Saturday, April 12, 2003
webGUI is a discussion list for people interested in talking about the present and future of building thin-client applications which are pre-dominantly but not solely distributed and displayed using the standard available technologies of the world wide web: HTTP, HTML++, Flash, Java, plug-ins, ActiveX, new W3C standards, new XML standards, etc.
Cylinders, Head, Sector (CHS) parameters for Type I Compact Flash
GNU utilities for Win32 - includes win32 version of dd (see also rawrite32)
Gemulator Explorer + ASPI drivers are probably the best bet for images on Windows.
CD Baby is a great online record store which sell's only indie CD's (indie as in directly from musicians w/ no distributors). They also run a slash-based community site and are doing business like gangbusters, recently breaking $3 million in musician payouts (musicians get $6-12 per CD). Oh, and they answer their email super fast - 2 minutes at 11:30PM. :)
Minor quibbles: they have a 'wishlist' feature, but it's only enabled if you have an account, which can only be made if you start an order (it in fact doesn't appear at all unless you're logged in). The wishlist is really important because it's the most convenient way to store out of stock items. Another quibble with the wishlist,: it'd be nice to move (instead of copy) from your cart to wishlist.
I've been playing around w/ Dia (dia Win32 Installer) again recently, so in keeping with the recent flow craziness, here's how I think it should work:
Friday, April 11, 2003
My old NEX II MP3 player just recently died on me. I started taking it apart, and it looks like I might be able to do some soldering to possibly get it working, but chances are slim (approximately corresponding to my soldering skills). It looks like the new NEX ia is coming out though, with voice/FM recording, better firmware, and possible Ogg Vorbis support, among other things. I sent an email to see what the recording quality is (hopefully with line-in capabilities), and to see if some slightly annoying NEX II bugs have been fixed.
From correspondence w/ Frontier Labs:
- improvements: multiple folder support, alphabetical song listing, more buffering, improved shuffle (but no m3u support, so you'll want to keep your CopyNex handy - see also: FATSort, PlaylistExpander)
- Ogg Vorbis is actually being worked on, for the NEX II's as well as the NEX ia and will be released as a firmware upgrade
- 64Kbps recording (can record at higher bitrates, but no selection mechanism in the firmware right now)
- No (recording) level-meter
- No line-in, the only external input is the built-in voice recording microphone
- Can play back MP3 files at the same time as recording
Perception Digital has a PD-095-01 Portable MP3 player which has a can record from an internal mic, FM, or a line-in at 13Kbps voice or 48-320kbps MP3 (!). That's pretty frickin' awesome. It's a little bit on the chunkier side, and only accepts SmartMedia, no Compact Flash though. Still, tempting, if I could find some uesr reviews...
The e.Digital Odyssey 300 (SmartMedia) looks interesting, although it also looks like it's no longer available. [the Mpio DMB+ looks like the same thing]
Also, PoGo! Products has their RipFlash line of Recordable Digital Audio Players (the TRIO is one w/ mic and line in, but is not memory expandable). Uses SD/MMC... (CNet RipFlash DX review)
See Also: minidisc.org's Portable Recorders with Uploading Facilities list.
Places to buy: e.Digital Odyseey 300, PoGo! RipFlash Trio, Perception Digital Hercules (PD-095-01), NEX + accessories
Independents' day - What record industry slump? Independent labels say business has never been better. Some good /. postings:
For the record, I'm an artist. That's what I do for a living. Copyright's very important to me, but jail time for somebody downloading or distributing a copy of my work is ridiculous. I'd rather just figure out a way to work with them on it. If they're willing to redistribute my work, then maybe there's a deal that can be made there. "At least advertise my deal for purchasing stuff." The only time I'd be really worried about somebody redistributing my stuff is if they're making money off it illegally. That's really what copyright law is for. It's not about suing America's future.
Chag on The Hundred-Year Language (from /. thread)
If the children are our future, then they will be designing the future languages. This is horrible. Can you imagine the future code?
VIOD THING (OMFG!!!1 LOLOLOLOOL!!!) INIT HAX0R N00B!!! WHIEL STFU DO GOTO 10 DOEN
The big news this morning? Apple Plans to Purchase Universal Music
If it's for real, Apple could single-handedly drag the music industry into the digital age. This could be very, very good.
