How's Jeeves? Don't ask
Traffick is a site all about search engines. Every so often, they conduct in-depth, exhaustive comparisons.
Well, OK, no, what they do is type in a question like
Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?and see how the various search engines do. The results for the above (the answer, of course, being "Mary"):
Mamma: passed
AltaVista: passed, but better using advanced search
Ixquick: passed - make sure you enclose quotes in quotation marks
Metacrawler: passed whether you searched "phrase" or "all keywords"
MSN Search: marginal pass - doesn't find it when you enclose it in quotes
Ask Jeeves: failed
Gunning for wireless users
The Register reports:Swiss police have intercepted a cache of arms that include guns disguised as mobile phones. The phones don't actually work but contain barrels for four .22 bullets and a winding mechanism made to look like an aerial.
A whole day's worth of complete wastes of time
Lost Jungle has 82 online games to play, from Pong and Breakout clones to Missile Command and Centipede clones.
11/30/00
How the new domain names were really chosen
SatireWire has an exclusive transcript of the ICANN session at which the names for new global top-level domains were chosen:Dyson: Next we have .aero
BM #6: OK, five points for style, but how many Aerosmith sites can there be, really?
BM #2: Uh-oh. Steven.Tyler.name.
BM #8: What?
BM #2: Aerosmith's lead singer. He's got a very common name. I'll bet that one winds up in court.
Dyson: Listen, it doesn't stand for 'Aerosmith.' It stands for aeroplane.
BM #4: You're saying 'airplane' kinda funny.
Dyson: It's French. A French consortium proposed the .aero domain.
BM #3: Hey, no fair. They already have .bizarre.
BM #9: That's .biz
Dyson: No, Aeroplane. It's for the travel industry.
BM #1: Why just aeroplane? Why not .train or .bus?
BM #7: I move to approve .aero
BM #8: I move to approve of bus companies!
BM #2: I second aero. That way Steven could use Steven.Tyler.aero.
APPROVED
More Unix phone fun
Yesterday, we discussed a new app that gives you access to Unix shells via any WAP-enabled wireless phone.Today's excuse to never go into the office again is phone.sourceforge.net, which lets you launch a Web-based script over any touch-tone phone (OK, OK, the more astute among you will realize this is not just a Unix thing - it'll work with any Web server).
The service uses TellMe, an automated toll-free service. What you do is register the URL of the script you want to launch (right here), then dial the TellMe number, say the word Extensions and then punch in the right key code to launch your script.
Hours of fun for Web admins everywhere.
11/29/00
Pity the poor PC technician
Despised by the powers that be, the position is rapidly disappearing. But short-sited CXOs don't realize that's the road to ruin, at least, according to Chris Williams, who stubbornly holds onto his PC technician role. In a short essay on NetSlaves, Williams writes:
The PC Technician has been replaced by Tech Support Call Centers, Java-coding whiz kids out of high school, and MCSE'd sysadmins. In particular the sysadmin role has grown to encompass the PC Technician's role, more often than not involuntarily. These people are expected to play God with damaged PCs and LANs every day, as well as perform several hundred other tasks at the same time. Most of them (and I know from personal experience) take care of the network and server problems, and usually ignore the client-end problems by telling them to call a Tech Support Center.Now would you be happy if your computer was broken and the guy who was 'supposed' to fix it just hands you a tech-support number and walks off? I should think not! I'd be damn pissed if someone did that to me!
WAP-enabled shell access
You're on your way home when you suddenly realize one last task you forgot to do on the server. And you realize it just can't wait. Used to be, you'd either have to turn around and go back to work or wait until you got home and telnetted into the machine.
No more. wapsh lets you access a Unix shell account via a WAP-enabled wireless phone. Security's provided by SSL.
Spotted on Infolets.
The world's most Boring Web site
Boring Business Systems has been selling office equipment in the greater Tampa area since 1924. Granted, it's nice to have a company named after yourself, but one wonders why company president A. Dean Boring's family changed the name from Lakeland Typewriter & Supply in 1973.
