I have inadvertently installed a game I didn't want on my computer. This is the type of game that my computer plays, and that I can only play the role of spectator in.
Call me selfish, but if there's a game on my computer, I want to be the one playing it. (or my wife, in the case of Nancy Drew and other girlie mystery games that are kind of fun to play.. I mean that are fun to watch my wife play....)
The way the game works, is I set up a wireless network with WEP encryption. I then use a wireless PCI adapter of the same brand as my wireless router so my desktop can connect to the wireless network.
The final step is to connect to the router with Windows XP.
This is where the fun begins!
Windows, feeling excited at its new found friend, W.R. Puff-N-Stuff (Wireless Router), quickly starts talking to it and exchanging contact details, memories, and after some handshaking and packet exchanging, they are best of friends... like they've known each other for years!
As they start working together they reminisce over the days of yestermonth, when they first met and were in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.
In an effort to return to those wonderful days long past, Windows and W.R. decide to play a friendly game of peek-a-boo, and invite me to watch. As I'm writing an email in response to a purchase of an Ubuntu Christian Edition CD (only $5.00 each plus $0.75 shipping!), the router, with its thin yet effective antennae hides itself behind an imaginary steel and copper plated wall (in reality made out of thin air, swirling around the room as a result of those pesky tsunami-inducing butterflies somewhere in the east). This waft of air, which is quickly turned into a steel and copper wall by the imagination of both W.R. and Windows, pass through right as W.R. says "Where'd the Wireless Router Go?!?!" in a childish and happy voice.
Having years of networking experience, and the most up-to-date drivers, Windows quickly responds with "Wah?! huh?!? OMG (oh my goodness!) Where DID the Wireless Router Go?!?!!!?".
The butterfly is quickly smote by a young child practicing ineffectively the art of ken-do with a rolled up instruction manual for a wal*mart product that hasn't yet shipped. The wind dies, the imaginary wall is removed, and only moments after the game began, the final round is at hand.
At this point, the Router is now visible, and Windows, filled with extreeme joy of reuniting with its long-lost friend greets him with a quick tear-filled "THERE you are!!!" before swapping the most up-to-date contact information, a few packets, and even some more handshakes, lest they part ways again without knowing how to keep in touch.
It is at this moment that the game is over, my email gets sent, and I relax as another hour or so passes on the Church-Forge forums before yet another butterfly finds its way into the beautiful Eastern landscape and begins flapping the exhaustion off its wings, providing a cool breeze across the amber waves of grain, and into my apartment as my wife arrives home from work, ready to to relax and spend time with her mildly frustrated husband mumbling about butterflies and steel-and-copper walls in a game of peek-a-boo.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Adding my Podcast to the series of tubes
I have bit the bullet, and started a podcast. I talk about how to use current technology (preferrably open source) to furthur Christian Ministries.
The podcast consists of three segments, a Review or Product Spotlight, a How To or Tips and Tricks, and a short Bible study. The shows are released every Sunday evening (better to set your podcasting app for early monday morning!), and usually run between 15 and 30 minutes in length.
Plus, my wife does some of the voice-overs, and MercyMe has been kind enough to allow me to use some of their music for the intro. All in all, it's a pretty neat thing to look into if you are at all interested in reliable, free software. (I don't , to my knowledge, review any software that installs malware, pop-ups, or other advertisements)
Check it out at geekons.com (get it? Geek + Deacons = Geekons)
The podcast consists of three segments, a Review or Product Spotlight, a How To or Tips and Tricks, and a short Bible study. The shows are released every Sunday evening (better to set your podcasting app for early monday morning!), and usually run between 15 and 30 minutes in length.
Plus, my wife does some of the voice-overs, and MercyMe has been kind enough to allow me to use some of their music for the intro. All in all, it's a pretty neat thing to look into if you are at all interested in reliable, free software. (I don't , to my knowledge, review any software that installs malware, pop-ups, or other advertisements)
Check it out at geekons.com (get it? Geek + Deacons = Geekons)
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Open-Minded Geekdom: a lesson in iTunes and other technologies
As a geek, I have always rejected anything popular, be that something as large as the Windows Operating System, or as small as iTunes. The fear of something popular being worthless comes from years of overpaying for software that isn't well supported when push comes to shove. Another example of why geeks shy away from popular things can be summed up in two words: "American Idol". (Or pop music)
Based on this, I have been using Windows only when neccessary, staying as far away from Windows Media Player as possible, and only touching Apple products and software when absolutely neccessary.
A few weeks ago a geek friend of mine (even if he doesn't admit he is a geek) mentioned that he used Windows Media Player 10, and therefore couldn't help me with a winamp question I had. This shocked me, but after I got over the shock, I installed MediaPlayer 10 and found it not too difficult to use.
I still use OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Firefox, SciTE, Thunderbird, and 7-zip, but it definitely opened my mind to trying things that are not Open Source.
This extended to Apple when the leader of my Church's Web Servants got an iPOD and showed me some of the features of the device. When I saw the features and quality of the device, not to mention the ease of use, I decided to try out iTunes.
Much unlike the OSX Operating System itself, iTunes is incredibly easy to use. It also has tons of features, and just makes sense. It's almost like it is one "beta" tag away from being a google application.
Through this, I've learned that especially as a geek, I need to keep up on current technologies. As long as I'm not risking security (by doing something silly like using Internet Explorer), all I'm doing is learning what works. Imagine if the GIMP used features and interfaces similar to the Photoshop? It would have the same usability and same quality experience and results.
On a sidenote, Windows Media Player 11 beta doesn't seem all that great. I'll be switching to iTunes, or keeping WMP10 unless they make some dramatic changes, but that will come in a later review.
Based on this, I have been using Windows only when neccessary, staying as far away from Windows Media Player as possible, and only touching Apple products and software when absolutely neccessary.
A few weeks ago a geek friend of mine (even if he doesn't admit he is a geek) mentioned that he used Windows Media Player 10, and therefore couldn't help me with a winamp question I had. This shocked me, but after I got over the shock, I installed MediaPlayer 10 and found it not too difficult to use.
I still use OpenOffice.org, Inkscape, Firefox, SciTE, Thunderbird, and 7-zip, but it definitely opened my mind to trying things that are not Open Source.
This extended to Apple when the leader of my Church's Web Servants got an iPOD and showed me some of the features of the device. When I saw the features and quality of the device, not to mention the ease of use, I decided to try out iTunes.
Much unlike the OSX Operating System itself, iTunes is incredibly easy to use. It also has tons of features, and just makes sense. It's almost like it is one "beta" tag away from being a google application.
Through this, I've learned that especially as a geek, I need to keep up on current technologies. As long as I'm not risking security (by doing something silly like using Internet Explorer), all I'm doing is learning what works. Imagine if the GIMP used features and interfaces similar to the Photoshop? It would have the same usability and same quality experience and results.
On a sidenote, Windows Media Player 11 beta doesn't seem all that great. I'll be switching to iTunes, or keeping WMP10 unless they make some dramatic changes, but that will come in a later review.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Biodiesel for fun and profit!
First things first, when I go to grill out, I grab bun-sized Beef Franks, not tofu-dogs. I still enjoy the occassional McDonald value meal, and I shop at walmart.
I also don't like spending nearly $3 per US Gallon of Gasoline.
Enter BioDiesel. It can be made from almost any vegetable oil, and is less toxic than table salt. I've heard some diesel engines produce more horespower when using B100 (100% Biodiesel) than when using petrolium-based diesel. The only thing that might make that possible is the fact that the original Diesel engine was intended to run off of vegetable oil, not petrolium.
While many diesels can run off of straight vegetable oil (the kind you can buy off the shelf at your local grocery store), it will probably wind up clogging something up unless you modify your vehicle to accept the thicker fluid. Processing vegetable oil into biodiesel will remove the thick viscosity. The byproduct of creating biodiesel is glycerine, which is used in skincare products, cough-syrups, food sweeteners/preservatives, and many other things.
Many people who produce their own biodiesel claim to spend less than $0.50 per US gallon. Imagine filling a 16 Gallon tank for $8!
Just some fuel for thought.
I also don't like spending nearly $3 per US Gallon of Gasoline.
Enter BioDiesel. It can be made from almost any vegetable oil, and is less toxic than table salt. I've heard some diesel engines produce more horespower when using B100 (100% Biodiesel) than when using petrolium-based diesel. The only thing that might make that possible is the fact that the original Diesel engine was intended to run off of vegetable oil, not petrolium.
