Posted by David N. Welton
Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:34:00 GMT
I'm just old enough to have only discovered the internet at about the time I graduated from high school, and have been using it for about 15 years. Every once in a while though, it comes back and hits me just how cool the whole thing is. Not "yeah, neat", but a serious wow at just how amazing it is to be able to communicate with people the world over. I think the first time that happened was when I had been exploring some of the early nineties internet - gopher and the web with lynx. Which was neat, but not in the "wow" sense. Then I stumbled on to IRC somehow, and since at the time I'd already started taking Italian courses, I thought I'd see if there was an Italian channel. There was, and I think the conversation went something like this:
me: so, where are you guys?
someone: Italy, and you?
me: Oregon, but, no, seriously, where are you?
someone: Italy!
me: Seriously?!
It was a very concrete demonstration of the fact, that, thanks to this new thing, I could talk to people all over the world, for free!
Of course I've grown used to this, and take for granted that I can call my parents in Oregon via Skype for free, and a lot of other cool things, but once in a while something makes me take a step back and say "cool!".
Most recently, a web site I follow that I follow has had an interesting back and forth between Paul Graham and David Heinemeier Hansson, with additional comments by the likes of Paul Buchheit, which, agree or disagree with their modus operandi, is an impressive cast of characters to be able to interact with, and learn from, without moving from my perch up here in the middle of the Tyrolean Alps.
Tags startups | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David N. Welton
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:35:00 GMT
We received an interesting contribution to Hecl recently: Martin Mainusch put together a Hecl interface to kxml, and also sent in some demo code that fetches and parses weather forecast information. I thought it was pretty cool:
Note that it's not compiled into the default build, so you have to change a property from 0 to 1 and recompile, and...being new there might be some issues, but still, it's nice to have that to let people play around with simple "web service" type things that use XML. Of course, another strategy might be to have a 'proxy' server that fetches the actual XML, and returns a tagged Hecl list so that Hecl can parse it directly, but that requires a server and has more overhead.
Tags hecl | no comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David N. Welton
Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:16:00 GMT
I originally had the idea for a list to keep track of stuff that doesn't work with Linux something like 12 years ago. I built an initial version, that proved reasonably popular at the time, but then the place it was hosted had some problems, and I was busy with other things. I finally got around to building a new version four or five years ago, and it's been doing ok since then, but with a baby on the way, I've been thinking of things to get rid of, and this is not something I do active work on, so maybe it would be best to find a new home for the site, located at http://www.leenooks.com.
Here's the catch:
Whoever gets it has to promise to maintain it as essentially what it is today - you have to continue to provide information about hardware that does not function with Linux, or only functions with proprietary drivers.
It does generate some money, that I put towards the server where it's hosted. I wouldn't mind selling it for something, which will hopefully encourage only those truly interested to apply. It could probably generate more money if it were plastered with a bunch of ugly ads, or, hopefully, if more time and effort were put into it than I have at the moment.
It currently runs on my own server, and uses DedaWiki, an open source, Rails-based Wiki, as well as PostgreSQL. You would have to relocate it to your own server.
So, if you're interested, contact me: davidw@dedasys.com.
If I don't find the right person, no worries; I'll keep maintaining it for a while yet.
Tags hardware, linux, rails wiki | 6 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David N. Welton
Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:19:00 GMT
I have a bad habit of getting caught up in side projects - I love to build stuff, and open see opportunities to engage in this hobby. A site I've run for a while is the Linux Incompatibility List, which also led me to create my own Rails based wiki for it, DedaWiki, which is of course open source (and could use some more attention).
However, things are getting badly on the spam front, and it's time to find a better solution than hacking at my own anti-spam code. Two systems that look good are Akismet, which I use successfully for this journal, and Defensio. However, being the impractical guy that I am, I am also curious if there are what we might call 'open source' efforts in this area. I'm not sure what that would look like, since there's probably strength in numbers, and a hosted solution is certainly easier. Also, it seems the incentives in an arms race like anti-spam are in favor of the quick turnaround that a small, smart, dedicated team can provide. Also... a bit of security through obscurity in an arms race type situation probably doesn't hurt, since there's often going to be a way around anything that's not locked down (and part of the value of a journal like this is in the comments), and letting people see exactly what numbers and ratios and metrics are being used is going to help the bad guys.
Anyone able to point me to something that proves me wrong?
Tags rails, spam | 2 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David N. Welton
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 14:35:00 GMT
I don't know if androids dream of electric sheep, but I've certainly been losing a lot of sleep over Google's Android, and am glad that the Android Developer Challenge is winding up, as I've been doing all Android, all the time for the past month or so.
I have greatly enjoyed working with Android, as it's much more capable than Java ME. It's still very much a work in progress, and only time will tell if Google and their partners are able to best current mobile programming systems... or if the web will simply obviate the whole thing, as it's doing in many other areas. Win or lose, I will continue to support Android as a platform that Hecl runs on, but in the meantime, I hope to go back and look at some less future-oriented code and get back to some Java ME work. More on that soon...
In any case, here's hoping that the contest judges see the value in bringing a scripting language to mobile phones! I also hope to see actual hardware soon, as I'm really looking forward to getting my own Android phone.
Tags android, hecl | 6 comments | no trackbacks
Posted by David N. Welton
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:31:00 GMT
A passing thought:
Would it be fair to compare Google's App Engine to Ford's assembly line, in a roundabout sort of way? Ford's mass produced cars put cars within reach of many more people, and over time, put paid to the many custom car producers who didn't adapt. Google's App Engine is a way for people to easily scale their web applications in a way that wasn't possible until now. No fiddling with EC2 images, or hosting, or a bunch of other stuff that, for the time being will still drive people to want to control their own infrastructure, but the prospect of very cheap hosting and very easy scaling is potentially something that will change things significantly.
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Posted by David N. Welton
Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:41:00 GMT
Amongst other things, I have long had a passion for maps. I remember what a nice discovery USGS topo maps were as a kid, and as I developed an interest in cycling, all the cool places I've found over the years by poring over maps. There's also an element of discovery in getting detailed information about a place you've never been. So I'm excited to notice that Google Maps' terrain view now has contour lines to show elevations, rather than just shading.
Here's the mountain north of Innsbruck, for example.
Or Oregon's North and Middle Sisters
Steens Mountain, Little Blitzen and Big Indian gorges
Cool!
Tags maps | 3 comments | no trackbacks
