Old News (2003)

I just purchased the Atech Pro-9 9-in-1 flash card reader.  This thing is extremely cool- it has a number of different ports on the front to plug various storage items into.  A bit pricey (CDN$100), but cool nonetheless!

Getting it to work under linux is trivial.  If your kernel has CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN set, it will work out-of-the-box.  If not (RedHat kernels don't set this flag by default), just add the following line to your modprobe.conf file for 2.6.x:

options scsi_mod max_luns=512

Or, if you are running 2.4.x, add the following line to modules.conf:

options scsi_mod max_scsi_luns=512

These options force the SCSI layer to scan up to 512 LUNs (sub-devices) on each SCSI device. It's required because the 9-in-1 has four effective devices inside. Scanning the first device only will give you the first of the four devices only.

You should now see the following in dmesg when plugging the device in:

scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
  Vendor: AFT PRO   Model: -IX CF            Rev: 0.0>
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Vendor: AFT PRO   Model: -IX SD            Rev: 0.0>
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Vendor: AFT PRO   Model: -IX SM/XD         Rev: 0.0>
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
  Vendor: AFT PRO   Model: -IX MS            Rev: 0.0>
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02

You can see the Compact Flash, Secure Digital, SmartMedia and Memory Stick interfaces appearing as separate devices. In theory, you can insert one piece of memory of each kind and use them simultaneously! I've only tried my SmartMedia card, personally, but it will likely work if you have multiple media types.

Bugzilla.NET version 0.1 has been released.  Anyone using Bugzilla and Visual Studio.NET should check this out.  More info on Bugzilla.NET available on the project's homepage. 

I didn't expect to get a response to my Linux for Travel Systems article so quickly, but it's clear that Robert Scoble either missed the point or has decided to fabricate a great deal of my argument to suit his own:

Matthew makes a mistake, though. He tries to use this as an example of how a company has fired Microsoft. Instead, though, you need to look at what Travelocity used before. Unix. So, what Travelocity really decided was to replace its Unix-based systems with Linux.

In this case, Robert is the one who has made a mistake.  Nowhere in my article did I even mention "firing Microsoft".  In fact, the only reference to Microsoft in my article is referring to Robert's role as evangelist.  My goal was simply to match his "Windows Success Story" with a story of how a company evaluated its options and came up with the conclusion Linux Works Better For Them.

This is where Robert believes his "switch story" is more convincing:

My Morton Thiokol example was more of a real win. Why? Because Morton Thiokol switched from Unix to Windows (that's a real jump over the fence -- Unix to Linux isn't as big a difference as Unix to Windows).

I'm finding it hard to give this point any credit for two reasons:

1. Robert hadn't positioned his article as a Unix to Windows switch.  In fact, I have no idea what really went on at Morton Thiokol.  Looking back at Robert's previous two mentions of the company, this is the most information I can get out of it:

   On the other hand, ask yourself why no one has written about Morton Thiokol lately. They just changed computer systems for their engineers.

   "Changed computer systems," eh?  From what to what?  I can assume that the "to what" part of that is Windows, but nowhere in this article does he mention that it was from something else.  They could have been running AutoCAD on Windows '95 for all we know.  For the record, I have seen people run those two together.

2. In the original case study I referenced, we don't know what the architecture history of Travelocity was.  At the time, I was positioning the story only as one in which Linux was chosen over other alternatives.  I did manage to dig up another article that describes them switching from C++/SGI to Java/Linux.  The Unix-to-Java/Linux switch is not any less valid than Robert's Unix-to-Windows switch.  I would consider Java to be a platform of its own and the change to it significant.  If you read the other article describing the switch, you can see how they switched to Apache Tomcat (a Java Enterprise hosting environment) with Struts (a web-page rendering environment).  That's not a trivial change, Robert!

So you can see, my Travelocity switch story is just as valid as Robert's Morton Thiokol story.  Either switch would be a major undertaking for any organization.  Switching from Unix to Linux, however, is a win for Linux (and a win for Open Source at the same time).  You can't discount this switch just because both operating systems end in the letter "x".

If you look at the stories and how they would affect a normal working-class Joe, you'd probably find that the Travelocity story has greater influence.  Not everyone flies to the moon, but pretty much everyone flies between cities at some point in their life.  Linux now helps you get your ticket cheaper and faster.

Since Scoble has been pushing Morton Thiokol stories over the last few days, I thought I would counter with a Linux success story from this article (first page here). 

"Sabre Holdings Corp., based in Southlake, Texas, is a $2.1 billion holding company with four technology-based travel business units: the Travelocity online travel site; the Sabre Travel Network, which operates the Sabre reservations system for travel agents, suppliers and travelers; GetThere, a Web-based corporate travel service; and Sabre Airline Solutions, which provides software and consulting services to airlines."

Here's the great quote: "We've got to get faster, better, cheaper solutions into our infrastructure, and Linux lets us get there". 

Sabre Holdings Corp. isn't designing the space shuttle engines, sure, but the next time you book your Travelocity holiday online, picture all of that open-source, finely-tuned machinery ticking away in the background.  And they can scale up any part of their system for the cost of the new hardware.  No Microsoft Licensing 6.0 yearly payments and no random license audits from the BSA.  Just re-image the new machine and add it to the cluster!  Like the Murphy, the CTO, says:

"Your cost at the scaling point, after the initial implementation, is essentially zero, and you're getting a robust environment that delivers the intangible benefit that your technicians love to work on Linux."