While many diesels can run off of straight vegetable oil (the kind you can buy off the shelf at your local grocery store), it will probably wind up clogging something up unless you modify your vehicle to accept the thicker fluid. Processing vegetable oil into biodiesel will remove the thick viscosity. The byproduct of creating biodiesel is glycerine, which is used in skincare products, cough-syrups, food sweeteners/preservatives, and many other things.
Many people who produce their own biodiesel claim to spend less than $0.50 per US gallon. Imagine filling a 16 Gallon tank for $8!
Just some fuel for thought.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
RIAA: Is copying illegal this week?
Synopsis:
In March of 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said copying CDs to MP3 was legal, as long as you did not distribute it to other listeners who had not purchased the music themselves.
In February of 2006, the RIAA then said copying CDs to MP3 was illegal, reguardless of how many times you have purchased the originating CD. Their solution is to replace CDs that get scratched with new ones.
Evidence:
March of 2005:
Supreme Court Transcript 04-480, page 11, available in PDF format from the official supreme court website.
From Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v Grokster, Donald Verrilli representing the petitioners:
February of 2006
Copyright Docket No. RM 2005-11, page 22, available in PDF format from the official US Copyright website.
From page 40 of the same document:
Conclusion:
It appears the RIAA is not interested in the consumer's right to have full use of the product they purchase. Imagine purchasing a car and being told you were not allowed to fix it when it broke, but instead were encouraged to purchase a replacement car at an "affordable price".
Purchasing CDs and supporting bands backed by the RIAA only encourages them and shows that they are able to rewrite Fair Use policy anytime they wish. I, for one, will not be supporting this organization until they change their policies.
In March of 2005, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said copying CDs to MP3 was legal, as long as you did not distribute it to other listeners who had not purchased the music themselves.
In February of 2006, the RIAA then said copying CDs to MP3 was illegal, reguardless of how many times you have purchased the originating CD. Their solution is to replace CDs that get scratched with new ones.
Evidence:
March of 2005:
Supreme Court Transcript 04-480, page 11, available in PDF format from the official supreme court website.
From Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v Grokster, Donald Verrilli representing the petitioners:
...and let me pick out the iPod as one, because it's the most current example, I guess. From the moment that device was introduced, it was obvious that there were very significant lawful commercial uses for it. And let me clarify something I think is unclear from the amicus briefs. The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their Website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod...(emphasis added)
February of 2006
Copyright Docket No. RM 2005-11, page 22, available in PDF format from the official US Copyright website.
...creating a back-up copy of a music CD is not a non-infringing use, for reasons similar to those the Register canvassed in detail in her 2003 determination that back-up copying of DVDs cannot be treated as noninfringing.47 2003 Rec. at 102-08. While we recognize that access controls may in some circumstances affect copying, the fact remains that there is no general exception to the reproduction right to allow back-up copying (except the limited exception in § 117 for computer programs)48 and thus no justification for allowing circumvention of access controls for this purpose.(emphasis added)
From page 40 of the same document:
Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices.(emphasis not needed, it's pretty obvious)
Conclusion:
It appears the RIAA is not interested in the consumer's right to have full use of the product they purchase. Imagine purchasing a car and being told you were not allowed to fix it when it broke, but instead were encouraged to purchase a replacement car at an "affordable price".
Purchasing CDs and supporting bands backed by the RIAA only encourages them and shows that they are able to rewrite Fair Use policy anytime they wish. I, for one, will not be supporting this organization until they change their policies.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Client-Side Server Scripting
While many people think it is impossible to shift Server-Side Duties to the Client, it isn't! Apparently the group of people hired to write a web application for my employer (my full-time job that supports my pursuit of Woven Thorns Productions, not WTP itself) decided to do just that.
By using Java applets to write server-side applications, we are able to require that everyone use the Java Runtime Environment. No biggie, that is made for linux, windows, mac OS, and of course solaris. So I install it on my windows machine and on my Linux machine. The application works great in Internet explorer 6+ on Windows XP Pro, but does not work in Firefox 1.5 on Windows, nor does it work in Firefox 1.0.7 on Linux.
If the developers had used something such as PHP, ASP, Perl, or any CGI language, then this would be a non-issue, because the work would be done on the server side of things. Heck, they could even throw in some Javascript to make it look and perform the exact same way. But here's the problem, Javascript can be purified down to a simple, cross browser, cross platform language (minus a few Microsoft changes, which are easily tip-toed around) that will work on all versions of Firefox on all Operating Systems, as well as IE, Safari, Opera, etc. etc. All without having to add Java Runtime Plugins for each browser.
Why didn't we do this?
My only guess is money. Java developers connecting to Oracle Servers get paid better than PHP developers connecting to MySQL/PostgreSQL Servers. (Side Note: PHP can connect to Oracle Servers just fine, and can even be compiled to encrypt the database usernames and passwords)
So for all the Java developers out there, please continue making great, compiled, desktop applications for specific operating systems, but leave the internet alone unless you can garuntee cross-browser, cross-platform portability. I'm tired of being told to "view this page in IE". That's like saying you can't watch a black and white TV show because I have a color TV. If a standard signal was sent, I could watch whatever I want to.
Please, if you work on the web, don't do what is easy, or what is lazy, do what is portable. If your website requires something other than what is packaged by default with Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera, then please recreate your site.
Some examples of methods that defeat the purpose of web applications:
If you want to target an operating system, create stand-alone applications. If you want to target anyone with the internet and a web browser, write standards-compliant, ADA friendly, server-side applications.
By using Java applets to write server-side applications, we are able to require that everyone use the Java Runtime Environment. No biggie, that is made for linux, windows, mac OS, and of course solaris. So I install it on my windows machine and on my Linux machine. The application works great in Internet explorer 6+ on Windows XP Pro, but does not work in Firefox 1.5 on Windows, nor does it work in Firefox 1.0.7 on Linux.
If the developers had used something such as PHP, ASP, Perl, or any CGI language, then this would be a non-issue, because the work would be done on the server side of things. Heck, they could even throw in some Javascript to make it look and perform the exact same way. But here's the problem, Javascript can be purified down to a simple, cross browser, cross platform language (minus a few Microsoft changes, which are easily tip-toed around) that will work on all versions of Firefox on all Operating Systems, as well as IE, Safari, Opera, etc. etc. All without having to add Java Runtime Plugins for each browser.
Why didn't we do this?
My only guess is money. Java developers connecting to Oracle Servers get paid better than PHP developers connecting to MySQL/PostgreSQL Servers. (Side Note: PHP can connect to Oracle Servers just fine, and can even be compiled to encrypt the database usernames and passwords)
So for all the Java developers out there, please continue making great, compiled, desktop applications for specific operating systems, but leave the internet alone unless you can garuntee cross-browser, cross-platform portability. I'm tired of being told to "view this page in IE". That's like saying you can't watch a black and white TV show because I have a color TV. If a standard signal was sent, I could watch whatever I want to.
Please, if you work on the web, don't do what is easy, or what is lazy, do what is portable. If your website requires something other than what is packaged by default with Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera, then please recreate your site.
Some examples of methods that defeat the purpose of web applications:
- Java Applets
- Flash-Only websites
- AJAX-Only websites
- Complex Table layouts
- Any web content, CSS, Graphic, etc. geared for a single web browser.
If you want to target an operating system, create stand-alone applications. If you want to target anyone with the internet and a web browser, write standards-compliant, ADA friendly, server-side applications.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Webserver Setup in Ubuntu
Tonight I will be taking my laptop with me to work on a website, but the place I am going does not have a secure connection to the internet available. (No wired connection, and only unsecured wireless)
Because I'm paranoid when it comes to security, I will be insalling PHP5, MySQL, and Apache2 on my Ubuntu 5.10 based laptop. Here's my steps:
2:37PM
Click on System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager
Enter the Administrator Password. (normal users shouldn't be able to install/remove applications without a password)
Click "Search" and type in "php5" and click the "Search" button.
Check the box next to "libapache2-mod-php5" and click "Mark" on the popup window that confirms that I am okay with installing the additional packages required to get this library working. (Such packages include apache2, php5, openssl, and related items)
Check the box next to php5-mysql
Check the box next to php-pear
Check the box next to php5-gd
Click "Apply"
Review the changes and click "Apply" again.
2:42PM
watch as files are downloaded and installed
2:43PM
Review the window that confirms it downloaded and installed properly
2:44PM
Remember I need to install MySQL and run a search for "MySQL"
Check the box next to "mysql-server" and accept the additional packages.
