vibol.hou
It seems there have been a number of search and rescue stories lately. Many of you have probably heard of the sorrowful story of James Kim and his family. Now there’s another search and rescue operation in Oregon in which three climbers have become lost in the mountains of Oregon.
In both cases, cell phone signals have been used to focus search areas. I’m rather curious to know how they’re making use of this cell phone technology. Would it be possible to move one of those emergency portable mobile phone cell sites into the area to strengthen phone signals? Furthermore, if this can be done to acquire a phone signal, wouldn’t it be a good idea to constantly text message the phone in regular intervals to attempt to acquire it’s location while it has a signal? I remember this is how James Kim’s family was found.
I’ve seen these portable cell sites used in disaster situations to bring wireless service into areas where cell site towers have become disabled. It’s likely they can’t get these huge trucks into the regions where the rescuers are working. Or maybe they just haven’t thought about doing this?
This could be a great reason to invest in a portable cell site that can be housed in say a helicopter. The helicopter can hover over areas looking for a cell phone signal and help direct search efforts into focused areas.
Here’s a neat little feature I’ve just been introduced to. After coding in VIM for so many years, one might think I’d know these things, but as it turns out, there’s a lot of features in VIM I’m not using. This one, however, will likely be a time-saver. There are a number of different code folding methods available in VIM (:help folding). I use the marker method by including this in my .vimrc file:
set foldmethod=marker
I can then use the following commands from command mode (not colon mode):
- At the beginning of a function fragment, you can type ‘zfap’ to create a fold; this should add some {{{ }}} tags around your code in the comment of choice for the language you’re coding in.
- You can type ‘zo’ to open a fold, or I can just hit the right arrow key on the folded code marker.
- You can type ‘zc’ to close a fold.
- You can type ‘zr’ to open all folds.
- You can type ‘zm’ to close all folds.
More commands are available in :help folding.
If you’ve ever needed to ensure that users are accessing a folder using SSL, you can use the following mod_rewrite snippet to achieve this:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
I’ve noticed that my Google Mail account has been doing a great job of filtering spam mail, nabbing e-mail that SpamAssassin hasn’t been able to tag so I figured I might just use Google Mail as the filtering engine for all my mail. What I have done is forward all my e-mail addresses and aliases (of which I have roughly 20) to Google Mail. From there, I would just have Google Mail forward all the e-mail it receives into an e-mail box that I’ve set up specifically for this purpose.
So far, so good. I normally get roughly 80-100 pieces of spam mail per day. Today: zero. Google Mail filters all the spam before it actually gets forwarded to my destination box. Now I just use IMAP on the destination e-mail account to access my e-mail from Thunderbird and my phone.
Furthermore, I have a copy of my mail in Google Mail, so I can now easily search all of my e-mail from my phone using Mobile Google Mail. Simply beautiful.
I’m not really sure where to begin with this one. Today, I got an e-mail from one WebnameSolution suggesting a ransom for a domain name I had backordered from GoDaddy.com. Herein lies the e-mail:
Limited Time Offer…!!!
The domain name [deleted] is for sale exclusively by webnamesolution.com. Hurry and take advantage of this limited time special offer $199.95 USD.
Domain Name: [deleted]
Price: $199.95 USD
To purchase this domain and take advantage of this Special Offer click on the link below:
WWW.WEBNAMESOLUTION.COM/PURCHASE
Thank you for your interest.
info@webnamesolution.com
The e-mail address I used for the backorder is one I use specifically for domain names. The domain itself is a rather unique one that I don’t think anyone would know about (I could be very wrong). Suspecting something strange, I began to sleuth the Internet for more information on this WebnameSolution and stumble upon this thread (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=476168) at WebHostingTalk. Apparantly others have also backordered domains with GoDaddy and received these e-mails from one WebnameSolution about the very same domain names they backordered. Suspicious.
So I do a WHOIS, but the information doesn’t connect. It’s registered in Canada and the web hosting service is also located in Canada. I decide to take a closer look at the website and what do I notice? Similarities with GoDaddy. It turns out WebnameSolution is using a rebranded version of GoDaddy’s domain name service. You can easily see this by clicking ‘My Account’ from the homepage.
Something is definitely amiss here. I have WebnameSolution offering an exclusive buyout on the domain name that I want for $199, although their fine print legally states:
2. SELECTION OF A DOMAIN NAME. You acknowledge and agree that we cannot guarantee that you will obtain a desired domain name registration, even if an inquiry indicates that a domain name is available at the time of your application for same. You represent that, to the best of the your knowledge and belief, neither the registration of the domain name nor the manner in which it is directly or indirectly to be used, infringes upon the legal rights of a third party and further, that the domain name is not being registered for nor shall it at any time whatsoever be used for any unlawful purpose.
So that IF I decide to take this exclusive offer, I would have spent $199 in addition to the $18.99 I spent at GoDaddy for their DomainAlert Pro Backordering service, and neither service guarantees the domain name!
Is GoDaddy selling my information to some unknown third party company regarding the specific items I am purchasing? I better read their privacy policy again. Is GoDaddy conspiring with some outside party to try to make even more money? Worst yet, is GoDaddy responsible for bankrolling this WebnameSolution service in order to make even more money in the domain backordering market? All I know is that my purchase information is making it out to another party with specifics (the actual domain name I backordered) without my express permission.
I think I’m done with GoDaddy. Anyone have alternative recommendations?
Adobe has finally released a full-screen capable Flash player! Get the scoop about it here. I’ve already implemented a test version in the StimTV player and it rocks! No more funny window javascript required now.
It works fine with SWFObject using the following code:
Just read an article called 10 Things That Will Make Or Break Your Website. Great overview of the what and what not to do when building or rebuilding a website.
I’ve gotta admit, I’m not entirely impressed by the slew of new Web2.0-enabled technologies out there. I was talking to Poli about new technologies and what’s in store for the future and things look rather dull. All I see now and all I can see in the foreseeable future is more integration and more user-interface enhancements taking place. Besides that, there really is not many big things that are going to be new.
Part of the reason why KhmerConnection v3 has taken such a long time to make it out the door is because I’ve been keeping an eye on emerging technologies on the web to see where to take things; the other part is that I really have been much too busy to work on its development. That is not to say that I haven’t thought of it; I have been planning the v3 architecture for quite some time now. There is definately going to be a v3. It won’t be soon, but it will happen and I am certain it will not disappoint.
Lastly, though never least, I am grateful for all the loyal members, dedicated team members (Yorn, Seung, Tony, Kadin, et al.) and retired team members that have been with us for these many years. None of this would have been possible without your continued support.
The ink has been laid down on a new business venture geared towards Khmer software development which I am a partner in. The premise is similar to that of KhmerConnection in that the venture will seek to fill voids in the availability of certain types of Khmer software. I won’t disclose too many details at this time other than to say that things are once again becoming quite exciting. There are strong minds behind this venture, and I’m pretty optimistic about the direction we’re taking.
Whatever you do, don’t create callbacks named ‘stop’ or ‘play’ via:
ExternalInterface.addCallback(“play”, null, thisFunc);
ExternalInterface.addCallback(“stop”, null, thatFunc);
Internet Explorer will choke a most horrible script execution error. Having a broken Internet Explorer script debugger didn’t help much either. Firefox showed no problems with this terminology.
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