Sid Sidberry Reads

In case you don’t know I love vps, I also love everything we learn from clouds and clusters, which of course is the whole idea behind the grayNetwork, but that’s another post.

So imagine the delight in finding a project that combines clouds and vpses! Yeaper I was dancing the streets of this avatar chat beta

From: http://vps.net/

This blog is to bring you the latest news and updates on the VPS.net upcoming VPS (Virtual Private Server) Cloud Platform, brought you by the industry leading UK2 Group.

Check It Out:
The Virtual Private Server VPS Cloud | UK / USA

so today I needed a friends number, but then realized i didn’t have their new number in my redial list, so of to vonage to grab it. everything was fine until I got to their ad splash page. I happened to disable javascript because i was working out some php parts of an ajax application. so guess what happened at the splash page? nadda. weird you would think vonage would be accessible and gracefully downgrade.

which brings me to the question… if alot of the companies I’d expect to do things correctly aren’t…. who is? following standards, graceful downgrading is pretty dang simple if your being paid to build something. I’ve found graceful downgrades, and a basic following of standards is all thats needed to be accessible and work with 90% of the web browsers out there. That said of course it takes more to build a mobile dedicated site, but thats another rant.

awesomely wicked

From: http://www.learningjquery.com/2008/10/1-awesome-way-to-avoid-the-not-so-excellent-flash-of-amazing-unstyled-content

This tutorial describes a way to avoid a flash of unstyled content that sometimes occurs when applying styles with JavaScript on page load. The problem is most evident when there is some content that needs to be hidden initially and when the document is large or complex. We can see an example of the problem on this test page.

The page is a copy of a previous entry on this blog with over 140 comments

Well this is certainly news to me. But seriously the lowest level secure network in the U.S. can tunnel over regular internet with no loss of security and we still don’t have Internet elections?

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_parliamentary_election,_2007

In 2007 Estonia held its and the world’s first national Internet election. Voting was available from February 26 to 28.[2] A total of 30,275 citizens (3.4%) used Internet voting.[3]

Electronic voting in Estonia began in October 2005 local elections when Estonia became the first country to have legally binding general elections using the Internet as a means of casting the vote and was declared a success by the Estonian election officials.

Check It Out:
Estonian parliamentary election, 2007 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Was really happy to learn about this today. MIT has been actively cataloging and releasing their course materials free of charge… wicked. I’ve been trying to find somewhere to learn AI and it’s great that i can at least learn a bit from their course work till i find someone / somewhere to study properly.

Check It Out:
Free Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare

I’ve been slowly working on moving all of my projects and tutorials to one site. Mainly because there treated like blog posts instead of projects. This of course lead me to start looking at which license to start looking at which license to release everything as.

After a few days pouring over everything on the web I decided to choose the mit license. Why? The mit license fits how I want to release my code. It releases my code openly to anyone, only asking that the copyright in my code remain.

This will probably lead to you ask why not gpl, apache, or bsd?

why I didn’t choose gpl

the gpl license [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License] is restrictive IMO, due to the fact that it forces a user to release anyone that uses what i create under gpl as well. This is not to say that the gpl is wrong, just that its restrictive to end users / developers in a way I choose not to me. If someone takes code that I am openly releasing, I don’t want to limit them in anyway other than to leave a portion giving me credit for my portion of code, that’s it.

If i was working on some huge next best thing (think wordpress) and planned to release it, then I would use a gpl license. why? something like wordpress could easily be exploited commercially. If I take the time to build something like that I would want anyone who decides to change it or build off of it to release it themselves, to also make sure it’s free under the same license. The biggest difference here is intent. If you were to create the next swfobject.js (which uses an mit license), why restrict your users? But if your creating the next wordpress you don’t want to restrict users, just ensure that your work continues to be free.

why i didn’t choose bsd

the bsd license is similar to the mit license, but with an advertising clause. So to prevent anyone from any legal issues (who knows what counts as advertising in the future), why restrict end users?

why I didn’t choose apache

the apache license is the default license for projects at google code (you can select others), so it’s gotta be good. But it feel slightly more restrictive. That said: I’m releasing anything that uses patents. If you are then an apache license might be for you if you’d like to not restrict users.

in a nutshell

I think the best quote I came across was from eagain.wordpress.com:

if you want software to be free GPL is better than BSD. If you want use of software to be free BSD is better.

I think mit/bsd licenses are better for developers when your creating random things that might help someone (think swfobject). gpl is better if your developing an application to help everyone (think wordpress).

sid

*update* – found another good article:

http://fosswire.com/2007/04/06/the-differences-between-the-gpl-lgpl-and-the-bsd/

From: http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2008/01/databases_are_hammers_mapreduc.php

A bunch of people have sent me links to an article about MapReduce. I’ve hesitated to write about it, because the currently hyped MapReduce stuff was developed, and extensively used by Google, my employer. But the article is really annoying, and deserves a response. So I’m going to be absolutely clear. I am not commenting on this in my capacity as a Google employee. (In fact, I’ve never actually used MapReduce at work!) This is strictly on my own time, and it’s purely my own opinion. If it’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever read, that’s my fault, not Google’s. If it’s the most brilliant thing you’ve ever read, that’s my credit, not Google’s. I wasn’t asked to write this by Google, and I didn’t ask their permission, either. This is just me, the annoying geek behind this blog, writing solely on my own behalf, speaking for no one but me. Got it?

