...more recent posts
The new server is up (in the lab; not online.) It booted right into Red Hat Linux 6.2. It is extrodinarilly loud. (WHAT?) It came loaded with Gnome (graphic interface) which looks much better than I expected. Just doing some poking around while I decide on a course of action. I think I might want to stay running 6.2, although the CD's I have are for 7.0, so if I want to do a reinstall (which I do) I'd have to either get 6.2 or go to 7.0. Not sure what to do, so I'll try to find some discussion of whether 7.0 is really ready for non-experimental use. I know there were initially some problems with the version of GCC they shipped with 7.0, but I don't know if this has been resolved, or whether it ever really was a problem.
No doubt many more thrilling updates like this one to come.
Dan Gilmore has the first brief explanation of what knownow.com is doing (they've been in super stealth mode until yesterday.)
"I didn't know this before today, but it turns out that a Web browser can hold open the connection to the server. Normally, a browser sends a request for information, which is delivered by the server. The connection ends.I don't know. This sounds sort of like just refreshing the page ever second. Must be more than that. Still, this is the sort of thing I am looking for. We need some kind of server (not just browser) on the desktop. For this site it would mean that instead of users (re)loading the main page to see what new messages have been posted since their last visit, those notices would just show up on everyone's desktop every time something new was posted (assuming you had the site open on your desktop.) Like a cross between the web and instant messaging. For those who remember the old days (a few years ago,) this is basically "push" technology revisited. Push was a huge dud, but now the market is ready I think. Just don't call it push.
KnowNow holds the connection open. Then it adds some JavaScript and, voila, you have a mini-server inside the browser. You're not necessarily using lots of bandwidth, but you are pretending, in effect, that you're downloading a very, very long document while the browser keeps communicating with the server."
The new server has arrived It is totally freakin' cool. Too bad I'm going to be in the kitchen for the rest of the day getting ready for tonight. Tomorrow I am going to buy a keyboard first thing in the morning and then dig in. Pictures to follow.
From genehack.org:
"As you go through your day today, stop occasionally, and remember that you're a member of a species that took a hunk of metal and plastic and heaved it up into the dark night, just so we could get a better look at a pebble that spins around our home. Realize that once we had our look, once we'd gotten what we came for, our monkey curiosity still wasn't satisfied, and so we banged our hunk of metal and plastic onto the pebble, just on the off chance that we'd get another glance or two.And as if that wasn't enough, now they are going to attempt to fire the thrusters again and lift off (today at 2:00 pm EST.) Good luck. Here's a nice diagram of the hunk of metal and plastic in question.
And it worked."
Just another quick reminder: your email client should not process or create or have any sort of truck with HTML. Clear? The idea that a program might go beyond this, and also process javascript and VBscript is either negligent or criminally insane. As for people who use such products, well, I'll just go with them being "uneducated". Now the question is, do you want to broadcast your uneducated-ness every time you send an email? No you don't. Use plaintext. Now go back to your business, forget I or anyone else ever said these things, and... hey! check out all these pictures of Anna Kournikova....
Here's some detailed explanations of Google's new usenet archives. You absolutely must read this page and familiarize yourself with the new system. This is perhaps the single most important resource on the web. There will be a test on Monday. (If you're wondering what the heck usenet is then you might want to take a look at this page first.)
Andrew Odlyzko: Papers on Electronic Publishing and Electronic Commerce. Good stuff. And lots of it. The link is from a very complete rant called "what's wrong with content protection" by John Gilmore. [update: Here's a more permanent link to the Gilmore paper. Worth a read.]
Salon picks the 10 most paranoid books of all time. What? No Illuminatus? This must be some sort of plot...
The largest natural crystals on earth.
O.K., how come I didn't know about this? Google bought Deja? Now you can search .5 terrabytes of usenet postings (back to 1995) and see them all right off the (fast) google servers. Between this, and google.com/linux I think even I will be able to (con)figure the new server. (Did you know there is a google.com/mac and a google.com/unclesam too? Pretty useful.)
[update: Oh, O.K., I didn't know because it was just announced.]