First spotted on MetaFilter.
11/28/00
Elizabeth Hurley On the Cisco 2600 Series
RouterGod is, without doubt, the second bestest networking Web site in the universe (what's the first? Yer on it, pal).How could you not love a site that interviews celebrities on their networking experiences:
RouterGod staffer Erwin Chiong recently spent the afternoon with Alicia Silverstone. Miss Silverstone has starred in many movies such as The Crush and Clueless and is well known for appearing in 3 Aerosmith music videos. Although she has had a very successful film career, few people are aware of the fact that in her leisure time she enjoys radio astronomy, quantum mechanics and most of all, configuring a Cisco 3620 which sits on a nightstand next to her bed.
Amazingly, the various interviews are filled with useful information - along with gratuitous pin-up shots (at least, of the female stars). Take, for example, the interview with Star Trek's Seven of Nine on OSPF:
Greetings. I have been ordered by my superiors to give you people an introduction into the threat that OSPF poses for your planet. The life force you call OSPF is very intelligent and very dangerous. It is a social creature that can recognize neighboring OSPF enabled routers and it will initiate a dialog with its neighbors.Once your OSPF routers have communicated with their neighbors, they begin to organize themselves into a military like hierarchy with routers occupying roles as Generals, Captains and Lieutenants. During this phase they are still weak. This is called "forming adjacencies". It is during this phase that you should rip your OSPF routers from their racks and beat them to death while you still have a chance.
11/27/00
So many scripts, so little time
Time was, if you wanted to do something fancy on the Web, you did it in Perl. Now, you have so many choices, from ASP/Perl to Zope. What's a Web developer to do?Kee Hinckley has put together a comparison of the various scripting languages, along with a discussion of the varying databases to which all those scripting languages can connect users.
Just in time for the holidays
Of course, you've heard of Lego Mindstorm, a suite of add-on modules for the plastic blocks that let you build Lego robots (and no, I can't believe I just used "suite" and "Lego" in the same sentence).Now you can run your plastic robots in Java, thanks to leJOS, a Java variant designed specificially for the kind of tiny processors (in this case, a Hitachi H8300 with 32K of RAM) found in Lego robotic systems (at least, until they become self-aware and start building their own memory modules).
RELATED LINKS
Compendium archive: Week of 01/21/02 Week of 01/14/02 Week of 01/07/02 Week of 01/02/02 Week of 12/03/01 Week of 11/26/01 Week of 11/19/01 Week of 11/12/01 Week of 11/05/01 Week of 10/29/01 Week of 10/22/01 Week of 10/15/01 Week of 10/08/01 Week of 10/01/01 Week of 9/24/01 Weeks of 9/10/01 - 9/17/01 Week of 9/3/01 Week of 8/27/01 Week of 8/20/01 Week of 8/13/01 Week of 8/6/01 Note: Compendium's entire staff took the week of 7/30 off. Week of 7/23/01 Week of 7/16/01 Week of 7/9/01 Week of 7/2/01 Week of 6/25/01 Week of 6/18/01 Week of 6/11/01 Week of 6/4/01
Tracking down a stolen Mac; Dead C Scrolls; Googlewhacking; How bad is it in the Valley?; Storage lessons from the Wayback Machine; The pub-seeking handheld; Internet gang wars; Outlook XP breaks MIME.
Why should iMac owners have all the eye candy?; Luxo Redux; So you think your job is bad; Google as a DNS replacement? Not so fast; Nokia exec cites stock plunge in speeding-fine appeal; The tragedy of the .coms; The Google parlor game; Some people *like* Steve the Dell Guy; Ban all Microsoft attachments?
Dot-com to bare all; iMac Dance; Wendy's remembers Dave; Search engine bites the dust; Wendy's Web site ignores Dave's death; Geek comic strip; Youngest security expert ever; Spam poetry; Confessions of a hacker; Breathless Apple; Dave Barry does Windows XP.
