumps... it would be cool to see, but maybe wireless would be a more viable option (if it ever becomes legitimately secure, which it sort of inherently isn't, I guess)...
I don't see Postgres getting much media coverage until the syntax stops sucking.
I'm sure that a lot of uber programmer types are going to say "if you can't figure it out, you're a jackass", etc etc... but the bottom line is too much easy stuff is a pain in the ass to do, syntactically, with Postgres... Even auto incrementing IDs in Postgres are annoyingly difficult compared to MySQL...
I am well aware of the cool stuff that postgres does, but a lot of that cool stuff is only needed by people with specialized purposes.. your average blog site or even e-commerce site doesn't really need nested queries and all that stuff, so why go through all the syntactical annoyances when doing a simpler site?
When pg gets easier to use, i'll make the transition...
As long as you're willing to secure your FTP server and do the simple stuff like watch out for file permissions - FTP is much better.
HTTP is restricted by browsers, many of which will not support files larger than a certain size. Furthermore, FTP allows for features such as resume, etc...
The real question, however, is what are you trying to use this for? What's your intended application?
If it's a file repository for moderately computer literate people - FTP is definitely the way to go.
If it's a place for average-joes to store pictures, maybe HTTP is your best option. Sacrificing a bit of speed and capabilities such as resume might be made up for with ease of use..
In theory, you'd also need an array of hard drives, because the thrashing of four or more things being recorded at once would be painful...
This would mean you'd have a maximum of 4 hard drives, unless you buy an IDE card that lets you support more, wouldn't it? (Each IDE chain can have only two devices, right? or is that outdated info now?)
I run a site, OpeningBands.com, that seeks to promote local music like this.. The problem with streaming is that it's expensive, and somebody's got to pay for it...
So what do you do? Do you invoke "pay for play" where you have the bands in question give you a donation so you can afford the streaming?
I don't think banner ads are really making anyone enough revenue for this sort of thing, and banners don't show up on Winamp or Realplayer or other streaming stuff anyhow, so they'd only do any good on the website itself.
At least in my area, the people around here (primarily college students) don't seem too willing to shell out any sort of a subscription fee..
So, how do you pay for it then?
Right now we're providing exposure by reviewing their CDs and talking about them on our forums, as well as just providing a centralized place for everyone in the music scene around here to communicate. We also provide way more detailed concert listings than a huge site like Pollstar can do for this area - since there's lots of bars, bookstores, and other places that don't get listed...
We're hoping to eventually have [yourcity].openingbands.com websites, so if you like what you see, and you're interested, let me know.
In the meantime, we're looking for ways to raise money for streaming, but we're having trouble coming up with them...
I doubt this will happen to normal citizens... the profiling is basically using the geography of the crime locations...
Unless they've got people watching you, or GPS devices on everyone - they're not going to have anyone to write down pinpoints of where/when you bought cookies, or where/when you went to the bar to have a drink.
The times, and the geographic points that they use are those of crimes that took place that are presumably connected to the same individual.
The effort it would take to record every time you do some mundane task would be far too great for them to bother "geoprofiling" normal citizens.
There was a great special on this software on TLC not that long ago. Basically, they were able to calculate the odds of the suspect living and/or acting in a certain area based on where the crimes were, etc.
They ended up catching the killer, and he was a cop!
From discussions I'm seeing about these shootings, it may very well be a cop or someone in the armed forces. The ballistics of the gun/ammo being used just don't fit right since people are saying they don't hear the shots, or don't hear very loud shots, so people are theorizing that there's special subsonic rounds being used to minimize noise - not easy to find with these types of bullets, from what I gather.. But I dont' know a lot about guns, so.. yeah...
Anyhow if I remember the name of the TLC special I'll post it here, it was on recently enough that it will probably be on again soon.
Well, I'm running a site called OpeningBands.com that seeks to assist bands in doing exactly that... We're also kind of in the process of looking for that solution ourselves... we've noticed a few things...
First of all, radio stations and big corporate beasts of that sort don't want to be bothered with anything that's not guaranteed to make them money. From what I'm learning - there's not a lot of money in radio as is, so they're always kind of "scraping by" except for the few super huge stations like KROQ etc. I don't know for sure that this is true - it's just the impression I get from people I talk to in the industry.
