"I told you so" -- or, actually, Mike Macgirvin told us all so. But we were all too busy playing with our toys - or other things - to think about what was happening all around us. This day should have been forseen, fortold, and warned about since the beginning of "big centralized services" ---
OH WAIT -- it was.
Mike's been working on this since his days working on Friendica (before that actually) and he has continued to push forward to provide a truly decentralized, nomadic network that keeps you and your data free from vendor lock in. While everybody has been chasing "market share" and seeking to make the next "Facebook killer," Mike has been building a solution that is far more SOLID than even Berners-Lee's current vaporware.
Hubzilla (and more recently ZAP) with running the ZOT6 protocol (with work on Zot8 already underway!) have been working to deal with this problem for the better part of a decade.
"Nomadic identity" (the ability to host your social media presence, files, data, and just about anything else with multiple different providers on multiple different servers - and log into any of them and continue working if one of them goes down for any reason) has been part of Hubzilla for a LOOONG time.
Now, with Hubzilla version 4.0 just released over the weekend, Hubzilla adds Nomadic Content addressing that separates content addressing from DNS within the ZOT network. Now, if you use Zot, you can move your content to a different server and there are no links to update - your traffic will just follow you to the new location.
The Zot network (called "the GRID") is a completely decentralized network that allows VERY granular access control and privacy options - in a solution that is MIT licensed and runs on a standard LAMP/LEMP stack. And the Hubzilla platform is as easy (I think easier) to extend with addons and custom modules as Wordpress is write plugins for.
The OP SHOULD be a "non-story" as all these challenges have been known for a long time.
The fact that we are lamenting this reality on SlashDot just shows how far we have fallen.
"Single Signon" - jump from one web server to another with without needing 100 usernames/passwords.
Social Media - check Personal Web sites - check Personal Wiki - check Personal DAV file server Personal DAV calendar server Personal DAV contact server They even have a shopping cart so a user can set up their own ETSY/EBAY/whatever
If you truly want what Berners-Lee is selling, you don't have to wait for him to criss-cross America and get venture capital to make it happen. It's available now, today, in an opensource platform called Hubzilla. Privacy and access control for all your files, data, and even your social media. All of it can be hosted and stored on a system you own and control. What's more, your account on your system links you to other Hubzilla systems on "the Grid" without even retyping a username and password.
The opensource developers around the world who are working on the project are right now preparing to release version 3.8. It's a real product that real people are already using every day.
*Social Media communication (like Facebook but with better access and privacy controls, no advertising, and if you run your own server or use a server run by someone you know and trust - no way for "big data" companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and others to vacuum up your data to sell to the highest bidder) *File storage (like DropBox or Google Drive without the ability of "big data" to read your files and serve you advertising based on their contents) *Webpage creation * Wiki * Events and Calendars * "Nomadic Identity" (unique to the Zot protocol - allows you to have multiple "copies" of your identity, contacts and data on different servers all constantly kept synchronized - if you primary hub is down for any reason, just log into a copy and continue working exactly where you left off.) * More! * All on an extensible platform that allows motivated individuals to create custom solutions and applications on top of the robust ZOT protocol.
TLog - Based specifically on your post, I rolled it up into a publicly consumable form (the tool is in production - but there may have been some errors in the "cleanup" as a public project - so feel free to submit bug reports if you have problems - I did a quick test install, so I'm pretty sure it should work out of the box).
If you wish you could put your todo lists and project notes on 3x5 cards and search/sort them by tags and keywords... this is the tool for you. If you're looking for a flashy UI with drag/drop and where you have to click a million things and scroll around here there and everywhere to put things in the right list, use Trello or something similar. If you want something as simple as pencil and paper, but with searching, editing, sorting... this is the tool for you.
It's being actively developed/maintained for my uses (bug reports and issues and feature requests will be considered - but I didn't create it as a public project, so, honestly, as long as it continues to work for me and my purposes, unless you're willing to issue a pull request or front some $$... only things that are "interesting" to my purposes will be further developed). It is also undergoing expansion for use as a general remote logging tool.
In any event, it's simple and effective - easily purposed for "todo" lists and a million other things.
The constant need to rewrite the lists - and sort through pages and pages of crossed off items everytime I needed to clean things up was irritating. While I like the sentiment - and for quick short term lists, pencil and paper are VERY helpful - it's very difficult to cross reference lists and tasks and items that are related across several pages. And if you have a need to switch contexts regularly (home, job1, job2, etc,) keeping those lists manageable becomes a nightmare - and you spend almost as much time updating your lists as you do getting things done (ok, a bit of an over exaggeration, but it's kind of like those bosses who want time logs of everything and get ticked off that one of the entrys each days is, "spent 15 minutes filling out time log").
Quick, easy, searchable, flexible, self-hosted, and multi-user these are my requirements.... I ended up rolling my own - and ended up VERY happy with it.
