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Underway in Ireland
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05 October 2002 |
Roy Tennant -- An excellent article on the importance of being granular. Roy Tennant explains granularity affects retrieval and impacts person-hours in Digital Library collections.
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Kevin Werbach -- "The crash has lasted as long as the bubble." Kevin points notes the truly irrational upswing of the dotcom boom went from 1998 to March 2000, which is now two and a half years ago.
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Dave Winer -- "The VCs were so stupid, who cares what they think anymore?" when listening to those presenters at the Next Generation Growth Harvard Business Conference.
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Matt Brown -- Use CGI to get server information about your users. Once you get it you can use CGI to log it into a database or display on screen. It is easy to do this with app servers like ColdFusion and ASP, but to do it in Javascript is less documented but it can be done.
Here is a simple example of getting the user's IP address and displaying that back into an alert box.
<script>
var ip = '';
alert("Your IP address is "+ip);
</script>
You will need to save the file as .shtm or .shtml for the CGI portion to evaluate.
Here is a list of the variables available to you:
(for IIS and from the IIS help system. For other servers, there are more variables you can access so check in your server's documentation.)
ALL_HTTP All HTTP headers
AUTH_TYPE This contains the type of authentication used.
AUTH_PASSWORD The value entered in the client's authentication dialog box.
AUTH_USER The value entered in the client's authentication dialog box.
CONTENT_LENGTH bytes that the script can expect to receive from the client.
CONTENT_TYPE The content type of the information supplied in the body of a POST request.
DOCUMENT_NAME The current file name.
DOCUMENT_URI The virtual path to the current document.
DATE_GMT The current date in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
DATE_LOCAL The current date in the local time zone.
GATEWAY_INTERFACE The revision of the CGI specification used by the Web server.
HTTP_ACCEPT Special-case HTTP header.
LAST_MODIFIED The date that the current document was last modified.
PATH_INFO Additional path information consisting of the trailing part of the URL after the script name, but before the query string, if any.
PATH_TRANSLATED This is the value of PATH_INFO, but with any virtual path expanded into a directory specification.
QUERY_STRING The information that follows the question mark (?) in the URL that referenced this script.
QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED Unescaped version of the query string; that is, a version that is not URL encoded.
REMOTE_ADDR The IP address of the client or agent of the client (for example, gateway or firewall) that sent the request.
REMOTE_HOST The host name of the client or agent of the client (for example, gateway or firewall) that sent the request. IIS 2.0 and 3.0 returned an IP address for this parameter.
REMOTE_USER This contains the user name supplied by the client and authenticated by the server. This comes back as an empty string when the user is anonymous (but authenticated).
REQUEST_METHOD The HTTP request method.
SCRIPT_NAME The name of the script program being executed.
SERVER_NAME The server’s host name, or IP address, as it should appear in self-referencing URLs.
SERVER_PORT The TCP/IP port on which the request was received.
SERVER_PORT_SECURE A string of either 0 or 1. If the request is being handled on the secure port, this will be 1. Otherwise, it will be 0.
SERVER_PROTOCOL The name and version of the information retrieval protocol relating to this request. This is usually HTTP/1.0. The protocol is returned in the format name/version.
SERVER_SOFTWARE The name and version of the Web server answering the request. The server information is returned in the format name/version.
URL Gives the base portion of the URL. Parameter values will not be included. The value is determined when the Web server parses the URL from the header.
[Matt Brown's Radio Weblog]
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04 October 2002 |
Jack Schofield -- It's not possible to consistently get the print version of Online, the Thursday supplement of The Guardian, around Ireland. Online comes up missing even with Eason in Dublin. All the more reason to read the digital version of how to use Google to Best Effect.
Google has changed its algorithm recently and now the search engine cros-checks link text with the linked site. Google will discount ignore links whose text does not appear in the linked site. This all but kills off Google bombing. Mark Pilgrim notes that searching for "go to hell" no longer takes you to Microsoft. "Talentless hack" no longer finds ohmessylife.com, although it finds a lot of people who were previously participating in the Google bombing.
