search results for software
After a year and a half working with some of the smartest and most competent engineers I've ever met, it's time for me to part ways with BitPay. I've had the opportunity to be deeply involved in the design, implementation, and deployment of some incredible technologies, but we're turning a page in the story of Bitcoin's rise and it's time to start exploring the new chapter.
BitPay continues to paint an incredibly compelling picture as to what the decentralized future looks like – we worked on some incredibly far-reaching and massively impactful ideas, including:
- [ChainDB][chaindb], a distributed database backed exclusively by the Bitcoin blockchain.
- [Copay][copay], a truly decentralized wallet & identity management platform.
- [BitAuth][bitauth], a secure authentication mechanism for peers on the web, using
the `k1` curve.
- [Impulse][impulse], a method of securing zero-confirmation transactions.
- [Foxtrot][foxtrot], a completely encrypted data transmission network.
- [Bitcore][bitcore], a library of common software functionality to glue everything together.
You might notice a few common themes. Let me point out the two most important.
Firstly, that everything here is open source (with the notable exception of ChainDB). Open source, and more importantly [free software][free software], is a very big deal to me. Prior to joining BitPay, I was [open sourcing education][coursefork], [contributing to open source software](https://github.com/martindale), and [speaking on the importance of open source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuYLWdG-lP0). Some of the things I'm most proud of are the things _other_ people built with the things _we_ gave away – _that's_ the real power of open source.
Secondly, that everything here is based on Bitcoin, not some alternative blockchain. BitPay was a firm believer in Bitcoin as the exclusive platform that would secure the post-fiat era, and that belief has held strongly with me before and after my departure. Until a more compelling alternative to Bitcoin emerges,
One of the other exciting things to come out of BitPay was the emergence of [DECENTRALIZE][decentralize], which we formed last fall with a few of our fellow employees. DECENTRALIZE has become [an acclaimed content source][cointelegraph:decentralize] in the latest resurgence of decentralized thinking, and now it gets to be a much bigger priority for me.
Before I joined BitPay, I'd put a lot of work into [Maki][maki], a framework for making full-stack application development significantly easier. Maki took a bit of a back-burner position while I was focusing on my work at BitPay, so I'll be redoubling my efforts to see that vision through. In fact, I think now's as good a time as any to share that vision.
To that end, I'm starting a new project named Fabric. I'd like to entirely eliminate centralized servers on the Internet and catalyze the development of an entirely new class of economic actor. More details soon.
As we embark on our next journey, let's always remember the carefully selected input used to create [the Genesis Block][genesis]:
> The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
[chaindb]: https://bitpay.com/chaindb.pdf
[copay]: https://copay.io/
[bitauth]: https://github.com/bitpay/bitauth
[impulse]: https://impulse.is/
[foxtrot]: https://github.com/bitpay/foxtrot
[bitcore]: https://bitcore.io
[decentralize]: https://decentralize.fm
[free software]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
[coursefork]: https://coursefork.org/
[maki]: https://maki.ericmartindale.com/
[cointelegraph:decentralize]: http://cointelegraph.com/news/114496/leaders-in-bitcoin-broadcasting-pandoras-box-is-open-and-theres-no-going-back
[genesis]: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Genesis_blockReplies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Compelling Narratives using Augmented Reality+Google Glass has, for better or worse, shaped the narrative around augmented reality this past year. We've seen the arms (eyes?) race rapidly develop, culminating recently with the
+YCombinator-backed
+meta announcing their "SpaceGlasses" [1], one of the first truly compelling experiences built around a convincingly capable device [2].
The hardest part of augmented reality is not the hardware, nor the computer vision software—both extremely difficult academic challenges in their own right, and certainly not to be taken by the faint of heart—but in the
experience.
These problems will be solved, through no small effort, but they
will be solved. The most daunting challenge is to build a compelling story that binds the available data (read "the Internet") to the real world, and exposes it in an unobtrusive and seamless fashion. This too will emerge naturally, but early pioneers in the space need to think carefully about the application of augmented reality in order to succeed; no one wants a world filled with advertisements [3], and in fact—some even try to eliminate them [4].
Here,
+Field Trip attempts to builds one such compelling story. The experience of contextual information making
itself available
without interrupting your interactions with the real world is so tantalizingly close you can feel it, but one wonders just how much control the user will have over the frequency and relevance of the information "popups". In the early days of the software industry (late 60s, early 70s), an ongoing debate between the [then] default of free software vs. closed software unfolded, setting the foundation for today's conversation around open source and free [5] software. I'll be talking more about this in a presentation at the upcoming
#RTP180 : Open Source All Things event [6] in North Carolina.
It's another step forward for ubiquitous augmented reality, an exciting one indeed, but one that won't achieve mass adoption until the user can control their own experience [7].
[1]:
https://www.spaceglasses.com/[2]:
SpaceGlasses are the future of computing[3]:
https://vimeo.com/8569187[4]:
http://unlogo.org/pages/about[5]: that's free as in
libertas, not as in
gratis.
[6]:
http://www.rtp.org/rtp-180-open-source-all-things[7]: I recently started a project to this effect called "Para", a client-agnostic peer-to-peer network for implementing a data layer on top of the real world. I'm seeking collaborators! Check it out:
http://para.io
Attachments
Field Trip on Glass
Heads up! Your city is trying to tell you something. The history, architecture, insider tips and hidden gems from over 100 local publisher partners come to l...
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Compelling Narratives using Augmented Reality+Google Glass has, for better or worse, shaped the narrative around augmented reality this past year. We've seen the arms (eyes?) race rapidly develop, culminating recently with the
+YCombinator-backed
+meta announcing their "SpaceGlasses" [1], one of the first truly compelling experiences built around a convincingly capable device [2].
The hardest part of augmented reality is not the hardware, nor the computer vision software—both extremely difficult academic challenges in their own right, and certainly not to be taken by the faint of heart—but in the
experience.
These problems will be solved, through no small effort, but they
will be solved. The most daunting challenge is to build a compelling story that binds the available data (read "the Internet") to the real world, and exposes it in an unobtrusive and seamless fashion. This too will emerge naturally, but early pioneers in the space need to think carefully about the application of augmented reality in order to succeed; no one wants a world filled with advertisements [3], and in fact—some even try to eliminate them [4].
Here,
+Field Trip attempts to builds one such compelling story. The experience of contextual information making
itself available
without interrupting your interactions with the real world is so tantalizingly close you can feel it, but one wonders just how much control the user will have over the frequency and relevance of the information "popups". In the early days of the software industry (late 60s, early 70s), an ongoing debate between the [then] default of free software vs. closed software unfolded, setting the foundation for today's conversation around open source and free [5] software. I'll be talking more about this in a presentation at the upcoming
#RTP180 : Open Source All Things event [6] in North Carolina.
It's another step forward for ubiquitous augmented reality, an exciting one indeed, but one that won't achieve mass adoption until the user can control their own experience [7].
[1]:
https://www.spaceglasses.com/[2]:
SpaceGlasses are the future of computing[3]:
https://vimeo.com/8569187[4]:
http://unlogo.org/pages/about[5]: that's free as in
libertas, not as in
gratis.
[6]:
http://www.rtp.org/rtp-180-open-source-all-things[7]: I recently started a project to this effect called "Para", a client-agnostic peer-to-peer network for implementing a data layer on top of the real world. I'm seeking collaborators! Check it out:
http://para.io
Attachments
Field Trip on Glass
Heads up! Your city is trying to tell you something. The history, architecture, insider tips and hidden gems from over 100 local publisher partners come to l...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Compelling Narratives using Augmented Reality+Google Glass has, for better or worse, shaped the narrative around augmented reality this past year. We've seen the arms (eyes?) race rapidly develop, culminating recently with the
+YCombinator-backed
+meta announcing their "SpaceGlasses" [1], one of the first truly compelling experiences built around a convincingly capable device [2].
The hardest part of augmented reality is not the hardware, nor the computer vision software—both extremely difficult academic challenges in their own right, and certainly not to be taken by the faint of heart—but in the
experience.