Anyone who can set up a publicly accessible webserver running PHP can download it and give it a try. (Working on a public demo - watch the github README for details).
Most apps need an "always on" connection to the web to work correctly - and more often than not are just interface tools to access some datastore on the web. At that point, why not just write a decent JAVASCRIPT app and host it on a web page and save the memory on my phone? There are even datastore solutions for JS now so you can buffer data between your script and the online datastore.
Browser based access - self hosted - multi-user - and reminscent of the good old days when we were taught to take notes on 3x5 notecards - one fact per card - but with the added benefit of searchable arbitrary tags. Use it for todo's, project management, shopping lists, or any of a million other things. Fast, responsive, easy. No goofy convoluted interfaces. Type, save, go. Add, delete, edit, search, sort.
Note: there's no reason it can't also be modularized to parse the file and look for metadata and add tagging for it as well in some format (assuming there is a perl parser for it)-- although that's beyond what I had needed at the time. Again, I'm no longer a techie in my work-a-day world and merely need/ed a tool for my own purposes which sound very much like the OP.
Sorry for the shameless plug, but I'm really hoping someone picks up on this idea...
A Posix extended attribute solution would be optimal.
I solved it using FUSE + PERL + SQLITE a while ago. More a proof of concept and a tool for myself than a "project" per se. I think it should be portable to other platforms that can use these technologies - and I'm pretty sure most of the majors (including Window$ can).
In any event, take a look at HTaggingOLFS (http://code.google.com/p/htaggingolfs). "Hierarchical Tagging Overlay File System". It overlays the ability to tag files using a simple syntax as part of the file name. The tags that have been associated with files are treated as directories so drilling down with a logical AND is a matter of descending directories. Tag "virtual" directories are obvious because they begin with an @ character. Tags are separated from the main filename by using a colon (:). Thus, adding tags is as simple as naming the file FILENAME:tag1:tag2:tag3.extension the only potential issue in the current implementation is that the extension is assumed to be only a single field (i.e. in FILE.tar.gz, only the.gz would be considered the extension. It would appear as FILE.tar:tag1:tag2:tag3.gz).
It'd be great if someone wanted to work more on it. I'm no longer in the tech world, but at least I've gotten it to the point where you can add tags as you write new files, change existing files to add tags, works in most tools including GUI file managers - although several of them have issues in their "rename" function that don't work properly (notably Nautilus and Thunar). Dolphin works, though.
I really like Zotero for web research - and if everything comes from the web, it can be great. What I don't like is that, aside from Zotero, there's no real good way to access the files from other software (for example, opening Adobe Acrobat and searching through the tagged files in Zotero to find that PDF that I know I have). In order to access stuff, I need to go into Zotero as my file manager first. Then there's the backup issues, data migration issues, and what happens when my Zotero database is over 4 GIG and can't be written to a DVD anymore? Or, what happens if Zotero disappears? Or what about corrupted databases?
Don't get me wrong, Zotero is an EXCELLENT research tool - I've used it and I like it in many respects. But if I'm thinking about LONG TERM storage, resiliance against corruption and future accessibility - I'm not sure it's the best tool for the job.
What I would really like to see/have is a system that allows me to tag files within my filesystem either as I write out the file from my application (i.e., FILE-->Save FILENAME: Basefilename:tag1:tag2:tag3.ext ) or by renaming a file already within my filesystem.
I USED to be in the tech sector as my livelihood and knew about some tools that might help... low and behold, with a combination of FUSE, PERL, and SQLITE, I was able to cobble together something for my purposes... It may or may not be what you're looking for. It's basically a tagging overlay filesystem writen in Perl using FUSE and SQLITE. The difference between this and others (it reuses some code and concepts from StratusFS) is that it is hierarchical. All of your files are not dumped into one big directory, they are tagged within the file system hierarchy underneath.
Since I'm no longer in the tech sector, my dev time is limited and it certainly isn't a "PRODUCT" in the conventional sense. Rather, it's one of those things that "works for me but your mileage may vary". If you're interested, you can find the project at http://code.google.com/p/htaggingolfs/ . I use it to organize a bunch of stuff. It ain't perfect but is a good start - or at least "proof of concept." If any dev types are interested in contributing... drop me a line.
Another one to add to the list is HTaggingOLFS (Hierarchical Tagging Overlay File System). HTaggingOLFS adds tagging to an existing hierarchical directory structure and provides "AND" searches of tags.
HIERARCHICAL - most of the tagging file systems (including those noted in parent) were flat - all the files were stored in a single directory. HTaggingOLFS adds tagging capability to an existing file hierarchy.
TAGGING - fairly self explanatory - files can be "semantically tagged" with arbitrary words or phrases and then the entire file system can be searched by those tags.
OVERLAY - HTaggingOLFS does not implement a file store - It is a "loopback" file system that passes actual file operations to an existing hierarchical file system. HTaggingOLFS simply adds tagging and searching capabilities.