Dropping everything to vote; The best Apple rumors, ever; Guess Steve Case isn't getting into Harvard; Make your own O'Reilly cover; Boosting your wireless juice; Telnet lives!
This space intentionally left blank (vacation).
The most useless software ever; Is Microsoft getting ready to squash PC vendors?; Excite@Home: The Watergate of the New Economy?; No more 3Com Park. Is CMGI Field next?; Are you an e-bore?; This site'll have you coming and going; Entertainment Weekly's loss of innocence; Ensign Crusher as Entertainer of the Year; Oh, for the old days.
The Museum of Broken Packets; Just in time for Thanksgiving; Tourist Guy found; Why virtual offices suck; A domain ruling that sucks; Hacking the iPod.
Why you shouldn't ship computers via UPS; When .Net requires Java; High-tech grafitti artists; Spam from beyond the grave; New group tries to oversee the whole Internet; Paging Dick Tracy; Students use PDAs to cheat; Windaz for Aussies, Newfies; Another alternative to Passport; A virtual honeynet
Bill Gates: Father of open source; Verizon exec: Monopoly is good; Weird molecule names; E-mail: too much of a good thing?; A cluster of one; More woes for dot-bombers; Spam as weapon in the war on crime; Just when you think the Web can't get any better; Just when you think the Web can't get any worse; More proof I shouldn't be a wiseass; Using your Web logs to ID hacker attacks; Help save the FAQs; Who do you trust, baby?; Powerpuff Girls powerless against virus; Big IP pipe between US, Europe.
The profit of turning thugs into programmers; Work Name Generator; A programmer's lament; The world's best ATM; Are anti-spammers killing people?; Web services and storage; Get your Aerons here; Perl for the XXI-imum century; Microsoft's blocking of non-IE browsers.
Government info taken off the Web since 9/11; Beware hackers who talk too much; A contest you can enter sitting down; Now don't try this in the office; Bob Patterson must die; Finally, a useful 404 page; Tech calls from hell; Teletubbies XP; More XP fun; Anthrax and e-mail; Larry's ID card; World's longest gum-wrapper chain.
Let's drop PDAs on Afghanistan; Voice control? Try grunt control; Spam gets back to business; A content-management portal; Share your system tray with the world; Would you let the recording industry onto your network?; Al Queda's low-tech high tech; 9/11 archive; Shoe company gets open source after all; Pod people, coming soon to a cube near you.
Larry and Scott's dueling ID cards; Cringely: Broadband is dead; The dangers of Photoshop; The dangers of copy protection; Microsoft mining whois for telephone solicitations?; How to REALLY throw a LAN party; Good fences don't make good 'Net neighbors; How Google adapted to 9/11 news; Web services as over-hyped hooey; Why shoe guys shouldn't do open source; Online air hockey.
AT&T waives 9/11 wireless charges for some; Shifting gears; Craig Burton on the Novell/Microsoft suit; In search of the post-PC interface; Vibrating PDAs and wearable phones; Gary Condit's Web site; No, that isn't a real photo of a WTC tourist; How to throw a LAN party; How sucky is your intranet?
For grizzled 'Net veterans; UK ISP forced to pull deceptive ads; Pretty Good encryption controversy; Are you as smart as Miss America?; Really securing your computer; Still lots of insecure IIS servers; Kids, don't try this at home; Anthrax Kills; Larry's national database; Nimda hysteria?
Attack and post-attack items.
999,999,999 bottles of beer on the wall; Finally, a wind-up cell phone; Enough with the ringing!; The VoIP calculator; 802.11b insecurity; Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf explains IOS DHCP; Is ENUM the mark of the devil?; AOL gives user permanent demerit; The Ballmer music video; Cleveland news flash: Y2K was last year.
