Matt Croydon::Postneo

Year: 2003

  • Roundup: Athlon64, G5, Wireless, Java, Python, Storage, and Design (Oh My!)

    I really need to automate this:

    • CNet: AMD is set to unveil the Athlon64 tomorrow.  Meanwhile, Athlon XP prices are becoming more and more attractive.
    • Emmanuel needs more memory.  Don’t we all?
    • Macworld has more coverage of Virginia Tech’s G5 supercomputer.  Hopefully the cluster will be up and running by October 1 so they can make the next Top500 list.
    • Newsforge covers the ratification of SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 1.1.
    • They’re having problems with Linux on Opteron over at OSNews.  Hopefully Linux on x86-64 will be ready for primetime soon.  The desktop chips are coming.
    • Wi-Fi Networking News reports that Boston-Logan aiport will have Wi-Fi by next summer.  When will they be done with the Big Dig?
    • Clustered JDBC 1.0beta11 is out.  There are lots of fixes in this release.
    • Python releases:
      • pyTerra allows you to download images from Terraserver the Python way.
      • Twisted 1.0.7 is out, along with 1.0.8alpha2.
      • PyTables, a “hierarchical database for Python” turns 0.7.2 today.
    • Wei-Meng Lee at the O’Reilly DevCenter shows us how to share files with Bluetooth under Windows XP.
    • Jabber news: JEP-0079: Advanced Message Processing is nearing its final version.
    • CNet notes that Network Appliance is selling cheap storage gear: starting around $10k.
    • Zeldman has a design-related roundup today.
    • CGI:IRC rocks (thanks to Frank for the link).  There’s another thing that I can do in any browser now.

  • Catchup Roundup

    I’ve lost some links over the long weekend with and without power.  Here’s what I’ve gathered this morning:

    • Linux on the WRT54G 0.2: put the penguin on your access point.
    • El Reg: G4 iBook? (via #mobitopia)
    • Rawdog, my current RSS aggregator or choice, has been updated to version 1.3.
    • Dealnews: An intel gigabit PCI card for $33.  Not bad at all.
    • Via OSNews, informIT covers installing and using GCC under Linux.  There are examples of compiling ASM, Objective C, Java, and others with GCC.
    • Noble Ape Simulation “creates a random island environment and simulates the ape inhabitants of the island’s cognitive processes.”
    • Reuters/Washington Post: “Galileo Probe Ends in Deliberate Dive”
    • CNN covers Swen, the latest email worm.  I’ve had a few in the last couple of days.  Symantec has more information.
    • The 2004 Nissan Quest is a sweet minivan.  3.5 litre V6, agressive styling (for a minivan), sunroofs galore, dual-screen display in the back (for $1900).  Prices range from $24k base to $38k tricked  out.
    • PyBackend 0.1 is “a relational database backed object development framework written
      in python and released under GNU Library General Public License.”
    • Knoppix STD is based on Knoppix with a focus on security tools.

  • Post-Hurricane

    My box at home was down from Thursday afternoon until late yesterday evening due to a power outage.

  • Pre-Hurricane Roundup

    Here is a pre-hurricane roundup for you:

  • PC Expo: A Poor Showing

    Janak Parekh at PocketPC Thoughts went to PC Expo at the Javits Center in New York.

    Janak took some pictures to show exactly how little of the show floor was occupied.  It’s pathetic.

    It’s sad, really.  I used to enjoy a quick roadtrip up to New York City in order to fondle the latest gadgets and tech.  I’m really glad that I decided not to go this year.

    Update: PCWorld has a brief roundup of mobile tech.

  • Hurricane Isabel

    From the 11pm public advisory:

    ALL PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION IN THE HURRICANE WARNING AREA.

    It’s going to be a long couple of days.  More information can be found at NOAA‘s National Hurricane Center.

  • Digital Rebels In Stock!

    According to Imaging Resource, Ritz Camera has Digital Rebel SLRs in stock.

    I knew that Canon had ramped up to get the Digital Rebel out the door as quick as possible, but this is impressive.  They’re set up to slaughter the holliday digital-SLR market.  There really isn’t anything out in the same price range.  The closest you can get are cameras like the Nikon D100, Fuji FinePix S2, or Pentax *ist D, but these are professional-level models.  The Digital Rebel is for soccer moms and dads.

