Vitriolic Humor

My first real IBM PC-compatible computer was an IBM PS/2 Model 50. It was purchased sometime around the summer of 1987. I was about 12 years old and about to enter middle school. I'd previously had a Coleco Adam (which was sort of an Apple IIe mixed with a gaming console.)

It had a 10Mhz Intel 80286 processor, 1 MB of RAM, a 20MB hard drive, a 1.44MB floppy drive, 4 MCA slots (they all went unused), a IBM 8514 VGA Monitor, an IBM 5842 2400bps modem and a IBM 5201 dot matrix printer.

The fact that it had 1 MB of RAM was a bit of an early confusion to me as DOS could only use 640Kb until memory manager and extended memory utilities became available.

I remember distinctly saying that I'd never be able to fill up the 20MB hard drive. A little research lists a replacement 20MB drive for the system at $795 (~$40/MB) at today's market rates (cost/MB) that drive would cost approximately three tenths of one cent (.003 dollars) These days my digital camera takes 10MP RAW photos that are almost 20MB each. A 1TB drive (which are available for approximately $200) holds 50,000 times as much data as that 20MB drive. I've long since stopped saying that I'd never fill up a give hard drive...

I remember running IBM DisplayWrite 4, Harvard Graphics, Deluxe Paint (DPaint), F-19 Stealth Fighter. I briefly ran a couple of starup BBSs using Renegade and Wildcat! that never amounted to much. It was mostly an outgoing BBS terminal with occasional application distractions here and there.

I had a 2400bps modem, but all the BBS were 1200bps in town. I used to call long-distance (remember that?) to take full advantage of my modem's speed for the first couple months. The phone bills hurt.

I made the mistake of using DoubleSpace disk compression for the first and only time on this system.

This computer ran MS-DOS (3.0 - 6.22), PC-DOS, DR-DOS, GEOS, Windows 3.0, OS/2 (1.something.) I cut my teeth on BASIC, Turbo Pascal, REXX

Now my computers(!) run at multiple gigahertz with multiple processor cores, have gigabytes of system RAM, and terabytes of storage. I can't wait to see what happens in the next 20 years...

Tags: computing ps2 progress ibm technology experience computer memories

Posted by speedeep at 3:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I got a Canon Rebel XTi (400D) several months back and I'm immensely enjoying expanding my knowledge and horizons. I moved to the XTi from my 3.3MP Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 workhorse point and shoot camera. Despite being quite comfortable with the Sony (and its limitations) I have frequently said that I felt like a complete beginner again when staring through the viewfinder of my Canon.

I was contemplating all the different settings on the XTi that can be chosen for each shot the other day and I decided to toss them in a table:

A little math reveals: 61,749,528,383,550,522,560,348,160,000 combinations! That's 61.8 octillion (a thousand quadrillion or a billion billion billion (those outside the US refer to this to a quadrilliard))! Another way to look at this is 6x10^27, estimates of the number of atoms in the observable universe range in the 10^77 to 10^79 range. Those are some big, big numbers! No wonder I feel like a beginner again. Not all the settings will make a viable or desirable image, but there is the big picture math on the issue.

A typical photographer (me) usually only changes a couple of these at a time and usually through a limited range of the settings for each option, so it's not as impossibly complex as it looks. As with all technology, I look forward to seeing where this technology goes in my lifetime. The Canon Rebel XSi is out next month with even more options...

Tags: photography options dslr canon aperture camera settings shutter exposure configuration

Posted by speedeep at 1:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A while back I contacted the top five or so vendors of home weather stations to see if they offered any product that would simply measure various atmospheric variables and allow the home user to poll the station for data via some sort of open API. My search came up empty. Most of the time I felt like I had just asked them if they made pants with four legs.

I know there is a segment of consumers want a weather appliance that sits on their counter and tells them the weather. There is another segment that wants to be able to work with and track the data (for which some vendors provide their own software, usually Windows only.) Still another segments literally wants to just have the information available through an API that I can interact with. That last segment is me; that's what I'm looking for.

If you have a weather station that will:

• provide basic weather information
  • temperature
  • humidity
  • dew point
  • wind speed
  • wind direction
  • barometric pressure
  • precipitation
• allow me to poll the weather station
  • when I want
  • for what values I want
  • from on open API from whatever computer OS I want

You can reach me at speed-weat@transmit.net.

Tags: station pressure lacrosse precipitation api open wireless wind weather temperature

Posted by speedeep at 4:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently washed (and dried) an off-brand SD Card full of photos through the washer and drier. To my surprise, all the data was still there, undisturbed and uncorrupted. I'm quite amazed that the technology stood up to that kind of abuse with no glitches. I'm not planning on trying this with my CF cards any time soon, but I wonder how they would fare...

Tags: durability photo secure digital solid-state memory media storage sdcard flash

Posted by speedeep at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently contacted Charter's support chat to see if they offered a reasonable solution to recording HDTV on PVR. The Moxi Box I have now (great, Linux-based solution) only has 80GB of storage, which represents about 6 hours (give or take) of HD programming that can be stored. This past weekend I recorded both Divisional Playoffs on Sunday, then accidentally hit the record button while watching TV later and the Moxi wiped out one game completely to make room to record the current show. I'm ping on the edge of the storage space with nothing but 2 3-hour shows recorded. I've added an external 250GB drive to the Moxi and it worked fine until the drive overheated and died. I don't want to maintain my DVR infrastructure, that's why I effectively rent this solution from Charter with a monthly fee.

