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Greenpeace has an interesting article about how IT companies rank in toxic waste problems.
Dell rates quite well, I feel happier about my recent purchase of a large Dell TFT monitor now. HP does reasonably well, that’s fortunate as the Green party in Victoria has recently purchased a HP server. But next time we discuss such things I will suggest that more consideration be given to Dell servers because of this issue.
Lenovo does really badly, I’m surprised because I would have expected IBM to do reasonably well and I didn’t think that Lenovo would make significant changes. From now on I will refrain from purchasing Lenovo products. I will still purchase second-hand IBM products, but nothing under the Lenovo brand until they clean up their act.
Also it’s worth noting that computers manufactured with toxic chemicals will outgas some of the chemicals into the local environment (IE your server room, bedroom, or wherever else you have computers). Avoiding the computers manufactured with toxic chemicals is not only good for the environment, but also good for your health!
Previously I asked for advice about running an Intranet blog, and running an Internet blog with hosting for friends.
In response to the question about running a small Intranet blog the recommendations were strongly for WordPress, with a mention of Ikiwiki as well. One of the features that I consider desirable is for software to be reasonably popular which means that support is often easier to obtain. So WordPress is my main candidate at this time for Intranet use. I’ll install WordPress and probably won’t try anything else unless WordPress fails in some significant way (which seems unlikely).
In response to my question about a blog server for serious blogging again WordPress was well recommended. There is also a version of WordPress in beta called WordPress MU that supports blog server operations such as wordpress.com. Although I didn’t mention it before I have had some ideas of starting my own server along such lines so WordPress again does well.
Over the next few weeks I will start playing with WordPress and WordPress MU. If things go well I’ll move my blog away from blogspot and to a domain I own in the near future.
I was watching some music videos recently and was amazed by how badly dressed most performers were by today’s standards. As far as I can recall the only musician from the 80’s who still looks good in their videos is Robert Palmer, a suit and tie doesn’t go out of fashion.
I started thinking about what the computer equivalent to the suit and tie is. It’s something that never goes out of fashion and that is generally used for work. I came to the conclusion that C is the best fit. Think of languages such as VB and the .Net environment as being skivvies and high-waisted jeans.
C is not a perfect language, it is often difficult to manage text in C and LDAP programming is particularly painful (compared to Perl where it’s trivial). But then it’s quite inconvenient to wear a suit sometimes, you can sit on grass while wearing jeans but not in a suit.
Pictures of you wearing a suit will not look daggy by the standards of next decade, and C code that you write now will be better regarded than VB or whatever other fad language might be used.
I’m getting sick of blogger. The main thing is that I’m simply not a user. Taking what someone else gives me and just putting up with any failings doesn’t suit me at all. I can deal with bugs in things I control (such as Linux distributions) because I can fix the bugs I consider important at any time.
So now I’m looking for a serious blogging program. WordPress was strongly recommended to me after my previous post on the topic of blogs, but that was in regard to a simple blog program for Intranet use. I am now after a blog program that is designed for Internet use, it must have good security, support multiple users (some of my friends will probably want to use my blog server machine), and not be overly difficult to customise (I am resigned to the fact that I will have to learn another programming language – probably re-learning PHP or Java as that is where web programming is at nowadays).
One thing that I want to do is to have the main web page that displays all recent posts display each post in a frame with a separate Adsense section. The topics of my posts vary a lot so I want to have adverts that match.
Another feature I want is to have multiple RSS feeds with different settings. One use for this is to have tags for each post to specify which channel(s) the post will end up on, another is for Adsense for feeds functionality which I want on for some feeds but off for others. I also want to generate multiple feeds for different syndication services. Ideally a syndication service such as Planet Debian or Planet Linux Australia would use a unique feed for sucking it’s own data and also have a unique feed address advertised on it’s site for the users (if this isn’t supported or desired at the syndication level then I can do tricks in the web server to serve different content for different IP addresses). That way I can track use by the different services, work around bugs in syndication services that matter to me, and change settings for post summaries, etc to suit the syndication service.
In terms of HTML editing I only need the most basic functionality. I would be entirely happy to write blog entries in raw HTML, my friends would probably desire line breaks to be converted to paragraph or break tags and basic linking functionality, but they could probably deal with entering bold and italic tags themselves (the few of my friends who couldn’t manage this would probably only want to write plain-text in paragraphs).
I also want to run my own syndication software. I guess I have to consider blog server and syndication server at the same time as there may be some dependencies (EG having them both written in the same language might be handy – I don’t want to re-learn BOTH Java and PHP). The syndication software would ideally automatically collect the feeds from other syndication services that I specify (although I’m sure I could write a simple Perl script to scrape them from the Planet web sites). Then I want to provide an RSS feed of that content for anyone who wants it.
Please let me know via email or comments if you have any suggestions about which software to use.