  • OETrends Roundup

    From the recent Open Enterprise Trends newsletter:

  • Jabber 2.7: Corporate Messaging

    Jabber Press Release:

    Jabber, Inc., the leading developer of open architecture for enterprise-and carrier-class presence-enabled communications, including instant messaging (IM), today announced the general availability of the 2.7 release of Jabber™ XCP (eXtensible Communications Platform), Jabber™ Messenger, and Jabber™ WebClient.

    I’ve used the free Jabber client since I started dabbling in XMPP.  The version I used was not quite as complete as others, but it was clean, solid, and “just worked.”  I’ll definately be taking a look at the new client.

    It looks like 2.7 has some major improvements on the server side too, catering mostly to corporate clients.  If you’d just like to tinker with a Jabber/XMPP server, jabber.org has an excellent list of open source server implementations.

    Pertinent links: Jabber Messenger client, Jabber Platform, Extensible IM and Jabber Web Client.

  • XML In Python and PyRSS2Gen

    Uche Ogbuji  wraps up the current state of XML in Python.  There is an extensive list of XML software projects and their status, as well as a roundup of recent and current trends.

    PyRSS2Gen is a new module for producing an RSS 2.0 feed in a pythonic way.

  • Choose Your Crichton Movie

    Wow, we’re flipping channels, and we can choose from THREE Crichton movies:

  • Geekzone.co.nz Bluetooth Guide

    Geekzone.co.nz has a series of useful end-user guides on using Bluetooth in various ways.  There are guides for desktops, laptops, mobiles, and for various ways of connecting them.

  • WebEnvironment.py

    Rick points to WebEnvironment.py by Patrick Lioi.  WebEnvironment.py is a really simple way to use python as a CGI script.  the cgi module is easy enough to use as it is, but WebEnvironment.py allows you to worry about even less.  Writing content out to the client is as easy as server.write(content).  I also like the ability to write out the contents of a file to the user by using server.file("head.html").

  • XMLSpy 2004 and XML in Emacs

    I received an email this afternoon from Altova, announcing the release of XMLSpy 2004.  I evaluated the previous version, which seemed to make dealing with XML on win32 much easier.  It was also quite useful for evaluating XSLT.

    It looks like XMLSpy 2004 has support for editing WSDL, which could be quite useful if applied to platforms with limited or nonexistant WSDL support.

    Along those same lines, xmlhack (via Mark) mentions nXML.  nXML is an open source mode for Emacs that allows “context-sensitive validated editing against Relax NG schemas.”

  • Intel is Wasting Time With 802.11a Centrino

    Infoworld:

    The introduction of the 802.11a version of Intel Corp.’s wireless chip, part of its Centrino mobile package, will be delayed past its expected arrival at the end of the third quarter, an Intel spokesman said Thursday.

    Call me crazy, but 802.11a seemed to be desirable for about 20 minutes.

    Can you use 802.11a at a Starbucks?  What about the thousands of other for-fee access points throughout the world?  How many 802.11a community (read: free) access points are there in the wild?  Does it interoperate With 802.11b or 802.11g?

    I honestly think that Intel would be better off spending their time and money elsewhere, preferably in ramping up their 802.11g efforts.  True, the 5GHz spectrum is a lot less crowded.  However, 802.11a is going to be in competition with the newest cordless phones as 5GHz cordless phones become the next chic tech.  I’m sure other gadgets will find use for the somewhat lonely 5GHz spectrum in the near future.

    This move (and plans to add 802.11g to the chipset) is also seriously diluting the Centrino brand that Intel has spent so much money on creating.  Last week, Centrino meant 802.11b (along with the required audio chipset and other baggage).  This week the wireless portion of Centrino means 802.11b + 802.11a.  Later this year, it is going to mean 802.11b + 802.11a + 802.11g.

    Is anyone else confused?

  • Windows Server 2003 On The Rise

    Netcraft notes an increase in sites hosted on Windows Server 2003:

    Comparing the sites which are now hosted on Windows 2003 with their operating system in January 2003 shows over 42% of these to be new sites, 49% (153K) to be upgrades from other Windows platforms (mainly Windows 2000), 5% (16.5K) to be migrations from Linux and 1% from FreeBSD (3K) and 1% from Solaris (2.5K).