Unfortunately, the algorithm tweaks necessary to stop these two techniques have caused a wide range of collateral damage, apparently coming down hardest on medium-to-large sites that had previously been doing everything right (as far as page structure, link structure, accessibility, and general honest hard work putting together a usable and useful site).
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IRISH ANIMALS.com -- denise cox runs a heart-warming site for lost and loving stray animals. I poked around it today because another stray dog just ambled into my life. If she's impounded, the odds are against her walking out of her cage and into a loving home.
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03 October 2002 |
DIJEST.com -- As Professor McGee points out, one of the best advantages of klognets is that they provide Distant Early Warning that sense changes in the environment and route the signals to people best able to respond. Klogs are ideal for managing the flow of new knowledge. Mature knowledge is proven, structured, endorsed, refined.
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SNOWDEAL.org -- According to NOP Research survey of 1,000 seven to 16-year-olds in the UK, "Six out of 10 youngsters questioned knew the term "homepage" meant the introduction to a website yet only 9% could explain the meaning of a preface in a book. While 38% knew a hardback was a type of book, 57% correctly answered that hard drive was part of a computer. Less than a quarter knew what to do if someone asked them to RSVP - to reply to an invitation - although 70% were aware what "www" meant in terms of the world-wide web. In the poll 25% said the net was their first port of call for help with homework, and 61% had helped an adult with using the Internet.
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SOCRATIC ARTS.com -- Roger Schank's occasional column covers the evolution of education. He also maintains the very interesting hyperbook "Engines for Education", where he explains "what's wrong with the education system, how to reform it, and especially, about the role of educational technology in that reform". Engines for Education has short hyperlinked snippets that encourage self-directed exploration, such as a very nice section on "How You Know Things Without Trying".
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Al Macintyre -- Ways to search just for blogs.
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ENN.ie -- "Tensions between the board of Ireland's .ie domain registry and its chief executive came to a head on Wednesday, culminating in the suspension of CEO Mike Fagan." I watched this kind of procedure occur during the dotcom meltdown of an Irish company. Police normally arrive to persuade the focal personality to leave the premises. Normally, this kind of action does not occur for venial transgressions. In Fagan's case, he will be suspended on full pay (a package worth around €150k annually), then he will take legal action, then months will go on as private and public posturing occurs. IEDR is registered to trade at 14 Windsor Terrace, Sandycove. It's directors include John Scanlan, Patrick Frain, Mark Keane, Ronald Bolger, Frances Buggy and Canice Lambe.
Kieron Wood: "Web domain registry forced to disclose finances" in The Sunday Business Post, May 25, 2003
x_ref17
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02 October 2002 |
CISCO.com -- Cisco unveiled its 3200 Series wireless router designed to enhance communications while underway aboard planes, trains, automobiles and ships. The service would allow police departments, for example, to deliver mug shots and fingerprint scans over an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
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MUSIC DISH.com -- In front of a Congressional committee hearing, Back Street Boy, Kevin Richardson, testified that they have never received a royalty check.
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FLOOD-TRIBUNAL.ie -- Even though the Flood Report sold out in record time, the Irish Government Publication Office is not planning to print any more copies of it. the , despite it having sold out in record time. According to Karlin Lillington, you can buy electronic (CD) copies, or you can download it here or here.
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DIVE INTO MARK -- One year ago today, Mark Pilgrim's (now former) manager told him to shut down his weblog and remove all traces of it from his server. He tried to convince Mark that the Internet was too small to mix the professional and the personal. One year ago today, Mark gave him an answer, and Dive Into Mark blossomed. To celebrate this first anniversary, you should read Mark's CV, admire his cat, and link to his post.
