I co-wrote this book and I don't have a problem with Amazon's used book policy. Heck, I wouldn't have been able to read the out-of-print Day of the Triffids without that used book option. While I have great sympathy for full-time authors who need every red cent they can get, I also feel that it is better to look ahead to the next project rather than worry about used book/priracy sales for an old project (I'm looking at you, RIAA). I think focusing on the past (if you aren't a historian) is generally unproductive.
Yahoo is sitting on a gold mine of data. By creating a group of engineers to data mine their link database, Yahoo could make a bloody fortune. Users aren't the cash cow here -- corporations are. Companies regular throw goofy sums of cash into marketing and Yahoo could get fat feeding at that corporate tit. I wrote more about this in my
use.perl.org journal some months ago.
Punishing users who only make their data richer makes about as much sense as interstate tariffs.
I like to think of PDF as an output format only. By using a flexible markup system like Docbook, you can export to a number of formats. PDF is excellent (and often required) by book printers. It provides an unambiguous picture of how a book should be laid out.
To me, PDF is a lot like a system executable. You write the document in some portable source code, then compile it for a particular need. Of course, this is a very different philosophy than WYSIWYG edits. Oh well.
I shuddered when I first read that Oracle ad. I knew it would be only a few weeks before exploits were announced from 9i. Larry, did you learn nothing from Titanic besides that with enough money, even a terrible, terrible movie can win oscars?
Also, the security adage comes to mind: security is a process, not a product.
First, all web sites are not the same. The author, Marshall Brain, is assuming that all web sites are like magazines or books. This isn't the case at all. Charging a penny for each use of google? Do I get charged to use the card catalog at the library? Web sites that do fit the magazine profile are experimenting with subscriptions. This will only be somewhat successful. I read salon, suck.com and others because it was a cheap way to kill time. I wouldn't buy subscriptions to paper versions of these sites, so I'm unlikely to buy a subscription to an electionic version.
Second, books are much more expensive to produce for the same audience size than web sites.
I worked at O'Reilly and Associates, so I have a pretty good understanding of the number of folks involved in getting a book into your hot little hands. Think of the paper resources alone. The web just doesn't have the overhead. Did I hear someone cluck 'bandwidth'? Although it's not free (goddamn it), it's much cheaper per viewer than paper.
Third, most web content isn't worth a bucket of warm spit but you can't know this until you've spent a penny. Take Aliens, Aliens, Aliens. I'd never charge for that site. It's not worth it. It might give you a chuckle, but that's not worth copper.
Fourth, Brain posits that his scheme will greatly improve existing web sites like CNN and google. He's obviously glossing over that most folks won't bother visiting these places if each peak is $0.01. (What about caching these pages privately or in a p2p fashion for your friends?
Robbing robbers doesn't seem so bad.)
But, there's a more important point: viewers make the site. Slashdot wouldn't be nearly as much fun without the trolls, pundits and occasional gurus. Search engines, as I've said before, are fools for trying to derive revenue from users. The users are adding value to their site. If those giant web indexes were data mined for corporate clients, google might rival IBM in revenue (certainly, they would be Very Well Off).
Fifth, the idea that experts will flock to the web if they can get paid for content is fatuous. Already, there are lots of gurus on the web now. There's no barrier to entry. Some guru's charge money and some don't. Brain's idea is that experts will set up a virtual consultancy on the web. Again, they can do that now. Look at e-diets.com. This idea isn't new and doesn't mean that every site needs to charge for content. Brain's scheme only works if *every* site does shakes down the reader.
Sixth, Brain's instant publishing with instant revenue for any individual who can access the web is a very naive and ill-conceived mantra. The beauty of the web is that absolute freaks can say outlandish things and we can read them for free. Through ISPs, we have already paid for admission into the carnival. Must we also for for each ride?
Last I heard, capitalism is about risk. You pays your money, you takes your chances. Corporate welfare for web sites is just nutty. There's absolutely no reason why crappy web businesses need to be succored; let them die.
