The 6th incarnation of Elmer's blog
This is one cool extension for FireFox and another reason to move IE. Be sure to check out Scribe’s features.
MAKE: Blog: Word processing in web forms
“Scribe adds Word Processor like functionality to web forms, including opening and saving form entries as files. Open and save form entries as files. Quickly save to a local file as you type. Never lose a post again due to your internet connection being dropped or laptop battery going out.“
Slashdot | OSS Funding through Fundable
“FredCK, developer of the popular FCKEditor, recently raised $600 from supporters through Fundable to port his open source HTML editor to Safari. Fundable is a new site that lets groups of people pool money for specific purposes, like software features. Unlike generic donation dropboxes (such as PayPal buttons), if a group’s targeted collection isn’t reached after 2 or 4 weeks, everyone gets a complete refund.”
Maybe I’ll use this help fund some of my innovations…
UConn Finds Rootkit in Hacked Server
“The rootkit was first placed on the server during a system compromise on October 26, 2003, but was only detected one week ago, on July 20.UConn said the attack took advantage of an insecure service for which no vendor patch was available, but stressed that an analysis of the computer showed that that the original compromise was incomplete.“
A couple of things to keep in mind here. First, because the original compromise was incomplete, it most likely means that the rootkit was dropped by some worm exploiting a known weakness, but for some reason failed to fully deploy. In all likelihood, the ‘kit never “called home” so the attacker(s) never accessed the machine. Second, this stresses the need for constant vigilence. The 18 month gap between the intrusion and detection was most likely because the ‘kit was dormant and not giving off any signels of its presence. On the other hand, a sysadmin should know if, in less than 18 months, that there was an unauthorized access to the box.
So, remember folks: keep the firewalls up and limit remote acces to servers.
Our del.icio.us Folksonomy (Beta)
“We’ve just added del.icio.us tags to our articles. These are single keyword categories generated by the O’Reilly readers as they bookmark our articles in del.icio.us. The sum of these tags is a taxonomy (some say folksonomy) of articles that emerged from our readers rather than being handed down by our editors.“
Based on data supplied by del.icio.us, O’Reilly is adding popular folksonomy tags to it’s articles. The tag info will appear in the upper left hand corner of the article. This is a great way to tie content to the broader community and put it in some sort of context.
New York Law School’s Institute for Information Law and Policy to Offer Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology
“New York Law School’s Institute for Information Law and Policy is introducing a “Certificate of Mastery in Law Practice Technology”.Starting in the fall 2005 semester, students will be able to pursue this certificate, to be awarded as an honor upon graduation. Students receiving the certificate will have demonstrated mastery of particular technology skills –such as electronic litigation, online transactions, or courtroom technology–that will prepare them for law practice and distinguish them as especially qualified candidates for legal positions.In order to receive the certificate, students complete a core curriculum in cyberlaw, intellectual property, and information law; attain at least four
Plastic Bugs – Home of the ‘Original’ GIMPshop » Blog Archive » DittyBot – An Applescript Adventure
“You send a text message from your mobile phone to your POP email account. Your text message should contain the keywords of a song title (and possibly an artist name) that you want to hear. DittyBot finds that email (he checks Mail every 45 seconds) and copies the song name into a text file. The song name is then copied into iTunes and a playlist is created from your search. Next, DittyBot loads Skype (the internet telephony app) and begins calling your mobile phone. Your mobile phone rings and when you pick it up, you should hear your song start playing in all its compressed glory. “
Picked this up via MAKE blog. While it is all about using AppleScript for cool iTunes stuff, it does provide a bit of a road map on how we can get Classcaster to route around complex menuing issues. Following the Dittybot map, a student sends an email to a specific address including the name of a lecturette in the message. We grab this via POP, extract the info, locate the MP3 and then have Classcaster call the number associated with the from address and play the lecturette. Will require user registration, but it could be a cool feature.
particletree – The Importance of RSS
This essay started out as an explanation for Google’s foray into personal portal pages, but morphed into “a comprehensive breakdown of the state of RSS, taxonomies, advertising, and how it relates to the future of Google.” What follows is the result of several months of observation, notes and contemplation.
Good article. Raises the question: are RSS subscriptions the next search? I guess I better get to work on my social aggregator…
Windows to Linux: A Beginner’s Startup Guide – www.reallylinux.com “If you have any experience with Windows, the switch to Linux will be relatively simple. Truly, the biggest challenge is to find the tools and applications you need in Linux. This beginner HOW-TO article will hopefully give you plenty of ideas how to access those key tools and how they relate to Windows.“
This is a good article for those about to chase the penguin:) It includes links to a number of other good pieces on transitioning to Linux and using the applications you will find on the Linux desktop.
BetaNews | MSN Blocks ‘Forbidden Speech’ in Blogs
“Following the lead of competitors Yahoo and Google, Microsoft has blocked the use of words such as “democracy” and “human rights” in some of its services for Chinese users – including its Spaces blogs. The move is likely to appease the Chinese government, which has strongly urged Web sites to self-censor themselves.“
OK, I get the part about needing to follow the local laws of a country, but come on. The scary part is that this could set a corporate precedent for bowing to governmental pressure to censor speech on the web even in a America. Suppose our government decides that certain words or phases needn’t be written on the web. Who will stand up to them to demand our rights?
Linux Adoption Stalls, Study Says – Yahoo! News
“Linux’s strongest workload gains were in the smallest and largest organizations, while Windows gained workload fastest in the midsize companies, Cowen said. Windows, however, gained workload faster than Linux in all but the smallest companies.“
Seems like ‘Dawn of the Point-and-Click SysAdmin’. Let’s face it, it is faster and easier to deploy more Windows servers than it is Linux (or Unix for that matter). Does that make Windows better, more stable, more secure, less expensive? No, just faster and easier. Microsoft has made great strides in the educational arena, seeing that its products get lots of favorable attention in the training of new sysAdmins. If your background is in Windows, deploying and managing any other OS, especially Linux, is daunting. Nobody wants all the work of the extra work. So, more Windows:)