NewIdea

*article: rss for stuff other than news articles

ebay searches

c'l searches

flickr comments

wiki changelogs

bugs

cvs?

your bank balance?

bruce schneir's blog

bugtraq and other security announcements

freshmeat and other software release announcements

cisco secuirty advisories

(http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/products_psirt_rss_feed.html)

weather

grouphug.us

gov't feeds

nasa updates

halo player stats

audioscrobbler recent played list

coupons!

*article: REST api and how it works with del.icio.us

add some other examples

*article fragment: embedding rss feeds into phpwiki pages

also look at feedburner, etc.

*article: using a camphone effectively

maybe for Popular Photography magazine?

*figure out how to sync fastmail addr book w/ mutt addr book on mac os x.

no idea at all on this one.

*article idea: converting your office admin to linux

based on what I did at the office

openoffice

firefox

*article idea: setting up lm_sensors on an unknown motherboard

use my experince with the SuperMicro 370DER system

tracking down the hardware

getting valid numbers out of sensors

writing sensors.conf

using sensors-detect

*article idea: the politics behind setting up a DR site

how to negotiate contract

stuff that better be in contract (like A/C specs)

managing disputes

*article idea: awk: it's not dead yet

use my ipmi init script as an example of how awk is still the best choice for many scripts where you don't need to heaviness of perl

proposed to newsforge 11/22, but they did a similar article 6 months ago. MAybe find somewhere else to run it.

*article fragment: skateboard tech

talk about longboarding - boards, trucks, wheels, and especially bearings. Especially go over selecting bones reds for my last set.

could expand to general tips & tricks article? skating in nyc? lowdown on longboarding pothole-style?

problem: where to get this published?

*article idea: vrrp for fun!

write up how to use keepalived for vrrp failover

submit to newsforge, keep it high-level?

submitted idea to newsforge 3/05, approved.

submitted idea to linuxdevcenter 3/05, approved. Will write high-level aritcle for newsforge and in-depth for linuxdevcenter.

*article idea: writing a real expect script

problem: so many expect examples aren't very useful, more toy than anything

write about how I developed my modem test script

give details on how to break down problem and really use expect

*article idea: ssh tricks

specifically, how to use ssh port forwarding from inside the firewall to punch through in reverse.

another good one is the use of .ssh/config to locad port forwards, change server names, change user names.

*article idea: xfig power user's manual

why doesn't this exists? Heck, I could write a whole book on it.

cover everything from creating diagrams to layers to groups to alignment, etc.

*article idea: WAN links demystified

draw on my experience to explain T1s, T3s, ISDN (maybe), etc. in simple language. Go through what you need to do to order circuits, how to deal with telecom vendors, what to do when things go wrong, etc.

*article idea: napping at work

make it a how-to. equipment, what to tell your boss, how to schedule, etc.

*article idea: converting from syslog to syslog-ng

why you would want to switch - filtering, multiple log sources/destinations, configurability

gotchas - converting syslog.conf to syslog-ng.conf, pipe() vs. file(), /dev/log dgram vs. stream

how to roll it out and smoothly replace syslog.

resources - syslog-ng home, faq, mailing list

*blog idea: shame on panasonic

based on my experience returning their junk cd player twice.

write about how the internet makes it impossible for companies to hide bad customer service.

*article idea: overstock.com: do bargains really exist?

compare the items I purchased and determine if I really saved any money.

talk about how suppliers manipulate pricing mechanism

return of the bubble hype?

submitted idea to mesforge 3/05, responded it didn't have a good linux/free software angle and suggested somewhere like cnet.

*blog idea: fighting wiki comment/content spam

is it different than blog comment spam?

what steps can be used to control it.

*update on awk article idea/maybe blog idea?

getting clever w/ awk and grep

using awk /text/ { print $1 }, etc. to replace the standard grep/cut or grep/awk

extensions in gnu grep. In particular, the -P to use perl regexps and -o for 'only-matching'

*blog idealet: my fascination with obsolete and awkward tech

holga, 35mm slrs

rio500, which is now ipod shuffle

is this a useful obsession or just stupid?

holga, camphone, old slr, 8mm film, etc.

is this useful? does it produce better art?

what in my background makes me do this?

assertion: the difficulty of working with balky equipment makes you strive harder to produce quality work.

*article idea: damn the spam!

spammers invaded my wiki so I had to protect it. The used a wiki name too so I couldn't get addr.

used to be wiki spam once every few days, which was manageable. what is the point where it becomes unmanagable? How about 500 per day?

will spam take over everything? I've managed to deal with it in email. What is the general solution? Are captchas the answer? Problem there is subversion via free pr0n and problems for blind people.

talk about eff guy and his open relay. Not quite the same because spammers don't modify the mail server like they do with wiki

what is the future of open collaboration on the web. Is it possible w/o passowrds, etc?

what about password protecting the site and then just putting the password on every page in an image. Would that simple captcha be enough to defeat spammers?

*music review: The Go! Team, Mobius Band, and The Big Sleep at Mercury Lounge 3/21/05

The Big Sleep: half Kyuss, half Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. Loved the enthusiasm and music student feel. Low lighting for that goth look. Girl on bass == hott.

Mobius Band: hey, The Postal Serivce called: they wanyt their sound back. Uninspiring

The Go! Team: I have seen the Wall of Sound for the new centruy and it is The Go! Team. Phil Spector is rolling over in his grave. Oops, I mean someone that Phil Spector shot is rolling over in their grave. Two guitars, bass, two drummers and a singer create a rich blen of punk, rap, and 70s kitsch. This is increased by use of novelty instruments: recorder, harmonica, banjo. Maybe it's Polyphonic Spree but without the freaky religious overtones. The band bounces between heavy, layer punk compositions and pieces that could be themes for PBS shows, circa 1976. Imagery: closing music for Falcon and the Snowman. The lead singer just bounces everywhere: short sassy black girl from Brighton with a big mouth and a big voice. Disappointment: the horn tracks on songs such as The Power is On and Junior Kickstart are taped. On the other hand, where would they fit any more musicians ont the 20x10 stage at the back of the Mercury Lounge? Nice touch: band members frequently rotate between different instruments.

*article idea: basic gimp photoshopping

cover the basics of cropping, levels, curves, unsharp mask, clone

basically a few quick tips on how to effectively fix photos in gimp

good one for newsforge.

*article idea: geolocation with geourl

use of geourl.org to physically locate websites. How to add proper meta tags to your site.

submitted idea to newsforge 3/05, rejected because no opensource angle

submitted to onlamp.com 3/05, no answer yet.

4/20 - onlamp likes it, but I need to come up with some more real life uses. nycbloggers.com?

*article idea: greasemonkey scripts for firefox

how to install and use greasemonkey

how to use existing scripts

sample of how to create your own.

would be good for newsforge?

4/25 - newsforge wants me to write this one

*essay idea: new york as heroin

I used to have lots of problems, now I have just one

how all the complications of life elsewhere (like cars, etc) are replaced with just one: the struggle of living here.

*essay idea: 10 simple rules for better photographs

angle: here are some quick tips to improve anyone's photos

nothing complicated at all.

look at your background

turn off the flash

get closer

ask, "what is my subject" before taking picture

compose with subject off-center

take lots and lots and lots of pictures

don't show the bad ones to people

throw out all bad photos

decide if you are a journalist or an artist (ok this one might be lame)

change camera angle

don't look through the viewfinder

take portraits from 45 degrees looking down on subject (stolen from Merlin Mann)

use a cheap 35mm camera? also, stop with the zoom already - become your own zoom

organize your negatives.