Here’s an interesting blog entry comparing SE Linux and AppArmor. It has some amusing comments, one of which I used for the title of this entry.
There are two things I don’t like about AppArmor. One is that it doesn’t label Inodes but instead bases it’s access control on file names. This means that renaming a file may change the access granted to it, and a file with multiple hard links may have different sets of access granted to each name. The hard link problem is a killer, imagine that name A grants execute access to the file and name B grants write access, therefore you have the ability to create an executable file.
The other thing I don’t like about AppArmor is that it’s goals are low. The current implementation of AppArmor can be compared to the SE Linux targeted policy. The difference is that AppArmor is currently achieving everything that it was designed to do while the targeted policy is intentionally providing less security features to give greater ease of use. There is a well defined transition path from targeted to strict, and from strict to MLS. There is no transition path from the current AppArmor implementation to something better.
Rumor has it that Suse have bought the rights to a MLS system and that they want to get LSPP certification. LSPP certification requires that access control be based on Inodes not file names (IE renaming a file may not change the access that is granted to it). It will be interesting to see how they integrate AppArmor and a MLS system.
In the USSR the government fixed prices on all commodities, how desirable an item was merely determined the length of the queue not the price. Today in the same manner when purchasing tickets for concerts and sporting events the desirability of a ticket determines the length of the queue not the price.
It seems to me that the solution to the “scalping” problem that has recently been described in many newspapers is to have the companies that sell the tickets run a public auction. The current situation is denying fans the option of paying more money to guarantee a ticket, denying the musicians the best payment for their services, and not serving the best interests of anyone except the scalpers!
Internet auctions are easy to setup, ebay even has online store facilities that any merchant can use – it would be easy for any company that is running a concert to sell all the tickets at auction through ebay. People who don’t have the ability to access the Internet could pay an agent to bid for them so no-one would be excluded.
A well run ticket auction system would maximise revenue for the company selling the tickets and guarantee that fans can get tickets if they are prepared to pay enough. It would be best for everyone!
Some people with weird communist tendencies (the ones who want to emulate the least effective and useful aspects of the USSR) claim that the current ticket sales system (where all tickets are sold in 10 minutes to whoever queued for the longest time or phoned in at the right moment) allows poor people to purchase tickets at lower prices than an auction might deliver. What they fail to realise is that rich people pay others to queue for them, whether that is by paying scalpers who buy tickets in bulk or by paying one person to sit in a queue for them. There are people who are happy to sit in a queue for a few dollars per hour and people who pay them to stand in line.
I am not an expert at public speaking. Attending Toastmasters to improve my speaking skills is on my todo list. However having given hundreds of talks over the course of about 14 years and being paid for giving talks (the minimum criteria to claim to be a professional speaker) I think I can offer some useful advice, at least in regard to giving talks for free sofware audiences. I will cover some really basic things in this post, so experience speakers will find some of them obvious.
The most important thing of course is to know your topic really well. You can skip every other piece of advice and still do reasonably well at any Linux Users Group meeting if you know your topic well enough. Of course if you want to talk at a conference then taking some of the following advice would be useful.
Record your talk, it is useful to review the recording to learn from mistakes. Don’t worry too much about saying “um” or other common speaking mistakes – it takes a lot of practice and effort to avoid such things. When recording your talk record it from the start of the introduction (you never know when the person introducing you will say something particularly flattering ;) until after you have left the podium. It’s not uncommon to have question time, to thank the audience for their attention after the questions, and to then have another round of 15 minutes of questions afterwards. The only time when you can confidently stop recording at the scheduled end of your talk is when there’s someone scheduled next.
For recording a talk an iRiver is a good device to use. An iRiver will create and play MP3 files, and it’s not particularly expensive nowadays. Apparently some of the newer iRivers are polluted by DRM, I haven’t verified this myself though.
After your talk review the MP3 you made as soon as possible. You will always find mistakes in such a review, don’t be concerned about minor ones (everyone makes small mistakes when on a podium, unless you are famous enough to get media interest a few small slips don’t matter). If you make a significant mistake or if you were unable to answer some questions then you can send email or make a blog post about it later. You probably won’t remember most of what happens during your talk so your recording is the only way to follow up on questions (if you tell someone in the audience to ask you a hard question via email they won’t do it).
Summarise all questions during the Q/A part of the talk. This means that everyone in the audience will know what was asked, and also your recording of the talk will have a copy (usually an iRiver mic doesn’t cover the audience).
Before giving a talk learn as much about the audience as possible, and feel free to ask for advice from people who know something about the audience and people who are experts on the topic. The most important thing to learn is the expected skill level of the audience including the range of skills. Often when giving a talk about a technical topic it’s impossible to make all people in the audience happy. You will have a choice between making things too simple and boring the most experienced people or explaining the technical details and having the less experienced people be unable to understand. Sometimes due to the combination of topic and audience you will get 10% of the audience walk out regardless of which choice you make. You can’t please everyone.
