Links for 2011-07-16

Internet

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

Latest drivers are from 1997. For their machines from that time.
(categories: libretto hardware toshiba drivers)

Official drivers page for the Toshiba 70CT. There are better ones, but these are the fall back.
(categories: libretto libretto70ct hardware toshiba drivers)

I cosplayed as Genderbent Mugi :)
(categories: anime art tumblr k-on keion)

Nice comparison between the Libretto 70CT and an iPhone. Such a compact little machine, a decade before netbooks!
(categories: libretto libretto70ct toshiba photos)

Ultimate low memory use replacement for DOS EMM386 on PCI hardware.
(categories: dos drivers umbpci)

Excellent guide on maximising conventional memory in DOS, provided your machine has the luxury of a PCI bus ;)
(categories: dos umbpci drivers)

"[..] we are generating Java opcodes by walking Perl's syntax tree. This is very different from converting Perl to Java. It's a lot easier!"
(categories: howto programming perl java)

"The most popular scripting languages are available in some form for the Java platform. [..] Sleep is a Java-based scripting language heavily inspired by Perl."
(categories: programming perl java sleeplanguage)


I don’t watch the Emmy awards, but…

Media

Icon from the Tango Desktop Project

Almost none of the Emmy-nominated shows are viewable on Internet-based TV services ~ Peter Cashmore, Mashable

BitTorrent. As I said in my recent DVD post, if you don't give people the choice to get your media online, people will find their own ways.


Links for 2011-07-15

Internet

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

More of a studying site, but still interesting.
(categories: australia history sydney studies engineering)

No kidding. Sad, really sad.
(categories: news space nasa)


My own TechCrunch template

Internet

The CrunchPad from TechCrunch

To make it even easier for you to share your thoughts, I’ve created a handy copy-and-paste note for you to customize and mail back.
~ Paul Carr, TechCrunch

We will, provided you’re able to answer this one for us!

Dear TechCrunch Readers,

Our site has a new design. Rather than deferring all questions and comments to the designers themselves, I decided to patronise my readers who’s advertising viewership pays my salary because:

[   ]  I’m not a fan either but I’ll mock you for thinking the same
[   ]  It’s not as bad as Gawker!
[   ]  Because its “too early to tell” that design elements are misplaced

I assert only professional designers are fit to critique designs because:

[   ]  Designers are the only people who consume our content
[   ]  As a journalist I only critique other journalism

I believe these mock forms are still funny because :

[   ]  They’ve never been done before
[   ]  They haven’t been done enough
[   ]  I’m being ironic lol!

The new site design is fantastic. And if you don’t like it you can:

[   ]  leave a comment leave a comment if you’re on Facebook
[   ]  go to http://tcfast.com/ which doesn’t support us

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read GigaOM :).


Smooth Jazz Nyan Cat

Media

Play Nyan Cat - Smooth Jazz Cover

As a fan of the genre, and an unashamed fan of Nyan Cat, this was a perfect fit!

NoScript (and equivalent) users will have to make a temporary exception for YouTube.com to see the video. And you’ll want to.


Links for 2011-07-14

Internet

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

I'd do this… if I were talented!
(categories: media video singapore)

You can't have a news article about art, then not have any pictures!
(categories: news singapore art design)

Another dubious report by a credit rating agency that didn't see the biggest recession since the Great Depression coming. Forgive me for not taking them too seriously.
(categories: economics eu ireland)

"This guide is for installing Arch Hurd using the LiveCD; if you wish to install from within another distribution, have a look at the Alternate Installation Guide."
(categories: archhurd hurd)

"Welcome to Overthinking It, where we subject the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve."
(categories: funny business movies)

Was published two years before I was! Wait, I was born, not published… [insert metaphysical discussion here]
(categories: retro nostalgia sinclair spectrum games)


A legitimate software question from my sister

Software

Icon from the Tango Desktop Project

ARGH! Why can’t the same software run on everything?!

Of course as developers we know why (the lowest common denominator problem, patents, turf wars), and can point out failed attempts to change this (cough Java), but sometimes it helps to see a less technically proficient user's take on what we've developed as software folk.

I suppose that's where web applications have the potential to shine, provided we move enough people onto standards compliant browsers. I very much doubt we'll ever have a consensus on a standardised desktop API, though I suppose Win32 came awfully close with a de facto one ;).


WordPress’s 8888 ID post of fortune!

Internet

I don't mean to startle you, but this is COLOSSAL NEWS. WordPress assigned this post the ID of 8888! This is an extra 8 than post 1888, and therefore even luckier!

