Looks like a fascinating post on Amazon wishlists... I was just up on my wish list, poking around -- especially trying to understand its security and privacy features, which it doesn't seem to have -- and came across this article after a web search.
Data Mining 101: Finding Subversives with Amazon Wishlists
http://www.applefritter.com/bannedbooks
A link from Boing Boing:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/04/data_mining_101_find.html
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Studying photography... and Digging for "dirt"
Read the "levels" tutorial at http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/levels.htm (really a well-done site). Would love to be able to print some nice-quality large format prints to put up in my office.
Other sites of interest, found while trawling:
GanttPV - Open Source Project Management
http://www.pureviolet.net/ganttpv/index.html
A blog post: 30 Essential Open Source Packages for Windows
http://www.digg.com/software/30_Essential_Open_Source_Software_Packages_for_Windows
Another link to it: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/01/30-essential-pieces-of-free-and-open-software-for-windows/
Digg.com. Off the hook on Digg: Stack and Swarm -- these innovative interfaces show what is happening on the site in real time.
http://labs.digg.com/stack/
http://labs.digg.com/swarm/
For fun... FreeMind - free Mind-Mapping Software
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
True Combat: Elite. Not that I support violent games, but I cannot deny that my brother Derek and I spent many a night after work at StratosWare, hunched over Wolfenstein and Doom. I was surprised to find a free, open-source version on the net.
http://www.truecombatelite.net/
Detecting air leaks in your home. A couple easy suggestions for reducing or eliminating drafts and cold air in your house in the winter months. Makes it comfortable and saves energy.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11250
Other sites of interest, found while trawling:
GanttPV - Open Source Project Management
http://www.pureviolet.net/ganttpv/index.html
A blog post: 30 Essential Open Source Packages for Windows
http://www.digg.com/software/30_Essential_Open_Source_Software_Packages_for_Windows
Another link to it: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2006/12/01/30-essential-pieces-of-free-and-open-software-for-windows/
Digg.com. Off the hook on Digg: Stack and Swarm -- these innovative interfaces show what is happening on the site in real time.
http://labs.digg.com/stack/
http://labs.digg.com/swarm/
For fun... FreeMind - free Mind-Mapping Software
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
True Combat: Elite. Not that I support violent games, but I cannot deny that my brother Derek and I spent many a night after work at StratosWare, hunched over Wolfenstein and Doom. I was surprised to find a free, open-source version on the net.
http://www.truecombatelite.net/
Detecting air leaks in your home. A couple easy suggestions for reducing or eliminating drafts and cold air in your house in the winter months. Makes it comfortable and saves energy.
http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11250
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Electronics
Surfing up to learn about electronics, in preparation for waging assault on our non-functioning dimmable kitchen low-voltage pendant lights. Primarily, I was motivated by a desire to avoid powerful electric shocks, showers of sparks, or other things involving singeing or smoking.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-16,GGLD:en&q=current+hose+voltage+resistance+electronics+electricity+electrons
Actually, I believe I was investigating light sensors and other realms of automation, such as computer-controlled machines or devices that interacted with the real world. I stumbled across a site that began its discourse on the electronic control ofthings with a study of the underlying foundation of electricity. What a nice confluence of events: have always wanted to play with this kind of stuff, plus learning about electricity might help me with my future kitchen lighting repairs. So for about an hour I studied the nature of electrons (large numbers of them), voltage, current, resistance, and work.
"... we have learned that charge is present in matter in the form of nuclei and electrons. Evidently all these electrical phenomena boil down to the motion of charged particles in matter."
LightAndMatter.com
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-16,GGLD:en&q=current+hose+voltage+resistance+electronics+electricity+electrons
Actually, I believe I was investigating light sensors and other realms of automation, such as computer-controlled machines or devices that interacted with the real world. I stumbled across a site that began its discourse on the electronic control ofthings with a study of the underlying foundation of electricity. What a nice confluence of events: have always wanted to play with this kind of stuff, plus learning about electricity might help me with my future kitchen lighting repairs. So for about an hour I studied the nature of electrons (large numbers of them), voltage, current, resistance, and work.
