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Ted's Radio Weblog
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Sunday, January 30, 2005 |
NYT > Technology has a troubling article "By LORNE MANLY and JOHN MARKOFF" titled Steal This Show. "Homemade cable boxes. Episodes swiped off the Web. TV is becoming a do-it-yourself affair, and the industry is terrified."
I was really disturbed by the tone that recording is the same as stealing. Time-shifting is a right. I don't want to plan my life around a TV schedule. If I'm busy at 10 PM on Thursday (okay, more likely asleep), I want to record it and watch it at my convenience.
Broadcasters are losing out if people don't record the commercials along with the show. Okay, I'll concede that. So, keep the commercials in. Laura and I taped 12 hours of "Crossing Jordan" when A&E did a a marathon over the Thanksgiving weekend. It was kind of quaint watching (and yes, fast-forwarding through) the Christmas specials advertisments in January.
Laura pointed out that all the sharing hurts broadcasters because they don't show up in the Neilson ratings. I hadn't considered that, and that's a really good point. If I understand correctly, it's the ratings that let them price their advertising. Well, the NYT article might accidentally point the way there, too: The top of the article lists the top videos downloaded last week: this is not "lost" broadcasting, it's just not counted.
Here's a solution: the networks themselves need to host the video downloads, using something like BitTorrent that lets every downloader contribute to the uploading bandwidth. The network can offer some sort of an enticing premium like a higher-quality feed, with the commercials left in, and count the number of eyeballs that are watching using mechanisms like the BitTorrent tracking features. They get a bigger audience, viewers get to watch at their leisure. Is that a win - win?
2:40:18 PM 
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Jon Udell asks the question: "How can high-tech product support be so abysmally bad? And how did we arrive at the point where users, not vendors, provide so much of the useful information?"
What an unusual perspective! I'd been a fan of the PCVENDB forum on CompuServe for support from Fox Software, but far more importantly from the many wonderful "users" -- fellow developers and consultants -- who taught me Fox software and consulting and so much wisdom. Even after the purchase by Microsoft, support didn't come from the vendor, but from the forums - CompuServe's FoxForum and the FoxForum Wiki and Ed Leafe's ProFox mailing list. The vendor might occasionally post a knowledgebase article confirming what we already knew. But users have always supported software. They have no choice.
I recall seeing a directory on some vendors CDs labeled UNSUPPORTED, with a disclaimer that said the vendor would provide no technical support for the included tools. My question: Unsupported? How can you tell?
12:32:52 PM
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Saturday, January 29, 2005 |
Hentzenwerke Publishing ships Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org. This sounds like a great little book. Looking forward to checking it out. I've been using OpenOffice.org for a couple of years now, on Windows, Linux and OS X, and I'm really pleased with it. I just installed the NeoOffice/J version, a native UI version for the Mac, and I'm enjoying it a lot more than the X11 version I had been using.
Via the RSS feed at Hentzenwerke Moving From Windows to Linux
5:27:10 PM
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Andrew MacNeill points out that the VFP 9 EULA is posted in its entirety to the FoxForum Wiki at http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~VFP9EuLA~VFP.
It's great to see the brain-dead requirement of having to uninstall previous versions has been removed. However, there are some really bizarre new phrases added. Rush Strong points out the weirdest: "You may not.. work around technical limitations in the software," Excuse me? That's how I have made my living for the past fifteen years. VFP doesn't include your inventory system, but that's a technical limitation I can help you work around. Yes, it's true that DROP TAG ALL will remove all relations, but I know of a product that works around that technical limitation... VFP crashes when used with some HP drivers, but there's a technical work-around on the Microsoft KnowledgeBase that lets me work around this technical limitation.
I find it hard to believe that such a silly requirement could be enforced in court. On the one hand, OJ was found innocent and Sacco and Vanzetti executed. On the other, Microsoft was found guilty, guilty, guilty. I have neither the money nor the interest in finding out what is and isn't enforceable in the EULA! But I think a lawyer at Microsoft needs to be flogged for writing such nonsense.
