Ghodmode Development Blog - Latest Comments

Re: WoW Account Hacked? Maybe It's Not Your Fault

Jabbatwenty — Fri, 11 May 2012 22:34:11 -0000

Oh wow I like this article! I stopped playing WoW with several months left on my subscription but took my CC info off of their site and within a week my email account got hacked that was attached to my battle.net account. They used this to get into my WoW account and get a authenticator and lock me out of the account. I didn't care as much as my email was hacked though since I stopped playing WoW but I love how it was as I quite wow!

Re: What the heck is FreeDOS?

Guest22 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:34:46 -0000

As mentioned here, FreeDOS is old school freedom :D

Re: CSS3 Jumping Icons Revisited

Alex — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:27:33 -0000

Dear Ghmode,
Please help me understand how to customise the CSS if I call <div class="icon"> in the html, all the boxes just show the twitter picture, as that is the first one. Please explain what I need to do to display a different social media pic in each list item position.
Kind Regards,
Alex
</div>

Re: What the heck is FreeDOS?

mark anthony — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:32:46 -0000

thanks for the information!! I'm very confusing with this kind of "FreeDoss OS" ? ..
I also went to PIKOM PC FAIR - Malaysia , Sabah. they don't know anything lol!

Re: WoW Account Hacked? Maybe It's Not Your Fault

Hiddenbunny — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:43:54 -0000

there is no explanation for people who have stopped to play wow for considerable amount of time then have the account hacked other than there is a problem on Blizzard's end. Unless you believe there are simply a database full of info out there that after months these key logged wow user info haven't been exploited.

Re: The HostGator Lie

Alexander Vahrushev — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:59:31 -0000

Me being from Ukraine also went via all that shit. And that with many US/CA based companies. They pretend like everyones except them = scammer. Kind of irony that so far I have been scammed most of all cases by that same americans:(

Re: CSS3 Jumping Icons Revisited

Thomas — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:19:47 -0000

Great work, i've tried to do a bounce effect like these, but the @keyframe feature are absolout new to me, very very nice.

Re: Problems with Patent and Copyright Law

Alan Meyer — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 18:57:34 -0000

Here are a couple of additional problems with patents and copyrights that may be of interest to you.

1. Most copyrighted material is unavailable.

Copyrights on books are for such a long period these days that they continue in force long after the book is no longer in print. The market for such books is often too small to enable the publisher to invest in another production run, but the publisher still refuses to place the material in the public domain because he has no incentive to do so. If it were in the public domain it could be distributed free by sites such as the Gutenburg. Most works now have copyright for the author's life plus 70 years. But most of them go out of print in just a few years. So for the great majority of books copyright ensures that the material will remain unavailable for a century or so.

2. Patents are now being granted on things like human genes.

The patents inhibit researchers from developing new drugs and doing new research on diseases. These patents are being filed prospectively. The companies filing them may have no use whatever for the patent, but they file it so that if anyone ever thinks of a use, the patent owning company can make them pay.

It's pretty disgusting.

Re: CSS3 Jumping Icons Revisited

TJ — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:28:02 -0000

Really liked the idea. :-) Yours is nicer, but I like both. Must say, I'm now tempted to put it somewhere in my company's code. :-) Fighting the urge, as I want to do it just to brag. :-) What will help me: that's new CSS. :)

Re: What the heck is FreeDOS?

Ghodmode — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:36:28 -0000

Thank you for your comment. Since I wrote that post, I've become part of a team that's working on the problem. It's organized by Consumers International and the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations and they're trying to work with vendors to see if they can have Ubuntu replace FreeDOS on low-end computers. It's only been a few months, but maybe it will make a difference.

I've also added new services on my home page: Free Linux Installations and Free Linux Media. No one has taken me up on the offer yet.

Re: What the heck is FreeDOS?

