Sad to hear that Jef Raskin passed away. Recently he was working on a new Zooming Interface. Jef was instrumental in Apples early days and was key person in the development of the Macintosh.

An "old school" case modification to place the guts of a Mac Classic into a Clear Cube.

Nice Knife Block.

A good look back at the early days of multimedia and hypermedia from Smackerel.

Building a VPN solution using OpenBSD and OpenVPN.

A timely howto - Using SSH and RSYNC to backup data across a network.

Engadget are running a great little article on how to setup your Mac or PC to act as a simple home-security system using a webcam. Its actually a little disappointing how hard something like this is to implement - why do many webcam server implement email, streaming and ftp but no support for secure copy or ftp and they often have a really lacklustre html gallery feature.

A colleague implemented something similar to this and it was amazing to behold - sortable html tables.

An excellent IBM article on tips towards Porting Enterprise Unix Apps to Linux.

Interesting Links

'Magic stuff happens' - why computing methodologies often fall victim to a common problem when documenting or describing key procedures.

MobilePC has an excellent list of the Top 100 Gadgets.

Howto - Firewalling with OpenBSD PF (Packet Filter).

Fascinating - an Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hacking.

Two articles on wood burning heaters and stoves. Kevin Kellys Cool Tools site has some 'One foot wonders' that occupy a minimum of space and are super efficient. Meta-efficient also has an article on Efficient Wood Burning Stoves.

This looks like a fascinating concept - The Brain EKP. The demo looks great but I bet it costs an absolute arm and a leg and requires a huge amount of customisation, ongoing support and maintenance. I wonder what the backend tools are like - eg can a normal Sysadmin easily extend the product to other information stores ?

Rather amusing look at the perils of creating a groupware tool from jwz (of Netscape and X screensaver fame) in relation to Novells new Hula server.

Tim Bray points out that Sun works primarily via email, phone, IM and wiki.

This is already linked all over the web but Amazon have the new Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy trailer.

Another windows freeware site - Portable Freeware - with a focus on software that doesn't need to be installed or can be installed and then safely moved somewhere else and run (eg a c:\bin directory for small tools). The best tool on this page has to be Wink which lets you create shockwave movies from screen captures - note that vnc2swf does a similar thing for Unix.

Great advice on How to Pitch an Idea.

Gmail tip - Configuring POP/SMTP.

Useful Active Directory tool - Using ADModify to Change Exchange Specific AD User Attributes in Bulk.

Ed Brill is a Lotus Notes guy who recently attended a Notes to Exchange migration course. Interesting reading.

Good New Zealand online stores are hard to find - Clearwater Tarn, suppliers of New Zealand Books, maps and guides. They have a great selection of topographic maps and outdoor hiking guides.

Article on an upcoming Active Directory / Unix integration tool. Their official spiel - Extend Microsoft Active Directory’s identity, access and policy management services to your Unix, Linux, Java and web platforms with Centrify. These people do something similar Vintela - Vintela Authentication Services (VAS) - Identity Management and Authentication for Windows, Unix, and Linux Using Active Directory.

Open source First Person Shooter (looks similar to early Quake) - Cube.

Gives a nice laymens perspective on using Rational Purify in a Linux environment. Purify can be used to debug and find memory leaks in code so its a pretty valuable tool for developers.

Use Access Control Lists to add flexibility to the traditional rwx Linux permissions.

Interesting tips for improving file system performance in Windows - NTFS Performance Hacks.

Neat stuff as found on TinyApps - Windows backup freeware:SyncBack, Windows software install monitor InstallSpy v2.0.

A nice piece of subversion - Watch out for Zogg!. Christian childrens book caption turned into a cautionary tale of alien invasion.

From the 2004 Annual Meeting - State of NetBSD.

Joel Spolsky has an evolving document on setting up a colocated server farm.

Impressive display of 3D integration in real-time for the real-world - Total Immersions D'Fusion Technology.

I have terrible handwriting but I definitely need to get a moleskin notebook. For the uninitiated - Moleskine History.