Thursday, April 10, 2003
BEAM.TV, The Mill: "Honda Cog", an interesting 120s commercial. Is it all CGI? [according to this /. article, nope, just 606 takes and one 'cheat'
Related: Robodex 2003 videos at TokyoDV
Here's a site with details about the $97.8 Billion dollar RIAA lawsuit. The President of Michigan Tech wrote a response to the RIAA suit last week.
Went to the Bright Eyes show last night. Really enjoyed the set, a lot of new songs (including the ones he sang last time, and a song from the Post Parlo split as well as some really old ones). Here's a link to a 60s [9MB AVI] clip of a song I hadn't heard before:
While the camera microphone doesn't really get it cross, the sound was great. A night and day difference being up in the balcony vs down in the floor.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Cultural Gulf Separates Forces, Iraqis
"I say we just -- nuke this place and make it into a parking lot," seethed Lance Cpl. Ryan Eman, 22, of Michigan.
U.S. forces invading this country make frequent reference to "nuking" Iraqis, whom they call "ragheads" and "camel jockeys," often without appearing to distinguish between civilians and enemy forces. The extent to which such remarks are part of the daily vernacular underscores the cultural and political challenges the United States faces as it becomes a major military presence in a post-Saddam Iraq.
Asked later about his remark, Eman said he hadn't sincerely wished to drop a nuclear bomb on the people he was sent to liberate from Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. "I was frustrated and tired," he said. "I don't wish nukes on anybody, because anything we throw like that at somebody could come back at us."
See kids? That's why you don't want to nuke other people. They might fight back. Speaking of kids:
"Raghead, raghead, can't you see? This old war ain't -- to me," sang Lance Cpl. Christopher Akins, 21, of Louisville, Ky., sweat running down his face in rivulets as he dug a fighting trench one recent afternoon under a blazing sun.
Asked whom he considered a raghead, Akins said: "Anybody who actively opposes the United States of America's way ... If a little kid actively opposes my way of life, I'd call him a raghead, too."
As for non-hostile Iraqis, "I think they can be brought up intellectually, but it'll take some work because they're still in the Stone Age," Akins said. He appeared startled to hear that Iraqis are descendants of ancient Mesopotamia, a thriving civilization that created the world's first known system of writing and body of law, and that until the havoc of Hussein's regime, Iraq also enjoyed a substantial and highly educated middle class.
A long writeup on some of the recent events in Warblogging.com, including a questioning of how US forces have been conducting themselves, not just with regards to journalists, but with civilians and allies (err, ally.. the British).
US Army Colonel David Perkins of the 3rd Infantry Division said that Iraqis in front of the hotel fired rocket propelled grenades across the Tigris River at main battle tanks quite a way away (reporters say that the tanks were "more than a half-mile away"). Colonel Perkins said that soldiers fired a 120mm ruond at the hotel after seeing enemy "binoculars" in the hotel. The shell hit the 15th floor of the building, killing two journalists and injuring five.
According to reporters there were dozens upon dozens of cameras arrayed on the balconies of the hotel. "How can they spot someone with binoculars and not [see] cameras?" asked AP photographer Jerome Delay who was in the hotel.
Journalists, according to the AP insist that they "heard no gunfire coming from the hotel or its immediate environs." They say that they were watching two US tanks operating across the al-Jumhuriya bridge — more than a half-mile away — and that at some point one of the tanks simply rotated its turret towards the hotel and fired.
One of the journalists killed was a Reuters camerman. Reuters responded:
"Clearly the war, and all its confusion, has come to the heart of Baghdad," said Reuters Editor in Chief Geert Linnebank. "But the incident nonetheless raises questions about the judgment of the advancing U.S. troops who have known all along that this hotel is the main base for almost all foreign journalists in Baghdad."
In Belgium, the International Federation of Journalists said it appeared noted that on the same day US bombs hit al-Jazeera offices, Abu Dhabi TV offices and the Palestine Hotel. They said it "appeared Tuesday's attacks may have deliberately targeted journalists," says the AP. Secretary-General Aidan White of the IFJ said "If so, they are grave and serious violations of international law."
The Committee to Protect Journalists went even further than the IFJ, saying "We believe these attacks violate the Geenva Conventions. The evidence suggests that the response of US forces was disproportionate and therefore violated international humanitarian law," Reuters reports.
The Arab Journalists Union also "condemned the Anglo-American attack on journalists while in Baghdad to cover the aggression."
The Pentagon has responded simply by saying that Baghdad is "not a safe place" and that journalists "should not be there."