2:45PM
Click "Apply" and confirm the changes by clicking "Apply" again.
Wait and watch as the files are downloaded and installed.
2:46PM
Follow the Postfix Configuration wizard:
Choose Local Only (since this is for developmental purposes only)
Accept the default mail name (we won't really be using postfix anyway)
Watch as it installs the rest of the packages we chose.
2:48PM
Click "Close" at the Changes Applied screen.
2:49PM
Because I'm a geek, I'm going to install PEAR DB, so I open up a terminal and type in:
sudo pear install db
(because I want the administrator to make pear install the pear DB package)
2:50PM
Open up firefox and type in "localhost" to make sure it all worked.
It Did!!
2:51PM
Download all the neccessary scripts from my FTP server that I will be modifying, so I can work on them locally, then set up a MySQL user for the script to use.
2:55PM
DONE!
In an 18 minute time span I was able to install and set up a webserver that has PHP5, MySQL 4, Apache 2, and PEAR::DB. I was also able to download my files from my FTP server using gFTP, a simple and elegant FTP client.
I'll post tomorrow how well it worked, and what issues I've run into with my rushed webserver installation.
Because I'm paranoid when it comes to security, I will be insalling PHP5, MySQL, and Apache2 on my Ubuntu 5.10 based laptop. Here's my steps:
2:37PM
Click on System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager
Enter the Administrator Password. (normal users shouldn't be able to install/remove applications without a password)
Click "Search" and type in "php5" and click the "Search" button.
Check the box next to "libapache2-mod-php5" and click "Mark" on the popup window that confirms that I am okay with installing the additional packages required to get this library working. (Such packages include apache2, php5, openssl, and related items)
Check the box next to php5-mysql
Check the box next to php-pear
Check the box next to php5-gd
Click "Apply"
Review the changes and click "Apply" again.
2:42PM
watch as files are downloaded and installed
2:43PM
Review the window that confirms it downloaded and installed properly
2:44PM
Remember I need to install MySQL and run a search for "MySQL"
Check the box next to "mysql-server" and accept the additional packages.
2:45PM
Click "Apply" and confirm the changes by clicking "Apply" again.
Wait and watch as the files are downloaded and installed.
2:46PM
Follow the Postfix Configuration wizard:
Choose Local Only (since this is for developmental purposes only)
Accept the default mail name (we won't really be using postfix anyway)
Watch as it installs the rest of the packages we chose.
2:48PM
Click "Close" at the Changes Applied screen.
2:49PM
Because I'm a geek, I'm going to install PEAR DB, so I open up a terminal and type in:
sudo pear install db
(because I want the administrator to make pear install the pear DB package)
2:50PM
Open up firefox and type in "localhost" to make sure it all worked.
It Did!!
2:51PM
Download all the neccessary scripts from my FTP server that I will be modifying, so I can work on them locally, then set up a MySQL user for the script to use.
2:55PM
DONE!
In an 18 minute time span I was able to install and set up a webserver that has PHP5, MySQL 4, Apache 2, and PEAR::DB. I was also able to download my files from my FTP server using gFTP, a simple and elegant FTP client.
I'll post tomorrow how well it worked, and what issues I've run into with my rushed webserver installation.
Where the death of DVD should lead us
According to Australian news source, The Age, DVD is dead. And they leave open a question for what comes next. They, and many other sources, point to the standard HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle, but I for one am holding out for option 3, which is actually coming on much quicker than I anticipated.
Digital video for download.
Before I jump into why, and if companies should trust users, I'd like to drudge up some recent bad press for the companies that would disagree with me.
As everyone by now knows, Sony Music has released a beefed up version of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that was essentially a rootkit. Without going too far into detail, I'll just say that it created a space on your computer that you did not have access to, but ran Sony branded scripts, such as those that would send information back to their servers every time you played their CDs. On top of that, virus writers found a way to exploit this rootkit and install viruses in a manner that you, nor your virus scanner, could remove them, all thanks to Sony's DRM.
This was all to keep you from being able to make a backup copy of your CD, as well as to keep you from listening to the music on your mp3 player, ipod, etc.
After Sony denied the existence of the rootkit, and denied the severity, it was made public on numerous websites, news articles, and television shows. Sony then agreed it was a bad idea and offered to replace all of the affected CDs by shipping out new CDs to the customers. While customers were waiting on the new CD, they were offered free downloads of the mp3 version of the songs. So in the end, Sony's outrageous method of DRM intended to prevent mp3's being made of their music caused them to release the mp3 version of their songs.
Had Sony offered free mp3 downloads for songs people purchased to begin with, customer satisfaction would have gone through the roof, and iTunes users everywhere would probably start buying Sony branded CDs. Instead, many people (including myself) are going to be very skeptical before purchasing a Sony branded CD, much less any audio CD that advertises DRM.
The solution:
The solution to this problem is simple. Allow owners of media content the ability to use that media content in any way they see fit, as long as they do not break copyright laws for their country. This means, do not copy the music or video and give it to someone else, there should be a license agreement to prevent this anyway. However, if you would like to copy the music or movie to your computer so you can stream it over your home network to all of the rooms in your own home, then by all means, enjoy.
Adding company-wide DRM policies that impact the playability and usability of a product will only cause bad press, more lawsuits, and possibly indigestion.
Unfortunately I have decided as a Christian and as a Business Owner to use only legal software on my computers, and I refuse to knowingly break any laws (and try my hardest to keep myself educated on the laws that are easy to break unknowingly). I say "unfortunately" because this means I must go return my DVDs as they do not play in my computer's DVD player. I was told I needed to purchase a DVD decoder in order to play the encrypted DVDs, but I was told this after I purchased a fairly large collection. It is also important to note that Windows based PCs and Macintosh based PCs are the only computer systems that have decoders available. This means Unix, BSD, and Linux users are left out in the cold.
I won't make this a Linux vs. the world debate, but considering the number of linux users has been nearly doubling each year, it does not make sense to prevent users from playing encrypted DVD video on this platform.
If you live in a country that allows you to break the encryption on DVDs for the purpose of viewing them, you can download various open-source DVD decryption libraries that are a sinch to install. Unfortunately, United States law prevents me from doing this on my laptop, because that wouldn't be fair to the company I paid so I could watch the movie they produced.
The only solution I see is for DVD decoders to be freely available for every operating system that supports DVD video playback, or to remove encryption altogether. And if we are removing encryption altogether, we might as well offer downloads for at least the 3 most popular Operating Systems.
By moving to a more standardized approach of media content distribution, we will be able to realize the technology corporations are struggling to support today, but without the headaches caused by DRM, proprietary encoding, and lack of respect for Fair Use rights in many countries.
Some interesting facts to think of while watching the media drool over new, yet proprietary, technology:
The encoding methods used to create DVD video has been surpassed by not only proprietary video encoding methods, but also by open-source and freely available encoding methods. XviD has better compression rates than DVD video while maintaining better video quality, and is free to use on any system, including future set-top players.
Plasma TV's have fewer horizontal scan lines than standard television sets. While they have larger surface areas, look nice and thin, and have better viewing angles than other large-screen TVs, they still technically have worse resolution and therefore worse quality than a standard $150 television.
Flat pannel computer monitors that reach resolutions of up to 1280x1024 are now available for less than $250 while most "HD-ready" sets are not even able to completely support the 1280x720 HD standard. A new standard, 1920x1080 is being pushed, and with high-end HD plamas reaching closer to 768 lines, the end result is a 1920x1080 image shrunken down to fit into a 1366x768 screen. That means some pixels are completely lost, but not an even number, so while it may not be overly obvious, you will be missing some of the picture on the $4,000 50" plasma when a $400 22" CRT monitor could accurately display up to 2048x1536.
If more money were spent on usable computer formats, we could start downloading movies at higher than current "High Definition" resolutions and play them on truly high resolution computer monitors (that could easily be expanded to a more enjoyable 42" if the demand presented itself). In the future, I see very few electronics being without standard computer parts, especially entertainment centers which are already seeing PCs as a valid source of media. Why pay a monthly fee for television shows on demand when you can purchase the show for $2 on iTunes the day after it comes out?
Why purchase a 1280x720 HD DVD that requires a decryptor, when current computers support much higher resolutions that don't requre extra software?
Digital video for download.
Before I jump into why, and if companies should trust users, I'd like to drudge up some recent bad press for the companies that would disagree with me.
