Matt Croydon::Postneo

Author: Matt Croydon

  • Apache Newsletter #1

    The Apache Newsletter, a top-level “what’s going on” style newsletter, edited by Tetsuya Kitahata, is extremely informative.  Here’s a quick rundown:

    This newsletter is an excellent idea.  I don’t think I’ve seen so much information about the various Apache projects in one place before.  Hopefully the next newsletter will be even more informative!

    Quick request: an RSS feed, please.  I don’t need the complete text, I’d just like to know when the sucker updates.  Thanks to Ted Leung for the link.

  • More Than One Way To Skin A Cat

    Infoworld:

    Microsoft Corp. has pulled the WindowsUpdate.com Internet address in an effort to thwart an attack on its systems by computers infected with the Blaster worm, the company said Friday.

    MS: We’ll show that worm that we can beat it.  Let’s take our site down.

    Worm: Mission accomplished.

  • Apache Cocoon 2.1 Release

    TSS:

    The release of the long-awaited 2.1 version of Cocoon on August 13th marks the transition from a publishing-oriented XML/XSLT server engine towards a componentized XML-based web application development framework.

    The Cocoon news page has a little more information.  Keep an eye on Matthew Langham‘s blog, as he might have some more info in the near future.  Also be sure to be glued to the Cocoon Dev Blogs.

  • My Colocated Box Is Down Again

    My colo box has been down for most of the afternoon.

    It’s definately not my box, as www.coloco.com has been unreachable most of the afternoon.

    I might swing by in the morning to see what’s up if it’s not fixed by then.

    Mail is bouncing, but at least I don’t have any production stuff on that box yet.

    Hopefully it’s a network outage and not a power outage, as I’d rather not loose my 70 or so days of uptime.

  • Most Reliable Web Hosts Still Run FreeBSD

    Netcraft has released this months list of most reliable web hosting companies.  Here are the top five: USWest, Cable & Wireless, Hypermart, Pair Networks, OLM.  FreeBSD is still king:

    Following June, when the top five hosting company sites with fewest failed requests were all running FreeBSD, FreeBSD is again disproportionately represented at the top of the table with five of the top 10 and seven of the top 13 sites running that operating system, but in other respects the Top 10 again come from all segments of the industry from shared hosting through to high end colocation services.

  • PocketFeed 0.6

    PocketFeed got a nice writeup at Pocket PC Thoughts.

  • New Itty Bitty Sony Cybershot DSC-U50

    DPReview lets loose a Sony press release about the DSC-U50:

    Sony has today announced the ultra-compact and stylish Cybershot DSC-U50. This $250 compact digital camera has a rotating lens element with a fixed focal length lens and a two megapixel CCD. The DSC-U50 is the first Sony Cybershot to record images to the smaller MemoryStick Duo format, so far only used on PDA’s and mobile phones. The press release also makes note of a new ‘Memory Stick Duo Pro’, something we’ve not heard of before.

    I’m not sure how tiny it is, but I’m an extremely happy user of the DSC-U20, and it’ll have to be microscopic for me to think about picking it up.  It does take the Memory Stick Duo format, which means that it has the potential to by tiny!

  • Roundup: I’d Rather Be Whistling In The Dark

    TMBG:

    There’s only one thing that I know how to do well
    And I’ve often been told that you only can do
    What you know how to do well
    And that’s be you,
    Be what you’re like,
    Be like yourself,
    And so I’m having a wonderful time
    But I’d rather be whistling in the dark

    And on that note, cue the roundup:

    • Via Hack the Planet, RFCola: “We describe a market mechanism for providing incentive for the review of IETF documents. Reviewers would be “paid” by the IESG to for their reviews. In turn, document authors would need to “pay” the IESG to take up their documents. This mechanism rewards reviewers for their reviews, thus (hopefully) increasing the quantity and quality of reviews.”
    • Guido Speaks at O’Reillynet: “Also I will have time carved out in my regular work week to work on Python. So I’m pretty hopeful that once the dust of the move has settled, say in mid-August or so, I will have enough time for Python.”
    • Rob Flickenger wonders exactly how secure your wireless network is.  I’ve got more to say on this, but I’ll save that for later.
    • Mono 0.26 is out.  New in this release is Cairo support, Corba remoting, and sports a managed XSLT engine.  This release also boosts Windows.Forms, compilation speeds, web services, and other goodies.  Scan the release notes for more.
    • Someone give Sean Bonner a job, mmkay?
    • This hot microbe can survive heat at 121 Celcius.  Wow!
    • Was it a lightning strike that cause the power outage?

