Category: Web Services

I had some extra time to kill before class, so I decided to drop by a Borders on the way. After firing up my aggregator, I found some interesting links:

• CNet covers the offspring of the Opteron.
• CNet also covers the addition of fee-based customer support to the latest rev of Mozilla. There’s nothing wrong with that IMHO.
• Greg Klebus ponders the viability of using a Wiki for technical documentation on a software project.
• Jason Alexander explores the concept of “Mono Aware.”
• BSDatwork notes that OpenBSD 3.4 has begun to ship.
• CNet: Some T-Mobile Sidekicks have faulty hinges.
• Jason Kottke looks at the Segway as a personality tester.
• Slashdot wonders if Bluetooth is dead. I think not. It cites an EETimes article announcing its death. Whutevah!

I apologize in advance if this entry is malformed (from an HTML perspective). I’m putting it together by hand and don’t have a whizzy HTMLArea to double check it.

Pardon the meta-navel-gazing, but I don’t recall hitting the Popdex Top 100 before.

I’m getting ready to hop on the plane. I’m sitting at the gate here at
SFO. There happens to be a closed starbucks about 50 feet behind me.
Luckily they don’t seem to turn off their t-mobile hotspot when they shut
down. This is a good thing, as I have a 2 megabit connection here at the
gate.

Sounds like they’re calling my flight.

It’s going to be weird going from a place like SF which is just awash
with Wi-Fi to the DC area where coverage is spotty at best.

–Matt (SFO, gate 89)

I’m on my laptop. Using Wi-Fi. At McDonald’s. I’m across the street
from Fry’s in Palo Alto. Sometimes technology just RULES!

Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. I’m down in Palo Alto after
doing chowder, Fleet Week featuring the Blue Angels and seeing San
Fransisco with Russ.
It’s been a long but wonderful weekend. I’ve got to head back up to SFO
to hop on the redeye back to the east coast. I’m not looking forward to
that part.

I picked up Halo for $39.99 today at Fry’s. I almost picked up a used
beat Zaurus 5500, but they wanted freaking list price for a beat up one
with all kinds of stuff missing. Oh well.

The best part is that I didn’t pay for it. I asked if I could purchase
wireless access at the counter or if I had to do it online with Wayport.
The person behind the counter gave me a coupon for free access. I don’t
remember which number it is, but I bought the two cheesburger meal. I
think I’ll get a shake to go.

I’m going to finish my fries and head out, but hopefully I’ll be able
to hop online at the airport. I don’t leave until after 11:30pm PDT and I
don’t get back to DC until after 8:30am EDT. After hearing about Russ’
flight, it does not seem as painful.

–Matt Croydon (Palo ALto, California, in a McDonald’s. Rawk!)

Here is a snapshot of the Rendezvous discoverable sites and servers during the afternoon.

There are a lot of default Powerbook G4’s with Apache displaying the default page.

Of course there are many other rendezvous discoverable services that I do not have access to because I am running the wrong operating system (Windows).

Windows really needs tighter Rendezvous integration.  Things like finding local devices, printers, and music could be so much easier if Rendezvous was integrated into the OS.

I already poked Scoble about it via IRC.

I didn’t recognize Doc Searls passed out in the back of the room last night.  It was late.  My body was still on East Coast time.

Rich Brunner at AMD is giving a quick talk on AMD 64 bit architecture.  They’re going to demo the new SuSe running on AMD 64.

Of course, AMD’s x86-64 works in compatability mode for full 32 bit and also long mode, either in mixed 32/64 bit or pure 64 bit flavours.  They just extended the 32 bit space by adding another 32 bits to integer registers, as well as adding on to the SSE registers and GPR registers.

They’re going to demo a dual proc 64 bit system with 8 gigs of memory.  The default data size is still 32 bits while allowing you to address 64 bits of memory.  Code bloat for x86-64 is about 20% more than x86.  Not bad.    Default data size helps that.  The added just two new instructions.