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BLOGOSPHERE -- Based on search engine requests for information, the most popular technology covered in this Weblog is "PVR" (119 requests), specifically the "TIVO" (60 requests). Macromedia's "Video Conferencing in Flash" intrigued 34 viewers. Another 34 wanted to know about the "Pocket Classroom". And 30 viewers wanted information about the "Sony Camera".
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LONDON -- I think the most read topic in the technical blogosphere relates to WiFi. I attracted 68 requests for my June coverage of the idea. My stuff on "Warchalking" got 190 readers in July and in June. "Wardriving" attracted 68 others.
Drilling down into the evidence, early adopters want to read more about "WiFi Mesh" (85 requests) or discuss it (49 requests). Some need to know about Motorola’s Canopy (68 requests).
I think it's reasonable to conclude that many are trying to get "Last Acre Connectivity" (34 requests), a concept that transcends the unbundling of the local loop and is being well-executed by "Janda czfree.net" (66 requests).
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PARC.com -- Xerox researchers are playing with enhanced thumbnails for Web searches. Their online demo recreates user tests that compare Enhanced Thumbnails to more traditional methods of displaying search results. Study participants were given a set of information-finding tasks to be done using a search engine. Their search results were displayed using text, plain thumbnails, and Enhanced Thumbnails.
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WIRED.com -- Walking through the JFK Airport and NYC Penn Station concourses, I noted the rise of e-books. Now e-books are flying the Friendly Skies, as United Airlines touts their portability to their passengers. Did you know you can check out e-books just like library books? And take courses on them?
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LONDON -- I host this Web server in London and once a week I look at some leading statistics, like the source of most of my direct links. Last week, on the heels of being denied "leave to land" in Ireland, I got most of my look-ins from Karlin Lillington's Weblog (a total of 34 clicked into here from her space), possibly after reading her take on my fate.
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Hundreds Need to Increase Internet Speeds LONDON -- More people search and find this web site by looking at ways to "improve Internet speed". Last week, 227 people arrived on this Web site, after asking 8 different search engines for tips on improving speed. Some found answers on improving connection speed in the Topgold Forum. At the smaller end of the scale, down in handheld land, 193 people landed on this domain while looking for information about WAP Gateways or WAP in general. One of the lessons learned from this demographic is that bloggers should consider their potential handheld audience.
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01 October 2002 |
KODAK.com -- Matt Frondorf is a statistical photographer. He is driving from the Statue of Liberty to the Golden Gate, taking a picture every mile. The snaps hang in a nicely designed Flash app on the Kodak site.
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SALON.com -- "It pays to place shapely young women on-screen mugging next to anything from flashy gizmos to fizzy sugar water. The pairing is arbitrary, but it engages a set of brain mechanisms that evolved originally to select mates, learn from serendipity, and remember intense experiences on which future survival might hinge."
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PROXIM.com -- Proxim's Learning Center covers the basics of networking as well as the specifics of wireless network architecture.
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Dan Gillmor -- After giving Jack Valenti a soapbox to make a statement, Dan Gillmor explains the music industry wants total control.
So the movie and music companies are going back to Congress for another helping. They are asking for laws that would force technology innovators to restrict the capabilities of devices -- cripple PCs and other machines that communicate so they can't make copies the copyright holders don't explicitly allow. Amazingly, the entertainment industry also wants permission to hack into networks and machines they believe are being used to violate copyrights.
Here is what it all means. To protect a business model and thwart even the possibility of infringement, the cartel wants technology companies to ask permission before they can innovate. The media giants want to keep information flow centralized, to control the new medium as if it's nothing but a jazzed-up television. Instead of accepting, as they do today, that a certain amount of penny-ante infringement will occur and then going after the major-league pirates, they call every act of infringement -- and some things that aren't infringement at all -- an act of piracy or stealing. Saying it doesn't make it so.
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DENVER, Colorado -- Wireless ISP Aerie Networks of Denver uses equipment to run a high-speed wireless Web network in some areas of the country. Its patented equipment consists of radio receivers mounted to utility poles that shower an area with Internet access.