Caffeine can help you stay alert enough for a talk. In email and even in IRC there is time to stop and think. When giving a lecture to an audience answers are expected immediately. In the space of about 5 seconds you want to compose an answer for any question that gets thrown at you or determine that it’s something that needs more consideration and has to be answered via email.
One of the problems you face when giving a talk is going through the material too quickly because of being nervous. If you feel that happening to you then drinking some water or your favourite fizzy drink is a socially acceptable way of taking a few seconds to compose yourself. Asking for questions from the audience is another way of getting a talk back on track if you have started going through the material too fast. Also if you are in the audience and observe this happening then try and interject some questions to get things back on track, it doesn’t matter what the questions are, ask lame questions if necessary, anything to stop the talk from finishing too soon. I was once in the audience for a talk that was scheduled for 60 minutes and ended up taking about 5, it finished before I could even think of a question to ask. :(
I find that questions help to estimate how well the audience is following the presentation, and I prefer to take questions during my talk. Some people prefer to give a talk to a silent room and then take questions at the end. I think that preferences in that regard are determined by whether your speaking experience is based in universities that strictly enforce a code of conduct for lectures, or whether your speaking experience is based in LUGs where heckling from the audience is common.
Go to the toilet before giving a talk. Speaking for an audience is stressful and you never know when you might feel more nervous than usual. If consuming a caffeinated drink then you will have even more reason to go to the toilet before the talk. This is not a joke!
Having a copy of your presentation notes on a USB device (preferrably in multiple formats) is handy. It’s also convenient to have the device formatted with the VFAT filesystem. One time I had a lot of hassle from a Linux conference (that I won’t identify) due to the fact that the organizers only used Linux for servers. They wanted to print my lecture notes for all members of the audience and were unable to get a Windows machine to read my ext3 formatted USB device and then had problems with the OpenOffice file.
All my advice in this post is based on personal experience. Don’t feel afraid about public speaking because of these things. Everyone makes mistakes when starting out and even experienced speakers have talks go wrong on occasion. Also keep in mind that a talk which seems to have failed when you are on the podium might get great reviews from the audience. The aim of a technical lecture is to impart information about the technology, you can achieve that aim even if you make some mistakes in the presentation.
PS Please give talks for your local LUG. They need speakers and it’s a good way of gaining speaking experience in a friendly environment. Remember, they heckle you because they like you. ;)
One new technology for saving fuel in cars is the 6 stroke engine. This is an engine that has two power strokes for every intake of fuel. The first power stroke is from the fuel burning, the second is from water being injected into the cylinder and boiling rapidly using steam for power. A significant amount of the weight of a car or truck engine is the cooling system. With water being injected into the cylinder after every burn the engine will require no other cooling, this can mean a weight reduction of up to 500KG for a truck engine! It is claimed that this technique can “improve a typical engine’s fuel consumption by 40 percent”. Note that this technique could be combined with the technology in a Prius for even greater efficiency.
Simon Richter wrote an interesting response to my blog about clean energy. I’m guessing that the part of Germany he’s from is similar in some ways to Amsterdam (where I used to live).
In Amsterdam tiny cars are used a lot more than they have been in most places. There is the Smart Car but there is also a tiny car that can only seat one person (I’ll update this entry with a link if someone provides me one). The tiny car appears to weigh ~200Kg, has a maximum speed of 30Km/h, and is narrow enough to fit in bike lanes. Such cars will take little petrol and can be used for shopping. The short-distance car idea is being used by many people already in northern Europe.
Simon suggests having a standard baggage container that fits in all cars. I don’t think that would work as there are many different design factors (parking space, cargo capacity, and aerodynamics) which force designers to choose different shapes.
I think that a better idea would be a standard baggage trailer that could be towed by any small car. It should not be difficult to design a trailer that can be safely towed at 30KM/h behind a tiny car. The supermarkets could rent such trailers to shoppers for a nominal fee. Then most shopping trips could use the cargo capacity of the tiny car, but when buying supplies for a party you could rent a trailer from the supermarket.
Another option is having shops deliver goods to you. I have observed an increasing number of people doing this at my local supermarket. Of course you would still need to take ice-cream home yourself and maybe milk and meat too.
Electric scooters are also a good option for travel. Unfortunately in Australia there are few good options for securing them at the moment. As an electric scooter is light enough to be carried it needs to be chained to something secure. In the Netherlands this wouldn’t be a problem as the bicycle infrastructure includes plenty of bike racks to which you can chain your bike, scooter, etc. Of course the Netherlands is entirely flat so there’s no need for an electric scooter. Melbourne has a lot more hills and most people aren’t fit enough to ride a bike so scooters are needed to replace cars.
