Categories
Technology

Mind the email virus

I’ve had an unusually high number of email virus attempts to wreck havoc on my tender little system today. My quarantine area of Norton is beginning to resemble fly paper in a particularly hot, moist, and odorous climate. (This is where you all go “Ewwww, yuck!”)

Of course you all know not to open emails (not even for review) that don’t have a subject line, right? And you all know not to have email preview/review turned on with Outlook, right?

Ah, I love the coming of Spring. Green leaves, flower buds, warmer winds, and fresh, happy little computer viruses digging their busy little way through the Internet, chipping away at each node like it’s a particularly tasty little tender tree root…

…that it then STRIPS of all nutrients, leaving it withered and dessicated, brown, and crumbling in the hot noon day sun before moving on like a RAVENING HORDE to the other trees in the forest until the whole damn Internet is just one desert with us as pack animals HOWLING in the night desperate to find each other in a system that’s no longer functioning!!!

Ahem. Ah. Well. Hmmm.

It’s okay. I’m all better now. Just a little posting to say “Mind the Email Virus.”

Categories
Technology

Visual C++ helper function

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I popped over to bumr for a minute and came face to face with this Visual C++ code. Whoa! Work!

And yes, as noted in the comments,  _bstr_t and _variant_t are darn handy. Almost make VC++ palatable at times. The problem with Microsoft’s Visual products isn’t that they aren’t powerful. The problem is you have to really dig to find the nifty helper functions to make your life easier.*

Users shouldn’t have to dig for information about how to use a product. This is equivalent to “if you have to ask directions, you can’t afford to use it” in attitude. Arrogant.

*Another problem is that going Microsoft’s way usually implies total buy-in to the MS way of doing things; I still own my soul, thank you very much.

 

Categories
Technology

P2P Networks

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I checked out Circle as well as Chord as P2P networks. These are excellent efforts and should be note to anyone who is interested in P2P systems. As with KaZaA, much of the P2P cloud is transient and located on the peers themselves. The folks at Userland should look at how this can be done with Radio 8.0 if they want a true, distributed backend to the product.

I have a feeling the cloud part isn’t the issue — it will be the Radio backend and this assumption of one controlling application per weblog. At least, that’s what I found when I started peeking around a bit. Perhaps folks more knowledgeable about Radio will have a better idea.

Back to the P2P systems: aside from a key entry point (and all of these systems need this and there’s a reason why) the P2P clouds are without iron. Aside from the key entry point.

Why is the entry point needed? Because each P2P circle is too small (yes it is) to make it efficient to send a bot out into the open Internet, knocking at IPs looking for a specific node of any one of these systems. All P2P systems are too small for this to be effective, Napster, Gnutella, and so on. Think about it — how many nodes are online now in the Internet? I wouldn’t even try and guess the number but I imagine millions and millions. Now you have a P2P network with about 200,000 nodes. Needle in haystack. Right?

Well, not necessarily. Depending upon the dispersion level of the nodes of the P2P network, it might not be that difficult to find an entry node into the network. So with a bot and a handshake protocol implemented at each node you could have a golden gateway — an entry point totally without iron.

However, the problem with this approach is you then have to have a bot for every system you want to join: Groove, Gnutella, Circle, and so on. What a pain.

Wouldn’t it be better to have all these systems provide a common form of identification as well as a common handshake and direction protocol and then have one type of bot that’s smart enough to tap on the door of the nearest P2P system and say “I’m looking for so and so”? And wouldn’t it be better to have each system learn about the others when contacted, such as when a bot returns to a node with a connection into Circle, it also happens to have information about the nearest golden gateway node to Gnutella?   And would it be such a resource burden to have the node check every once in a while to make sure it’s neighboring nodes are still online? So that when our bot of discovery comes calling, it’s given up to date information?

What’s the cost of a ping?

You know, I have so many bots crawling my servers that I’m amazed it’s still standing at times. But none of them work together. If they did, and if they were smarter, and if our sites had something a bit smarter than just open ports, firewalls, or web servers — then maybe we could do without DNS and centralized repositories of information such as UDDI.

Just some more grand ideas to throw out and see if people think I’m full of little green beans again.

Categories
Weblogging

Wired on Weblogging

Wired has an article out about weblogging. If we all clap our hands and think happy thoughts will the mainstream journals that psychoanalyze weblogging to death go *POP*, do you think? I’m willing to give it a try.

My special thanks to Rogi, Dave D., Julian, Tom, Justin, and Chris for expressing curiousity and interest about what I’m discussing within the TechBlog. Particular thanks for folks who question the ideas I’m throwing out, and suggest other approaches or technologies.

There is nothing more discouraging than to become excited about something and then receive silence. Dave in particular caught it — dozens of comments for Radio, zip for discussions about smart web services.

If my ideas are full of horsepuckey — tell me! You may find that the ideas are good, but my expression of same lacked clarity. Of if they are a case of been there, done that — tell me! You may find that I’m taking a different approach than one you’ve tried. If you think the ideas have been implemented elsewhere — tell me! I’ll learn, they’ll learn, dammit we’ll all learn.

You don’t have to be nice — I can take “you’re full of little green beans”, and return it share for share.

We could really have some fun.

Categories
Weblogging

Weblogging Feb 18 2002

Chris, otherwise known as Stavros the Wonder Chicken (Waeguk is not soup) counts me as part of his virtual neighborhood.

After reading today’s posting I feel priviledged and honored that he would say so. Not many could face such early losses and come away with such inner strength as Chris has. And we’re richer for his sharing his life with us.

Chris, I regret that the neighborhood is virtual and that you’re on the other side of the planet, because I bet sharing a brew and a chat with you would be a highly rewarding experience.

-earlier-

Well, I’ve managed to snap at two of my favorite weblogging people tonight. I should quit now before I antagonize the rest.

To those who’ve been the recipient of bites today — my apologies. To those others who managed to avoid the bites — lucky yous.

-earlier-

Jonathon responded to my note on nobility and death.

One clarification: I am not taking away from the nobility of the actions of a person in how they face death, or the actions they take before death. I consider these to be the last acts of life.

But to use nobility in reference in death in order to somehow make the act acceptable or more palatable — for newscasting or for politics — is wrong.

-earlier-

Steve talks about our current “war on terrorism” and its impact on the language we use today. For instance, we say “hero” instead of “dead” when referring to a dead soldier.

There is no nobility in death, only in the lives we lead. Trying to make death pretty or noble hides what it really is — the loss of a life and the hurt and the pain and suffering of those who are left behind. The unfulfilled potential.

-earlier-

One person somewhere in the Universe will really hate my new color scheme. One person somewhere in the Universe will really love my new color scheme. The rest of the Universe will fall in between.

I can live with this.

-earlier-

Reasons to own a cat — from NJ Meryl:

It’s a little disconcerting to think of yourself from a cat’s-eye-view. But then again, it’s a lot comforting to be followed from room to room by a small, purring creature who only wants to stay within arm’s reach because he loves you so.

-earlier-

Updated Mike Sanders is continuing the discussion began here this weekend about weblogging and introspection. I missed the fact that Anita Bora also weighed in on this issue, as did From the Treetop (who happens to be listening to U2’s All that You Can’t Leave Behind, as I am at this time).

I like Mike’s comment: It is interesting how a “Do Your Own Thing” response can sound so authoritarian. I also caught that, and for a moment this weekend I was ready to burn brightly into the velvet black of a weblogging night (fried Rogi, anyone?). But then my foot hurt and my mind went in other directions.

Thoughtful commentary and what I would expect from Mike. Even though he’s not had Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream.

I’m OK. You’re OK. Weblogging is OK.