As everyone by now knows, Sony Music has released a beefed up version of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that was essentially a rootkit. Without going too far into detail, I'll just say that it created a space on your computer that you did not have access to, but ran Sony branded scripts, such as those that would send information back to their servers every time you played their CDs. On top of that, virus writers found a way to exploit this rootkit and install viruses in a manner that you, nor your virus scanner, could remove them, all thanks to Sony's DRM.
This was all to keep you from being able to make a backup copy of your CD, as well as to keep you from listening to the music on your mp3 player, ipod, etc.
After Sony denied the existence of the rootkit, and denied the severity, it was made public on numerous websites, news articles, and television shows. Sony then agreed it was a bad idea and offered to replace all of the affected CDs by shipping out new CDs to the customers. While customers were waiting on the new CD, they were offered free downloads of the mp3 version of the songs. So in the end, Sony's outrageous method of DRM intended to prevent mp3's being made of their music caused them to release the mp3 version of their songs.
Had Sony offered free mp3 downloads for songs people purchased to begin with, customer satisfaction would have gone through the roof, and iTunes users everywhere would probably start buying Sony branded CDs. Instead, many people (including myself) are going to be very skeptical before purchasing a Sony branded CD, much less any audio CD that advertises DRM.
The solution:
The solution to this problem is simple. Allow owners of media content the ability to use that media content in any way they see fit, as long as they do not break copyright laws for their country. This means, do not copy the music or video and give it to someone else, there should be a license agreement to prevent this anyway. However, if you would like to copy the music or movie to your computer so you can stream it over your home network to all of the rooms in your own home, then by all means, enjoy.
Adding company-wide DRM policies that impact the playability and usability of a product will only cause bad press, more lawsuits, and possibly indigestion.
Unfortunately I have decided as a Christian and as a Business Owner to use only legal software on my computers, and I refuse to knowingly break any laws (and try my hardest to keep myself educated on the laws that are easy to break unknowingly). I say "unfortunately" because this means I must go return my DVDs as they do not play in my computer's DVD player. I was told I needed to purchase a DVD decoder in order to play the encrypted DVDs, but I was told this after I purchased a fairly large collection. It is also important to note that Windows based PCs and Macintosh based PCs are the only computer systems that have decoders available. This means Unix, BSD, and Linux users are left out in the cold.
I won't make this a Linux vs. the world debate, but considering the number of linux users has been nearly doubling each year, it does not make sense to prevent users from playing encrypted DVD video on this platform.
If you live in a country that allows you to break the encryption on DVDs for the purpose of viewing them, you can download various open-source DVD decryption libraries that are a sinch to install. Unfortunately, United States law prevents me from doing this on my laptop, because that wouldn't be fair to the company I paid so I could watch the movie they produced.
The only solution I see is for DVD decoders to be freely available for every operating system that supports DVD video playback, or to remove encryption altogether. And if we are removing encryption altogether, we might as well offer downloads for at least the 3 most popular Operating Systems.
By moving to a more standardized approach of media content distribution, we will be able to realize the technology corporations are struggling to support today, but without the headaches caused by DRM, proprietary encoding, and lack of respect for Fair Use rights in many countries.
Some interesting facts to think of while watching the media drool over new, yet proprietary, technology:
The encoding methods used to create DVD video has been surpassed by not only proprietary video encoding methods, but also by open-source and freely available encoding methods. XviD has better compression rates than DVD video while maintaining better video quality, and is free to use on any system, including future set-top players.
Plasma TV's have fewer horizontal scan lines than standard television sets. While they have larger surface areas, look nice and thin, and have better viewing angles than other large-screen TVs, they still technically have worse resolution and therefore worse quality than a standard $150 television.
Flat pannel computer monitors that reach resolutions of up to 1280x1024 are now available for less than $250 while most "HD-ready" sets are not even able to completely support the 1280x720 HD standard. A new standard, 1920x1080 is being pushed, and with high-end HD plamas reaching closer to 768 lines, the end result is a 1920x1080 image shrunken down to fit into a 1366x768 screen. That means some pixels are completely lost, but not an even number, so while it may not be overly obvious, you will be missing some of the picture on the $4,000 50" plasma when a $400 22" CRT monitor could accurately display up to 2048x1536.
If more money were spent on usable computer formats, we could start downloading movies at higher than current "High Definition" resolutions and play them on truly high resolution computer monitors (that could easily be expanded to a more enjoyable 42" if the demand presented itself). In the future, I see very few electronics being without standard computer parts, especially entertainment centers which are already seeing PCs as a valid source of media. Why pay a monthly fee for television shows on demand when you can purchase the show for $2 on iTunes the day after it comes out?
Why purchase a 1280x720 HD DVD that requires a decryptor, when current computers support much higher resolutions that don't requre extra software?
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
PHP Applications with Smarty and OOP
Introduction
With PHP script kiddies (including myself) around every corner, it's time we start distinguishing ourselves from the crowd and start writing more than just web scripts. Yes, you read right, PHP Applications. Entire Applications consisting not of multiple scripts, but of multiple objects, templates, and possibly even a solid framework!
You may ask why use PHP for an application at all, to which I wouldn't reply, because this is a blog, not a forum. Stop talking to your monitor. Seriously... it's kind of creepy.
The Tools
PHP 5
While PHP 4 is perfectly capable of creating great online web applications, so is PHP 5, and PHP 5 has the ability to create fully-functional Objects with Public and Private variables and methods.
The number one technique that has changed the way I write applications is the practice of extending classes. When you extend a class, you are creating your own new class that has all sorts of custom methods, but also has full use of the original class that you are extending. An example of when to do this would be if you had a class that you used for various portions of the application, but needed added functionality for a different area of the application, or for a different application altogether.
I'll go more into the benefits and techniques in a tutorial later on the main WovenThorns.com site, but for now, let's just assume PHP 5 is a great tool that has been around for over a year and is more than stable enough for production use.
Apache 2
Apache 1 vs. Apache 2 doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me, other than the administration side of things. Keeping track of multiple sites is much easier, and there are more modules being actively worked on for Apache 2. Once again, you can use IIS on a windows machine instead, but why would you want to?
The number one technique in Apache 2 that I love to take advantage of is mod_rewrite, which allows you to rewrite URL's, such as http://www.example.com/articles.php?id=5&page=3 to http://www.example.com/articles/5/3 (which looks much nicer and is noticed more in search engines)
PEAR DB
If you don't know what PEAR is, head over to http://pear.php.net and find out. While it is not neccessary for all applications, they sure do have a lot of great tools, such as PEAR DB that make writing web applications a whole heck of a lot easier, and make your tools much more portable. PEAR DB is a catch-all database class, that allows you to query a database without having to worry about the syntax for a specific database server. You just have to know the proper connection string to use with PEAR DB, then it will use the appropriate PHP tools to connect to your database, whether it is MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. This means you can write an entire PHP application without hard-coding a specific database vendor. If you decide to change Database Vendors from Oracle to PostgreSQL, then you only need to change the connection string, and the rest of your application will remain functional!
Smarty
Smarty is a great templating class written in PHP that makes creating web applications very organized and easy to modify. Smarty makes it simple to separate code from design, allowing your design team to work on layout and graphics and freeing up your development team to write the code without worrying about layout.
If you are unfamiliar with Smarty, head over to http://smarty.php.net and check it out. They have a great tutorial on creating a web application with the techniques hinted on in this article as well.
Conclusion
Don't re-invent the wheel, and don't program yourself into a corner. Keep things modular with PHP5 Object Oriented Programming techniques, separate your database from your application with PEAR DB, and separate design from code with Smarty.
Look for tutorials and help forums when the new and improved Woven Thorns Productions is released later this month!
With PHP script kiddies (including myself) around every corner, it's time we start distinguishing ourselves from the crowd and start writing more than just web scripts. Yes, you read right, PHP Applications. Entire Applications consisting not of multiple scripts, but of multiple objects, templates, and possibly even a solid framework!
You may ask why use PHP for an application at all, to which I wouldn't reply, because this is a blog, not a forum. Stop talking to your monitor. Seriously... it's kind of creepy.
The Tools
PHP 5
While PHP 4 is perfectly capable of creating great online web applications, so is PHP 5, and PHP 5 has the ability to create fully-functional Objects with Public and Private variables and methods.
