tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91325252024-03-12T20:19:14.893-04:00My Forty-Two CentsSome simple thoughts on whatever happens to catch my interest on a given day. Technology, Politics, Science. Pretty much life, the universe, and everything (anything?).Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-50321298695610745142006-12-14T18:43:00.000-05:002006-12-14T19:24:11.672-05:00Adobe Flash Finally FreeSick of finicky Macromedia Flash compatability for your Linux distribution? I know I've spent a significant amount of time installing the third-party, open-source plugins to Firefox in order to get Flash support in my browser. But now, that doesn't seem necessary anymore. Adobe <a href="http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200611/110706Mozilla.html">released</a> the Flash Player Scripting Engine last month, and in conjunction with the Mozilla <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tamarin/">Tamarin</a> project, should result in an open-source, official Flash plug-in for Firefox.<br /><br />Also, Acrobat Reader 8 is now <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/">available</a>.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-90219897790859503922006-12-06T20:15:00.000-05:002006-12-06T21:31:21.920-05:00Home Linux Server Part 2: Web Server setupThis is the second installment of my series of posts on setting up a Linux-based server on your home network. In <a href="http://myfortytwocents.blogspot.com/2006/12/home-linux-server-part-1-debian-base.html">Part 1</a>, we set up Debian 3.1 on an old system to run as the server, set up the telnet daemon, and installed a basic GUI but prevented it from running on boot.<br /><br />Now in Part 2, we will configure our box as a Web server open to the public (if you want) using Apache. I am assuming your system is configured as per Part 1. Thus, you have a static <i>internal</i> IP address assigned to your server, and a unique hostname. Also, these instructions will allow you to create a publicly accessible web server even if you have a dynamic <i>public</i> IP address assigned to you by your ISP. For example, on my network, my server has hostname <span style="color:blue;"><code>present-server</code></span> and internal IP address <span style="color:blue;"><code>192.168.2.99</code></span>. However, my public IP address is dynamically assigned by my ISP, Verizon DSL, and changes unpredictably. Using these instructions, however, my web server is <i>always</i> available from outside my network via <a href="http://present-server.dyndns.org:8080/">http://present-server.dyndns.org:8080</a>.<br /><ol><li>Log into your server as root, or use telnet to log in as a regular user and run <span style="color:blue;"><code>su</code></span> to enable root access.<br /><li>Install Apache with the command <span style="color:blue;"><code>apt-get install apache</code></span>. When prompted, do <b>not</b> enable <code>suExec</code>.<br /><li>Apache defaults to the main server directory being <code>/var/www</code>. In this directory should <i>always</i> be a file called <code>index.html</code>. When installed, Apache creates a default dummy <code>index.html</code>. To see this file, point your web browser to the internal IP address of your server. This causes the browser to connect to your server on the default HTTP port, port 80. Apache intercepts this, and directs the visitor to the <code>index.html</code> file found in <code>/var/www</code>. However, this is the <i>highest</i> directory the visitor can access.<br /><li>You probably want to keep the default <code>index.html</code> file around, but obviously do not want it to be the page your visitor sees when he navigates to your site. Thus, rename the file with <font color="blue"><code>mv /var/www/index.html /var/www/index.html.old</code></font>. Now, you can use the <code>/var/www</code> directory to hold all of the files needed for your website. Be sure to create a new <code>index.html</code> file as the entrance page for your site.</ol><br />Now your web server is fully functional if you want it to remain accessible only to those within your home network (i.e., to the <i>intranet</i>). Continue if you want to open it up to the <i>internet</i>.<br /><ol><li>You need to tell your router to pass any HTTP requests from outside your network on to your server for Apache to handle. Thus, you need to forward port 80 in your router's Port Forwarding Settings to the IP and MAC address of your server. You can find the MAC address of your server with the command <font color="blue"><code>ifconfig</code></font>. You may need to be logged in as root to run this command. The MAC address (also known as a hardware address, and is a unique number identifying your Network Interface Card to other computers) is shown next to <code>HWaddr</code> in the <code>eth0</code> entry. Port forwarding differs from router to router. Consult your router documentation for this process.<br /><li>Now we need to find a Domain Name Server (DNS) to put our site in its zone. <a href="http://www.dyndns.com">DynDNS.com</a> provides a free service that places dynamic public IP addresses in its zone, provided you use a sub-domain of theirs (that is why my site's address is <code>http://present-server.<b>dyndns.org</b>:8080</code>). To set this up,<br /><ol><li>Create a free account on <a href="http://www.dyndns.com">DynDNS.com</a>.<br /><li>Click "Dynamic DNS" under "Services," and then click "Create Host."<br /><li>Set the hostname to the <i>same thing</i> as the hostname on your server, and select an upper-level domain of your choice. Go to <a href="http://www.whatismyip.com">WhatIsMyIP.com</a>, and put your public IP address in as the IP address in DynDNS. Click "Add Host" to complete the registration.<br /><li>You will not be able to test this domain if your router, like many, does not support loopback connections. Therefore, ensure there is a valid domain registration by asking a friend to point their browser to the domain you configured. They should see the <code>index.html</code> page you have put up if your ports are forwarded properly and the domain is set up correctly.</ol><br /><li>Dynamic IP addresses, by definition, change sometimes. Thus, we need a way for our entry at DynDNS.com to update with the new IP. We will use the <b>ddclient</b> service for Linux to manage the updating automatically.<br /><ol><li>Install <b>ddclient</b> with <font color="blue"><code>apt-get install ddclient</code></font>.<br /><li>Select <b>dyndns</b> from the list of services.<br /><li>Enter in the domain your registered at DynDNS as the "fully qualified domain name."<br /><li>Enter the username and password you use to log in at DynDns.com.<br /><li>Enter the interface your webserver is using as an NIC. This is most likely <font color="blue"><code>eth0</code></font>.<br /><li>Select <b>No</b> when asked if you want ddclient to run whenever a ppp connection is created.<br /><li>Enter <font color="blue"><code>30d</code></font> for a 30-day update cycle when prompted.<br /><li>Choose to run ddclient as a daemon so you do not have to start the service every time you reboot the server.<br /><li>Edit the configuration file <code>/etc/ddclient.conf</code> to enable access from behind a Cable/DSL router.<br /><ul><li>Run <font color="blue"><code>nano /etc/ddclient.conf</code></font> as root to edit the file.<br /><li>Replace the line <code>use=if, if=ppp0</code> with the line <font color="blue"><code>use=web, web=checkip.dyndns.org, web-skip='Current IP Address: '</code></font><br /><li>Press <b>Ctrl-X, Y, Enter</b> to save the configuration file and quit <b>nano</b>. Run <font color="blue"><code>ddclient</code></font> to update the IP and make sure the daemon is working. This will run automatically every 30 days, but if you know your IP address has changed, run it manually to make the changes immediately effective.