Category: Geekdom

Just So I Don’t Forget The URL

As many of you know, I manage the Bend Blogs site. In my search for software to power it, I wanted something that was PHP-powered, and preferred a MySQL back-end. I also wanted something simple, and I came across lilina. It’s simple, and it works, but not as cleanly or as nicely as I’d like. Version .7 is powering the site right now, and I considered moving the site to a more up-to-date lilina-variant.

At this point, however, I think I’m just going to ditch lilina. Why? Because with a bit of work, I can get the whole thing working as an actual blog, powered by MovableType (which is far easier for me to work with), displaying local blog posts as blog posts on bendblogs.com with comments, permalinks, archives, etc… , as well as a combined RSS feed for all. How? With reBlog, which I REALLY wish I would’ve found a few months ago when I threw bendblogs.com online.

So expect an overhaul of bendblogs.com sometime in the near future. Otherwise, if anybody has a blog I should add to the site, let me know. I’m up to 91 right now, and I’m sure I’m missing some (I know I’m missing some, as some folks requested their site not be listed, which is fine), but if you have any to send over, comment here.

August 5, 2005

OneEighty Bend Gets Bought By Unicom

Did I miss this in the local paper? I happened upon this Spokesman Review article that says that OneEighty (formally known as Highspeed Communications, formally known as EmpireNet, formally known as a guy whose name I completely forgot running a BBS out of his basement) is selling it’s Bend and Madras branches to Unicom. OregonTrail, I’m assuming, is part of that deal as well (as they were bought up by OneEighty).

Personally, I haven’t dealt with any of those companies for quite a while (I have had to deal with OneEighty on behalf of a client, but it was on minor issues that are probably going to get much more complicated now). I did have to deal with OregonTrail when I first started working at Sunray, as they hosted Sunray’s site (long since moved) and they were a bit of a pain to deal with as they didn’t know much about hosting, it seemed.

I also know there are some folks locally who are getting free hosting from OneEighty in return for links back to the company’s site — are those folks going to get booted?

So who does that leave in Central Oregon for Network/Data Center providers? Other than BendCableBroadband, who else is there? It seems most of the smaller ones that used be around have disappeared.

Update: I’m an idiot. Now I know why it’s not in the Bulletin — it probably ran two months ago when the actual purchase happened. So not only am I not on the ball, but The Spokesman Review is quite a bit late to the game, too.

Ugh…I need more free time to keep up on this stuff…

July 28, 2005

My Next Keyboard

Granted, this thing may never see the light of day, and I’m sure it will cost a pretty penny, but the idea sure is cool.

July 18, 2005

The History of the GUI

A great history lesson for all the geeks out there (yes, another old link — I’m still cleaning out my flagged links).

June 26, 2005

Do-It-Yourself Hacks Link Dump

For those of you who have a hankering to void the warranty on products you own, or to create something out of common household objects or cheap items from Radio Shack, or if you’re just a cheap bastard and would rather do things that hard way to save a few bucks, here are some great links for you. Most of these came from the great Make Blog and Hack-A-Day and these are the ones I found particularly entertaining (and I really need to get them unflagged in FeedDemon).

That should keep you guys busy for a while. Have fun!

June 22, 2005

Used Computer Parts Exchange

This is awesome. It’s an online inventory of parts for people to exchange with other folks from around the world. I don’t know how much stuff is on there, but the idea’s good, and I know I’ve got a bunch of old parts that I’d love to just get rid of to somebody who could actually use them.

June 22, 2005

Create A Wiki with Four Lines of Code?

SigWik is a Wiki that only has four lines of source code. Other programming fanatics have created 12 others that are all under 50 lines of code (in languages such as Perl, Ruby, PHP, Java, and Python). Jon, who posted the above links, was inspired a bit, and created his own Wiki software. It’s 58-lines, and actually readable, but still bloat-ware compared to the other stuff. If he removed all the unnecessary white-space, got rid of the XHTML output (made it straight HTML 4.0), didn’t do any sort of error checking or closing of files, used some shorthand PHP, removed comments, removed the “php” from “<?php”, and basically made his code totally unreadable, I think he could make it well under 50 lines and get himself listed on the above site.

June 15, 2005

Smoothwall Kicks Ass

I mentioned Smoothwall nearly two years ago now, and have finally had the chance to put the thing into action (as I already have established firewalls at the other places I’m in charge of). They’re building a big fancy fitness center here in Sunriver, and since our company is one of the owners of the place, I’ve been put in charge of getting the network and computers and such all up and running. The place is also going to have a public access wireless network, and I don’t want that wireless network to have any access to the private wired network, and I also want to make sure that I could give bandwidth priority to the folks on the wired network. So with some help from the folks on the Smoothwall forums, a bunch of modifications and hacks, this firewall will be up and running shortly. So if anybody hasn’t tried out Smoothwall, you’re really missing out.

I just got our desktop computers, too (along with my 26-port switch), so I’ll have to tear those open and start ripping some stuff up. Granted, the building’s not done yet (they haven’t finished terminating and patching off the wiring closet, for example), but I’m just trying to get all my ducks in a row so that when the thing is up and going, I can go down there, plug in everything, and they’re good to go.

June 13, 2005

CSS, Web/Print Design, Freelancing Link Dump

Just a pile of links that I’m dumping here, primarily for my future reference, but they might come in handy to somebody here.

June 10, 2005

Thought For The Day

What if Steve Jobs ran HP? Interesting thoughts, actually, and it would certainly do HP some good.

June 9, 2005