posts brought to you by the category “wireless”
Das eez kaput! Sometime around 2002 I spaced the entire database table that mapped individual entries to categories. Such is life. What follows is a random sampling of entries that were associated with the category. Over time, the entries will be updated and then it will be even more confusing. Wander around, though, it's still a fun way to find stuff.
Easy Hotspot
Easy Hotspot is a bootable linux distribution that boots and runs completely from cd. It comes preconfigured to act as a wireless hotspot using the excellent nocat wireless gateway software. Configuration of a hotspot is done though a web interface.
After receiving configuration data for a hotspot our server will create a custom iso file with the specified configuration data. Creating a Hotspot is then as simple as burning the iso to cd and slapping the cd in a box with the proper hardware. If you choose to use the authorization services of your local public wireless internet group you can contribute a hotspot that can be used by anyone, thereby helping to provide Free Public Wireless Internet for all.
refers to
meta
Henry Jenkins : "Isn't there something vaguely oxymoronic about the phrase, official blog?"
Oliver, Daily: 1 October 2003
see also :
Study for a Portrait, 1953
and
Portrait of Jacques Dupin, 1990
. No one is accusing anyone of creeping Wegman-ism here. I am just enjoying the echo, so to speak.
meta
The Common Lisp Cookbook
I have no idea why the idea of learning C still irks me but Lisp seems somehow okay via 0xDECAFBADThis is a collaborative project that aims to provide for Common Lisp something similar to the Perl Cookbook...
refers to
meta
Dan Brickley : Identifying things in FOAF
If two different RDF files (eg. FOAF documents) are talking about the same thing but don't use exactly the same URI when mentioning that thing, how are our poor stupid computers supposed to be able to understand? In the real world, we want to write RDF documents (eg. for FOAF) about things that we've not yet agreed on common identifiers for. This is one of the core problems we've had to address in FOAF.
I highlight this point not to be a nattering nabob of negativism but because it illustrates one of the problems I've encountered while investigating whether and how to
make eatdrinkfeelgood RDF-friendly
: if I say
eggand you say
eggswe are both talking about
http://example.com/food#egg
. I know that. You know that. Computers are too stupid to figure it out without a high degree of
hand-holding
.meta
I wonder if this server signature means that TypePad isn't using mod_perl at all...
Apache/2.0.46 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.46 OpenSSL/0.9.7a DAV/2 Server at firstpost.typepad.com Port 80
...or just that there are separate hosts for the posting interface and the static files. I'm not sure how they'll cope with the volume if they have to start a copy of the Perl interpreter every single time some one wants to post something, never mind stuff like uploading and scaling images.
meta
Meanwhile, in the "Micropayments for Drunks and Lushes" department...
Me : Net::Blogger.pm 0.85
Bug fixes to make the
metaWeblog
API methods play nicely with Movable Type. see also:
local copy
,
docs
and
changes
.
meta
Simon Schama : The Dead and the Guilty
Apparently, the dead are owed another war. But they are not. What they are owed is a good, stand-up, bruising row over the fate of America; just who determines it and for what end?
meta
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : relegate
Relegate \Rel"e*gate\ (r?l"?-g?t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Relegated} (-g?`t?d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Relegating}.] [L. relegatus, p. p. of relegare; pref. re- re- + legare to send with a commission or charge. See {Legate}.] To remove, usually to an inferior position; to consign; to transfer; specifically, to send into exile; to banish. It [the Latin language] was relegated into the study of the scholar. --Milman. web1913
relegate v 1: refer to another person for decision or judgment; "She likes to relegate difficult questions to her colleagues" [syn: {pass on}, {submit}] 2: assign to a lower position; reduce in rank; "She was demoted because she always speaks up" [syn: {demote}, {bump}, {break}, {kick downstairs}] [ant: {promote}] 3: expel, as if by official decree; "he was banished from his own country" [syn: {banish}, {bar}] 4: assign to a class or kind; "How should algae be classified?" "People argue about how to relegate certain mushrooms" [syn: {classify}] wn
meta
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : handmelon
Proper word for American football, as it is played more with hands than feet and the "ball" is melon-shaped, instead of being of proper spherical shape balls should be.