Seventh, a penny per page adds up. What if I'm spidering a site? I'm going get creamed. Search engines need to do this and under this scheme I think all of them would go out of business. Further, as a web site owner, I *want* google, altavista, yahoo, etc to be spidering my site. That allows my content to be available to a wider audience. Why the hell would I penalize them?
Search engines made the web usable
and free content made the web worth moving away from FTP. I'm a bit cranky from all the hand wringging from crappy, bloated web sites that can't turn a profit. I've seen many sites that do just fine. If you want to make it on the web, get some real content and try harder.
In perl, "try" is spelled e-v-a-l and "catch" is spelled i-f.:-)
Checking the return status of routines is standard practice. The type of exception handling
found in Python and Java could with a lot of overhead. I think the key word is "choice".
Needing to multiplex a console between two machines is somewhat silly. I got into KVM tech when 8-16 machines were involved. My company use Sybex 8 port units and they worked well. You could even slave the units to handle more servers. At home, I have a bunch of PCs (4-8) so I took the plunge with a 4 port OmniView unit (1998). That broke within 18 months. I then replaced it with a 4 port Linksys unit and that seems to be working very well. WinME can see my wheel mouse and linux can see that I have some kind of two button thing. No complains.
The warning about cable management should be taken to heart. I'm nearly drowning in the buggers. I suggest getting a metal rack for storing your PCs, printers, scanners, KVM unit.
Use zip-ties or velcro strips to secure the cabling. It's worth the investment. When the cables were loose, my cat starting *eating* through them. That's a different rant...
As for mulitplexing sound, get an audio mixer. I have a Mackie 1402 and love it. My speakers
(Labtec Edge 418) are plugged into the mixer, as are the PCs. I can even have my tape deck hanging off the mixer. This mixer/PC system has replaced my stereo.
One last point: I don't have a TV either, just a tv tuner card. Single appliance convergence? Already there!
It took me a good while to give it a chance, but damn is it good. Space opera is back with a vengeance! Farscape often tells stories better than any show I've on television. From the writting to visual effects, this show has it all. I think it's one of the best kept secrets on TV.
It's not exactly the televised novel that B5 was, but many shows are connected and the series feels like it's going somewhere. Here's a few reasons to give Farscape a chance:
The main characters don't always get along.
In fact, they often betray each other
Characters make decisions that have lasting
consequences
Leather fetishists will adore the PeaceKeepers!
Muppets, what's not to love?
The human, for most of the first season,
is treated as nearly useless
The series is set in a mildly dystopian near future
Talking, sexy plants!
The villians are credible and relentless
The way stories are told is often incredible. Non-linear stories, warner brothers-like cartoons, omninous endings. Farscape's got it all
A week ago, Cringely suggested that congress, the military and FAA would all want to respond to the 9/11 attacks with the tools that they most familiar. For congress, this meant passing laws; for the military, this meant warfare; for the FAA, this meant stricter regulations. Everyone wants to do something to help even if those efforts can't possible avert another disaster.
In Ellison's case, his hammer is Oracle. Is he opportunistic? Sure, but he's probably trying to help. No doubt, he too knew some of the people working in the WTC or the Pentagon. Eric Raymond also suggested a preventive measure to deter hijackers: arming the citizenry.
Unfortunately, threatening to kill suicide bombers won't stop them, but firing guns in a
highly pressurized tube is very likely to stop the plane.
Of course, the problem with ID cards, FAA regulations and crypto laws is that criminals aren't bounded by law. I don't know why this is a
hard concept for our leaders to understand, but
apparently it's a real coconut-scratcher.
I haven't heard of a solution that will prevent a future attack like the one that happened on 9/11. This problem has a lot more to do with human nature than technology or politics.
Mandating "backdoor" keys to crypto will only be followed by law-abiding citizens. Knaves, rakes and reprobates will continue to use the strongest crypto possible.
This is another sign of the war on personal freedom. Guns, drugs, crypto: these aren't the enemy. Bad laws, frustrated cops and panicked constituencies are the pavement on the road to hell.