These problems will be solved, through no small effort, but they
will be solved. The most daunting challenge is to build a compelling story that binds the available data (read "the Internet") to the real world, and exposes it in an unobtrusive and seamless fashion. This too will emerge naturally, but early pioneers in the space need to think carefully about the application of augmented reality in order to succeed; no one wants a world filled with advertisements [3], and in fact—some even try to eliminate them [4].
Here,
+Field Trip attempts to builds one such compelling story. The experience of contextual information making
itself available
without interrupting your interactions with the real world is so tantalizingly close you can feel it, but one wonders just how much control the user will have over the frequency and relevance of the information "popups". In the early days of the software industry (late 60s, early 70s), an ongoing debate between the [then] default of free software vs. closed software unfolded, setting the foundation for today's conversation around open source and free [5] software. I'll be talking more about this in a presentation at the upcoming
#RTP180 : Open Source All Things event [6] in North Carolina.
It's another step forward for ubiquitous augmented reality, an exciting one indeed, but one that won't achieve mass adoption until the user can control their own experience [7].
[1]:
https://www.spaceglasses.com/[2]:
SpaceGlasses are the future of computing[3]:
https://vimeo.com/8569187[4]:
http://unlogo.org/pages/about[5]: that's free as in
libertas, not as in
gratis.
[6]:
http://www.rtp.org/rtp-180-open-source-all-things[7]: I recently started a project to this effect called "Para", a client-agnostic peer-to-peer network for implementing a data layer on top of the real world. I'm seeking collaborators! Check it out:
http://para.io
Attachments
Field Trip on Glass
Heads up! Your city is trying to tell you something. The history, architecture, insider tips and hidden gems from over 100 local publisher partners come to l...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Compelling Narratives using Augmented Reality+Google Glass has, for better or worse, shaped the narrative around augmented reality this past year. We've seen the arms (eyes?) race rapidly develop, culminating recently with the
+YCombinator-backed
+meta announcing their "SpaceGlasses" [1], one of the first truly compelling experiences built around a convincingly capable device [2].
The hardest part of augmented reality is not the hardware, nor the computer vision software—both extremely difficult academic challenges in their own right, and certainly not to be taken by the faint of heart—but in the
experience.
These problems will be solved, through no small effort, but they
will be solved. The most daunting challenge is to build a compelling story that binds the available data (read "the Internet") to the real world, and exposes it in an unobtrusive and seamless fashion. This too will emerge naturally, but early pioneers in the space need to think carefully about the application of augmented reality in order to succeed; no one wants a world filled with advertisements [3], and in fact—some even try to eliminate them [4].
Here,
+Field Trip attempts to builds one such compelling story. The experience of contextual information making
itself available
without interrupting your interactions with the real world is so tantalizingly close you can feel it, but one wonders just how much control the user will have over the frequency and relevance of the information "popups". In the early days of the software industry (late 60s, early 70s), an ongoing debate between the [then] default of free software vs. closed software unfolded, setting the foundation for today's conversation around open source and free [5] software. I'll be talking more about this in a presentation at the upcoming
#RTP180 : Open Source All Things event [6] in North Carolina.
It's another step forward for ubiquitous augmented reality, an exciting one indeed, but one that won't achieve mass adoption until the user can control their own experience [7].
[1]:
https://www.spaceglasses.com/[2]:
SpaceGlasses are the future of computing[3]:
https://vimeo.com/8569187[4]:
http://unlogo.org/pages/about[5]: that's free as in
libertas, not as in
gratis.
[6]:
http://www.rtp.org/rtp-180-open-source-all-things[7]: I recently started a project to this effect called "Para", a client-agnostic peer-to-peer network for implementing a data layer on top of the real world. I'm seeking collaborators! Check it out:
http://para.io
Attachments
Field Trip on Glass
Heads up! Your city is trying to tell you something. The history, architecture, insider tips and hidden gems from over 100 local publisher partners come to l...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
There's some discussion about how forums are or are not social media, (frankly, I don't think there's any question at all) - and it occurred to me the answer of why there is this rift in perception of forums/message boards.
Message boards haven't changed in almost 25 years. There simply hasn't been any real innovation - and that's why there's so much "real" social media out there that's exploding right now. The stuff is so radically different from traditional mediums such as forums that everyone is missing the core of what social media is: community engagement and interaction
So, here are some of the things I'd like to see in a forum, and some things that I've implemented on some of my own forums (heh, or at least planning to implement):
Trackbacks
It'd be awesome to have the same functionality in a blog post that we have on Wordpress or other blog software - did I give credit to someone? Let me hit the trackback API to make sure there's a connection between the two posts in the semantic web.
A forum thread is no different than a blog post. It has a topic, a goal, and a discussion pertaining to the original post. Let's see some of the functionality we found in the current decade put to use!
Native RSS Support
There's nothing worse than having to write an RSS extension for your forum, and still not have the functionality you want. Give every URL on my forum a /feed, please. This includes forums, threads, posts, users: the whole shebang.
While you're at it, tell Feedburner to support filtered feeds - a lot of my users don't want every single post. And I sure as hell don't want to burn a new feed for every forum. C'mon, let's meet somewhere in the middle.
Semantic URLs
Blogging software does it, why do we still have URLs on forums that use IDs right there in the URL? What benefit does that have to the user?
Social Profiles
Alright, we've got friends and foes lists on our forums, now - but where is the option to make this information public? Why aren't we displaying a users' friend list on their profile page by default? What about all their most recent posts and actions, and selected excerpts?
A community can only grow in a stifled manner if interaction between members isn't made as easy as humanly possible. Current forum software is stuck in the 90's, with an XHTML wrapper around it. Let's fix this, and soon - before we all melt.
Real Metrics and Algorithms
Stop using post count as a legitimate metric. This only encourages poor post quality. Let's see the ability to easily show Flesch-Kincaid, average word count, or something similar. The amount of posts a user has is not a good valuation of their contributions.
Instead, replace these with something more community-driven. Look at Digg for example. There is a solid (questionably) algorithm in place that measures users based on what they've submitted and the reactions of other users' reaction to that content, whether it be a comment or a submission.
Maybe I'm just whining. Maybe I've got legitimate desires. What do you think?
P.S.: And good god, phpBB! Why didn't you include this stuff in your phpBB3 release?!
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In every installation that requires a CD key, there should be a button. The button should say something along the lines of:
"I'm pirating, skip serial and install."
I really don't care if it reports me to whatever company made the software, I really don't. Just install the damned software.
--
Eric Martindale
IT Professional
Admin of GWing.net
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I've been in the market for my dream phone for almost a year now. Products have been released left and right, but none of them seem to have the functionality that I am desiring. Okay, I admit - "phone" is a bit misleading. What I'm really looking for is a smartphone... no, not a smartphone, a digital companion.
Things I'm looking for:
- Phone
- Camera
- Media Player
- Freedom
PhoneI want a mobile phone with what has become industry standards, including the dual-mode functionality of GSM and WiFi connections. I should be able to take this phone to any service provider, and get service using this device, keeping both my number and my contacts.
CameraI want a decent camera that gets decent lighting. While a 2 megapixel camera is about the range I'm looking for, most important is the quality of the resulting pictures. The functionality of a modern-day camera should be available, including light temperature and balance. I should be able to record video using this, as well.
Media PlayerI should be able to play any format of media on this device as I can play using my home Linux box. OGG, MP3, MPEG, AVI...
FreedomI wish to be able to install software freely, from wherever I may choose. If I choose to install emulators and play me some NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games, I should be able to do this freely, and have the necessary hardware resources to do this. I want to be able to make changes to my device's software at any point in time. I should be able to sync my calendar, to do list, and contacts with my choice of repositories.
I'll grow and review this as necessary. Until then, the Apple iPhone looks bitterly disgusting, while the Motorola Q's use of Windows continues to push me away.