Here's the online discussion I had with Charter.

A representative will be with you shortly.
You have been connected to Janet .
Janet : My name is Janet. Thank you for contacting Charter Communications. How may I assist you?
Me: My Moxi box is woefully inadequate for my DVR (esp. HDTV programming) recording needs. Do you offer something with more storage?
Janet : May I please know if your DVR is hd capable?
Me: Yes, it is. I recorded 2 3-hour football games this weekend (in HD) and it wiped out all other programes on the box.. I could've kept some of the programs, but then I couldn't record the games.
Me: I really need to be able to record more than 6 hours of HD programming
Janet : HD
Janet : HD DVR only records short hours.
Janet : If you want longer hours of recording, you may add external drive to your moxi.
Me: I'd prefer not to be in the business of upgrading my infrastructure, that's why I'm paying Charter a monthly fee. Do you offer anything more than the Moxi with 80GB of storage?
Me: I understand that HD requires (drastically) more storage. Is Charter offering any practical solution to this issue?
Janet : Yes, you may add an external hard drive to your moxi.
Janet : That is to have longer hours of recording.
Me: Please take a note for Charter: I'm going to switch to satellite because they will not provide me a more adequate solution for my PVR/DVR needs. I don't want to buy and maintain extra hard drives because Charter isn't keeping up with technological demands. That is why I pay a DVR fee to Charter.

If you are looking at using Charter's cable television services (especially HDTV) beware their DVR solutions are drastically limited on space (while otherwise being a great technological solution.) Expect Charter to not upgrade their infrastructure, but to pass on storage upgrade costs onto you, the consumer, despite you renting the DVR from them in the first place.

That felt good, now I'm off to go shop for a satellite provider...

Tags: tivo moxi recording hd htdb dvr capacity pvr charter technology

Posted by speedeep at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My kids won't know what life was like without the Internet, before computers were in every home. They'll never know what a modem is or the wonderful (yet grating) sounds it would make when you dialed a BBS. They won't know the joy of getting online 1200bps (and all the free time you had when you waited for downloads to happen.) Even their perspective on the Internet will be different. They won't know about Mosaic browser or text-based (only) browsing with lynx. They'll never know Prodigy or Compuserve. AOL is just a website. They won't know that Yahoo was a directory of links, or that Altavista, Excite, HotBot, and WebCrawler were once prosperous search engines with a large market share. They won't know that there were many years of Internet without Google at all...

They won't know of life before the convenience of microwave ovens.

They will think (rightfully so) that everyone has a phone and they are almost exclusively cordless or completely wireless. They won't know that at one time all phones were wired into the wall, that long distance calls were expensive and infrequently used. They will never know what a party line or a rotary dial phone was. They won't realize that phones didn't used to have cameras, games, music, and full QWERTY keyboards on them.

They won't know that people used to shave with just one blade.

Lightweight 27-speed mountain bikes with disc brakes and super travel full-suspension will be mainstream and affordable. They won't know the relatively low tech, heavy, inefficient bikes we had to ride. They won't realize that mountain biking was started in the mid-1970s.

My kids will never know what a caboose is for. They will only see them in train museums (and so we take them.)

Film photography will be some long-forgotten technique that people used to use before digital photography. They won't know what camera film looks like. They'll never know the growing pains of digital photography from low resolution to slow, delay-prone cameras. Everything will be high resolution, automatic, and instantaneous. It seems normal to them that you can store thousands of photographs on a memory card smaller than your thumbnail. Digital photo frames will seem normal to them. Static real photo frames will seem pointless.

They'll never know what a reel-to-reel, an eight-track, a vinyl record, a Mini-disc, or a cassette tape is. Even CDs are going to the wayside as things gradually swing towards completely digital music delivery, played on the all-pervasive MP3 player. Walkman and Discman will be largely historical and unfamiliar to them. They won't ever know about VCRs and Laserdisc players. They'll have always known DVD, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD and DVR. They'll think televisions were always flat and thin. HDTV will be the norm for what they are used to viewing. Their music will be all-digital and all multi-channel.

My kids won't know what a floppy disc was (8", 5.25", or 3.5") Wow! They won't know DOS (and I'm doing all I can to make it so they won't have to use Windows.) They won't know about daisy wheel printers, slow and noisy dot-matrix printers or fan-fold paper.

My kids will probably never know much measured in terms of 'megabytes' and will likely be more familiar with the concept of 'terabytes' rather than with 'gigabytes'.

I'm excited about the rapidly changing world they've been born into, but I'm sad they won't know the world as I do. I'll try to teach them what I can and maybe if I'm lucky they'll help me see their world through their eyes someday.