"... we have learned that charge is present in matter in the form of nuclei and electrons. Evidently all these electrical phenomena boil down to the motion of charged particles in matter."
LightAndMatter.com
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Grocery shopping on Amazon
Amazon is now selling groceries... how cool is that? I went up and ordered a ton of stuff -- the prices are great. It's a bulk-sale concept --most of the items come in four-packs, six-packs, twelve-packs, etc. But what's nice is that instead of humongous packages (like Sam's Club and Costco), the packages are smaller size, which is easier to store, take to work, picnic, etc.
In addition, since I signed up for Amazon Prime, all two-day shipping is free. (See my earlier post on Amazon Prime.)
I returned the next day to find that they also have a personalized "shopping list." One of the reasons this online venture is so exciting to is that I was thinking about it in the early 90's... even prior to the Webvan debacle. With Amazon joining in a sensible, sustainable, usable way, online grocery shopping may be about to hit its prime.
Amazon Grocery beta:
http://www.amazon.com/b/103-5521853-8669441?ie=UTF8&node=16310101
In addition, since I signed up for Amazon Prime, all two-day shipping is free. (See my earlier post on Amazon Prime.)
I returned the next day to find that they also have a personalized "shopping list." One of the reasons this online venture is so exciting to is that I was thinking about it in the early 90's... even prior to the Webvan debacle. With Amazon joining in a sensible, sustainable, usable way, online grocery shopping may be about to hit its prime.
Amazon Grocery beta:
http://www.amazon.com/b/103-5521853-8669441?ie=UTF8&node=16310101
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Sharpening the Saw
Today was the day to tackle computer hardware issues.
My trusty power-forward Dell PowerEdge 400SC would hang on a normal boot and would require manual intervention to boot, using the "Boot Logging" option under WS2003. Then Google KeyHole (the earth viewing software) complained about OpenGL (advanced graphics stuff) not being enabled (makes everything faster). This wasn't a big problem, as the system has been rock-solid stable, and I never have to restart unless a new software app requires it.
But I had installed a pretty capable graphics card -- an ATI RADEON 9600 Pro 256 MB -- and I suspected the display driver. I uninstalled all ATI and Omega drivers, then installed only the ATI display driver (not the Catalyst management package). This worked great -- but now the Dell was freezing occasionally after loading the LSI Logic SCSI driver. Hmmm... not especially good.
I investigated the LSI Logic MPT IS BIOS... not especially clear on their web site, but there was a warning about "IS" BIOS: get your upgrades from your vendor (Dell in my case). A search of the Dell site yielded little. But I checked the PowerEdge 400SC downloads and noticed that the current bios (version A05) was out of date (newest is A10). A system BIOS issue could cause any number of boot issues, so I downloaded the update. Trying to install (flash) the new bios, I received the error "Flash access denied". I will save you the gory details, but I had to burn a bootable DOS CD to be able to run the update... thanks to Nero, it was easy. I also installed a new "backplane driver" from Dell that seemed to be out of date.
The result... Success! The PowerEdge is back to booting normally, and the system is taking full advantage of the power of the ATI graphics card. A very satisfying result for that much playing with drivers: usually the going is a lot rougher.
My trusty power-forward Dell PowerEdge 400SC would hang on a normal boot and would require manual intervention to boot, using the "Boot Logging" option under WS2003. Then Google KeyHole (the earth viewing software) complained about OpenGL (advanced graphics stuff) not being enabled (makes everything faster). This wasn't a big problem, as the system has been rock-solid stable, and I never have to restart unless a new software app requires it.
But I had installed a pretty capable graphics card -- an ATI RADEON 9600 Pro 256 MB -- and I suspected the display driver. I uninstalled all ATI and Omega drivers, then installed only the ATI display driver (not the Catalyst management package). This worked great -- but now the Dell was freezing occasionally after loading the LSI Logic SCSI driver. Hmmm... not especially good.