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If you don't control the program, the program controls you.Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at
code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”
—
+Douglas Rushkoff I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of
+Mark Zuckerberg,
+will.i.am, and
+Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
[1]:
https://plus.google.com/112353210404102902472/posts/MVQXyw9EJDE
Attachments
What most schools don't teach
Learn about a new "superpower" that isn't being taught in in 90% of US schools. Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Ton...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
If you don't control the program, the program controls you.Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at
code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”
—
+Douglas Rushkoff I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of
+Mark Zuckerberg,
+will.i.am, and
+Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
[1]:
https://plus.google.com/112353210404102902472/posts/MVQXyw9EJDE
Attachments
What most schools don't teach
Learn about a new "superpower" that isn't being taught in in 90% of US schools. Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Ton...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
If you don't control the program, the program controls you.Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at
code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”
—
+Douglas Rushkoff I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of
+Mark Zuckerberg,
+will.i.am, and
+Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
[1]:
https://plus.google.com/112353210404102902472/posts/MVQXyw9EJDE
Attachments
What most schools don't teach
Learn about a new "superpower" that isn't being taught in in 90% of US schools. Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Ton...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
If you don't control the program, the program controls you.Help support a mass-algorate society, in which everyone knows how to code, by signing your name at
code.org.
“In the emerging, highly programmed landscape ahead, you will either create the software or you will be the software. It’s really that simple: Program, or be programmed. Choose the former, and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.”
—
+Douglas Rushkoff I've talked about the mass-algorate societies in the past [1], but this new non-profit foundation dedicated to growing computer programming education really shines with the support of
+Mark Zuckerberg,
+will.i.am, and
+Eric Schmidt. Take a look at the video and lend a hand in this endeavor!
[1]:
https://plus.google.com/112353210404102902472/posts/MVQXyw9EJDE
Attachments
What most schools don't teach
Learn about a new "superpower" that isn't being taught in in 90% of US schools. Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Ton...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an
act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals
+Alex Levinson,
+Jerome Radcliffe, and
+Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a
very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like
+Ryan Dahl [7] and
+Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not
causes these types of security concerns.
[1]:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html[2]:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/10/stuxnet.html[3]:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/operation-aurora/[4]:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia[5]:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214757/RSA_warns_SecurID_customers_after_company_is_hacked[6]:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/mapping-babel-10017967/rsa-hack-targeted-flash-vulnerability-10022143/[7]:
https://plus.google.com/115094562986465477143/posts/Di6RwCNKCrf[8]:
http://zackarymorris.tumblr.com/post/10973087527/the-state-of-the-art-is-terrible
Attachments
» Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an
act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals
+Alex Levinson,
+Jerome Radcliffe, and
+Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a
very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like
+Ryan Dahl [7] and
+Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not
causes these types of security concerns.
[1]:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html[2]:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/10/stuxnet.html[3]:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/operation-aurora/[4]:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia[5]:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214757/RSA_warns_SecurID_customers_after_company_is_hacked[6]:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/mapping-babel-10017967/rsa-hack-targeted-flash-vulnerability-10022143/[7]:
https://plus.google.com/115094562986465477143/posts/Di6RwCNKCrf[8]:
http://zackarymorris.tumblr.com/post/10973087527/the-state-of-the-art-is-terrible
Attachments
» Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an
act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals
+Alex Levinson,
+Jerome Radcliffe, and
+Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a
very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like
+Ryan Dahl [7] and
+Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not
causes these types of security concerns.
[1]:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html[2]:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/10/stuxnet.html[3]:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/operation-aurora/[4]:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia[5]:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214757/RSA_warns_SecurID_customers_after_company_is_hacked[6]:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/mapping-babel-10017967/rsa-hack-targeted-flash-vulnerability-10022143/[7]:
https://plus.google.com/115094562986465477143/posts/Di6RwCNKCrf[8]:
http://zackarymorris.tumblr.com/post/10973087527/the-state-of-the-art-is-terrible
Attachments
» Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over
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I've just learned of a virus that was launched against the U.S. Drone Fleet. See the attached article from Wired.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon recently concluded that digital attacks such as this can constitute an
act of war [1]. This one doesn't [yet] seem as sophisticated as last year's attack on Iran's nuclear reactors by Stuxnet [2], but it continues to show how important and integral our computer systems are in this rapidly changing world. Security professionals
+Alex Levinson,
+Jerome Radcliffe, and
+Scott Hanselman surely have some great insight here, I highly recommend you go take a look at some of the things they've written.
In 2009, a
very sophisticated [and successful] cyber-attack was launched from inside China that targeted the United States through Google and Adobe [3] that caused surprisingly few stirs within our government, especially after NATO was sent in to assist in the defense of Estonia's computer systems during the 2007 attacks [4]. Not long after this, the widely-used and [formerly] explicitly trusted RSA security mechanism, used in a large number major institutions around the world. was completely and entirely broken [5] by an embarrassingly simple hack [6].
Aside: We can look back at some of the things actual software engineers like
+Ryan Dahl [7] and
+Zack Morris [8] have been saying lately and quickly conclude that there's something fundamentally broken with the whole system. If you've ever worked on or with a large software project, you can see evidence of negligence and ignorance alike embedded at every level. It certainly contributes to if not
causes these types of security concerns.
[1]:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html[2]:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/10/stuxnet.html[3]:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/operation-aurora/[4]:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia[5]:
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214757/RSA_warns_SecurID_customers_after_company_is_hacked[6]:
http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/mapping-babel-10017967/rsa-hack-targeted-flash-vulnerability-10022143/[7]:
https://plus.google.com/115094562986465477143/posts/Di6RwCNKCrf[8]:
http://zackarymorris.tumblr.com/post/10973087527/the-state-of-the-art-is-terrible
Attachments
» Exclusive: Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet
A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over
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I often get asked for my Skype address, sometimes in relation to business or casual conversation. I politely decline with some degree of hand-waving about my reasons, and suggest an alternative form of communication (typically either Google Talk or Google Hangouts, depending on the context—both are built right in to Gmail!). I'd like to outline some of the reasons why I've made the decision to avoid Skype, primarily so I have something to link to when someone asks me about it.
First and foremost, we don't really know what Skype actually does. The binary (the actual program you run on your computer) is obfuscated, so attempts at disassembling it [PDF] to verify some of its strange behavior and the information it is transmitting have so far come up with very little. This is an issue, because Skype produces encrypted traffic even when you are not actively using Skype. This means we can only speculate on what information Skype is collecting about you after you've so graciously chosen to install it, and perhaps more importantly who it is sending that information to.
Quoting Salman Baset:
When a Skype client is not in a call and is running on a machine with public IP address, it has on the average 4-8 active TCP connections and atleast one UDP connection.
While connecting to external IP addresses is normal for a server/client architecture and necessary for receiving notifications, the volume of traffic and number of connections is concerning, considering the compounding issues between Skype's peer-to-peer architecture [PDF] and the "reasonable level of detection accuracy" in snooping on voice calls in Skype [PDF], despite the [purportedly] encrypted nature of the Skype protocol.
Speaking in general terms, Skype is "black box" software which has undergone no public review despite very concerning observed behavior. When new Skype malware (like Skype IMBot, of which an analysis is available, or the more recent Skype account hijacking) is released, there are very few options to protect ourselves if we've got Skype installed. On Linux, tools like AppArmor and TOMOYO exist, but without the ability to easily view the source and understand the attack (per perhaps even fix it proactively, before it occurs) we are at the mercy of Skype's new maintainers to provide a timely resolution in a reactive approach.
If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software.
— Richard Stallman
In conclusion, while Skype may be convenient, it presents a series of questions that must be asked and implications to be considered before choosing it over other chat, VoIP, and video chat solutions. I can only hope that more people consider these things before doing so.
Asides
Some of the other things I found interesting, more recently than the research I've linked in this post, include
Skype's role in the Syrian conflict, in which a claim was made as follows:
A media activist in Idlib named Mohamed said a rebel informant working for the government was killed in Damascus six months ago after sending warnings to the Free Syrian Army on Skype.
“I saw this incident right in front of my eyes,” Mohamed said. “We put his info on Skype so he was arrested and killed.”
Skype (Microsoft) has also made other concerning statements after accusations of helping the U.S. Government spy on its own citizens.
Wikipedia also lists a large number of known flaws in Skype, which I've chosen to avoid duplicating in this post.
