Sunday, May 12, 2002

How to Contact Your Congress Critter to Complain about Microsoft and Real Names Here's a whole story, complete with links, and a sample email that you can send.  Copyright granted.  Thanks Google for making it damn simple.  Thanks Dave for making me aware of this. ==> How to Contact Your Congress Person and Complain <== TIP: I pointed out in the email that "Senator Kennedy" has a real name and that it would be lost and I pointed out that this potentially affects jobs in Massachusetts.  Marketing Comment: Always, always relate to someone via how they profit from something.  More here. comment [] 10:59:37 AM     If You Haven't Read This then Read It NOW! ==> http://scriptingnews.userland.com/realNamesMicrosoft <== comment [] 10:00:45 AM     Why is AIM Interoperability So Damn Hard? DISCLAIMER: This is not a pro pornography or anti pornography post in any way. It's a "How do they do that post". I've followed the IM wars for years now.  I've never played in them though.  Here's a question -- Why is it that almost every single time I log into AOL IM, I get "porn spammed" (story on this to follow in next few days) by an auto responder.  Today it was from "Milla J 323" and she asked me to "Pet Her Pu*" (figure it out).  Here's technologically what they must be able to do: Monitor for new users (how did they get my id? Run a crawler looking for AIM: text) Logon Send messages to a user Isn't this the basics of AOL IM interop?  How come pornographers can do it when it's so damn hard for everyone else?  Here's the interesting part -- this domain name is only about 3 days old (May 9).  They got this running fast! If anyone wants to ask them then here's their domain info:    Domain Name: GRATUITOUSPUSSY.COM    Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.    Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net    Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org    Name Server: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM    Name Server: NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM    Updated Date: 10-may-2002 >>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 12 May 2002 04:53:29 EDT <<< NOTE: I tried to call and ask them and the phone # is false. And here's the contact info: Registrant: Holly Smith 3244 Summer Ave Memphis, Tn 38122 US Domain Name: gratuitouspussy.com  Administrative Contact:     Smith, Holly  nichole@mightysexy69.com     3244 Summer Ave     Memphis, Tn 38122     US     901-564-0312 Technical Contact:     Smith, Holly  nichole@mightysexy69.com     3244 Summer Ave     Memphis, Tn 38122     US     901-564-0312 Billing Contact:     Smith, Holly  nichole@mightysexy69.com     3244 Summer Ave     Memphis, Tn 38122     US     901-564-0312  Registration Service Provider:  Record last updated on 09-May-2002. Record expires on 09-May-2003. Record Created on 09-May-2002. Domain servers in listed order:     NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM   216.148.213.141     NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM   216.148.221.142 comment [] 9:50:30 AM     Warning: YAMRIC YAMRIC = Yet Another Microsoft Rant Is Coming!  I just installed SP2, Critical Updates and IE 6.  Guess what: FrontPage 2000 must be a part of the Operating System now since SP2 includes: "FrontPage 2000 Non-HTML File Save Update".  Um... Hello DOJ?  Can you please tell me why Microsoft is using a service pack for the Operating System to update Office?  Yes, perhaps this was dynamically customized to my system but: I didn't tell it to mess with my Office files. It gives the appearance, if not the reality of huge abuse of power. Why can't third party developers like AOL have Microsoft include their updates with SP2?  Why isn't the latest radio.root file with sp2? Is anyone awake in Redmond?  Or are you all so blindly arrogant that you think that whatever you do you can get away with.  You'd think that someone would review install programs with respect to "Are we doing anything that might get scrutiny even if it's not illegal".  Sigh. comment [] 9:35:57 AM     Blog Consulting Related Domain Names Thanks to the dramatically lower domain prices from www.000domains.com I am now the proud owner of these domains: www.blogconsulting.com (nothing there yet, I just did it, don't bother) www.weblogconsulting.com (nothing there yet, I just did it, don't bother) And I don't feel good about it.  Yes, my group of people does do consulting on weblogs.  And, yes, we actually have a paying client for this.  But, to grow the blogging industry, wouldn't people going to that domain name expect a directory of consultants?  So, here's the deal.  I'm willing to accept a "First Among Equals" status for this group of domains (i.e. I run it and since I thought of it I get some additional credit) but this market is big enough for everybody and competition is ___GOOD___.  It's healthy and it keeps me on my toes (which I need). So, here's the questions: Am I bloody nuts to not grab this stuff exclusively?  I don't think so -- in this community sharing works. Anyone what to help out on the design (credits right on the home page, gratis)?  We need: Look and feel Submission forms for registering yourself Links to the different blog tools and other consultant registries like UserLand's directory Standard tools: PHP and MySQL, Cross Browser HTML. sjohnson@fuzzygroup.com if you want to pitch in and help.   comment [] 8:26:48 AM     Running an Open Source Project: It's All About Communications I'm currently running a "open source" project building a web service.  The ""s are there because we have the attributes of an open source project but we'd like to make money from this web service so the "license" isn't clear.  But here's why I say it's "open source": Multiple contributors Multiple locations Multiple continents Multiple nationalities Different skill sets (some are good at parsing, some at overall, some at design, some at vision, etc) Building it entirely with Open Source tools: Linux server, PHP as application language, MySQL as persistent data store So, here's the comment: If you are going to be involved in an Open Source effort, learn to communicate like this: Clearly Well Avoid national specific phrases when working with someone outside your national border and define stuff when it's the first time you use it.  And, what you think of "national" isn't necessarily right.  One of our collaborators got bogged down on "test harness" (my term for a web page that drove a DB input routine for testing) when he used "test routine".  If you are American then try not to be the "Ugly American".  Recognize from day one that you need localization across everything.  SHAMELESS PLUG: And, if you need to know how to do localization in php, read my article at www.phpbeginner.com on this which also could be titled "Scott's Stupid Approach to Localization without Using gettext()" Anticipate questions and answer them to avoid the "email flurry" when you don't think thru what people might need.  Also people are in different countries with 12 hour time differences so if you don't do this you can shut someone down by mistake (I did this last night, Sorry Veer!) Log all communications and SHARE THEM (example: we're logging all important IM conversations and sharing them with an internal tool) Here's a second comment: Everything is communications even tasks that need to be done.  It's all about communications.  If I ask you to do something by adding it to your task list and I indicate that it's a high priority then this an important communication. And, finally: All problems are really failures in communications I didn't used to believe this until I got into a finger pointing war recently over some DNS configuration issues that turned out to be both of us being wrong.  It really is all about communications people... NOTE: This is a true collaborative effort but, since it was my idea, if anyone is "running" it, I am.  I'm not sure that it's really being run as much as it's picking up steam (and acreting features as it goes). comment [] 7:07:36 AM     Star Wars Conclusion I tried again a few times to see if I could get it and never did.  So, the problem may not be as widespread as it appeared.  Don't download any files named like this: (smr)Star Wars - Attack of The Clones NEW!(2of2).avi (smr) Attack_of_the_clones (1of2).avi Star Wars Episode 2 Attack Of The Clones - 1of2 - DIVX - (DownloadMoviesOnline.cjb.avi Star Wars Episode 2 Attack Of The Clones - 1of2 - DIVX - (DownloadMoviesOnline.cjb.net).avi These aren't Star Wars by a long shot!  And, as far as benchmarking the time goes, I gave up when the 2nd file took > 5 hours.  All I know is that it completed sometime between 10 pm est and 5 am est (I started at 5 in the afternoon). comment [] 5:35:27 AM

© Copyright 2002 The FuzzyStuff. Last update: 5/31/2002; 6:52:59 AM.