Lettre 13

I recently came upon OpenDNS listening to the following podcast.

Technometria, Remaking DNS, ITConversations (MP3)

Basically, you use their DNS instead of the DNS provided by your ISP to get a faster resolving DNS service (i.e. your web pages will load faster). You are not obliged to create an account to use their service. But, if you do get an account, you will get some features like anti-phishing, typo correction in the domain names, filtering of adult sites, and stats. All these options are opt-in.

After using the DNS from OpenDNS, I have the feeling that my web pages load faster. Where clearly OpenDNS makes a tremendous difference is with SafariMobile on my iPod Touch when I’m home and using my wireless network.

OpenDNS use a very interesting business plan to makes money. Listen to the podcast to see how. They have Ray Ozzie as their principal investor, which is not a bad reference. They are already profitable.

I strongly recommend that you try the DNS provided by OpenDNS. It’s free, and if you just want to use their DNS, you are not obliged to sign for an account. What more can you ask for?

Je préfère nettement avoir un drapeau québécois plutôt qu’un drapeau canadien sur la barre des menus d’OSX.

Michel Fortin propose une solution très simple. Il a créé un fichier pour les claviers canadiens-français (CSA) en remplaçant le drapeau canadien par le drapeau québécois. Je l’ai installé il y a quelques jours et ça semble bien fonctionner. Par contre, je recommande de redémarrer la session après l’installation du fichier créé par Michel (qui peut-être aussi installé dans le dossier de l’usager à ~/Bibliothèque/Keyboard Layouts/). Il semble que sur Léopard, le Finder et Path Finder prennent en compte cette modification qu’après avoir démarré une nouvelle session après l’installation du fichier.

After a couple of months of hiatus, the Open Source podcast with Christopher Lydon is back at their new home at the Watson Institute. That’s way cool! This is one of the best podcast that you can get on a range of subjects covering culture, politics and art.

A Montreal coworking space cooperative is in the process of being established. The coworking space will be available in the Plateau or Villeray neighbourhood for Spring 2008.

To be kept informed of significant updates of the project, join our mailing list.

Our coworking space is:

• somewhere to work productively

• in a quiet, functional and cosy environment
• with internet, printing and photocopy services included
• and equipped conference and meeting rooms

• somewhere to work alone or with others

• and easily network
• drink coffee and socialise
• and attend activities and events organised by the coop members

• an eco-oriented environment

• that’s more funky than drab
• equipped with lockers to store your things
• that extend into the virtual world

• all at at an entirely reasonable tax-deductible rate

• with flexible memberships plans,
• like at they gym, according to your specific needs.

Everyone is invited to participate.

• Maybe you will be in need of a regular or occasional work space, in which case you might think about becoming a member and using the service when we open in Spring 2008.
• But maybe you want to have a say in how the regulations will be set up, in which case you should come to the General Assembly on January 2008.
• And then maybe you are a real keener and wish to join the working group of the cooperative in which case you would need to read our wiki (http://www.percolab.com/ecto) and attend the founding assembly on Thursday November 29th, 2007 at 1498 Marie-Anne east (corner Marie-Anne and Fabre) at 7:00 PM.
• Don’t hesitate to forward this message to people you know who could be interested.

Looking forward to seeing you.

Coop ECTO workgroup

Denis Béliveau
Julie Benoit
Emmanuel Décarie
Yves Otis
Samantha Slade
Stéphane Volet

This is an eyes opening introduction on Spotlight on Leopard. Matt Neuburg digs deep in Leopard to show you how to use it. I was on the verge on buying FileSpot, but after reading Matt, I might reconsider since I didn’t know how much better the Spotligh interface is on Leopard when you compare to Tiger. A must-read!

Matt Neuburg, Spotlight Strikes Back: In Leopard, It Works Great, TidBITS.com

I think I will check again FileSpot when the new version will come out. (I’m especially interested by the “Menu bar item with global hot-keys”).

Derek Gottfrid of the New York Times on how they converted 11 millions TIFF images of the NYT archives to PDF using Amazon EC2/S3 services.

I had been using Amazon S3 service for some time and was quite impressed. And in late 2006 I had begun playing with Amazon EC2. So the the basic idea I had was this: upload 4TB of source data into S3, write some code that would run on numerous EC2 instances to read the source data, create PDFs, and store the results back into S3. S3 would then be used to serve the PDFs to the general public. It all sounded pretty simple, and that is how I got the folks in charge to agree to such an idea — not to mention that Amazon S3/EC2 is pretty easy on the wallet.

Derek Gottfrid, Self-service, Prorated Super Computing Fun!, nytimes.com

Here’s two very interesting podcasts where you can hear from people who where there and running either the war to occupy Iraq, or the country at the beginning of the occupation.

First an interview of Charles Ferguson (with some excerpts from the movie) which is the director and Producer of No End in Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq.

It seems that for almost two years, the President Bush was completely disengaged from Iraq and the whole show was run by a very small group composed of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bremer and Wolfowitz. Some decisions where made without consulting the US military, and against their will (like the disbanding of the Iraq army). One of the theory that emerges is that the US lost the peace at the beginning of the occupation when the US army let the looting out of control.

No End in Sight, On Point, guest host Jane Clayson.

The second podcast involve peoples that were in charge of the invasion. General Richard Myers seems less dumb that what I though. But doesn’t really come clean. The others, General William Wallace and General Jack Keane are more interesting. What is fascinating is how the BBC journalist, Owen Bennett-Jones, can ask direct questions, without spinning and reverence to these generals. I wish it could be possible to have such an interview in the US.

The Generals Debate Iraq, Documentary Archive , BBC World Service (mp3)

Blair’s negatives in the Middle East are well known, and are not counter-balanced by his many successes at home or in Europe. His main problem is not only that he has been hypocritical or partial to Israel and the United States rather than truly even-handed; it is also that his policies have contributed directly and abundantly to the Arab-Israeli conflict and associated tensions in the Middle East that he is now going to try and resolve. Appointing Tony Blair as special envoy for Arab-Israeli peace is like appointing the Emperor Nero to be the chief fireman of Rome.

Rami G. Khouri, A peace envoy whom we can do without, The Daily Star (Lebanon)

Here’s a couple of podcasts on the 1967 Six Day-War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

Something I didn’t know or forgot is that there was a debate in the Israel cabinet about conquering the West Bank and the Gaza strip. It seems that at the stage of the Six Day-War (day three I think) when the cabinet decided to takes these territories from Jordan, they were no military reasons for doing so. Futhermore, some members of the cabinet were against such a move, understanding all the problems this move would cause to Israel. As we see today, you have to ask what the Six Day-War accomplished for Israel when they conquered the West Bank and Gaza.

On the other side, many in Egypt and Jordan saw the disaster coming, and the people that could have prevented the situation to degenerated where not listened too, or didn’t talk.

The Six-Day War, On Point (Windows Media, Real Audio)

Six Days that Changed the Middle East, BBC News, 4 parts (mp3-1, mp3-2, mp3-3, mp3-4)

It’s possible that Safari Beta 3 interferes with other applications. For one, the excellent French spell checker Antidotes RX. The second one is my trusty Launchbar. Here, Launchbar “looses” its index and take forever to rebuild it. The only solution so far that has been working for me is to use the Safari Beta 3 deinstaller.