June 2008
14 posts
AA Rechargeable Batteries with built in USB...
Genius. Use batteries by day, charge in USB hub or laptop overnight.
Don't Wildcard Your Domains to Google
As pdp points out on GNUCITIZEN, domain admins need to make sure they don’t get carried away when outsourcing to Google apps. It’s tempting to put something like this in your DNS:
*.example.org. IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
Don’t do it! While it’s nice to have docs.example.org and mail.example.org and all that pointing to big-G with just one line, it also means that...
Who stole the orange from Firefox 3?
I finally got around to installing FF3 today. The verdict? Nice browser, sub-standard chrome. And none of the available themes for OSX is any better.
The problem is that they turned Firefox.app into a Safari clone. I use both browsers, and one of the reasons why I use Firefox more is that I like the look of the interface. It’s less boring. It balances web content nicely. It’s...
On Attractive Targets →
As we continue to turn to Google, Amazon, and others to outsource email and server operations, I find myself wondering if we aren’t just making life ridiculously easy for black hats, spies, and marketers. Let’s see, you could find a way into each of 3,000 heterogenous little networks… or find a way into one network with 300,000 clients. Hmmm, which will you choose?
Here’s...
Firefox 3 Download Day
Firefox Download Day, world record, blah blah blah. It’s time to upgrade yer browser. Then again, if they really wanted to set a record, they would have posted FF3 by now (7:40am EST, nearly midnight in New Zealand).
Be sure to check out the Field Guide to Firefox 3 for whenever you actually do download it.
Ad-Friendly Ad Blocking
The way browser-based ad blocking works currently (hello Firefox users!), one or more extensions prevent the browser from downloading images from certain servers, prevent the Flash plugin from playing animations, and/or prevent the javascript includes that insert ads into the page.
This works great. Suddenly the internet is free of annoying crap in the margins, allowing you to concentrate on the...
Is There A Case for Metered Internet?
If you paid for your internet by the Gigabyte, would you think twice about watching a Miami Vice marathon on Hulu? Would you get mad at being rickrolled? Would you limit your calls on Skype?
Or would your ISP suddenly feel enormous pressure to provide you with as much bandwidth as you want, when you wanted it, in order to increase revenues and maximize shareholder value?
I have no doubt that...
Apple Design Awards →
If you want to know why the iPhone is a game-changing mobile device, just take a look at the winners in the iPhone Developer Showcase. As you do, imagine these applications running on any other phone or handheld.
For four out of the five, I can’t.
“Always beloved as the place that had more lox than the Panama Canal, Barney...”
– A centenary ode to the Sturgeon King by Glenn Collins, NYT.
Unstuffit on Leopard →
I refuse to install StuffitExpander, because the default OSX zip support is fast and efficient and free, unlike Aladdin’s crapware. But that means that on the rare occasion that I actually need to unstuff a .sit archive, I need an app that can do so.
It turns out that Dag Ågren’s “The Unarchiver” is just the sort of minimalist open source unstuffer I need. Nice work, Dag!
EncFS →
The breadth of utility enabled by FUSE continues to astonish me. The EncFS project allows you to create a file-by-file-encrypted filesystem… anywhere.