HTaggingOLFS implemented using FUSE, Perl and SQLITE. It's more of a "proof of concept" as the implementor (me) isn't a professional or even really a casual developer -- but is more of an old-school "hacker" cobbling together bits and pieces from here and there to achieve his ends. It ain't pretty, it is kind of elegant, it "generally works". Standard disclaimers apply. I wouldn't use it for commercial production, but for the purposes of the original poster (which is essentially what I use it for), it should work fairly well.
For example, if/mnt/hugeMediaRepository was the mount point of the Overlay File System, Blade Runner could be stored as follows:/mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/BladeRunner:ScottRidley:HarrisonFord:RutgerHauer:SeanYoung:1982:RatedR.m4v
at each upper level of the directory hierarchy, hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/ you would see additional "virtual" subdirectories @ScottRidley @HarrisonFord @RutgerHauer @SeanYoung @1982 @RatedR - based on the tags created when the file was saved. Descending into one of these directories searches for files containing those tags and presents the (1) files in the current real directory associated the tags in the file path, (2) subdirectories that contain files associated the tags in the file path, and (3) "virtual" subdirectories based on tags associated with the tags in the file path.
For example,
If these two files existed:/mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/BladeRunner:ScottRidley:HarrisonFord:RutgerHauer:SeanYoung:1982:RatedR.m4v/mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/drama/AmericanGangster:DenzelWashington:RussellCrowe:ChiwetelEjiofor:RatedR.m4v
listing the directory/mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/@ScottRidley/ would show:
You're assuming that the matrix can only be traversed serially from top left to lower right in a line-by-line fashion.
Assuming that the matrix uses [A-Z,a-z,0-9] as it's base and each of these characters is represented at least once in the list, there are actually 62^1280 passwords of 1280 characters in length, just as if you "randomly" created a 1280 character password using that base. If you limit the password to 64 characters, you still have 62^64 (5.16497386 x 10^114).
The matrix can be traversed using a virtually unlimited number of algorithms (limited only by your ability to remember the algorithm used to traverse the matrix).
The main benefit in using such a matrix is that it provides a crutch to the creation of fairly random passwords. As such, it does limit the number of passwords likely to be used since complex algorithms for traversing the matrix are unlikely to be used. But this isn't necessarily true either. Even if poorly implemented, the password dictionary of the average person would likely be improved to the point where a brute-force attack would be a more reasonable means of attack even if you had access to the original matrix since you don't know what algorithm would be used to traverse it.
In other news... John Cleese and the producers of the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch have been served with a copyright infringement notice from one Caesar Publius who claims that his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hierocles, was the copyright holder of the work and that the Hierocles estate is owed 400 Trillion dollars under the draconian copyright legislation passed by the Ancient Greek senate that calculates damages on an inflationally adjusted basis from the time the work was created, not when the infringement took place. The American copyright lobby has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Mr. Publius which states that the forward looking Greeks knew the importance of protecting intellectual property.
The pursuit of science is predicated on being skeptical (i.e., not believing something is true without adequate evidence) - the real question is, what would falsify this research as proof of evolution? THAT is what needs to be tested. And until that is tested, this is just an interesting factoid.
Religion, on the other hand, is faith based (i.e., the opposite of skepticism). Followers of religion do not need evidence because their beliefs are self-authenticating.
Are you saying we should take it on faith that this is proof that evolution is occurring? Besides the "evolution" hypothesis, what else explains this bacteria's ability to now metabolize citrate?
Count me as one who would say, "Evolve me a giraffe in a petri dish and I'll be impressed."
It's both/and. There are some GREAT teachers who do GREAT work. The entire system needs to be changed which will necessitate a philosophical change. We didn't slide into this in 20 years (more like 200+) and we won't fix it in 3 years. Change like this ends at the legislature, it doesn't begin there.
At the same time you're complaining about more standardized tests, those who claim to represent you are fighting against public funds for schools who are trying to be incubators for new ideas (charter schools, parochial schools, etc.). They are ostensibly worried about their power as leaders of the NEA and the powerful teachers lobby than they really are about students -- most of them haven't set foot in a classroom or dealt with kids in years (if ever). In reality, they don't represent the teacher in the trench who's trying to make a real difference -- they represent themselves and their own big paychecks and their own big pensions and relishing the power that they weild by being able to pick up the phone and have mighty senators, congresscritters, and presidents bow to their will.
I think "public education" is a failed social experiment. It was fine when the school was community oriented and largely unregulated. But now, it ought to be abandoned and the good teachers should put together good schools in ways that benefit the children that attend and the parents should be placed back where they belong as the role of "headmaster of education" for their children. But like an antiquated tax code, the ramifications of dismantling such a huge institution frightens too many and is unlikely to happen.
