Recent DreamHost problems that at one point suggested data loss got me thinking about backing up my data. Though I was not affected by the outage, some of my friends were and as they listed the data they would have lost for good I realized I would be in much the same boat if DreamHost lost my web site. Here I will outline my backup plan, including scripts, so you can get up and running quickly with your own backup strategy. The information should apply reasonably well to any web host, but will be slanted toward DreamHost because that’s the host I use.
Continue reading ‘Backing up your DreamHost data’
Here is the first version of Blip Unembed, a script I created to convert blip.tv embed URLs into the original blip.tv URLs and to download FLV files from blip.tv given the original URL or the embed URL:
The script should work on any system with a POSIX shell (such as Ubuntu, Mac OS X, or Windows with MSYS) and curl (curl is in the Ubuntu repositories and also available for Windows; curl is in Mac OS X by default). To use it, simply run blip_unembed.sh with the original URL (ie. http://blip.tv/file/1591892) or the embed URL (ie. http://blip.tv/play/lG3h1k0A) of the blip.tv video you want to see. The original URL and FLV URL will be printed and the FLV file will be downloaded. If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this post or contact me directly.
This script is the latest in my attempts to help people depend less on Flash (previous projects include Vimeo Downloader). For more details, see Why I haven’t installed a Flash player. For viewing YouTube or Vimeo videos without Flash, use Free Youtube! by Stephen Paul Weber. I suspect Free Youtube! will support blip.tv very soon.
Update: Free Youtube! now supports blip.tv, thanks to this script. Just install Greasemonkey, then Free Youtube! and you will have Flash-free blip.tv.
The One Laptop per Child project has recently restarted their Give One, Get One (G1G1) program. The last G1G1 program ran from November to December last year. This one is expected to be ongoing, with no end date specified. So you don’t have to worry about missing an ordering deadline.
When I wrote about the last G1G1, they were only shipping to Canada and the USA. This time around, they have added Europe and Australia to the list of shipping destinations. Interestingly, they have chosen to charge in GBP for all non-US shipping destinations. The cost is £275 plus £50 shipping, which works out to CAD$621.63 using today’s buying rate from Citizens Bank. I paid about CAD$450 when I bought two XO-1s in November 2007 so it’s a bit more expensive this time around, but that’s to be expected with the Canadian dollar being lower than it was then. If you live in Canada but have relatives or friends in the USA, I would recommend shipping it to one of them. At USD$399 (CAD$510), buying through the G1G1 program in the US is much less expensive than buying through the G1G1 program to ship to Canada.
To purchase XOs through the G1G1 program, go to http://amazon.com/xo. If purchasing within the US, you will be able to get your XO before Christmas if you order today or tomorrow. If purchasing outside the US, the deadline for Christmas shipping has passed, but you can still order an XO for later shipping.
I have enjoyed using my XO since I got it this past January. I would recommend it particularly for those with children, as the interface is really designed for them. If you have any specific questions about the XO for someone who has used it for a few months, please reply in a comment to this post and I’ll get back to you.
Here is the first version of Vimeo Downloader, a script I created to download videos from Vimeo:
The script should work on any system with a POSIX shell (such as Ubuntu, Mac OS X, or Windows with MSYS) and wget or curl (wget is in Ubuntu by default and also available for Windows, curl is in Mac OS X by default). To use it, simply run vimeo_downloader.sh with the ID of the Vimeo video you want to see. For example, the ID of http://www.vimeo.com/2373142 is 2373142. If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this post or contact me directly.
Thanks to Voinage on the XBMC forums for describing how to download videos from Vimeo.
This script is the latest in my attempts to help people depend less on Flash. For more details, see Why I haven’t installed a Flash player. For viewing YouTube videos without Flash, use Free Youtube! by Stephen Paul Weber. Hopefully this script will make it easier to incorporate Vimeo support into something like Free Youtube!.
Update: Free Youtube! now supports Vimeo, thanks to this script. Just install Greasemonkey, then Free Youtube! and you will have Flash-free Vimeo.
You may have heard about Google’s new voice and video chat plugin for Gmail, which lets you use voice and video through the Gmail web interface. You may have also heard that the plugin is standalone (does not require other plugins) or an alternative to using Flash for voice and video chat solutions. Like many, I thought that because Gmail voice and video chat was a plugin, it did not require Flash at all. However, further research showed that this was not the case.
Continue reading ‘Flash required for Gmail voice and video chat’
Since I installed Ubuntu 8.10 three weeks ago, I have not installed a Flash player. I don’t just mean I haven’t installed the Adobe Flash Player, I mean I haven’t installed any Flash player at all, not even Gnash or Swfdec. Those of you who know me as a free/libre/open-source software (FLOSS) advocate may be wondering why this is. After all, I don’t need to use any non-libre software if I run Gnash or Swfdec. I’ll explain why having a FLOSS implementation of a technology is not enough for me to use it.
Continue reading ‘Why I haven’t installed a Flash player’
When I look at the programming languages available today, it seems that all of them try to optimize execution speed or developer time at the expense of the other. For example, although compiled C code is extremely fast, it can take many more programmer hours to write a robust application in C than in a higher-level language. On the other side of the coin, a moderately complex problem can be solved by a Ruby programmer in a few minutes, but the resulting code is executed slowly, running on an interpreter (soon to be a VM, but still slower than native code) and requiring garbage collection and lots of runtime checking. Are these sacrifices necessary? I don’t think so. How is it possible to make a language that simultaneously optimizes execution speed and developer time? I believe the answer lies in static code analysis, particularly at the compiler level.
Continue reading ‘Ideas for a better programming language’
StarCraft Power Saver has been updated to patch StarCraft 1.15.3 executables. You can find the new version on the StarCraft Power Saver web page. If you have any questions or if you are having trouble with StarCraft Power Saver, please add a comment to this post or contact me directly.
Before I begin with my (minor) criticism, please don’t take this the wrong way. Although I haven’t written about Lawrence Lessig before, I have been following much of what he has been doing in the way of alternative copyright licensing methods (Creative Commons), copyright reform (see Lessig’s “five changes that would make a world of difference” and ignore the title), and reducing corruption in government (Change Congress). His views are well thought-out and are helping to make the world a better place. What follows is a suggestion to Mr. Lessig and others about how they can help even more.
Continue reading ‘Lessig, others: There is more to the world than just the USA’
Along with their commitment to free and open source software in government, the Green Party of Canada takes an excellent stance on copyright reform. According to a response from Green Party candidate Glenn Hubbers and the Green Party response to the Canadian Conference of the Arts questionnaire, the Green Party will:
- Remove the Levy on Blank Audio Recording Media and replace it with private copying exemptions;
- Introduce a formal notice-and-notice mechanism for dealing with copyright infringement online, thereby affirming common carrier status for Internet Service Providers (ISPs);
- Renounce the Crown Copyright applied to all government produced documents, thereby immediately releasing them into the public domain;
It seems almost coincidental that the Green Party’s stated goals so closely match my own. Let me elaborate on why these reforms are necessary.
Continue reading ‘Positive change: Green Party on copyright’