10:54:25 AM
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Laura and I enjoy listening to WERS, the user-supported radio station of Emerson College, on Saturdays: 10 AM - 2 PM Standing Room Only plays Broadway tunes, and 2 PM to 5 PM All A Cappella. Since we live just outside their broadcast area, we listen to the streaming audio. Thanks to Live365.com, we can listen to the streaming music either on the iMac via iTunes or through the ThinkPads and WinAmp or Live365's player. However, that means that we are stuck in the computer room with the good computer speakers or listening over the weak laptop speakers, right? Nah.
Downstairs, we moved my ThinkPad into the living room, and use the living room stereo via iRock. Okay, follow this: WERS broadcasts their radio signal, and also routes the audio somehow to Live365.com, who turn it into TCP/IP packets. The internet packets route their way through the Internet, and end up on my Comcast cable, decoded by my local cable modem. Routed from there to my LinkSys WRT-54G. Wrapping around the room, an ethernet cable goes to a LinkSys 5-port switch, and back out again to a LinkSys WAP-11 802-11b transmitter. Back into radio waves, the transmission somehow finds its way to the living room, where the ThinkPad A31p's built-in wireless adaptors turns it back into TCP/IP packets, again, and then into an MP3 stream, which WinAMP turns into audio output, again. Wait, we're almost there! The iRock then turns the audio stream back into FM radio waves, which are picked up by tuning the living room stereo to the same frequency. Once again, back to audio, the sound, finally, comes out the speakers.
What's remarkable is how good this sounds. And that it works at all.
How hard could it be?
If this works out, we may consider using an Airport Express, and cut out a lot of the complexity.
10:24:40 AM
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Friday, January 28, 2005 |
If you're running a MySQL server on Windows, ensure that you have a rock-solid, hard-to-crack root password or, smarter yet, turn off remote root access. The Internet Storm Center logs a nasty bot that's taking over Windows machines (an easy task, let's admit it) using MySQL servers with weak root passwords.
Like any application exposed to the internet, it's wise to disable the standard built-in user name and/or beef up the passwords to ones very difficult to crack.
9:55:23 AM
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A Linux Geek Embraces Mac OS X. ExtremeTech's own (and OSNews reader) Jim Lynch is a long-standing Linux and occasional Windows user. He recently got a Mac for the first time, a G5. Did he like it, will he stay to the new platform? [OSNews]
9:52:11 AM
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Thursday, January 27, 2005 |
Paul McNett has run OpenFox.org as a Wiki for people wanting to run FoxPro on platforms other than Windows. Unfortunately, according to a note on the home page, Paul has had to take down the site due to spammers. He does, however, point to other links that contain great information on this, including WineHQ and his own web site.
With the recent VFP9 EULA (I still haven't seen it online), someone asked if that meant that VFP is dead on Linux. Frankly, I've always thought of it as more of a parlor trick than a viable platform for development. I mean, if the vendor really doesn't want to run on the many other operating systems out there, that is their choice, even if they are cutting off their nose to spite their face. The other answer is one that Paul points out in the white paper on his site: you don't need to run VFP 9 or 8 or even 7 to get most of the benefits of VFP. If you are running (or at least distributing) VFP 6 level applications, the EULA had no noxious requirements about the operating system. As always, you should consult a lawyer about this, but it looks good to me...
1:51:56 PM
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SlashDot notes: "National Geographic has an article stating that... "Scientists have begun blurring the line between human and animal by producing chimeras - a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal."
Great! And are these creatures - HAnimals or Animans? - entitled to protection by the SPCA or by the UN Human Rights Commission? There are incredible ethical issues in this.
1:19:07 PM
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Ken Levy responded to my earlier post with:
Based on the feedback from you and others in the VFP community after the release of VFP, I met with the Microsoft legal team who worked on the VFP 9.0 EULA and they allowed that section to be removed. So anyone can upgrade to VFP 9.0 and use "any" previous version on the same machine, no restrictions in the EULA on previous versions related to upgrading. You can blog my comment on that if you want so people know who don't have VFP 9.0 yet.
10:40:37 AM
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 |
Last year, I blogged that Anand of the PC hardware review site AnandTech wrote up an enthusaistic review of the state of the Macintosh. Apparently, that started a whole new section of the site, devoted to the Apple technologies.
Anand follows up with another thorough discussion - ten thousand words over 11 pages - that will give you a great view of where Apple is and where they are going.