Good thing the DMCA wasn't around when Compaq reverse engineered the the IBM PC: Federal Judge Rules Against Reverse-engineering.
Wow, I had no idea that there were developers who aren't aware of Jesse's awesome bookmarklets, especially surprising that Eric, who works at Netscape didn't. (see bugzilla)
Anyway, thought I'd give it a little googlejuice, for the good of developers everywhere. It's step 3 on my intermediate web development check list (step 1 is installing Mozilla).
Related: gemal.dk: Using Mozilla in testing and debugging web sites, Brad's Mozilla resource page, List of Mozilla links from September 2002, old post from January 2002)
Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent
In completely unrelated news, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says Syria has been ignoring a warning he gave last week about giving military assistance to Iraq and that some senior Iraqis were fleeing to Syria.
Salon on Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Not getting cable, the only Daily Show I occasionally watch are the clips on Lisa's site. [speaking of which, looks like this media analysis piece is on there]
After the war started, Stewart had the following conversations with Colbert, who was wearing his "senior media analyst" hat:
Stewart: What should the media's role be in covering the war?
Colbert: Very simply, the media's role should be the accurate and objective description of the hellacious ass-whomping we're handing the Iraqis.
Stewart: Hellacious ass-whomping? Now to me, that sounds pretty subjective.
Colbert: Are you saying it's not an ass-whomping, Jon? I suppose you could call it an ass-kicking or an ass-handing-to. Unless, of course, you love Hitler.
Stewart [stammering]: I don't love Hitler.
Colbert: Spoken like a true Hitler-lover.
Stewart: Look, even some American generals have said that the Iraqis have put up more resistance than they were expected to.
Colbert: First rule of journalism, Jon, is to know your sources. Sounds like these "generals" of yours may be a little light in the combat boots, if you know what I'm saying.
Stewart: I don't think I know what you're saying.
Colbert: I'm saying they're queers, Jon. They're Hitler-loving queers.
Stewart: I'm perplexed. Is your position that there's no place for negative words or even thoughts in the media?
Colbert: Not at all, Jon. Doubts can happen to everyone, including me, but as a responsible journalist, I've taken my doubts, fears, moral compass, conscience and all-pervading skepticism about the very nature of this war and simply placed them in this empty Altoids box. [Produces box.] That's where they'll stay, safe and sound, until Iraq is liberated.
Stewart: Isn't it the media's responsibility in wartime ...
Colbert: That's my point, Jon! The media has no responsibility in wartime. The government's on top of it. The media can sit this one out.
Stewart: And do what?
Colbert: Everything it's always wanted to do but had no time for: travel, see the world, write that novel. I know the media has always wanted to try yoga. This is a great time to take it up. It's very stressful out there -- huge war going on. Jon, hear me out, it was Thomas Jefferson who said, "Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach."
Stewart: Stephen, Stalin said that. That was Stalin. Jefferson said he'd rather have a free press and no government than a government and no free press.
Colbert: Well, what do you expect from a slave-banging, Hitler-loving queer?
Phone Number (non) Portability
WP is reporting that Wireless Firms Still Fight Portable Phone Numbers. To anyone following the situation this, it should be no surprise (for anyone interested, I wrote a rant on this last year). What's been interesting was seeing a recent spate of coverage/posts that acted as if another forbearance wouldn't be requested. It looks like now, they're going to play the 9/11 card:
"I would rather see our resources devoted to safety of life and protection of property rather than addressing regulations of convenience," said Brian Fontes, vice president for federal regulations for Cingular Wireless.
Despicable. (Although my current disgust is more with the spinelessness of the FCC, whom every single mobile subscriber continues to pay at least a buck or two in taxes/fees every month [several hundred million dollars cum.] - where's that going to Mr. Powell?)
dangerousmeta comments on the latest NYT Paul Krugman Op-Ed. From the piece:
Last week John Kerry told an audience that "what we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States." Republicans immediately sought to portray this remark as little short of treason. "Senator Kerry crossed a grave line when he dared to suggest the replacement of America's commander in chief at a time when America is at war," declared Marc Racicot, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Notice that Mr. Racicot wasn't criticizing Mr. Kerry's choice of words. Instead, he denounced Mr. Kerry because he "dared to suggest the replacement of America's commander in chief" — knowing full well that Mr. Kerry was simply talking about the next election. Mr. Racicot, not Mr. Kerry, is the one who crossed a grave line; never in our nation's history has it been considered unpatriotic to oppose an incumbent's re-election.