Tags: thoughts progress existence reality generation perception technology new memories family

Posted by speedeep at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was preparing the annual family photo calendar when I bumped into a wall of stupidity that astonished me: The major photo and gift printing sites (Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak/Ofoto) have dumbed down their sites to such a low standard that you can't do simple things like put a square-cropped image on a photo calendar page without having their system mangle your image.

To the photo/gift printing sites: Not every photograph is 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio rectangle.

I gathered together my 13 images (12 months + cover), adjusted and cropped them in Bibble Pro (an awesome photo workflow and RAW conversion software that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows,) went to upload them to Shutterfly (who I used last year to make the calendar and with whom I successfully used square-cropped images last year) and quickly found that a couple of my square-cropped images (aspect ratio 1:1) were having the top and bottoms automatically chopped off by their system in an effort to force my square image into the rectangle it wanted. I had some wide shots cropped at 16:10 aspect ratio and it did the same thing, chopping off significant portions of the left and right part of my image. Frustrated, I went to Snapfish (despite previous problems with getting photos delivered in a timely fashion during the holiday season.) and found a slightly different interface with the same behavior mangling my photographs. OK, they can't all be the same,right? I went to Ofoto (now Kodak) and had the exact same problem. At this point I had a couple hours into what I thought was going to be a half hour project and was thoroughly frustrated.

I searched Google and came up with a photo and gift printing site I hadn't heard of before. Quite frustrated at this point, I visited Vista Print and was pleasantly surprised. They have standard cropping behavior, but they also provide a simple "Scale to Fit" option that lets you keep the aspect ratio and expand the image to either fit the height or width without cropping your picture. How hard is that? A simple option in the user interface that let's more advanced users creatively build their calendars the ways they want to.

Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak/Ofoto, please add some sensible options to your cropping step. Something simple like a hidden "advanced options" dialog, a "no cropping" option, or a "scale to fit" option. This would meet all your users needs without confusing the brain-feeble amongst us.

Next year I probably won't bother with the "big guys". Vista Print meets my needs and the calendars I received from them (very timely delivery) looked great. All the above mentioned sites work fine with Firefox on Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) for the record. Some of the drag-to-web upload functionality (Shutterfly) appears to be Windows-only, but everything else functions fine.

Tags: creativity photo printing linux bibble pro calendar digital on-line bibble labs gift bibble user interface frustration

Posted by speedeep at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember this when you are taking a picture of something:

If your subject is the letter "M", the image formed on the imaging sensor or film looks like a "W". The camera flips the image when storing it to a file or displaying it on the preview screen. If you are using a *SLR camera, the pentaprism will translate (through a series of reflections) the image so it appears to your eye as an "M" again. When your eye images the reflection coming out of the viewfinder or preview screen, the image will be projected as a "W" on your retina, your brain will then logically flip the image so that you perceive this image to be the letter "M".

What a combination of technology (natural and artificial) to bring us sight and, by extension, photography...

See also: Camera Obscura

Tags: sight photography lens photograph camera obscura camera optics retina eye perception

Posted by speedeep at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alabama has become a growing powerhouse in automobile manufacturing in recent years, picking up a Mercedes Benz factory in Tuscaloosa, a Honda factory in Lincoln, and Hyundai built their first state-side factory just south of Montgomery a couple years ago. Without delving deep into politics, low operational costs, largely non-union labor, good river, rail, and over-the-road transportation access, low cost of living, and massive incentive packages have made Alabama (and the southern United States) a very attractive place to build a factory. Honda recently announced that it will be building an new exhaust system factory to supply it's main Alabama plant.

A great feature of these factories (along with their local and regional economic impact) is that they are all available for the public to tour them. I've gathered the relevant information about each tour.

This information was gleaned from the manufacturers' websites at the time I wrote this entry. Please verify any information by contacting the factories at their website or by phone before embarking on your trip. You should wear shoes with closed toes and heels as well as long pants (some tours don't allow shorts.)

These tours are great for kids (see "Minimum Age") and adults alike and offer a portal into modern automobile manufacturing processes. The Hyundai plant is a couple years old. The Mercedes-Benz plant recently underwent a multi-year renovation and has resumed tours as of Spring 2007. There is also a large Kia factory currently being built in Georgia at the Alabama-Georgia state line along I-85. I will including relevant information for that factory when it is available.

Tags: factory automotive alabama car manufactory hyundai honda tour automobile mercedes

Posted by speedeep at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a product as carefully developed and mature as Microsoft Office Excel 2003 SP2, you'd think there'd be a nice way of intuitively removing multiple hyperlinks from a set of cells. The general thought process for designing this functionality would be something like:

1. Select range of cells from which you want to remove hyperlinks,
2. Right-click, then select "Remove Hyperlink(s)" option,
3. Done.

I recently received a spreadsheet with several hundred hyperlinks included on a key field that had me accidentally linking to a web page (along with being prompted for authentication every time) whenever I selected the hyperlinked field. Useful for someone, a major annoyance to me (click-Hold, BTW is the correct way to select a hyperlinked field.) I tried the approach detailed above several times with no success. The choice to "Remove Hyperlink" disappears when multiple cells are selected. I gave in and asked Microsoft Office Help how to "remove hyperlink" and got the following procedure:

1. Type the number 1 into a blank cell,
2. Select and copy it (right-click, select "Copy" option),
3. Ctrl-Select the fields from which you want to remove hyperlinks (Shift-select or click-drag are also acceptable), release Ctrl or Shift keys if you are using them,
4. Select the Edit menu, then the "Paste Special" menu item,
5. When the Paste Special window opens, select "Multiply" under the "Operation" section, then choose "OK.