</ul></ol></ol><br /><font color="red"><b>Note:</b></font> Some ISPs, including Verizon DSL, block listening on HTTP port 80 to try to discourage servers running with the less-expensive dynamic IP addresses, and get you to buy a static IP. If this is the case, you need to change the operating port to something besides 80. Edit the <code>/etc/apache/httpd.conf</code> file, replacing the port on the <code>port 80</code> line with a different number. I recommend using port 8080. Then, change which port is forwarded by your router as well. When pointing web browsers to your site, you are no longer using the default port, so you need to tell which port to connect on. That is why my site is referred to with <b>http://present-server.dyndns.org<i>:8080</i></b>.<br /><br />Great. Apache web server should be up and running, and your DNS should be automatically updated and accessible from the internet. Have a friend check your site from the outside using the domain you registered with DynDNS, specifying the port you chose. If you need to view your site internally, you need to direct your browser to the internal static IP address on the specified port unless your router supports loopback addresing.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-88149090203865297422006-12-03T22:15:00.000-05:002006-12-06T16:52:54.983-05:00Home Linux Server Part 1: Debian setupI've decided to write a series of of posts on setting up a Linux-based server on your home network using Debian 3.1 ("Sarge"). Tonight is the first posting, detailing how to set up the base Debian system to later configure as a server. We'll set up only the critical installation files, the root account, one other account, and telnet and x-server.<br /><br />I'm setting up my server on an old <a href="http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ptwist/specs.htm">Dell Inspiron 3000</a> laptop. As you can tell, it is a terrible system. The only component I have added is a 100Mbit Ethernet card. Thus, pretty much any fairly recent machine you can find will work for what we want to do. I'm going to assume this machine also has a CD drive, and that it will be a dedicated server, in that you will not be dual-booting the system.<br /><center><a href="http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8169/img2276le7.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8169/img2276le7.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Debian server system" /></a></center><br /><ol><li>Download and burn to CD the Debian 3.1 NetInstall disc image from <a href="http://www.us.debian.org/distrib/netinst">here</a>.<br /><li>Insert the NetInstall CD into the drive of the computer you'll be using as a server, and reboot the computer. <font color="red"><b>Note: You will lose all data on the hard drive following these instructions. Be sure to back up anything you need.</b></font><br /><li>Start the installer with the <font color="blue"><code>linux netcfg/disable_dhcp=true debian-installer/framebuffer=false</code></font> command, indicating we do not want to configure DHCP at this time, and we want the text-based setup (because it's easier, actually)<br /><li>Select your language, region, and keyboard layout<br /><li>Set up your network settings:<br /><ul><li>Choose an unused IP on your network. Check its availability using your router's status tools, or by using a different computer on the network to try pinging the desired IP. You will probably want to use 192.168.xxx.xxx. Make sure, though, that the first two octets match those used on the rest of your network.<br /><li>Enter your subnet mask. If your first two octets are 192.168, the mask is 255.255.255.0<br /><li>Enter your gateway address. Normally, this is the IP for your router.<br /><li>For a DNS or name server, enter in either your ISP's nameserver, or, if your router does name serving, re-enter your gateway address.<br /><li>Create a unique hostname for the sever. I used <font color="blue"><code>present-server</code></font>.<br /><li>Enter a domain name of your choice. I used <font color="blue"><code>present.net</code></font>.</ul><br /><li>Partition your hard drive:<br /><ul><li>Create a 256MB swap partition.<br /><li>Create a 700MB root partition.<br /><li>Create a final <code>/home</code> partition with the remaining space.</ul><br /><li>Allow the installer to run for a while. When prompted, install GRUB to the Master Boot Record.<br /><li>Remove the CD from the disc drive and enter <b>Continue</b> to reboot from the hard-drive. Configure your timezones, root account, and user account. Do not use PPP to install the system if prompted. Choose to obtain your repositories from http, and select a local mirror.<br /><li>Do <b>not</b> install anything at the software selection screen. When prompted, do <b>not</b> configure Exim.<br /><li>Use the default root username.<br /><li>Press Enter at the "Thank You" screen, and note you are at a login prompt.<br /><li>Login as root using the password you provided.<br /><li>Allow telnetting to the server by installing the telnet daemon with <font color="blue"><code>apt-get install telnetd</code></font><br /><li>Install a minimal GUI with <font color="blue"><code>apt-get install x-window-system</code></font>:<br /><ul><li>Choose "autodetect hardware"<br /><li>Use "xfree86" for the keyboard rule.<br /><li>Maintain maximum compatibility unless you know what to use, and choose "pc101" for the keyboard model.<br /><li>Select your layout language<br /><li>Select <b>/dev/psaux</b> for PS/2 mice, and PS/2 from the list of mouse models.<br /><li>Answer the prompt about the LCD screen, and configure the monitor settings in the next few screens.<br /><li>Use a 16-bit color depth.<br /><li>Use a printer resolution of 300dpi.<br /><li>Prevent x-server from starting during boot by renaming the symbolic link in the startup directory with <font color="blue"><code>mv /etc/rc2.d/S99xdm /etc/rc2.d/_S99xdm</code></font>.</ul><br /><li>Remove the CD and reboot the system with Ctrl+Alt+Del. Login as root.<br /><li>Edit .bashrc to set virtual terminal sessions to VT100 terminal type:<br /><ul><li>Run <font color="blue"><code>nano .bashrc</code></font> to begin editing .bashrc with nano.<br /><li>Add to the end of the file the line <font color="blue"><code>export TERM='vt100'</code></font>.<br /><li>Hit <b>Ctrl-X, Y, enter</b> to save the file and exit nano.</ul></ol><br />So that's it. Test x-server is up and running by running the command <font color="blue"><code>startx</font></code>, and test telnet by connecting to the server at the IP you specified from a different machine. Next time, we'll start adding some tools for your server to make it do something.<br /><br />More information, as well as the rough plans I followed in setting up my server, are available from <a href="http://aboutdebian.com/index.htm">AboutDebian.com</a>.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-33647955343828732042006-11-30T23:57:00.000-05:002006-12-01T00:06:12.913-05:00Ubuntu 6.10 Release: How did I miss it?Wow, this was <i>not</i> something I thought I could miss. I completely failed to realize that Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft came out <b>over a month ago</b>. I'm really quite embarrased.<br /><br />The release announcement, dated October 26, is <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/news/610released">here</a>. Looks good to me, I can't wait to try it out. You can download it from <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUbuntu/download?action=show&redirect=download">here</a>.<br /><br />I'm downloading Edgy now, when I install it I'll report on how it feels, although I'm regrettably pretty late.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-18774759459052698362006-11-30T23:39:00.000-05:002006-11-30T23:55:51.269-05:00Windows Command Line, I thought I knew YeI thought I knew a lot about how the Windows XP command line emulator worked. I've written a number of fairly complex batch programs, gotten pretty comfortable with a large number of command-line programs, and just <a href="http://myfortytwocents.blogspot.com/2006/11/c-compiler-predicament.html">today</a> started working with the Borland C++ Builder 5.5, a command-line compiler for 32-bit Windows applications. But that led to me learning something new and surprising about the CLI today.