The adoption curve will look like this:

• First OSes get ported over and are adopted.  Now SuSe works, WinXP soon, etc.
• Apps will be 32 bit for awhile, but will eventually be ported to 64 bit and will be purchased/upgraded when they require replacing.
• Many apps will remain 32 bit for quite some time, so 32 bit performance is important.

Hammer == K8 == core that’s in an AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon64 and AMD Athlon 64 FX.  Got it?

AMD64 == x86-64.  Athlon’s marketing department likes AMD64 better.  I like x86-64 myself.

Hypertransport is important for speed increases.  Memory controller is run at processor clock frequencies.  The latency to memory is reduced significantly.

HyperTransport rules.  It removes bottlenecks between processor and memory.  This is good.  Right now it’s clocked at 800MHz, but that will ramp up and increase throughput with it.  Hypertransport is point to point.  Legacy south bridge, PCI-X 1.0, and eventually a PCI-X 2.0 tunnel.  Supports a 2GB/s (8x) AGP interface.  PCI-Express.

Hypertransport scales quite well to mutliprocessor systems.  With HT, as you add processors, you add memory to hang off them.  Each processor has access to their own memory.  As far as they’re concerned, memory is globally addressable.  Each processor gets three HT links, so it can link to two other processors and an IO bridge, or whatever is neccesary.

Be afraid.  It’s easier for your phone to get owned than you think.  I’m listening to some Shmoo gurus on Bluetooth discovery.

Finding a device

• send out inquiry, who’s out there?
• devices report back in, “Hey, I’m here”
  • you can set your device to be undiscoverable
  • you need to find a specifi MAC address to send a connection request to
  • it’s good for security but a pain in the butt for usability

Bluetooth is spread out throught the spectrum.  To find a device, you have to hop around the spectrum sending out requests and waiting for responses.

Pairing

• first steps of bluetooth security.  It only happens once.
• Shared secret (PIN) on both sides
• PIN search space pretty small (4 digits), manufacturer defaults are usually pretty insecure (0000).
• If you can intercept pairing transaction, you’re golden.  You can then brute force crack a small set of keys, one of which will work.
• You can do authentication on a little bit or a lot of your communication.  It’s pretty flexible.
• Why is security always optional?

Defaults

• Manufacturer defaults are stupid and insecure

Profiles

• Good for interop
• For a specific device, talk like this.
• Anyone can create a bluetooth profile.  Differences between Hands free and headset profile kill interop.

Embedded Devices

• if you use too many resources on an embedded device, it’ll bork out and you’ll have to reboot (aka 3650)
• It’s great for tracking, and that could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.
• Tracking executives.  All the VP’s head into a conference room at a weird time, who’s cheating on whom in the office, etc

Finding Undiscoverable Devices

• Redfang: Older but the pioneer of the idea.
• Fine Tooth Comb (bluesniff): brute force scan, low hanging fruit (discoverable) and the app itself is discoverable but not connectable, and snags you when you try to browse it.

A little online note taking.

What is social software?

• Livejournal
• Friendster
• Advogato
• Instant Messaging/IRC/email
• stuff that analyzes your personal social network
• Meetup
• Upcoming

I’ll be collecting links gathered during the various talks/sessions here:

• The Music of Sound
• HyperSonic Sound is amazing.  A babbling brook was projected and reflected throughout the room.
• Aura: annotate everything.
• Socialtext
• BitTorrent
• Dashboard

There is a good collection of people listening to a talk on Rendezvous.  It was nice to see a somewhat mid-level discussion of it, and it looks like we’re about to dive a little deeper.

Links:

• Zeroconf on the spack.org wiki is a good list of sites.
• Howl by Swampwolf gives you a Rendezvous browser in IE.  There are lots of default apache installs on Powerbooks and Linux laptops here.
• Zeroconf.org has some more details.
• Apple ships an open source Rendezvous implemetation that works on Darwin, OS 9, OS X, Windows, and others.
• zeroconf.sourceforge.net has zcip, which is another partial open source implementation of Rendezvous/Zeroconf that allows you to obtain an IP address.
• Rendezvous under OS X from Apple.com

I am here.