Tags: task experience flaw microsoft office design problem excel user hyperlink

Posted by speedeep at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I've been having a problem with my "Send To Flickr" Bookmarklet functionality on Flickr, and been in a foul mood about it. I finally got to the right person at Flickr who set me in the right direction and give me permission to post the javascript contents for the bookmarklet here.

"Send To Flickr" Bookmarklet Code:

<20050906 Edit>How Do I Use This?

Highlight the text in this box and drag it onto your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (Netscape/Mozilla) or ":Personal Toolbar" (Opera.) Optionally, you can manually make a bookmark. For the 'Location' field (Mozilla) or 'Address' field (Opera) paste in the javascript from above. (It needs to be copy-and-pasted as one line.) Then go load the page with the picture you want to upload to Flickr. Click on the bookmark(let) and it will list all images on that page. Click the image you want to upload. Login to Flickr if it asks you to. Choose "Upload To Flickr" button. Voila! Your file should be uploaded into your account on Flickr.

To make this really useful, add the bookmark to your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (Mozilla) or "Personal Toolbar" (Opera) under View->Toolbars, so you can use your bookmarklet easily while browsing. If at this point, you can't figure it out, please wait for Flickr's new Bookmarklet coming to a browser near you soon.

</20050906 Edit>

I believe this is the exact JavaScript from Flickr (they wrote the code, not me), but I can't guarantee it. It works correctly and YOU can scan through the JavaScript, there doesn't appear to be anything untoward in the code. Flickr is reworking their bookmarklet upload function currently, so keep an eye on their Upload Tools page (you must be logged in to use that link) and be sure to use their new bookmarklet when they post it. (I'll modify this blog entry when they do...)

</20070323 Edit>

I've stopped using YahooFlickr, so I can't verify whether or not this still works. I'll leave it here for history's sake, and in case anyone finds it useful. As before, this code came from Flickr, I do not support it or provide any warranty to it working or working correctly for any of your needs. Your mileage may vary, use at your own risk/benefit.

Tags: sharing photos photography internet bookmarklet uploader web upload flickr code

Posted by speedeep at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I've found the Golden Video Player: VLC Media Player

This thing has a library of useful features and supports Windows, WinCE, BeOS, and every version of Unix (Mac OS/X, Linux, Solaris, BSDs) you could ever want. It plays almost every format on one player, across multiple platforms, reliably. Wow! Did I mention it's free and the source code is available! As if this wasn't enough, it can also be used as a video streaming server as well.

The install on Windows platforms is absolutely painless. My install on Fedora Core 4 was a bit more challenging, but I finally got all the pieces together. I highly recommend using apt-get and making sure you've got the "dag" repository in your /etc/apt/sources.list file, then, as root, issue the command:
apt-get install videolan-client
(Note: not 'vlc'.) There will be a bunch of dependent packages that will tag along for the install automatically.

This is what Free Software is all about. This project sits on the shoulders of many other quality free and open source software efforts. No contribution is required, but if you'd like to contribute your time, materials, skills, or anything else the VideoLAN team, I'm sure they would appreciate it.

Tags: videolan - vlc - mediaplayer - media - dvd - quicktime - real - windowsmediaplayer

Posted by speedeep at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After reading about the Mattel Juiceboxes available at discount pricing story on Slashdot a couple months back, I bit on the Overstock.Com deal and bought a set of 6 new, but discontinued Mattel JuiceBox toy multimedia players for the low, low price of around $25. These originally retailed for $70-80+ each (small wonder they failed) so the chance to buy a Linux (uClinux) device to experiment with for a few pennies on the dollar of the original price was too good to pass. I'd read they could be used to play mpg video, jpg and mp3 audio files, but found out too late that a MP3 Adapter Kit would be required to do this. By the time I went to go track down the adapters, Mattel had sold out and only a few are available at premium prices on-line. I intended to use 3 of these as small photo frames and 3 to experiment with.

I'm stuck with 6 JuiceBoxen that won't do anything but play their demo and perform some simple system diags because I missed the rush on MP3 Adapter Kits for these multimedia players. I'm hoping someone bought too many MP3 Adapter Kits and would be willing to trade or sell them for a reasonable price. I'd like to trade 3 NIB Juiceboxes for 3 MP3 Adapter Kits straight up if someone needs Juiceboxes but has too many MP3 Adapter Kits. If you want to sell you MP3 Adapter Kits, let me know your pricing. Drop me a line if you've got these MP3 Adapter Kits you want to trade or sell.