Being a public school teacher is not an easy task... and it's not made any easier by the "institutions of power" (be it legislatures or powerful political lobby's or even school boards and professional administration). I wish you the best but for your own sake (and in order to really help where you can) get out of "public schools" and work at a GOOD charter school (yes I know there are many bad ones) or parochial school.
"You're unimportant... I don't have time for you." -- and that's the message our kids usually get in public education anyway...
I have to disagree here. I think that problems are all you see in the news about education. Remember, the school that student is in probably has a lot of students who feel completely supported and has teachers working day in and day out to help them succeed.
I'll admit, the statement was somewhat intentionally over-generalized. There are many good teachers and good administrators -- and those that are good aren't newsworthy.
However, I think you'll agree that the U.S. education system is based on the "assembly line" model. The students are raw materials, we send them through the different machines (classes) and do different things to them ("educate them") and when they're out, they're a "finished product." My (admittedly anecdotal) personal experience bares this out... and it's even worse in higher education (i.e. College).
In school, if a kid "doesn't fit the mold," there is really very little time to spend -- and most of the effort is geared to making them fit the mold (think ADD/ADHD drugs, "resource rooms," etc.). In this system, teachers have only 1 year to discern, diagnose and begin working with a kid before they "move on." There isn't time to establish the relationship and trust necessary to effect a real difference.
This STARTED with the concept that a kids brain is a "tabula raza" and only got much, much worse when the schools threw out "in loco parentis" and assumed that the "parents are just loco" and began exerting power and authority beyond what they were intended. In some cases, this is justified (pot-head and deadbeat dad who beats their kids -- or even just parents consumed with making a buck and not interested in truly being a parent [i.e. kid as social status]). However, where parents are doing their job, the kids will very often hear one thing about how the universe works at home and something else at school (Think: Kitzmiller v. Dover).
Public schools have become a major experiment in social engineering which kow-tows to the latest political whims rather than truly educating children... Rather than teaching HOW to read, write, do arithmatic, and generally "think." The main portion of the curriculum dictates the answers to questions which continue to be debated (condoms v. abstinence, evolution v. creation, god exists v. god doesn't exist, Allah and YHWH are the same v. they aren't). Intelligent people disagree about many, many things. But in schools, where everything is "choose the right answer, a - b - c - or d" -- when you choose the "wrong" answer, your grade (and thus your future) suffers.
We need to stop screwing kids up in public schools -- if parents want to screw them up and fill their head with zany ideas -- that's their own problem. But when we as a society decide to do it, we all become culpable. While it may "take a village to raise a child," the "chief" of THAT village should be the parent of the child, not some looney government buracrat more interested in his paycheck, funding, and how well he is liked by the teachers union than in actually educating our children. Not some group with a political agenda -- and it certainly should not be handled by those pandering for PAC money and running for re-election.
I think there's more than just the Columbine reference here...
did you stop to think that maybe this will make parents angry that you are bullying their children around? did you ever stop to think that maybe now you really are going to have a threat on your hands now that you have just pissed off kids for voicing their opinions? did you ever stop to think this will start a community backlash? The kids at Columbine did what they did because they were bullied.
Granted, it is a veiled threat, but the veil is quite thin. Break down what he said and you'll get the picture:
1) You have angered people by bullying them. ("...you have just pissed of kids...") 2) When angered, people do bad things. ("...you are really going to have a threat on your hands..." 3) The natives are growing restless ("...this will start a community backlash...") 4) Here's an example of what might happen ("The kids at columbine did what they did because they were bullied.")
No single sentance is a threat, but taken together it's a pretty strong statement. The phrase, "did you ever stop to think..." actually ADD to the threat, not detract. It's saying, "the ball is rolling and you should have thought about that BEFORE... now it's too late, things are in motion." [just think about when your mom and dad used the phrase ---- the deed was done and then you were asked the question, "did you ever stop to think?]
However, even with all of that in mind, angry kids are a part of the educational experience. Often times its because they don't know how to handle the situation in which they find themselves and adults (being the power-hungry overlords that we are) are more interested in covering our butts than we are about teaching kdis appropriate strategies for dealing with anger (eg. accurate, factual, and well written communication with the school administration, school board, or state department of education)...
This level of anger and threat comes when a person feels "boxed in" in a situation... and often, the adults in the situation think they are "mitigating damage" (i.e. covering their butts by not letting negative things be heard about them) by boxing the kid in...
If at the first instance, the administration and/or teachers would have taken the kids concerns (whatever they were) as something that was important to him and showed him appropriate avenues for dealing with it, this whole thing could have been avoided. As it is, they did what adults often do with kids, they said, "You're unimportant... I don't have time for you." -- and that's the message our kids usually get in public education anyway...
Slashdot Mirror
"I told you so" -- or, actually, Mike Macgirvin told us all so. But we were all too busy playing with our toys - or other things - to think about what was happening all around us. This day should have been forseen, fortold, and warned about since the beginning of "big centralized services" ---
OH WAIT -- it was.