Check It Out:
Good Math, Bad Math : Databases are hammers; MapReduce is a screwdriver.

From: http://buddypress.org/about/#profiles-box

BuddyPress will extend WordPress MU and bring social networking features to a new or existing installation.

BuddyPress is essentially a set of WordPress MU specific plugins. Each plugin component adds a distinct feature to BuddyPress and only handles functionality for that specific component (for example, private messaging). BuddyPress also has a core plugin that all other plugins require, it contains shared functions and performs the basic modifications to the WordPress MU interface.

Each BuddyPress component is independent. This means you can pick and choose which features you’d like.

It also means BuddyPress can be used in two different ways. You could use BuddyPress to create a complete social network from scratch, or you could use it to add desirable features to your existing blog network.

Check It Out:
BuddyPress » About BuddyPress

I’m using vmware 6, so I don’t know if this works in 5 or server editions.

vmware installs a script called vmrun that allows you to perform almost anything you need to do on a vmware machine pragmatically.

sidney@my-host:~> /usr/bin/vmrun
vmrun version 6.0.4 build-93057

Usage: vmrun COMMAND [PARAMETERS]

Authentication flags
-gu
-gp

POWER COMMANDS           PARAMETERS           DESCRIPTION
start                    Path to vmx file     Start a VM or Team
                         or vmtm file
                         [gui|nogui]
stop                     Path to vmx file     Stop a VM or Team
                         or vmtm file
                         [hard|soft]
reset                    Path to vmx file     Reset a VM or Team
                         or vmtm file
                         [hard|soft]
suspend                  Path to vmx file     Suspend a VM or Team
                         or vmtm file
                         [hard|soft]

SNAPSHOT COMMANDS        PARAMETERS           DESCRIPTION
listSnapshots            Path to vmx file     List all snapshots in a VM
snapshot                 Path to vmx file     Create a snapshot of a VM
                         Snapshot name
deleteSnapshot           Path to vmx file     Remove a snapshot from a VM
                         Snapshot name
revertToSnapshot         Path to vmx file     Set VM state to a snapshot
                         Snapshot name

GUEST OS COMMANDS        PARAMETERS           DESCRIPTION
runProgramInGuest        Path to vmx file     Run a program in Guest OS
                         Program
                         [Program arguments]
fileExistsInGuest        Path to vmx file     Check if a file exists in Guest OS
                         Path to file in guest
setSharedFolderState     Path to vmx file     Modify a Host-Guest shared folder
                         Share name
                         New host path
addSharedFolder          Path to vmx file     Add a Host-Guest shared folder
                         Share name
                         Host path
removeSharedFolder       Path to vmx file     Remove a Host-Guest shared folder
                         Share name
listProcessesInGuest     Path to vmx file     List running processes in Guest OS
killProcessInGuest       Path to vmx file     Kill a process in Guest OS
                         process id
runScriptInGuest         Path to vmx file     Run a script in Guest OS
                         Interpreter path
                         script_text
deleteFileInGuest        Path to vmx file     Delete a file in Guest OS
                         File
createDirectoryInGuest   Path to vmx file     Create a directory in Guest OS
                         Directory path
deleteDirectoryInGuest   Path to vmx file     Delete a directory in Guest OS
                         Directory path
listDirectoryInGuest     Path to vmx file     List a directory in Guest OS
                         Directory path
copyFileFromHostToGuest  Path to vmx file     Copy a file from host OS to guest OS
                         Path on host
                         Path in guest
copyFileFromGuestToHost  Path to vmx file     Copy a file from guest OS to host OS
                         Path in guest
                         Path on host
renameFileInGuest        Path to vmx file     Rename a file in Guest OS
                         Original name
                         New name

GENERAL COMMANDS         PARAMETERS           DESCRIPTION
list                                          List all running VMs
upgradevm                Path to vmx file     Upgrade VM file format, virtual hw
installtools             Path to vmx file     Install Tools in Guest OS

Examples:
  vmrun list
  vmrun upgradevm w2k.vmx
  vmrun reset w2k.vmx soft
 

Yippie!

While working on my damn spam plugin I decided to look into integrating projecthoneypot.org support, which lead to me thinking: Why not just make a web api, so it doesn’t matter what os / permissions a user has. This of course lead to a greenlight in my head of… why not build it with couchdb in the backend…

So I’m still waiting on feedback from projecthoneypot.com, and stopforumspam.com

Sid