Archive for March, 2009
Sold To Google
Mar 31st
Something happened today that I never expected in a million years. I am in contact with a few Google employees on Facebook and Twitter, and in the course of conversation, I shared an idea I once had about a PHP application. We talked it out, I coded the first tidbits, a friend helped with some Python, and, a few short weeks later, Google decided to buy it! But not just the code, this afternoon, we finalized the deal that includes them taking over the domain firsttube.com, since the code is currently running as a daemon on my server here. As a result, this will be one of my last blog posts. Effective tomorrow evening, the domain will transfer to Google and it will become the host for a new Google app (which I’m still hoping will be called “firsttube”). Also, by the end of the week, I will be a full tim Google employee, which is very exciting. For now, I’ll still be working and living in Florida.
Unfortunately, due to legal restrictions, I am unable to say any more, but trust me when I say that most of my friends will have immediate use for this site!
Check back tomorrow for the details!!
Updated: For those who missed it, April Fools!
Flip 3.0.1
Mar 31st
I never expected to release another version of my old weblog project Flip, but while searching my own name in a new search engine, I came upon several vulnerability reports for Flip 3.0. I’ve known about them for awhile now, but having dropped Flip in favor of another project (which I’ve since abandoned, for the most part, in favor of WordPress), it seemed pointless to bother. However, since there is an active exploit, I thought I’d release an update and a patch.
I don’t believe anyone out there is still using Flip, but if there is, this is how to defeat the script: simple add this line at line 102 of account.php:
if(strstr($_POST['em'],"][")) { die('Fail'); }
and this at line 162:
if(strstr($_POST['nem'],"][")) { die('Fail'); }
Alternatively, you can download the modified file here or download Flip 3.0.1 here.
It may sound odd, but I would highly recommend that you do *not* use this code. It’s now 7 years old and the web is a much different place. The code here is really not suited for running a website today. That said, it was odd to unzip and install it and see that it actually works. The rendering of most of the “themes” is weird (Fudge works great), but otherwise, everything worked.
If you are still a Flip user, I recommend you update your account.php page immediately, and if you have the time and inclination, upgrade to 3.0.1. The following files have some minor changes:
- account.php
- index.php
- inc/config.php
- README.html
Once again, this code is aged not particularly well suited for today’s web. If you want a simple weblog, I recommend WordPress.
The Decemberists’ “The Hazards of Love”: An Interpretation
Mar 30th
The new Decemberists album was loosed last Tuesday, March 24, and has been met with enthusiasm almost universally. I purchase only a few discs a year these days, preferring to spend the majority of my music dollars online. This disc, I knew in advance, would be one of my purchases.
Upon purchase, I quickly came to understand that “The Hazards of Love” is a concept album in the truest sense: the songs are a single, uninterrupted blob – continuous sound from the haunting opening notes of “Prelude” to the final waves of “The Hazards of Love, Part 4.” The challenge, as with any Decemberists offering, is to decipher the meaning of the often Victorian-style lyrics, and with “The Hazards of Love,” it’s proven to be a challenge. However, within, find my interpretation of the Hazards of Love story.
Before I get into it, let me address a few complaints I have with this album:
- The CD liner smells like a camel pen
- The font in the liner booklet is far too small, doubling the challenge
- That’s it
I have no other complaints about this disc at all. In fact, I’ve read only two complaints online, the first being that the talented Jenny Conlee is underused. To those who have noted that, I urge you to relisten. Her harpsichord, the Hammond, and her accordion can be heard throughout the album, and while she certainly takes a backseat on some songs, she provides depth to many of the themes that might otherwise deliver much less forcefully their message.
To those who felt this album is too “heavy metal” and too far a departure from previous Decemberists material, I ask you to relisten paying greater attention to the story. There is no unnecessary “metal” here. There is only emotion to properly align to the lyrics. The queen is accompanied by loud electric guitar.
So, let’s get on with it, shall we? Please read on, I’ll include my entire dissection of “The Hazards of Love.”