9:37:20 PM
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Several folks have contacted me to let me know of the change to the EULA and Ken Levy's statements at various conferences. Thanks, folks.
Ken Levy's words are not Microsoft's contracts, and Microsoft (and all software vendors) ought to have their licenses available for inspection. Thanks to my friends and readers, I'm better informed (as will others who might Google this post), but public viewing of licenses ought to be standard practice.
In a recent column, Ed Foster asked, "Would software licensing terms be any less nasty if we could read them before we made our purchase decision? It's an interesting question, and one I think is going to be answered in the not-so-distant future."
2:09:05 PM
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Visual FoxPro 9.0 now in retail channel!. "Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 finally hit the streets! It comes in a sleek DVD-case. Rick spotted it at FoxToolbox.com and other retailers."
(Via fiat volpes) Via Alex Feldstein
Now, has anyone seen the End User Licensing Agreement posted online? I've been told that the "upgrade" version no longer has the requirement that previous versions must be removed from your machine, as earlier EULAs did. Since the "Version Upgrade" costs around half as much as the full product, this is an important question.
8:06:02 AM
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Monday, January 24, 2005 |
A new version released today. Webmin is a great tool for administering a Linux, OS X or Windows (with Cygwin) machine remotely via a web browser. Based in Perl, it includes modules for many of the popular tools on the platforms: Apache, IPTables, Samba, MySQL, PostGreSQL. It's a very handy way to familiarize yourself with the administrative options available with those tools, and often offers a simpler and easy to use interface than the tool itself does.
10:00:22 AM
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Thursday, January 20, 2005 |
No, not the Cooper Mini, although Laura and I would love to play with one. The Mac Mini. Steve Jobs brought his portable Reality Distortion Field to MacWorld last week and put on an as-always great keynote, his first since a scare with pancreatic cancer last year, and the crowd went wild, and the press went wild and Slashdot went wild. Inevitably, a few naysayers trotted out the usual tired arguments against Apple. Reviews were either Apple Fan-tastic or Apple hater-mean. Let's get real.
Laura asked me at lunch just who they were trying to sell to. Great question! The Mac Mini is a little too mini for those of us who push our machines really hard: the CPU, RAM and disk aren't much upgradable. the video too weak for gamers. If you buy into the all-Apple thing, and buy the Apple keybaord and mouse, Apple Airport card, RAM and HD upgrade and a 21" Cinema display, the price comes out pretty close to what I paid last year for a loaded iMac (the "Luxo Lamp" model). However, this can make an ideal office desktop machine for someone who needs mail, web browsing and routine office work (using Apple Works, OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice/J or Apple's new iWork).
For those who already have the peripherals (or can buy them at a bargain), I suspect the Mac Mini can make a great desktop machine or second machine. But beware! Once you've experienced the Apple trademark "It Just Works!" experience, don't be surprised at finding yourself pricing out a dual-proc PowerMac or a slick PowerBook.
Tim Bray thinks about whether a "Mini for Mom" is a good choice.
OSNews has an interesting article comparing a home-brew mini-PC vs. the Mac Mini.
If you've got the time and you're really intrigued by the entire Apple phenomenon (I am!), Daring Fireball has an insightful Mac Mini analysis with an interesting conclusion.
10:07:03 AM
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005 |
PostGreSQL 8.0 is a pretty impressive product that doesn't get the attention of MySQL, but really should. It's a full-featured relational database engine with most of the competitive features of the big boys: triggers, RI, procedures, etc. In the 8.0 product, the press release claims the most features in any dot-zero release of PostGreSQL. Notable is a native Windows port for better introduction into monoculture shops.
7:57:32 PM
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When you build apps from source, you get to configure, tune and install them just the way you want. But with great power comes great responsibility, right? Now that you have taken control, you are responsible for maintaining the applications as well. No distribution package manager is going to automatically try to update files you created yourself -- you have to do it. For that reason, stick with the package manager's version when you can. Make sure to sign up for the product's mailing lists or announcements as well as the general security mailings lists so you'll know when an update is needed.