Re-routing around censorship; Us vs. them in scripting; The boss button; Fighting off the hackers for fun; Peer computing as a weapon of war; Unix poetry; The Windows Fatal Exception Decoder; New Fusion widget: Getting rid of spyware; The sound of 200 cell phones going off at once; Taleban Web site hacked; Hey, sysadmin, remember Sircam?
On the importance of flame wars; Bill Gates sees dead people?; A markup language for grunts and groans; Is Microsoft leaking those Ballmer dance videos?; Good Samaritan not so good?; Steve Ballmer works up a sweat; Open-source wireless cracking; When technology goes too far; Another dumb computer arrest?; Is Cisco Communist?
Moron marketers threaten 'Net users; Finding free wireless access; Complete wastes of time; OS holy war flares in North Carolina; Are programmers weird?; Somebody actually buys an X10 camera; We're number, uh, two!; Those after-hours computer discussions; An entire city running on Linux; Distributed spam fighter under development; Could a Warhol virus infect the entire 'Net in 15 minutes?; Tell AOL what to do with its CDs.
Fusion shatters a myth; Bridging .Net and Java?; AT&T Broadband cuts off non-IIS servers to fight Code Red; Bluetoothless; Tennessee town bites into Apple; And you thought TI-99/4A fans were over the edge; Biometrics coming to your local supermarket; Steve Ballmer a-hootin' and a-hollerin'; Speaking of Web images; Just how far PC prices have fallen; Does Starbucks' CEO get his own wireless strategy?
Crackers getting more sophisticated; Sex and Microsoft Office; The wonders of science, part MXXII; Finally, a useful virus; A shocking game controller; Big Ball of Mud school of programming; Two vitally important new resources; Adobe: Ooops; Eudora Welty, dead at 92; Centralizing Unix administration in Perl; Spellchecking the entire Web.
Worm turns on Microsoft Web servers; The day the ISP died; Cell-phone users have no shame; Even Internet consultants can screw up the 'Net; Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers; The ultimate cup of coffee; The solar-powered ISP; Everhost; Internet VCer: Oops; The Lego Palm and the pink fuzzy laptop; The Microsoft-English dictionary; Putting a loved one in the home.
Saving those all important VoIP calls; This site is a bright idea; Could wireless end messy divorces?; How much will that software really cost you?; Ghosts of failed dot-coms; The spy's guide to securing your Cisco routers; Oprah for Internet czarina?; What's Microsoft doing at an open-source conference?; Like a big pizza pi; Cyber-bullies; Better check your phone bill; Have some birthday pi.
How HP wastes energy to save energy; New toy for the bored and lonely; Weird programming languages; When sponsors are speakers; The case of the disturbing backwards monitor; Congress to ICANN: Drop dead; Yet another video game made into a movie; Smile, you're on Candid (Police) Camera; High-speed hotels; Network Solutions blocking name transfers?
One of the fathers of Usenet dead at 45; Are you ready for insta-spam?; Diary of a site collapse; Skirting the issue; Assimiliating the Web; Trolling for help; Software wars; Rating the rater; True tales from the help desk; How about spam embedded in your mail?
Unix diapers; A beautiful waste of time; A P2P taxonomy; This page is too stupid; Homeless dot-commer bogus?; Whee, Linux is fun!; Blue Screens everywhere; Forget viruses: This fungus eats CDs; Microsoft revises Smart Tags a bit; Homeless dot-commers.
Slashdot crashes the NSA; They may be Smart Tags, but they're not Original Tags; What open source and California wines have in common; Jakob Nielsen no tyro; How to make Windows 2000 really, really secure; Where the Internet begins; A useful computer bug; The clothes make the geek; The end of the Internet; Why PDF bites; Novel use of a wireless phone; Hidden info; When Web sites tell too much.
DSL modems are so '90s; Bye-bye Netscape; Get ready to upgrade those mail servers; The anti-.Net; The real reason to buy a Palm; Anatomy of a DDoS attack; Pain is good.