Useful toolset for admins - Must-have applications for managing an enterprise Linux shop.

Another great IBM article - Build a heterogeneous cluster with coLinux and openMosix.

IBM are also on a roll with their new cell processor - Wired News: New Chip to Challenge Intel. More details - Introducing the IBM/Sony/Toshiba Cell Processor and IBM, Sony, Toshiba present Cell. FYI - the cell processor will power Sonys PS3.

I always knew the stock market relied a lot on luck - Random Trading Good Predictor of Market Behavior, Study Shows.

Useful windows tips - Working with Roaming User Profiles. On todays fast LANS this works quite well especially with folder redirection.

Linux clustering using IBM Power5 hardware - Introduction to clustering on IBM eServer OpenPower 710.

A series on how to turn your mini-Mac into an ISP in a Box.

Palm powered - Fossil Wrist Pda.

Two interesting hardware RAID solutions for workstations and servers - Accusys-store and DataProtection Solutions by Arco. No software drivers required.

Use knoppix to create an Internet Lounge.

I love the three sox in a pair concept - Onkar Singh Kular / Product Designer (1974-).

Use this for grubby monitors www.clean-your-screen-for-free-now.com.

Pet peeve - Continuing decline in Mac OS GUI consistancy.

Makes sense to me - Why everyone can't hire the top 1% of developers.

Before the Simpsons - Matt Groening Apple Ad.

Excellent resource for Music buffs - Rate Your Music. Heres a list of albums I own.

Stream iTunes to your PocketPC - WiFiTunes.

Flash demonstration of GNUstep Application Development. Looks easy.

Another LDAP based tool to maintain a central authentication repository for Linux, Unix and Windows - XAD Identity Server.

Not everything Apple has created has been a success - Top 10 Mac Failures .

Build your own Knoppix style bootable CD using this GUI tool - LiveCD. Select packages, customise various templates and then generate a bootable iso image.

What more could a person ask for - M&M Sorter. I guess it works for Pebbles and Smarties too.

As the mini-Mac has started shipping there are a few excellent reviews that have started to appear - A mini-guide to Mac OS X for new Mini owners and AnandTech: Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere.

The Open Sourcing of Solaris has begun at OpenSolaris.org. The first component released is the DTRace tool.

Fascinating - NewsForge | Firebird targets the enterprise database. There is a Firebird Project underway to provide an Oracle PL/SQL emulation layer to help provide an Open Source alternative supported database to Oracle.

Some small but useful Mac OS X utilities - particularly Spark.

Application for Mac OS X to allow your phone to act as an answering machine - OVOLAB - Phlink.

Useful FreeBSD tool - Logmon. Allows you to monitor multiple Unix logfiles simultaneously.

OpenOffice Base - NewsForge | OpenOffice.org database application: A first look review.

Donationware - HornWare: SharePoints. Allows you to easily create Mac OS X shares from any directory.

Useful - MSI Packaging Tools.

Mac OSX home automation software - indigo. Allows you to control X10 devices from your PC.

A cheap household wind generator - WindSave.

Dariusz Stanislawek has some Tiny Freeware. Plenty of windows utilities for encryption and signing.

A must read for application packaging people - AppDeploy.

Interesting - Seven steps to handling any situation effectively.

Freeware - Operating Systems Handbook. A little out of date (1994) but the information on getting simple things done in VMS and OS/400 is still very useful.

Brad Choates OS X Inventory.

Get a free OpenVMS account with DeathRow.

Get a free OpenBSD account with Metawire.

Apple finally start helping Enterprise Admins - Active Directory Integration for OS X.

Nifty guide to User Mode Linux - Howto for UML. UML lets you run multiple virtual Linux machines on a single server in 'user mode' - as an application process rather than a single server utilising all of the hardware.

Windows clustering - Understanding How Cluster Quorums Work.

Only in Japan - Giant Red Self Destruct Button.

WTF - Defense Tech: AMERICA'S IRAN RAIDS ?!?!

At last something genuinely useful - Cliche Finder.

