Many ISPs, particularly residential, block ports to control traffic or protect their users. This means that if you want to run a webserver from your home and your ISP has blocked port 80 then you have to jump through some hoops to make it happen. How do you know if port 80 (or some other port you need) is blocked? Use the Can you see me? service.
Category: Of Interest
Those miscellaneous things that just must be published.
Funny Computer Dude Music
First there was CodeMonkey and now The System Administrator Song. I’m going to have to start collecting these! Thanks to James for the link!
Why space is good
Check out the pretty colors!
The Next Thing Everyone Will Link To
Interesting – Yet Another Search Opportunity
Take a look at Keotag. Not sure what to make of this yet. Btw, Keotag qualifies as a Web 2.0 application.
Aliens Attack Australia
Start your own business
Want to start your own business? CNN Money asks, "how much money will you need?" I still contend that the government, the same government which encourages small business, is the greatest hinderance to the small business owner. Screw up the taxes and suffer the rest of your life.
Btw, CNN’s answer was $10,000. I started my first real endeavor with $38,000 and pumped another $20,000 of my own money into it before going belly up.
See also.
The 2006 Podcast Awards
Have you become addicted to podcasts? Want the best? The 2006 Podcast Awards have been announced.
Fly Naked Air
I said the future is in nude airlines!
This video shows we are practically there! (Note: the yahoo interface is obnoxious in that it moves immediately to the next video story. The new airport scanner is the first video). Basically, a machine is almost ready to deloy that will allow airport screens to see you nude and see everything you are packing.
It’s a virtual strip search…so detailed you can see genitalia.
So here is my more friendly skies concept. The airports will have rows of changing rooms like you would see in a dressing room at a clothing store. All passengers go into the changing rooms and strip. There is a container that you put your clothes, carry-on, and everything into. Like the doctor’s office bathroom, there is a pass-through which allows your sealed container to move onto a conveyor belt. You don a hospital robe, leave the changing room, and proceed through the metal detectors.
Taglines for my airline might be "Fly Naked Air" or "The Mile High Club is Open Again" and, my favorite, "Have no fear because you can see what everyone’s packing!" I’m seeking investors!
See the failed endeavor Hooters Air and The Sun News report on its failure. Wait a minute! Naked-Air (NWS) already flys out of Miami! Here’s a worksafe write-up of Naked-Air including this quote:
"After 9/11, I didn’t have any cancellations," [Donna Daniels] said. "Even after war broke out, we didn’t have any cancellations on this trip. People feel safe on a flight like this."
Woot-Off today!
If you don’t know what a Woot-Off is then you probably don’t know what Woot is. Woot is one of those wonderful ideas that makes you slap your forehead and cry out, "why didn’t I think of that!" Woot is associated with Overstock.com and releases 1 product Monday through Friday at 12am Central time (1am Eastern). The product is available in a limited number and often sells out in the first hour. The product is almost always significantly cheaper than anything you find on Froogle.
A Woot-Off is basically a chance for Woot to clean out their warehouse.
…a short term frenzied mutation of our product posting procedure. In Woot-Off mode, a new product is launched immediately after the sellout of the previous deal. There is a half-Woot-life of 12 hours maximum on any product within a Woot-Off that does not sell out. The number of Woot-Off items, sequence, and quantity will not be announced. When Woot-Off mode is over, the orange lights will disappear and our normal schedule will resume. Depending on its success, this may be a mode we would go into once or twice a month for a relatively short duration of time (24-72 hours generally.) [Source]
I have purchased twice through Woot and been thrilled each time. Both the products are regularly used and were fantastic bargins. I wish we weren’t in tight budget mode or I would buy my wife the Bluetooth iPod headphones right now. My other favorite bargin hunting site is Slickdeals.net which reports coupon and rebate combinations that often result in wonderful deals or free products. It’s sister site is Slickfillers.net which helps you find low dollar items to push an Amazon order over the $25 mark to gain free shipping.
Olga Goes Down
On July 15 I said it was coming. Tom Maszerowski shows us it is here!
OLGA.net, The On-Line Guitar Archive has been served a take-down notice from the NMPA and MPA (whatever the hell they are) referencing the DMCA as grounds. OLGA’s crime: making text files with the chords of songs available for download. How this violates the DMCA beats me. [Source]
For those that have have never visited OLGA, it has been around for ages and is an incredible resource for aspiring musicians. For all practical purposes, it is an education site more than anything else. Regular people interpret, not copy, songs showing the guitar chord changes, riffs and lyrics. The site has inspired me to buy CDs by the artists so that I had the actual music to play along as I learned the song.
This is an atrocity in the name of a lawyer pocketing some dough because the idea that OLGA deprives any artist of revenue is ridiculous. OLGA is a easy target to set a legal precedence in order to tackle the sites that actually make a profit from selling lyrics online.
LOST nears and so do the spoilers
Hello LOST fans! If this site is to be believed, they have juicy spoilers! So, if you don’t want to see what is coming in Season 3, do not click this link.
A new hobby? Parkour
Me thinks I have to try Parkour aka PK.
Parkour (often abbreviated PK) is a physical discipline of French origin in which participants attempt to pass obstacles in the fastest and most direct manner possible, using skills such as jumping, vaulting and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves. The obstacles can be anything in one’s environment, so parkour is often practiced in urban areas because of many suitable public structures, such as buildings, rails, and walls. [Source]
See also: A much longer description of Parkour. Wikipedia also has a detailed explanation.
Obi-Wan seeks transportation
Destroy lousy sites
Do you have a site that you despise? Does it burn your eyes when you look? Now you can take pleasure in obliterating that site! Watch it be destroyed with a disaster of your choosing!