Tags: discontinued toys photo adapter kit juicebox frame mpeg audio excess jpg multimedia mattel video mpg overstock juiceboxen kids player linux image mp3 adapter kit uclinux jpeg electronics

Posted by speedeep at 1:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm considering installing a Personal Weather Station with wireless sensors, but want to get feedback from anyone who has worked with or built their own interface into a commercial systems data for use with a Linux or other Unix-based operating system. I'd like to store the data in a database and massage the data as I please to analyze trends, MTD/YTD totals, etc. I want to present this information via the web, but I want to control the presentation completely.

Does anyone know of any commercially available weather station systems that can interface (via RS-232, USB, or any other supported method) to a box running Linux? So far I've run into a number of popular weather station vendors who insist that you use Windows only and can only access the data off your station via their closed-source software and are unwilling to provide any documentation or an open API to query data from the weather station (or data logger) you purchased from them.

This is the closed-minded, closed-source mentality at its worst. I simply want to access the data I've recorded with the device I purchased from the vendor. They seem more worried about protecting their proprietary interface than giving their customer the weather data off the device. What a mixed-up world. I'd reverse-engineer a solution and publish my finding here if we weren't sitting under the DMCA currently. (That and it seems obnoxious to have to reverse-engineer a $200+ toy just to make it meet your needs.)

If any weather station companies are developing such a solution, would like input into such development, or need someone to test an interface from a weather station to a Linux (or other Unix) platform, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Tags: closed source testing rain test personal weather station sensor reverse-engineer open source DCMA lawn interface sensors temperature history data linux reverse closedsource engineer barometric pressure development care reverse engineer opensource develop weather maintenance personal platform proprietary hygrometer station unix watering barometer humidity wireless software

Posted by speedeep at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just received a notice of a Tivoli job opportunity (6 months, temp-to-hire, reasonable rate, possibly low for Rancho Cordova, California) from a random recruiter. At the bottom of the e-mail was:

    If you are not interested due to low rates and location constraints please ignore this mail.

Guess he got tired of negotiating. I suppose I'm going to believe he put his best offer forward right away. Kinda like those "No Dicker Sticker" car dealerships. Well, just like the car dealerships, I will ignore this e-mail (other than this blog post) and won't consider your offer or any possibility of working with you. It's not a recruiter's market just yet, don't get too far ahead of yourself...

To break through the fog for IT workers who don't know the details: Most recruiters get 10-20% of your annual salary as a fee for "finding" you. This is money on the table from the customer that you won't see because they spent it on the recruiter. Most contractors pay you 50% (or less!) of what they are actually billing the customer. Be aware, be knowledgeable. If you don't have strong negotiation skills (IT workers and recruiters), I strongly recommend Getting To Yes: Negotiating Without Giving In an excellent book on the art of negotiating, by Roger Fisher and William Ury.

If anyone is interested in pitching a mutually-agreeable job opportunity for a high-end Tivoli Architect, Unix Guru, and Security Specialist, please feel free to browse my resume and drop me a line.

Tags: market negotiation rational opportunity program employment email business income contract relocation IT systems administrator e-mail hiring monitoring skill clearance security technology computers solution design architecture programming knowledge is power interview contractor copywriting tivoli career work advertising exploitation interviewing salary job human-resources knowledgeispower recruiter scripting search economics economy jobs administrator human resources innovation consultant sa admin internet linux ibm tivoli hr cocky strategy research ibm money netcool spam trends jobsearch capitalism public negotiate resume script unix system administrator trade puzzle environment announcement

Posted by speedeep at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had my own domain since 1994 and always ran my own personal web and e-mail services on a personal server. Running a public server on the Internet requires some technical expertise and a whole lot of patience. You will be bombarded with spam, you will face script kiddies scanning your services trying to 'hack' your passwords, you will see the underbelly of the Internet that most ISPs effectively hide from their users. I particularly enjoyed running my own e-mail server and quickly implemented RBLs, spamassassin, pyzor and razor to keep the good mail flowing and the spam headed to /dev/null.

All has gone well for several years until my ISP decided suddenly to block incoming traffic on port 25 (SMTP) to my connection. Everything froze, all my personal e-mail was blocked from my server, all my friend's e-mail traffic to their domains I was hosting stopped. I don't run a high-volume e-mail server, but nonetheless the messages traversing it are very important to me. I never was given a good explanation for why my ISP suddenly decided to do this, but their fix was that I'd have to upgrade to a commercial account ($70+/month instead of ~$35/month) in order to run my e-mail server on my Internet connection. I capitulated to their extortion while looking for an alternative e-mail hosting solution. This is strictly personal e-mail, not commercial/business related in any way, so the $20/month to $50+/month solutions I was finding really didn't fit my needs. Recently, I caught wind of a hosted e-mail service that Google has been developing and would be beta testing. Bingo! Sign me up!

I've been beta testing Gmail for your domain (Google's hosted e-mail offering) for a little over a month now on my personal domain, and am very pleased to say it works great. It's based on their Gmail infrastructure and interface, so Gmail users have almost no learning curve. It offers the same great feature set (excellent spam blocking (it has caught 1,000 spams in the last two weeks, with no false positives), easy e-mail content searching, rich text composing, AJAX interface, the Web Clip bar (which can be disabled)) as Gmail with some capabilities to customize the GUI for your users (by inserting your logo instead of the Gmail logo.)

