Author: apokalyptik

apokalyptikhttp://blog.apokalyptik.com/

The web already has the next office suite. Its called a blog.

I’m really suprised thateverybody is trying to create the “web based office” from scratch. We have a huge elephant in the room: the weblog.  Scrap the idea that we have to have a desktop app for the next gen of desktop tools. Scrap the idea that we have to make something which is a word processor. Take your head out of your butts and realize: we dont need anopther word processor! we need a REPLACEMENT for the word processor.

Take a blogging tool.  Create a content divide: public/private, add save and e-mail features (think PDF/RTF/ODF). Add some calendaring, A generic interface to mysql as a DB, and some spreadsheet and BAM. There you are.  You have your new e-mail client. Your new word processor, Your collaboration space, Your new callendaring tool. Youve got your 1:1 your 1:many and your 1:*.

Software companies need to realize that the blog is the next desktop.  We’re quickly entering the point in the evolution of the internet where the  user *is* represented in realtime by a digital avatar… sure its not the 3d one we saw in those terrible movies from the 80s (no lawnmowerman for you!) but we’re HERE. It’s NOW. People are living a connected life, and the gap between pushing, sharing, and publishing is shrinking each day.

The future is still tomorrow. But change is HERE.

Pet Project

I’ve started a pet project.  Its a remote tripwire like program. I’m doing it in python (largly because I want to learn python better.) I prototyped it in bash (heheh, so it cant be that hard of a project to make,) but moving it to something more real (and using sqlite instead of my “cat + grep” database)
The idea is to store all the files needed to actually preform the integrity checking locally, and then upload them to the remote server at the time that the scan is run.  It’s a pretty simple combination of find + md5sum + openssh + RSA/DSA authentication… add a store and compare and up-date of locally archived checksums… tack on an alerting feature… and run via cron… And you have the idea.

If anyone a) reads this, and b) wants to be in on it then drop me a line and I’ll put up an svn repo for it.

Cheers

A little easier today

There seems to be less friction between the dogs today… I think a lot of Buddy’s “I’m the head dog around here” message was delivered yesterday (which I liken to a hazing ritual) and today seems much lower key.  Banzai even got to play with some toys today (controlling resources — even toys — is one of the ways that dogs show their dominance over eachother.)

Banzai really took yesterday like a champ… With Buddy cutting him off constantly. Hogging all the toys. Not to mention the mounting… But in true puppy fashion Banzai being the younger submitted.  He wouldnt even let me cheat and force buddy to leave him alone to play with a toy…

This is a case where I think the dogs know better than I.  Hopefully in the next day or two the social hierarchy of the household settles down.  I’m really looking to being able to bring Banzai to the dog park next week (when his stiches are healed better.)  That’ll be a whole nother can of worms… 🙂

On client systems and virtual machines (prologue)

I think almost every techy guy has at least one “client” for which they do some sort of consulting work.  Iether its charity work for friends/family/church/whatever, or they know a guy who knows a guy who’s willing to pay a little bit to have something done.

And the great bane of these kinds of clients is that you set their environment up for them, and then leave it alone. Maybe you check the logs every now and again, maybe not. And who knows what you (or they) have put on it. Sure it was the latest version… lets see… when was that… oh gosh! almost a year ago… and nothings been updated!

You get a call.  There have been odd huge traffic spikes… or the machine has been used to send out span… or something… This is when the sky darkens. The clouds roll in.  And that sinking feeling — like you might be too late — sets in.  There are huge gaping holes in this machine… somewhere…  And there’s someone else lurking in this silent house.  All of a sudden theres a lot of work to be done… and while you werent paid enough to sit on this thing and check for updates in every piece of software you did (or didnt) know about… Suddenly this is your fault and you get to fix it.

But… Where to begin… And how to mitigate this kind of damage in the future?

But… But… But… Why didnt they pick ME?!

There’s a lot of talk going around about Ubuntu linux versus Debian linux versus XYZ linuz and why Ubuntu has become popular (even trendy!) But It seems to me that most of this talk boils down to “But I think MY distro is better” whether “my distro” means “I made it” or just “I use it.”

For years now everybody in the linux community has been saying “Linux can make the consumer desktop.” And I always believed it could (though I never (and sill dont) believed it was there yet.) But now that someone has made something people want to use, and like using, there seems to be a lot of “but this was my idea” and “they didnt do that first, this other did” and even “I cant figure out why this is so popular.”

Welcome to Rome! Where you’re free to worship whatever you like, but you have to admit that Ubuntu has managed to make it big. At least in this rome there arent any taxes to pay. But the simple fact of the matter is tht Ubuntu lilnux pulled together the right combination of things at the right time and in the right place. They were different enough to get noticed amongst a sea of toy (and corp) distributions.

As with all great breakthroughs Ubuntu *HAS* stood on the backs of the giants that came before them. But just as in scientific discovery that fact doesnt discount the new things that have happened! Because to *truly* bake an apple pie from scratch one must first create the universe.

I always wanted to be able to draw

DrawSpace is a pretty cool site (read: I havent actually “used it” but I “plan to”) which gives lessons on how to draw… Which is cool because although I’ve always wanted to be artistic… I’ve always proved to be sucessful as an artist in exactly the same measure that your standard brick attains while trying to preform the backstroke…
Perhaps now I’ll not only *NOT* be able to draw, but that I’ve studied and *STILL* can’t draw 😉