General

Red Hat

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Red Hat recently published a security patch that, thanks to the infamous Digital Millenium Copyright and Suppression of Free Speech Act can only be explained fully to people not within US borders. [Daypop Top 40]

Red Hat has struck a small blow against the DMCA, by publishing a security patch which can only be explained fully to people who are not within US jurisdiction. The company’s position here seems to be not altogether voluntary – according to a spokesman “it is bizarre, and unfortunately something Red Hat cannot easily do much about,” but like it or not Red Hat has been recruited to the campaign to make the DMCA look ridiculous.

I figured out how to

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I figured out how to integrate content from my PHP-Nuke content into a static page on my site. At WorldBeatPlanet, in addition to the dynamic content, I also have static sites for several artists. I now have database content integrated with Youssou N’dour’s page.

I renamed the main page from index.html to index.php and added the following bit of PHP code where I want the database content to appear:

<?php

$query = “select sid, title from nuke_stories where hometext like “%Youssou%” or bodytext like “%Youssou%” order by sid desc limit 10″;

$dbi=@mysql_connect(“localhost”, dbname”, dbpass”);

@mysql_select_db(“worldbeatplanet_com”);

$res=@mysql_query($query, $dbi);

echo “<ul>”;

while(list($sid, $title) = mysql_fetch_row($res)) {

echo “<li><a href=”http://www.worldbeatplanet.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=$sid”>$title</a>”;

}

echo “</ul>”;

@mysql_close($dbi);

?>

This is a really cool

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This is a really cool testing tool. Enter a URL and it will display the full HTTP headers returned by the server. Very useful to find why some page displays incorrectly – usually the server is returning a MIME type of text/plain instead of text/html.

Unattended Laptop on Plane

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Unattended Laptop on Plane Triggers Military-Jet Evacuation. A United Airlines flight from New York City landed under military escort after a crew member found an unattended laptop computer under a seat, an airline spokeswoman said. The computer posed no danger, officials said. Passengers were evacuated as a precaution as soon as the plane landed Monday evening at… [Lockergnome’s Bits and Bytes]

The terrorists have won, and this proves it. We’re in such a state of hysteria that the slightest thing will set off a mass panic. Let’s have a bit of common sense, OK?

I have a new favorite CD

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I have a new favorite CD: “Specialist in all styles” by Orchestra Baobab. It just arrived from Amazon today & I’ve been listening to it continuously. They’re a classic Senegalese group from 1970-1987 known for smooth laid-back Latin-tinged dance music. They just reunited with almost all of their original members, with the notable exception of Laye Mboup who died in a car accident, and Thione Seck, who now has a successful solo career. The new CD is produced by Youssou N’dour and features updates of several classic tracks. It also features N’dour & Cuban singer Ibrahim Ferrer on one track.