Mike's been working on this since his days working on Friendica (before that actually) and he has continued to push forward to provide a truly decentralized, nomadic network that keeps you and your data free from vendor lock in. While everybody has been chasing "market share" and seeking to make the next "Facebook killer," Mike has been building a solution that is far more SOLID than even Berners-Lee's current vaporware.
Hubzilla (and more recently ZAP) with running the ZOT6 protocol (with work on Zot8 already underway!) have been working to deal with this problem for the better part of a decade.
"Nomadic identity" (the ability to host your social media presence, files, data, and just about anything else with multiple different providers on multiple different servers - and log into any of them and continue working if one of them goes down for any reason) has been part of Hubzilla for a LOOONG time.
Now, with Hubzilla version 4.0 just released over the weekend, Hubzilla adds Nomadic Content addressing that separates content addressing from DNS within the ZOT network. Now, if you use Zot, you can move your content to a different server and there are no links to update - your traffic will just follow you to the new location.
The Zot network (called "the GRID") is a completely decentralized network that allows VERY granular access control and privacy options - in a solution that is MIT licensed and runs on a standard LAMP/LEMP stack. And the Hubzilla platform is as easy (I think easier) to extend with addons and custom modules as Wordpress is write plugins for.
The OP SHOULD be a "non-story" as all these challenges have been known for a long time.
The fact that we are lamenting this reality on SlashDot just shows how far we have fallen.
There's already more than a 'reference implementation'. https://hubzilla.org/
"Single Signon" - jump from one web server to another with without needing 100 usernames/passwords.
Social Media - check
Personal Web sites - check
Personal Wiki - check
Personal DAV file server
Personal DAV calendar server
Personal DAV contact server
They even have a shopping cart so a user can set up their own ETSY/EBAY/whatever
If you truly want what Berners-Lee is selling, you don't have to wait for him to criss-cross America and get venture capital to make it happen. It's available now, today, in an opensource platform called Hubzilla. Privacy and access control for all your files, data, and even your social media. All of it can be hosted and stored on a system you own and control. What's more, your account on your system links you to other Hubzilla systems on "the Grid" without even retyping a username and password.
The opensource developers around the world who are working on the project are right now preparing to release version 3.8. It's a real product that real people are already using every day.
*Social Media communication (like Facebook but with better access and privacy controls, no advertising, and if you run your own server or use a server run by someone you know and trust - no way for "big data" companies like Facebook, Google, Twitter and others to vacuum up your data to sell to the highest bidder)
*File storage (like DropBox or Google Drive without the ability of "big data" to read your files and serve you advertising based on their contents)
*Webpage creation
* Wiki
* Events and Calendars
* "Nomadic Identity" (unique to the Zot protocol - allows you to have multiple "copies" of your identity, contacts and data on different servers all constantly kept synchronized - if you primary hub is down for any reason, just log into a copy and continue working exactly where you left off.)
* More!
* All on an extensible platform that allows motivated individuals to create custom solutions and applications on top of the robust ZOT protocol.
Visit https://usezot.net/ to find out more.
TLog - Based specifically on your post, I rolled it up into a publicly consumable form (the tool is in production - but there may have been some errors in the "cleanup" as a public project - so feel free to submit bug reports if you have problems - I did a quick test install, so I'm pretty sure it should work out of the box).
If you wish you could put your todo lists and project notes on 3x5 cards and search/sort them by tags and keywords... this is the tool for you. If you're looking for a flashy UI with drag/drop and where you have to click a million things and scroll around here there and everywhere to put things in the right list, use Trello or something similar. If you want something as simple as pencil and paper, but with searching, editing, sorting... this is the tool for you.
It's being actively developed/maintained for my uses (bug reports and issues and feature requests will be considered - but I didn't create it as a public project, so, honestly, as long as it continues to work for me and my purposes, unless you're willing to issue a pull request or front some $$... only things that are "interesting" to my purposes will be further developed). It is also undergoing expansion for use as a general remote logging tool.
In any event, it's simple and effective - easily purposed for "todo" lists and a million other things.
The constant need to rewrite the lists - and sort through pages and pages of crossed off items everytime I needed to clean things up was irritating. While I like the sentiment - and for quick short term lists, pencil and paper are VERY helpful - it's very difficult to cross reference lists and tasks and items that are related across several pages. And if you have a need to switch contexts regularly (home, job1, job2, etc,) keeping those lists manageable becomes a nightmare - and you spend almost as much time updating your lists as you do getting things done (ok, a bit of an over exaggeration, but it's kind of like those bosses who want time logs of everything and get ticked off that one of the entrys each days is, "spent 15 minutes filling out time log").
Quick, easy, searchable, flexible, self-hosted, and multi-user these are my requirements.... I ended up rolling my own - and ended up VERY happy with it.
