40 years ago: And Lo, the net was born

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Forty years ago today, the first message was sent over the Internet. And forty years ago today, somebody’s internet connection went down for the first time.

The Internet as we know it has its origins in the Advanced Research Projects Agency, an American group set up in the late 1950s as part of the technology race against the USSR. A decade later, the agency went ahead with plans to build a network of computers to make it easier and quicker to share software and test results across different universities.

The system they chose was remarkably similar to the way most people access the net today. The different computers at each site connected via modem to a dedicated machine known as an interface message processor: that is to say, a router. The IMP at each site connected directly to a telephone line (though this was a leased line rather than a standard domestic connection), passing data to other sites as well as receiving data and routing it to the appropriate machine. Data was broken down into packets and then reassembled at the other end. (See Charlie & The Chocolate Factory’s Mike Teevee for a full technical explanation.)

The initial network linked up four sites: UCLA, the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and UC Santa Barbara (all in California) plus the University of Utah. On October 29 1969, a student programmer from UCLA, Charley Kline sent the first message on ARPANET, to be received at a machine at SRI. What he recorded as talking “host to host” is what we would call the first internet data transfer.

Unfortunately the connection dropped mid-transfer and the message which came through simply read “Lo”. Had Kline called it a night there, we would be left with the wonderful image that he might have intended to deliver the world’s first LoL, or perhaps even entertain the staff of SRI with an amusing ASCII-based picture of his cat yawning.

Instead, around an hour later, he got through and ended the mystery by delivering the message “Login.”

The Dos and Donts of Halloween Hosting

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I promise this isn’t a treatise on etiquette, but rather a few things to consider if you’ve gone all-in for a Halloween party. I’ve found that I already feel a little overwhelmed with all the possibilities, so I thought a list might be in order.

Do ask for help. I decided that, in light of my tendency to over do the things in the food department, our party would be pot luck. I’ve encouraged guests to bring unusual dishes and desserts and then I’ll supplement with a few other ones (bleeding fruits, a spit covered with odd bits of meat, and those heart cupcakes).

Do think out of the box. Having recently visited the local mega retailer it’s definitely tempting to pick up the ready-made motion detecting spooky rock sets and glow in the dark mushrooms and whatnot. Consider that lighting is really your best friend, and that a little goes a long way. Anything triggered by motion or sound is going to get really annoying really fast and turned off early in the night. Don’t go so all out with decorations that people have no place to sit, either!

Do take time to plan ahead. Give yourself a week, a few days, because if you’re planning for something really spooky and splendid you really can’t do it all at the last minute. I mean, sure, there are folks who manage it perfectly fine, but if you’re a disorganized mess like me you’ll need the time for trial and error! (Today: modding my guns for the steampunk outfit and making decorations, tomorrow cooking and prepping, etc.)

Don’t treat your guests like kids. Sure, there’s something to be said for the childlike wonder that comes along with Halloween. But shoving candy and crafts at them will likely not encourage them to stay or, if you plan to do it again, come back. Yes, I’m making slime and odd decorations, but I’m not forcing my guests to bob for apples or paint their own jack o’ lanterns. Themes are fine, if your guests know in advance, but try to move beyond the stock themes. Consider themes like dead scientists or writers, classic horror film monsters, ancient monsters, adventure and steampunk, fantasy creatures, etc. Yeah, and don’t forget the libation.

Don’t forget the balance. Too much planned activities can result, as mentioned above, in a school-aged atmosphere. Too little will make your guests wonder why they got dressed up in the first place. Some good ideas might be to play movies (the sort you can watch in bits and still have other opportunities for socialization). Perfect films (in my humble opinion) include The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, Manos the Hands of Fate (MST3K version), Young Frankenstein, or, the selection for this year at our house: Labyrinth. If you want a true scare-fest, best make that clear to your guests. A good horror flick is fine, but some guests don’t exactly dig going out to parties just to sit and watch an entire film through. We’re also playing the game Werewolf and will have a costume contest, as well as Brazen Head divination.

Don’t underestimate science! Baking soda, vinegar, borax, corn starch: these are what I think of when I approach Halloween. With the commercialization of the holiday we’ve become accustomed to boxed spookiness. But with your kitchen and your scientific know how you can create all sorts of wondrous Halloween tricks and treats. If you have fun, your guests will have fun, too.

Some projects to consider:

[Image by stevechasmar – CC]

Ubuntu “Karmic Koala” 9.10: A Closer Look

Ubuntu Karmic Koala

Today, a new release of the popular free & open source operating system Ubuntu becomes available. This is release 9.10, code-named Karmic Koala. In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I could be a little biased, as I had a hand in the planning and development of the release.

