AlanBarber.Org
Saturday, July 31, 2004
John Kerry is coming to town
So it appears that John Kerry is coming to my town. Ugg. If that’s not bad enough they’re closing all of downtown down for him. Instead of just going to one of our fine parks or some other location to talk they’re setting up the stupid event in the middle of the street! That’s right! The middle of the street in downtown which is also a state highway! There is heavy traffic on that road 24/7/365.
It’s not even just a single block where he’ll be speaking. It’s about 5 blocks long and a block on either side of the main street. That’s just about the entire city when you get down to it. I don’t care who you are, you don’t shutdown a city like this. Of course this is nothing new really. This town loves to shut down this area for all sorts of events from car shows to art festivals.
Anyhoo, I’ll be getting together with some of my former College Republicans and protesting. We’ll make some silly signs tonight and meet up tomorrow afternoon. The only thing I really wish for would be rain. It’s not suppose to but it would be so great if a major storm rolled through right as the event was suppose to start.
Friday, July 30, 2004
Plans for next Toledo Nerd Dinner
Discussion has started for the next Toledo Nerd Dinner. It appears tentatively scheduled for August 5th at the same location as before, EasyStreet.
The first one was fun so I highly suggest anyone in the Toledo, Ohio area that is interested to think about attending. Last time it was rather open ended and everyone just sort of chatted about random topics. It will probably be the same at least for the next one too. Hopefully in future ones there can be some topic chosen and a presentation of some sorts take place. I don’t think the presentation would be anything fancy just someone that is knowledgeable about a topic could do a short talk. I think that would make it more interesting for everyone that attends.
Please stop by A Short Domain Name and leave your comments about the time, location, etc.
on 07/30/2004 at 07:09 PM
Computers & Technology • General • (0) Comments • Permalink
Monday, July 26, 2004
Visual Studio 2005 Express
This is pretty cool. It looks like Microsoft has finally realized that Visual Studios is just plain overkill for the hobby and student programmers. They’ve created stripped down versions of all their language products.
I’m really happy to see this. Although I have no problems using Visual Studio Professional I know it is rather complex and overwhelming for most people. The hobby or student programmer just wants a simple IDE Integrate Development Environment) and compiler for their language. Something they can start up and get coding without become confused and bewildered with all sorts of mostly useless junk.
They’re still in beta so not much is known but it appears the Express Editions will be very small in size and features so that they could be downloaded and while not free will probably be very cheap. These are the two things I would expect being designed for hobbyist. A hobbyist doesn’t want to have to build a top of the line computer in order to do development and they sure don’t want to have to spend hundreds of dollars on development tools.
Check out the website and read up. These might be a good choice for those interested in playing with software development without going into it full bore.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
System Administrator Appreciation Day
Friday, July 30th, 2004 is System Administrator Appreciation Day.
This is the day when you’re suppose to take the time to acknowledge all the hard work those computer gurus do for your business. Similar to the Secretary Day you are suggested to buy a gift for the sysadmin. Of course unlike most secretaries you can’t get away with flowers. Sysadmins are techies and would want some cool new gadget or toy.
Personally, I suggest instead of buying a gadget or toy that bosses do something nice for their sysadmin and authorize their purchase orders! They probably have a large list of hardware and software they want to buy to upgrade the business’s systems that you’ve probably refused in the past. Do them and you a favor and let them get that hardware and software!
You can learn more about it at the official website http://www.sysadminday.com/.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Sunday, October 17, 2004 at 9:00pm eastern to be exact!
Dedicated Farscape fans - 1
Money grubbing tv execs - 0
Excuse me while I go do a happy happy joy joy dance for a moment…
ok I’m back! 
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will be a 4 hour mini-series based upon what was planned for the 5th and final season of farscape. That was before the ass-hats at Sci-Fi went and cancelled it. The main goal though is that they are able to clean up the cliffhanger that was left at the end of season 4.
Not much about the story is known but as time goes I’m sure the plot will get leaked. Of course the obvious thing and in my mind all that I really care about is that Aeryn will have the baby. Probably not until the end of the mini-series but I don’t think they would skip this one crucial and important area. They know every fan wants to see that baby.
Anyways, I’m just really excited and can’t wait. It’s been over a year and a half since the series was cancelled. It was announced on Friday, September 6th, 2002 for those that didn’t know. This was in the middle of the 4th season and just a few months after SciFi had made a big announcement about being excited to renew for the 4th and 5th season, which would be the last.
In this time the fan base has done an amazing job at mobilizing and working to get the show back. They’ve spent both time and money, something like over $150,000.00 I’ve read. Several full page ads were bought in magazines and newspapers, radio and even tv spots were produced to get the word out. When the first groups mobilized I did help out a bit. I wrote letters to way to many tv execs and hung out in chat rooms for the first few months. After a while though I did pretty much give up hope. I still stopped by the SafeFarscape/WatchFarscape website every once in a while but that was about it.
So remember to watch starting Sunday, October 17, 2004 at 9:00pm eastern.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
New Wireless Network
Well what a wonderful day today. Apparently both the DLink DWL-1000AP Wireless Access Point and the generic 10mb network card that was connected to the WAP gave up the ghost today.