While I don't support ESR's call for an armed citizenry (THAT will quell domestic violence and road rage, don't you think!), I do suggest that we stop blaming instruments of terror and focus on the root cause of terrorism: people. What is their motivation? Is it just random sociopathic behavior? Is it our indiscrete wielding of world hegemony? The nauseating events of 9/11/2001 didn't require arcane knowledge or hi-tech equipment; we provided the tools of our own destruction. However, we also have the keys to our survival. It is our brains that got us into this mess and it is the careful application of that same organ that will see us through.
Adrenaline can't solve all our problems. As Frank Herbert's flawed novel _Dune_ reminds us, fear is the mind killer.
Beware! The lost city of R'lyeh has been found and the dead nightmare god Cthulhu will soon awaken from his dreaming to visit untold horrors upon mankind! Run!
It appears the "DVD Club" has a new member: China.
I'm afraid the Chinese now have the DVD. This means that they can natively produce and watch pr0n, totally bypassing the Japo-American Pr0n Syndicate. Although details are sketchy, it appears China stole this technology via Sony manufacting plants in Taiwan.
China now has access to the world's most potent
encrypting scheme: CSS. We have our cryto boys working around the clock to break that cypher, but it could take years.
Our only option is to flood the Chinese market with Barney and Raffy DVDs. With luck, the Chinese consumer will be so disgusted with those shows that they'll abandon DVD altogether.
A world in which China has DVD tech isn't a world I want to live in.
To listeners of the Art Bell show and to readers of Aliens, Aliens, Aliens, reports of artificial constructs on Mars is old hat. Richard Hoagland has been arguing the case for Mars for years. What's sort of interesting are remarks made by Arthur C. Clarke about those "crystal tubes". Add that to former government workers coming forward en masse claiming that the US government has a lot more information on extraterrial life that old videos of "Close Encounters", things are getting pretty interesting for UFOlogists.
There's been a fair amount of press lately about Microsoft cracking down on licensing. They go after big targets (like towns, universities, large businesses), so I doubt this is an effort to
finger *nix users.
What it does suggest is that things are getting ugly at Uncle Bill's farm. Microsoft has always preferred to litigate rather than innovate. In the early days of Windows, Microsoft benefitted from OS piracy. People wanted the OS to run applications, therefore the OS had value. Now, the PC market is nearly saturated and Microsoft has to squeeze organizations to show profits to their shareholders.
If Microsoft were a star, they'd been in the red giant phase right now. Red giants expand by atomically fusing heavier elements together, having run out of the lighter fuel (hydrogren). Fusion with these heavier elements requires a lot more engery. To anthropomorphize this process, it's like a drowning man desperating treading water while wearing lead boots. This phase doesn't last long (in celestial terms).
As a writer for IBM's developerWorks,
I have a good reason why Microsoft's ASP and Allaire's Cold Fusion products weren't mentioned in that article. The editors reject references to
non-open source applications.
Also, ASP is, at best, a weird framework for CGI development. It supports a number of languages like ActiveState's PerlScript, but the default language is the demon-haunted VBScript. If there's one language that demonstrates ad hoc design, it's this one. Two incompatible assignment operators? Thanks!
Lest you think I'm casting aspersions wontanly, I do help maintain the ASP XML-RPC library. My ASP pain is real.
I've seen those street graffitos all over Boston.
I saw the peace and love symbols and immediately
tuned out, thinking this was Yet Another Indy Band stunt (there's a lot of that in Boston). I'm
not sure who came up with this, but I don't think
this "social protest" for enterprise level software is really going to shake middle America out of its traditional narcoleptic complacency.
I wonder what future "slogons" IBM will treat us to...
You can earn money writing code or technical articles in same time it would take to argue this deduction with a tax laywer or (God forbid) an
IRS auditor. How would you rather spend your time?
Slashdot Mirror
I just ordered a new case for my dual Athlon Linux box made of Ununhexium with Ununoctium details! Man did I get screwed...
I co-wrote this book and I don't have a problem with Amazon's used book policy. Heck, I wouldn't have been able to read the out-of-print Day of the Triffids without that used book option. While I have great sympathy for full-time authors who need every red cent they can get, I also feel that it is better to look ahead to the next project rather than worry about used book/priracy sales for an old project (I'm looking at you, RIAA). I think focusing on the past (if you aren't a historian) is generally unproductive.