Microsoft’s Web App Gallery FAIL
Mar 25th
Giving Microsoft, IIS, and PHP.exe the benefit of the doubt, I decided to try installing WordPress on Windows via Microsoft’s new Web Application Gallery. The install is simple and straightforward: install MySQL, go to the web app gallery, click on the download, choose what you want, poof! Done.
I got the first few steps knocked out, I selected WordPress, gave it my MySQL username and password, and let it go. It installed PHP for Windows, the MySQL connector, and WordPress. Then I launched my browser and pointed to http://localhost:81 and… no. Error 402. I monkeyed with the site in IIS and was able to generate an error that simply says: Parameter not found.
PHP is installed. IIS assicates .php files with PHP.exe. But Wordpress no worky.
Fail.
Lost exclusive: War erupts over Charlotte’s real age!
Mar 24th
According to EW: ‘Lost’ exclusive: War erupts over Charlotte’s real age!
Holy cow! So Charlotte’s age has been a big mystery, since she was born in 1979, but clearly, Faraday saw her in 1974. You know how big of a deal this is!?
It’s not! Holy shit, people, has it come to this? This is a big deal? This is the first continuity mistake of note on Lost (yes, there are some other very minor ones that I generally attribute to poetic license, like traveling distances over the island in short periods). That said, it’s just not a big deal. It doesn’t ruin the plot, it doesn’t change any of the mystery, it’s just a simple mistake that really isn’t that big of a deal. So Charlotte is a little older than we thought. Or she got her own birth year wrong. Whatever.
Can we get to talking about the important things, like where is Faraday in 1977? Where are Bernard and Rose? Why didn’t Sun go back to 1977? Why can’t Widmore come back to the island? And… ahem… four toed statue?!
IE8 STILL Doesn’t Support CSS border-radius
Mar 23rd
I find it absolutely amazing that IE8 doesn’t support border-radius. No wonder more & more people think IE sucks. It’s just ugly.
Häagen-Dazs Five
Mar 18th
Recently, ice cream maker Häagen-Dazs released a new line of ice creams called “ Five “. The idea behind this brilliant product is that the ice cream contains only five basic ingredients: including milk, cream, sugar, egg, and a flavor such as chocolate, mint, ginger, or brown sugar. 
Color me intrigued. I love natural foods and foods with few ingredients. I’m amazed that so many potato chips can list ingredients as: “potatoes, salt, safflower oil.” I love when foods don’t include preservatives. I think natural foods are better for you and your environment. And I love simple flavors in quality foods. So I was definitely going to track down a pint of this goodness.
So I ventured to my local Publix to check this ice cream out, only to be disappointed by the fact that they don’t have it. Marketing fail.
Why? First, they enticed me with this: Kevin Rose tweeted about Häagen-Dazs Five a few weeks ago. So Häagen-Dazs sent him an entire case of ice cream! Then, Slashfood got their case of Häagen-Dazs Five . So after this brilliant ploy to get me interested by invading all of my social media outlets, the ice cream isn’t even available mainstream yet?
Poo!
Facebook’s New Interface
Mar 15th
Facebook loosed their new interface this week. Thus far, there is nothing “live” about it. This makes me very sad.
Honestly, if Facebook doesn’t introduce AJAX-y live update goodness to their homepage, I suspect I’ll use Facebook about 11% as much as I used to.
iPhone OS 3.0: Details Coming March 17
Mar 12th
I called iPhone OS 3.0 a few months ago. I said we should expect the next release of iPhone firmware to be a revamped version 3.0. I still feel fairly confident in my predictions: I still think we’ll see cut-copy-and-paste, better app management, and better enterprise management.
I’m still convinced that we will not see MMS, bluetooth sync, or video, although I’ll be very happy to be wrong on all three fronts. I’d also like to see wifi and bluetooth sync, voice dial, and — here’s a novel idea — a faster phone app, but I’m cautiously optimistic. I’m not expecting any of those, but again, would welcome them warmly.
I don’t expect to actually see firmware 3.0 until late spring or early summer, but I suspect we’ll have a nice overview of what to expect by the end of next Tuesday.