The number one technique that has changed the way I write applications is the practice of extending classes. When you extend a class, you are creating your own new class that has all sorts of custom methods, but also has full use of the original class that you are extending. An example of when to do this would be if you had a class that you used for various portions of the application, but needed added functionality for a different area of the application, or for a different application altogether.
I'll go more into the benefits and techniques in a tutorial later on the main WovenThorns.com site, but for now, let's just assume PHP 5 is a great tool that has been around for over a year and is more than stable enough for production use.
Apache 2
Apache 1 vs. Apache 2 doesn't make a whole lot of difference to me, other than the administration side of things. Keeping track of multiple sites is much easier, and there are more modules being actively worked on for Apache 2. Once again, you can use IIS on a windows machine instead, but why would you want to?
The number one technique in Apache 2 that I love to take advantage of is mod_rewrite, which allows you to rewrite URL's, such as http://www.example.com/articles.php?id=5&page=3 to http://www.example.com/articles/5/3 (which looks much nicer and is noticed more in search engines)
PEAR DB
If you don't know what PEAR is, head over to http://pear.php.net and find out. While it is not neccessary for all applications, they sure do have a lot of great tools, such as PEAR DB that make writing web applications a whole heck of a lot easier, and make your tools much more portable. PEAR DB is a catch-all database class, that allows you to query a database without having to worry about the syntax for a specific database server. You just have to know the proper connection string to use with PEAR DB, then it will use the appropriate PHP tools to connect to your database, whether it is MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, etc. This means you can write an entire PHP application without hard-coding a specific database vendor. If you decide to change Database Vendors from Oracle to PostgreSQL, then you only need to change the connection string, and the rest of your application will remain functional!
Smarty
Smarty is a great templating class written in PHP that makes creating web applications very organized and easy to modify. Smarty makes it simple to separate code from design, allowing your design team to work on layout and graphics and freeing up your development team to write the code without worrying about layout.
If you are unfamiliar with Smarty, head over to http://smarty.php.net and check it out. They have a great tutorial on creating a web application with the techniques hinted on in this article as well.
Conclusion
Don't re-invent the wheel, and don't program yourself into a corner. Keep things modular with PHP5 Object Oriented Programming techniques, separate your database from your application with PEAR DB, and separate design from code with Smarty.
Look for tutorials and help forums when the new and improved Woven Thorns Productions is released later this month!
Sunday, November 27, 2005
More Corporate Branding
With a newfound interest in promoting the WTP image, we have decided to brand each of our computers with the new WTP logo.The Cross and thorns has been a longstanding image present on many internal documents, project proposals, and our corporate banner (originally created in the spring of 2000). Now that we have converted it from a 3d rendering to a two-tone vector image, we have made it our goal to promote the new image, as well as our values and standards, as much as possible.
The only computer remaining is a single laptop, which will need to have some extensive work done before the surface is ready to be branded due to the existing computer manufacturer placed branding which changes the shape of the surface.
While the picture may not do it justice, the edges of the logo are crisp and not blurry whatsoever. All of the work was done in-house, from the logo design, to cutting of a foam-rubber stencil of the logo, to the placement and ultimately painting and polishing of the computer. Due to the quality of the finished product, you may very well see WTP branded stencils for use on any smooth surface, not to mention the window stickers we have already been experimenting with.
Be sure to check out the new site in December to see what we've been cooking up at WTP labs!
Monday, November 21, 2005
The Linux Experience at Woven Thorns Productions
The Background:
After spending around 15 years running our applications on Microsoft based operating systems, we at Woven Thorns Productions have switched all of our office computers to Ubuntu Linux. This switch was not made as a whim, and was not an easy decision to come to. There were fears of lack of hardware support, costs of training, and availability and costs of support.
We have been using the Adobe Creative Suite for all of the graphics on the Woven Thorns Productions website, as well as various client websites. We have also become reliant on the Macromedia Studio MX 2004 collection of web development applications, specifically Dreamweaver MX2004 and Flash MX2004. None of these products are available for Linux, and making the switch would mean we are no longer able to create media with the same tools we are trained on and have experience with. Despite the difficulty of switching to a new platform of media development applications, the "coming soon" animation on the home page of www.woventhorns.com will mark the last document created with an Adobe or Macromedia product until they open the source to the general public.
The Reasoning:
Despite the overwhelming popularity of Microsoft products and the applications that work well with them, WTP has chosen to avoid the restrictions incurred within Closed Source licenses. If a particular application does not work on our hardware, and we know how to modify it to work, Open Source licenses allow us to make these modifications, Closed Source licenses do not. In fact, Microsoft would be within their legal rights to sue our business if we did make these modifications.
Another restriction when using closed source solutions is the lack of support. Truly knowledgable and in-depth support can only be obtained through the company that has access to the source code. With closed source applications, this means the company that created the software. If the company decides to stop supporting, or sunset, the application then we are left with a useless and often expensive application that would otherwise be supported by other development firms had they been granted access to the source code.
Security is also decreased when many closed source developers use the "They don't know where all the weak spots in the code are, so they probably won't exploit them" method of programming. Open Source developers are often accused of those weaknesses being exposed, but that only gives the product a greater chance of becoming more stable and more secure. Two illustrations I used in a recent siminar are:
The Result:
Woven Thorns Productions is now able to:
All of our support issues have been solved promptly through free online support, and were we to run into a problem that would require modifying code, or simply more complex and in-depth troubleshooting, these services are provided by various vendors throughout the world, most of which charge less than support centers for closed source applications.
This blog is being posted from a widescreen laptop over our wireless network here at Woven Thorns Productions, and the only windows desktop left in the building (which happens to be sitting next to me at the moment) has lost its wireless connection about 5 times since I started typing. I have also had to defragment the hard-drive twice this month, and restart it at least 3 times due to software updates. The Linux-based laptop I am using has had over 15 updates this month, but has not required me to restart once, and the filesystem used by this laptop does not require defragmenting, no matter how often I create, delete, or move files.
The Bottom Line:
The computers running Linux have been easier to maintain, easier to connect to network devices (servers, printers, etc.), and have had fewer problems and maintenance issues combined than the single Windows XP machine that is sitting next to me.
Installing software has become as simple as clicking the "Applications" menu and then clicking on "Add Applications". We just browse through an intuitive menu of available applications which number in the hundreds and range from 3d rendering and video editing programs to email clients and office applications. The program downloads the applications from a reliable source, double-checks the download to be sure it is safe to install and has downloaded accurately, then installs the application and configures it for my machine.
Productivity has increased, and tech support issues has decreased, and it hasn't cost us a day of training nor a penny of license costs. We have no intentions of turning back, and are very pleased with our decision.
After spending around 15 years running our applications on Microsoft based operating systems, we at Woven Thorns Productions have switched all of our office computers to Ubuntu Linux. This switch was not made as a whim, and was not an easy decision to come to. There were fears of lack of hardware support, costs of training, and availability and costs of support.
We have been using the Adobe Creative Suite for all of the graphics on the Woven Thorns Productions website, as well as various client websites. We have also become reliant on the Macromedia Studio MX 2004 collection of web development applications, specifically Dreamweaver MX2004 and Flash MX2004. None of these products are available for Linux, and making the switch would mean we are no longer able to create media with the same tools we are trained on and have experience with. Despite the difficulty of switching to a new platform of media development applications, the "coming soon" animation on the home page of www.woventhorns.com will mark the last document created with an Adobe or Macromedia product until they open the source to the general public.
The Reasoning:
Despite the overwhelming popularity of Microsoft products and the applications that work well with them, WTP has chosen to avoid the restrictions incurred within Closed Source licenses. If a particular application does not work on our hardware, and we know how to modify it to work, Open Source licenses allow us to make these modifications, Closed Source licenses do not. In fact, Microsoft would be within their legal rights to sue our business if we did make these modifications.
Another restriction when using closed source solutions is the lack of support. Truly knowledgable and in-depth support can only be obtained through the company that has access to the source code. With closed source applications, this means the company that created the software. If the company decides to stop supporting, or sunset, the application then we are left with a useless and often expensive application that would otherwise be supported by other development firms had they been granted access to the source code.
Security is also decreased when many closed source developers use the "They don't know where all the weak spots in the code are, so they probably won't exploit them" method of programming. Open Source developers are often accused of those weaknesses being exposed, but that only gives the product a greater chance of becoming more stable and more secure. Two illustrations I used in a recent siminar are:
- Just because an inspector approves the quality of your building without actually visiting and inspecting it doesn't mean you don't run the risk of having a poor quality building that is ready to collapse.