I picked up a copy of the Linux port for $5. Good times. It plays pretty smoothly on my celeron 400Mhz.
why go out for hamburgers?
Yahoo is sitting on a gold mine of data. By creating a group of engineers to data mine their link database, Yahoo could make a bloody fortune. Users aren't the cash cow here -- corporations are. Companies regular throw goofy sums of cash into marketing and Yahoo could get fat feeding at that corporate tit. I wrote more about this in my use.perl.org journal some months ago.
Punishing users who only make their data richer makes about as much sense as interstate tariffs.
I like to think of PDF as an output format only. By using a flexible markup system like Docbook, you can export to a number of formats. PDF is excellent (and often required) by book printers. It provides an unambiguous picture of how a book should be laid out.
To me, PDF is a lot like a system executable. You write the document in some portable source code, then compile it for a particular need. Of course, this is a very different philosophy than WYSIWYG edits. Oh well.
I shuddered when I first read that Oracle ad. I knew it would be only a few weeks before exploits were announced from 9i. Larry, did you learn nothing from Titanic besides that with enough money, even a terrible, terrible movie can win oscars?
Also, the security adage comes to mind: security is a process, not a product.
I actually shrieked out loud in terror when I read this headline. Good lord, I feel like I'm trapped in a bad Dilbert cartoon.
...to create my four-assed baboon.
grumble.
There are several problems with this article.
First, all web sites are not the same. The author, Marshall Brain, is assuming that all web sites are like magazines or books. This isn't the case at all. Charging a penny for each use of google? Do I get charged to use the card catalog at the library? Web sites that do fit the magazine profile are experimenting with subscriptions. This will only be somewhat successful. I read salon, suck.com and others because it was a cheap way to kill time. I wouldn't buy subscriptions to paper versions of these sites, so I'm unlikely to buy a subscription to an electionic version.
Second, books are much more expensive to produce for the same audience size than web sites. I worked at O'Reilly and Associates, so I have a pretty good understanding of the number of folks involved in getting a book into your hot little hands. Think of the paper resources alone. The web just doesn't have the overhead. Did I hear someone cluck 'bandwidth'? Although it's not free (goddamn it), it's much cheaper per viewer than paper.
Third, most web content isn't worth a bucket of warm spit but you can't know this until you've spent a penny. Take Aliens, Aliens, Aliens. I'd never charge for that site. It's not worth it. It might give you a chuckle, but that's not worth copper.
Fourth, Brain posits that his scheme will greatly improve existing web sites like CNN and google. He's obviously glossing over that most folks won't bother visiting these places if each peak is $0.01. (What about caching these pages privately or in a p2p fashion for your friends? Robbing robbers doesn't seem so bad.)
But, there's a more important point: viewers make the site. Slashdot wouldn't be nearly as much fun without the trolls, pundits and occasional gurus. Search engines, as I've said before, are fools for trying to derive revenue from users. The users are adding value to their site. If those giant web indexes were data mined for corporate clients, google might rival IBM in revenue (certainly, they would be Very Well Off).
Fifth, the idea that experts will flock to the web if they can get paid for content is fatuous. Already, there are lots of gurus on the web now. There's no barrier to entry. Some guru's charge money and some don't. Brain's idea is that experts will set up a virtual consultancy on the web. Again, they can do that now. Look at e-diets.com. This idea isn't new and doesn't mean that every site needs to charge for content. Brain's scheme only works if *every* site does shakes down the reader.
Sixth, Brain's instant publishing with instant revenue for any individual who can access the web is a very naive and ill-conceived mantra. The beauty of the web is that absolute freaks can say outlandish things and we can read them for free. Through ISPs, we have already paid for admission into the carnival. Must we also for for each ride?
Last I heard, capitalism is about risk. You pays your money, you takes your chances. Corporate welfare for web sites is just nutty. There's absolutely no reason why crappy web businesses need to be succored; let them die.
