Mar 2002
Wed, 27 Mar 2002
Wall Street Embraces Linux
Merrill Lynch on Linux [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]
Posted at: 20:45 | permalink
It's my birthday, I can cry if I want to!
Last weekend I took a trip to Dayton, OH. On the way home, I was driving through Martins Ferry, OH when I was suddenly in the specter of a small town police officer wielding a radar gun. I was running about 70 MPH through the small town before I lifted my foot off the gas. His partner down the road pulled out behind me and turned on his lights, I complied. He walked up to the window, explained that I was going 65 MPH in a 50 MPH zone and proceeded to write the $110 ticket.
This was not a revelation to me as I've been stopped many times over the years for eliciting similar behavior. I used to be a card-carrying member of the national motorists association whose goals were to change public policy regarding speed limits and to change public opinion regarding the cause of accidents being related to speed differential between cars and not speed per se.
What blew me away as I drove away from Martins Ferry was the mass quantity of police that I passed in the next hour of driving across south eastern ohio and southwestern PA. I began to feel like I was in a police state. In every case, there were radar guns, vascar lines, and the usual stupefied looks from passers by. I began to think, how many things could small-town police do to stop crime, without resorting to speed traps. I believe the answer is that there are quite a few things. For instance, they could shoot kids who have their fenders rattling in the wind due to the gigantic subwoofer mounted in the trunk.
The modern day small town police department as revenue generator is alive and well in the US. Isn't it sad that small towns have to resort to this to make money? I'm glad my town doesn't make a habit of it.
Posted at: 20:35 | permalink
Marc Fleury and Nathalie Mason from JBoss Group on Greg Wilkins and MortBay consulting (author of Jetty)
"The second reason for our dissatisfaction with Apache has to do with problems in the 3.2 version of Tomcat (the new one is better). When those problems arose, we grew close to Jetty, a competing open source project backed by MortBay Consulting in Australia. We met these guys, spent time with them, and we found there were a lot of similarities—they are a husband-and-wife-led company dedicated to their product because it is their business. It just happens that we relate better to people with goals and expectations similar to ourselves --dedicated independent professionals. JBoss Group is about supporting and promoting that way of life and work, which, in our opinion, is conducive to the development of great software."
Here's the remainder of the article. [ONJAVA]
Posted at: 20:13 | permalink
Tue, 26 Mar 2002
Dan Gillmor: The future kings of all media
Mercury News | 03/23/2002 | Dan Gillmor: Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand . [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:26 | permalink
Sun, 24 Mar 2002
More on the recording industry dilemma
Dave Winer says, "
Fraase's Elephant Dance essay linked to yesterday is getting a lot of interesting comment. It's cool that Michael is collating the discussion. To Glenn, who liked my story about talent and Dan Gillmor, I've seen countless companies win or lose on the quality and commitment of the talent. Too many times the suits swoop in, resentful of the role talent plays, and screw the whole thing up. I was part of one of those disasters, Visicorp, as was Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston and Mitch Kapor. Mitch had a great story to go with the mess. He said the corporate types treated the talent with as much respect as Nine-Lives treated Morris The Cat. Bring the pussy cat in to the meeting. Meow. Nice kitty. Now shut up." 
[Scripting News]
Posted at: 12:55 | permalink
Jaco - The Early Years
I picked up a copy of Jazz Times this month and they had an interesting retrospective about Jaco Pastorius. There's a website that describes the new (old) recording. This includes a lot of tapes from before he hit the big time with Weather Report. I'm gonna have to get this one. Now, if record companies would just make more stuff like this, they might be able to stay in business. ;-> I can only imagine what minidisc bootleg gems people have laying around right now that may wind up forming a record like this 30 years from now. Cool.
Posted at: 12:52 | permalink
Thu, 21 Mar 2002
Drive-Thru Morgue
Drive-Thru Morgue Could I get a billboard with my gravestone? [Guardian Unlimited]
Posted at: 08:56 | permalink
Is Corpse Illustrated coming to the US?
