Published on
July 22, 2004 in
Google.
Panayotis Vryonis has put together a great Google tool: g-metrics.com. It allows you to give a number of search terms, and track the # pages found by Google for each over time. ( The 'Results 1 - 10 of about NNN for xyz' line above every search) See the example for ‘linux’ left of this text to get an idea.
A simple idea, but very well done. If he is using the Google API, he probably cannot go over 1000 keywords, except if he’s going to use multiple license keys, which is not really appreciated by Google. The g-metrics service is currently free.
Via blog.outer-court.com
Suggestion: Panayotis, could you make something similar for Google PageRank? You don’t need the Google API for it, you just have to calculate the checksum for each request.
[Listening to: "Far Beyond" - Locksmith - Sampled Vol 2 (CD 1/2)]
Published on
July 19, 2004 in
Google.
I just upgraded from Mozilla FireFox 0.8 to 0.9.2, for no other reason than because it was available. A sudden side-effect was that I could not login to Gmail anymore: I got an error 502. It still worked in IE, but FireFox is the browser I use for Gmail. I do unnecessary upgrading, I have multiple browsers, obviously I am not stopped by such a trivial error message.
So I started to read the HTML code of the Gmail login page. It uses an IFRAME for the username/password form and lots of JavaScript, mainly for checking the browser brand/version. An IFRAME? The purpose seems to be to have within any xyz.google.com site the same login form: Google Service Login Box. It always POSTs the form to itself and upon successful login, redirects the user to the right URL. It is currently used for Gmail, the new GoogleGroups2, the Google Web API account, but not for Adsense.
Central authentication services (’single sign-on’) are a good and a bad idea: they create a single point of failure, but hopefully invite the developers to design their security very thoroughly. Microsoft has Passport. Yahoo has Yahoo Login. The latter uses e.g. the MD5 hashing algorithm in JavaScript to protect its forms.
But Passport is not perfect. And Yahoo has had vulnerabilities. As Bruce Schneier puts it: “Anyone can come up with a security system so clever that he can’t see its flaws.”
Published on
July 13, 2004 in
Tango.
I’ve taken up tango again and it feels great. My partner is enthusiastic though not exactly docile, but that’s only to be expected from a spirited girl with a disposition for colourful language.
Having had little practice in 6 months, it was rather hard to remember even the most basic of steps, certainly those for the girl. I can always find them listed on tangohk.com’s “Learn Tango step by step”, but reading directions like the following doesn’t always crystalize into smooth movements in your head.
1. RF back
2. LF pass RF & to side (long step)
3. RF pass LF & fwd, O/P
4. LF fwd
5. RF close to LF
6. LF fwd
7. RF pass LF & to side, with pivot to left on LF
8. LF close to RF
Continue reading ‘Tango revisited’
Published on
July 12, 2004 in
Society.
Update Aug 2004: the whole story seems to have been made up by the girl. I’ve deleted my initial reaction, that was honest, but now quite irrelevant.
A group of young men attacked a mother travelling with her child on a Parisian suburban railway, chopping off her hair and drawing swastikas on her stomach in the latest anti-semitic incident to unsettle France.
(…)
The attack happened around 9.30 on Friday morning, when the young woman was on a train on the northern outskirts of the capital with her 13-month-old child. A group of six youths, aged between 15 and 20, snatched her bag and rifled through it, seizing on her identity card, printed with her former address in the 16th arrondissment of Paris.
She told police that they shouted: “Only Jews live in the 16th.” The men, who were armed with knives, then pushed her violently, cut off some of her hair, and drew several swastikas on her stomach with a black felt-tip pen. Police said the 23-year-old, whose identity has not been revealed, was not Jewish.
The other passengers in the carriage stood by watching, but none of them came to help her, according to the report she made to the police. Her baby was knocked from its push-chair during the attack, but neither she nor the child was badly hurt. The men left the train with her handbag.
(…)
( The Guardian (EN) / Le Monde (FR) )
Published on
July 9, 2004 in
music.
I’ve seen a couple of DJs at the Werchter festival, of varying quality. Discobar Galaxie organised in-between-acts DJ sets with guest DJs under the name ‘Galaxie Gangbang Soundsystem’. DJ 4T4 showed up, TLP, Buscemi and others. But the best DJ was -again- Bobby Ewing. A superb taste in grooves, an impeccable technique and he always looks like he has everything under control.
He’s worked for radio (Hang the DJ on Studio Brussel), is active in Discobar Galaxie and the BreakBeatles and has started doing some remix work. The ones I know of are:
Bandy bandy – ZAP MAMA
Ready – SKEEMZ
Gossip Children – MISSY ELLIOT VS SCOTTY
Geheiligd Zij De Coach – PIKKEDONKER
Check out some of his sets on Hang The DJ – DJ Bobby Ewing.
Published on
July 7, 2004 in
music.
It’s funny, you can write about the most diverse subjects and when you check how people google onto your blog, it appears to be because of a girl.
In my case, the girl is Isolde Lasoen, a Flemish drummer. I have seen her (and written about it) in Briskey, Skeemz, Daan, and she also plays in some bands I still have to check out (just to name some: Bruno de Bruxelles and The Bones). Jazz, funk, pop, latin, … you name it, she’s got the moves and the grooves. And yes, she’s kind of cute. And yes, a woman drummer can be dangerously sexy.
Don’t take my word for it: go check out Daan or Skeemz at the Dour Festival or Boomtown Festival, you won’t regret it!
[Listening to: "Exploration" - Karminsky Experience Inc - DJ Kicks]
Published on
July 1, 2004 in
music.
I’ve started a new blog on one of my pet topics: usage of samples in music. Being a fan of house and R&B music, I’ve always been thrilled when I discovered the original source of an irresistible break or groove. Apart from copyright issues that I will bluntly ignore here, sampling has changed the music landscape significantly. We would be amazed at how many times we hear James Brown, Barry White and Roy Ayers bits ‘n pieces in today’s music.
I also did not find an extensive list of sample references yet on the Net. Some sites have information on one artist, some on one genre and you’re forced to do some creative Googling in order to find who sampled what.
So, as a way of recording my searches for the originals and as a tribute to some truely gifted artists, here’s the all new Xampled Blog.
[Listening to: "Summer Madness" - Kool & The Gang - Sampled Vol 2 (CD 2/2)]
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