Seventh, a penny per page adds up. What if I'm spidering a site? I'm going get creamed. Search engines need to do this and under this scheme I think all of them would go out of business. Further, as a web site owner, I *want* google, altavista, yahoo, etc to be spidering my site. That allows my content to be available to a wider audience. Why the hell would I penalize them?
Search engines made the web usable and free content made the web worth moving away from FTP. I'm a bit cranky from all the hand wringging from crappy, bloated web sites that can't turn a profit. I've seen many sites that do just fine. If you want to make it on the web, get some real content and try harder.
Hash elements don't auto-vivify when used as r-values but do if used as l-values. This is a feature, honest.
:-)
use Data::Dumper;
%hash = (a => 0x69);
print "b is $hash{a}->{b}\n";
print Dumper(\%hash), "\n";
Doesn't change the hash. But:
$hash{a}->{b} = 0x69;
creates a new hash with one key-value pair b => 0x69.
Perl uses eval for exceptions. For instance:
eval{ 0 || die "Oops" }
if( $@ ){
warn "Something's fugly: $!";
}
In perl, "try" is spelled e-v-a-l and "catch" is spelled i-f.
Checking the return status of routines is standard practice. The type of exception handling
found in Python and Java could with a lot of overhead. I think the key word is "choice".
Needing to multiplex a console between two machines is somewhat silly. I got into KVM tech when 8-16 machines were involved. My company use Sybex 8 port units and they worked well. You could even slave the units to handle more servers. At home, I have a bunch of PCs (4-8) so I took the plunge with a 4 port OmniView unit (1998). That broke within 18 months. I then replaced it with a 4 port Linksys unit and that seems to be working very well. WinME can see my wheel mouse and linux can see that I have some kind of two button thing. No complains.
The warning about cable management should be taken to heart. I'm nearly drowning in the buggers. I suggest getting a metal rack for storing your PCs, printers, scanners, KVM unit. Use zip-ties or velcro strips to secure the cabling. It's worth the investment. When the cables were loose, my cat starting *eating* through them. That's a different rant...
As for mulitplexing sound, get an audio mixer. I have a Mackie 1402 and love it. My speakers (Labtec Edge 418) are plugged into the mixer, as are the PCs. I can even have my tape deck hanging off the mixer. This mixer/PC system has replaced my stereo.
One last point: I don't have a TV either, just a tv tuner card. Single appliance convergence? Already there!
It took me a good while to give it a chance, but damn is it good. Space opera is back with a vengeance! Farscape often tells stories better than any show I've on television. From the writting to visual effects, this show has it all. I think it's one of the best kept secrets on TV. It's not exactly the televised novel that B5 was, but many shows are connected and the series feels like it's going somewhere. Here's a few reasons to give Farscape a chance:
In Ellison's case, his hammer is Oracle. Is he opportunistic? Sure, but he's probably trying to help. No doubt, he too knew some of the people working in the WTC or the Pentagon. Eric Raymond also suggested a preventive measure to deter hijackers: arming the citizenry. Unfortunately, threatening to kill suicide bombers won't stop them, but firing guns in a highly pressurized tube is very likely to stop the plane.
Of course, the problem with ID cards, FAA regulations and crypto laws is that criminals aren't bounded by law. I don't know why this is a hard concept for our leaders to understand, but apparently it's a real coconut-scratcher.
I haven't heard of a solution that will prevent a future attack like the one that happened on 9/11. This problem has a lot more to do with human nature than technology or politics.
Mandating "backdoor" keys to crypto will only be followed by law-abiding citizens. Knaves, rakes and reprobates will continue to use the strongest crypto possible.
This is another sign of the war on personal freedom. Guns, drugs, crypto: these aren't the enemy. Bad laws, frustrated cops and panicked constituencies are the pavement on the road to hell.
While I don't support ESR's call for an armed citizenry (THAT will quell domestic violence and road rage, don't you think!), I do suggest that we stop blaming instruments of terror and focus on the root cause of terrorism: people. What is their motivation? Is it just random sociopathic behavior? Is it our indiscrete wielding of world hegemony? The nauseating events of 9/11/2001 didn't require arcane knowledge or hi-tech equipment; we provided the tools of our own destruction. However, we also have the keys to our survival. It is our brains that got us into this mess and it is the careful application of that same organ that will see us through.