One key is to go to trade shows and events where A&R people will be there... the grunt folks like myself who just want to find talented bands and see if we can help them.. only.. I'm not an A&R guy so I'm not in a position to help them.. the real ones are... If you get any chance at all to impress an A&R guy, they'll do what they can to help your band out. Also, A&R guys are usually friends with other ones at other labels.. so if their bosses say no to you - sometimes a nice A&R dude will pass your stuff on to another label.
One thing independent bands don't do enough is TOUR. The problem with touring is that it's costly and you gotta risk going all over the country, playing to 50 people at a time, and coming home piss poor. But the bands who start generating a decent buzz locally HAVE to tour or they'll never get out of their hometowns. From what I gather, and this isn't my own personal statement: if you're worried about sleeping in a van - then you're probably not driven enough to make it. You're going to have to sleep in a van sometimes, and you're going to have to do the long yucky grinds..
To make it less painful, people such as myself are in the process of setting up gig swaps. I'm in Champaign Illinois - a town smack dab in the middle of Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. The music scene here is decent enough that if a band has draw here - swapping gigs with a band in one of these other cities is worth it. The idea is - a Champaign band who has draw in Champaign headlines a show here and lets a band from Chicago open up. Then they play in Chicago and the Chicago band headlines, and the Champaign band opens up. Each band gets to play to a decent sized crowd in front of new people.
Please feel free to get in touch with me to kick around ideas... you'll find my contact info on the openingbands website..... I'd love to talk with ya about ideas to help indie bands!
Yes, it still happens a lot... there's widespread knowledge of so-called "google bombing".. Google pops up some of its search results based on the content between an A HREF tag, as you can read about here: Google Time Bomb...
Much like security, I think this is the kind of thing that hackers and tinkerers will always find a way to exploit. The question is who can stay ahead in the race?
I'm in the process of creating a documentation system similar to the docs at MySQL... basically it'll be database-stored, and allow user comments, but it'll have security features so that you could set it to only allow members of your company to add comments, if you so chose.
The only catch? It's written in a language called RACE, which you haven't heard of yet. Why RACE? Because it's better and easier than anything else I've used. We (mostly my boss) developed the language in-house at the web design firm I work for, and I have trouble going back to coding in Perl and other languages because RACE is just so freaking easy and neat...
The good part - RACE is freeware, runs as an apache module, and is easy to install on any *nix platform. However, you may want to wait until I'm done with redocumenting it and put up the latest source code.
What the hell is RACE? It's a tag based language that can do just about anything PHP, Perl, Coldfusion, and ASP can. www.racekit.net for more (outdated, more on that in a sec) info...
We're up to version 2.9.2 now (I believe the site download will give you 2.5.4 or something), but since we never really "advertised" the site, we haven't updated it in a long time. We've just gotten an identity for RACE created by a design firm, and are in the process of redesigning the site to accomodate my documentation etc... Until now the site has mostly existed just for us to go grab the [old] PDF documentation:-p
All of this should be ready in the next couple of months, I'm hoping.
If you want the latest source, with instructions on how to use it, let me know. And if you want to see a site that uses it, check out http://www.openingbands.com -- it's entirely RACE driven/managed.
Okay, this sounds more like a RACE ad than help to you -- so let me get to the point... I have a feeling RACE is what you're looking for because whether or not you end up liking what document management software I finish up (which I'll release for free) - you could write your own really easily, and really quickly.
Bottom line - if you want a document management system that fits your needs, you're probably going to want to write it yourself, or you'll be jumping around shortcomings of each different piece of software. I suggest you try writing it in RACE because I feel it'll be fast and easy to do (if you want the latest source code just email me). Of course any other language you're comfy with is fine too:-)
I don't see that Comcast is really doing much, other than possibly filtering stuff on port 80.. Maybe for NIMDA/Code Red? Who knows.. but from reading a bit of their license agreement, it doesn't seem like they could be doing much that's all that bad...
And in fact, Comcast users should be THANKFUL for the fact that they're not prohibited from running things like FTP, HTTP, or other servers, like those of @home were.
Before you go quoting the license agreement - read it again. The only part that prohibits such servers is for the resale of their service - which is a more than fair restriction!
I have to say, of all the AUP's and EULA's I've read, this one is the most benign, and fair to its customers (while having to protect its collective ass as much as possible, of course) I've ever read. I don't see why people are up in arms...
When are these ass monkeys going to do one of the tiniest, simplest things that kept me from using Mozilla in the first place?
Highlight the link/element where the tab focus is (i.e. if I hit tab a bunch of times to navigate links on a page, show me where I'm at)...
