Dead PHP3 Code
People don’t write PHP like this anymore, or, if they do, they get hurt badly. This is old code of mine. Timestamp is January 29, 2002. Yeesh.
<?
$where_they_are = 'http://' . $SERVER_NAME . $REQUEST_URI;
if ($HTTP_REFERER!='')
{ $recipientlist='joe@artlung.com';
$emailsubject="visit to $SERVER_NAME via " . $HTTP_REFERER;
$emailbody="someone came to $where_they_are
via $HTTP_REFERER
ip address: $REMOTE_ADDR
remote host: $REMOTE_HOST
user agent: $HTTP_USER_AGENT
cool.";
$firstname='ArtLung.com';
$lastname='Notification Email';
$email='bot@artlung.com';
mail(
$recipientlist, $emailsubject, $emailbody,
"From: $firstname $lastname <$email>\nReply-To: $email\nX-Mailer: PHP/" .
phpversion());
} else { echo '<!--mailreferer.php3-->'; };
?>
Jon Lech Johansen on iPhone Bricking
Thoughtful thinking from DVD Jon who knows about this stuff.
Think Closed
Has Nokia or Sony Ericsson ever bricked or refused service on an unlocked phone? Not that I’ve heard of, and if they did, they would have been quickly sued in several countries where consumer rights are more strongly protected.Did Sony ever brick PSPs over homebrew software? Did Microsoft ever overwrite someone’s BIOS with garbage because they detected an illegitimate Windows installation?
In light of other things Apple has done lately, such as adding an encrypted hash to the iPod database to lock out non-Apple software and disabling TV-out on the iPod unless the 3rd party accessory you’re using has an Apple authentication chip, it’s evident that Apple is well on its way to become one of the most consumer hostile tech companies.
Zappa Morning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FUAgIBysj4
via Kill Ugly Radio
And also, Adrian Belew recently made two posts about adventures in Frank Zappa’s world:
- How To End Up Wearing A Dress On Stage In A Concert Film With Frank Zappa
- How To End Up Imitating Bob Dylan In Concert With Frank Zappa
Every good morning should begin with a little Frank.
Site Maintenance; Leah 2002
You may have noticed I’ve reverted the theme of this blog back to my prior black with zig-zag sidebars and away from the excellent free theme I had been using. In the end using someone else’s theme on my blog feels wrong to me. It’s not really showing my crufty personality and peculiar oddness in the way I would hope.
Today I moved some large files that were taking up space and not contributing to my site. It may not be obvious, but I have a boatload of old content on this site, which I’ve been systematically hiding, putting more emphasis on the blog. It’s time to go through these old files and keep what’s good, and scrap what sucks.
To that end, I’m doing maintenance today. And what should I find in amongst some setup files? Why there’s some old teeny photos of Leah from before I knew her. They’re from her birthday in 2002, I believe. She looks like she’s having a good time. Of course, I look at these and I know that these are from the time when her marriage was breaking up and a whole lot of other stuff was happening. But the straws in her hair are so cute, I felt I must put them up online.
communication usually fails, except by accident
Wiio’s laws are humoristically formulated serious observations about how human communication usually fails except by accident. This document comments on the applicability and consequences of the laws, especially as regards to communication on the Internet.
- Communication usually fails, except by accident.
- If communication can fail, it will
- If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails
- If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there’s a misunderstanding
- If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails
- If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage
- There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message
- The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds
- The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate
- In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be
- The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance
- The more important the situation is, the more probably you forget an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago
ATTN Web Designers: Ashley Qualls Beats You At Internet
MySpace millionaire says “whatever” to high school
Go Ashley Go!
Ashley’s business is whateverlife.com.
At first I found the 17 year old’s story a bit depressing, but after thinking about it a bit I find it really inspiring.
Time Warner, Cabletards
So this morning I spent THIRTY-FIVE minutes at the local office of Time Warner Cable because apparently we had not paid our bill.
But of course, we had, several times, since we have moved. But somehow, twice this week, they shut us off for nonpayment.
My time at TW taught me that the payments they even though I canceled the service at our old address, changed my address with them, and transferred our account, and initialized service at the new account, and returned our equipment from the old account to their office, and had installation of new equipment at the new address, and have been happily using the cable services (Digital Cable and Cable Internet) at the new address… it seems the prior account is what we’ve been paying on, so while they’ve happily accepted our payments since May, it apparently has applied to the old address, or the old account. This is confusing.
Now, Leah, trooper that she is, has several times this week talked to these — let’s call them Cabletards — (the -tards suffix is after FSJ) and gotten them to turn the cable back on and it’ll all be resolved, what they finally told her is the only way to resolve this is to go down there in person.
So this morning, I did, and so now, apparently, they’re actually going to cancel the previous account, and actually apply all the payments from the old to the new, and all will be right with the world. That is, assuming the accounting department can resolve the various charges, false charges, payments, payments to the wrong place, etc.
What year is it that I have to go down in person to an office to resolve an account problem?
I suppose if I wake up to dead internet cable in the morning I’ll get to visit them again.
my resume sucks, what to do about it
I really like that Steve Yegge fellow. He’s funny and smart and he builds stuff with computers. That’s my kind of people.
Stevey’s Blog Rants: Ten Tips for a (Slightly) Less Awful Resume
Face it: all the traditional advice about trying to convince the hiring manager that you’re a plucky, scrappy young individual from a farm in Alabama who’s destined for greatness on account of your Uncle Ted having given you that pep talk after you fell off your horse when you were a kid — that advice may as well have come from the back end of your horse, because the hiring manager just wants to profile your current skill set. Mr. Plucky goes into the Round File.
Don’t get all depressed about this tip. People will start caring more about you as a person in later phases of the recruiting process, particularly if you’re one of those candidates who doesn’t really like showering.
