Monthly Archives: January 2006

Google at work on desktop Linux

January 31, 2006Nerd, TechnologyBen Wann

Looks like the folks over at Google are really keeping busy on their 20%. I might just have to download this when I find it, and reformat the ol linux machine.

Google is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business – desktop software.

A version of the increasingly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, based on Debian and the Gnome desktop, it is known internally as Goobuntu.

Google Maps Plugin For WordPress

January 24, 2006AJAX, wordpressBen Wann

I cant tell you how grateful I am for this plugin. It has saved me sooo much time!!!

Not sure if I should thank Chris or Abigail, but Chrisandabigail.com
… You ROCK!

Â» Google Maps Plugin For WordPress
Google Maps Plugin For WordPress

Well, it appears that I have a version that I can release to the public of Phoogle thatâ€™s been modified to work as a WordPress plugin. Everything seems to be working great; I added an admin page so that you wonâ€™t have to edit the plugin to make changes to the Maps. As of right now you can display maps with the default setting size or add custom width, height, and zoom to the specific post, You can display the regular Google Map or you can display the map as a Satellite image. You can plot multiple points and add information about each individual point using some simple HTML.

The great thing about this plugin unlike most of the Google Map plugins is that you donâ€™t have to know the quardinates of each point on the map to plot points. I found it to be a real pain in the ass to go and find the Latitude and Longitude of each address I wanted to display on my map. So with the Phoogle approach, you only need to know the address to plot points on a map. If you are a Geo GPS geek then you can also plot points by using the quardinates if you wish. The one bad thing about this plugin (I havenâ€™t corrected this part yet) is that you need to have the Exec-PHP plugin for WordPress to add points and custom settings to your maps.

A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0

January 17, 2006Nerd, rants, TechnologyBen Wann

I love Jeffrey Zeldman. As a young and aspiring web developer, living rent check to rent check, I feel personally close to this article. Web 2.0 has been an interesting trend, much talked about, and yet hard to find or actually define. Read this article to find a particually well defined view of what the wrong version of Web 2.0 is. The web today will not be the same web tommorow. Business has been redefined by the internet, and those companies which don’t see that will get farther and farther behind. The concept of value though has not fundamentally changed. The internet does force

Without further ado, please, read this article, and become wise with the ways of Zeldman….. and the force, when you get a chance.

A List Apart: Articles: Web 3.0
Web 3.0
by Jeffrey Zeldman

Web 3.0

Some small teams of sharp peopleâ€”people who once, perhaps, worked for those with dimmer visionsâ€”are now following their own muses and designing smart web applications. Products like Flickr and Basecamp are fun and well-made and easy to use.

That may not sound like much. But ours is a medium in which, more often than not, big teams have slowly and expensively labored to produce overly complex web applications whose usability was near nil on behalf of clients with at best vague goals. The realization that small, self-directed teams powered by Paretoâ€™s Principle can quickly create sleeker stuff that works better is not merely bracing but dynamic. As 100 garage bands sprang from every Velvet Underground record sold, so the realization that one small team can make good prompts 100 others to try.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

I, Cringely: Win Some, Lose Some

January 13, 2006Nerd, rants, TechnologyBen Wann

Ever since I first saw the three part video series The Triumph of the Nerds, I have loved Bob Cringely’s “I, Cringely” column. He recently released his predictions for 2006 on January 5th. Of these I find that #4 is really interesting to me:

4) Enough about Apple. Google will continue to roll out new products and services as it builds out its infrastructure for a huge push in 2007. They’ll need money, of course, so I predict a supplemental stock offering timed with a 20-to-1 stock split. 2006 is a building year for Google.

Will it be a building year for Google? If so won’t Google want a web product that is aimed at getting the world more fit through information and collaboration? They will. They will buy Collabofit. If they don’t, then Yahoo will.

All right, the 2006 predictions for Ben Wann are over. See you in 2007

Here is the rest of the I, Cringely Article.

I, Cringely: Win Some, Lose Some

Now for this year’s predictions:

1) This one is easy: Apple will eventually announce all the products they were supposed to have announced at this week’s MacWorld show, but didn’t, including a bunch of media content deals, a huge expansion of .Mac to one TERABYTE per month of download capacity per user, a new version of the Front Row DVR application, and two new Intel Macs with huge plasma displays, but with keyboards and mice as options — literally big-screen TVs that just happen to be computers, too.