  • Blackout Moblog

    Via Jeremy, the Blackout Moblog is absolutely classic.

  • Power Outages

    Thanks to a heads up by the chaps in #mobitopia, The Washington Post:

    NEW YORK – A massive power outage swept across swaths of the eastern United States and Canada on Thursday, leaving sections of New York City, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto without electricity, witnesses said.

    Film at 11, but this definately doesn’t strike me as a good thing, regardless of why it is happening.

    Similar coverage can be had at CNN.

    BBC News is providing better coverage than stateside news outlets, as usual.

  • Chiba and Boa Constructor

    Chiba 0.9:

    Chiba is an Java implementation of the upcoming W3C XForms standard. This release is now about 90% feature compatible with the new Proposed Recommendation and adds DOM Event support, Dependency Recalculation, improved and simplified rendering, request parameter mapping and a complete reworked object-model.

    Boa Constructor: 0.2.6 in CVS:

    Since the 0.2.3 release, the following major features were added (and are available in CVS): Sizers; Support for sub-menus and separators; Alternative image handling with wxPython.tools.img2py modules; Support for BicycleRepairMan; Help projects; and Improved plug-in preferences/settings handling. Boa Constructor, SourceForge.net’s August Project of the Month, is a RAD GUI-building IDE for wxPython.

     

  • Opteron Ultimate Linux Box

    Linux Journal’s Ultimate Linux Box runs on Opterons.  If money were no object, so would mine.

  • Apache Ant 1.5.4

    Apache Ant 1.5.4, the last version that will support JDK 1.1, is out.  Go grab it.

    Yes, Erik has already blogged it.  It is by definition “so earlier this morning”.

  • test.py: Self-Testing Test Script Runner

    Garth Kidd has introduced a self testing test script runner called test.py.  It tests itself and makes sure that the modules for your tests can be imported before testing.

    Bravo!

  • 10 Python Pitfalls

    10 Python Pitfalls was pointed out by several people last night and early this morning.  I’ll read up on it later, but a quick skim looks promising.

  • Wi-Fi Wants to Be Free

    It’s true.  Paul Botin’s piece in Wired about free Wi-Fi access has been making the rounds lately, but a title from the Seattle Post Intelligencer’s weblog says it like it is:

    Wi-Fi wants to be free.

  • Nikon Coolpix 3100: Don’t Buy

    DPReview:

    Just posted! Our full in-depth review of Nikon’s entry-level zoom Coolpix 3100. This three megapixel three times optical zoom digital camera was announced at PMA earlier this year and is aimed at beginners or those on a budget, it’s pocket sized proportions and cute rounded styling make it a great go anywhere camera which won’t break the bank. Read the full review to see how the Coolpix 3100 performed in our tests.

    I would personally advise against purchasing a Nikon Coolpix 3100: It runs on one really expensive, non-rechargable, CR-V3 battery.  You of course have the option of purchasing seperately rechargable NiMH AA batteries, but at the $299 price range, a digital camera should include a rechargable Lithium Ion battery.

    Using non-rechargable CR-V3’s is a recent trend that doesn’t make me very happy.  It screws the consumer while allowing the manufacturer to lower the all-important price point another few bucks.  A single CR-V3 battery can cost over $15 here in Washington, DC.  For $15 you can get anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour or so of usage.

    It’s not just Nikon.  Some recent models that I’ve seen from Samsung, Olympus (they make one that requires TWO CR-V3’s!), Kodak, Pentax, and others use this non-rechargable battery.

    Make it stop.

  • Slow

    Wow, windowsupdate.microsoft.com is really slow tonight for some reason…

  • Amok! Amok! Amok!

    Symantec has released a quick and easy fix for the nasty little worm running amok.

  • Google Calculator

    Via Dave Winer, the Google Calculator rocks.  Of course it handles all the weird an imaginary numbers quite well:

    …And much fun was had by all.