- Open Source code does not require passwords, database connection strings, nor data to be exposed, and if an individual having access to the source code jeapordizes the security and integrity of your software, then you need to rewrite your application.
The Result:
Woven Thorns Productions is now able to:
- Code and Test complex web aplications
- create 3d Models and animations
- edit video
- edit audio
- create complex spreadsheets
- create dynamic pivot charts and 3d graphs
- create raster and vector art
- check and send email
- browse the web
- remote into all of our servers and desktops with reliable security and encryption
- connect to our wireless network
- backup and restore files quickly and easily across the network
- and more...
All of our support issues have been solved promptly through free online support, and were we to run into a problem that would require modifying code, or simply more complex and in-depth troubleshooting, these services are provided by various vendors throughout the world, most of which charge less than support centers for closed source applications.
This blog is being posted from a widescreen laptop over our wireless network here at Woven Thorns Productions, and the only windows desktop left in the building (which happens to be sitting next to me at the moment) has lost its wireless connection about 5 times since I started typing. I have also had to defragment the hard-drive twice this month, and restart it at least 3 times due to software updates. The Linux-based laptop I am using has had over 15 updates this month, but has not required me to restart once, and the filesystem used by this laptop does not require defragmenting, no matter how often I create, delete, or move files.
The Bottom Line:
The computers running Linux have been easier to maintain, easier to connect to network devices (servers, printers, etc.), and have had fewer problems and maintenance issues combined than the single Windows XP machine that is sitting next to me.
Installing software has become as simple as clicking the "Applications" menu and then clicking on "Add Applications". We just browse through an intuitive menu of available applications which number in the hundreds and range from 3d rendering and video editing programs to email clients and office applications. The program downloads the applications from a reliable source, double-checks the download to be sure it is safe to install and has downloaded accurately, then installs the application and configures it for my machine.
Productivity has increased, and tech support issues has decreased, and it hasn't cost us a day of training nor a penny of license costs. We have no intentions of turning back, and are very pleased with our decision.
Monday, November 14, 2005
A step in a new direction
Because of the dramatic change from what was woventhorns.com and what will be the Woven Thorns Productions web site, I have done a nearly unforgivable thing. I have added a "Coming Soon" page.
Before judging, feel free to hop over to woventhorns.com and see the image for yourself. It does not have an animated picture of a construction worker, and does not mention anything about the site being under construction (which I am still against, and will continue to pretend that makes this okay).
I am hoping to build suspense in the 2 people I force to view my site while giving myself incentive to hurry up and finish the site. Because I hate coming soon pages so much, and I have so much to say and do with this Company, I will hopefully have the site up in the next week or so. (But definitely no later than December 1, 2005)
I will be implementing far more complex development in the background than ever before, which will actually make things easier, as I've recently discovered that complex applications are much easier to maintain and develop than semi-complex scripts. (note that scripts are a collection of functions and if-then statements, and applications are built using multiple classes and a more object-oriented approach)
I will also be switching to a tried and true templating system, and will offer the end result as an open source application.
A quick glimpse into the future:
Before judging, feel free to hop over to woventhorns.com and see the image for yourself. It does not have an animated picture of a construction worker, and does not mention anything about the site being under construction (which I am still against, and will continue to pretend that makes this okay).
I am hoping to build suspense in the 2 people I force to view my site while giving myself incentive to hurry up and finish the site. Because I hate coming soon pages so much, and I have so much to say and do with this Company, I will hopefully have the site up in the next week or so. (But definitely no later than December 1, 2005)
I will be implementing far more complex development in the background than ever before, which will actually make things easier, as I've recently discovered that complex applications are much easier to maintain and develop than semi-complex scripts. (note that scripts are a collection of functions and if-then statements, and applications are built using multiple classes and a more object-oriented approach)
I will also be switching to a tried and true templating system, and will offer the end result as an open source application.
A quick glimpse into the future:
- New Direction
- Church Management
- Church Community Building
- Individual Study Applications
- New Image
- New Logo
- New Color Pallet
- New Layout
- New Projects:
- OSCampus - an Open Source suite of Higher Education Software Solutions
- OSChurch - an Open Source suite of Christian Church Software Solutions
- OSHelp Desk - an Online Help Desk application
- Bible Guide - "Read the Bible in" online application
- The COSD Network - a Community of Open Source Developers working on Christ-centered projects.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
ATI and NVIDIA: secretly become great friends
Based on my experience with ATI and NVIDIA, it appears they have become great friends.
I recently witnessed ATI kindly sharing the market with NVIDIA. While the Windows market is still a fierce battle ground, ATI has obviously handed NVIDIA the Linux market by not putting forth much of an effort at all to get their graphics cards to work under just about any distribution of the operating system.
Those with new kernels, such as the kernel that ships with Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger), will be hard pressed to get hardware accelleration to run, even with the recent release of version 8.18.6 of ATI's linux proprietary drivers.
I'm sure ATI is working hard at getting things to work under Linux, but as with most proprietary software, having it developed in a closed source office rather than the open source community, it just doesn't have much of a chance of keeping up with the development and growth of Linux.
For most software applications, this is fine, because you rarely have to upgrade applications because of a kernel upgrade, but hardware drivers and core modules are a different story.
My personal reccomendation is if you use linux, or think you might use linux, then stick with an NVIDIA card. If, however, you love Windows and will probably never even try Linux, stick with whichever card has the best advertising campaigns. (all the open source geeks are laughing at that one... at least I think that guy in the back row is laughing.... no wait, choking on a jolly rancher, my bad)
I recently witnessed ATI kindly sharing the market with NVIDIA. While the Windows market is still a fierce battle ground, ATI has obviously handed NVIDIA the Linux market by not putting forth much of an effort at all to get their graphics cards to work under just about any distribution of the operating system.
Those with new kernels, such as the kernel that ships with Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger), will be hard pressed to get hardware accelleration to run, even with the recent release of version 8.18.6 of ATI's linux proprietary drivers.
I'm sure ATI is working hard at getting things to work under Linux, but as with most proprietary software, having it developed in a closed source office rather than the open source community, it just doesn't have much of a chance of keeping up with the development and growth of Linux.
For most software applications, this is fine, because you rarely have to upgrade applications because of a kernel upgrade, but hardware drivers and core modules are a different story.
My personal reccomendation is if you use linux, or think you might use linux, then stick with an NVIDIA card. If, however, you love Windows and will probably never even try Linux, stick with whichever card has the best advertising campaigns. (all the open source geeks are laughing at that one... at least I think that guy in the back row is laughing.... no wait, choking on a jolly rancher, my bad)
Monday, October 24, 2005
Set In Stone
Well, it is officially set in stone, this will be the new logo of Woven Thorns Productions. Yesterday I had this sandblasted by some relatives, and it couldn't have turned out better.This tile will be backlit and serve as "that cool thing on the wall" until I am able to create a larger one. (this is exactly 1 square foot)
For a sneak preview of where else this logo might appear, check this out.
Friday, October 21, 2005
A new day, a new logo
If you have followed the progress of Woven Thorns Productions at all, you would know that we have undergone at least 4 logo changes and 10 corporate image changes. (It wouldn't be a normal Friday without one.)
So now that we've had the same logo for over a year, and it has been placed on hundreds of business cards and thousands of documents, we have once again changed our logo. This time, we have taken our original logo, designed in 1997, and have outlined it to create a solid black and white logo. The text below the logo will be our official wordmark, and the official release of the logo at http://www.woventhorns.com will mark the release of our new corporate image. (Proposed release date: November 7, 2005)
This time, we will be going back to our roots while considering design and concepts of modern day. (modern day changes every month and a half in the tech industry) We will be releasing a vector version of our logo for anyone to use for advertising, linking, or just showing support of Woven Thorns Productions. This will be available for anyone willing to read over and comply with a 15 page trademark manual, but don't worry, you'll have more freedom than with most logos.
The wordmark is almost an exact copy from our original logo, and the cross and thorns branding image are a simplified silhouette of the original logo, making clear our owner's personal beliefs, and the direction the business is taking.
If you have any comments about the logo, you are more than welcome to keep them to yourself.
That or you could post comments at the bottom of this blog, but either way I probably won't take negative reactions to heart. (I call it positive-thinking, it makes coping with bad design much easier.)