Leave adequate time to do the install and configure, especially if it is a complex product or you're not familiar with all of the steps. I mean, how hard can "./configure;make;make install" be, right? Figure two weeks for your first attempt, and maybe an hour or two after that. Okay, two weeks may be a little high, but it never hurts to score some points by coming in under your estimate, right? Start with a few little and non-critical items and build up your debugging and troubleshooting skills. Keep resources like your local Linux User Group and product's mailing lists and Google handy.
Configure doesn't always tell you if it doesn't recognize the parameters you pass. I spent days trying to add the mysqli module to PHP version 4.3.10 before I finally realized that I could issue a ./configure --help and have it tell me there was no such option. Doh.
Patience, grasshopper.
7:40:10 PM
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The idea of building applications from source is foreign to Windows and commercial software users, but it is really not as scary as it sounds. Recently, I was called upon to install and configure Apache, MySQl and PHP on a client's RedHat 9 installation. They were keeping their Redhat 9 machine up to date using the yum legacy program, but the legacy repositories are not always up on the latest editions. After all, volunteers maintain these, too.
As the client's requirements included a need for transactions, the InnoDb database engine was a good choice. PHP supports a new MySQL interface in PHP 5.0.3 which takes full advantage of the new features in MySQL 4.1.x, so I chose to build Apache, MySQL and PHP from source. A little Googling came across several useful sites, where other developers had posted the commands they used to do this. Two I found especially useful:
Building from source involves a few steps:- Download the source, typically from the main project web site or a trusted mirror. A good place to store all the files is /usr/local/src.
- Unpack the files into their own directories, typically with tar -zxvf for a tar.gz ("tarball").
- Hop into that directory and take a quick read through INSTALL, README, LICENSE and CONFIGURE files to see if there are any gotchas.
- Build the script that does the compile (a "makefile") with ./configure. If you followed the links above, you can see ./configure may have many options. Adding --help after ./configure will list them, and a little research can tell you the ones you want. If you get errors during this step, it's back to the forums, Google or the instructions to determin if there's more you need to do.
- Now that you've created the makefile, you invoke it with the command 'make.'
- Install your application with 'make install.'
It still sounds like a chore, but the end result is a working application that you have tuned to your system and needs, up to date with the latest source you could obtain, and installed where you want.
7:02:00 PM
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005 |
Tom Yager's weekly column at InfoWorld, timed well to land during MacWorld week, is titled "Try as I might, I can't wreck a Mac" -- a switcher endorsement, not from a blurry-eyed preteen or a a hip DJ, but from the guy who runs the testing labs at a IT publication. The best line: "I expect the iMac G5 will prove comparable to other 64-bit, zero-footprint Unix RISC desktops with integrated 20-inch LCD displays. (That's a joke, son.)"
For those of you not in on the joke. there are no competitors.
4:05:01 PM
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Saturday, January 15, 2005 |
Cringely writes in his weekly I, Cringely that Microsoft getting into the anti-malware business is a bad idea, both from their motivations and history:
Microsoft has always hated firms that sell products that enhance their operating systems. They hate sharing revenue with others. Microsoft has to be envious and annoyed by the fact Symantec and others get more recurring revenue from Windows than Microsoft does.
Time will tell.
I don't think Microsoft will be offering a version for OS X or Linux.
12:42:59 PM
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Sunday, January 9, 2005 |
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Saturday, January 8, 2005 |
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Friday, January 7, 2005 |
Andrew Binstock writes about the remarkable success of FoxFire in taking market share away from Internet Explorer in his Integration Watch column.
2:59:56 PM
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I'm setting up a machine in the server room to duplicate the configuration I'll be installing at a client next month. The machine had been my desktop computer last year, running WinXP Pro, until it developed a terminal case of the Windows Blues and would not let anyone log on, locally, remotely, via Samba shares, nothing. I booted it up with the Knoppix CD in the SCSI CD-ROM and Knoppix dealt with the oddball hardware, booted the machine, and acted as a Samba server so I could copy off the old files over the network before blowiing it away. Pretty amazing.
2:35:07 PM
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Monday, January 3, 2005 |
Hope you made it through to 2005. I've made some significant changes in the Radio Userland software. I'm now running it on the iMac. Transfer seemed to go very smoothly, but if I disappear, you'll understand why.
9:38:19 AM
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