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CODING IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, BUT THE MOST COMPLEX HUMAN ARTIFACT EVER IS UNARGUABLY, SOFTWARE
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Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks…
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twitter.com/i/web/status/7…
twitter.com/i/web/status/7…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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RT @
martindale: Very exciting to see the software ecosystem around Bitcoin growing. These kinds of projects are the building blocks for wid…
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Hey thanks for this a whole bunch
+Eric Martindale ! As a pre-engineering software development student, I am grateful for good advice. I'll be going over to GitHub. I'm sure the interaction will be helpful.
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Yup! I did. I found it incredibly easy. To put it this way I learned it in the course of 2, 4 hour plane rides without a computer. It's got great regular expression functionality and once you get used to that then everything else just falls into place. But please don't ever use it for a large software project. I prefer to keep it in the realm of manageable scripts.
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+Daniel Ely Rankin thanks, appreciate it. Feel free to give me your thoughts. My startup is already taking into account things like GitHub accounts in how software engineers should be evaluated but if you have other ideas on how you think a potential employer could fairly evaluate a canidate outside a resume, I'm always open to some ideas.
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Thanks for sharing that
+Eric Martindale . I think you may know but in case you don't, fully agree with your approach. I agree so much that I'm building my business around it :)
My startup is based around the idea that for software job, the resume needs to die. There are better ways for tech companies to find tech talent and we hope to be the solution that provides it.
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Doesn't sound like a targeted attack but, just accidental luck to get into something thought to be secured.
Personally I think that in the IT industry there needs to be proactive training for all software developers because there is a serious deficit on security education and its very hard to keep up because of its ever changing nature. Better yet would be a strong investment in automated tools which could evaluate code for exploits. I'm sure some automated security checking exists out there but, I can tell you that if banks aren't using this sort of tool then I doubt many companies are.
Getting rid of Adobe reader and flash would also help greatly...
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Oh, yes. I think I will.
FIC has announced an on-sale date for its Neo1973, expected to be the first low-cost, high-volume phone with a user-modifiable Linux-based operating system. Additionally, the OpenMoko project building open-source software for the phone has published a wealth of technical resources.
See the link for more information. This is a huge step towards
my dream phone.
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Interesting blog post, He seems pretty angry about it all and while I agree that a deeper understanding is needed for some programming tasks, other just need you to crank out code. Could be wrong but I think people use to argue that Java wasn't scalable either... it evolved and every bank in the country seems to think its the only language out there now. It scales now even though it could have been reasonably debated back in 2001 when it was slow and immature.
What it really comes down to is that a huge majority of software is ephemeral, give it 2-3 years and it will be rewritten not because the code has any real problems but, technology has changed along with the business requirements. Things move change, don't build a cathedral when a bazaar will exceed the requirements.
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
Attachments
Programmers' Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Programmers' Day. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. Programmers' Day (Russian: День программи́ста) is an international unofficial professional holiday that is...
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
Attachments
Programmers' Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Programmers' Day. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. Programmers' Day (Russian: День программи́ста) is an international unofficial professional holiday that is...
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
Attachments
Programmers' Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Programmers' Day. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. Programmers' Day (Russian: День программи́ста) is an international unofficial professional holiday that is...
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Today is Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Russia may be the only country in the world that officially recognizes it, but here's an appropriate early-morning post commemorating all of the hard-working code weavers in the software industry.
Take a moment today and thank your programmer friends for bringing you all kinds of things, from the timer on your microwave to the beautiful filters you have in Photoshop. From the comfortable air conditioning you're enjoying right now, to the wide array of social media sites that you use to share mundane and intellectual topics alike; virtually every industry on Earth is made possible today thanks to programmers of many different types.
So here's to you, [late night] Programmer. Enjoy your day!
Attachments
Programmers' Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Programmers' Day. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jump to: navigation, search. Programmers' Day (Russian: День программи́ста) is an international unofficial professional holiday that is...
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The company I've co-founded, LocalSense, needs your vote. We're trying to win a contest for entrepreneurs, which will help us take a leap ahead in closing our first round of funding and getting to market ahead of schedule.
As you may already know, I've been hard at work building an incredible new product that empowers consumers by rewarding them for helping their friends save money. I've got big plans for helping out my friends here on Google+, but we've got to get there first.
Please vote for LocalSense in the 2012 Vator Splash competition, and help me spread the word if you're so inclined. The software we're building keeps track of how content is shared across networks, so we might just have a special reward for you. :)
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Vote for LocalSense in the competition: Vator Splash LA (June 2012)
Calling all entrepreneurs! Vator Splash is going back to LA for its second year. Like other Splash events and competitions, CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their p
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The company I've co-founded, LocalSense, needs your vote. We're trying to win a contest for entrepreneurs, which will help us take a leap ahead in closing our first round of funding and getting to market ahead of schedule.
As you may already know, I've been hard at work building an incredible new product that empowers consumers by rewarding them for helping their friends save money. I've got big plans for helping out my friends here on Google+, but we've got to get there first.
Please vote for LocalSense in the 2012 Vator Splash competition, and help me spread the word if you're so inclined. The software we're building keeps track of how content is shared across networks, so we might just have a special reward for you. :)
Attachments
Vote for LocalSense in the competition: Vator Splash LA (June 2012)
Calling all entrepreneurs! Vator Splash is going back to LA for its second year. Like other Splash events and competitions, CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their p
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
The company I've co-founded, LocalSense, needs your vote. We're trying to win a contest for entrepreneurs, which will help us take a leap ahead in closing our first round of funding and getting to market ahead of schedule.
As you may already know, I've been hard at work building an incredible new product that empowers consumers by rewarding them for helping their friends save money. I've got big plans for helping out my friends here on Google+, but we've got to get there first.
Please vote for LocalSense in the 2012 Vator Splash competition, and help me spread the word if you're so inclined. The software we're building keeps track of how content is shared across networks, so we might just have a special reward for you. :)
Attachments
Vote for LocalSense in the competition: Vator Splash LA (June 2012)
Calling all entrepreneurs! Vator Splash is going back to LA for its second year. Like other Splash events and competitions, CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their p
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
The company I've co-founded, LocalSense, needs your vote. We're trying to win a contest for entrepreneurs, which will help us take a leap ahead in closing our first round of funding and getting to market ahead of schedule.
As you may already know, I've been hard at work building an incredible new product that empowers consumers by rewarding them for helping their friends save money. I've got big plans for helping out my friends here on Google+, but we've got to get there first.
Please vote for LocalSense in the 2012 Vator Splash competition, and help me spread the word if you're so inclined. The software we're building keeps track of how content is shared across networks, so we might just have a special reward for you. :)
Attachments
Vote for LocalSense in the competition: Vator Splash LA (June 2012)
Calling all entrepreneurs! Vator Splash is going back to LA for its second year. Like other Splash events and competitions, CEOs and/or founders of 10 companies, chosen by their p
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Amber and I have been yelling at each other on and off for the past hour or so, due to the problems she is having with her current math project. I'm glad she's sloughed off her English project, as doing five people's annotations, comparisons, and evaluations of Shakespeare's Othello on her own was clearly wearing thin on her.
Unfortunately, she doesn't own a copy of Microsoft Office, which includes Excel, which is apparently what she needs. A few months ago I pointed her in the direction of OpenOffice, but errors in conversion and viewing (Comments made in Word won't display in OpenOffice, but they will work vice versa), changes and differences in interface and menu placement, broken features, etc etc., have been an endless source of frustration for her. I really wish I knew how to use it at an expert level, but it just seems like I can't help her, because I know so little about the software. Having to communicate via the phone doesn't help, either.
I'm heading over there after work, maybe I can help her more then. Hoorah for another night of sleep deprivation!
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I've been working for an industrial company that's still struggling with the very idea of open-source, so unfortunately there's nothing on github I can point a potential employer at. I guess in theory I ought to be doing something on the side just for that reason, but after writing code all week long, it's not exactly high on the list of priorities in my free time. :-)
100% agree with the sentiment though -- résumés are almost worthless for Software Engineers. Once in a while I can tell that someone's not completely inept, based on the specific way they describe their current/past work on a CV. But even then, it's hardly worth the time it takes to sift through the pile, vs. just bringing people in to talk for a bit.