I imagine that seeing all of these Linux stories in the trade press is making Microsoft's star evangelist a little jealous.  I'm happy to see all of the attention that open-source products have been getting lately. 

The latest Google Zeitgeist is out.  Using the approximate readings from this forum post, it looks like the new (very approximate) browser shares for Google are:

• MSIE 6.0: 68.5%
• MSIE 5.5: 10%
• MSIE 5.0: 11.5%
• Netscape 6+ (Mozilla): 5%
• Other: 5%

The total is 100%, but that luck more than anything.  I didn't fudge any numbers, but I eyeballed most of them.  Each of those Google major ticks are 15%, from what I can tell. 

Good news: Mozilla is now 5% of the web (according to Google). 

Bad news: MSIE total is approx. 90%, compared to 85% in Dec. of 2002.  Where they've taken browser share from, I don't know, but it's likely from older Netscape 4 installations that have moved on.

Good news: at least 95% of the web can handle a good deal of CSS, even if 11.5% is fairly broken and 10% is only somewhat broken.  ;)

I've got Spamassassin running against one of my POP3 mail servers via fetchmail.  It cleans the mail, marks spam, junks anything that rates extremely high (I've set a score of 15 as "extremely high"), then redelivers it to a non-public filtered email address.  It's working great so far! 

I've started a project to integrate the Bugzilla bug tracking system with Visual Studio .NET.  So far, I've managed to get a "quick query" window in Visual Studio, as well as synchronization for server-side saved searches with the Task List window.  This should help make bug lists more available for anyone using both VS.NET and Bugzilla.  My plan is to put it up on Sourceforge, but I haven't had a chance yet.  Email me if you're interested in testing/helping out. 

For now, check out the screenshots and additional information on my temporary Bugzilla.NET project page.

I wonder if I can get Dave Winer to start pushing more user-friendly RSS with XSL.  I would like to see someone collect a library of XSL transformations for RSS/RSS2.0 and Atom that can handle pretty much any valid feed.  Would this be a better way to softly introduce visitors to RSS?

I've added permalinks for all of my articles, as well as commenting for most of the pages within this site (the news pages themselves being one exception).  This means that you can now comment on the various coding projects I've worked on.

It seems as if x0rfbserver is no longer around.  Fortunately x11vnc is here!

For those of you writing Visual Studio.NET 2003 add-ins in C# (or any other .NET-enabled language), you might have noticed that CreateToolWindow doesn't really work with real .NET controls.  Fortunately, this piece of code fixes this problem.

I've managed to replace the built-in IE control in SharpReader with a nice, fast Mozilla ActiveX control.  Read on for details of how to get your extra dose of Mozilla.

In his latest post about RSS, Robert Scoble says:

"Now, imagine a new syndication format that brought up a page that showed what a news aggregator was, and explained how the system worked and why it's more productive."

My challenge: create a plug-in XSL file that works with RSS to explain to the user what RSS is and point him at a application to read RSS.

Mental note: FreeTextBox looks really cool.  This would be a great addition to TWiki.

Haloscan comments are coooool.  :)  I've come up with a little scriptlet to handle the non-existance of the Haloscan server.  Read on for the details.

Robert Scoble has written a short response to my previous article. 

I am so tired of hearing about Longhorn.  It's a shame that the blogs that are updating most frequently in the last few weeks are the ones from the .NET-praising crowd.  Information addiction can be a painful thing somethings.  My inspiration for this rant comes from this article.

If you haven't seen Dead Like Me yet, try and find it.  Good stuff.

I posted the analysis from earlier to the Bittorrent development mailing list. I received a reply from Bram Cohen illustrating one flaw in the argument.  Read the reply here.

grack.com has moved to a new provider.  Thanks to 1&1 hosting, I've got 500 MB of webspace for the next three years - free!  It's got a nice control panel interface, SSH and FTP access.  You can see more details about this package here.

For a while I've been wondering if a hybrid Bittorrent/Reed-Solomon system would be a more effective swarming download system. Note: Some minor corrections made.

I've cleaned up some of the 101 Things I Hate About .NET selection.  Still not at 101, but I'm getting there.  Let me know if you have any of your own to add.

I've added an RSS 0.91 feed.  Get it at http://www.grack.com/rss.xml, or use the RSS links at the bottom of this page.

I've just discovered the joy of x0rfbserver.

I've started work on my 101 Things I Hate About .NET selection.  Let me know if you have any of your own to add.

I added a page for a description and download for Identd (binaries and source).

I managed to find a copy of Death Match on an old CD.  It took me a little while to the program running.

Check out the new style picker at the bottom of the page and read on for detail on how to do it.

I've managed to locate the code for HP-Kermit, as well as the binaries for the first version of Death Match.  I'll have these items up (as well as screenshots for Death Match) as soon as I can.  I also managed to find the source for some of my POV-Ray  stuff, as well.

I've finally got grack.com up to a point where I can publish it.  I'm still not completely convinced that I've got all my content up, but it should at least appear as if I do.  Let me know if you find any errors or omissions.