Thursday, February 28, 2002

Super Supreme Deluxe Reader Review - A review from the Chicago Reader of DPrice / Me / Honeyslide's Sketch show: SUPER SUPREME DELUXE: THE HONEYSLIDE STORY, Honeyslide at the Playground. The Honeyslide ensemble report that they employ "a variety of musical samplings to create and develop characters with perspectives that are unconventional and unexpected." And indeed, several of the sketches here feature a sound track -- the funniest bit locates us in a store whose employees dance to piped-in disco music as they go about their tasks.  The revue begins with an anniversary celebration that takes an unromantic turn when the husband starts singing "I'm better than you." The rest of the program offers variations on this egotistical theme: a boisterous CEO patronizes his subordinates, a writing teacher pushes sex and drugs on his students, a wholesome midwestern lad leaves home to fight Hitler and returns to reject his family and swear loyalty to his fellow soldiers. Finally the entire company addresses the audience in a reprise of the opening song, now altered to "We're better than you!"  The musical analogies are often more evocative than overt here, and the players' admirable effort to create characters beyond the standard improv-comedy types sometimes delays our comprehension, to the detriment of the humor. There seems to be plenty of talent and imagination among the Honeyslides, but they need to make their gifts more accessible. --Mary Shen Barnidge comment  2:01:01 PM

What a great picture.  I found it on http://www.blinky-lights.org/ , a Solaris Admin site.  It's a good site, some good faq's, and like most *nix web sites, has terrible design.  Anyway, really great picture. comment  1:19:04 PM

Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: February 15, 2002: "Implementation of Microsoft SOAP, a protocol running over HTTP precisely so it could bypass firewalls, should be withdrawn. According to the Microsoft documentation: "Since SOAP relies on HTTP as the transport mechanism, and most firewalls allow HTTP to pass through, you'll have no problem invoking SOAP endpoints from either side of a firewall." It is exactly this feature-above-security mindset that needs to go. It may be that SOAP offers sufficient security mechanisms, proper separation of code and data. However, Microsoft promotes it for its security avoidance." Bruce Schneier wrote that in his monthly "Crypto-Gram" newsletter.  He's basically saying, "services are port on ports for a reason, so that firewalls can selectively turn off services."  On of the reasons I've been so quick to embrace SOAP and XML-RPC is because they run on port 80, which means I won't get locked out by a restrictive firewall / proxy server.  For all intents, SOAP and XML-RPC are firewall-killers.  This is one of those areas will I'll maintain my hypocrisy, on one hand, I agree with Bruce, these new protocols defy existing security models, on the other hand, I'll use them constantly (defying security models).  In the end, guys like Bruce need to start suggesting ways to enforce security in a world of ever-changing port 80 protocols.  There's more than just HTML flowing over that simple little port. comment  11:54:29 AM

OpenP2P.com: A Free Software Agenda for Peer-to-Peer [Feb. 28, 2002]  Furthermore, the challenges in this area are just right for free software. First, peer-to-peer makes life especially hard for a proprietary software company. Few companies can survive even in the current market for conventional products, but peer-to-peer makes the challenge even worse. Most of the activity in peer-to-peer systems, by definition, goes on at the end points. The situation is like all the users bringing parts for a model airplane, and the proprietary company providing the glue. The companies want you to sniff the glue and come back for more, but it's a very thin basis on which to charge money. comment  11:07:19 AM

dooce.com | bootylicious since 2001: "I made a conscious decision when I conceived dooce.com that I would never bow to the intimidation of others, including employers or pussy-ass cocksmacks who think I should just stop complaining and be a good worker bee already. " Your company made a conscience decision as well.  I have a problem with people that think that they can get away with anything.  Other writers on this page have different opinions.  To me, you're responsible for every word you put on the internet.  This isn't censorship.  The company isn't stopping her from writing her site, they're just saying, we don't want a person that writes this to work for us.  So, if the NYTimes fires someone, is that censorship?  If someone wears a t-shirt to work that says, "this place sucks" is that censorship?  I think her company over-reacted, but, I still think they were within their rights when they fired her.  Does that make me a dooce.com "cock smack?"  Probably.  Maybe dooce.com needs another "finger of rum".  I'm not going to read the site anymore.  It's whiny.  Grow up, learn to love yourself, your life, and your world.  You'll be better off. comment  9:06:49 AM