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April 26, 2004
More Postgres
Recently found on RootPrompt is a story on devx about PostgreSQL vs MySQL vs Commercial database servers. It's a puff piece about why you should try one of the open source databases instead of jumping right to the commercial servers. As a whole, the article can probably be trimmed to a single page of reading, but apparently devx wants more advertising dollars on it and extends it to 4 pages (HINT: pages 2 and 4 are the only slightly interesting ones).
This began a mind trip that got wondering; why are such articles being written? With the byline for the article you'd believe there was some heavy in-depth comparison to be found within, but you find little of that throughout the article, not even a discussion on connection handlers or data type differences. The more I read about computers, the more I realize that there now exists a very large gap in the world of technical literature. It seems to be a constant that you find either an article extraordinarily technical (i.e. Transparent Orthogonal Checkpointing, my current read) article, or some fluff piece that really provides no substance to extending reader knowledge. You can witness this in most computer books too (PHP ones especially, although I haven't read any of the current crop of books).
Jan even hinted at this disparity in a recent email, and it sounds like he has set forth a plan to put some of it to an end. Has technical writing become so useless that we now must exist with no authors willing to explain deeper technical concepts to non-technical crowds? Has this become the Holy Grail of computing; communication?
Before you state that my opinion is biased as I have experience with subject XYZ, I hope you realize that while I agree, the problem isn't germane to just computer concepts. Quickly scan many of the conference itineraries, books, and articles about Open Source applications and uses. You'll find again the very basics about why Open Source is useful, a topic that I believe should be a mere 5-10 min diversion on a presentation as a whole.
Posted by Dan at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
Bouncing connections
It seems today that no matter what you do, your internet connection isn't safe. Starting on Wednesday of last week, the server that houses everything here came under an ICMP redirect attack. The whole event seemed poised to try and take down the root name-servers, and eventually we watched as our bandwidth disappeared to nothing. This stopped sometime Thursday morning but left us in a slightly incapacitated state, where the connection was now just instantly unstable. After 5 days of more down than up time, it seems that the ISP has been able to correct this and the connection, albeit slow, is now holding strong. To any and all who might have emailed me in the past 6 days or before hoping for a response, you will get one (very) soon. Honest, I tried to respond, but the server disagreed with me.
Choice conversation snippets I had with the ISP include:
Them: Are you sure the network configuration didn't change?
Me: Well, it's not standard for a UNIX machine to lose it's config on the fly like that, but maybe a stray electron from a solar flare flipped a few bits so I'll double check that. Oh wait a second, I can't do that.
Them: Why?
Me: Because your router isn't responding, which makes my machine inaccessible to the outside world.
Them: So you can't confirm your network configuration?
Posted by Dan at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2004
Patriotism and laws
In the days following the events of September 11th, the US Congress passed a bit of legislation better known as the Patriot Act. The act provided law enforcement a broad interpretation of it's power, hoping to allow the capture of any future terrorist in the country. Thankfully, this act was implemented only as a temporary measure, and is set to expire in the next year. Today, President Bush urged Congress to renew all parts of the Patriot Act with the reasoning that it enabled counter-terrorism groups to communicate. There lies the problem with this statement. The Patriot Act didn't really remove any legal barriers, rather it provided incentive for the counter-terrorism groups to begin discussions with each other. Effectively, it provided a means with which to remove the ego in each organization, a process that has now been utilized for almost three years.
The Sunday New York Times (no link because I hate the registration crap) printed an article this week asking if privacy advocates have forgotten that safety is also a right. An article well worth reading if you have an NYT registration, and an interesting question to ponder.
In the end though, I'd like to urge those of you of voting age in the US to write your senators demanding that the Patriot Act not be renewed. My reasons are my own, but I've provided a rather valid link that reviews the Patriot Act as a whole. Give it a read and really consider the implications that can occur with it. There are already numerous articles online discussing the demerits of it. Sorry to inject political punditry on this blog, but now is the time to act on this one.
Posted by Dan at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2004
Jimbo
It seems that Jimbomania has not just started to blog, but to actually continue to blog. While mostly a personal blog, Jim does have those moments of insight and brilliance that are astounding. Check it out occasionally...
Posted by Dan at 08:49 PM | Comments (0)
Tape
Anyone who knows me, knows my extreme interest and abuse of the substance better known as duct tape. I've held together couches, boats, fishing poles, pots, shoes, and numerous amounts of other stuff I can't think of right now. Well, it seems that duct tape has been brought into the modern day and age. 3M has announced transparent duct tape with an improved lasting lifetime of 6 months. I know I'll be buying some. [Note thanks to Cool Tools for the pointer]
Posted by Dan at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2004
Tasty treats
One of the more successful commercial commodities to emerge from the Easter time period are these little marshmellow peeps. In recent years, there has been a rash of experimentation conducted on the impact of environmental fluctuations to the common peep. Unfortunately, many of these experiments missed one of the prime areas of research, choosing to limit their study to the consequences of variable climate control to a peep, while ignoring the ramifications of a post-VCC'd peep on the environment. As such, the authors of paper began their study in the long-term effects of a peep and it's surroundings post climate fluctuation.
A long understood consequence of the introduction of microwaves into the peep environment is the rapid temporary augmentation of the formal structure of a peep. The most common side effect has been the non-uniform expansion of a peep during exposure, and the rapid contraction once said microwaves are removed. Often the fallout from such rapid structural alterations is the resultant peep is lesser in size from it's original form and a factor of rigidity is introduced.
Currently there are two major theories set forth to explain the addition of the rigidity property. The first theory hypothesizes that the exterior sugar coating becomes slightly moist during the expansion (after all, expanding is hard work and a peep has gotta sweat). Upon contraction, the sugar begins to crystalize, locking out valuable moisture needed to revitalize the peep. This process essentially dehydrates the peep, forcing it to conserve moisture for future life. The second theory introduces the meme that peeps themselves do not enjoy undergoing the rapid property changes. Seeing as a peep has no mouth to vocalize discontent nor limbs with which to escape with, it is forced to a utilize a mean of silent rebellion. It seems a peep is able to hold a grudge for a long time, as the rigid property has not been lost over a 5 month period of time.
Though the peep may in fact not enjoy the contraction period, while the peep is at it's largest expansion point it does in fact become a viable threat to the environment. In the few seconds before complete contraction can be achieved, it is possible to exploit a peeps' about to be induced rigidity factor by using the peep has a high powered super-glue. The quick transference of a peep from the point of microwave radiation to an alternate destination, such as a the crack between a closed door and a door frame, will result in the peep binding the two as the rigid form takes hold.
As such, we successfully conclude that super heated peeps work as an excellent adhesive yet to be exploited by the commercial industry.
Posted by Dan at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)
Mondays
really suck. That's all there is to it. It's not like you can delete Mondays either, because there will need to be something to fill that void. Mondays suck.
Posted by Dan at 08:09 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2004
Mail.app and SSL
While for the most part I've been relatively happy with using Apple's Mail.app and most of it's operating system, I've come to find one thing that is relatively inconsistent in Mail.app. Using an 802.11 connection, Mail.app seems to have issues connecting to an SSL wrapped IMAP server. To the point where it begins to ignore the request to use SSL and just attempts a non-encrypted connection. Oddly enough, if one were to use an ethernet cable instead, the connection is established correctly and mail is transfered just fine.
Point of interest is this behavior doesn't establish itself on all wireless connections. I can, for example, establish an SSL IMAP connection just fine from the various internet cafes down the block, but I cannot from my home Airport Extreme device. I cannot use a friends wireless router either.
Posted by Dan at 10:46 AM | Comments (1)