<br /><br />I have my My Documents folder on a different partition than my Windows installation. I installed XP to C:, but set My Documents to L:, which is my <code>/home</code> partition for my Linux OS on the same system (installed to U:). So when I was running the C++ Builder, and had to enter in files on the <code>/home</code>/My Documents partition as parameters to the C++ Builder, I got sick of writing the full file path.<br /><br />Because I thought I had to. Until today, I couldn't figure out how to <code>cd</code> to another partition on my hard drive. I didn't realize that Windows was treating the partition as a virtual drive, even though it's obviously mounted as my L:. For some reason, it didn't occur to me to change drives like you switch to a directory on a floppy disk.<br /><br />But that's all I had to do. Now, I don't need to write the full file path, because I can change drives and <i>then</i> <code>cd</code> to the proper directory. I'm basically an idiot for not realizing before that:<br /><code>C:\> cd L:\</code> wouldn't work, and I need to type:<br /><code>C:\> L:</code> to change drives, and then:<br /><code>L:\> cd programming\c++\helloworld</code> to get to the directory containing my "Hello, World" source.<br /><br />Moral of the Story: For those of you out there who, like me, couldn't figure out the obvious:<ul><li>Windows treats mounted partitions as virtual disk drives, and not mounted directories like Linux and UNIX do.<li>You consequently need to change drives in a command prompt before you can change directories.</ul>Hope this helps, it took me too long to figure it out.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-33178150092534277822006-11-30T23:11:00.000-05:002006-11-30T23:39:02.726-05:00C++ Compiler PredicamentI mostly program in Java and Visual Basic, but for some time I've been trying to become a bit more comfortable with <a href="http://www.cplusplus.com/">C++</a>. I had been compiling most of my programs under Ubuntu on my Linux partition using <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/">gcc</a>, the free, open-source GNU C compiler. It's been working well, but I wanted to develop under Windows as well. That left me a two options.<br /><br />First, I could run a Windows port of gcc through <a href="http://cygwin.com/">Cygwin</a> (note to self: blog about Cygwin soon), a linux API emulator for windows. Cygwin effectively provides a bash shell from within Windows. Unfortunately, I couldn't easily set the Windows port of gcc up to run in Cygwin, although I admit I didn't try real hard.<br /><br />My other option is to use a different compiler. Oh boy, which one to use. Well, Microsoft released the Visual C++ Express development platform for free (in fact, the entire MS Visual Studio 2005 Express suite is available for free download <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/">here</a>) , so I set up VC++ and started developing under that. I guess I should note that I had to mess with some configurations and installations to <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualc/usingpsdk/">set up</a> the Windows Platform SDK and be able to compile native 32-bit executables without depending on the .NET framework.<br /><br />So having to jump through hoops to use the VC++ compiler disappointed me. And I also didn't like working in the VC++ IDE. Sure, it's nice, and does a good job for someone who wants to produce working code quickly. But remember, my first goal is to learn and become comfortable with C++. Until I can write a bit more than a simple search algorithm or "Hello World" app, I don't want an IDE helping me along and handicapping me for later. Goodbye, VC++.<br /><br />That left <a href="http://www.borland.com/downloads/download_cbuilder.html">Borland C++ Builder 5.5</a>. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It has all the functionality of gcc--maybe even more, but I'm no compiler guru. And it's entirely command-line based, which I like a lot. I feel that once you get a good sense of the tools available to you with a command line, the CLI is much more powerful and efficient for getting jobs done than a GUI. I don't have to deal with a bloated, albeit powerful, IDE like VC++. And, it's a free, small download.<br /><br />Now, I can finally jump into Windows development and get a stronger foundation in C++, without being handicapped by an IDE I don't want or having to emulate an operating system that isn't what I want to use. Not to mention, C++ Builder is an easy to use but effective compiler.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-30164780691662241442006-11-27T17:06:00.000-05:002006-11-27T17:10:30.284-05:00LabelsWhew, three posts in a day. That's a record. Although I need to make up for not posting in over a month.<br /><br />Anyways, I just finished cleaning up <i>My Forty-Two Cents</i>. I went through an deleted all of the comments that were spam, and added labels to every single old post. I like how the new beta of <a href="http://beta.blogger.com">Blogger</a> added those. They should add some relationships between posts, and make indexing services like <a href="http://www.technorati.com">Technorati</a> do their job a bit easier.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-90669289485616778482006-11-27T16:07:00.000-05:002006-11-27T16:33:40.819-05:00Sounds GoodOver a month ago, I tried to figure out the best <a href="http://myfortytwocents.blogspot.com/2006/10/so-whats-best-configuration-anyways.html">configuration</a> for my Logitech <a href="http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2177,CONTENTID=9486">Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Surround Sound</a> speakers and Creative Labs <a href="http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14066">SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic</a> soundcard, and I finally got some answers. I ended up emailing Logitech support, and although a bit slow, were definitely helpful.<br /><br />So, here's what I learned:<ul><li>Use the sound card for Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, instead of the decoder on the Logitech control console.<br /><li>Use the X-Fi instead of the speakers to upmix stereo and mono audio to 5.1<br /><li>Use whatever is easiest to control volume. This is most likely turning the volume level on the soundcard to 100% and using the control knob on the speakers to make adjustments.<br /><li>Tune the bass using the subwoofer control on the Logitech console, not the X-Fi control. Similarly, leave the THX Bass controls on the X-Fi alone and manage bass with the Logitechs.</ul>I still need to find out from Creative Labs where to adjust Line-in, Mic, and Recording levels--with the software, with the source for the line-in itself (such as the radio plugged in, etc), or with the controls on the X-Fi panel.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-5216367403434914402006-11-27T15:53:00.000-05:002006-11-27T16:05:15.568-05:00Template UpgradeFinally, I've got a chance to post again. College applications have been consuming my life, and my Thanksgiving break was wonderful, but busy.<br /><br />Well, <i>My Forty Two Cents</i> has gotten a makeover. No drastic changes, I liked to old look, but when I logged in to post on something entirely different today, Blogger informed me of the new beta upgrades, including Drag-and-drop template editing, post labeling, and privacy controls.<br /><br />I mostly stuck with the same template, and the transition was smooth. In about five minutes, I had my sidebar reconstructed, with the largest difference being the new hierarchical organization for the archive section. I used the Drag-and-drop template editing because it was there; most of my editing to the old template was done right in the HTML and CSS code, but I found the template and drag-and-drop tools to be adequate for what I wanted to do.<br /><br />Tell me what you think. Or even better, tell Blogger what you think, and we might see some changes.