Category: technology
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iTunes update redux
So as I was installing the upgrade to iTunes 4.9 this morning (with all the associated non-background actions it requires) I noticed something strange – a system restart is required after the installation. It made me reflect on how odd a system restart requirement is in the Linux / UNIX world for a userspace software…
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software distribution redux
I’ve said before that I really like the ease and convenience of tools like apt, gems, darwinports, cpan, and portage which let you ask for an application and then simply install it along with any dependencies in one fell swoop. Which brings me to today’s whiny rant: Apple. Now, i like Apple a lot, I…
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technology, utility, the chasm, and the long-tail
There are two ideas out and about concerning the progression of a technology to adoption, and the consumption of something that has already been adopted. The first, the adoption chasm, is about there being a chasm between early adopters and mass consumption. There is a book. The second, the long-tail, is about there being nearly…
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hyperbole or creative?
Being a sneaky, go where you aren’t supposed to, cracker, the kind of thing that most people think of when you say “hacker”, is pretty damn hard. There are two kinds – those who get caught and those who don’t. The ones that you should be afraid of are the ones who have come and…
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google versus del.icio.us
ok, I knew this would happen eventually, and it just did. I found better results to what I was looking for using http://del.icio.us/tag/REST than using Google to search for “REST” ( http://www.google.com/search?q=”REST” ). (I was looking for articles about REST – Representational State Transfer – a way of using existing web infrastructure to do more,…
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the virtues of software distribution
I just have to smile whenever I use an on-line software distribution system that “just works” to install or update a tool. CPAN, gems, darwinports, apt – these are things of beauty and I just love how something as simple as sudo gem update rails makes my life better. No big heavy expedition to the…
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who watches the watchmen?
This article is over in the new (to me) Policy DevCenter at O’Reilly: O’Reilly Network: Protect Your OSP with logfinder It references a new white paper put out by the EFF to aid system admins in finding log files on their systems with the idea that you can’t be bothered by the Feds serving you…
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Divide And Conquer Yourself
Marcus Ranum has this little rant on his web site and it got picked up by Slashdot, so I read it. Divide And Conquer Yourself His basic premise is that the n-flavors of Linux, BSD, and System V kernel based operating systems make it easy for Microsoft to play the various vendors against themselves and…
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Predator and Prey
Rick Jelliffe has a post over on O’Reilly about the idea that our brains are wired to be both predator and prey – and that there is an oscillation between the two. His extension is to ponder the applicability of that as a design pattern, which seems like a good idea. It would make a…
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speech & community under the radar?
This post on Line of Site about how the podcasting medium is so far ahead of curve and is by its very nature, a domain of unenforceability with respect to content and language (decency). Pretty interesting. It makes me wonder about the difference between ideas of society based (knowingly or not) on Rousseau and his…