What a coincidence, I just ate

For those unsure as to its significance, the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese cultures given the number sounds like their word meaning "to generate wealth". Phone numbers and licence plates in Singapore and Malaysia with 8s regularly fetch tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and apartment blocks and floor numbers with 8s are considered safer and fetch premiums over other floors in the same complex.

I can only assume the 8th stations on the MRT are also lucky (Paya Lebar, Marsiling, Farrer Park and Dakota). I wonder if living near those is prosperous? Closest I ever lived to any of these was Farrer Park, but it was still a ways off. Newton was a cooler station anyway, it was bright orange.

Photo of Paya Lebar station, by mailer_diablo on Wikipedia

That's clearly Paya Lebar, not Newton. What a dumbarse.

I had a point here somewhere…

Oh yeah, number 8! I must admit until this post I was ignorant of the fact, but 8 is also a highly regarded number in Japan as well! From the Book of Knowledge:

Eight (八 hachi, ya) is also considered a lucky number in Japanese culture, but the reason is different from that in Chinese culture. Eight gives an idea of growing prosperous, because the letter (八) broadens gradually.

I assume by letter they mean kanji. Looking it up on Wiktionary yielded another nugget of fascinating knowledge:

八 is two bent lines that signal divide. Eight is the single-digit number that can be divided by two the greatest number of times.

He has a lot of character

So here we are at post ID number 8888. Granted this is far less impressive than 8888 actual posts, but nonetheless a reason to celebrate and to receive some luck. Right?

I reach my actual 8888th post in… 5105 posts from now. That's practically nothing, better start planning what I'm going to write about, assuming I'm still writing absolutely riveting, educational and entertaining posts like this when that number rolls around.


When legit isn’t better

Media

Icon from the Tango Desktop project

Now, this is all for a product you as a consumer have taken the time and effort to pay and bring home to your house. In other words, you bought the [DVD] legally, but the studios still petulantly want you to hear them whining about piracy, and have no evident interest in giving you control to use it as you wish.

Bill Wyman commenting in Slate about DVDs. I think this argument can be made about most so-called legal distribution channels, whether it be optical media with unskippable FBI warnings (as I blogged in 2006), or downloaded media with DRM, or playing media with HDCP.

Cheapskates will always pirate content, but a growing number of consumers do so simply because the legitimate product is less convenient, or timely. It's their beloved free market at work; media companies aren't making products people want, and they only have their greed and short-sightedness to blame, not the internet.


Ten disturbing things about the Interpol filter

Internet

No Filter, No Censorship, No Great Firewall of Australia

On Saturday, Renai LeMay poignantly makes the case against the Interpol filter in Australia with five points. It's the best summary I've read so far, but I have a further five to bring us around to an even ten. David Letterman might use them.

His points in a nutshell

  1. Telcos aren’t informing users
  2. There is no civilian oversight
  3. The law in unclear
  4. The potential for scope creep is strong
  5. There is no open and transparent appeal process

My points

Icon from the Tango Desktop Project

6. It will ultimately be ineffective

The telcos that have misguidedly implemented such a system want to appear they're doing something to stop the spread of child pornography, but Interpol's DNS based filtering scheme is even more simple to bypass than what Senator Conroy is suggesting.

As I've repeatedly stated here, every point about the ethical and financial burdens such a system introduces are entirely moot as long as this stands.

7. It can potentially implicate the innocent

Technically competent internet users regularly and legally use their own or alternative DNS servers for privacy and speed reasons. Requests from these users will be indistinguishable from those who have elected to use alternative DNS servers to access illegal and/or filtered content.

If we follow this Interpol filter to its logical conclusion, it's not inconceivable that ISPs could begin to demand usage of their own DNS servers in their terms of service, and those that don't could find themselves implicated alongside people distributing banned content. The social implications are obvious.

8. It encourages precedent

Assuming ISPs resolve Renai's first point and are honest with their customers, this filter is setting a worrying precedent that could be used to justify the more sweeping and comprehensive filter schemes Senator Conroy is proposing. I can see the talking points now: "The Interpol filter was benign and worked great, and our filter will be even better!"

Complacency, and acceptance of this as the status quo are what terrify me.

9. The Interpol filtering scheme itself is misguided, and won't save children.

Plenty has been written on this point already, but the fact that certain large ISPs are so willing to implement this raises serious ethical questions.

10. We've always been at war with Eastasia