Anyone who can set up a publicly accessible webserver running PHP can download it and give it a try. (Working on a public demo - watch the github README for details).
Most apps need an "always on" connection to the web to work correctly - and more often than not are just interface tools to access some datastore on the web. At that point, why not just write a decent JAVASCRIPT app and host it on a web page and save the memory on my phone? There are even datastore solutions for JS now so you can buffer data between your script and the online datastore.
Since we're hawking our own wares.... take a look at this one: tlog the structured logger
Browser based access - self hosted - multi-user - and reminscent of the good old days when we were taught to take notes on 3x5 notecards - one fact per card - but with the added benefit of searchable arbitrary tags. Use it for todo's, project management, shopping lists, or any of a million other things. Fast, responsive, easy. No goofy convoluted interfaces. Type, save, go. Add, delete, edit, search, sort.
Srsly?! At least be nice enough to upvote the parent of a comment like that.... sheesh.
Probably should have logged in before posting... oops.
Note: there's no reason it can't also be modularized to parse the file and look for metadata and add tagging for it as well in some format (assuming there is a perl parser for it)-- although that's beyond what I had needed at the time. Again, I'm no longer a techie in my work-a-day world and merely need/ed a tool for my own purposes which sound very much like the OP.
Sorry for the shameless plug, but I'm really hoping someone picks up on this idea...
A Posix extended attribute solution would be optimal.
I solved it using FUSE + PERL + SQLITE a while ago. More a proof of concept and a tool for myself than a "project" per se. I think it should be portable to other platforms that can use these technologies - and I'm pretty sure most of the majors (including Window$ can).
In any event, take a look at HTaggingOLFS (http://code.google.com/p/htaggingolfs). "Hierarchical Tagging Overlay File System". It overlays the ability to tag files using a simple syntax as part of the file name. The tags that have been associated with files are treated as directories so drilling down with a logical AND is a matter of descending directories. Tag "virtual" directories are obvious because they begin with an @ character. Tags are separated from the main filename by using a colon (:). Thus, adding tags is as simple as naming the file FILENAME:tag1:tag2:tag3.extension the only potential issue in the current implementation is that the extension is assumed to be only a single field (i.e. in FILE.tar.gz, only the .gz would be considered the extension. It would appear as FILE.tar:tag1:tag2:tag3.gz).
It'd be great if someone wanted to work more on it. I'm no longer in the tech world, but at least I've gotten it to the point where you can add tags as you write new files, change existing files to add tags, works in most tools including GUI file managers - although several of them have issues in their "rename" function that don't work properly (notably Nautilus and Thunar). Dolphin works, though.
I really like Zotero for web research - and if everything comes from the web, it can be great. What I don't like is that, aside from Zotero, there's no real good way to access the files from other software (for example, opening Adobe Acrobat and searching through the tagged files in Zotero to find that PDF that I know I have). In order to access stuff, I need to go into Zotero as my file manager first. Then there's the backup issues, data migration issues, and what happens when my Zotero database is over 4 GIG and can't be written to a DVD anymore? Or, what happens if Zotero disappears? Or what about corrupted databases?
Don't get me wrong, Zotero is an EXCELLENT research tool - I've used it and I like it in many respects. But if I'm thinking about LONG TERM storage, resiliance against corruption and future accessibility - I'm not sure it's the best tool for the job.
What I would really like to see/have is a system that allows me to tag files within my filesystem either as I write out the file from my application (i.e., FILE-->Save FILENAME: Basefilename:tag1:tag2:tag3.ext ) or by renaming a file already within my filesystem.
I USED to be in the tech sector as my livelihood and knew about some tools that might help... low and behold, with a combination of FUSE, PERL, and SQLITE, I was able to cobble together something for my purposes... It may or may not be what you're looking for. It's basically a tagging overlay filesystem writen in Perl using FUSE and SQLITE. The difference between this and others (it reuses some code and concepts from StratusFS) is that it is hierarchical. All of your files are not dumped into one big directory, they are tagged within the file system hierarchy underneath.
Since I'm no longer in the tech sector, my dev time is limited and it certainly isn't a "PRODUCT" in the conventional sense. Rather, it's one of those things that "works for me but your mileage may vary". If you're interested, you can find the project at http://code.google.com/p/htaggingolfs/ . I use it to organize a bunch of stuff. It ain't perfect but is a good start - or at least "proof of concept." If any dev types are interested in contributing... drop me a line.
(sorry to repost... forgot to log in...)
Another one to add to the list is HTaggingOLFS (Hierarchical Tagging Overlay File System). HTaggingOLFS adds tagging to an existing hierarchical directory structure and provides "AND" searches of tags.
HIERARCHICAL - most of the tagging file systems (including those noted in parent) were flat - all the files were stored in a single directory. HTaggingOLFS adds tagging capability to an existing file hierarchy.