A few lines of code are worth a thousand words. HR at large companies tends to get bogged down with the specifics of which languages/technologies they know, but that's missing the point entirely. If you can just have someone design a small system in pseudocode that solves some simple problem, the orders-of-magnitude difference in talent between individual programmers becomes obvious.
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While hiring the first five engineers here at
+LocalSense, we've never looked at someone's résumé. Not even once. One of the greatest things about the business world today compared to a decade ago (or even a couple years back!) is that you can
directly qualify someone's past work through, at least for software engineers, tools such as GitHub [1]. The best measure of a potential hire's impact is going to be direct observation of their past work, and not a page or two of biography on the individual and their credentials.
Now, this approach remains difficult for more traditional careers in fields like academia and publishing, which simply don't have the agility necessary for something like GitHub or Dribbble [2] to make the impact they have. They have an existing [rigid] infrastructure that places the barrier to entry of any disruptive technology prohibitively high. The most established sectors will struggle the hardest, and perhaps fail the most spectacularly.
[1]:
http://github.com/[2]:
http://dribbble.com/
Attachments
Resumes are dangerous by Alex MacCaw
Author: Alex MacCaw, Content: I've been interviewing engineers for a while now, and it seems the more interviews I do, the more I realize how many my initial assumptions about hiring were wrong. F...
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While hiring the first five engineers here at
+LocalSense, we've never looked at someone's résumé. Not even once. One of the greatest things about the business world today compared to a decade ago (or even a couple years back!) is that you can
directly qualify someone's past work through, at least for software engineers, tools such as GitHub [1]. The best measure of a potential hire's impact is going to be direct observation of their past work, and not a page or two of biography on the individual and their credentials.
Now, this approach remains difficult for more traditional careers in fields like academia and publishing, which simply don't have the agility necessary for something like GitHub or Dribbble [2] to make the impact they have. They have an existing [rigid] infrastructure that places the barrier to entry of any disruptive technology prohibitively high. The most established sectors will struggle the hardest, and perhaps fail the most spectacularly.
[1]:
http://github.com/[2]:
http://dribbble.com/
Attachments
Resumes are dangerous by Alex MacCaw
Author: Alex MacCaw, Content: I've been interviewing engineers for a while now, and it seems the more interviews I do, the more I realize how many my initial assumptions about hiring were wrong. F...
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While hiring the first five engineers here at
+LocalSense, we've never looked at someone's résumé. Not even once. One of the greatest things about the business world today compared to a decade ago (or even a couple years back!) is that you can
directly qualify someone's past work through, at least for software engineers, tools such as GitHub [1]. The best measure of a potential hire's impact is going to be direct observation of their past work, and not a page or two of biography on the individual and their credentials.
Now, this approach remains difficult for more traditional careers in fields like academia and publishing, which simply don't have the agility necessary for something like GitHub or Dribbble [2] to make the impact they have. They have an existing [rigid] infrastructure that places the barrier to entry of any disruptive technology prohibitively high. The most established sectors will struggle the hardest, and perhaps fail the most spectacularly.
[1]:
http://github.com/[2]:
http://dribbble.com/
Attachments
Resumes are dangerous by Alex MacCaw
Author: Alex MacCaw, Content: I've been interviewing engineers for a while now, and it seems the more interviews I do, the more I realize how many my initial assumptions about hiring were wrong. F...
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While hiring the first five engineers here at
+LocalSense, we've never looked at someone's résumé. Not even once. One of the greatest things about the business world today compared to a decade ago (or even a couple years back!) is that you can
directly qualify someone's past work through, at least for software engineers, tools such as GitHub [1]. The best measure of a potential hire's impact is going to be direct observation of their past work, and not a page or two of biography on the individual and their credentials.
Now, this approach remains difficult for more traditional careers in fields like academia and publishing, which simply don't have the agility necessary for something like GitHub or Dribbble [2] to make the impact they have. They have an existing [rigid] infrastructure that places the barrier to entry of any disruptive technology prohibitively high. The most established sectors will struggle the hardest, and perhaps fail the most spectacularly.
[1]:
http://github.com/[2]:
http://dribbble.com/
Attachments
Resumes are dangerous by Alex MacCaw
Author: Alex MacCaw, Content: I've been interviewing engineers for a while now, and it seems the more interviews I do, the more I realize how many my initial assumptions about hiring were wrong. F...
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Open Source is the Future of EducationIf you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of
+GitHub. With my new company
+Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of
#education .
+Jason Hibbets from
+Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the
community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.
Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.
Attachments
Coursefork is like a GitHub for course creation, interview with Eric Martindale |
Interview with Eric Martindale of Coursefork; how him and his team created an open source tool for developing better educational materials.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Open Source is the Future of EducationIf you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of
+GitHub. With my new company
+Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of
#education .
+Jason Hibbets from
+Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the
community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.
Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.
Attachments
Coursefork is like a GitHub for course creation, interview with Eric Martindale |
Interview with Eric Martindale of Coursefork; how him and his team created an open source tool for developing better educational materials.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Open Source is the Future of EducationIf you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of
+GitHub. With my new company
+Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of
#education .
+Jason Hibbets from
+Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the
community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.
Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.
Attachments
Coursefork is like a GitHub for course creation, interview with Eric Martindale |
Interview with Eric Martindale of Coursefork; how him and his team created an open source tool for developing better educational materials.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Open Source is the Future of EducationIf you're familiar with coding, chances are you've seen how the open source software landscape has changed over the past few years with the advent of
+GitHub. With my new company
+Coursefork, I'm hoping to incite the same kind of change in the world of
#education .
+Jason Hibbets from
+Opensource.com interviewed me recently about how we're building a better education, but it can't stop with us—he correctly identifies that the most important ingredient is the
community of people who will be a part of the social fabric of education as we move forward.
Check out the interview and let me know your thoughts.
Attachments
Coursefork is like a GitHub for course creation, interview with Eric Martindale |
Interview with Eric Martindale of Coursefork; how him and his team created an open source tool for developing better educational materials.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I'm so pleased that
+Coursefork made
+Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside
+Docker and
+OpenStack, a true honor in my book.
If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators. In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.
“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”
Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com:
http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
Attachments
Top 10 open source projects in 2013 |
Best of Opensource.com in 2013: Top 10 open source projects of the year.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013I'm so pleased that
+Coursefork made
+Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside
+Docker and
+OpenStack, a true honor in my book.
If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators. In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.
“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”
Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com:
http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
Attachments
Top 10 open source projects in 2013 |
Best of Opensource.com in 2013: Top 10 open source projects of the year.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013I'm so pleased that
+Coursefork made
+Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside
+Docker and
+OpenStack, a true honor in my book.
If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators. In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.
“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”
Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com:
http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
Attachments
Top 10 open source projects in 2013 |
Best of Opensource.com in 2013: Top 10 open source projects of the year.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Coursefork Among Top 10 Open Source Projects of 2013I'm so pleased that
+Coursefork made
+Opensource.com's list of the top 10 open-source projects for 2013... this puts us alongside
+Docker and
+OpenStack, a true honor in my book.
If you haven't heard what the team has been working on, Coursefork is building an open-source collaboration tool for educators. In the same way software creators can re-use open-source resources to get ahead in the development cycle, we want to enable teachers to re-use materials and improvements thereof to allow for the accretion of teaching techniques in place of continual re-invention.
“We're creating the pull request for courses, and the process of getting there means creating the tools necessary to support the community of a new open future for education.”
Learn more in this interview on OpenSource.com:
http://opensource.com/education/13/9/coursefork-education-tool
Attachments
Top 10 open source projects in 2013 |
Best of Opensource.com in 2013: Top 10 open source projects of the year.
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
You're right,
+Debbie Coultis. The problem is that more often than not, any customizations made to the existing open resources (
+MIT OpenCourseWare, for example) never make their way back "upstream", or otherwise made available to future educators or students who might have use of them. I talked a bit about how
+Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specifically with software, was involved in the open-source community very early on, but perhaps I should've gone into more depth here.
There are many free (and some open) educational resources emerging, but we need deeper interchangeability between them if their innovations are to be capitalized on.
+Bob Calder I don't know if Robert Panoff was in the audience or not, but you're right.
+Coursera isn't the answer, but it is at least a step forward in increasing the availability of the delivery system. Once we're able to edit that content
and the processes (e.g., make everything
hackable), we'll close the loop on collaboration in education.
Thanks,
+Nathan Greenling! Once
+Coursefork ships more robust composition features, I'll attach the slides into the YouTube video at their corresponding points and perhaps include some further speaker notes.
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Tips for Artists first joining Google+Now that it's public i'd like to share some tips that i think enrich your experience here and help your art be heard and seen and some new ways of profiting from it.
1. Re think your marketing strategy I see a lot of artists still using the site like twitter or facebook and just posting songs and not giving any inside story about how it came to be or what influenced it. Give people a reason to comment on your posts and continue that discussion.
2. Collaborate with artists outside your medium One of the most rewarding things about this site is the quality of the community here. As a musician, think of ways you can collaborate with photographers, graphic artists, software engineers etc.. This idea i think is the future of how artists of all mediums can be profitable and retain their artistic integrity ( i have a collaboration with
+Colby Brown and
+byron rempel that i'm working on right now that will showcase this)
3. Be Humble or at least be realThe major change for artists that i feel is coming is how this amount of engagement and deeper connectivity will promote certain types of artists. Don't think that no matter how talented you are you can get away with thinking your art is enough to stand on it's own. Also, promote who you are and get people invested in who you are as a person and let them find out about your art if they want to know more about you, but don't push it on to people.
CC:
+Natalie Villalobos,
+Ryan Crowe,
+Robert Scoble
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Tips for Artists first joining Google+Now that it's public i'd like to share some tips that i think enrich your experience here and help your art be heard and seen and some new ways of profiting from it.
1. Re think your marketing strategy I see a lot of artists still using the site like twitter or facebook and just posting songs and not giving any inside story about how it came to be or what influenced it. Give people a reason to comment on your posts and continue that discussion.
2. Collaborate with artists outside your medium One of the most rewarding things about this site is the quality of the community here. As a musician, think of ways you can collaborate with photographers, graphic artists, software engineers etc.. This idea i think is the future of how artists of all mediums can be profitable and retain their artistic integrity ( i have a collaboration with
+Colby Brown and
+byron rempel that i'm working on right now that will showcase this)
3. Be Humble or at least be realThe major change for artists that i feel is coming is how this amount of engagement and deeper connectivity will promote certain types of artists. Don't think that no matter how talented you are you can get away with thinking your art is enough to stand on it's own. Also, promote who you are and get people invested in who you are as a person and let them find out about your art if they want to know more about you, but don't push it on to people.
CC:
+Natalie Villalobos,
+Ryan Crowe,
+Robert Scoble
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Why isn't education open-source in the first place?I recently gave a talk at
+The Research Triangle Park about education and open source, and how the freedoms that are necessary for a healthy education system were systematically removed over time. While the slides aren't available in the video, I've uploaded them to
+Coursefork [1].
It's incredibly powerful to lay out the data and show how increased spending and manpower has impacted the quality of education over time: aptitude measurements have stayed flat (or negative!) while test scores and grades continue to inflate. It seems as if we've built a system of education that is extremely good at—wait for it—_getting people to pass standardized tests_.
Companies like
+Khan Academy and
+Coursera are really chipping away at the problem of making the resources available, both content and services (i.e., actual
teaching), but making the content interchangeable and
hackable is of critical importance to building the healthy open source ecosystem that we've seen emerge in the software community (a la
+GitHub) within the world of education.
One day, we'll see the equivalent of the pull request in education. I'm hoping to build it with
+Coursefork.
[1]:
http://coursefork.org/martindale/open-freedom-and-education
Attachments
RTP 180: "Open, Freedom, and Education" with Eric Martindale
Eric Martindale of Coursefork talks about the potential power of applying open source principles to education at The Research Triangle Park's RTP 180: "Open ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Why isn't education open-source in the first place?I recently gave a talk at
+The Research Triangle Park about education and open source, and how the freedoms that are necessary for a healthy education system were systematically removed over time. While the slides aren't available in the video, I've uploaded them to
+Coursefork [1].
It's incredibly powerful to lay out the data and show how increased spending and manpower has impacted the quality of education over time: aptitude measurements have stayed flat (or negative!) while test scores and grades continue to inflate. It seems as if we've built a system of education that is extremely good at—wait for it—_getting people to pass standardized tests_.
Companies like
+Khan Academy and
+Coursera are really chipping away at the problem of making the resources available, both content and services (i.e., actual
teaching), but making the content interchangeable and
hackable is of critical importance to building the healthy open source ecosystem that we've seen emerge in the software community (a la
+GitHub) within the world of education.
One day, we'll see the equivalent of the pull request in education. I'm hoping to build it with
+Coursefork.
[1]:
http://coursefork.org/martindale/open-freedom-and-education
Attachments
RTP 180: "Open, Freedom, and Education" with Eric Martindale
Eric Martindale of Coursefork talks about the potential power of applying open source principles to education at The Research Triangle Park's RTP 180: "Open ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Why isn't education open-source in the first place?I recently gave a talk at
+The Research Triangle Park about education and open source, and how the freedoms that are necessary for a healthy education system were systematically removed over time. While the slides aren't available in the video, I've uploaded them to
+Coursefork [1].
It's incredibly powerful to lay out the data and show how increased spending and manpower has impacted the quality of education over time: aptitude measurements have stayed flat (or negative!) while test scores and grades continue to inflate. It seems as if we've built a system of education that is extremely good at—wait for it—_getting people to pass standardized tests_.
Companies like
+Khan Academy and
+Coursera are really chipping away at the problem of making the resources available, both content and services (i.e., actual
teaching), but making the content interchangeable and
hackable is of critical importance to building the healthy open source ecosystem that we've seen emerge in the software community (a la
+GitHub) within the world of education.
One day, we'll see the equivalent of the pull request in education. I'm hoping to build it with
+Coursefork.
[1]:
http://coursefork.org/martindale/open-freedom-and-education
Attachments
RTP 180: "Open, Freedom, and Education" with Eric Martindale
Eric Martindale of Coursefork talks about the potential power of applying open source principles to education at The Research Triangle Park's RTP 180: "Open ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Why isn't education open-source in the first place?I recently gave a talk at
+The Research Triangle Park about education and open source, and how the freedoms that are necessary for a healthy education system were systematically removed over time. While the slides aren't available in the video, I've uploaded them to
+Coursefork [1].
It's incredibly powerful to lay out the data and show how increased spending and manpower has impacted the quality of education over time: aptitude measurements have stayed flat (or negative!) while test scores and grades continue to inflate. It seems as if we've built a system of education that is extremely good at—wait for it—_getting people to pass standardized tests_.
Companies like
+Khan Academy and
+Coursera are really chipping away at the problem of making the resources available, both content and services (i.e., actual
teaching), but making the content interchangeable and
hackable is of critical importance to building the healthy open source ecosystem that we've seen emerge in the software community (a la
+GitHub) within the world of education.
One day, we'll see the equivalent of the pull request in education. I'm hoping to build it with
+Coursefork.
[1]:
http://coursefork.org/martindale/open-freedom-and-education
Attachments
RTP 180: "Open, Freedom, and Education" with Eric Martindale
Eric Martindale of Coursefork talks about the potential power of applying open source principles to education at The Research Triangle Park's RTP 180: "Open ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about,
transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides
instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were
built right, how amazing it
could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the
practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
[1]:
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED[2]:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/[3]:
http://www.oled-info.com/tdk-starts-mass-production-transparent-24-qvga-pmoleds[4]:
http://www.laster.fr/produits/promobiledisplay/[5]:
http://www.layar.com/[6]:
http://www.wikitude.com/[7]:
http://www.junaio.com/[8]:
http://questvisual.com/
Attachments
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED
This is CF of Samsung Mobile Display & AMOLED. I'ts amazing and wonderful technology!!! In korea, netizen says "Samsung kidnaps aliens(or hijacks UFO) again!" :)
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about,
transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides
instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were
built right, how amazing it
could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the
practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
[1]:
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED[2]:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/[3]:
http://www.oled-info.com/tdk-starts-mass-production-transparent-24-qvga-pmoleds[4]:
http://www.laster.fr/produits/promobiledisplay/[5]:
http://www.layar.com/[6]:
http://www.wikitude.com/[7]:
http://www.junaio.com/[8]:
http://questvisual.com/
Attachments
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED
This is CF of Samsung Mobile Display & AMOLED. I'ts amazing and wonderful technology!!! In korea, netizen says "Samsung kidnaps aliens(or hijacks UFO) again!" :)
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about,
transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides
instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were
built right, how amazing it
could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the
practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
[1]:
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED[2]:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/[3]:
http://www.oled-info.com/tdk-starts-mass-production-transparent-24-qvga-pmoleds[4]:
http://www.laster.fr/produits/promobiledisplay/[5]:
http://www.layar.com/[6]:
http://www.wikitude.com/[7]:
http://www.junaio.com/[8]:
http://questvisual.com/
Attachments
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED
This is CF of Samsung Mobile Display & AMOLED. I'ts amazing and wonderful technology!!! In korea, netizen says "Samsung kidnaps aliens(or hijacks UFO) again!" :)
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
My list of entrepreneurial shortcomings includes Mirascape, which aspired to be a ubiquitous augmented reality (AR) operating system for the real world. The problems we were solving (and our packaged solution) would have been the backbone for all of the [imagined] technology you see in this Samsung promo video for a new tech they're excited about,
transparent and flexible OLED displays. [1]
If you're not familiar with augmented reality; it is the visual overlay of otherwise hidden information on the real world, as you observe it.
While you can ogle over ostentatious technologies like the embedded-display contact lenses the University of Washington is so proud of [2], it's exciting to see companies like TDK [3] and Laster Technologies [4] bring these kinds of stepping stone technology to bear. We can all download and install the awkward and barely applicable consumer-level AR applications on our smartphones ([5], [6], and [7]), but they will all remain novelty applications until we see major innovation in the display space.
One of the more practical examples I've seen of augmented reality in the real world is WordLens [8] (sadly only available for iOS), which provides
instantaneous video translation through your device. It's not hard to imagine a pair of Oakley glasses with this display technology built-in, providing you with always-on translation while in an unfamiliar foreign location. Or perhaps even displaying your friend's tweet as a speech bubble above their head for a few seconds -- imagine if it were
built right, how amazing it
could be.
I genuinely hope to see more of this transparent display technology built in to more consumer-level products, and eyewear in particular. We need a lot more developers playing with the
practical applications of augmented reality, and not just displaying compass-aligned markers over a geotagged Wikipedia article or Flickr photo. The high-power hardware necessary to do real-time computer vision processing is coming, and the applied software world needs to be ready for it.
[1]:
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED[2]:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/[3]:
http://www.oled-info.com/tdk-starts-mass-production-transparent-24-qvga-pmoleds[4]:
http://www.laster.fr/produits/promobiledisplay/[5]:
http://www.layar.com/[6]:
http://www.wikitude.com/[7]:
http://www.junaio.com/[8]:
http://questvisual.com/
Attachments
Amazing Screen Technology : Samsung Flexible AMOLED
This is CF of Samsung Mobile Display & AMOLED. I'ts amazing and wonderful technology!!! In korea, netizen says "Samsung kidnaps aliens(or hijacks UFO) again!" :)
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
One of the sites I own and run (RolePlayGateway) has a pretty large forum, with several customizations and features that I've added on to the base install of phpBB3. As time went on, we continued upgrading the servers (moving from GoDaddy shared hosting to GoDaddy virtual dedicated servers, then onward to MediaTemple's (gs), and now we're on the second tier of MediaTemple's (dv) hosting) in an effort to keep the hardware moving as fast as possible.
As I'm sure you know, hardware can be pretty expensive! One month, while on MediaTemple's Grid Server, we racked up $600 in CPU time overage charges. (Ow.) Now that we've moved onward to bigger and better packages, we're shelling out just about $100 per month for a rock-solid server solution that can be upgraded seamlessly in the future. But since upgrades can only go so far without being prohibitively expensive, I thought it was time to take a look at some of our coding approaches.
Enter memcache, the distributed database caching solution originally designed by LiveJournal to help them deal with massive databases and large volumes of users. DavidMJ has written some shiny ACM modules to help phpBB3 make use of some caching systems, and a memcache module was among them.
That didn't work so well. It gave about a 50% boost to phpBB3's performance (which was great!), but we were still choking the server, and ended up upgrading to a bigger and more robust package with MediaTemple. So I started looking into more options, and DavidMJ suggested xcache. So I go grab xcache and compile it, then enabled it in php. Bingo! There's a 500% boost in our page compile times, and across most of our pages we're now well under 0.1 second compile times. (With the exception of viewtopic.php, which frequently approaches 2 seconds due to bad coding on my part... this will be fixed soon.)
So now that I've got the thirst for speed, let's take a look at how we're performing. To do this, use the apache benchmarking tool:ab -n 100000 http://www.mydomain.com/my_page
This will test the URL you specify 100,000 times, and give you some feedback about how the page performs. You'll end up with something looking like this:
Server Software: Apache/2.2.3
Server Hostname: www.mydomain.com
Server Port: 80
Document Path: /my_page
Document Length: 0 bytes
Concurrency Level: 1
Time taken for tests: 15.30100 seconds
Complete requests: 1
Failed requests: 0
Write errors: 0
Non-2xx responses: 1
Total transferred: 715 bytes
HTML transferred: 0 bytes
Requests per second: 0.07 [#/sec] (mean)
Time per request: 15030.100 [ms] (mean)
Time per request: 15030.100 [ms] (mean, across all concurrent requests)
Transfer rate: 0.00 [Kbytes/sec] received
Connection Times (ms)
min mean[+/-sd] median max
Connect: 0 0 0.0 0 0
Processing: 15030 15030 0.0 15030 15030
Waiting: 30 30 0.0 30 30
Total: 15030 15030 0.0 15030 15030
Some tweaks to the default xcache config that I recommend:
Set the number of caches to one per processor on your server!
; set to cpu count (cat /proc/cpuinfo |grep -c processor)
xcache.count = 4
This post will be updated as I explore phpBB3 and more server side options. (I wrote part of this post, then stopped writing... and figure I'd publish it a couple days later anyway!)