BBC News | ARTS | Corpse show in the UK This looks like fun. [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 08:07 | permalink
Jeff Tain Watts Three Nights
Jeff Tain Watts Three Nights of Percussion Dave Budway turns up at Lincoln Center. I haven't seen Dave since the Mellon Jazz Festival in the mid 90's (before it started sucking). I wondered what was up with him. Now I know. I'm assuming the connection between Tain Watts and Budway is all about Pittsburgh but who knows. I'd love to be at this show. [eJazzNews.com]
Posted at: 07:53 | permalink
Wed, 20 Mar 2002
I thought Joachim Kempin was an idiot
I thought Joachim Kempin was an idiot the first time I read of his arrest. After seeing this article, my only question is whether he's any smarter than a redneck mullet. [The Register]
Posted at: 11:28 | permalink
Red Hat Posts Profit Before Charges
Red Hat Posts Profit Before Charges, but Sales Fall. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc. (RHAT.O) on Tuesday posted a bigger fourth quarter net loss, but excluding charges the Linux operating system provider turned a slight profit, meeting Wall Street expectations despite reporting lower than anticipated sales. By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology]
Posted at: 09:53 | permalink
Improving the usability of Radio Userland's news page
I think that posting articles from the news page in Radio Userland would be much smoother if the checkboxes to the left of each article could be used to post in the same fashion that they're currently used to delete. That is, with a post button near the delete button. This is a typical interaction model on the web, one that I'm surprised has not been copied here.
The individual post buttons provide no incremental value beyond indicating whether the article has been posted. That behavior could continue in a similar vein. I just think I could post more articles quickly if I could do it in one button click. Then I could annotate them together as well.
BTW, this occurred to me after I subscribed to a bunch of the NY Times stuff that Dave Winer pushed out today. Boy, was that long overdue. I was suffering through the various attempts to syndicate that content and it wasn't working very well. Userland's syndication kills. Thanks Dave! Did I mention that I never met a guy named Dave that I didn't like? I call it the Dave club.
Posted at: 09:49 | permalink
Go google! These guys are so
Go google! These guys are so likable, it's hard to believe they're in Silicon Valley. [MSNBC]
Posted at: 06:46 | permalink
Sat, 16 Mar 2002
More on the digital media
More on the digital media battle Piracy, or Innovation? ... fight between eisner and steve jobs [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 07:52 | permalink
CNET.com Soundbug turns flat surface into speakers [(
CNET.com Soundbug turns flat surface into speakers [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:38 | permalink
BBC News: MS Windows in every room
BBC News MS Windows in every room [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:34 | permalink
Ultimate Flash Face Make your own
Ultimate Flash Face Make your own mugshot [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:29 | permalink
Drop a 25 megaton bomb
Drop a 25 megaton bomb on your house. [PBS]
Posted at: 06:17 | permalink
New Scientist Rejection massively reduces IQ
New Scientist Rejection massively reduces IQ [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:15 | permalink
CNN.com Dachshund survives after bald eagle
CNN.com Dachshund survives after bald eagle carries it off [( blogdex : recent )]
Posted at: 06:00 | permalink
Fri, 15 Mar 2002
Thoreau's genius revealed on the web
I don't think Thoreau could have foreseen quite how his words would ring so true more than a century into the future.
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things." (Thoreau.)
I've been ruminating on the intertwined conversations that various people have had regarding why folks write weblogs and I've concluded that most of what I've seen is just describing the surface; the tip of the iceberg, if you will. I've been having a conversation with my cousin, who has published two books, and writes a series of email and web-published guitar lessons for beginners. He gets a lot of email from the folks that take his guitar course explaining in considerable detail how the lessons have impacted their lives for the better, and that impact is deep.
When someone picks up the guitar for the first time at 35, I think there's a trend going on there that's not fundamentally different from the force that provokes people to write weblogs. That trend is heralding in a form of what Ray Ozzie describes in The Age of Spiritual Machines. The internet-connected device becomes the spiritual conduit to people's connection to humanity, whether that's playing the guitar, writing, or any other form of self-expression. There's a deeply spiritual, soulful, communal impetus to the entire process. I believe that longing for community, soulfulness, and spirituality is a natural outcome of our retreat into the tech lifestyle.
And no, I'm not a religious zealot.
Posted at: 16:31 | permalink
Thu, 14 Mar 2002
Andy Grove weighs in on digital media
That brought an angry retort from Andrew S. Grove, the chairman of Intel. "Is it the responsibility of the world at large to protect an industry whose business model is facing a strategic challenge?" he said in an interview. "Or is it up to the entertainment industry to adapt to a new technical reality and a new set of consumers who want to take advantage of it?"
Go Andy!
Hollywood vs High Tech. Great piece! [Scripting News]
Posted at: 17:36 | permalink
Filipowski on Divine's stock price
divine's Flip Filipowski says, "Our stock will be significantly above a dollar." Ouch. [IDG InfoWorld]
Posted at: 17:13 | permalink
IT dweebs protecting their job
Posted at: 07:34 | permalink
Tue, 12 Mar 2002
PDA development heats up
The specs on this announcement alone suggest that future PDA development is getting serious. Very serious. The one remaining hole is battery life. Once a marginally useful battery life is achieved, I'd predict that these would sell like hotcakes. [ZDNET]
Posted at: 08:07 | permalink
RIAA is at it again
Jeezus, the ? The numbers in this report are simply staggering, unbelievable, illogical.