TJ — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:07:43 -0000

Interesting and original post. Thank you for it. When I wondered why folks would not have Linux installed, but would have FreeDOS I came to same conclusions.
And, of course, disagreements worth noting:
- FreeDOS benefits from being heard about by average person. Yeah, some are bound to misunderstand, but that's not the OS fault, but seller's. Still, I - learning that I can have a laptop with freeDOS learned about freeDOS at all. :-) And I too am impressed by what guys did.
- you can and should resist, negate and neglect Microsoft. :-) ;-) feel encouraged to do so. ;-)

Re: Icon Jump Effect with CSS3

Gabriele Romanato — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:04:35 -0000

That's a great post! You surely improved my example much! Thanks! ;-)

Re: The Real Next-Gen Technology

mirul — Mon, 30 May 2011 07:32:02 -0000

wow, this is an eye opener. really agree with you about the privacy part. btw, congrats.

Re: The Real Next-Gen Technology

Raja Iskandar Shah — Mon, 30 May 2011 02:49:34 -0000

Congrats on the newborn. My daughter was introduced to the world of Xandros (a Linux distro) back in 2004 when she was 3 years old. She has grown up to using Ubuntu now. To her ICT is just like any other home entertainment device. Much like how I would have used the remote for VCR in the late 1980s. She has picked up a little bit of JavaScript (some rudimentary form on the concept of programming codes) on her own. To her a Windows based computer, is just another brand of software, so she switches between the various windowing environment with ease.

However, to her, the computer is not a replacement for a good book. Especially at night. By the way, we dont have a television set at home. Her younger brother who is 5 is different, where his pastime is the DVD player and toy cars and would only be on the computer to watch YouTube.

As a parent, my concern would always be privacy and censorship, though I have never had to use any tools, simply by putting the computer in the hall, rather than in her room.

What the internet is becoming is a polarisation of global communities - people having distinct likes and dislikes. Years ago John Naisbitt wrote about the Global Paradox, it is only now that I come to realise how powerful that insight was, and how it is able to shape nations (re: the uprising in several middle east countries).

Re: The Real Next-Gen Technology

Jane — Mon, 30 May 2011 02:23:09 -0000

Nice one as always, Ghodmode:).

I very much agree on the privacy issue. Kids' photos are posted on parents', aunts, uncles', friends of parents', even on your next door neighbor's neighbor's Facebook accounts. All without the consent of the kids. Unless he/she already understood the whole issue with privacy. Nothing against Facebook and what others do with it. I happen to think it's a useful thing. Except don't put my photos or my family members' photos on your FB account without my express permission:).

As for the future, I second the idea that language won't be a problem. Although, it might not always be for a good cause:). Even now, my students are using Google Translate to trick me into thinking they didn't plagiarize their essay. What they do is they get a topic from me - obviously in English. Then they go online and fine a relatively similar topic already in essay form but in Malay. Then they click Google Translate and voila!, they have an English essay. Except that students need to know that teachers will always be able to tell. The translation often will have a sign of some sort that it was translated. I guess it's a good thing that translation software isn't perfect yet:!

Re: OSS Fail?

Nor Zairah — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:23:53 -0000

Hi,

Just realized that our article being a subject of discussion in the OSDC forum & this blog. Thank you very much to En. Haris for posting it to the forum & thank you for your insightful analysis of the article. The comments are interesting indeed.

The study intended to look at the different perspectives of the OSS implementation in an organization and was not looking at OSS per se. Therefore, I agree that this failure didn't have anything to do with OSS.

This article was part of a larger OSS appropriation study & the findings was not meant to be generalized. The study aims to propose the Multiple Perspectives framework which can actually be applicable to any types of technology, only that for this study, OSS & the public sector was chosen to empirically apply the framework. That's probably why, you may find most of the issues in the findings could also be typically found in any other technology implementations. As mentioned in the conclusion, the study contribution was on the understanding of the role played by various stakeholders within the organization and how it influences the successful or failure implementation of a new technology.

FYI, in the actual thesis, there was also another case study conducted in another organization which have successfully implemented the OSS. But I do not wish to comment on that findings as it may take up the whole space of this blog :). Findings from these case studies can actually be lesson learned for other organizations that intend to implement new technology in their organization, in this case the OSS applications.