I investigated the LSI Logic MPT IS BIOS... not especially clear on their web site, but there was a warning about "IS" BIOS: get your upgrades from your vendor (Dell in my case). A search of the Dell site yielded little. But I checked the PowerEdge 400SC downloads and noticed that the current bios (version A05) was out of date (newest is A10). A system BIOS issue could cause any number of boot issues, so I downloaded the update. Trying to install (flash) the new bios, I received the error "Flash access denied". I will save you the gory details, but I had to burn a bootable DOS CD to be able to run the update... thanks to Nero, it was easy. I also installed a new "backplane driver" from Dell that seemed to be out of date.
The result... Success! The PowerEdge is back to booting normally, and the system is taking full advantage of the power of the ATI graphics card. A very satisfying result for that much playing with drivers: usually the going is a lot rougher.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Moving Servers
Brought the Beast back home today: the Dell PowerEdge 1600SC server that houses www.keithbluestone.com, www.sbluestone.com, and a few other sites. It had been at my mom's place since I moved to Baltimore, subsisting on a decent diet of SpeakEasy ADSL at 3Mb down and 768K up (~$100/mo). I found that I could upgrade my home Internet (Comcast residential, ~$50/mo) to Comcast Business (6 Mb down, 768K up) with a static IP for only $30 more per month, saving me about $70/mo and doubling my download bandwidth.
So today I redirected the DNS mapping via www.GoDaddy.com, brought the server over, fired it up, assigned it a local static TCP/IP address, opened up port 80/HTTP on the firewall to let internet traffic through to it, and rebooted. Bam -- worked perfectly the first time.
The Beast is a purebred production server: housed in a solid black Dell case, running SCSI plus mirrored 180 GB RAID drives on Windows Server 2003 and SharePoint Services 2003. No Microsoft Office; no special video cards or drivers; no pretty themes; just a server. And I have never had a problem with it in the three years it's been up.
So today I redirected the DNS mapping via www.GoDaddy.com, brought the server over, fired it up, assigned it a local static TCP/IP address, opened up port 80/HTTP on the firewall to let internet traffic through to it, and rebooted. Bam -- worked perfectly the first time.
The Beast is a purebred production server: housed in a solid black Dell case, running SCSI plus mirrored 180 GB RAID drives on Windows Server 2003 and SharePoint Services 2003. No Microsoft Office; no special video cards or drivers; no pretty themes; just a server. And I have never had a problem with it in the three years it's been up.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
The Joy of Click
Ahhh... I discovered the joy of one-click ordering on Amazon. Now before you scold me -- "it's been around for years, you fool" -- how many of you have actually used it? I always figured I was fine reviewing my orders and checking out the regular way.
But recently I became an Amazon Prime member. Amazon Prime is a program that gives you free two-day shipping on most products, and only $4 for overnight shipping (talk about instant gratification!) for a yearly fee of about $70. I subscribed partly because they offered me a free two-month trial in early December, when -- surprise -- I had a lot of gift plans. I also wanted to perform a social experiment on myself: would my shopping behavior change at all because I could order anything overnight for just $4?
So tonight, four months later, I was looking for a gift for my sister on Amazon... and found an electric water kettle for myself. Out of a sudden curiosity, and before I could think twice, I clicked Order with One-Click. How would they ship it? Would I be charged extra for anything? To my surprise and delight, they had placed the order as two-day (no shipping charge) and used all my saved preferences to ship it to my home.
I had a wave of euphoria come over me as a I realized that with one click I had ordered something shipped to me -- with no extra shipping charge, from a merchant as reputable as Amazon. Now one-click after the decision to buy had been reached, I could have the product shipped to me. What genius...
But recently I became an Amazon Prime member. Amazon Prime is a program that gives you free two-day shipping on most products, and only $4 for overnight shipping (talk about instant gratification!) for a yearly fee of about $70. I subscribed partly because they offered me a free two-month trial in early December, when -- surprise -- I had a lot of gift plans. I also wanted to perform a social experiment on myself: would my shopping behavior change at all because I could order anything overnight for just $4?