Humour - One does not simply walk into Mordor. Animated gif - watch it all the way through.

The net is full of opinions on the mini-Mac - this one seems to sum it up nicely - Mac mini - the "just enough" computer. It should be noted that there are two PC manufacturers that also make 'small' PC's - cappuccinopc and Logisys. Unfortunately both lack the style of the Mac (or anything else by Apple).

A must read for Ruby and surrealist fans is whytheluckystiff who wrote the excellent Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby and has now created hobix which is a Ruby based blogging engine.

Nice hierarchical drive navigation menu for Windows Exmenu.

Mark Taw has collected his Favorite Smallware. And for the Mac - 43 Folders: MacOSX Inventory Collections.

One day I'll get my favourite keyboard - IBM model M keyboards. You can even get these classic devices with built in trackballs and thumbsticks.

Why this hasn't hit the mainstream I don't know - its certainly evidence of what home automation will be like in the very near future. Home Monitor on a Cell Phone was knocked up in 5hrs for a contest in 2001 and needless to say actually won the developer a new BMW.

An excellent explanation of Apple's Tipping Point: Macs for the Masses.

Very cool idea for a tree house - Free Spirit Sphere's. Bet they're not cheap.

These actually do sound pretty relaxing - Nippaz With Attitude - Music CD albums in a lullaby style for babies.

My favourite computer manufacturer has great news:

Apple announce mini-Mac.

Apple announce flash-iPod.

Both links to Russel Beatties site as no one else seems to have images of these gadgets up yet (8.04am 12-Jan-04 NZ time).

I'm sure more details will be made available on the Apple site soon.

Apples site has been updated - ipodshuffle and the macmini.

I'm not convinced by the flash-iPod but the mini-Mac is genium. It almost looks like they ripped off some mini-itx case design.

Insight into being a company CIO - What It's Like To Be You.

Excellent security advice - The "Higher Security Mindset" - Seven Best Practices to Keep you Safe.

300 free fonts - Essential Fonts For Designers.

Interesting - Tuning The Kernel With A Genetic Algorithm. A lot of the discussion is over my head but a self tuning OS would be cool.

All sorts of useful Windows Active Directory scripts from Hilltop Labs.

This has been very favorably reviewed when compared to Adaware and Spybot but then thats only to be expected given Microsofts insider knowledge - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta).

Take a look at the screenshots at the Einstein Project. Amazing to see an emulated Newt in action!

Verify your network identity - NetMesh: Light-Weight Digital Identity (LID).

Good to see this stuff is becoming easier and easier to do - Linux-Windows Single Sign-On. The terminology isn't quite right - SSO means login once to access multiple systems rather than being prompted to login to multiple systems with one login (I guess thats Consolidated Authentication).

Some nice desktop backgrounds from the guy who designed the Firefox and Thunderbird icons.

Seems quite convoluted but its still interesting - Repartitioning FreeBSD remotely.

Nice images of microscopic things - Eye of Science.

Some very valid points - Companies Should Rotate Their Sysadmins Every Couple Years.

Words to try and avoid using in 2005 - Forbidden Words Flagger based on an earlier list compiled by Matt Groening Forbidden words 2000.

A freeware MacOS X Bluetooth/Phone integrator - Romeo.

An animated paean to procrastination - Gotta Get My Stuff Done.

Brief insight into building a Linux distro.

A good looking freeware mspaint replacement - Paint.NET. Utilises the .Net framework so make sure you install the .Net Runtime too.

A great compilation of Optical Illusions.

Welcome to the - Retro Future.

One of my favourite authors is Iain (aka Iain M.) Banks. I'm about to start reading his new novel 'The Algebraist' - heres a review.

I've actually started reading China Mievilles 'Iron Council' - the Washington Post has a favourable review.

China Mieville compiled this list of Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read.

Another of my favourite authors - Stephen R. Donaldson has just released the first ('Runes of the Earth') in a followup series to the Thomas Covenant Chronicles. I think I'll wait for the paper-back edition.