TAGGING - fairly self explanatory - files can be "semantically tagged" with arbitrary words or phrases and then the entire file system can be searched by those tags.
OVERLAY - HTaggingOLFS does not implement a file store - It is a "loopback" file system that passes actual file operations to an existing hierarchical file system. HTaggingOLFS simply adds tagging and searching capabilities.
HTaggingOLFS implemented using FUSE, Perl and SQLITE. It's more of a "proof of concept" as the implementor (me) isn't a professional or even really a casual developer -- but is more of an old-school "hacker" cobbling together bits and pieces from here and there to achieve his ends. It ain't pretty, it is kind of elegant, it "generally works". Standard disclaimers apply. I wouldn't use it for commercial production, but for the purposes of the original poster (which is essentially what I use it for), it should work fairly well.
For example, if /mnt/hugeMediaRepository was the mount point of the Overlay File System, Blade Runner could be stored as follows: /mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/BladeRunner:ScottRidley:HarrisonFord:RutgerHauer:SeanYoung:1982:RatedR.m4v
at each upper level of the directory hierarchy, hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/ you would see additional "virtual" subdirectories @ScottRidley @HarrisonFord @RutgerHauer @SeanYoung @1982 @RatedR - based on the tags created when the file was saved. Descending into one of these directories searches for files containing those tags and presents the (1) files in the current real directory associated the tags in the file path, (2) subdirectories that contain files associated the tags in the file path, and (3) "virtual" subdirectories based on tags associated with the tags in the file path.
For example,
If these two files existed: /mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/scifi/BladeRunner:ScottRidley:HarrisonFord:RutgerHauer:SeanYoung:1982:RatedR.m4v /mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/drama/AmericanGangster:DenzelWashington:RussellCrowe:ChiwetelEjiofor:RatedR.m4v
listing the directory /mnt/hugeMediaRepository/Movies/@ScottRidley/ would show:
@HarrisonFord/
@RutgerHauer/
@SeanYoung/
@1982/
@RatedR/
@DenzelWashington/
@RussellCrowe/
@ChiwetelEjiofor/
scifi/
drama/
More info can be found at: http://code.google.com/p/htaggingolfs/
Umm.. your calculations are a bit off.
You're assuming that the matrix can only be traversed serially from top left to lower right in a line-by-line fashion.
Assuming that the matrix uses [A-Z,a-z,0-9] as it's base and each of these characters is represented at least once in the list, there are actually 62^1280 passwords of 1280 characters in length, just as if you "randomly" created a 1280 character password using that base. If you limit the password to 64 characters, you still have 62^64 (5.16497386 x 10^114).
The matrix can be traversed using a virtually unlimited number of algorithms (limited only by your ability to remember the algorithm used to traverse the matrix).
The main benefit in using such a matrix is that it provides a crutch to the creation of fairly random passwords. As such, it does limit the number of passwords likely to be used since complex algorithms for traversing the matrix are unlikely to be used. But this isn't necessarily true either. Even if poorly implemented, the password dictionary of the average person would likely be improved to the point where a brute-force attack would be a more reasonable means of attack even if you had access to the original matrix since you don't know what algorithm would be used to traverse it.
In other news... John Cleese and the producers of the Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch have been served with a copyright infringement notice from one Caesar Publius who claims that his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hierocles, was the copyright holder of the work and that the Hierocles estate is owed 400 Trillion dollars under the draconian copyright legislation passed by the Ancient Greek senate that calculates damages on an inflationally adjusted basis from the time the work was created, not when the infringement took place. The American copyright lobby has filed an amicus brief on behalf of Mr. Publius which states that the forward looking Greeks knew the importance of protecting intellectual property.
The pursuit of science is predicated on being skeptical (i.e., not believing something is true without adequate evidence) - the real question is, what would falsify this research as proof of evolution? THAT is what needs to be tested. And until that is tested, this is just an interesting factoid.
Religion, on the other hand, is faith based (i.e., the opposite of skepticism). Followers of religion do not need evidence because their beliefs are self-authenticating.
Are you saying we should take it on faith that this is proof that evolution is occurring? Besides the "evolution" hypothesis, what else explains this bacteria's ability to now metabolize citrate?
Count me as one who would say, "Evolve me a giraffe in a petri dish and I'll be impressed."