PhpUnit - unit testing framework for PHP
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Anil is right, Josh Llano is an evil, sick bastard. Of course, those who prostelytize are always doing stuff like this. Josh Llano is simply a prelude to what'll happen after the fighting in Iraq. (more in Google News)
Here's an Al-Jazeera report with some choice quotes:
“We do not deny the name of Christ. We believe in sharing him in deed and in word,” said Mark Kelly, a spokesman for the Southern Baptists.
The missionaries say that they plan to address the physical and spiritual needs of the Iraqi population.
From /.: Using Mozilla in testing and debugging web sites
Red Cross horrified by number of dead civilians
"We saw that a truck was delivering dozens of totally dismembered dead bodies of women and children. It was an awful sight. It was really very difficult to believe this was happening."
More on conditions from Reuters. Daily Kos has a writeup (comments) on casualty reports from Russian Intelligence (GRU), available publically at Iraqwar.ru (next-day human translation).
Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.
George McGovern writes a scathing indictment and historical reflection on the Bush Administration in this month's The Nation.
It has been argued that the Iraqi leader is hiding a few weapons of mass destruction, which we and eight other countries have long held. But can it be assumed that he would insure his incineration by attacking the United States? Can it be assumed that if we are to save ourselves we must strike Iraq before Iraq strikes us? This same reasoning was frequently employed during the half-century of cold war by hotheads recommending that we atomize the Soviet Union and China before they atomize us. Courtesy of The New Yorker, we are reminded of Tolstoy's observation: "What an immense mass of evil must result...from allowing men to assume the right of anticipating what may happen." Or again, consider the words of Lord Stanmore, who concluded after the suicidal charge of the Light Brigade that it was "undertaken to resist an attack that was never threatened and probably never contemplated." The symphony of falsehood orchestrated by the Bush team has been de-vised to defeat an Iraqi onslaught that "was never threatened and probably never comtemplated."
(via mark, who's writing again, including some poetic stanzas)
Monday, April 07, 2003
Hmm, Howard Dean has a new official blog, following Gary Hart's lead, but it's just not the same. Why? Because Gary Hart's been writing his blog himself.
I never thought that much of him before, but since reading Hart's recent postings, I've begun to respect him a lot more. There seems to be something much more genuine and personal about it that I can't pin down. Maybe it's the warm fuzzy feeling of personal connection in an increasingly impersonal world.
Can blogs really change the political landscape currently dominated by monolithic media, and lack of substantive dialogue? My natural inclination is towards doubt, but I can't help but hope.
South Park + War Protest - flash, en español
Got an email the other day on PNAC.info, a new site dedicated to collection, analysis and dissemination of information about the Project for the New American Century.
Do Surgical Masks Stop SARS? (short answer: no)
Posted about e-sheep's Thin Ice; it's actually part of a series called 'our leader speaks'. Really worth the clicks, really well put.
Accordian Guy: BLOGS SAVE LIVES (What happened to me and the new girl (or, "The girl who cried Webmaster")
Just Say No to Rectangular Bars
Don't mind the dust, it should clear as I work on things. Thought I'd put it up along with a writeup of some stuff I've been twiddling with.
CSS and Tables
I've been putting off forever on writing an extended treatise on the weaknesses of CSS, ie why people do find working with CSS to be so painful. While that drags longer treatise drags on, one of the tangents it sent me exploring was on the nature of why there were no mechanisms for even simple gridbags type layouts in CSS2 (whereas it was almost intuitive with table layouts). There are no less than 25 Three Column Layouts currently listed in the css-d wiki. Almost all of them have weaknesses/bugs.
Considering that the majority of web sites were constructed with gridbags in mind, it seems almost inconceivable that this issue hadn't been addressed over the course of creating CSS (a second revision no less). Well, maybe not, considering some of the other fundamental flaws built in... A digression for another day.
This thinking about tables, of course, led me to the obvious. The CSS2 table box model of course, specifies table layouts. Via the display property, one can use table mechanics for semantically neutral container elements. While for some, it may not seem much of an aesthetic improvement, but there are several properties that directly address CSS weaknesses, including:
- Widths - not specified to the Viewport, calculated against minimum content width
- Vertical Alignment - not great, but at least everything you had w/ tables
- Collapsing Border Model
Of course, in the course of preparing this, it occurred that I should probably check how it works in some browsers. A quick check shows that it doesn't work for IE/PC. [check on laptop - IE/Mac, Safari, Opera] According to the spec, the display property is optional and may be ignored by HTML UA's.