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Severs Schmervers
I am reformatting a server today, and I have documented the difference between a server and a desktop machine:
A Server Must:
Here's where I get confused:
My computer at home stays on 24/7. If it weren't for my paying my own electric bill, my uptime would be measured in years. My computer has over 120GB of storage, a CD Burner, 6 USB ports, 512MB of RAM, a 17" Flat Pannel monitor, and a rather nice looking keyboard.
This computer cost me about $700 when I made it.
Had I spent an extra $500, I could have opted for a better processor, more RAM, and 500GB of hot-swappable SATA striped RAID.
But, if I wanted to serverize it, I would be required to instead spend at least $2,000 more on 2 processors running at half the speed of my current one, 72GB of SCSI RAID, 2 extra PSUs, and the same amount of RAM (only ECC this time).
Fortunately for me, I'm too cheap to serverize things. Either I am super-lucky, or IT units are super-scared. For $2,835 I could get 900GB of SCSI Goodness, or for $696 I can get 1200GB of SATA goodness.
The argument I hear most is that SCSI is the most reliable. I remember reading that too, back when it was SCSI v. IDE. But now that we've got SATA, I'm not so sure. And even if SCSI is more reliable, with the money I've saved, I could buy another 3,687GB of SATA storage! So if SATA is so much worse, and it caused me to swap out drives every 6 months, I could go for 4 years and still end up ahead! (and by then my 400GB SATA drive would be dirt cheap, which would extend server life yet another 4 years probably.)
But let's be realistic, how many times do you have to swap out drives, and with 5 year warranties on each drive, you only need one extra, then RMA the bad one, and wait for the new drive in the mail for free!
Now, onto processors. Nowadays, I could just buy a socket 939 board and put in whatever AMD 64 I want, including their dual core processors. I could even spend out the extra $$ and get a server board that would run dual Opterons, while still staying far below the cost of SCSI drives alone!
So I guess I like servers, but I just don't like "corporate" servers, with SCSI RAID, Redundant Power, and underperforming processors. I'd rather go SCSI SATA, a good Battery powered UPS, a couple of nice dual core Athlon 64's, and some nice non ECC low latency RAM.
A Server Must:
- Cost much more than a desktop
- Use new or rare hardware
- Stay on all the time.
- Cost much less than a server
- Use new but common hardware
- Turn on and off, or stay on, depending on the user.
Here's where I get confused:
My computer at home stays on 24/7. If it weren't for my paying my own electric bill, my uptime would be measured in years. My computer has over 120GB of storage, a CD Burner, 6 USB ports, 512MB of RAM, a 17" Flat Pannel monitor, and a rather nice looking keyboard.
This computer cost me about $700 when I made it.
Had I spent an extra $500, I could have opted for a better processor, more RAM, and 500GB of hot-swappable SATA striped RAID.
But, if I wanted to serverize it, I would be required to instead spend at least $2,000 more on 2 processors running at half the speed of my current one, 72GB of SCSI RAID, 2 extra PSUs, and the same amount of RAM (only ECC this time).
Fortunately for me, I'm too cheap to serverize things. Either I am super-lucky, or IT units are super-scared. For $2,835 I could get 900GB of SCSI Goodness, or for $696 I can get 1200GB of SATA goodness.
The argument I hear most is that SCSI is the most reliable. I remember reading that too, back when it was SCSI v. IDE. But now that we've got SATA, I'm not so sure. And even if SCSI is more reliable, with the money I've saved, I could buy another 3,687GB of SATA storage! So if SATA is so much worse, and it caused me to swap out drives every 6 months, I could go for 4 years and still end up ahead! (and by then my 400GB SATA drive would be dirt cheap, which would extend server life yet another 4 years probably.)
But let's be realistic, how many times do you have to swap out drives, and with 5 year warranties on each drive, you only need one extra, then RMA the bad one, and wait for the new drive in the mail for free!
Now, onto processors. Nowadays, I could just buy a socket 939 board and put in whatever AMD 64 I want, including their dual core processors. I could even spend out the extra $$ and get a server board that would run dual Opterons, while still staying far below the cost of SCSI drives alone!
So I guess I like servers, but I just don't like "corporate" servers, with SCSI RAID, Redundant Power, and underperforming processors. I'd rather go SCSI SATA, a good Battery powered UPS, a couple of nice dual core Athlon 64's, and some nice non ECC low latency RAM.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Matt Zimmerman's Birthday Present: Ubuntu 5.10
Matt Zimmerman, one of the lead developers of Ubuntu, has gotten the birthday present we've all been waiting for (and he's sharing)! Ubuntu Breezy Badger (5.10) was released today, October 13, 2005.
If you have been fighting the urge to try out linux, I completely understand. I even agreed with you. Until now.
After trying out various linux distrobutions, I finally got my hands on an Ubuntu 5.04 CD. After installing the operating system, I was preparing myself for the difficult task of getting things to work. Strangely enough, my laptop's touch-pad, wide screen, and sound card all worked without any work on my part!
I was able to put in a little more effort and get the wide screen to look even better, and I did have to install proprietary (but free) drivers from my wireless card's manufacturer, but in the end, I had to install 2 pieces of hardware to have a fully functioning laptop!
Ubuntu Breezy Badger comes out of the box with a better installer, a nicer startup screen, and openoffice.org (OOo) 2.0 Beta 2. This version of OOo saves files using the OpenDocument format mentioned in my previous articles. The only problem is, what happens when the final version is released? This is linux, how do I uninstall this, and reinstall the new version?
Simple.
My Ubuntu Updates icon will appear telling me I need to install updates. I simply click the icon, type in my administrator's password (don't want the kids installing software and messing up the system like they do on windows, do we?) and let it download and install any software it needs to.
Picture Windows Update on steroids, but without the annoying bubble popping up every ten minutes. Instead of just upgrading the operating system itself, it also upgrades any software you have installed from the Ubuntu servers. This includes graphics editing software, accounting/financial software, 3d rendering applications, and even web server software.
Installing new software isn't any harder.
If I wanted to start making graphics for my website, all I have to do is open up Ubuntu's "Add Remove Programs" (Synaptic Package Manager) and browse the graphic applications section until I find a program I want to use. I then click the checkbox next to it and press "Apply". This will download and install the program, and add it to my Start Menu.
That's right, I didn't have to type any commands, I didn't have to download any files and save them to my desktop first, everything is automatic, and has worked for me every time.
If you choose to give Ubuntu a try, feel free to download it from one of their mirrors, or purchase it from LinuxOnCD.net. You can also head over to Ubuntu's CD Distribution site and get some official CDs FREE! (Shipping times are usually a bit longer when going through Ubuntu's site, but the CD's are worth the wait! And that's coming from the owner of LinuxOnCD.net!)
So in conclusion, Happy birthday Matt, and congradulations Ubuntu on another great version of your distro!
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Vinyl Plotter Fun!
After hearing that a relative was in the process of purchasing a vinyl plotter, I quickly fired up Adobe Illustrator and whipped up some logos for my online nickname "OneSeventeen", a few bible verses (Jer. 1:17 and Matt. 4:19), my URL (www.woventhorns.com), and some pre-made logos that I copied/cleaned.Now that I had my large illustrator file (copied into about 10 formats, just to be sure their plotter software would read it), I figured it would be a simple matter of loading my graphic, loading some vinyl, and clicking print.
Wrong! I now have a greater respect for signmakers. First, I aligned the graphics with the sheet of vinyl (we were using 15" vinyl on a 24" plotter), then I cut the vinyl, then came the fun part! I spent at least 45 minutes "weeding" the vinyl. Meaning I had to pull out all of the vinyl that would not be a part of the final window sticker. After going through the smaller graphics with a precision screwdriver and some tweezers, I was finally ready to put them on my window.
Now, all I had to do was clean my window, apply this thick clear plastic tape (application tape) to the front of the vinyl window sticker. Then I used a stiff piece of plastic to rub the tape onto the sticker. After that, I peeled the paper backing to the vinyl off, which left me with a clear piece of thick tape that had the window sticker on it. So now I just stuck it wherever I wanted it on my window, used a stiff squiegee to press it firmly into place, then I slowly peeled away the clear tape. Leaving me with what I consider a very attractive window sticker.
Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome. Feel free to click the two images on this blog to view larger images. You are also more than welcome to view the original artwork I used for the design of the stickers.
Monday, October 10, 2005
$google . $sun != "WebOffice"
Apparently the rumors of a Google and Sun powered Web office were false. According to The Register [link omitted due to Christian-Geek unfriendly photo of John Battelle flipping of the camera], the speculations of a Web Office were untrue, silly, and not that great of an idea anyhow.