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1161353454273211732006-10-20T09:53:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:34:59.339-05:00Surprise, Surprise. IE7's Got a Bug<p>Never saw this one coming. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.0, just officially released <a href="http://myfortytwocents.blogspot.com/2006/10/ie7-official-release-first-reactions.html">Wednesday</a>, <b>already has a security bug.</b> According to the <a href="http://www.theregister.com/2006/10/19/ie7_first_bug/">Register</a>, the bug is a result of faulty code carried over from IE6. So if IE7 was supposed to be a rewrite, and it has IE6 bugs, what does that say about Vista, which is supposed to a complete rewrite as well? Will we see XP bugs showing up?<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2033704,00.asp">Eweek</a> has written a fairly favorable review about IE7, that talks about some of the security features that are admittably an improvment. I think IE7 is certainly a worthy release (that's long overdue), but it doesn't make IE the best browser available.</p>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1161216494246743602006-10-18T19:36:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:35:47.050-05:00IE7 Official Release: First Reactions<p>Internet Explorer 7 is officially released--download RC1 <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx">here</a>, it is the same version being bundled as the official IE7 in a Yahoo package that went out today. <span style="color:green;">(Edit 10/20/06: Now officially IE7, not referred to as RC1)</span><br /></p><p>I downloaded IE7 RC1 and checked it out. Here is a screenshot of it showing My Forty-Two Cents, as well as a screenshot of Firefox 1.5 showing the same page:<br /></p><center><br />IE 7:<br /><a href="http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6973/ie7shotew6.jpg"><img src="http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/6973/ie7shotew6.th.jpg" alt="IE 7" /></a><br />Firefox:<br /><a href="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7015/ffshotuj5.jpg"><img src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/7015/ffshotuj5.th.jpg" alt="IE 7" /></a><br /></center><br /><p>My first reaction to the new IE was, "awkward." As soon as I opened it, it didn't feel good. This could be simply because it's new, and when it comes to computers I get used to things easily and like having them set up the way I'm used to them. However, the interface doesn't look real thought out. <br /></p><p>Note in the screenshot the tab. Sweet, finally IE got tabs. But I have only one web site open, yet the tab bar is still there, wasting screen space. Looking at the top of the screenshot, and you'll see more wasted space--extra room between buttons, odd toolbar sizes, etc. And that screenshot is taken with "Small Button Sizes" enabled. One nice thing was a small button that shows a thumbnail of all the pages loaded in tabs, but a Firefox extension known as <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1457/">foXpose</a> does this too.<br /></p><p>My next reaction was surprise at a lack of a menu bar. At first, I found this odd, until I realized that I knew all of the shortcuts and don't use the menu bar anyways. And if I didn't it's easily enabled under the right-click context menu. However, as further evidence of the wasted space, the toolbar section in IE <i>without</i> the menu bar is just as large as my toolbar section in FF <i>with</i> the menu bar. Something's wrong here.<br /></p><p>Next I navigated away from the display-once welcome page IE loaded the first time with. I went to Google. And the font was big. Too big. In the screenshot, the text size is set to "Smallest" in IE, and is still slightly larger than the lettering in FF when FF is set to "Normal." Also, when I shrunk the text down to "smallest," the font went out of wack. Now the letters look bolder than they should, and the line-spacing looks squished. Images were the same--too large (and there is no <a href="http://imagezoom.yellowgorilla.net/">ImageZoom</a> extension like in Firefox).<br /></p><p>Microsoft, you really screwed up this next part. <b>Pages do not render correctly.</b> Look at the header of My Forty Two Cents in the IE screenshot, compared to the FF screenshot. Notice the style-sheet is clipped at the top in Internet Explorer. Whoops, guys. Even Firefox rendered the page correctly.<br /></p><p>Next I started exploring the toolbar. It's pretty much the same as IE6, just rearranged. The forward, backward, home, refresh, and stop buttons, however, are scattered around and in weird places. I think they should be grouped together, but they aren't. The RSS feed controls look better, but not on par with a dedicated aggregator program. One nice thing is the Tools menu being available from a button, so you don't have to enable the menu bar to, say, clear your cache.<br /></p><p>IE 7 includes a number of new security features, and only time will tell on their effectiveness. The most obvious is the new phishing protection. When pages load, IE7's status bar at the bottom shows an icon letting you know it's verifying the authenticity of the site. Other security measures remain less obvious, like the pop-up blocker, which continues to notify you of its actions with a bar that appears at the top of the page.<br /></p><p>All in all, IE7 seems like an improvement over IE6, but doesn't quite reach the standard set by Firefox, or even Safari or Opera. It's behind the 8-ball on new features, doesn't offer as much customization (or extensions), and at first reaction doesn't seem particularly user friendly. After so much time between versions, I'd have thought Microsoft would have done better.<br /></p><p>Now only a few more days until Firefox 2.0 becomes official. RC3 is <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-rc.html">out</a>.</p>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1154998747330382682006-10-14T21:15:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:36:19.346-05:00So what's the best configuration, anyways?<p>I really like to listen to music. That's why, for Christmas I asked for (and Santa brought) a Creative Labs <a href="http://www.soundblaster.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=208&product=14066">SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic</a> soundcard. And then a couple of months ago I bought a new soundsystem: Logitech <a href="http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=2177,CONTENTID=9486">Z-5500 Digital 5.1 Surround Sound</a> speakers.<br /></p><p>And I love them. With the X-Fi processing and the Z-5500 power, my music (and games and movies and even mundane system noises) sounds spectacular. Bass rumbles in the floor--if the subwoofer's at more than 25%, it shakes dishes downstairs in the kitchen. And every noise, from the lowest bass drum to the highest screeching tire in a movie, to the quietest whisper to the loudest bang, is clear. Distortion simply does not exist.<br /></p><p>But I've got a question, which arises from the presence of reduntant features in the speakers, the soundcard, and the software. What settings do I enable in which component to ensure the highest overall sound quality? Let me brake it down:<br /></p><ol><li><b>Volume.</b> Do I leave my speaker volume at 100%, and adjust the volume on my computer for the soundcard output? Do I leave both of them at 100%, and adjust the volume in whatever program is playing the sound? Or do I cap everything at say, 80%, and just adjust each one without regard? Basically, what volume controls should I leave alone, and what should I adjust?</li><br /><li><b>Stereo to 5.1 Upmixing.</b> Do I turn off the upmixing in the Z-5500 decoder, and let the X-Fi CMSS-3D engine handle it? Or vica-versa?</li><br /><li><b>Multi-channel Decoding.</b> Do I use the external decoder on the Z-5500s for Dolby 5.1 and DTS 96/24, or do I turn off digital bitstream out on the soundcard and let the X-Fi decoders work their magic?</li><br /><li><b>Recording/Line-in/Microphone.