ex. Handmelon is a sport popular only in the United States.
meta
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : aristobrat
an aristocrat who acts terribly.
ex. "Sarah-Jane, beware of that aristobrat slouching at the bar. He likes to flash more than his money."
meta
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : gregarious
Gregarious \Gre*ga"ri*ous\, a. [L. gregarius, fr. grex, gregis, herd; cf. Gr. ? to assemble, Skr. jar to approach. Cf. {Congregate}, {Egregious}.] Habitually living or moving in flocks or herds; tending to flock or herd together; not habitually solitary or living alone. --Burke. No birds of prey are gregarious. --Ray. web1913
gregarious adj 1: tending to form a group with others of the same kind; "gregarious bird species"; "man is a gregarious animal" [ant: {ungregarious}] 2: seeking and enjoying the company of others; "a gregarious person who avoids solitude" wn
meta
Michel Blanchard : "[A]près le Guy, Guy, Guy, de Guy Lafleur,
le Guy, Guy, Guy, de Guy Carbonneau, voilà le Gino, Gino, Gino de Gino Odjick."
meta
I see that local ISP CAM is broadcasting Radio Free CBC
which is awfully nice of them. Now we just need to send
Michel Bergeron
to the Habs-Hurricanes series and get him to do the play-by-play on a cell phone and stream that over the Internet. I may go insane if I have to listen to John Davidson cluck like a chicken and talk about
Josie's
"magic feet" for the rest of the playoffs.
meta
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : genericise
To write or design something in a way that is generic or to change something to become generic--especially software.
ex. We should try to genericise this bit of the software.
meta
Nicholas Riley : WebDAV tool for Frontier/Radio
"allows Frontier's Website Framework and Manila static rendering output, and Radio UserLand upstreaming via WebDAV. It provides limited support for WebDAV as specified by RFC 2518. The PUT, DELETE and MKCOL methods, and basic HTTP authentication only are supported. (That means: use it on a secure network or wrap it securely)."
I had no idea. I'm pretty surprised, actually, that the UserLand folk didn't make a bigger deal about this.
refers to
meta
The random pseudodictionary.com word of the day is : jackfucker
Someone whose action indicate she possesses the heinous attributes of both a jackass and a motherfucker.
ex. You're directly behind a woman in line at a fast food drive-through who is sorting through her purse, letting other people get in front of her, and drastically increasing your wait. She then drives off without ordering. "Jackfucker!"
meta
The dictified dictionary.com word of the day is : hauteur
Hauteur \Hau`teur"\, n. [F., fr. haut high. See {Haughty}.] Haughty manner or spirit; haughtiness; pride; arrogance. web1913
meta
David Brownell : Producing SAX2 Events
The 'canadian', features a helmet of fine bacon
American Airlines flight #587 information : 1.800/ 245.0999
refers to
meta
I'm working on some bad-ass computer shit right now!
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is ken
| source : web1913 | Ken \Ken\, n. [Perh. from kennel.] A house; esp., one which is a resort for thieves. [Slang, Eng.] | source : web1913 | Ken \Ken\, n. t. [imp. & p. p. {Kenned}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Kenning}.] [OE. kennen to teach, make known, know, AS. cennan to make known, proclaim, or rather from the related Icel. kenna to know; akin to D. & G. kennen to know, Goth. kannjan to make known; orig., a causative corresponding to AS. cunnan to know, Goth. kunnan. [root]45. See {Can} to be able, {Know}.] 1. To know; to understand; to take cognizance of. [Archaic or Scot.] 2. To recognize; to descry; to discern. [Archaic or Scot.] ``We ken them from afar.'' --Addison 'T is he. I ken the manner of his gait. --Shak. | source : web1913 | Ken \Ken\, v. i. To look around. [Obs.] --Burton. | source : web1913 | Ken \Ken\, n. Cognizance; view; especially, reach of sight or knowledge. ``Beyond his ken.'' --Longfellow. Above the reach and ken of a mortal apprehension. --South. It was relief to quit the ken And the inquiring looks of men. --Trench. | source : wn | ken n : range of what one can know or understand [syn: {cognizance}] | source : jargon | ken /ken/ n. 1. [Unix] Ken Thompson, principal inventor of Unix. In the early days he used to hand-cut distribution tapes, often with a note that read "Love, ken". Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes uncapitalized, because it's a login name and mail address) in third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet, in particular) that without a last name `Ken' refers only to Ken Thompson. Similarly, Dennis without last name means Dennis Ritchie (and he is often known as dmr). See also {demigod}, {{Unix}}. 2. A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at Symbolics because the two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken. | source : foldoc | ken /ken/ 1. {Ken Thompson} 2. A flaming user. This was originated by the Software Support group at {Symbolics} because the two greatest flamers in the user community were both named Ken. [{Jargon File}]