Setup was very easy, some changes are required to your DNS MX records (remember your password for your account with your registrar?) for your domain to point e-mail to Google's servers. Once this has been completed (and propagated) you can log into the management interface, setup e-mail accounts, e-mail lists (think aliases) and make some minor changes to the interface (choose a background color, include your logo.) Once you've created the accounts everything is ready to go, it works just like Gmail. If you have a larger domain, you can use the account import feature so you can batch create your user accounts by uploading a CSV spreadsheet of your usernames and passwords.

The Gmail model has been to offer free e-mail service by displaying relevant(?) ads on the right hand side of your screen according to the contents of the e-mail you are currently reading. They still do this, I still find it minimally intrusive personally. I'd like to know what kind of revenue Google gets for clicked-through Gmail ads in a year (click fraud notwithstanding.) When you open your Spam mailbox, the Web Clip bar displays Spam Recipie links. French Fry Spam Casserole, Spam Breakfast Burritos, Spicy Spam Kabobs, Spam Quiche. I don't touch the stuff, but I like it when a corporate giant like Google doesn't take themselves too seriously and can still have a little fun. When in the Trash, the Web Clip bar displays recycling tips...

Wish List for "Gmail for your domain":

• For the beta test, each mailbox is frozen at 2GB, that's a lot of space, but why not let the mailbox size grow like other gmail accounts? That is one of your strongest features.
• Allow for pattern definitions in e-mail addresses. (I prefer to use "speed-[sitename]@example.com" when registering an e-mail with a third-party website. Right now I'd have to define each and every e-mail address I create instead of saying deliver "speed-*@example.com" mail to my Inbox.) This is one of the benefits of having your own domain name. Google has mentioned they are looking at doing this.
• Allow for a "catch all" bucket for all those "other" e-mail addresses that I have used over the years. Mail coming to my domain, unless it is determined to be spam, should be delivered to me. As it stands now, if I don't specify an e-mail address in my Google configuration, mail sent to the unspecified address (@mydomain) bounces. "Gmail for your domain" now offers a "catch all" e-mail address for your domain, an excellent example of the responsiveness of Google to their users' needs. It can be configured under "Domain Settings" once logged in to your administrative account.
• Especially during the beta test: put a link to the support e-mail on every page! (I had to go back and re-read my beta testing agreement to figure out what address to post feedback to. Isn't this the point of beta testing?)
• Announce your pricing structure for the future. It's a wonderful offering at it's current free price level (while beta testing.) How much will you charge afterwards? Keep in mind some of us are hobbyists, not commercial entities with big budgets, please.
• Put back the "invite a friend" links on your hosted e-mail offering
• Settle the issue of whether or not you will give user account information out to third parties and on what terms.

Right now Google's offering is in beta testing. They do have an "I'm interested" link at the bottom of their Google Hosted E-mail FAQ page. I've had the pleasure of telling my ISP where to stick their pricing and I've dropped back down into the reasonable price bracket (as opposed to their $70+/month commercial-account-because-your-host-your-own-email pricing.)

Overall, the offering looks excellent to me. It's been easy to use, as reliable a Gmail, and Google has been responsive to improvement suggestions. There are still some privacy concerns as to how and who Google shares their users' information with. If you run your own domain and are looking for e-mail hosting specifically, check out Gmail for your domain. Consider setting it up as a subdomain if you just want to test the service, so you can just direct mail from users@subdomain.example.com to "Google for your domain" while testing. This may necessitate signing up for the service twice if you decide to use it for your entire domain later, but gives you flexibility.

testing google spamfilter input review offering suggestion hosted comments email opinion domain spam betatesting tested suggestions private beta hosting service knology gmail for your domain e-mail changes results gmail

Posted by speedeep at 6:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm still looking for something that functions as all (or most) of these devices in one small, compact form factor. After seeing what Apple pulled off with their new iPod Nano, this shouldn't be too far off in the future.

This device should encompass the following functions:

• Cell Phone
• PDA
• MP3/OGG (Vorbis) Player
• AM/FM Radio with recording/scheduled recording
• Portable Storage
• GPS Receiver

I'm looking for something based off an open source operating system, like Linux. I'd prefer to have shell access (say, like my Linksys running Sveasoft's firmware.) and the ability to compile and run programs of my own (i.e. openly extend the functionality of this device through software.).

As a consumer, I am not looking for this device to have any sort of camera functionality. I would prefer the capability to transfer digital image files from a camera to this device either wirelessly or through a compact flash media.

This device should have a full mini keyboard (thumbboard?) and ideally support for external USB keyboard and mouse. It should be able to connect to available networks via Ethernet, Wi-fi, EVDO, Infrared, USB (1 or 2), and 1394/Firewire (400 and 800.) It should interconect and share data equally well on an PC/Windows, Apple, and Unix platforms and from digital cameras, digital video cameras and other data sources.

We're getting closer on some of these vectors:
Asus MyPal A636 GPS-Enabled Pocket PC

Does this thing exist yet? Feel free to add a comment...