It's both/and. There are some GREAT teachers who do GREAT work. The entire system needs to be changed which will necessitate a philosophical change. We didn't slide into this in 20 years (more like 200+) and we won't fix it in 3 years. Change like this ends at the legislature, it doesn't begin there. At the same time you're complaining about more standardized tests, those who claim to represent you are fighting against public funds for schools who are trying to be incubators for new ideas (charter schools, parochial schools, etc.). They are ostensibly worried about their power as leaders of the NEA and the powerful teachers lobby than they really are about students -- most of them haven't set foot in a classroom or dealt with kids in years (if ever). In reality, they don't represent the teacher in the trench who's trying to make a real difference -- they represent themselves and their own big paychecks and their own big pensions and relishing the power that they weild by being able to pick up the phone and have mighty senators, congresscritters, and presidents bow to their will. I think "public education" is a failed social experiment. It was fine when the school was community oriented and largely unregulated. But now, it ought to be abandoned and the good teachers should put together good schools in ways that benefit the children that attend and the parents should be placed back where they belong as the role of "headmaster of education" for their children. But like an antiquated tax code, the ramifications of dismantling such a huge institution frightens too many and is unlikely to happen. Being a public school teacher is not an easy task... and it's not made any easier by the "institutions of power" (be it legislatures or powerful political lobby's or even school boards and professional administration). I wish you the best but for your own sake (and in order to really help where you can) get out of "public schools" and work at a GOOD charter school (yes I know there are many bad ones) or parochial school.
I'll admit, the statement was somewhat intentionally over-generalized. There are many good teachers and good administrators -- and those that are good aren't newsworthy.
However, I think you'll agree that the U.S. education system is based on the "assembly line" model. The students are raw materials, we send them through the different machines (classes) and do different things to them ("educate them") and when they're out, they're a "finished product." My (admittedly anecdotal) personal experience bares this out... and it's even worse in higher education (i.e. College).
In school, if a kid "doesn't fit the mold," there is really very little time to spend -- and most of the effort is geared to making them fit the mold (think ADD/ADHD drugs, "resource rooms," etc.). In this system, teachers have only 1 year to discern, diagnose and begin working with a kid before they "move on." There isn't time to establish the relationship and trust necessary to effect a real difference.
This STARTED with the concept that a kids brain is a "tabula raza" and only got much, much worse when the schools threw out "in loco parentis" and assumed that the "parents are just loco" and began exerting power and authority beyond what they were intended. In some cases, this is justified (pot-head and deadbeat dad who beats their kids -- or even just parents consumed with making a buck and not interested in truly being a parent [i.e. kid as social status]). However, where parents are doing their job, the kids will very often hear one thing about how the universe works at home and something else at school (Think: Kitzmiller v. Dover).
Public schools have become a major experiment in social engineering which kow-tows to the latest political whims rather than truly educating children... Rather than teaching HOW to read, write, do arithmatic, and generally "think." The main portion of the curriculum dictates the answers to questions which continue to be debated (condoms v. abstinence, evolution v. creation, god exists v. god doesn't exist, Allah and YHWH are the same v. they aren't). Intelligent people disagree about many, many things. But in schools, where everything is "choose the right answer, a - b - c - or d" -- when you choose the "wrong" answer, your grade (and thus your future) suffers.
We need to stop screwing kids up in public schools -- if parents want to screw them up and fill their head with zany ideas -- that's their own problem. But when we as a society decide to do it, we all become culpable. While it may "take a village to raise a child," the "chief" of THAT village should be the parent of the child, not some looney government buracrat more interested in his paycheck, funding, and how well he is liked by the teachers union than in actually educating our children. Not some group with a political agenda -- and it certainly should not be handled by those pandering for PAC money and running for re-election.
[OK... I think I'm done ranting... for now...]
Granted, it is a veiled threat, but the veil is quite thin. Break down what he said and you'll get the picture:
1) You have angered people by bullying them. ("...you have just pissed of kids...")
2) When angered, people do bad things. ("...you are really going to have a threat on your hands..."
3) The natives are growing restless ("...this will start a community backlash...")
4) Here's an example of what might happen ("The kids at columbine did what they did because they were bullied.")
No single sentance is a threat, but taken together it's a pretty strong statement. The phrase, "did you ever stop to think..." actually ADD to the threat, not detract. It's saying, "the ball is rolling and you should have thought about that BEFORE... now it's too late, things are in motion." [just think about when your mom and dad used the phrase ---- the deed was done and then you were asked the question, "did you ever stop to think?]
However, even with all of that in mind, angry kids are a part of the educational experience. Often times its because they don't know how to handle the situation in which they find themselves and adults (being the power-hungry overlords that we are) are more interested in covering our butts than we are about teaching kdis appropriate strategies for dealing with anger (eg. accurate, factual, and well written communication with the school administration, school board, or state department of education)...
This level of anger and threat comes when a person feels "boxed in" in a situation... and often, the adults in the situation think they are "mitigating damage" (i.e. covering their butts by not letting negative things be heard about them) by boxing the kid in...
If at the first instance, the administration and/or teachers would have taken the kids concerns (whatever they were) as something that was important to him and showed him appropriate avenues for dealing with it, this whole thing could have been avoided. As it is, they did what adults often do with kids, they said, "You're unimportant... I don't have time for you." -- and that's the message our kids usually get in public education anyway...