meta
Andy Oram : We need the courage to look beyond abstractions
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is privation
| source : web1913 | Privation \Pri*va"tion\, n. [L. privatio: cf. F. privation. See {Private}.] 1. The act of depriving, or taking away; hence, the depriving of rank or office; degradation in rank; deprivation. --Bacon. 2. The state of being deprived or destitute of something, especially of something required or desired; destitution; need; as, to undergo severe privations. 3. The condition of being absent; absence; negation. Evil will be known by consequence, as being only a privation, or absence, of good. --South. Privation mere of light and absent day. --Milton. | source : wn | privation n 1: a state of extreme poverty [syn: {want}, {deprivation}] 2: act of depriving [syn: {deprivation}]
meta
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is cavort
| source : web1913 | Cavort \Ca*vort"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Cavorted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Cavorting}.] To prance ostentatiously; -- said of a horse or his rider. [Local slang, U. S.] | source : wn | cavort v : play or romp around; "The children frolicked in the garden"; "the gamboling lambs in the meadows" [syn: {frolic}, {lark}, {rollick}, {skylark}, {disport}, {sport}, {gambol}, {frisk}, {romp}, {run around}, {lark about}]
meta
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is fallible
| source : web1913 | Fallible \Fal"li*ble\, a. [LL. fallibilis, fr. L. fallere to deceive: cf. F. faillible. See {Fail}.] Liable to fail, mistake, or err; liable to deceive or to be deceived; as, all men are fallible; our opinions and hopes are fallible. | source : wn | fallible adj 1: likely to fail or be inaccurate; "everyone is fallible to some degree" [ant: {infallible}] 2: having the attributes of man as opposed to e.g. divine beings; "I'm only human"; "frail humanity" [syn: {frail}, {imperfect}, {weak}]
meta
Brian McConnell : Peer-to-Peer Taxation
I find it hard to imagine this as anything but crank put out by O'Reilly to stir the pot around the idea of peer-to-peer, in anticipation of their upcoming conference on the same subject. I say this because the only discussion about the network here is the buzzword-bingo that tries to obfuscate a seriously ugly political agenda. Essentially, this guy is advocating downloading all the government's responsibilities (read:money) on to the private sector and replacing political debate with ballot initiatives. In this context, the only role the network plays is as a tool to distract the masses from what's really going on.
meta
The dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day is apologia
| source : wn | apologia n : a formal written defense of something you believe in strongly [syn: {apology}]
meta
Tim Waugh : The Selfdocbook
"is a self-documenting introduction to DocBook DocBook book. It includes its own DocBook SGML source in the appendix, and so can be used to learn DocBook by example. ...if you see something that you want to know how to do, you can simply flip to Appendix A to find out how it is done."
On the subject of things wonkish, there is no
dict-ified dictionary.com word of the day
today because the word "small beer" is actually a phrase. Since I didn't think I would need to add hooks for this kind of error checking (it will be fun!) in the code that generates the dict-ified rss feed, the word of the day will have to be
wonk
. Wonk wonk wonk.
meta
I imagine that Scott McCloud would be pleased
to see other people, like the Zope gods, talking about
the "space in between" content
. "Lately Rael [Dornfest] has been talking about doing P2P for syndication. P2P could be the kind of transformative breakthrough for DC and RDF. Without a standard vocabularly across verticals (music, etc.), P2P will be another thousand islands, which dramatically lowers the utility. Unlike web pages, which generally wants content to be broadcast and rendered, P2P wants to content to be exchanged. This model demands interoperable content."