Adrenaline can't solve all our problems. As Frank Herbert's flawed novel _Dune_ reminds us, fear is the mind killer.
I can finally get to sleep tonight.
Wait. Does the refrigerator light stay on after I shut the door? Oh man, I hope somebody submits a link answering that question next.
Beware! The lost city of R'lyeh has been found and the dead nightmare god Cthulhu will soon awaken from his dreaming to visit untold horrors upon mankind! Run!
It appears the "DVD Club" has a new member: China.
I'm afraid the Chinese now have the DVD. This means that they can natively produce and watch pr0n, totally bypassing the Japo-American Pr0n Syndicate. Although details are sketchy, it appears China stole this technology via Sony manufacting plants in Taiwan.
China now has access to the world's most potent encrypting scheme: CSS. We have our cryto boys working around the clock to break that cypher, but it could take years.
Our only option is to flood the Chinese market with Barney and Raffy DVDs. With luck, the Chinese consumer will be so disgusted with those shows that they'll abandon DVD altogether.
A world in which China has DVD tech isn't a world I want to live in.
To listeners of the Art Bell show and to readers of Aliens, Aliens, Aliens, reports of artificial constructs on Mars is old hat. Richard Hoagland has been arguing the case for Mars for years. What's sort of interesting are remarks made by Arthur C. Clarke about those "crystal tubes". Add that to former government workers coming forward en masse claiming that the US government has a lot more information on extraterrial life that old videos of "Close Encounters", things are getting pretty interesting for UFOlogists.
There's been a fair amount of press lately about Microsoft cracking down on licensing. They go after big targets (like towns, universities, large businesses), so I doubt this is an effort to finger *nix users.
What it does suggest is that things are getting ugly at Uncle Bill's farm. Microsoft has always preferred to litigate rather than innovate. In the early days of Windows, Microsoft benefitted from OS piracy. People wanted the OS to run applications, therefore the OS had value. Now, the PC market is nearly saturated and Microsoft has to squeeze organizations to show profits to their shareholders.
If Microsoft were a star, they'd been in the red giant phase right now. Red giants expand by atomically fusing heavier elements together, having run out of the lighter fuel (hydrogren). Fusion with these heavier elements requires a lot more engery. To anthropomorphize this process, it's like a drowning man desperating treading water while wearing lead boots. This phase doesn't last long (in celestial terms).
This is a sign of things to come for Microsoft.
Author: Joseph Hall (with Randal Schwartz)
ISBN: 0201419750
Publisher: Addison Wesley (1998)
Fun collection of Perl idioms and some good stuff on h2xs.
As a writer for IBM's developerWorks, I have a good reason why Microsoft's ASP and Allaire's Cold Fusion products weren't mentioned in that article. The editors reject references to non-open source applications.
Also, ASP is, at best, a weird framework for CGI development. It supports a number of languages like ActiveState's PerlScript, but the default language is the demon-haunted VBScript. If there's one language that demonstrates ad hoc design, it's this one. Two incompatible assignment operators? Thanks!
Lest you think I'm casting aspersions wontanly, I do help maintain the ASP XML-RPC library. My ASP pain is real.
I've seen those street graffitos all over Boston. I saw the peace and love symbols and immediately tuned out, thinking this was Yet Another Indy Band stunt (there's a lot of that in Boston). I'm not sure who came up with this, but I don't think this "social protest" for enterprise level software is really going to shake middle America out of its traditional narcoleptic complacency.
I wonder what future "slogons" IBM will treat us to...
"UPS Power to the People!"
"Turn on, Boot up and Log out!"
"Don't let the pigs make you use Microsoft!"
"Fsck Authority!"
You can earn money writing code or technical articles in same time it would take to argue this deduction with a tax laywer or (God forbid) an
IRS auditor. How would you rather spend your time?
I assume these scientists were inspired by watching Babylon 5. Mass drivers can be fun!
You missed a couple of biggies: