Futil v2.4 available for download

I've posted futil v2.4 on SourceForge for download.

This minor release includes two new scripts:

• mhp - Modify Headers parser (useful for sorting and manipulating the header definitions in the Firefox Modify Headers add-on).
• purl - Parse URL script (parses one or more URLs on the input displaying them in an easy format for human eyeballs to read :-)

Enjoy!

Don't count that you can out-run that robot

Check out this interesting article on onmiwheels, robots will be able to change direction much faster than we can ;-)

Optimal settings for better PDF presentation on a Kobo eReader

Through experimentation, I found a set of MS Word 2007 settings that will allow a PDF to be generated with optimal presentation and pagination experience on the Kobo eReader.

SSL may not be good enough...

Some interesting findings were presented at this year's Black Hat conference. See this AP story to read more. This conference take-away recap is also interesting.

How to install the Ruby gem command

I hunted around for this for a surprising time and decided to post it here, because I couldn't find one place that said, "This is how you do it!"

To install the Ruby gem command on your Linux system:

1. For Ruby 1.8.5 or less, download rubygems-1.3.5.tgz:
      pushd ~/Downloads
      wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/60718/rubygems-1.3.5.tgz

2. Unpack it in /var/tmp:
      pushd /var/tmp
      tar -zxf ~/Downloads/rubygems-1.3.5.tgz

3. Run setup.rb as root:
      pushd /var/tmp/rubygems-1.3.5
      sudo ruby setup.rb --no-ri --no-rdoc

That will do it! Now you can use gem to get lots of other useful Ruby packages :-)

My eReader Choice

I'd been watching the eReader market for a while with interest. At first, it was only Amazon and Sony, then Barnes & Noble jumped in. I didn't like the complexity of the Kindle, although I had to admit it has awesomely crisp and readable print.The Sony units would handle PDF documents, but they were pricey and were too bulky for my backpack.

One day, I visited a B&N store and handled a Nook live. I was surprised at how thick and heavy it felt. Silly me, I was also expecting a full color display, not realizing that only the small navigation LCD can do color. I liked the combination of features, but Nook and the other candidates were pretty pricey for me. So I passed on it and decided to wait a while longer.

Then, a month ago, I found out that Borders was jumping in to the fray with the Kobo eReader. I was immediately intrigued by the Kobo, as it seemed to offer simplicity, a comfortable feel, and was thin and light as well. Although it lacked wireless connectivity, I didn't care, because I usually have a laptop handy anyway. And the price (at that time) was half the cost of the others! So, I visited my local Borders store and ordered one; and it arrived at my door within ten days. Now, I'm happily eReading books and PDF docs that I wouldn't have been able to truck around in my backpack otherwise! SWEET :-)

Droid does - but do you want it to?

I'm perplexed by the "Droid Does" (tm) marketing blitz, which seeks to deflate the sails of a certain smartphone that doesn't run apps concurrently, etc.

The thrust seems to be "We allow full access to the platform, and they don't!" But, I'm thinking, do you really benefit from that? For one thing, it's an open door to virus, phishing, and commandeering abuse - and who really wants more of that?

Sounds like they should re-visit their marketing message to me.

Comcast testing DNSSEC for customer use

Interesting article in Ars Technica about how Comcast has started making DNSSEC available for customer testing. I've set my gateway to use the servers and it's working just fine. If you're a Comcast customer, you might want to try it out.

Open Source Easter Eggs

Well, it's almost Easter and here's a cool article from Ars Technica about Open Source Easter Eggs :)

Gaming and AI

For those who haven't read Daniel Suarez's Daemon, it's an exciting and riveting read. Some of the extrapolations in the book are becoming eeriely accurate; for example, see the following IEEE Spectrum article.

Cloud Storage Drivers

On-line collaboration services are well-suited for hosted storage within the cloud. Services like on-line groups, blogs, wikis, and the like will easily drive the growth of cloud storage, since it's accessible from anywhere, allows storage consolidation for all client types, scales uniformly, and can be backed up easier than locally-hosted storage.