First, if you don’t know much about Ubuntu, I should point out that the Ubuntu family of Linux distros is actually pretty big. It includes Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and Ubuntu Netbook Remix. And guess what? It’s grown again! There is now Kubuntu Netbook Edition, featuring the new KDE Plasma Netbook interface! I was playing with it for a while on my roommate’s HP Mini. Very nice! Have a look:

Screenshot of Kubuntu Netbook Edition

Welcome to your new OS

One of the new features of the installer, Ubiquity, is a slideshow to introduce new users to their chosen desktop environment and the default applicaitons while they wait for the install to complete. Part of that installation includes some hot new features at the system level: GRUB2, KMS, and Ext4. Since this is a geek blog, that means I can use acronyms, right?

  • GRUB2 is a new release of the GRUB bootloader, and it allows the user to set a pretty background on their boot screen. It probably adds some other features, but the ability to bling your boot is the one I think the largest number of people will find appealing.
  • KMS, or kernel modesetting, means that users of Intel graphics will find that resuming from suspend is now instantaneous. It also makes configuring secondary screens easier for Intel users than it was previously.
  • Ext4 is the new Linux filesystem. While it was included in 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), it was not the default at the time – but now it is. What does this mean to you? Well, it’s a faster filesystem so any time you need to go to disk, it’s at least a little quicker.
  • A lot of work went into the boot process, and while it hasn’t reached the 10-second goal set for 10.04, it’s pretty snappy on a clean install.

New defaults

One goal of this release was “social from the start.” Originally this was going to mean including the Gwibber microblogging client in Ubuntu, but the new version was not ready in time. It is still available in the repositories. Kubuntu, however, includes the µblog Plasma widget for Twitter and Identi.ca. For a more feature-filled client on KDE/Kubuntu, I recommend Choqok. On the social topic, Kubuntu also includes a Facebook Plasma widget and Facebook chat plugin for Kopete.

Ubuntu has switched from shipping a combination of Pidgin and Ekiga to the Telepathy-based Empathy client. Empathy integrates the IM protocols pidgin supported with video and voice chat capabilities. I used it to video chat with Ubuntu Developer William Grant a few days ago. But how’s this an improvement over having those two separate applications before? Well, as Jono Bacon showed on his blog, aside from simple chat, it can also enable you to share your desktop with whomever you are chatting with. Neat!

How many computers do you have? I’ll wait while you go count. Done yet? Right, so anyway… how do you like trying to keep them synced? Bit of a pain, isn’t it? Ubuntu Karmic now includes Ubuntu One integration so you can sync your data – including things like any notes you take in Tomboy – between all your computers, or to share with your friends. You get 2GB of storage automatically.

There’s also a whole new way to install software now! The Ubuntu Software Center is a new interface for managing the software you have installed and replacing good old Applications -> Add/Remove. It’s got a new interface that should make finding what you want easier. As you can see from the linked page’s roadmap section, in the future, it will function a bit like the app stores you’re familiar with from iPhones and Android phones, allowing you to buy some of the video games available for Linux directly. I just hope it also provides an easy way to donate to some of our favorite FOSS projects.

screenshot of Ubuntu Software Center

Refinement

The long-awaited new theme has come to Ubuntu! Check out the screenshot below:

screenshot of Ubuntu 9.10

With the new GNOME 2.28, there are plenty of nice incremental improvements. For you netbook users, the webcam program Cheese has been improved to fit better on your small screens. And for those with regular laptops, the new power manager will spin down your disk for lower power usage. The Movie Player finally has support for DVD menus, so there is no more need to install VLC. There’s also some new hotness with the sound capabilities. Got a subwoofer? Want to change the balance on your speakers? Now you can! There was a new project called “One Hundred Papercuts,” related to the phrase “death by 100 papercuts.” The goal was to fix 100 papercuts, or small usability issues that just get in users’ way or make it slightly harder to work with the system. It was a way to provide extra polish. For example, making it easier to find Clipart in OpenOffice and removing cases of “geek speak” from the interface – because really, if you give a beginner a laptop that refers to its network card as “eth0” instead of “the network card,” they’re going to get confused and believe all that junk about Linux being for nerds. Icons that don’t make sense were replaced with better ones, and overall things are a bit nicer to use.

Regular Kubuntu has been updated to include KDE 4.3.2 which brings some new polish to the desktop. The new feature I’ve used most is the ability to delve into folders from the desktop folder view Plasma widget without having to open any new windows. Oh, and yes, the included version of Amarok can play CDs, unlike last release.  For the first time, I really like Amarok! There’s also an option in the menu by default to install the most popular web browser on Linux, Firefox.  As someone who spent a while switching between Ubuntu’s GNOME and Kubuntu’s KDE interfaces and never settled on all applications from one desktop, I really appreciate the new integration for their notification daemons. In the past, both KNotify and Notification Daemon or Notify-OSD would run regardless of whether you logged into GNOME or KDE, and then KDE applications would have KNotify popups and GNOME ones would have Notification Daemon or Notif-OSD popups, making for an inconsistent interface. KNotify now speaks the same language as the other two, so the interface is more consistent and polished. Kubuntu now also has a Message Indicator Applet just like Ubuntu, so if you choose Notify-OSD as your notification system, messages requiring a response (such as a highlight in a chatroom or IRC channel) are stored for later.

screenshot of Kubuntu 9.10

I’ve been running this release since alpha 1 back in May. I can with full confidence say it completely rocks! If you were turned off by some of the more interesting bugs in the last few releases, give this one a try. It’s both more polished and more stable. I’m ditching the “only use Long Term Support releases” rule on my family’s computers for this one. This is without a doubt the best Ubuntu release I’ve seen.