So tonight, four months later, I was looking for a gift for my sister on Amazon... and found an electric water kettle for myself. Out of a sudden curiosity, and before I could think twice, I clicked Order with One-Click. How would they ship it? Would I be charged extra for anything? To my surprise and delight, they had placed the order as two-day (no shipping charge) and used all my saved preferences to ship it to my home.
I had a wave of euphoria come over me as a I realized that with one click I had ordered something shipped to me -- with no extra shipping charge, from a merchant as reputable as Amazon. Now one-click after the decision to buy had been reached, I could have the product shipped to me. What genius...
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Of Mice and Market Justice
I was searching for a wireless optical mouse on Amazon, and I found that my item was out of stock, but was available on z-Shops. On z-Shops, Amazon has implemented an eBay-style dialog between buyers and sellers, with feedback scores and merchant ratings. (An indication that we measure the things we're really interested in.)
In the Amazon system more than in the eBay system, at least at first glance, there is a more lengthy dialog between the buyers and the sellers. Could this be a byproduct of Amazon's allowing longer-length responses? It would be interesting to know -- this would be an example of social process constrained by technology.
There were certainly more lengthy and detailed complaints. For example: "RUN FROM THIS SELLER! I HAVE PURCHASE A CAMCORDER FOR $1000 AND IM STILL WAITING FOR IT! I ASK FOR A REFUND BUT THE SELLER WONT SEND IT OR EVEN ANSWER MY EMAILS!"
This was followed by an equally lengthly and detailed answer: "1st - This customer is referring to a sale that took place outside Amazon.com. 2nd - This buyer is misrepresenting the sale. The buyer received new camcorders but still dissatisfied. Upon return of items, demanded refund, then camcorders, then refund, then camcorders....back and forth."
It occurred to me that what we need at this time is a trusted arbiter - someone or some authority who acts in a fair and balanced way to resolve the dispute. It would be trivial for a dedicated ombudsman to request records and other justification to clear the issue up witha ruling. Stretch goal: Make the documents public and allow people to vote (non-binding) -- a true jury of peers. Overwhelming public disagreement with "verdicts" could trigger a re-opening of the decision -- a second opinion for example.
On an unrelated note: Why don't dishwashers allow you to fill them up with liquid soap, then automatically figure out the minimal amount of soap to use? What design genius at Whirlpool missed this feature?
In the Amazon system more than in the eBay system, at least at first glance, there is a more lengthy dialog between the buyers and the sellers. Could this be a byproduct of Amazon's allowing longer-length responses? It would be interesting to know -- this would be an example of social process constrained by technology.
There were certainly more lengthy and detailed complaints. For example: "RUN FROM THIS SELLER! I HAVE PURCHASE A CAMCORDER FOR $1000 AND IM STILL WAITING FOR IT! I ASK FOR A REFUND BUT THE SELLER WONT SEND IT OR EVEN ANSWER MY EMAILS!"
This was followed by an equally lengthly and detailed answer: "1st - This customer is referring to a sale that took place outside Amazon.com. 2nd - This buyer is misrepresenting the sale. The buyer received new camcorders but still dissatisfied. Upon return of items, demanded refund, then camcorders, then refund, then camcorders....back and forth."
It occurred to me that what we need at this time is a trusted arbiter - someone or some authority who acts in a fair and balanced way to resolve the dispute. It would be trivial for a dedicated ombudsman to request records and other justification to clear the issue up witha ruling. Stretch goal: Make the documents public and allow people to vote (non-binding) -- a true jury of peers. Overwhelming public disagreement with "verdicts" could trigger a re-opening of the decision -- a second opinion for example.
On an unrelated note: Why don't dishwashers allow you to fill them up with liquid soap, then automatically figure out the minimal amount of soap to use? What design genius at Whirlpool missed this feature?
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