Day: December 2, 2002

I’ve been sick for the last few days.  I spent this afternoon in bed rather than coding and writing.  I think I’ve been reading too many java.blogs.

Sam Ruby points to an excellent definition of the bikeshed metaphor.  He also offers insight as to how bikeshed discussions are solved at Apache:

The way that these disputes tend to get resolved in Apache is that somebody steps up to the plate and builds the darn thing as best as they can and solicits input in the form of “patches” (tangible suggestions in the form of working code).  The original code provided is generally not important – it tends to get refactored away anyway into oblivion.  What is important is that it focuses discussion into the form of constructive and tangible input.

In this case, I have done exactly that.  List and source.  Patches welcome.

Slashdot reports that there will be a market for desktop 64-bit systems.  As long as pricing for CPU, motherboard, and RAM are what AMD is hinting at, I’ve got two words for ya: Hell Yeah!

Brett Morgan weighs his Zilla in on packet probing:

I forsee a future where all communications, yeah even flippant communications between IM clients, will be secured with ssl or ssh wrapping, just to make sure the damn routers don’t degrade service. I know this is happening at a major Uni that I used to work for, and it took the students all of 2 weeks to figure out what was going on, and ssl tunnel everything.

A very real case of adaption and counter-adaption.

Those music-sharing, movie-trading ssl-tunneling college students!

The New York Times has an article that sheds some light behind the scenes of the myserious Google.  I’ve been known to say phrases like, “Google makes it all better,” or “mmmGoogle,” as well as adding Google to my list of commonly used verbs.  I often have search results from Google before someone is able to finish asking a question.  They track each and every search query, and each is mapped to an IP address.  Does that scare you?  When is the last time you read 1984?

“Google does not comment on the details of legal matters involving Google,” Mr. Brin responded.

Infoworld reports:

A GROUP OF six digital still camera makers and printer vendors, including Sony and Hewlett-Packard, have jointly proposed a new industry standard that allows images recorded by a digital still camera to be printed out without using a computer, they announced on Monday.

The DPS standard — which is a name, not an acronym — is being proposed by Canon, Sony, HP, Fuji Photo Film Co., Olympus Optical Co., and Seiko Epson.

An almost identical story is available at CNet.

Scott Mace speaketh the truth:

The edge of the Internet gets fuzzier: Gartner is predicting deep packet inspection in the next generation of firewalls. Exactly. So all those of you (like David Isenberg) who say that the edge of the Net is where the contents of the packet get looked at, be prepared to either redefine your edge or be resigned to making the firewalls the edge. My opinion: like it or not, the edge is creeping closer to the node originating the service or providing the client. That will force service providers out of the business of providing service, and force the hosting companies and their customers to figure out how to deal with an otherwise decentralized Net.

Serious Instructional Technology points to PKP Open Journal Systems:

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is a journal management and publishing system that has been developed by the Public Knowledge Project through its federally funded efforts to expand and improve access to research. OJS assists with every stage of the refereed publishing process, from submissions through to online publication and indexing. Through its management systems, its finely grained indexing of research, and the context it provides for research, OJS seeks to improve both the scholarly and public quality of referred research.

I know that journal management is a lucrative niche, I wonder how this free app will impact it.

An article on slashdot about Solaris 9 x86 reminded me to download Solaris 9 for Sparc.  The downloads are finished, though I’ll probably have to find my VGA adapter in order to upgrade.

Solaris has always messed with me.  It’s so similar to Linux and the *BSDs, but just different enough to get me in trouble.

CNet:

The Federal Trade Commission has granted approval for IBM to sell its hard-drive business to Hitachi, the companies said Monday.

I thought it was a done deal when it was announced several months ago, but apparently I was wrong.  Details:

The Japanese conglomerate and the U.S. tech giant announced the deal in June. Plans call for a new company to be created, owned 70 percent by Hitachi and 30 percent by IBM. IBM will receive $2.05 billion for the business, which is expected to take three years to transfer. The company would have about 24,000 employees and would be based in San Jose, Calif.

Brett Morgan:

I know, I am showing my age here, but IFoo is sick, depraved, and ugly.