</b> This is just on the X-Fi, because obviously the speaker system is pure output (and quite powerful at that, too). Where do I adjust the input volume, on the recording level in the program, such as <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>, or in the X-Fi's line-in volume knob, or on the microphone or amp itself?<br /></li></ol><br /><p>Because I love my setup, but I'm OCD enough to want to get every last peanut of perfection out of it. I know both the X-Fi and the Z-5500s are great pieces of hardware, but for each of those categories, which one is better? Where do I make my adjustments: the speakers, the soundcard, or the software?<br /></p><p>If anyone has some advice, please comment. I'm going to keep experimenting and researching, and maybe call up Logitech or Creative Labs.</p>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1160609211724389042006-10-11T19:14:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:37:01.484-05:00Rapidshare.de, I forget about youThere's one website in particular that I use regularly but haven't given much thought. I almost take it for granted that everyone knows about it. It's <a href="http://www.rapidshare.de/">Rapidshare.de</a>. Take a look at it yourself, you'll see why it's so great.<br /><br />It's a fast and easy way to send files to people, without needing email addresses or setting up direct connections in P2P programs like Limewire. Their <a href="http://rapidshare.de/en/faq.html">FAQ</a> will do a better job describing it than I probably can; basically, you enter the path you want to upload, and it it returns a download link you can distribute.<br /><br />There isn't much more to it. Rapidshare is simple to use, and effective. Like me, you might not see a need for it, but once you try using it you'll realize it's more useful in more places than you'd expect.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1158275634527441492006-09-14T18:31:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:38:09.803-05:00An excuse for my lack of readers.My <a href="http://my.statcounter.com/project/standard/stats.php?project_id=1327170&guest=1">Statcounter</a> statistics are pretty poor. Only 16 unique visitors in the past thirty days. And I can't tell how many of them are me, because I clear my cache and cookies frequently, and my dynamic IP changes fairly often. I'm not really <i>disappointed</i> with my low hit-count, because my goal with My Forty Two Cents wasn't to commandeer the blogging world and snatch millions of daily hits. I write mostly because I find something that interests me, and if there is one other person who reads it and finds it interesting, then it was worth my posting.<br /><br />My low hit-count is most likely a result of my infrequent posting, and possibly uninteresting or poorly presented material. I hope the last two aren't the case, but opinions are opinions, and I do the best I can.<br /><br />However, I came across a <a href="http://shirky.com/writings/powerlaw_weblog.html">possible mathematical explanation</a> for my low amount of readers (of course, I appreciate those of you out there who do read). It has to do with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_laws">Power Laws</a>, which shows how there are very few blogs with the majority of readers, and more and more and more blogs with fewer readers.<br /><br />This is contrary to our first instinct to attribute population distributions (in this case, blogs, and measuring the number of readers) to a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_curve">Normal Curve</a>, where most blogs have a moderate amount of readers, and very few blogs have many or little readers.<br /><br />Of course, it made perfect sense. The blogosphere operates mostly through links, and the number of people clicking that link. So until this site is linked to by enough blogs, and those blogs are popular enough that enough people see and click those links, My Forty Two Cents will not have the exposure necessary to rise in popularity. And because more blogs link to popular blogs than blogs like mine, the popular blogs (commonly called "A-List" blogs) become more statistically biased in the power distribution, and all the other blogs in the "tail" remain with low numbers of readers.<br /><br />This raises interesting questions as to the true "equality" in the blogosphere. Mathematically, there <i>is</i> a natural and inevitable hierarchy that forms between popular and unpopular blogs. Even a spectacularly well written blog (which I know mine isn't--it's sparse and often behind the times) <i>will</i> falter until there are enough links to it.<br /><br />For me, and according to <a href="http://technorati.com/blogs/http%3A%2F%2Fmyfortytwocents.blogspot.com">Technorati</a>, <i>nobody</i> links to my blog. So my 16 unique visitors are all people who've clicked links I've posted places, such as sig lines in forums, or profiles on Last.fm or AIM. And I really don't want to solicit links to my blog, or spam forums with it. Hit-count isn't important to me. I personally operate my blog as more of a public diary of interests than a media outlet.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1157754644711765742006-09-08T18:11:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:39:07.401-05:00Facebook Update: An Open Letter from Mark ZuckerbergIt was quicker than I expected. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>'s creator Mark Zuckerberg released a <a href="http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=2208562130">blog statement</a> announcing the addition of new privacy controls for the News Feed and Mini-Feed, saying:<br /><blockquote><i>"We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I'd like to try to correct those errors now."</i></blockquote><br />The new controls don't allow Facebook users to completely hide their feed from other users, or hide others' feeds. However, what is shown in the Feed can be limited to a bare minimum of items that can hardly be construed as privacy-invasive. This include groups, events, networks, profile removals, status updates, notes, and photos you are tagged in. The Feed obeys the "rules" of profile and limited profile privacy settings, as well, so only people who can see your profile can see items about you on their feed.<br /><br />It's not perfect, because you can't completely remove the feed. You can, however, remove individual items from your feed. So if you don't make changes <i>too</i> often, and you click the "X" next to them in the feed when you do, you can get pretty close to completly voiding the effects of the Feed.<br /><br />Good job, Facebook community.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1157593758563758022006-09-06T21:30:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:39:41.322-05:00Facebook, I don't need to know that.So <a href="http://www.myspace.com/">MySpace </a>is the rage right now, but the social networking site I use most is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>. It's got a clean interface, without all the flashy, wannabe-javascript-junkie crap on MySpace.<br /><br />Or at least it used to.<br /><br />The other day, Facebook implemented a new "feature." The Facebook News Feed. The Feed shows you when you log in a summary of every action any of your Facebook friends made over the last few days. It shows who joined what groups, who became friends with whom, who posted pictures of what, who changed what in their profile, and even who wrote what on anyone's wall. There is also a "Mini-Feed" in your profile, which shows all of your friends what your other friends are doing.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/1446/minifeedlb3.jpg" /></center><br /><br />Simply put, I don't need to see this. Ever. If I'm curious as to who did any of these things, I'll take a look at that friend's profile and see for myself. Facebook, I ask you not to clutter my screen space with junk I don't care about.<br /><br />A number of Facebook users have complained about an invasion of privacy, going so far as to make Facebook a tool for stalkers. I wouldn't say that much; the information <i>is</i> public, and posted on the web. Only logged in members who are your friends can see your Feed.