Test to make sure mail-to-weblog still works.

I’m heading to San Francisco in a few hours.  I’ll be moblogging up a storm at my textamerica moblog.  If I go silent here, check for me at mattcroydon.com/blog (my movable type backup blog).

It looks like Russ will also be in town later this weekend.  This is going to be fun.

Lots of little things are happeneing all around:

• Russ has been looking into the latest ECMAScript, which is much more object oriented.  Jeremy Allaire has noticed Russ’ recent interest in Flash.
• V. Satheesh Babu went down to to an Oracle 10g launch in DC yesterday.  Lots of marketing types and everyone stalking government employees.  It’s a good thing I didn’t know about it.
• Jeremy Zawodny shows you how to roll your own Yahoo! News RSS feeds.
• Steve Makofsky tried and cancelled unlimited GPRS on his MS Smartphone.  Unlimited GPRS is $9.99 a month here, and I’m on the plan.  Granted, GPRS coverage is spotty in some suburban/rural areas around town, but most of the time I will be able to moblog a picture via email or hop on IRC if I’m bored.
• Steve Makofsky: “As always, .NET Rocks makes time at the gym go by pretty quick. I’m just glad other people don’t know what i’m listening to on my iPod.”
• Webunit 1.3.2, a web application testing framework for Python is out.
• InfoWorld takes a look at developers shunning the latest and greatest in web application frameworks.
• CNet:”Internet phone providers have won the first round in a clash with state regulators, providing needed momentum for the upstart industry.”  Go go VoIP!
• Ewan puts his thoughts on the future of OPL development on Series 60 down on virtual paper.  I listened in on the hoops required to compile and package an OPL hello world app into an installable .sis file.  It’s currently insane.
• Six Apart launched Typepad officially after their preview release.  They also were interviewed [quicktime] on CNN.  Congrats!

Wi-Fi Networking News notes that The Wi-Fi Alliance has launched a WAP site as a companion to their Wi-Fi Zone program.  The URL for their WAP site is http://wap.wi-fizone.org.

The site allows users to search for a certified Wi-Fi Zone from their mobile phone.  The interface is quite clunky, but it’s oldskool WAP.  There’s something to be said for the lowest common denominator.  Finding a local Wi-Fi Zone was a little tedious.  Here’s the series of clicks that I had to go through to find local access points: wap.wi-fizone.org -> Search -> United States -> MD -> multipage list of cities to choose from.

Here’s where the usability of the WAP site begins to approach zero.  I tried several cities in my area and found nothing bust listings for hotels.  I don’t want to go to a hotel for my Wi-Fi.  There are a bajillion Starbucks stores in my area with Wi-Fi.  Every Borders book store in my area has Wi-Fi.  Wi-Fi is all over the place, yet only hotels are listed in the Wi-Fi Zone WAP site.

Is a business traveler going to cancel his or her hotel reservations just to stay in a hotel that they just found out has Wi-Fi?  I seriously doubt it.  If you’re not helpful to technology-minded folk looking for a hotspot (and willing to pay!), and you’re not all that useful to business travelers, how useful are you?

I hate to bash, because this site is totally a step in the right direction.

Note to Wi-Fi Alliance: Get those Starbucks, bookstores, and other spots with Wi-Fi listed in your Wi-Fi Zone program.  You’re probably going to have to convince T-Mobile that a Wi-Fi Zone certification is “A Good Thing.”  Add a ‘search by zip/postal code’ box to your front page.  Speaking of your front page, it’s quite sterile.  Spruce it up a bit.  Think about adding an XHTML-MP site for all those technofolk with a laptop and a Nokia 3650 looking for some commercial Wi-Fi.  Expand.  Make it easier.  Make it better.  Now you’ve got something.

