freshmeat.net: Project details for interface preprocessor for PHP
“The ippfp library provides methods for creating and rendering user interfaces in PHP independent of output format. It features XHTML, GTK, ncurses, and PDF. You can create input masks such as forms for databases.“
DittyBot: iTunes on Your Phone
Plastic Bugs – Home of the ‘Original’ GIMPshop » Blog Archive » DittyBot – An Applescript Adventure
“You send a text message from your mobile phone to your POP email account. Your text message should contain the keywords of a song title (and possibly an artist name) that you want to hear. DittyBot finds that email (he checks Mail every 45 seconds) and copies the song name into a text file. The song name is then copied into iTunes and a playlist is created from your search. Next, DittyBot loads Skype (the internet telephony app) and begins calling your mobile phone. Your mobile phone rings and when you pick it up, you should hear your song start playing in all its compressed glory. “
Picked this up via MAKE blog. While it is all about using AppleScript for cool iTunes stuff, it does provide a bit of a road map on how we can get Classcaster to route around complex menuing issues. Following the Dittybot map, a student sends an email to a specific address including the name of a lecturette in the message. We grab this via POP, extract the info, locate the MP3 and then have Classcaster call the number associated with the from address and play the lecturette. Will require user registration, but it could be a cool feature.
Why Is RSS So Important?
particletree – The Importance of RSS
This essay started out as an explanation for Google’s foray into personal portal pages, but morphed into “a comprehensive breakdown of the state of RSS, taxonomies, advertising, and how it relates to the future of Google.” What follows is the result of several months of observation, notes and contemplation.
Good article. Raises the question: are RSS subscriptions the next search? I guess I better get to work on my social aggregator…
Microsoft Releases June Patches
Microsoft offers three ‘critical’ patches in monthly security update – Computerworld
“In its monthly security bulletin update, Microsoft said the three critical patches should be applied immediately to guard against remote attackers being able to take complete control of a user’s compute“
New Linux Kernel Release
InformationWeek > New Linux Release > Linux Fans Greet New Kernel Release, Version 2.6.11.12 > June 14, 2005
“For users of the kernel, the more interesting feature may be the addition of Xen, which is a virtual machine monitor, which enables multiple operating system images to execute concurrently on the same platform. Xen is included with the 2.6.11.12 kernel as a standard configuration option, meaning it doesn’t have to be added in manually via a cumbersome series of packages and patches.“
Moving from Windows to Linux, A Starting Point
Windows to Linux: A Beginner’s Startup Guide – www.reallylinux.com “If you have any experience with Windows, the switch to Linux will be relatively simple. Truly, the biggest challenge is to find the tools and applications you need in Linux. This beginner HOW-TO article will hopefully give you plenty of ideas how to access those key tools and how they relate to Windows.“
This is a good article for those about to chase the penguin:) It includes links to a number of other good pieces on transitioning to Linux and using the applications you will find on the Linux desktop.
Sun Set To Release OpenSolaris
Sun releasing OpenSolaris technologies via open source | InfoWorld | News | 2005-06-13 | By Paul Krill
“OpenSolaris will run on Intel (Profile, Products, Articles) x86 and 64-bit AMD Opteron systems as well as on Sun’s Sparc hardware. Sun hopes to leverage the operating system by offering support packages. The company also is hopeful that seeding the market with OpenSolaris will boost demand for its portfolio of other products, Goguen said.“
When released, OpenSolaris will be available here.
Gentoo Founder Signs With Microsoft
Slashdot | Gentoo Founder on his way to Redmond
“Recently former founder of Gentoo Linux, Daniel Robbins, has managed to procure employment with Microsoft. Robbins describes his position as “helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects.” Seemingly there’s no scandals as Robbins managed to finalize the transfer of all Gentoo’s IP to the Gentoo Foundation, Inc.”
Microsoft Follows Chinese Censorship
BetaNews | MSN Blocks ‘Forbidden Speech’ in Blogs
“Following the lead of competitors Yahoo and Google, Microsoft has blocked the use of words such as “democracy” and “human rights” in some of its services for Chinese users – including its Spaces blogs. The move is likely to appease the Chinese government, which has strongly urged Web sites to self-censor themselves.“
OK, I get the part about needing to follow the local laws of a country, but come on. The scary part is that this could set a corporate precedent for bowing to governmental pressure to censor speech on the web even in a America. Suppose our government decides that certain words or phases needn’t be written on the web. Who will stand up to them to demand our rights?
Building a Linux Virtual Server Cluster
NewsForge | Building a Linux virtual server
“With the explosive growth of the Internet, the workload on servers providing Web, email, and media services has increased greatly. More and more sites are being challenged to keep up with the growing demands and are employing several techniques to avoid overloading their servers. Building a scalable server on a cluster of computers is one of the solutions that is being effectively put to use. With such a cluster, the increasing requests can be easily managed by simply adding one or more new servers to the existing cluster as required. In this article we will look at setting up one such scalable, network load-balancing server cluster using a virtual server via the Linux Virtual Server Project.“