One of the things we talked about at the last gathering of the
YULbloggers
was the
categorization system
used at aaronland. A neat idea that was tossed out, technical and design implementations aside, was creating a dynamic, network based category system to which users could subscribe and contribute. Instead of [insert weblog administrative interface here] pulling a list of categories out of some kind of local data-store, the application makes an xml-rpc call to a remote server that returns an associative array containing the most recently compiled list of categories submitted by all the users. Remember, you are still setting aside technical and design issues for the time being. If nothing seems like an suitable match for whatever you're writing about, you create a new category which your application duly notes and sends to the remote server. And so on and so on. Maybe you create a special category subscription page that you consult every n days instead of slurping the list every time you post something, but you get the idea. I can think of a lot of reasons, good and bad, why people are trying to create definitive standards to which we all subscribe but taken to its logical conclusion, when you apply this kind of instutional thinking outside of a limited or specific application the end result is pretty much soul-crushing. Standardized interpretation is still just the tyranny of the majority dressed up in buzzword-bingo. From my point of view, it would be more interesting to see all the new and different ways that people create to describe what they are thinking and watch that influence what I'm thinking. After all, the street still finds its own use for things...
see also :
Scott McCloud
and
Scott McCloud talking about the space between content
(quicktime) and then
The XML-Meta Architecture
.
meta
Laura Bush : "I hung up five times yesterday
when he called to ask what was for dinner. I thought it was a wrong number when the guy kept asking for Stretch."
meta
NY Times : Workspaces - Products of a Modern Dreamscape
"Like the old
Good Design
shows,
Workspheres
presents a mythology. It couples the idea of the Next with the belief that we must collectively work our way toward it. The Next will not descend from above, without our effort. We must toil to get there. On the other hand, our travel expenses will be paid, and the work will be performed with tools that have vast sex appeal. Isn't that a good deal? ... To see the work environment in temporal terms is to experience it as an event more than a place. This experience may be the most profound idea at the show. The electronic appliances are tools for creating events out of relationships in space, time and sensibility. An event may be hierarchically structured, as in a typical management chart, or its architecture may be free-floating."
meta
Scott McLemee : I Am a Camera
"Whatever its implications for the study of celebrity (or narcissism, for that matter), Webcam broadcasting defies the usual categories applied to the media. Cinematic theory has dealt exhaustively with the question of how the "gaze" operates in film. And in television studies, researchers refer to the "glance," in keeping with Raymond Williams's observation that television often serves as the background to ordinary life (something you leave on and look at while doing other things). Alluding to these notions but tweaking them a bit, Senft suggests that the relevant term for Webcam watching is "grab": The bored viewer will "grab" a quick look at another individual's no-longer-private life. With its aggressive and almost tactile connotations, the "grab," according to Senft, carries suggestive overtones of life under late phallocentric capitalism. After all, "grab" is something a sexual harasser does to an ass. But "grab" is also what a hurried consumer does to the Extreme Taco Meal Deal at a fast-food restaurant."
meta
Database Debunkings
"The Forum Where Database Matters Are Set Straight."
meta
Chappaquiddick
Orange plaid couch / Plastic trees and
shaggy crochet
/ Estimated time to empty is 0:11
meta
Montreal Mirror : How to build a $240-million convention centre around a turn-of-the-century brick wall
This reminds me of the contruction site in downtown Montreal when Les Promenades De La Cathedrale was built in 1987. The giant pink skyscraper went up directly behind
Christ Church Cathedral
whose entire foundation was removed to make room for a
shopping mall and parking lot
.
