BinaryWolf

Home Grown Netstumbler

July 20, 2004 | In software | No Comments

One in a series of posts featuring locally based technologies in Southern California.

Netstumber is a wireless network auditing tool written by Marius Milner. You can download it from Netstumber.com. The software is used on Windows computers to detect wireless local area networks. The software can be used for wardriving.

Wayne Slavin is webmaster of NetStumbler.com, a wireless networking and security portal, where you can find forums for beginners to advanced users.

Personal data mining with Reagan joke as a chaser

July 19, 2004 | In blogging | No Comments

Robert Cringely writes about web logging becoming the way we keep track of our lives.

But most people’s thoughts aren’t really worth sharing. Most web logs are little more than lists of annotated bookmarks and the value of those bookmarks can probably be best derived through a web aggregator, in which case people would be writing not to be read but to be counted, which isn’t nearly as much fun.

A lot of this comes down to production values, which is a subject those in the web log world tend to ignore because it is to their advantage to do so. There is a lot of bad television, but its packaging is such that we still seem to sit through the shows. Network TV spends perhaps $500,000 on an hour. How much do you spend on each web log entry? No wonder most web logs are so boring.

But Joe Reger wants us to not think so much about the web log publishing model and instead use the technology — preferably HIS technology — as a personal freeform database with analytical tools to take the measure of our own lives. Here we’ve been thinking about web logs as a way of reaching out to the world when they may be as much or even more useful reaching into ourselves.

The chaser is at the end of Cringely’s article.

Corporate Weblog Pitch Winner

July 19, 2004 | In blogging | No Comments Lee LeFever wrote this winning elevator pitch sponsored by the the social software weblog:

First, think about the value of the Wall Street Journal to business leaders. The value it provides is context � the Journal allows readers to see themselves in the context of the financial world each day, which enables more informed decision making.

With this in mind, think about your company as a microcosm of the financial world. Can your employees see themselves in the context of the whole company? Would more informed decisions be made if employees and leaders had access to internal news sources?

Weblogs serve this need. By making internal websites simple to update, weblogs allow individuals and teams to maintain online journals that chronicle projects inside the company. These professional journals make it easy to produce and access internal news, providing context to the company � context that can profoundly affect decision making. In this way, weblogs allow employees and leaders to make more informed decisions through increasing their awareness of internal news and vents.

Nice piece of writing!

18 RSS readers, RSS aggregators, Feed readers

July 14, 2004 | In feeds | No Comments

PC World article charts 18 RSS Readers. I’m using SharpReader on the laptop and a firefox extension, RSS Reader Panel on the main box.

RSS readers are one of the biggest new categories of software in recent memory.

No kidding.

Blogtricks - Not Yet Implemented

July 14, 2004 | In web apps | No Comments

Blogtricks claims “fun and useful tools to enhance your site”, so I registered at the blogtricks site in order to take a look at the code for one of the “tricks”. Image Gallery displays images from a set of your choosing as a grid of clickable thumbnails.

When attempting to sign on to my newly created account, I get a message stating “Invalid email or password”. So I click on “email you a new one” and get the “not yet implemented” page. Sigh.

How to Construct Your Privacy Policy

July 13, 2004 | In web design | No Comments Companies that collect information about their visitors and especially companies that ask for and store credit card information should have a privacy policy. As this blog’s editor, I see aggregate information on what pages readers access or visit - otherwise known as analyzing server logs. No personal information is collected.

Webmasters can complete a questionnaire and create a privacy policy statement to be posted on their own Web page. Create Your Privacy Policy Now

California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 became effective on July 1, 2004.

Word of the Day - EULA

July 12, 2004 | In software | No Comments

An End User License Agreement (EULA) is a legal contract between a software application author or publisher and the user of that application. The EULA, often referred to as the “software license,” is similar to a rental agreement; the user agrees to pay for the privilege of using the software, and promises the software author or publisher to comply with all restrictions stated in the EULA. The user is asked to indicate they that “accept” the terms of the EULA by opening the shrink wrap on the application package, breaking the seal on the CD case, sending a card back to the software publisher, installing the application, executing a downloadable file, or by simply using the application. The user can refuse to enter into the agreement by returning the software product for a refund or clicking “I do not accept” when prompted to accept the EULA during an install.

From whatis.com