<br /><br />That said, I think users should at least be given the option of both disabling the Feed on login, and hiding the Mini-Feed from their profile. It isn't an invasion of privacy, but I understand why users (myself included) wouldn't want that much shown off so blatantly.<br /><br />The Facebook communinity has responded; a number of protest groups have been created. I recommend joining <a href="http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208288769">Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)</a>. I'd also recommend signing the <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/faceb00k/petition.html">petition</a> to revert Facebook back or add a hide option. And of course, express your complaints to Facebook's <a href="http://www.facebook.com/help.php?tab=suggest">feedback</a> page.<br /><br />Even if you personally like the new Feed feature, for the rest of us, please help fight for the <b>option</b> to hide it. After all, that's what a community does.<br /><br />***<br /><br />By the way, <a href="http://hs.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1469730016">Facebook Me!</a>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1151005921218058922006-06-22T15:35:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:40:26.092-05:00Slimming down AjaxAjax is an impressive technology--both in appearance and potential. Already, it's infiltrated the web in <a href="http://www.gmail.com/">Gmail</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">Flickr</a>, <a href="http://www.meebo.com/">meebo</a>, <a href="http://www.writely.com/">Writely</a>, and thousands of other sites that use a combination of Javascript and XML to dynamically refresh page components.<br /><br />However, that combination, specifically the XML, provides a major drawback to Ajax applications. Each broswer--IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc--parse XML differently. Thus, Ajax-coded webpages need a large amount of browser-specific code to make it work. The program becomes larger and consequently slower on the net. That's bad.<br /><br />So how can it be fixed? How can we make Ajax work the same on every browser. Webmonkey <a href="http://www.webmonkey.com/06/25/index4a.html">reports</a> one idea, called <a href="http://www.fjax.net/">Fjax</a>, that uses Flash to parse the XML and thus remove all browser-specific code forking. The result is a much smaller and more streamlined program--all of the XML parsing, for every browser, is done in less than 4Kilobytes. When was the last time you saw something less than 4K?<br /><br />Already, Ajax provides much of the functionality as desktop programs. Maybe with technologies such as Fjax, we'll start seeing the same speed.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1149542991009397442006-06-05T17:08:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:41:39.698-05:00Alex's Lemonade StandThis weekend (June 10-11), is the official fundraising weekend for <a href="http://www.alexslemonade.org/">Alex's Lemonade Stand</a>. "Fighting childhood cancer one step at a time."<br /><br />Alex was a 4-yr-old cancer patient who set up a lemonade stand in July 2000 with her brother Patrick to raise money to help fund cancer research. She continued her stand for four years, until passing on August 1, 2004 at the age of 8. By May 2006, the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation raised over $6-million for childhood cancer research.<br /><br />I am organizing with three others an Alex's Lemonade Stand event at the New Hope-Solebury High School (map <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.557552,82.441406&q=new+hope-solebury+high+school&cid=37062500,-95677068,1435141468057641701&iwstate1=form:to">here</a>) on <b>Saturday, June 10, 12:00pm - 4:00pm.</b> We have scheduled live outdoor music from<br /><ul><li>Universtity of California at Santa Barbara Boys Wind Ensemble</li><li>Dodge City</li><li>The Scenic</li><li>Limeskin</li><li><a href="http://www.blueskyinvention.com/home.html">Blue Sky Invention</a></li><li>Glaa</li><li>Omar</li><li>Rhythm's Crew (some sweet breakdancers)</li></ul>There will be some simple games that everyone can play--you know you love wiffleball. And kickball. And four-square. And knockout. And Ping-Pong. And Ultimate Frisbee. There will be facepainting, waterice, and carnival games for younger kids. There will be hamburgers, hotdogs, and hoagies. And lemonade. Lots and lots and lots of lemonade.<br /><br />Hope to see you there. New Hope-Solebury High School, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 18938. Saturday, June 10, 2006. 12:00pm to 4:00pm, with some bands playing later.<br /><br />If you don't live near New Hope (in Bucks County, PA, just north of Philadelphia), keep an eye out for other Lemonade Days around you. Alex's Lemonade Stand is a great cause. Help fight pediatric cancer.<br /><br /><span style="color:green;">FOLLOWUP: NHS Lemonade Day was a huge success. We raised over 2,000 dollars, way more than any of us expected. Thanks to everybody who came, to all the bands, to everybody who helped out, and to everybody who donated money and supplies and food. It couldn't have happened without you. See you all again next year--this is going to be annual.</span>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1149438090149433152006-06-04T12:16:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:42:37.134-05:00Registered with TechnoratiI claimed my blog with <a href="http://www.technorati.com/">Technorati</a> this morning. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a>, my blog host, automatically put me in Technorati's registry already, but by registering I added tagging support and accessibility to a few more features. For example, on the sidebar now there's a Technorati box, search, and profile.<br /><br />Mostly, I added my blog to Technorati to try to get some more visibility. According to <a href="http://www.statcounter.com/">Statcounter</a>, there are only a few IPs who regularly visit my blog for any length of time greater than 5 seconds. Thanks to those of you who do; I'm glad you like what you read.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1149393316671081902006-06-03T23:30:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:43:12.719-05:00OSS 3D Modeling with Blender<p>Blender. It doesn't sound like a real significant piece of software. Maybe it sounds like a little sound mixer, or maybe a small photo editor. But Blender is none of that. It's a full-fledged, surprisingly powerful, and inspiringly agile 3D Modeling program, complete with a thorough manual, wiki, support forum, and tutorial collection to get you well on you way towards professional modeling.<br /></p><p>From the Blender <a href="http://www.blender.org/">website</a>,<br /></p><blockquote>Blender is the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.</blockquote><br /><p>And Blender more than lives up to it.<br /></p><p>Just look at some of the screenshots of renderings made with Blender I snatched from the <a href="http://blender.org/cms/Gallery.55.0.html">gallery</a>:<br /></p><center><a href="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/db62ff93ff.jpg"><img src="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/170b3e75e1.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/5fb8dffac0.jpg"><img src="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/607a7032ac.jpg" /></a><br /><a href="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/aa1fbad432.jpg"><img src="http://blender.org/cms/typo3temp/pics/fcb387905c.jpg" /></a></center><br /><p>Blender is released under the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">GNU Public License</a>, and the source code is easily available on the main site. The Windows executable is small (only 6.5MB!), so it's no big deal to download Blender to give it a try. The entire GUI is OpenGL, and the interface is spectacularly intuitive; don't let the initially daunting appearance fool you. It is one of the easiest programs to use once you get a hang of the shortcuts and redundancies, in spite of the plethora of features in such a small program. Blender seems to be one of those golden OSS programs that has not become bloated or inefficient or buggy, and is the epitomy of what Open-Source should give the world.