The tabbing works, but there's no visual feedback like there was in Netscape 4.X and below (and is in IE)...
It's stubborn programmers who won't spend the 2 minutes it takes to implement something such as interface feedback that make me not want to use stuff like Mozilla...
Compared with:
Windows 98 45.79%
Windows ME 16.43%
Windows 2000 13.51%
Windows NT 7.21%
Windows 95 7.12%
Macintosh (PowerPC) 4.60%
Unknown Platform 3.08% (maybe some linux in there?)
WebTV 0.47%
Windows 16-bit 0.27%
Macintosh (68K) 0.05%
Windows 32-bit 0.05%
Windows 3.1 0.04%
OS/2 0.01%
Amiga 0.00%
---
Doesn't look like there's a monstrous departure from the stats in this article.. It claims that linux holds less than 1 percent... Even if you add the stats of all the other unix-flavors, that's not all that far off...
I don't see why it's a big surprise, really. When not all your friends are computer geeks - it's really easy to think "if I ask 100 random people if they use linux, it's likely only 1, or even 0, will say yes"... After all, who goes to the effort to install it unless they're pretty enthusiastic about computers? It's just too much trouble for a society that wants things working out of the box, and doing everything they want it to...
Until the time comes that Dell and Gateway are selling Linux-installed machines with good packages of software on them (which requires good software that competes with its windows equivalent well), I wouldn't expect this percentage to jump significantly either. For those into it - linux can kick ass, I don't disagree. But it's pretty obvious that it's not going to go anywhere with consumers until it's insanely easy to use, and has great software support.
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Just wait until criminals and/or bored kids know where these things are embedded... the metal box they're going to need to protect it from damage is probably going to block any chance of a wireless signal from coming out ;-)
While this sounds like a cool idea, I see too much room for abuse... Besides, they're using it to track all this traffic activity... do you want to use the government's internet connection so they can track that part of your life, too?
Mac OS X is slick and all, but I cannot afford the hardware to do what I need to do on a mac. I really don't mind windows, since I'm security conscious, don't use Outlook Express for email, and don't install so much junk I make it crash all the time (Win2K is actually a decent product despite my general distaste for MS)...
I just built a new and powerful machine for under $500 (I didn't have to buy a 3d video card, I already have a relatively decent one - Ti 4200 - that I'll move over to this machine)... This machine will quite likely compare to or beat out any mac but the better G5's in Photoshop performance, etc etc...
That was the point.. it's called sarcasm.
;-)
I'm a windows user (but not zealot.. if *nix did what I wanted easily on a day to day basis, I'd prefer it)... I was just poking tongue-in-cheek fun at the immediate onslaught of "IT STEEL SUX0RZ"
I'd tolerate all the exploits if this thing would make me toast and coffee in the morning.. meh.
If macintosh computers and OSX got as popular as Windows, there'd be more incentive for worm-writers to write one.
Your machine was not infected with that worm because it was written for the OS that dominates the vast majority of machines connected to the internet and would therefore do more damage...
I like both Macs and PCs.. but the above fact is only true because of the fact that OSX popularity has not compared to that of Windows...
I forget the name of it, but a new n-gage like competitor is coming out that supposedly may cost as little as $100... It also won't require you to remove the battery just to change games...
MAME is cool and all, but man... even geeks don't seem to like the N-gage (they hate it more than most).. I wonder why someone bothered with this...
You know, it's not like just because it's "write once read many", it's useless.
Imagine a new CD or DVD format where the media doesn't have to be spun. Portable music / video players could be nearly solid-state and thus more durable and compact and require far less maintenance.
I'd happily move to a new format of music where I could carry something like a pack of gum filled with "sticks" of music and pop one into a tiny player even smaller than that of the iPod....
Furthermore, this sort of thing is great for archiving data, which is the main purpose anyone talked about in the article. More data archived in less space = good, period... it takes up less bookshelves or whatever...
My only concern is that with the "fuse" design, how susceptible is it to be ruined by an errant static shock, etc?
Whether or not it's a good thing to turn off messenger is irrelevant. You're ignoring the issue either due to your strong pro-AOL stance, or more likely your strong anti-microsoft stance. I share the latter with you, but with a dash of sanity thrown in.
What about if AOL decides that you shouldn't be using file and printer sharing, or countless other features?