Tags: open-source compact mp3 multi-purpose geek linux gadget media tool appliance

Posted by speedeep at 7:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I read about the "next generation" of job posting/searching sites and in particular was interested in one, mkt10.com, which purported to be taking a new, more effective approach to matching potential employees with employers. They've got a nice site with some basic Web 2.0 (AJAX) functionality, but when I tried to use the site, I started having problems. From my e-mail I (unsuccessfully) attempted to send to them:

I keep getting trapped in dead ends in your interface while trying to fill out the questions in "Step 2."

Please consider making your user interface more user-friendly by offering at least a "None" and "Other" option at each decision point with a chance to further explain the "Other" response. Forcing people to choose bogus responses to questions that aren't applicable or answers that aren't correct only muddies the waters of your database.

For instance your "What standards/methodologies did you follow" question lists a selection of standards and methodologies that I haven't used. I can't indicate "none of these" or "I have used Six Sigma" and am forced to stop answering your questionnaire completely (i.e. you lost a potential customer/user) or I can choose a bogus answer in order to continue to the next question.

Your site seems very interesting, and I'd like to list myself on it, but when I get stuck on the question flow with no way out, I'm just going to abandon my efforts to use your site.

This is a basic user interface design. You should never force a user to enter invalid data in order to successfully navigate your interface, it invalidates your data and frustrates your users. You should also always leave a user an easy way to opt-out or pass on optional questions, not force them to choose a provided, default answer when it is not applicable.

I tried to use the "Contact Us" link on their website to provide this feedback, but the e-mail address ( admin.mkt10@mkt10.com ) linked from there bounced my mail back with the following error message:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

admin.mkt10@mkt10.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 550 5.7.1 Requested action not taken: message refused

Oh yeah, you should also make sure you "Contact Us" link works so people can provide feedback. I hope this is just a beta site that is still under development. It looks promising, but has a couple significant road blocks to fix before it is ready for prime-time...

job search opportunities engines posting resume career employment employer employee candidate userinterface user interface annoyances bad design ineffective feedback broken navigation optional mkt10 mkt10.com cuttingedge cutting-edge new hot web2.0 ajax

Posted by speedeep at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In the battle of e-mail users vs. spammers, the spammers have again raised the bar slightly with an elegant new solution to bypass spam blocking engines. Note that the charachters appear to be random so there is no pattern matching defense to this issue. They also format the message to look like a valid failure notice to a non-existant e-mail on my domain. Maybe it's time to add some more restrictive DNS RBLs again. Sigh...

27265888  79     42    775    11548488  59     98    235     733955  25    55           
25     89 69     96   89 42   66     55 168   427   26 26   46    62  18  63
44     22 88     68  98   84  88     52 4349 7281  65   53  33         9542
49223943  127257493 61     95 56548777  62 211 17 59     64 79          37
63        85     34 447778224 65   36   18     86 389413719 98          56
66        75     45 73     19 49    76  21     92 65     75 88    14    65
96        67     18 73     21 72     95 12     59 68     41  423983     91

http://their.link.here/xmasdrugs

Anyone worked out a good approach towards blocking this?

email spam attack spammer spamming prevention blocking spamassassin e-mail mail annoyance evasion

Posted by speedeep at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The mix strings along short interview snippets through a huge variety of tape loops, sounds, and samples we've all been listening to in our pop music for the last 50 years or so. I'm trying not to make it sound too pedantic. It's high-paced ride with all kinds of tunes and clips that you've heard in various songs mixed with insightful interview clips and quite entertaining. Even if you don't like these genres in general, I encourage you to check this out if only to gain a little more insight into the history of the samples behind the tracks you listen to every day.

In-jokes and references abound, keep an open ear for Madonna's "What the fuck do you think you're doing" overlaid with her "Ray of Light" and (Whitney) "Houston we have a [drinking] problem" samples towards the end. If you are ready for an audio roller coaster ride, start downloading...
Direct Download or BitTorrent Link (both are 70MB+ mp3 files)
(thanks, BoingBoing!)

Tags: sample - remix - remixed - remixing - djfood - bastard - pop - glitch - mashup - mashedup - mash-up - sampling - sampled - dj - disc - jockey - tape - loop - music - history - art - artist - copyright - bootleg - cut-up - creative - energy - amalgam - bittorrent - mp3 - audio - illegal - culture - deluxe - meta - magic - downloading - download

Posted by speedeep at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So Apple has gone through their "mini" stage and are stepping into "nano" (though inappropriately used, perhaps) with their great looking iPod nano. 2GB for $200, 4GB for $250. This thing will drastically accelerate Apple's already great revenues. The design is right, the price is right. Everyone's got to have one. Right?

Apple, you've come so close, but there are a couple hang-up points that are still keeping me from buying any iPod:

• From the iPod nano "Features Guide":
  "You cannot switch from using iPod nano with a Mac to using it with a Windows PC (or vice versa) without erasing all data on iPod nano." (That's not on the public web site, now, is it?)
• nano (and possibly the other iPods?) like to attach themselves to an "authorized computer." If the authorized computer isn't available, then you must "restore your iPod software." Guess what? Again, all of your data is erased if you "restore your iPod software" on another computer. This is some sort of very lame attempt at rudimentary copy protection. Good thing Apple is protecting you, no?
• Where's the Linux/Unix support?
• They obviously tossed out the FireWire in an effort to make this thing as small as possible. Wasn't that a core component of Apple's interconnectivity? I'll take that change as a sign that (at least as far as Apple is concerned) wireless is where it is at. Where's the wireless iPod nano?