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I am drooling over WolframAlpha Pro: http://www.wolframalpha.com/pro/ [actual announcement attached]
"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm
very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including
image processing and
3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be
great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO
+Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
Have you used WolframAlpha? If so, what for?[1]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/[2]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2.5+megapixel+300dpi+display[3]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=data+transfer+time+10GB%2C+802.11n[4]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+fast+was+the+processor+on+the+Atari+400%3F[5]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Al+%2B+O2+-%3E+Al2O3[6]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=myoglobin[7]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=quadratic+fit+%7B10.1%2C1.2%7D%2C%7B12.6%2C+2.8%7D%2C%7B14.8%2C7.6%7D%2C%7B16.0%2C12.8%7D%2C%7B17.5%2C15.1%7D[8]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=n-grams+%22the+google+plus+community+keeps+me+smiling+throughout+the+day%22[9]:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8047076.stm[10]:
http://searchengineland.com/google-squared-news-timeline-get-added-to-googles-chopping-block-90549[11]:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/12/googles-graphing-calculator.html[12]:
http://goo.gl/ay4I0
Attachments
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Announcing Wolfram|Alpha Pro
Today’s introduction of Wolfram|Alpha Pro gives you fundamentally new and remarkable capabilities like: data input, file upload, image input, data download, CDF interactivity, extra computation time, ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I am drooling over WolframAlpha Pro: http://www.wolframalpha.com/pro/ [actual announcement attached]
"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm
very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including
image processing and
3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be
great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO
+Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
Have you used WolframAlpha? If so, what for?[1]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/[2]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2.5+megapixel+300dpi+display[3]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=data+transfer+time+10GB%2C+802.11n[4]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+fast+was+the+processor+on+the+Atari+400%3F[5]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Al+%2B+O2+-%3E+Al2O3[6]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=myoglobin[7]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=quadratic+fit+%7B10.1%2C1.2%7D%2C%7B12.6%2C+2.8%7D%2C%7B14.8%2C7.6%7D%2C%7B16.0%2C12.8%7D%2C%7B17.5%2C15.1%7D[8]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=n-grams+%22the+google+plus+community+keeps+me+smiling+throughout+the+day%22[9]:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8047076.stm[10]:
http://searchengineland.com/google-squared-news-timeline-get-added-to-googles-chopping-block-90549[11]:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/12/googles-graphing-calculator.html[12]:
http://goo.gl/ay4I0
Attachments
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Announcing Wolfram|Alpha Pro
Today’s introduction of Wolfram|Alpha Pro gives you fundamentally new and remarkable capabilities like: data input, file upload, image input, data download, CDF interactivity, extra computation time, ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I am drooling over WolframAlpha Pro: http://www.wolframalpha.com/pro/ [actual announcement attached]
"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm
very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including
image processing and
3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be
great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO
+Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
Have you used WolframAlpha? If so, what for?[1]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/[2]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2.5+megapixel+300dpi+display[3]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=data+transfer+time+10GB%2C+802.11n[4]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+fast+was+the+processor+on+the+Atari+400%3F[5]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Al+%2B+O2+-%3E+Al2O3[6]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=myoglobin[7]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=quadratic+fit+%7B10.1%2C1.2%7D%2C%7B12.6%2C+2.8%7D%2C%7B14.8%2C7.6%7D%2C%7B16.0%2C12.8%7D%2C%7B17.5%2C15.1%7D[8]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=n-grams+%22the+google+plus+community+keeps+me+smiling+throughout+the+day%22[9]:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8047076.stm[10]:
http://searchengineland.com/google-squared-news-timeline-get-added-to-googles-chopping-block-90549[11]:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/12/googles-graphing-calculator.html[12]:
http://goo.gl/ay4I0
Attachments
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Announcing Wolfram|Alpha Pro
Today’s introduction of Wolfram|Alpha Pro gives you fundamentally new and remarkable capabilities like: data input, file upload, image input, data download, CDF interactivity, extra computation time, ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
I am drooling over WolframAlpha Pro: http://www.wolframalpha.com/pro/ [actual announcement attached]
"Computational knowledge engine" WolframAlpha [1] just announced a new offering aiming at power users of their already amazing data science toolkit. I'm
very impressed with the features they've chosen to add, including
image processing and
3D plot export. Maybe I'm just being a huge nerd, but I think this'll be
great for generating assets for presentations and demos. :)
I already use WolframAlpha for quickly plotting relationships in certain algorithms, or referencing certain datasets. It's great for checking on specs like display densities [2], calculating a transfer time (while automatically cross-referencing network specs!) [3] or even looking for obscure computing metrics [4]. It can help you calculate chemical reactions [5], or even plot a protein structure. [6]
My favorite day-to-day application is quick and dirty regression, for visualizing trends in my data [7], but it's still cool to play with n-gram decomposition [8].
Google hasn't even come close to this level of utility, even with innovations like Google Squared [9] (which was sadly shuttered last year... [10]) and the addition of function plotting to their universal search earlier this year [11]. They've been rolling in more and more tidbits like this, but I don't know that a company as large as Google can keep up with the delta, even with again-CEO
+Larry Page's war on cruft [12] freeing up resources for projects like this.
It's priced at only $4.99 per month (or $2.99 for students, which I am not -- but I'll happily pay the premium at this price point!), right up my alley as building something comparable for local use (or even acquiring an existing software package) would be prohibitively expensive and moreover, complex.
Have you used WolframAlpha? If so, what for?[1]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/[2]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=2.5+megapixel+300dpi+display[3]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=data+transfer+time+10GB%2C+802.11n[4]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=How+fast+was+the+processor+on+the+Atari+400%3F[5]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Al+%2B+O2+-%3E+Al2O3[6]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=myoglobin[7]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=quadratic+fit+%7B10.1%2C1.2%7D%2C%7B12.6%2C+2.8%7D%2C%7B14.8%2C7.6%7D%2C%7B16.0%2C12.8%7D%2C%7B17.5%2C15.1%7D[8]:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=n-grams+%22the+google+plus+community+keeps+me+smiling+throughout+the+day%22[9]:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8047076.stm[10]:
http://searchengineland.com/google-squared-news-timeline-get-added-to-googles-chopping-block-90549[11]:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2011/12/googles-graphing-calculator.html[12]:
http://goo.gl/ay4I0
Attachments
Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Announcing Wolfram|Alpha Pro
Today’s introduction of Wolfram|Alpha Pro gives you fundamentally new and remarkable capabilities like: data input, file upload, image input, data download, CDF interactivity, extra computation time, ...
Replies are automatically detected from social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. To add a comment, include a direct link to this post in your message and it'll show up here within a few minutes.
Following suit with the likes of Tim Bray and Eric Meyer, I figured I'd throw together my browser's letter sweep tonight.
- [A]dmin Site. Yeah, I guess I would be visiting the admin panel for this. Quite frequently.
- Mirascape's [B]log. An infrequent haunt of mine, but fairly obvious.
- [C]MON. Cluster Monitor for MySQL Cluster, something I almost always have open.
- Google [D]ocs. This one is painfully obvious, I use Google Docs extensively.
- [E]ricMartindale.com. Okay, that's a gimme. Does this make me egocentric?
- [F]acebook. I'm actually fairly ashamed of this one. Why can't I have a cool F site? sadface
- [G]mail. Three accounts linked using Google's Multiple Sign-in. Open [almost] all day.
- [H]ighcharts JS. A pretty kick-ass Javascript library for generating charts on the clientside.
- [I]nternal Discussion. A site for communication with my team. :)
- [J]Query Mobile Demo, 1.0 alpha 3. I've been spending a lot of time toying with jQuery Mobile, seeing where it's going compared to Sencha Touch.
- [K]r.github.com. Keith Rarick's GitHub redirect. Total ass-kicker.
- [L]inkedIn. Pretty straightforward, between hiring for our team at @Mirascape and the travel to and from various conferences and Meetups lately.
- [M]irascape. The augmented reality platform I'm responsible for.
- [N]oxBot. A nice PHP-powered IRC bot with various plugins. A bit out of date, but very powerful. Been using it for a couple things lately.
- [O]K, QR Me!. A QR Code-generating link shortener I built.
- [P]ostmark. Best Email delivery service I've used. Nice RESTful API, flat rate for emails sent.
- [Q]uora. These guys nail Q&A, and they're doing it pretty well. Check out all their buzz, too. But for some reason, I just don't stick.
- Google [R]eader. “From your 1,040 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 21,549 items, clicked 274 items, starred 853 items, shared 37 items, and emailed 8 items.” -- </stats>
- [S]erver Stats for Mirascape. Powered by Munin, it's how I keep track of the status and metrics of all my servers.
- [T]witter. Not surprising. I love their webapp for my personal use, but own and manage at least five accounts using SplitTweet.
- [U]serVoice. Pretty sweet tool I use for giving the communities I manage a good way to build a consensus on what they desire most. Examples I run: for RolePlayGateway, and EVE UserVoice for EVE Online.
- Google [V]oice. Allows me to use SMS from my computer, read (as opposed to listen to) voicemail. Great tool. If only it supported MMS.
- [W]achovia. One of the places I do banking.
- [X]DA Developers. An indisposable resource for getting rid of carrier-installed crap and running my own choice of software on the hardware I purchased!
- [Y]ouTube. Another big namer. No surprise.
- [Z]ecco. Where I trade most of my public stocks. :)
Surprisingly populist, and there's a lot of Google-owned properties in there. I'm also using Chromium, so I think it prefers the roots of the sites I visit instead of searching through my history for individual pages.
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