I’m really not sure what happen. It was working fine this morning when I left to go on my bike ride. However, when I got back about 2 hours later the network was down. I tried the usual things like powering down the WAP, resetting, etc. Nothing world work. I finally admitted defeat and went to staples to buy a new WAP.
I bought the Linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router (model number BEFW11S4). This is a major upgrade from that old DLink WAP. The DLink 1000AP is just a wireless hub where as the Linksys is a WAP, 4 port switch, and broadband router all in one. I’m only using the WAP and switch features.
The network is setup like this:
Internet via dialup modem <-> internet sharing desktop computer <-> Linksys router
Then there’s a desktop and a laptop that have 802.11b wireless nics installed.
So that’s it for the network. I know it’s not the fancy but hey I like it. There are a few nice features of the Linksys wap that I really do like. It’s mainly the nice browser based control panel. The DLink had a browser based control panel but it sucked horrible and lacked many features.
Security wise the Linksys is a bit better. Basically, I use a four pronged prevention method. First, I change the SSID from the default. You need to know the SSID to get onto a network so if you use something original it’s harder for someone to get in. Second, I disable SSID broadcasting. This keep the WAP from announcing itself to the world. This means to connect to the network you have to know the SSID since you can just wait for the WAP to tell it to you. Third I use WEP encryption. WEP is flawed and useless but it’s at least another layer to make it harder to get into the network. Forth and final, I use MAC address filtering. I tell the WAP to only let my two wireless cards on the network and to ignore any others. Again MAC spoofing is really easy but it’s another layer of protection.
These 4 things make the network more secure than if you just left everything out in the open. Of course I live out in the country so location alone makes me pretty secure. I highly doubt there are that many people, if any, that are going to go war driving around here. This is rural so hackers aren’t going to waste their time out here. They know 1) 90% of the population is old farmers that don’t have computers 2) any that do probably have macs or old compaqs and no wireless networks and 3) there’s no broadband out here so if they do find an open network they won’t be able to steal bandwidth to download illegal software, music, etc.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Software That Lasts 200 Years
Dan Bricklin has written an interesting essay on what he calls “Societal Infrastructure Software.” Dan Bricklin is one of the co-creators of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program.
The essay entitled “Software That Lasts 200 years” is about this so called “Societal Infrastructure Software.” That is software that is part of the infrastructure of society. Things like programs for controlling traffic lights, IRS databases and programs, software for power plants, etc, etc.
Basically, this essay is about the idea that the development and usage model for these software systems needs to be thought of in a different light from the current commercial nature in which we have. This is definitely some very interesting reading to say the least. I’ve actually discusses some of these ideas and issues in my Social and Ethical Issues in Computing class at college. That was probably one of my favorite courses because it did make you think about serious things.
Dan points out four specific areas of software development that should be thought about:
1) Testing and licensing of software engineers
I’m definitely a supporter of the idea of having software developers be licensed professionals. Such as with doctors, architects, lawyers, etc. Now I’m not saying that all programmers must be tested and licensed. Since that does destroy the entire idea of hobby programming, etc. However, for software systems that will be used or effect the public I think you should require that it be done by properly trained and licensed professionals. I sure don’t like the idea that software running an nuke power plant could be written by any old joe programmer.
2) The needs for standards bodies to publish best practices and enforceable rules
Sure there are standard bodies like IEEE, W3C, etc that publish standards. However, these are really just standards for working together. Things like TCP or HTML are standards but they’re about just providing set ways for people/systems to share information. There really aren’t any standards out there that tell a programmer that he/she must do mandatory checks of incoming data to prevent buffer overflows and that failure to do so would prevent you from using the software.
3) Ways to inspect the work and check for problems
Similar to number two when you have standard bodies that have specifications and requirements that are enforceable, you then need a way in which to verify the proper creation of the software. Just as there are building inspectors there should be software inspectors. When software is created for the public society there should be trained professionals that can look at and test the system for compliance before it’s ever used.
4) What to do when things go wrong
This goes back to the first point about software running a nuke plant. I’d like to know that a properly trained and licensed developer wrote the software. That way when something does go wrong he can be sued, be fined, have his licensed removed, etc. That alone provides a major incentive for the developer to take the extra time and make sure they didn’t make any mistakes. This is very much why there should be a professional level for software development. There has to be a level of accountability to protect the public.
I really do think that the software development world need that credibility that you get as by having a professional organization. I busted my rear off and graduated with a degree in Computer Science. For all the work I did I still have to compete in the job market with people that may have learned their skills from reading books like “Teach yourself C++ in 21 days” or “Learn Visual Basic 6 in a week”. Not to say there is anything wrong with that for some software dev jobs. However, it still does make me a bit upset.
I mean sure being a licensed doctor or bar certified lawyer doesn’t means you are guaranteed a job but it does help because you only have to compete with a much smaller and higher skilled group of individuals.
Now people will probably reply with something about how that’s what certifications like the CNA, MCSE, A+, etc are for. Let’s be honest here people. Just about anyone can pass those tests and again they don’t provide the benefits that a professional organizations would for the points discussed above.
So take some time and read the essay. It’s a must read in my opinion.