Giving someone the right to modify your system "if it's in good intention" will create a domino effect. I don't think people are overreacting when they're upset by this, because good intention or not, it's breaking the law - the same laws other people (smaller fish to fry, too) are in jail for. There's really no debating that.
I didn't read the article yet, but my guess is that they're doing this for the purpose of reducing stupid tech support calls - not just to "help their customers".
If they're worried about their postings proving false, then haven't they not researched them enough to be posting them just yet?
:-)
I like the idea of distribution of information using P2P and all, but the tone of this post implies that people knowingly want to post articles that they know may be proven wrong... Isn't that what Weekly World News is for? I don't seem them getting served with subpoenas
One thing I found that helped me during college, and I wish I did it more, was to go do work somewhere else...
At home, I had the distractions of TV, my own computer (with games or other timewasting stuff on it, hell I'd sort my mp3 playlist to waste time), my guitar, etc, and I found it very hard to get work done... the hardest part was starting to do it...
So, what I'd do when I finally got smart about things was go to a library, a computer lab, or even a coffeehouse to get work done. The coffeehouse was probably the least effective only because I was plenty content to people-watch there, it's a hobby of mine, but all of these places were usually better than home. I went to those places with a purpose, and it's almost like having walked to that place was the act of "starting" my work, since I fully intended to do so once I got there... it helped blur the line between wasting time and actually starting my work, I guess...
I still find myself going back to that difficult state today, and since now all work I do for my job is on computers, I'm stuck at home (no more college computer labs, no laptop to go to a coffeeshop with)... So, now it's a matter of will more than anything else.. I just have to force myself and remember that once I'm a couple minutes into having started the work - it really is usually downhill from there... it's just starting that's SO damn hard...
hope that helps some... obviously all of this is still going to require a change in you, and not some magical solution to the problem... they say alcoholics are always alcoholic and must battle it for the rest of their lives... well, be prepared to battle procrastination/sloth for the rest of your life too.. it's tough...
For all of you complaining that they require a valid email address - If you're that concerned, you can just wait until July 7th when you can register by phone, rather than using the 'net...
;-)
Of course.. you'll have to speak to an actual human being.. but hey, you can't win 'em all
I think this would be much harder to implement here in the US.. too much space, geographically, and an economy that's already in the dumps... it would be cool to see, but maybe wireless would be a more viable option (if it ever becomes legitimately secure, which it sort of inherently isn't, I guess)...
I don't see Postgres getting much media coverage until the syntax stops sucking.
I'm sure that a lot of uber programmer types are going to say "if you can't figure it out, you're a jackass", etc etc... but the bottom line is too much easy stuff is a pain in the ass to do, syntactically, with Postgres... Even auto incrementing IDs in Postgres are annoyingly difficult compared to MySQL...
I am well aware of the cool stuff that postgres does, but a lot of that cool stuff is only needed by people with specialized purposes.. your average blog site or even e-commerce site doesn't really need nested queries and all that stuff, so why go through all the syntactical annoyances when doing a simpler site?
When pg gets easier to use, i'll make the transition...
As long as you're willing to secure your FTP server and do the simple stuff like watch out for file permissions - FTP is much better.
HTTP is restricted by browsers, many of which will not support files larger than a certain size. Furthermore, FTP allows for features such as resume, etc...
The real question, however, is what are you trying to use this for? What's your intended application?
If it's a file repository for moderately computer literate people - FTP is definitely the way to go.
If it's a place for average-joes to store pictures, maybe HTTP is your best option. Sacrificing a bit of speed and capabilities such as resume might be made up for with ease of use..
as long as they code "duck pond" and put it in a cartridge so I can play it in my old Intellivision with the Atari adapter, I'll be happy...
mmmm, duck pond.. now with new color graphics!
In theory, you'd also need an array of hard drives, because the thrashing of four or more things being recorded at once would be painful...
This would mean you'd have a maximum of 4 hard drives, unless you buy an IDE card that lets you support more, wouldn't it? (Each IDE chain can have only two devices, right? or is that outdated info now?)
An interesting idea for certain though...
I run a site, OpeningBands.com, that seeks to promote local music like this.. The problem with streaming is that it's expensive, and somebody's got to pay for it...
So what do you do? Do you invoke "pay for play" where you have the bands in question give you a donation so you can afford the streaming?
I don't think banner ads are really making anyone enough revenue for this sort of thing, and banners don't show up on Winamp or Realplayer or other streaming stuff anyhow, so they'd only do any good on the website itself.