It’s definately fall here in the DC Metro area.  Lets warm things up with some links:

• Atari800 is an emulator for 8 bit Ataris.  The first time I saw BASIC was on the family Atari 800.  The cartridge games were fun, but the games that came on tape and took forever to load were the best.  Well, they ruled when they worked anyway.
• Russ shares his mobile links.  In OPML too.
• The Jabber Architecture Blog goes a little deeper into blog syndication with Jabber.  Pub/Sub, baby!
• Chris Gulker likes SpamAssassin on his Linux desktop.
• Ingo Rammer‘s latest endevor: Architecture Briefings.  Go read them!
• Jeremy Zawodny turned his 14 hour TiVO into a 145 hour TiVO.  Rawk!
• Jim Hughes has a roundup of N-Gage reviews.
• I’m downloading the Xen demo via BitTorrent.  Just about 200k/s and another great example of legitimate BitTorrent use.

I saw Lost in Translation today.  I’d give it a solid three to three and a half Thauvin stars.

It’s been slow so far today, though there are lots of things going on at BloggerCon:

• Fortune interview Bill Joy.
• OSNews covers the Axentra Rumba Server.  Aparently it will be a “do everything” appliance running on a Mini-ITX platform.  Prices are rumored to be around $500.
• Kevin Marks has a bootleg feed from BloggerCon.  Also check out #BloggerCon on irc.freenode.net
• Python 2.3.2 is out.  Squash them bugs!
• Gander is an extremely lightweight app server for Python.
• The Creative Commons weblog notes major changes to the cc site.  They added an Artists corner and a Devlopers section along with major updates all around.  Check out their tech challenges and give them a hand.
• Jarno Virtanen reminds the hackers and tinkerers out there to have their HTTP behave decently.

Here are a few quick links that I’ve been looking at this morning:

• Kendall Grant Clark takes the pulse of XML editing tools on O’Reilly’s XML.com.
• Bill Humphries looks into GPS receivers with Bluetooth.  From my experience, Garmin seems to be a little clueless about Bluetooth.
• Java Server Faces: mental note, read up on this at some point.
• Charles Miller would like to see a guide to securing JBoss.  You know the answer: Buy the book! 🙂
• MobileTracker points out Frodo, a Commodore 64 emulator for Series 60 phones.  I’d also love to see a Coleco Vision emulator out there, as I wasted a few hours of my childhood on that platform too.  At some point I should try to figure out exactly how much more powerful my 3650 is comared to my family’s first PC: the IBM 8088.
• TLDP has a HOWTO on traffic control under Linux.
• Linux Journal posts a HOWTO for a once NIC NAT.
• Screenshots for the latest BloGTK release look good.
• Phillip Pearson is posting his linkdumps to “crash.”  It looks like linkdumps are back in style.
• Rob Flickenger posts an excerpt from Wireless Hacks: Do it yourself wireless access points.
• Does anyone know one way or another if these accusations about Liebermann, Inc are true?  It certainly looks like a good hoax, but the tech is so cool that I’d rather that it be real.
• Netcraft makes sure that wildcard DNS does not taint its Survey.
• “Would the graduate students please bar the doors!” The Ig Nobels rule.
• Via NewsForge, TSL is TSL.  Trustix Secure Linux is now Tawie Secure Linux.
• Pyblosxom 0.8.1 is out.

Xen:

Xen is a virtual machine monitor for x86 that supports execution of multiple guest operating systems with unprecedented levels of performance and resource isolation. Xen is Open Source software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. We have a fully functional port of Linux 2.4 running over Xen, and regularly use it for running demanding applications like MySQL, Apache and PostgreSQL. Any Linux distribution should run unmodified over the ported OS.

This is excellent news for those of us who would like to tinker with server/OS virtualization but don’t have the dough to throw down for VMWare Server or other high dollar software packages.

Aparently you can run pretty much any Linux distro on top of Xen, and they are also very close to a port of WindowXP that would work on top of Xen.  You can download a demo CD and check it out.

This is truly cool stuff.