What Google will be doing is adding OpenOffice.org centered features to their increasingly popular Google Toolbar (which I still have yet to download since switching to Firefox). This is a nice step in a good direction, but it is not as huge a step or as good a direction as the previous rumors seemed to be.
Why Web Based Office Software Would be Good:
An entire web-based Office Suite would be sort of silly and probably a bit slow. A few web-based Office Applications, on the otherhand, would be amazing! Currently, the fear of retraining Microsoft Office users, and the burden of installing new software are the top two reasons not to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org or StarOffice.
The concept of difficult training sessions and countless hours of converting and reformatting existing documents are reasons to fear a new office suite. The only problem is they are all bogus fears. Because I now see "openoffice.org Writer" instead of "Microsoft Word" in my title bar, I do not suddenly loose all knowledge of writing letters, creating tables, and loading templates.
The first fear: difficult training sessions: Clicking the thick "B" still makes text bold, and the slanted "i" still means italic. In fact, the few items that have changed dramatically feel easier, and more intuitive in openoffice.org. For example, inserting a graph of data from a table is as simple as creating a table (in the document you are working in), highlight the table, then choose Insert>Object>Chart. This does not open a spreadsheet application, force me to rewrite my data, generate the graph, then allow me to insert a "window" into the spreadsheet application. This is much simpler, cleaner, and intuitive.
The second fear: countless hours of converting/reformatting: This, is a good example of a "half-truth". Yes, it will be a little difficult to convert all of your documents. You shouldn't need to reformat existing documents, as openoffice.org can open .doc files. The only reason you may have trouble with certain design aspects, is because Microsoft Office does not, and does not intend to, use Standard File Formats such as OpenDocument.
If you create all of your new documents using OpenDocument, and you decide you need to make a major change to every single document you have ever created, then you can simply write a small script that will go through, open, change, and save all of your documents without even opening an office application. This is the feature of using a non-proprietary format. Had Microsoft Office used a different standard file format that is freely available to the public (such as XML or a derrivative), then converting documents would be a simple matter of converting the existing format's schema to the OpenDocument schema. Too bad Word .doc files use a closed, proprietary format, instead of one that would allow you to change things easily.
Back on Topic: Why Web-Based Office Software is good: By offering a flexible, easy to use, free software application online that could easily replace Microsoft Word, all of the popular fears, myths, doubts, and excuses would be null-and-void. Imagine this scenario:
CEO: "I don't understand computers, but I heard this web-based openoffice.org thing could replace our $400 office suite for everyone who doesn't use the advance features. Why don't we switch?"
IT: "I am MCSE certified and make lots of money because of it. VBA is an amazing language that lets you write applications into memos. Microsoft Office is already on everyone's computers and we all know how to use it. Switching would be difficult, time consuming, and in the end cost more than purchasing the next version of Office."
CEO: "I don't know what VBA is, but someone at woventhorns.com told me openoffice.org can use their own version of BASIC, Beanshell, Javascript, Java, and something called Python. I've also heard it functions just like Word, so training won't be an issue. Plus, if it is already online, the Christian Geek, OneSeventeen, told me we could just add the URL to the web-based Writer to our router's Whitelist."
IT: "But everyone already uses Word at home too."
CEO: "If openoffice.org is free, why not just get people to install it at home as well? (or use the web based one if they have the internet) Then people who don't have Microsoft Office can open our office documents without us having to convert them to some other weird format like RTF or PDF. (whatever those are, since I don't know much about computers)"
IT: "Everyone has PDF though, and it is increasingly popular."
CEO: "Oh yeah, woventhorns.com guy also said openoffice.org can save to PDF without extra plugins."
IT: "But Microsoft gave me this free Office T-shirt."
CEO: "I have a shirt with a pinguin on it if you want."
IT: "But I don't like pinguins"
CEO: "You're fired."
As you can plainly see, IT departments will be scared, but once given the opportunity to use a product that does not require installing software, training individuals, converting documents, or reading more books, they will be much more likely to switch over and trade in their Microsoft shirt for a GNU shirt.
What Google will be doing is adding OpenOffice.org centered features to their increasingly popular Google Toolbar (which I still have yet to download since switching to Firefox). This is a nice step in a good direction, but it is not as huge a step or as good a direction as the previous rumors seemed to be.
Why Web Based Office Software Would be Good:
An entire web-based Office Suite would be sort of silly and probably a bit slow. A few web-based Office Applications, on the otherhand, would be amazing! Currently, the fear of retraining Microsoft Office users, and the burden of installing new software are the top two reasons not to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org or StarOffice.
The concept of difficult training sessions and countless hours of converting and reformatting existing documents are reasons to fear a new office suite. The only problem is they are all bogus fears. Because I now see "openoffice.org Writer" instead of "Microsoft Word" in my title bar, I do not suddenly loose all knowledge of writing letters, creating tables, and loading templates.
The first fear: difficult training sessions: Clicking the thick "B" still makes text bold, and the slanted "i" still means italic. In fact, the few items that have changed dramatically feel easier, and more intuitive in openoffice.org. For example, inserting a graph of data from a table is as simple as creating a table (in the document you are working in), highlight the table, then choose Insert>Object>Chart. This does not open a spreadsheet application, force me to rewrite my data, generate the graph, then allow me to insert a "window" into the spreadsheet application. This is much simpler, cleaner, and intuitive.
The second fear: countless hours of converting/reformatting: This, is a good example of a "half-truth". Yes, it will be a little difficult to convert all of your documents. You shouldn't need to reformat existing documents, as openoffice.org can open .doc files. The only reason you may have trouble with certain design aspects, is because Microsoft Office does not, and does not intend to, use Standard File Formats such as OpenDocument.
If you create all of your new documents using OpenDocument, and you decide you need to make a major change to every single document you have ever created, then you can simply write a small script that will go through, open, change, and save all of your documents without even opening an office application. This is the feature of using a non-proprietary format. Had Microsoft Office used a different standard file format that is freely available to the public (such as XML or a derrivative), then converting documents would be a simple matter of converting the existing format's schema to the OpenDocument schema. Too bad Word .doc files use a closed, proprietary format, instead of one that would allow you to change things easily.
Back on Topic: Why Web-Based Office Software is good: By offering a flexible, easy to use, free software application online that could easily replace Microsoft Word, all of the popular fears, myths, doubts, and excuses would be null-and-void. Imagine this scenario:
CEO: "I don't understand computers, but I heard this web-based openoffice.org thing could replace our $400 office suite for everyone who doesn't use the advance features. Why don't we switch?"
IT: "I am MCSE certified and make lots of money because of it. VBA is an amazing language that lets you write applications into memos. Microsoft Office is already on everyone's computers and we all know how to use it. Switching would be difficult, time consuming, and in the end cost more than purchasing the next version of Office."
CEO: "I don't know what VBA is, but someone at woventhorns.com told me openoffice.org can use their own version of BASIC, Beanshell, Javascript, Java, and something called Python. I've also heard it functions just like Word, so training won't be an issue. Plus, if it is already online, the Christian Geek, OneSeventeen, told me we could just add the URL to the web-based Writer to our router's Whitelist."
IT: "But everyone already uses Word at home too."
CEO: "If openoffice.org is free, why not just get people to install it at home as well? (or use the web based one if they have the internet) Then people who don't have Microsoft Office can open our office documents without us having to convert them to some other weird format like RTF or PDF. (whatever those are, since I don't know much about computers)"
IT: "Everyone has PDF though, and it is increasingly popular."
CEO: "Oh yeah, woventhorns.com guy also said openoffice.org can save to PDF without extra plugins."
IT: "But Microsoft gave me this free Office T-shirt."
CEO: "I have a shirt with a pinguin on it if you want."
IT: "But I don't like pinguins"
CEO: "You're fired."
As you can plainly see, IT departments will be scared, but once given the opportunity to use a product that does not require installing software, training individuals, converting documents, or reading more books, they will be much more likely to switch over and trade in their Microsoft shirt for a GNU shirt.
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Nothing in front, nothing behind!
While visiting my parents, I found this photo my dad took showing that on the way between their town and mine, there was almost nothing on the road.When visiting other states, we will often run from one town into the next, but not in New Mexico. If you notice, there isn't so much as a billboard on the road ahead or the road behind. And based on my experience, the horizon is probably about 10 miles away in each direction!
As we like to say in New Mexico, we have a gorgeous view of the sky!
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