Apple has (IMHO) crippled an otherwise great technology by including the anti-copy nannying features and lack of open, multi-platform support. It's a digital storage device. Why doesn't it act like one?

A couple of review links:

• Ars Technica
• Russell Beattie
• Blogtending

Tags: ipod nano - ipod - nano - mp3 - mp3 player - apple - apple ipod nano - design - user interface - mobile - wearable - wearable technology - meme - ipodstore - apple store

Posted by speedeep at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I went to download a new copy of Quicktime from Apple today and noticed they bundled iTunes in the install. The installer clearly asked me where I wanted iTunes installed, so I chose the default:

c:\Program Files\iTunes\

c:\Program Files\iPod\

Apple:

I know the name of the game is getting your software onto my computer, but this is just scummy. What's next, are you going to tack on a copy of OS/X next time I upgrade my Quicktime? What else was installed when all I wanted to install was Quicktime?

I download and install Quicktime because I want Quicktime, not iTunes, not iPod software, nothing else. Even with full disclosure in the agreement, your bundling of software in this way is obnoxious at best and will turn off Windows/Apple fence-sitters in the worst case. We're all intelligent out here, why not let us download the individual software packages we want by ourselves?

[Edit: July 26, 2005]
I now also notice that Apple created two now processes that come up at startup. I've got an iPodService.exe running (I don't own and probably won't own an iPod, ever...) and an iTunesHelper.exe (remember, I didn't want iTunes in the first place.) Off to go clean up my registry and directories.
[/Edit]

[Edit: July 27, 2005]
I also had to remove approximately 50 different entries in my Windows Registry, by hand, in order to disable the services and file associations.
[/Edit]

Thanks, Apple, for making Quicktime more work than necessary. I hear that VLC plays Quicktime videos just fine, and so does QuickTime Alternative. Both of those choices quickly install only what I want and provide most of the same functions. Is this what the Apple Marketing types had in mind when they brainstormed the idea to bundle Quicktime and iTunes?

Putting a link to iTunes download on the Qucktime download page is cool. Bundling the software together (and not providing an iTunes/iPod uninstaller) is not.

To finish things off, my InstallShield for my QuickTime install has locked up part-way through and won't finish. There are no (visible) dialogs waiting for a response.

Be good net citizens, Apple, and do the right thing. Or is this your idea of "different thinking"?

Tags: apple - quicktime - itunes - ipod - software - karma - badkarma - windows - installshield - nightmare - registry

Posted by speedeep at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I've had a Sony Mavica MVC-CD300 digital camera for several years now. I love the camera in general. I've taken just over 10,000 photos with the camera in the last four and a half years (many are available for viewing online.) It's like a good old friend at this point.

It's a 3.3 mega pixel camera, Carl Zeiss lens with 3x optical zoom, writes to 8cm mini-CD/RW discs, a nice all-around camera.

Recently my old friend pulled a new trick on me.

Sony chose to name the photo files on the CD in the form DSC#####.JPG on the discs. My very first picture was DSC00001.JPG and my 9999th picture was DSC09999.JPG. I expected the picture after that would be DSC10000.JPG (since there are 5 digits available.) No, it rolled over and started at DSC00001.JPG again. Since I use the original filenames of my pictures when filing them, this causes a bit of a problem now as I'm potentially trying to store multiple files with the same filenames into my photo repository. Not a very nice implementation, Sony. You've got five digits, why not use them?

As part of my workflow, I load my photos into a 'working' directory and change their owner and permissions (this is in Linux) so they are owned by me and are 'a-w' (actually 0544) on their permissions. This makes it so the file will usually not be overwritten, or at least I'll see a warning message if I try to overwrite or delete the file. I've since added another step to my workflow, I run the following short bash/ksh script on all files in my 'working' directory now that I've passed the 10,000 mark:

for i in `ls -1 DSC0*.JPG`
do
   j=`echo $i | sed 's/SC0/SC1/g'`
   mv -i $i $j
done

It will rename any 'SC0' pattern to 'SC1', effectively renaming all my newer DSC0####.JPG files to DSC1####.JPG, as Sony should have done in the first place. I have listed the Unix 'mv' command with the '-i' interactive switch so you'll have to confirm each rename. Once you are comfortable with the script (try it on ONE file first) you can remove the '-i' script and it will rename all DSC0*.JPG files in the current directory. I'll still have to update my script once every 10,000 photos, but at four and a half years per update, I think I can manage.

Do all Sony Mavica cameras do this? Is this a function of the naming standard (DSC* seems to be vendor-independent)?

I'll post more on my workflow in a separate entry.

Continue reading "Sony Mavica File-Naming Complaint/Work-Around" »

Posted by speedeep at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)