Category: Uncategorized

mydiary.com is closed. They spammed the entire internet into using this site, got a user base of about 50,000-100,000, then closed without warning. All of those people pouring their hearts out online, forming the habbit of using that for their personal diaries. Kind of a crappy thing to do. But, it does show us what internet business model not to follow, they made every mistake you can make. Spam, overloaded and overwhelming banner ads, disregard for quality of service, no improvements on existing service, and a rude shutdown that clearly demonstrates how they value and respect their users.

Everyone in the linux community is jibber-jabbering about Micro$oft porting Office to linux. I can’t imagine that this is true, I would believe that this rumor has a lot to do with a couple of things that are all loosely related.

a). LinuxWorld is going on right now. The entire I.T. world vibrates when a major conference like this takes place. From this event today, we learn that Michael Dell himself is more than interested in linux for his desktop empire. Stories will stream non stop from this until it’s over. Anytime you get that many people in a room talking about one thing, rumors fly.

b). Microsoft knows that open source development model is not just a trend, they aren’t stupid. They are technology people too, the open source values speak directly to the ID of a technology person. It’s not ever going to blow over and people love free stuff coupled with the open exchange of ideas. Every scientist, technologist, and developer will live, die, and stand by the open exchange of ideas. Now, problem is… how does everybody make money on it? There are hundreds of bloody fisted turnip squashers out there ready to ring the life out of the whole thing. They’ll distribute, document, consult, preconfigure, train, certify, and sell you a t-shirt and god knows what, for a fee… Microsoft is the master at this construct.

c). Finally, Microsoft has no interest in getting that pig to compile on 22 different linux flavors, not to mention 22 different UNIX flavors. Sheesh, I can imagine the virus protection companies becoming richer than Micro$oft. What I can especially imagine is that a terminal services like client could connect a linux box to the .NET and run Office apps with a subscription and a fee. Just like the Win32 (l)users will be able to. That makes perfect sense… absolutely, perfectly brilliant.

Problem is with rumors, they are usually just that… rumors.

You are right. On this machine and the others in my sphere of influence, it worked with all versions of I.E. from 4.0. But, I found a machine that gave me the error. It’s not a big deal and won’t crash your browser. Now, the button works again for just about everything thanks to Joe’s scripting.

Hey Dean. Swith the script back to mine for your tell dean button. Yours works only on this page in Netscape. It does not work when saved as a bookmark in Netscape. It doesn’t work on the page or in the link bar for IE.

This one works in Netscape on this page and when saved as a bookmark. It works in IE on this page and when put into your links bar. It does show a runtime error in IE but it is the notorious “line x char 1”, but it works fine none the less.

Not much to say, I have been busy downloading, testing, and installing the latest versions of linux here in the bowels of the paxtonland labs. So far I have downloaded Redhat, Mandrake, Slackware, FreeBSD, and Open Linux (Caldera). Having never worked with downloaded ISO images before, so it’s a new experience for me. For those that aren’t quite sure what I’m talking about, let me explain a bit. An ISO image is a standard file format that you can use to create an actual duplicate of the distro CD’s that you’d order from a linux catalog, or website such as redhat.com. Saves me quite a lot of money, I’d have over $400.00 wrapped up in “Official” cd’s by now…. this way it’s free minus the time spent downloading.

Okay great but, why go through all of this? I really needed to see which one was cleanest install and easiest to get up and running. It’s been a year or two since I’ve installed any version of linux on any machine. I use UNIX (BSD) every day for years and years as well as administering everything from AIX to Solaris, to HP-UX. But my linux skills have quite a gap. I’m going to get Debian and SuSE next, that will give me enough to make knowledgeable reccomendations. I’m documenting my steps from start to finish and making a lot of notes. So look for more details from me here at a later date linux guides are in the paxtonland future… yes, more rumors about the TAP project.

From The 10 Seconds of Fun Dept: I can Dance if I want to! -submitted by Carol.

The “tell dean” button has been rewritten back to it’s original state. Now, the button works with whatever webpage you happen to be viewing. You use the button in two ways:

1). You can hit the button to post here, just backspace over the default link and title, put in your comment/link and hit “Post and Publish.” Simple 🙂

2). You can drag the button to your ie/netscape toolbar, or you can right click on it and bookmark it. Then while you are at a page that you’d like to post here, just hit that button on your bookmark or tool bar and the address and title will be filled in for you.

Yep, chances are, you’re using NSCA HTTPD or Apache. Both support file and directory protection at the OS level without mucking around with javascript/perl/asp acrobatics. Bignosedbird.com has a good generic guide as to how to create a .htaccess file and set it up properly. Also, here’s a pretty good one. Finally, to be totally redundant, darkwing has another adequate guide to getting this done. I’ve done it before, it’s not too hard.

Dean, sorry but I’m still getting the runtime error. I’m using IE 5.0 by the way. And while I’m at it, thanks for the Access links. And also while I’m at it, do you know if UNIX supports password protection for files–like html files? I’m looking to password protect some web pages at the server level instead of dicking around with some shitty client side scripting.