I think on the successful implementation, MAMPU have done some effort inviting organizations to submit case studies on their OSS implementation to be shared in MYGOSSCON every year. Of course most of these organizations will be reporting on their success stories but, the actual extent of the implementation or any problems that arises during the implementation might not be reported. That was one of the motivation of this study for conducting in-depth case studies in getting the real perspectives of the stakeholders to uncover the actual implementation issues.

I also noticed a comment in the forum indicating that it was a poor study as it does not state the solutions used & there was no statistics in it. I'm not a member so, I could not reply in the forum. So, I just would like to clarify it here. As mentioned, the study was not on the technology per se, so only general description of the solutions were given (i.e. OSS operating systems, desktop application etc.) this also to ethically retain the anonymity of the organization ;). It was also a purely qualitative study where the data were only based on interviews with the stakeholders & observations in the organization thus no statistical data needed. Of course there are various limitation to the study that could be improved in the future. Feel free to contact me if you need further information related to the study.

Re: OSS Fail?

Ghodmode — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 04:44:34 -0000

Thank you for your comment, Jane

... almost always happens when a new boss comes in and wanted to leave his/her prints over the department...

I've heard that before and I think it's common everywhere in the world, but even if the only goal for the new boss is to make his mark, it could be done better. I'll explain...

In this case, the lasting mark left by the leadership is a failed software implementation. It shows that the they lacked foresight even for their own career because they can't claim to have helped their previous organization achieve it's stated goal to become an OSS leader.

Am interested if there's been any successful OSS adoption from private univs in Malaysia. If there is/are, you'd think the public univs at least would go and ask for help from those who've made it.

This a very good question and idea. Based on a little research, I haven't been able to find documented results of a successful OSS implementation anywhere. So, it's certainly not a Malaysian problem, but a worldwide one.

I have found many resources talking about how to do an implementation and they're all much newer than ETU's efforts. This highlights a couple of good things. First, there are better resources available today than there were in 2004 when ETU tried. Second, the OSS community is worldwide and there's no need for an organization to restrict their search for information to their own country.

... They stated that However, it is not clear to what extent these organizations have adopted and used OSS in their operation (p.1125). Isn't that strange?

It's not really that strange. It's hard to document an OSS implementation and success isn't clearly defined. If an organization replaced a proprietary office suite with an Open Source Software product, I would call that a success because it yields measurable results. Others might not even consider it OSS adoption unless it was done on a large scale replacing operating systems and servers. I think that's what ETU attempted and the scale of their implementation might have even contributed to it's failure.

MAMPU shouldn't have the responsibility of documenting successful implementations. Organizations, especially educational institutions would benefit from documenting their own successes. Implementers would also benefit from documenting their successful projects.

No single organization could handle documentation of the guidelines, software implementation, and results analysis for a whole country. MAMPU's primary role should be documenting standards and guidelines for Malaysian organizations. Other tasks should be treated as opportunities to create jobs and boost the economy.

If MAMPU OSS standards were implemented in a similar fashion to the ISO 9000 family of standards, that creates a market for independent certification services, training programs, individual certifications, and implementation specialists.

Re: OSS Fail?

Jane — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:16:11 -0000

I like how you put it: : "...done by some enthusiasts with enough power within their organization to make it happen, but not enough foresight to make it stick."

This sort of thing almost always happens when a new boss comes in and wanted to leave his/her prints over the department - probably with good intention. Later, when that boss is relocated, he/she didn't have the foresight to prepare that department he/she left behind to deal with whatever new technology/item/process that was initiated. Next, another new boss comes in with another tech/item/process to implement and that department again has to re-do everything all over again.

Am interested if there's been any successful OSS adoption from private univs in Malaysia. If there is/are, you'd think the public univs at least would go and ask for help from those who've made it.

I went to the MAMPU website (http://www.mampu.gov.my/) wanting to see which government agencies all over Malaysia are using OSS. It is not that easy to find that information. Mostly it's about how MAMPU have won lots of awards for being top in the class with OSS know-how. The researchers found the same thing, I guess. They stated that "However, it is not clear to what extent these organizations have adopted and used OSS in their operation" (p.1125). Isn't that strange? MAMPU, any thoughts?