At least in my area, the people around here (primarily college students) don't seem too willing to shell out any sort of a subscription fee..
So, how do you pay for it then?
Right now we're providing exposure by reviewing their CDs and talking about them on our forums, as well as just providing a centralized place for everyone in the music scene around here to communicate. We also provide way more detailed concert listings than a huge site like Pollstar can do for this area - since there's lots of bars, bookstores, and other places that don't get listed...
We're hoping to eventually have [yourcity].openingbands.com websites, so if you like what you see, and you're interested, let me know.
In the meantime, we're looking for ways to raise money for streaming, but we're having trouble coming up with them...
I doubt this will happen to normal citizens... the profiling is basically using the geography of the crime locations...
Unless they've got people watching you, or GPS devices on everyone - they're not going to have anyone to write down pinpoints of where/when you bought cookies, or where/when you went to the bar to have a drink.
The times, and the geographic points that they use are those of crimes that took place that are presumably connected to the same individual.
The effort it would take to record every time you do some mundane task would be far too great for them to bother "geoprofiling" normal citizens.
There was a great special on this software on TLC not that long ago. Basically, they were able to calculate the odds of the suspect living and/or acting in a certain area based on where the crimes were, etc.
They ended up catching the killer, and he was a cop!
From discussions I'm seeing about these shootings, it may very well be a cop or someone in the armed forces. The ballistics of the gun/ammo being used just don't fit right since people are saying they don't hear the shots, or don't hear very loud shots, so people are theorizing that there's special subsonic rounds being used to minimize noise - not easy to find with these types of bullets, from what I gather.. But I dont' know a lot about guns, so.. yeah...
Anyhow if I remember the name of the TLC special I'll post it here, it was on recently enough that it will probably be on again soon.
Well, I'm running a site called OpeningBands.com that seeks to assist bands in doing exactly that... We're also kind of in the process of looking for that solution ourselves... we've noticed a few things...
First of all, radio stations and big corporate beasts of that sort don't want to be bothered with anything that's not guaranteed to make them money. From what I'm learning - there's not a lot of money in radio as is, so they're always kind of "scraping by" except for the few super huge stations like KROQ etc. I don't know for sure that this is true - it's just the impression I get from people I talk to in the industry.
One key is to go to trade shows and events where A&R people will be there... the grunt folks like myself who just want to find talented bands and see if we can help them.. only.. I'm not an A&R guy so I'm not in a position to help them.. the real ones are... If you get any chance at all to impress an A&R guy, they'll do what they can to help your band out. Also, A&R guys are usually friends with other ones at other labels.. so if their bosses say no to you - sometimes a nice A&R dude will pass your stuff on to another label.
One thing independent bands don't do enough is TOUR. The problem with touring is that it's costly and you gotta risk going all over the country, playing to 50 people at a time, and coming home piss poor. But the bands who start generating a decent buzz locally HAVE to tour or they'll never get out of their hometowns. From what I gather, and this isn't my own personal statement: if you're worried about sleeping in a van - then you're probably not driven enough to make it. You're going to have to sleep in a van sometimes, and you're going to have to do the long yucky grinds..
To make it less painful, people such as myself are in the process of setting up gig swaps. I'm in Champaign Illinois - a town smack dab in the middle of Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. The music scene here is decent enough that if a band has draw here - swapping gigs with a band in one of these other cities is worth it. The idea is - a Champaign band who has draw in Champaign headlines a show here and lets a band from Chicago open up. Then they play in Chicago and the Chicago band headlines, and the Champaign band opens up. Each band gets to play to a decent sized crowd in front of new people.
Please feel free to get in touch with me to kick around ideas... you'll find my contact info on the openingbands website..... I'd love to talk with ya about ideas to help indie bands!
Yes, it still happens a lot... there's widespread knowledge of so-called "google bombing".. Google pops up some of its search results based on the content between an A HREF tag, as you can read about here: Google Time Bomb...
Much like security, I think this is the kind of thing that hackers and tinkerers will always find a way to exploit. The question is who can stay ahead in the race?
I'm in the process of creating a documentation system similar to the docs at MySQL... basically it'll be database-stored, and allow user comments, but it'll have security features so that you could set it to only allow members of your company to add comments, if you so chose.