    While the number of sites running on a Windows platform has decreased slightly this month, it is interesting to watch the migration of Win2k and older systems over to 2003.  I’ve found that overall Windows 2000 is pretty stable if you keep it at a production state.  That means NO THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE goes on there unless there’s a showstopping reason.  Windows Updates aside, a well-tuned Win2k box can stay up and running for quite some time.

    I was pleasantly suprised to find that the beta of Windows Server 2003 seemed even more stable than Win2k.  Granted, I just played around with IIS and the other included software and kept it clean otherwise, but I don’t think I had to reboot it for any reason other than swapping out some hardware for the month that I ran it.  Not too shabby at all.

    Now it’s time to switch my KVM and head over to my linux box…

  • Linux Kernel 2.6: An Embedded Perspective

    Brandon White at Linux Devices reports that many of the improvements being made to the 2.6 kernel are benificial to embedded systems.  From a glance, it looks like latency has been cut dramatically in the 2.6 kernel.  This is definately good news to developers of realtime and near-realtime applications.  There are many other improvements in the 2.6 kernel that allow it to operate on very lightweight hardware (MMU-less processors for example) to very high end systems (64GB addressable RAM on a 32 bit architecture).

    The entire article is definately worth reading even if you’re not into embedded systems.  The 2.6 kernel will be good for all machines, big and small.

  • The Eight Cent Rut

    I caught a few minutes of the Jim Lehrer News Hour last night on the radio.  They happened to be discussing the RIAA and music downloaders when I scanned by, so I stayed for awhile.

    What disturbed me is that the arguments do not seem to have changed a bit since I attended a Cato Institute debate on the subject.  On one side of the argument was John Flansburgh (of TMBG).  They’ve been giving away music for free since before mp3’s existed.  On the other side was Chuck Cannon of the Nashville Underground.  He writes music for a living.  He doesn’t tour, so he really can’t afford to give away his music for free.

    Let’s talk about those eight cents for a bit, shall we?

    Did you know that every time a record is sold, the person who wrote it is entitled to eight cents.  If they cowrote it, they are due four cents.  If the song gets published, they get two cents.  I already knew this, because those eight cents were invoked extensively at the Cato debate.  Now you know about those eight cents.

    12 year olds are stealing Mr. Cannon’s eight cents by downloading his music for free rather than paying for it.  We’re going to ignore for a second that music downloaders also tend to purchase more music.  That must not happen in real life, it certainly cannot.

    Eight cents!  Eight cents!

    I’ll admit that it’s at least a halfway valid argument.  Mr. Cannon has got a mortgage to pay.  If I ran into him on the street and heard his eight cent story, I’d probably feel pretty bad for him.  Unfortunately, I’ve heard the eight cent story before, and I’m rather bored of it.  The argument isn’t working, can we move on?

    Chuck Cannon:

    I’m definitely interested in a business model that competes with free. That would be really interesting. I’d like to hear John address that.

    Wait, I’ve heard this one before too.  How the heck are you going to compete with free?  99 cents a song seems to work pretty well.  I hear that they sold over 10 million songs in about 4 months.  The legit way.  The songwriter gets their eight cents.

    As consumers, we’re dying to download music in a legitimate way.  We dislike the RIAA and the recording industry.  We’d like a better way to get straight to the music that we’d like to hear.  We don’t like your many middleman business model.  We don’t like getting ripped off.  We know that downloading is probably the business model of the future, we’re just waiting for you to catch up so we can give you our money.  We’re not going to give you as much money as before, but if you figure out what’s going on, we’d love to give you some.

    I’m actually quite suprised that the debate seems to be almost identical to a year ago, yet the landscape has changed significantly.  It seems to have degraded into your typical Mac vs. PC, nobody is ever going to budge type of argument.

    Well, that’s just my eight cents.

  • Creative Commons Upgrade

    Creative Commons has made their license selection process even easier.

  • A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

    It must be Monday again.  Here’s a collection of links from the weekend: