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Dan Bricklin, one of the truly great talents and people in the technology field, has been busy on a new project, and he released it into the wild today. It's called ListGarden 1.0, and it "creates and maintains RSS feeds."
Dan's aiming at the many folks whose software doesn't automatically create RSS files, and he's onto something useful with this. I'll be playing with it in the next few days.
can be found here.
XUL Grand Coding Challenge 2004 - Counter Sample Showcase.
The Junxion Box uses a proprietary software platform to act as a connectivity bridge between cellular data service and client devices like laptop and desktop computers. With the Junxion Box, end-users can connect their devices to cellular data services using common and easy-to-use interfaces like Ethernet and Wi-Fi.
Now that you have your OpenLDAP server running smoothly, how about some additional tricks to better incorporate Address Book and email clients such as SquirrelMail? Tony Williams shows you how.
[O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]
Pocketster is a wireless personal web server for the PocketPC that advertises itself to other Pocket PCs in the neighbourhood using ad-hoc WiFi networks and Rendezvous.
Pocketster also allows you to browse for nearby devices running Pocketster and view the content published by the Pocketster server on those devices. You can also browse for regular Rendezvous services published on your network.
Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.
In the last few months I've changed an important aspect of my
working life. In the past I tried to work on only one computer (or
more strictly only one hard drive). All my working files were kept
on my laptop hard drive. If I used a desktop machine I used those
files through file sharing facilities.
This changed last year when I bought my powerbook. Now I swap
regularly between three computers: mac powerbook, windows laptop,
and linux/wintel desktop. My main work is done on either the mac
or the windows laptops - I'm using the linux desktop mainly as an
experiment to see how worthwhile it is.
All of this means I need to keep multiple machines up to date
with each other - at least as far as my working files are
concerned. I've been greatly helped by the fact that just as I
went to multiple desktops, my main email service shifted from POP
to IMAP. Despite some hiccups, I can say that IMAP (I use
Thunderbird as my client) works very well across multiple
machines.
Most of my working files are coordinated by CVS. Any time I
switch machines I commit my working directory and do an update on
my new machine. Everything keeps nicely synced, and I get full
version control too. Of course CVS does have its irritations, and
I really ought to try subversion as soon as I get around to
installing it on my server.
Some synchronizations aren't as good as I'd like. Keeping my
address books straight is awkward. Thunderbird insists on putting
them in a particular place, which puts them out of the CVS check.
Furthermore it's binary, which makes merging harder. This is
particularly annoying as I like the fact that Thunderbird works
with textual files for email - which adds to my comfort when
hiccups do happen. And then the sync with the PDA is awkward
too. I could really do with a decent way to sync up all my
contacts and calendar stuff across these platforms. Another area
is news aggregators. They can share feeds through OPML (at least
in theory) but not keep track of what I've read and what I haven't.
Keeping to text files as much as possible is useful. As I do all
my writing in XML, all I need is a text editor to keep my writing work
in sync. Diagrams are more of an issue, as there isn't anything
that works for me on all platforms. But of course part of the
advantage of the multiple computer setup is that I can use any
application that's particular to one system.
[Martin Fowler's Bliki]
FreeCache is a system of cooperating caches to move large files of free content closer to users.
I had an love affair with RSS. When we found each other, it was as if we were meant to be together forever. Our passion was strong and intense. But as our relationship settled, new truths emerged. Our critical tendencies got the best of both of us and we found the faults in each other and pushed them until they hurt. We found each other wrapped in a difficult, abusively addictive relationship. At the peak of our insanity, we were spending 6 hours a day together. It was not healthy and thus we decided to part ways.
In the separation, much was lost in the process of regaining self-control and stability. We had many friends in common; they are much harder to reach now. Just as in any breakup, there is a sense of losing one's mind. I've lost touch with certain information flows, certain cultures. But i feel so much relief in finding that i am a person, to let down my addiction and to work on being whole again.
When we were together, i didn't realize how one-sided my perspective on people was. Together, we only saw a limited segment of the world. After our separation, i have been able to return to my roots, to step back and find grounding.
I am certain that i will always long for the beauty of our relationship, but i will never miss the feelings of guilt for not engaging, the feelings of intensity overload the cruel pain of being a true information junkie.
[zephoria]
As many of you already know, it's possible to hack the Xbox without the use of a mod chip. This has been going on for some time now – but I'd say within the last six months or so, the tools have evolved to the point that almost anyone can do it regardless of their tech skillz. So for all of you afraid of soldering or opening your Xbox, this may be the method for you.
Choosing your path –
In modding the Xbox, there are two paths to choose from: EvolutionX and Xbox Linux. Each adds its own unique functionality to your Xbox, so read on and decide which is best for you.