:-p
:-)
The only catch? It's written in a language called RACE, which you haven't heard of yet. Why RACE? Because it's better and easier than anything else I've used. We (mostly my boss) developed the language in-house at the web design firm I work for, and I have trouble going back to coding in Perl and other languages because RACE is just so freaking easy and neat...
The good part - RACE is freeware, runs as an apache module, and is easy to install on any *nix platform. However, you may want to wait until I'm done with redocumenting it and put up the latest source code.
What the hell is RACE? It's a tag based language that can do just about anything PHP, Perl, Coldfusion, and ASP can. www.racekit.net for more (outdated, more on that in a sec) info...
We're up to version 2.9.2 now (I believe the site download will give you 2.5.4 or something), but since we never really "advertised" the site, we haven't updated it in a long time. We've just gotten an identity for RACE created by a design firm, and are in the process of redesigning the site to accomodate my documentation etc... Until now the site has mostly existed just for us to go grab the [old] PDF documentation
All of this should be ready in the next couple of months, I'm hoping.
If you want the latest source, with instructions on how to use it, let me know. And if you want to see a site that uses it, check out http://www.openingbands.com -- it's entirely RACE driven/managed.
Okay, this sounds more like a RACE ad than help to you -- so let me get to the point... I have a feeling RACE is what you're looking for because whether or not you end up liking what document management software I finish up (which I'll release for free) - you could write your own really easily, and really quickly.
Bottom line - if you want a document management system that fits your needs, you're probably going to want to write it yourself, or you'll be jumping around shortcomings of each different piece of software. I suggest you try writing it in RACE because I feel it'll be fast and easy to do (if you want the latest source code just email me). Of course any other language you're comfy with is fine too
Steve
I don't see that Comcast is really doing much, other than possibly filtering stuff on port 80.. Maybe for NIMDA/Code Red? Who knows.. but from reading a bit of their license agreement, it doesn't seem like they could be doing much that's all that bad...
And in fact, Comcast users should be THANKFUL for the fact that they're not prohibited from running things like FTP, HTTP, or other servers, like those of @home were.
Before you go quoting the license agreement - read it again. The only part that prohibits such servers is for the resale of their service - which is a more than fair restriction!
I have to say, of all the AUP's and EULA's I've read, this one is the most benign, and fair to its customers (while having to protect its collective ass as much as possible, of course) I've ever read. I don't see why people are up in arms...
When are these ass monkeys going to do one of the tiniest, simplest things that kept me from using Mozilla in the first place?
Highlight the link/element where the tab focus is (i.e. if I hit tab a bunch of times to navigate links on a page, show me where I'm at)...
The tabbing works, but there's no visual feedback like there was in Netscape 4.X and below (and is in IE)...
It's stubborn programmers who won't spend the 2 minutes it takes to implement something such as interface feedback that make me not want to use stuff like Mozilla...
Blah on Mozilla. And its little dog, too.
From the stat logging of www.babysmasher.com, which I think is pretty demographically neutral as far as OS's are concerned, I think:
UNIX (Linux) 0.90%
UNIX (Other/Unspecified) 0.32%
UNIX (SunOS) 0.15%
UNIX (HP-UX) 0.01%
Compared with:
Windows 98 45.79%
Windows ME 16.43%
Windows 2000 13.51%
Windows NT 7.21%
Windows 95 7.12%
Macintosh (PowerPC) 4.60%
Unknown Platform 3.08% (maybe some linux in there?)
WebTV 0.47%
Windows 16-bit 0.27%
Macintosh (68K) 0.05%
Windows 32-bit 0.05%
Windows 3.1 0.04%
OS/2 0.01%
Amiga 0.00%
---
Doesn't look like there's a monstrous departure from the stats in this article.. It claims that linux holds less than 1 percent... Even if you add the stats of all the other unix-flavors, that's not all that far off...
I don't see why it's a big surprise, really. When not all your friends are computer geeks - it's really easy to think "if I ask 100 random people if they use linux, it's likely only 1, or even 0, will say yes"... After all, who goes to the effort to install it unless they're pretty enthusiastic about computers? It's just too much trouble for a society that wants things working out of the box, and doing everything they want it to...
Until the time comes that Dell and Gateway are selling Linux-installed machines with good packages of software on them (which requires good software that competes with its windows equivalent well), I wouldn't expect this percentage to jump significantly either. For those into it - linux can kick ass, I don't disagree. But it's pretty obvious that it's not going to go anywhere with consumers until it's insanely easy to use, and has great software support.
There's my 2 cents...