"Resembling a giant ship in dry-dock, passers-by were arrested by the church's "floating" appearance; some were even heard to say "You wouldn't catch me going in there!". Sidewalk superintendents were numerous and eloquent - explaining their accurate (and not-so-accurate) engineering ideas to anyone who would listen." I once sang at Christ Church, with the
FACE Senior Treble Choir
, during the short year that I was still a soprano in high school. The tower's developers were granted a 99 year lease on the property, and when that expires the whole shebang falls under the ownership of the Anglican Church. If you've ever seen
Jesus de Montreal
and wondered about the building with the pyramids that gets all those lingering panoramic shots, it's Les Promenades De La Cathedrale. via
YULblog
"Resembling a giant ship in dry-dock, passers-by were arrested by the church's "floating" appearance; some were even heard to say "You wouldn't catch me going in there!". Sidewalk superintendents were numerous and eloquent - explaining their accurate (and not-so-accurate) engineering ideas to anyone who would listen." I once sang at Christ Church, with the
FACE Senior Treble Choir
, during the short year that I was still a soprano in high school. The tower's developers were granted a 99 year lease on the property, and when that expires the whole shebang falls under the ownership of the Anglican Church. If you've ever seen
Jesus de Montreal
and wondered about the building with the pyramids that gets all those lingering panoramic shots, it's Les Promenades De La Cathedrale. via
YULblog
meta
Talk of the Nation : [The] End of Nationhood
"A discussion with the French Ambassador to the European Union [ Jean Marie Guehenno, author of
The End of the Nation State
] about changes to the traditional notion of the nation-state. With the advent of the global village and changing alliances world wide, the ways we think about nations and their individual sovereignty are changing." (real evil g2)
meta
MP3PVM (read distributed MP3 encoding)
This one comes via the nice people at
Ars Technica
who have this to say on the subject : '[T]he idea is that you can use this program to encode mp3s using multiple computers in much the same way that Setiathome and RC5 do. Is this really worthwhile? Probably not, but it's definitely cool."
meta
February 24 is a Day Without Brad, Evan or Dave
Alan Paller : Notes from the White House
"Witt Diffie stole the show with his analogy of DDoS attacks to the "breakdown of democracy." He said, "It's as if, Mr. President, you lost an election, not because people voted against you, but because someone stole votes and cast them in favor of your opponent. ... Throughout, the President asked many follow up questions and told us how he looked at the problem (like an arms race where some people develop weapons and other people develop defenses and the goal is to make the time between new weapons of your enemies and the applicable defenses as close to zero as possible)." Mr. Paller is the Director of Research at the
SANS Institute
refers to
meta
Webmonkey has redesigned their website
complete with little <a href = "http://saturn.org">Jack Saturn pictures</a>. I like this *much* better than the last site, and it even looks good in <a href = "http://icab.de">iCab</a> (kudos!)
refers to
meta
All Things Considered : NY Museum Rap
real audio
meta
Floyd Abrams
"There is no obligation from the city to fund the arts. But the First Amendment says, according to a wide, sustained, continuing body of case law, that the funding process may not be used to coerce institutions such as this to do the bidding of its political leaders. So while New York never has to fund any museum, once New York starts down that road, it cannot violate the First Amendment by a process of coercion, sanction, threats, retribution and the like." Mr Abrams is the legal counsel for the Brooklyn Museum of Art
meta
iDot is selling 450$ BeOS machines
Road Stories for the Flesh Eating Future
"We are the first citizens of a society that has actually been eaten by technology. A culture that has disappeared into the dark vortex of the electronic frontier"
refers to
meta
an excerpt
(from email to
SuperBang
) "" This seems to be going around these days. I wonder if it's seasonal. Nothing seems to happen in August, ginving people lots of time to think about what the last 11 months of changing the world really means. August seems to be when the Stock Market panics.
meta
The Boston Globe on the end of violence
in your smoke detector.
meta
I had no idea that
to
go over the edge with rams
means to "get far too drunk".
meta
First Monday, July 1999
Includes a
rebuttal
to David Noble's critique of "distributed learning technologies" (my mouth is full of potatoes) which I am looking forward to reading.
meta
Madeleine Bunting : They're just cannon fodder
"There is no time to query why life has to be such an exhausting and demanding obstacle race, no time to wonder if there might be another way, which didn't leave quite so many casualties along the route."
meta
M-J Milloy on the Cirque en CA$H
“Dans notre quartier/ On chauffe pas de gros chars/ Dans notre quartier/ On reste pas dans des forts/ Mais on est fier/ On est fort/ On a quelque chose à dire/ On est fier/ On est fort/ On reste à Centre-sud...”
meta
Professor Rusi Taleyarkhan
"I've always been a huge fan of Star Trek and wanted to see if the knowledge I have of energy systems could make a gun that a police officer could set to stun, just like Captain Kirk does."
meta
New Lucious Jackson
real audio