EvolutionX:
EvoX is an Xbox dashboard replacement. Meaning it replaces that green Xbox startup screen with EvoX startup screen and functionality. Without EvoX you wouldn't be able to launch any 3rd party applications or backed up games.
Xbox Linux:
If you're looking for a cheap little file server, web server, or a cool way to surf the web from your TV – Xbox Linux is your answer. If you have no idea what Linux is, or what I’m talking about, stick with EvolutionX.
Getting started:
- Mad_Gouki's Xbox hack tutorial (EvoX)
- Xbox Linux
Needed parts:
- Mech Assault
- Action Replay
- USB Adapter
Resources:
- Xbox Scene
- EMule Plus
Depending on which route you choose (EvoX or Linux) the above tutorials will walk you through step-by-step. To see the chipless hack in action, catch my segment on ‘The Screen Savers’ Monday June 14th.
+krose
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Bluetooth To Internet enables a Mac to share its Internet connection with up to seven Bluetooth-enabled Macs and Palm devices.
[MacInTouch]
Here's the step-by-step procedure to upgrade the firmware to get faster burning and code-free playing.
Keeping your software updated on your diverse Mac network requires attention to detail and perseverance. In this article, Philip Rinehart shows you options for tracking installations on your business or educational network.
[O'Reilly MacDevCenter.com]
The Sonos offering is the first and only multi-zone digital music system with a wireless, full-color LCD screen controller that lets consumers play all their digital music, all over their home, while controlling it all from the palm of their hand.
Rome is a set of Atom/RSS Java utilities that make it easy to work in Java with most syndication formats.
Today it accepts all flavors of RSS (0.90, 0.91, 0.92, 0.93, 0.94, 1.0 and 2.0) and Atom 0.3 feeds.
Rome includes a set of parsers and generators for the various flavors of feeds, as well as converters to convert from one format to another. The parsers can give you back Java objects that are either specific for the format you want to work with, or a generic normalized SyndFeed object that lets you work on with the data without bothering about the underlying format.
Rome is called like this because all feeds lead to Rome.
The JDesktop Integration Components (JDIC) project aims to make Java™ technology-based applications ("Java applications") first-class citizens of current desktop platforms without sacrificing platform independence.
JDIC provides Java applications with access to facilities provided by the native desktop such as the mailer, the browser, and registered document viewing applications. Additionally it provides the mechanisms by which Java applications can integrate into the native desktop such as registering Java applications as document viewers on the desktop and creating installer packages.
Hacks around the Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel.. including firmware hack ;-)
Preclipse is an Eclipse plugin providing extensive support for the Java prevalence layer Prevayler during the development phase of prevalent systems.
With DVD burners falling below $100, it seems like everybody wants to backup their DVD collection (No, you don't own your Netflix rentals). Back in the day I purchased a copy of DVD-X-Copy, which was good – but today's free offerings are much better.
- my quick down and dirty backup guide -
PC:
Download and install DVD Shrink
Download and install Nero
Run DVD Shrink and choose "Backup!" - DVD Shrink is a great all-in-one solution.
MAC:
Download and install DVDBackup
Download and install DVD2one
Download and install Toast
Run DVDBackup and save the decrypted files to a local hard drive. Then run DVD2one and compress the files down to fit on a single DVD. Now fire up Toast and burn the files to a DVD using toasts DVD-UDF format.
It's really rather painless with either platform - Enjoy.
+krose
[kevin rose dot com]
Mekanica Software has released Formation 1.0 for Mac OS X, a US$29.95 personal information organizer that combines lists, notes, contacts, calendar, media browsers, scrapbook, smartlinks and more with a customizable interface...
[MacMinute.com: Up-to-the-Minute Apple Mac News]
I tried out Ray's Nucleus bittorrent aggregator. Awesome! Although it's far from anything a plain old user would want to use, since it's command line setup and execute only.
Now that it's on my machine and config'd, I'll never have to think about it again, just watch my favourite TV shows roll on in.
A nice additional feature Ray might add in future releases is a notification system, so you don't have to check the folder for new shows.I'd also like to be able to add more bittorrent rss feeds to the aggregator. I have a whole list that Marcus is working on in his bittorrent aggregator.
Something intriguing about bittorrent is that most users appear to be using it for distributing carfully recorded tv shows with all commercials nuked. Personally I wouldn't mind if they left the ads in, but that's not the current culture of bt media files.
Developers, please note Ray's plea:
#TVTorrents RSS Feed and LegalTorrents.com both work with Nucleus.Checking the link tag is a hack on my part, I wish more people would support
enclosures as its proper RSS form to do so.
Vonage apparently has voice-over-IP software for Mac OS X.
[MacInTouch]