<br /></p><p>I don't want to try to describe the beauty (both art-wise and programming-wise) and power of Blender. Download it yourself, and start experimenting. It's so natural, that even a complete non-artist like myself can create some pretty sweet renderings. Have fun!</p>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1149199144432232932006-06-01T17:44:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:45:52.589-05:00Last.fm--The Social Music RevolutionI just signed up with <a href="http://www.last.fm/">Last.fm,</a> a social networking music community. I think it's going to be really cool. It uses open-source plugins and players (under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">Creative Commons</a> license) to integrate with your media library and current media player (support for WMP, iTunes, Winamp, and a bunch more), to automatically send <b>anonymous</b> listening information to your account. It synthesizes the data it recieves, and builds a set of "Neighboring" users who like the same music as you. You can listen to their songs if they have a paid account.<br /><br />Last.fm also has web radio stations of a bunch of different genres at 128kbps (CD-quality) that stream through an opensource, extremely small player. Last.fm supports tagging, blogging, etc.<br /><br />It also generates listening statistics for you, following trends automatically.<br /><br />To me, however, it's the community surrounding Last.fm that seems most wonderful. I never jumped on the MySpace bandwagon--I'd rather stick with real friends, not virtual avatars. But Last.fm is your "music friends." I like that: it's a way to find out about bands that I'd never find otherwise.<br /><br />Which is the other plus of Last.fm. There's a massive library of full-streaming and 30-second sample streaming indie songs that are really good, but don't get publicity because they aren't on a major label.<br /><br />Finally, <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/presentt/">here's</a> my Last.fm profile. If you like what I listen to, add me to your friends list.<br /><br />Last.fm also generates a list of the most recent songs you listened to. Here's mine as of this posting:<br /><center><a href="http://www.last.fm/user/presentt/?chartstyle=minimalLightRecent5"><img src="http://imagegen.last.fm/minimalLightRecent5/recenttracks/presentt.gif" border="0" /></a></center><br /><span style="color:red;">Edit: Actually, the above list isn't as of the posting; it changes automatically as I listen to more music. What you're looking at now is the most recent songs I've played on my computer.</span>Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1149135286096283822006-05-31T23:57:00.000-04:002006-11-27T16:48:12.872-05:00Ubuntu 6.06 ReleaseSorry I haven't posted in a while. Junior year in high school two weeks before summer break--what can I say, between AP tests, SATIs, SATIIs, finals, final projects, paper....<br /><br />Anyways, good news: Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" is scheduled for <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/news/dapperrc">official release</a> tomorrow. <br /><br />I've been using Ubuntu since version 5.04, and using 6.06 since its third testing phase, codenamed "Flight 3." After trying various Linux distributions, Ubuntu helped me through the learning curve (although I've got a long long long long long way to go before I can even call myself "advanced").<br /><br />I've set up Dapper Flight 3 as an FTP server for my home WLAN, so I can vouch for its base-server functionality as well as its desktop user functionality. Superb.<br /><br />Dapper, as of tomorrow, will be out of testing and in its full support cycle. I highly recommend grabbing the LiveCD to check it out, and then at least switch an old Windows box to dual boot--the partitioner in the installer is one of the easiest to use I've ever seen. Download the .iso files with BitTorrent--for the file sizes, it's extremely fast. Or use Ubuntu's ShipIt requests--they'll send you a free CD, and extra copies to give your friends (if you're willing to wait, which I'm not).<br /><br />All downloads, in ISO and TORRENT formats, for x86, PowerPC, and AMD64 architectures, available <a href="http://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu-iso/CDs/5.10/">here</a>.<br /><br />Ubuntu uses GNOME to power its GUI, but KDE-club members can download Kubuntu. Check out <a href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">ubuntulinux.org</a> for all the information you want. And if you want more, check out their <a href="http://www.ubuntuforums.org/">forums</a>--it's <b>the</b> best web community I've come across.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1143160942888150542006-03-23T19:30:00.000-05:002006-11-27T16:50:08.698-05:00Writely Aquired by GoogleThe AJAX-based online word-processing application <a href="http://www.writely.com/">Writely</a> has been <a href="http://writely.blogspot.com/2006/03/google-yep-google.html">acquired</a> by Google. I <a href="http://myfortytwocents.blogspot.com/2006/02/writely-shows-potential-of-web20.html">wrote</a> about Writely a few posts back, and still give it my praise--it's a great program that really fills a niche.<br /><br />But what does the merger mean for us users? Well for one, Writely has temporarily discontinued new registrations until the transition to Google's servers is completed. Writely claims to not change things--<i>for now</i>-- and the merger should allow the start-up to make some serious improvements under Google's massive budget. The team working on the Writely project should increase as well.<br /><br />I'm wary about Google's AdSense program slipping in on Writely, however. Google has had the habit of providing useful, streamlined, and powerful services with their trademark clean interfaces, but then adding their text ads later down the road. Look at Gmail, for example. Writely claims this will not happen until users are notified, but how much good will that do once the users have established a portfolio of work on Writely?<br /><br />From the looks of it, no major changes are occuring to Writely as a result of the merger for some time. Nonetheless, I'm not certain if this was the best decision for Writely. I'm a believer in the *nix philosophy: <i>Do one thing and do it right.</i> Since Google went public in 2004, it has been straying from its own domain--web searching. Hopefully Google can keep doing Writely "right" (write?).Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1141269711697376382006-03-01T21:59:00.000-05:002006-11-27T16:51:23.515-05:00Wikipedia Hits 1,000,000<a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/02/006208&from=rss">Slashdot</a> reports that Wikipedia, the online, user-edited encyclopedia, has reached its one-millionth article today at 6:09pm EST. The article is about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordanhill_railway_station">Jordanhill Railway Station.</a><br /><br />Here are few highlights that caught my attention in the Slashdot thread:<br /><ul><br /><li>znx <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=178937&cid=14832064">writes</a>, <i>Even if you consider only 10% of the wiki as "useful content", that still means 100,000 articles. Which is just below that of Encyclopedia Britannica (which was established way back in 1768!). This is a milestone along the way, the wikipedia isn't perfect but it is a great project that should be celebrated for its success.