Somewhere out there!

Running Asterisk on an Apple TV is clever. I wonder if Ubuntu would run, maybe the Apple TV is something that could replace my SLUG. Will have to stop in the Apple Store and see how noisy it is.

I’ve reinstalled Code Snippet. It definitely is the best. Shame the original author’s blog has gone offline.

I’m going to be in Vienna in May and I was looking at the wifi situation as our rental apartment does not have broadband. Why searching around I discovered Freewave who provide free wireless internet. While hunting out hotspot locations in Google Maps, I discovered I could create my own map. They are even searchable. Very cool.

Would be even cooler if I could layer maps. So combined other people’s maps, my unlisted private maps, etc. So I could combined say a list of cafes I like, against a set of cafes I’d like to try. Or a list of interest locations vs a walking path I want to take.

Update: Another free wireless in Vienna page.

Technorati Tags: google maps

By default Windows Terminal Server is quite annoying when dealing with shortcuts and applications mount from a local file server. A per usual with Windows there is quite a lot of documentation out there with information, although it not all clear.

1. “Site to Zone Assignment List” GPO = trusted site?
2. Site to Zone Assignment List – best method here
3. Behavior of Site to Zone Assignment List
4. The Site to Zone Assignment List policy prevents Internet Explorer from using other zone configuration settings when the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration feature is enabled on a Windows Server 2003 SP1-based computer
5. How to lock down a Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Terminal Server session

Regardless of the above I found the best way to deal in Windows 2003R2 with the GPO was:

Edit the GPO object you wish to apply these settings too. Select [User Configuration\Windows Settings\Internet Explorer Maintenance\Security]. Then double click [Security Zones and Content Ratings], click [Import the current security zones and privacy settings], and then click [Modify Settings]. It should be pretty straight-forward from there. I added my file server sites into Local Intranet, using the form file://uncserver. I found this easy than the “Site to Zone Assignment List” GPO method.

Some clever tips for using

Samba with ZFS.

DeepBurner is the best way to burn an ISO in Windows.

Check out this OQO2 demo video video by Kenrick. Even with the Via 1.5Ghz CPU performance seems good enough for the small form factor. It’s doubtful someone will be stocking it in NZ, so I’ll probably have to wait until I’m next in Hong Kong before I can check out how it feels in the hand.

From Gottabemobile.

From How to Wreck Your Brand.

Spent a couple hours trying to get DOS booting on a flash disk. Syslinux/Sysreccd worked, but I couldn’t get standard DOS to booted. Finally figured my 4Gb flash disk was a little too big or had the wrong C/H/S settings for DOS to work. Luckily I had another 2Gb flash which did work.

• FreeDOS on a USB Flash Drive – HP tools seems to be the best method to use
• Ultimate Boot CD – check details on download page for installing to flash disk
• BootFlashDOS – uses files from diskcopy.dll on XP/2003
• Tip: Boot from USB Key Addendum – lots of tips
• How to Create a bootable USB Memory Key – nice walk thru for HP tool with screens and links to archived zip files
• How to boot from a USB device

Nice quote I’m have to remember in to the future when I have some ‘theoretical arguments’: Open source: Reality bites?

A great philosopher may sit in his study and deny the existence of matter: but if he takes a walk in the street he must take care to leave his theory behind him….

Pyrro said that there was no such thing as pain; and he saw no proof that there were such things as carts, and wagons; and he refused to get out of their way: but Pyrro had, fortunately for him, three or four stout slaves, who followed their master, without following his doctrine; and whenever they saw one of these ideal machines approaching, took him up by the arms and legs, and without attempting to controvert his arguments, put him down in a place of safety.

We may believe anything for a moment, but we shall soon be lashed out of our impertinences by hard and stubborn realities. (4, 7)

Action not theory:

I know I find open source in everything, but it seems to me to be a perfect rendering of James’ pragmatism. It’s not about the theory behind open source that matters. The only thing that matters is the output. That output makes me think that open source is “true” in the Jamesian sense. From “Pragmatism’s Conception of Truth:”

True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate and verify. False ideas are those that we can not. That is the practical difference it makes to us to have true ideas; that, therefore, is the meaning of truth, for it is all that truth is known as…. The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events. Its verity is in fact an event, a process: the process namely of its verifying itself, its veri-fication. Its validity is the process of its valid-ation.

As Matt says, in business the only thing that matters is delivery of a product. Whether this be a nail or a word processor. In the value chain that creates ‘things’ for people’s lifes.  The strength of open source is exactly what RMS saw when he started down the GNU path. Freedom to choose, creates the freedom to innovate which plays to the strengthens of the human condition.

The balancing act always being the profit of the present vs the profit of the future.  Microsoft being a clear example in the former case for software and maybe the original company behind Nautilus File Manager being an example of the later.