2) The reason Apple changed its MacWorld announcements at the last minute was because the company sued little Burst.com a few days before, trying to invalidate the Burst patents. But since Apple sued Burst, Burst shares have gone UP by 30 percent. The market is rarely wrong. Suing Burst was an enormous mistake for Apple, casting a pall on their video strategy and potentially costing the company strategic alliances with networks and movie studios. Apple realizes this now and is struggling internally to find a way to change course and put a positive spin on the course correction. Apple will lose and Burst will win, and Apple won’t be able to afford to wait for the courts to decide anything, since time is critical in staking out Internet video turf. I predict that Apple will eventually take a license from Burst, that is UNLESS SOME OTHER COMPANY (Google? Real? Yahoo?) doesn’t snatch up Burst first. Here’s something I’ve noticed lately: Big companies believe in patents as long as they are talking about THEIR patents. Because Burst is three guys in an office in Santa Rosa, companies like Microsoft and Apple tend not to take them seriously. They forget that Burst spent 21 years and $66 million developing that IP, and the company has code that is still better than anything else on the market — code not even Microsoft has seen. Unless someone buys the company first, Burst is going to win this and eventually license the world. They are in the right, for one thing, and in practical terms they now have as much money for legal bills as any of their opponents. Apple can’t win this one.

Continue reading →

Subversion Properties – SVN:ignore

January 12, 2006Nerd, TechnologyBen Wann

This will actually help to not let .DS_STORE files into a Subversion source code repository.
Protect yourself, beforeyou wreck yourself I say! (Note taken from the early english saying “Check yoself, befo you wreck yoself!”)

SVN Properties
svn:ignore

The svn:ignore property contains a list of file patterns which certain Subversion operations will ignore. Perhaps the most commonly used special property, it works in conjunction with the global-ignores run-time configuration option (see the section called â€œConfigâ€) to filter unversioned files and directories out of commands svn status, svn add, and svn import.

The rationale behind the svn:ignore property is easily explained. Subversion does not assume that every file or subdirectory in a working copy directory is intended for version control. Resources must be explicitly placed under Subversion’s management using the svn add or svn import commands. As a result, there are often many resources in a working copy that are not versioned.

Mac OS X 10.4: How to prevent .DS_Store file creation over network connections

January 12, 2006Nerd, TechnologyBen Wann

This is really going to be helpful, as I often times need to make photoshop files on my powerbook, but then have to move these files over to a windows machine that is running Apache Tomcat to serve up web applications. .DS_STORE files are the bain of the existence of anybody trying to run a source code repository, as they often time make their way into the repository if people aren’t watching.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out this post if you dont want .DS_STORE files to ever make it into a subversion source code repository.

NO MORE!!!!!

Mac OS X 10.4: How to prevent .DS_Store file creation over network connections
This article contains advanced material intended only for those who are looking for information on .DS_Store files. If you do not already have an opinion on this matter, you can disregard this article.

To configure a Mac OS X user account so that .DS_Store files are not created when interacting with a remote file server using the Finder, follow the steps below.
Note: This will affect the user’s interactions with SMB/CIFS, AFP, NFS, and WebDAV servers.

1. Open the Terminal.
2. Type:
defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true
3. Press Return.
4. Restart the computer.

If you want to prevent .DS_Store file creation for other users on the same computer, log in to each user account and perform the steps aboveâ€”or distribute a copy of your newly modified com.apple.desktopservices.plist file to the ~/Library/Preferences folder of other target users.

These steps do not prevent the Finder from creating .DS_Store files on the local volume. These steps do not prevent previously existing .DS_Store files from being copied to the remote file server. Please note that disabling the creation of .DS_Store files on remote file servers can cause unexpected behavior in the Finder.

Sacramento Web Developers SIG Â» Blog Archive Â» A Better 404 in WordPress

January 9, 2006Nerd, Technology, Web 2.0, wordpressBen Wann

I will be implementing this in my blog in the near future! Thanks very much SWD!

Sacramento Web Developers SIG Â» Blog Archive Â» A Better 404 in WordPress
A Better 404 in WordPress
When I think of handling 404 errors in the best way possible, there is no site that comes to my mind faster than Mike Davidsonâ€™s. I mean, heâ€™s got â€˜em nailed. Iâ€™m not going to link up a non-existent page on his site, but do yourself a favor (so weâ€™re all on the same page) and go try it out.

Ok good, you see all that? He automatically does a search for what he thinks you were looking for. If only one result is returned from the search, he automatically sends you to that page. Even more, when a 404 happens you also get a search bar right at the top of the page with the guessed search term already filled in. Pretty. Pretty. Pretty good.

benwann.com

all our base are belong to me