Canada to Raise Tariffs on Recordable Media [Slashdot]
Posted at: 07:44 | permalink
Thu, 07 Mar 2002
Volkswagen Phaeton: 420 HP
When I first saw the numbers, meaning $$$, I said, "Who's gonna buy it"? When I saw the other numbers, meaning horsepower, I said, "Who won't buy it?"
Estimated MSRP: $48,000 USD.
Posted at: 22:09 | permalink
CA hit with class-action lawsuits
CA hit with flurry of class-action lawsuits Yessir, and that's the way it should be! [IDG InfoWorld]
Posted at: 19:05 | permalink
Wed, 06 Mar 2002
Ahh, the wonders of reggae
Did a reggae demo in the studio tonight. Actually, it wasn't too bad. The songwriter had a catchy lyric, similar to a jimmy buffet song. I just put the usual police rhythmic spin on it along with a little faked up zydeco washboard effect and voila! It was a done deal.
Posted at: 23:37 | permalink
Tue, 05 Mar 2002
Oracle on Solaris: not an impenetrable fortress
Interesting day today - blew up the Solaris box running Oracle 8i at work. It's kinda funny how a little regression test with concurrency running through a java app server that's not closing connections to Oracle brings the house down. The Oracle box got to 750 processes before it decided to lock everybody out, and I do mean EVERYBODY. One of the dba's did some magic to bring it back from the dead. Fragile. Surprisingly fragile. I thought it was ironic given that most folks assume that if you run Oracle on Solaris you're as good as gold. I'm betting on Postgres on Linux.
Posted at: 23:19 | permalink
Posting to radio via Kyocera SmartPhone
I've been posting to radio from my kyocera smartphone using eudora mail via the palm interface over a wireless connection ever since I got radio installed but I didn't think it was newsworthy. I guess I was wrong...
Sean Gallagher: "I am blogging from my WAP phone now - by email." [Scripting News]
Posted at: 23:06 | permalink
Getting an education in URL rewriting
Finally an end to URL rewriting. I happened upon Ralf Engelschall's guide to mod_rewrite in apache and fast-forwarded to the canonical hostnames section. I got a usable result. The browser asks for www.domain.com, gets a redirect to ip_address:port, then apache rewrites it as domain.com:port. Not ideal, but workable.
Posted at: 22:58 | permalink
URL cloaking unveiled
Sigh. After a lot of jerking around, I discovered the cause of a problem that I documented on radio.userland.com a few weeks (a month?) ago. That problem is simple to state: weblogs.com did not see the updates when it was pinged after I had posted to my weblog. I had a rather lengthy discussion about this with several individuals who said that frames were the problem. The difficulty that I had was that I'm not using frames. I do, however, use DNS2GO and today I discovered the source of the frames: DNS2GO has a little feature called URL cloaking which, if you read the fine print, says "uses frames". I turned off URL cloaking and voila! the pings to weblogs.com are working again.
One problem that I encountered in trying to track down my original post on radio.userland.com was that the discussion group is not easily searchable for posts that have scrolled off the main discussion page and indeed, after you hit the search link, you're given search options to search everything BUT radio.userland.com. Sigh again. I just wanted to doc the source of my problems so that others could learn from my mistake.
Phew!
Posted at: 09:50 | permalink
YahooGroups outage
YahooGroups has been down for most of the last 24 hours, bringing much of our work to a halt, of course, at the worst possible time. News.Com ran an article, but it doesn't offer much detail on the source of the outage or an ETA. They're merging YahooGroups with their chat communities. [Scripting News]
Posted at: 09:38 | permalink
Volkswagen introduces the $48,400 Phaeton.
Volkswagen introduces the $48,400 Phaeton. I can't imagine they're going to sell very many of these. It'll be an interesting test of the market and branding here and abroad. [MSNBC]
Posted at: 08:36 | permalink
Mon, 04 Mar 2002
Kevin Altis lists WSDL analyzers
Kevin Altis lists WSDL analyzers and validators. [Scripting News]
Posted at: 22:29 | permalink
Tech stocks dominant despite dot com downturn
The Cult of Value and Big Winners. Despite massive losses the last two years, most of the decade's biggest winners were in technology. [The Motley Fool]
Posted at: 22:19 | permalink
