August 27, 2005
MIDI gun
The Circle of Life:
A MIDI controller shaped like a gun.
A gun that fits on your keychain.
A keychain that is a universal wireless remote capable of turning off any TV.
A wireless adapter to carry MIDI.
Which brings us back to "DOH!"
- The Fat Man [10:47:22 AM
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August 26, 2005
Three chat applications
I'm a chat junkie. Whether it's for work or leisure, I always keep a chat window open and, whenever I'm in the vicinity of my keyboard, chances are you'll get a reply to any invitation in less time than you need to regret calling me. But I'm in pain: It's 2005 and I can't find any good chat client.
- François Joseph de Kermadec [03:39:17 AM
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August 25, 2005
The Adaptive Object Model
Most applications developed today are based on static domain object models. If you want to add another dimension of flexibility to your application then you may want to consider an adaptive object model (AOM) approach. Here are some initial thoughts on the subject.
- Jim Alateras [03:30:13 PM
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Are dialogs too easy?
Interface dialogs and error messages are often criticized for being too complex to read or too difficult to make use of. It seems to me, though, that, while these are, in many regards, too hard to understand to deal with in an efficient fashion, they are also way too easy to dismiss, leading to daily issues that could be avoided.
- François Joseph de Kermadec [01:39:15 AM
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August 24, 2005
Don't Send Me Bounce Messages!
The other day, someone forged my e-mail address and sent mail to a bunch of other people. (It happens every day.) This time, it hit a network that checked my domain's SPF records and realized that the message came from an unauthorized server. Then it "helpfully" sent me a message delivery failure notice. I'm sorry someone sent unwanted mail, but we both know that it wasn't me. What possible use is there in sending me the bounce message? (If you absolutely must send the bounce message, why not take a trick from the spammer, virus, and worm playbook and choose someone else on the Internet randomly? You have a non-zero chance of finding someone who cares about that message -- but I don't.)
- chromatic [12:14:37 PM
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Open Testing Contest with Over $20,000 in Prizes
Open Testing Contest with Over $20,000 in Prizes Committers! SpikeSource is sponsoring a contest to help increase the participatory testing of open source software. Awards will be given to open source projects that have the greatest increase in code coverage from September 15 through December 31, 2005. Project sign-up is due by August 31st. Visit http://www.spikesource.com/contest/ for complete details and to register your project.
- Kevin Shockey [05:15:02 AM
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August 23, 2005
Entity beans & business logic...
So this is a little heavy for my first blog entry, but I figured I'd start out with something that at least sounded interesting before I resorted to "What I installed on my computer today" style entries. On my current project we're dealing extensively with J2EE Entity beans. There are some legacy ones using BMP that we're moving to CMP and some new ones that are being written CMP style right off the bat. So, this gets me thinking about where the business rules live...
- Dan Pilone [07:32:06 PM
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Memories of Moog
Bob Moog asked me for directions once. Which was pretty ironic, seeing as he blazed the path in my field, electronic music. Then last year, we had an even funnier exchange that points up why this amiable inventor (who died Sunday at 71) was so well-loved.
- David Battino [07:00:03 PM
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August 22, 2005
Tech News from Arkansas
Today's Quiz: In Arkansas, tech news often as not means Wal-Mart. Which of these seven items are Wal-Mart related? In increasing order of fearfulness: RFID. GIS. Nanocars. Data theft. Microsoft. Terrorism. Garth Brooks.
- John Adams [04:52:40 PM
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RFID Essentials: Cover Art
Here's a low-res shot of the cover art for the book. Mary told us that this is based on a photo of a train yard, and that is the train's headlight in the bottom right corner. While it's not really meant to be symbolic of anything the reference to shipping and something big approaching seems appropriate. The signal lights reminds me of modem lights (router lights for you youngsters).
- Bill Glover [01:00:16 PM
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De-perimeterization?
I've been meaning to blog about the Jericho Forum for some time. This article finally did it. To disclose, in general I am very skeptical about the "pay per play" industry groups, especially those charging multiple thousands for a chance to voice your opinion on whatever security topic. So many of them failed miserably to achieve anything, but a chance for CXOs to expense trips to exotic locations.
Jericho seems full of ideas, but so far it is not clear 'what is new' and 'how it will work'. Sure, firewalls are not the only defense most people need. Clearly, the nature and role of network perimeter is changing. Yes, defense in depth is a sound strategy (as have been known for quite some time).
This article summarizes it nicely: "large and architecturally elegant ideas die an ugly, lingering and expensive death. What works is step-wise refinement, the method of successive approximation and the brutal invisible hand of the marketplace."
What I think will happen is that the evolution process will march on towards "de-peremetrization", with or without Jericho on board. Thus, go book those trips now :-)
- Anton Chuvakin [10:20:14 AM
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Neat summary on IP protection methods
First, let me explain that an "IP" in the title is "intellectual property", not an "Internet protocol". So, many folks promptly discount an IP leakage problem as unsolvable anywhere outside of a secure government facility run by a police state :-) (and some doubt even that :-)). So, how one can try to tackle this challenge?
This article nicely summarizes two currently known approaches: network- and host-level monitoring and document-level enforcement (aka DRM), and, not surprisingly, advocates a combination of them.
Will it work for "Mattias Thurman"? Let's hope so, but don't bet too much on it - the problem is a one tough nut to crack...
- Anton Chuvakin [08:29:40 AM
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So, again, who is to blame for worms?
This piece, while far from eye-opening, inidicates an ongoing industry confusion about who is responsible for the losses caused by the raging worms of the day. Three common choices are: OS/application developers who code crude, technology end users who don't patch (and never harden) or hackers who create worms.
The author of this paper fires his broadside at the OS developer ("Isn't it time for Microsoft to stop selling operating systems with buffer overflow security holes?"). As I note above, this is only one of the three possibilities...
- Anton Chuvakin [08:18:38 AM
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August 21, 2005
Google Pop
Technology always affects art, and search technology is no exception. Listening to a band called Tilly And The Wall, I wondered if, consciously or not, their style might have been influenced by search-engine optimization. This after all is a band that features a glockenspiel player and a tap dancer.
- Spencer Critchley [04:01:41 PM
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Notes to Netflix
Too much free time on your hands? Write out a message on a sticky note and send it to a Netflix sorter. Take a picture first so you can upload it to the notesonnetflix Flickr stream.
- brian d foy [12:04:57 AM
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