“Michigan targets Internet crimes against kids” (via Federal Computer World). Seems like Michigan State Attorney General, Jennifer Granholm has been pushing efforts like this for a long time. It was shot down in court last year. Now, I wouldn’t want to be identified as equating illegal activity with freedom of speech. Note, we aren’t talking about offering for consumption pornographic material depicting children, but providing pornographic and dangerous (leaving plenty of room for spot definitions) materials to children.

Granholm has set up a special high tech crime unit and has been among the nations most vocal advocates for censorship. She has been sued by the ACLU, both at the state level and nationally for her heavy handed, broad, and ill defined approach at censorship on the internet and in public libraries. She was also among the first state prosecutors to make buying, or selling perscription drugs online a crime. Specifically GHB, but also by definition, practice, and enforcement includes your Grandma’s antibiotics and heart medication that she can get for 75% cheaper than Rite Aid. Further, she was among the first state prosecutors to get h(is)er name on the antitrust suit against Microsoft.

Why on earth does this woman have such a drive to control the internet and what you can and can’t do online? I especially hate these technophobic baby boomer career politicians/lawyers that use the very same technology (that they can’t use or comprehend) to further their names and reputations as lawmakers. They don’t care if your kids see pornography. They don’t care if they are picked up by an internet stalker. They especially don’t care if Microsoft has a monopoly, alleged or otherwise. As long as they see their name in print every week. She (and some others in Florida and Maryland) figured out fast that internet law is the key to the future of political litigation and personal exposure as a result. Put her on your most dangerous lawyer/politician list and watch for her as a rising star in the next 10 years, more evidence of democratic controlling socialist nonsense.

A couple of people have been telling me that they’ve been having problems with the “tell dean” link. I’m not sure what browser or OS people are mostly using. If I went by popular standards, I would be close in guessing Win32/Internet Explorer. So, I’ve tried every browser I have (pretty much all of them) on every win32 platform (pretty much all of those too). I couldn’t get it to crash. It also works with Netscape and Mozilla on Caldera and Redhat 6.2. So, I’m at a loss. I’ll redo the code behind the “tell dean” button. Please let me know if you have anymore problems with it.

Tom, here’s what I find in my bookmarks on Access:

– A pretty good overview, but kind of dated
– Tony’s Main Microsoft Access Page is a good collection of links and references.
– A better reference by some professional comany… not bad, but I didn’t read the whole thing.

Thanks for that link about colors and graphics. I’m always trying to explain this to people, now I can just send them there…

Found on arstechnica, liberzine.com has an artlcle that really puts the whole music/literature electronic distrubution model into perspective. Good reading. Good site if you are a cool, hip, and connected libertarian like I know many of you are (myself included).

Hey, this is kind of cool. Interested in web colors and graphics? Check out this link.

Does anyone here consider themself a Microsoft Access 2000 expert? I have some serious Access database security issues I would like to discuss with someone. Or does anyone know of any good Access 2000 links other than Microsoft ones?

(Branding on the Web is like Mining for Fool’s Gold – moreover.com) Good god, when have we heard this before? Sspecial note to Custom: It shouldn’t take an expert to point this out, it’s just plain common sense. Especially when good people, that you are paying, are telling you this.

Say hello to the Macromedia university pointed out by Dan

what skulls?

paxtonland is already out of style. With the thousands and thousands of weblogs out there now, how can I hope to compete? I’m being told left and right that this format is passe’ and that I’ve made all of the passe’ options for passe’ pages… mailing lists, polls, my bio, my pics, the links on the right hand side… Need evidence of my opinion? Then read “Bloggers – The Personal Pages of Today”. He’ll tell you how very droll this all is. Bad thing, I heard him and I kind of agree with what he is saying.

Rich, it already exists. It’s called Medicaid. My mom almost died several times about 4 years ago and she was not old enough for Medicare and yet was forced into retirement because of the company she worked for went out of business and thus did not have medical insurance coverage.

She was in U of M’s critical intensive care unit for over 3 months. From the day she went in I started to fight so that she would get Medicaid and so that the incredibly skilled and dedicated doctors at U of M would be paid for their services. She received it and they got paid. Anyone can get medical care if they go to an emergency room.

If the Federal Government got involved with “socialized medicine” per Hillary, it would have destroyed the best health care system in the world….ours.

Mozilla M17 is released. Perhaps this is the answer for me, the builds are in alpha and getting better and better. It’s getting to be a pleasurable experience, finally. My suggestion to you all is download it and try it for yourself.

Everyone is freaking out over the latest Netscape scandal: Almost 1,000 users affected by Netscape security hole and Netscape flaw displays hard drive. Oh boy, here we go again…

Rich, socialized medicine? You are kidding, right?

I’ve moved the mailing list from greenspun.com to egroups.com. I love the greenspun service, but I think there will be more options and features with eGroups. If you have subscribed to the mailing list at greespun, you’ll still receive the newletter. If you did not subscribe and wish to get the paxtonland newsletter, please feel free. The newsletter is meant to be a semi-private mailing list for the friends and family of paxtonland… Only those users may send mail to this group. it’s not a spam list, I will never send you anything but personal news, family updates, and things I write.

Thanks to all of you who stick with the changes here at paxtonland. The number of visitors is nothing short of amazing, as is the number of members. Thanks, thanks, thanks to all who contribute.