</i><br /><br /></li><li>fm6 <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=178937&cid=14831948">writes</a>, <i>I find it interesting that the "official" one millionth article is one of those obscure geographical articles that help justify Wikipedia's existence. It's the sort of narrow topic that old-fashioned encylopedias would never get to, but which is actually useful to certain people. But it's a little strange that the counter hit 1 million on such an article. By percentages it should have been a vanity article, a topic that exists mainly in the mind of the author, or a summary of a TV episode.</i><br /><br /></li><li>niktemadur <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=178937&cid=14832138">writes</a>, <i>1,000,000 articles in English. If you take all articles in all languages, Wikipedia surpassed the magic number a long time ago, and has by now actually gone beyond 2,000,000 articles.</i><br /></li></ul><br /><br />Also, interestingly enough, Wikipedia user Mészáros András predicted that today (i.e., March 1, 2006) would see the official authorship of Wikipedia's one-millionth article.<br /><br />The count to one-million does not include redirects and stubs. If those were included, Wikipedia would have over 2.5 million articles.<br /><br />There is of course the expected debate (seeing as it is a Slashdot thread) on the value, accuracy, and reliability of Wikipedia. One Slashdotter posted a link to <a href="http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Uncyclopedia</a>, a parody of Wikipedia with the slogan "The content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit," compared to Wikipedia's slogan "The free encyclopedia than anyone can edit."Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9132525.post-1141167678604473222006-02-28T16:53:00.000-05:002006-11-27T16:52:59.872-05:00Infrared WebcamA while ago I came across <a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.johnson2/IR/">this</a> page. It is instructions on converting a standard webcam from the visible light spectrum to the infrared spectrum. I finally got around to attempting the project myself.<br /><br />I chose an old Intel CS330 webcam, no more recent than 1998 (yeah, it's pretty old-skool). You'll also need some exposed camera film, a small screwdriver, and a knife.<br /><a href="http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1927/img11275by.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1927/img11275by.th.jpg" alt="Materials" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The basic plan is to open up the webcam, remove the lens housing, remove the Infrared filter from the lens, and replace it with film to filter visible light. Be prepared to damage the webcam--I did not have any problems taking mine apart, modifying, or reassembling, but I cannot vouch for other models.<br /><br /><ol><br /><li>First we'll remove the case of the webcam. Take off any mounts, unscrew any screws, and otherwise pry the case off. Try not to break any clips, but instead gently remove them with a screwdriver. I also unscrewed and unclipped the USB cable from the circuit board, just to get it out of the way; be careful not to bend any pins.<br /><a href="http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/2246/img11281fp.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/2246/img11281fp.th.jpg" alt="Disassembly 1" border="0" /></a><a href="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3884/img11299vw.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3884/img11299vw.th.jpg" alt="Disassembly 2" border="0" /></a><a href="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1814/img11301vk.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1814/img11301vk.th.jpg" alt="Disassembly 3" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></li><li>Next unscrew the lens assembly from the circuit board, and unclip it from the mount. Now the CMOS sensor on the circuit board is exposed, so be careful not to scratch it, get dust on it, or even touch it.<br /><a href="http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5826/img11311ue.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5826/img11311ue.th.jpg" alt="Lens mount disassembly 1" border="0" /></a><a href="http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/492/img11343cq.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/492/img11343cq.th.jpg" alt="Lens mount disassembly 2" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></li><li>If you're lucky, there should be a small red piece of glass against the lens that is the IR filter. Simply remove it. If you are unlucky like me, the filter was painted directly onto the lens. Gently scratch (I know it sounds terrible) the lens with the tip of a knife blade until the red coating flicks off. This is the most difficult part; you need to apply enough pressure to chip off the filter coating, but avoid scratching the glass beneath. I found that it requires more pressure on the knife than you might expect, but it is better to be cautious.<br /><a href="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/4591/img11372xv.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/4591/img11372xv.th.jpg" alt="Filter removal 1" border="0" /></a><a href="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/583/img11389dt.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/583/img11389dt.th.jpg" alt="Filter removal 2" border="0" /></a><a href="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/708/img11399bh.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/708/img11399bh.th.jpg" alt="Filter removal 3" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></li><li>Cut a piece of <b>exposed, black</b> photographic film to cover the lens; this will filter visible light, but allow IR wavelengths through. Use film that is as dark as possible, and that does <b>not</b> have a picture negative on it. One can usually find such pieces at the beginning of the roll, before actual pictures have been taken.<br /><a href="http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2742/img11418eq.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2742/img11418eq.th.jpg" alt="Visible spectrum filter sizing" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></li><li>Use a <b>single fiber</b> of duct tape (one of the grey strings), and lay it over the edge of the lens. Push the film you cut onto this to hold it in place. It will not be the "tightest" of seals, but it will prevent glue from getting caught on the lens, etc. Reassemble the lens mount.<br /><a href="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/699/img11436nb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/699/img11436nb.th.jpg" alt="Lens mount reassembly" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></li><li>Screw the lens assembly back onto the circuit board. <b>Before doing this, blow gently on the CMOS sensor to remove any dust specks that will greatly degrade picture quality.</b> Continue to replace the board in the case, reattach the USB cable, and close the case back up. Don't forget to screw in the screws.<br /><a href="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4355/img11421kw.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/4355/img11421kw.th.jpg" alt="CMOS sensor" border="0" /></a><br /></li></ol><br />That's it. Now plug your webcam back into your computer and use it like you always have. Except now, the images will be in the IR spectrum. At first glance it will simply look like a black-and-white image of the regular shot, but look closer. You will see that some inks and dyes remain transparent, and others show up nicely. Take a look at a dollar bill, or your arm (the arm is weird--all the veins show up).<br /><br />If the image looks too dark, you may need a stronger source if IR light. Daylight is normally sufficient, and occasionally an incandescent bulb will overlap into the IR spectrum adequately. However, try pointing a TV remote at the subject and holding down a button if you need more light.<br /><br />Good luck!<br /><br />PS. Thanks to <a href="http://imageshack.us/"><img src="http://imageshack.us/img/iss1.png" border="0" /></a> for the image hosting.Tedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06387888255838388433noreply@blogger.com2