Regarding depersonalised cars. That would require a significant social change as currently cars are extremely personalised. One thing that I had been thinking about is the idea of sharing cars with neighbors. For example if you have an apartment building and there are a few people you trust then you could share a tiny car for going shopping. Sharing a car used for driving to work or for entertainment would not work well as the car would spend most of it’s time in use (or at least parked somewhere away from home). Sharing a car that’s used for small journeys would be much easier as such a vehicle would spend most of it’s time at home.
In Australia most families have two cars. One is used a lot (spends maybe 70 hours a week away from home) and the other is used much less (maybe 10 hours a week). Instead of owning two cars it would be possible for families to own one car and share another.
Regarding the Pebble Bed Reactor, could the people who advocate it please read the Wikipedia article. The limiting factor is not thermal expansion (solids do not expand nearly enough) but the Doppler effect (fast neutrons are not as effective at triggering fission). But in spite of that issue, let’s not consider an untested new reactor design to be the savior of nuclear energy. I think that most people who read my blog have a science or engineering background and know from experience that new technologies often don’t work too well in the first version. When a new CPU has a bug it’s usually not a big deal. When a new OS or application has many bugs it’s often expected (expecially when the OS or application comes from a monopolist). But if a new design for a nuclear reactor turns out to have a bug then it will be a more serious issue.
The music sales website www.ripit.com.au has the advertising campaign ripit – don’t rip it off. However the web site displays the below message when viewed on a Linux machine. The “step by step guide on how to enable Firefox” is really a guide on how to get IE code running in a tabbed window in Firefox (so you can get all the security problems that Firefox normally prevents).
Ripit has a big advertising campaign (TV and all the other places) with the slogan “ripit – don’t rip it off“, but it seems that this has the caveat that people who don’t use Windows aren’t wanted as customers. Are non-Windows users expected to “rip off” the music?
What are the options of buying music without dealing with the music cartel? I’m sick of all the things that they do, preventing free trade to articially inflate prices in some countries, ripping off the musicians, putting root-kits on CDs. Eventually the recording industry has to be destroyed. Most money from CD sales goes to the recording industry (not the musicians), the products provided to the customers are of low quality and customers are routinely treated like dirt, the recording industry does no good for society.
From now on I will not buy any CDs or DVDs of music from the recording industry cartel. I will only buy music from web sites that support standard Internet protocols. If a music company doesn’t want to support Firefox then they don’t want my money. For any music industry people who read this, don’t get the idea that I’m unable to pay for music. I have a large collection of CDs (thousands of dollars worth) and was just starting to buy music DVDs when you finally offended me too much.
Thank You for visiting the Ripit Music Store
We have detected that the browser you are using is not compatible with the Music Store that you are attempting to access. This site has been designed to work with Internet Explorer Version 6 or above. Please launch the site in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or click here to download Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.
Also, music can only be downloaded via your Windows PC as this store is not compatible with Macintosh.
If you are using Mozilla Firefox, please click here to view the step by step guide on how to enable Firefox to surf the Soundbuzz Music Store
For a long time I’ve enjoyed reading books by David Brin. Not only does he have some good sci-fi ideas and a good writing style, but he’s also a cool guy when you meet him at a signing. One of the core concepts in a number of his books is the idea of uplift, whereby advanced races use a combination of breeding programs and genetic manipulation to raise animals to a similar level to humans in terms of intelligence and ability to use tools.
I believe that it’s a necessary step in the development of the human species to encounter other species as equals. It seems obvious that a person who was raised in isolation would not be able to reach their full potential (there are many examples of children being abandoned and living with animals, the results are not positive). It also seems obvious to me that a species that is raised in isolation without interacting with other equal species will also be unable to reach their full potential. I believe that the human race needs to meet with another species of an equal level as the next stage in the development of our civilization.
Given the lack of success of SETI programs it seems that uplifting a species such as dogs, monkeys, or dolphins is likely to give better results in this regard than trying to contact non-human intelligent creatures.
Dogs might be a good first choice for uplift because they are well domesticated, this means that you are permitted to own them in residential areas without a license and there are good veterinary services for them. A possible way of starting an uplift program would be for people around the world to buy dogs of some particular breeds and then measure them by some objective scales. There are intelligence tests for animals that could be applied to dogs, the ones that get the best scores would be permitted to breed. Also we would want to breed them for communication ability (the ability to talk) and dexterity (evolve their toes into fingers). The statistics of the dogs and their lineage (don’t want in-bred dogs) could be stored in a database and the breeding program could be done in an open-source manner over the net.
Most domesticated dogs are in-bred to some degree so we would want to cross-breed them to some extent. Poodles are reasonably intelligent and live for a long time so may be good for a start to this program, also blue-heelers, terriers, and labradors are reasonably smart and could be included.
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