Using the table box model doesn't solve the fundamental weaknesses in property specification, block relation, or flow control, but if you're using a user agent that supports display assignment, it may be a worthwhile avenue to persue as a stopgap.
Sunday, April 06, 2003
Linux IA Website - a site dedicated to Linux on Internet Appliances, which includes custom Midori Linux images for the Gateway Connected Touchpad and other IA's.
Grr, currently MIA CDs: Desaparecidos - Read Music Speak Spanish, Subset - Overpass
Recently reading: TBOGG, digby's Hullabaloo, Eschaton, soundbitten. Enough for now, I'm getting too depressed.
Tom the Dancing Bug: Can you spot the double taxation?
The Shape of World War IV, By Number
- 89: Percentage of Americans who rely on television as their first source of news during war in Iraq.
- 92: Between Sept. 14, 2002 and Feb. 7, 2003, percentage of news stories airing on NBC, ABC and CBS that originated directly from White House, Pentagon or State Department.
- 236,202: The number of times Osama bin Laden was mentioned in international media reports between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 11, 2002.
- 57, 667: The number of times Osama bin Laden was mentioned between Sept. 11, 2002 and today.
- 66,648: The number of times Saddam Hussein was mentioned between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 11, 2002.
- 225,147: The number of times Saddam Hussein was mentioned between Sept. 11, 2002 and today.
Written to JohnKerry.com:
Hi, my motivation in writing in was primarily to say how heartening it is (as a jaded young American) to see a politician stand up for what's right with regards to the war. It seems that the majority of our leadership has been effectively cowed, giving up both their voice and better judgement on the issue.
A secondary reason for writing, is to hopefully get some informaiton on Kerry's views and/or commitment to protecting civil liberties in these troubled times. Already we've seen the Patriot Act circumventing basic rights for dozens directly affecting American citizens being held illegally, and casting a dark pall on the political climate in numerous other areas. With DSEA-2003 (Patriot II) being proposed, and granting even more far-reaching powers circumventing our Constitution and Bill of Rights, the future is dim.
I have no illusions that, regardless of whatever reasoning for the incursion in Iraq, that it will result in a greater terrorist threat, and unfortunately, a corresponding threat to the very liberties that our leaders and militaries have onstensibly sworn to protect.
How strong is Kerry's commitment on this issue?
I don't need any lessons in patriotism from the likes of Tom DeLay
A full transcript of Sen. John Kerry's speech at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner April 3 in Georgia which responds to the Republican criticisms of his previous comments is available on VegSource (or Salon w/ clicking). I'm glad he's not
Also an AP article on it.
"The Republicans have tried to make a practice of attacking anybody who speaks out strongly by questioning their patriotism," the Massachusetts senator said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "I refuse to have my patriotism or right to speak out questioned. I fought for and earned the right to express my views in this country."
...
Neither Hastert, Frist nor DeLay served in the military. In response to Kerry, DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said, "There's a difference between loving your country and leading it. Demanding regime change in America isn't unpatriotic - it's vile."
Pithy comments: difference between loving your country and leading it
- err, I think that's perfect (bios on these leaders). Also, I suppose 'vile' is what they're calling our Founding Fathers now.
- USB Audio Support - USB audio spec compliant stuff should work
- Jacek Pliszka's USB toys under Linux - list of devices, config info
Pre-registration for Do Not Call list in California.
Freshman in Florida State's First Year Writing Classes are being introduced to the net (and online writing) by keeping blogs (no one with a blogroll? --not that I should talk). Looks like Lessig and RMS were required reading, which is a good thing, even if some of 'em just didn't get it.
#1 reason I should be blogging more, not less (or getting some more effective bookmarking): spending half an hour trying to find something I came across a few months ago (and failing)
Blech, looks like MySQL neither has a uniqueidentifier property nor sequences (AUTO_INCREMENT doesn't work for shared IDs). This is pretty trivial to handle in PostgreSQL. Hmm, perhaps could be added via a UDF but this seems like a pain. Uggh, must be written in C. Que Lame-o.
(another option is using 'uuidgen -t', but there are a few negatives: 1) forking for each uuidgen, and at least the bigger problem for me 2) the uuid generated is a 8-4-4-4-8 hexadecimal string that's frankly overkill (must be stored as a char, too large to store in INT4 - could be worked with, but well...)