Great article, Ghodmode:)!

Re: Linux is Better: Security

Ralf — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:44:45 -0000

That makes perfect sense. Since Linux is open, anybody can look under the hood and mod/tune/hack it, or develop for it.
Windows? Not so much.
I know Windows well from using it for may years (and actually getting involved when NT was new circa 1993, writing a device driver) but I'd get lots at a meeting of Windows devs at Microsoft too.

Re: Linux is Better: Security

Norif Paival Yahya — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:19:31 -0000

Yes, Linux is intimidating to the average Joe/Jane because it is still deem as "hackers" OS. Blame in on the movies. I am one of those average Joe who are (countless of time) frustrated with Windows flaw. Maybe I'll also try to bridge that gap since I'm just a normal user who just enjoy lesser, maybe non, frustration using *nix OS.

p/s the comment section is very easy to digest too hahaha

Re: Linux is Better: Security

Ghodmode — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:17:56 -0000

Thanks Archayl. That's probably the closest comparison we can draw between the filesystem layouts of the two Operating Systems. You remind me of one of my biggest irritations about Windows... inconsistency...
If C:\Users is equivalent to /home, what's "C:\Documents and Settings"?
What are these?
C:\Program Files (x86)
C:\ProgramData
Where are the files on the users' desktop stored? C:\Users\<username>\Desktop, C:\Users\Public\Desktop, C:\Users\ProgramData\Desktop?

I could go on, but I'm in danger of starting a rant :)</username>

Re: Linux is Better: Security

Ghodmode — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:55:57 -0000

An example...
My local Linux Users' Group had meeting last weekend and there was one new guy. The new guy doesn't have an IT background, but became heard about Linux when he wanted to build a home media center with a couple of computers and a TV. The rest of us are all programmers and have a long history with Linux. I got into a conversation with a couple of the other guys about the characteristics of different distributions which lead into a discussion of the virtues of one desktop manager over another. The meeting went pretty well, but the next day the new guy sent an email to the mailing list stating "I learned A LOT from you guys, but at some point I got lost."
We spoke on a different level than the new guy was ready for. He didn't feel like he could participate in the conversation. That's the kind of intimidation I'm referring to in the article.
We need to have some way to bridge the gap between the guy who just wants to try out Ubuntu and the guy who is experimenting with different desktop managers. I'm hoping that this article and the others that follow will help with that.

Re: Linux is Better: Security

Archayl — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:30:03 -0000

It comes to my mind the difference in File System Hierarchy and permission strategy create this... difference in security level...

C:\Users kinda like /home
C:\Program Files kinda like /usr/bin
C:\Windows kinda like /sbin and /etc (plus registry) and /var and /bin and ... anything else.. <-- the problem seems to be here....

Just random observation... triggered by your software installation idea argument..

Re: Linux is Better: Security

azhar_mz@yahoo.com — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:40:37 -0000

Nice try my friend....such simple and not too heavy stuff makes it easy to digest by an average Joe. Now that's make your post is nice.
Now just wanted to know(from the first few lines) How intimidating are we? Because we don't want to draw them out Right?

Azhar

Re: What the heck is FreeDOS?

Ghodmode — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:13:22 -0000

Vendors demonstrate that they're not concerned about doing extra work or configuration for their customers when they volunteer to install Windows.

Consumers who shop for a new computer planning to replace its OS don't count. Even so, it's difficult to transfer a Windows license to a new computer... another sacrifice of reason to copyright law. Computers don't even come with regular installation discs any more. They only have "recovery" discs.

Linux is a fully-functional desktop operating system. It's easy to install (as easy as FreeDOS), and comes bundled with software that fully demonstrates functionality of a new computer. Any manufacturer would want to demonstrate that the computer does more than boot. And any buyer would want to know what a computer can do before they buy it.

-- Ghodmode