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THE REGISTER -- Karlin Lillington identifies with Vodafone Ireland spamming. She has received unwanted SMS spam from 02. "The worst was their happy new year wishes sent twice in a row at about 4 am." Two years ago, I asked Barry Maloney, then the Digifone CEO, whether his company could guarantee that they would never send unsolicited text messages to me. He would not make that promise then, and the rebranded company is clearly on a path to availing a spamtext channel to the direct marketing industry.
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LOGI3.com -- Jarrod Piccioni's Textbased.com Minimalist site has added a forum used by developers parsimonious with their page weight when discussing minimalist design theory and sharing links.
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30 September 2002 |
SMART MOBS -- You can become a Wi-Fi provider for your neighbourhood by using Proxim's product, priced from about $2,000 to $6,000. The kit includes all the equipment necessary to become a small-scale network provider. Each "ISP in a box" kit can serve about 250 customers.
The technology uses 802.11b to create a wireless zone of up to 12 miles long, far beyond the usual 300-foot-radius range that Wi-Fi typically achieves.
Setting up this architecture would probably require a Tsunami QuickBridge. It comes in three varieties - Tsunami QuickBridge 60, Tsunami QuickBridge 20, and Tsunami QuickBridge 20 with T1/E1 connection. Tsunami QuickBridge 60 provides data connectivity up to 60 Mbps between buildings up to 3 miles apart. Tsunami QuickBridge 20 offers up to 20 Mbps connectivity at a range of up to 6 miles. Tsunami QuickBridge 20 with the optional T1 or E1 connection, which enables businesses to establish both voice and data connectivity, offers up to 12 Mbps connectivity for up to 6 miles, still at a fraction of the cost of leasing two T1 or E1 lines.
Tsunami QuickBridge 20 has a list price of $3499; Tsunami QuickBridge 20 with T1/E1 connection has a list price of $7499; and Tsunami QuickBridge 60 has a list price of $5499.
Proxim, which sells a third of the world's Wi-Fi equipment, is the largest company yet to enter the market selling long-range Wi-Fi equipment. Others with uber-Wi-Fi networks include cordless-phone maker Engenius and networking companies Linksys and D-Link. These companies said they've had success peddling the gear to Web providers that are even smaller than Proxim's customers.
Proxim's gear is already being used by likes of Mile High Online in Denver and Prairie Inet in West Des Moines, Iowa. The Proxim product can achieve long distances because the company boosted the power inside its access points--the radios that create the network. It also added additional antennas to the access points so signals could be beamed directly to a home, rather than creating a cloud of access.
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PALGRAVE JOURNALS.com -- The first issue of the Information Visualization Journal is freely available online. It's a peer-reviewed international journal, serving researchers and practitioners throughout the world on all topics related to information visualization. The journal publishes articles on fundamental research and applications of information visualization, including theories, methodologies, techniques.
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JWZ.org -- Enter a phrase into a search engine and capture an image as a result. Then combine the images onto a single Web page. Then you have a Web Collage!
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Conwy Valley Bedrock Geology  CONWY VALLEY -- Deep gorges expose bedrock geology throughout parts of Wales, where slate grows both horizontally and vertically.
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Fresh Air Near Conwy  CONWY, Wales -- Ruth and Bernie enjoy some quiet time along a mountainous path, in the shadows of Yr Wyddfa, Glydeririau and the Carneddau. We walked along the Bwrdeistref Sirol lake before taking time out next to dozens of sheep who appeared to be glued to the side of a 45 degree slope.
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29 September 2002 |
Underway on Virgin Rail VIRGIN RAIL -- It's amazing that I'm keeping a mobile phone signal for nearly 3 hours underway on Virgin Rail. That's quite a comparison to the frequent black spots I encountered when riding Amtrak in the States last week.
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LONDON -- The typical anti-war protestors are marshalling against an Iraqi war effort. And Chris Croome caught a few interesting angles inside his photoblog.
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