Google gets social with new search refinement

Google has begun experimenting with a feature to customize search results to reflect your online social network. The idea is to give extra weight to information and opinions from people who you have already formed an online relationship with such as friends and colleagues.

The new Social Search feature will take particular account of posts from your friends and contacts on various social network sites such as Twitter and FriendFeed, along with people who you’ve contacted via Gmail. As well as searching posts, the feature also looks at pages which are linked to in those posts.

The theory is that this helps improve the relevance of search results by building on the trust you have in the opinion of friends and contacts. For example, if you are looking for a hotel to stay in during a citybreak, the Social Search results can bring up comments your friends have made about hotels in the area. In some cases this can extend to friends of friends and so on.

Users can switch between having the Social Search results built right in to Google’s SERPs or viewing them in isolation.

Google stresses that the service isn’t a threat to privacy as it only covers content which is already publicly available. However, using the site does mean telling Google which social networks you are a user of (though, of course, not handing over passwords.)

One limitation of the service is that it’s only available to people who’ve created a Google public profile and then linked their various social networking accounts from it. It’s currently only available as an experimental feature through Google Labs, where users are limited to one such feature at a time.

Geeky Jack ‘o Lanterns

It’s nearly time for Halloween, which means the flickering lights of jack ‘o lanterns on doorsteps. Here’s what wikipedia says about jack ‘o lanterns:

In a jack-o’-lantern, typically the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved onto the outside surface, and the lid replaced. At night a light is placed inside to illuminate the effect. The term is not particularly common outside North America, although the practice of carving lanterns for Halloween is.

Of course, a “monstrous face” isn’t always the only thing on the menu, and why go for the usual when you can show your personality? In my experience, one of the best ways to spot a geek home is what we choose to carve into our pumpkins. And hey, there’s still a few days left until Halloween. Plenty of time to get some inspiration…

metalchris (CC), oskay (CC), randycox (CC), frozenchipmunk (CC), qwirksilver (CC), monkeyboy69 (CC), zeusandhera (CC), sleighboy (CC), penner42 (CC), rakka (CC), jpstanley (CC), denovich (CC), base10 (CC)

Happy Halloween, [GAS] readers! ;-)

Halloween Ambiance: Borax Crystal Halloween Decorations

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The crystal spider emerging from its tank...

I was looking for unique and geeky decorations for my Halloween Party, and I’d already bought a box of Borax to make slime (I’ll also be making ectoplasm, I should note) so I did a quick internet search and discovered that, at least around Christmas, pipe cleaners and dissolved Borax make for some intriguing creations.

But what’s a snowflake got to do with Halloween? Er, nothing. So I did a little thinking and some tinkering with pipe cleaners, then went to work making my Borax crystal spider and Borax crystal ghost Cthuhlu. What? In my opinion, no good Halloween party is worth it without a little Cthuhlu. Plus, we may be cracking open Arkham Horror at some point, and the Tentacled One really needs to represent.

I’m going to be making a few more of these crystalline structures over the week and the plan is to hang them over our bar. I’ll be making mostly bones with white pipe cleaners and plan on experimenting with some other designs, as well. There are lots of versions of this particular craft online, but here’s what I did:

Borax Crystal Halloween Decorations (Spider and Ghosty Cthulhu)

You’ll need:

  • Borax
  • A large bowl
  • A glass or plastic container (wide-mouthed is best)
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Pencil/chopstick
  • Spoon

First, make your frame. Remember that the crystals will swell the size, so don’t make the circles/angles too tight, or they’ll grow solid. Unless that’s what you’re going for, which might be cool. Either attach a string to the finished frame or a spare pipe cleaner and then tie the end of that around a pencil or chopstick – you’ll use this to suspend the structure in the Borax solution.

Next, prepare the two containers: one for measuring out the quantity of water you’ll use and another for the actual mixing. From what I read the reason for this is to minimize crystals in the actual mixture.

Measure enough water to fill the container you’ll be using for submersion, and boil it. I used my electric kettle and it worked pretty well.

Fill the large bowl (I used a mixing bowl) with the boiling water, and start adding borax. Mix as you do this, and continue to add borax until it’s no longer dissolving. A quart of water and about 2 cups of Borax did the trick.

Slowly pour the mixture into the plastic container and be sure not to pour in any extra crystals that didn’t dissolve. Too many crystals will compete for growth later.

DSC_0010Submerge your frame into the Borax mixture. Try and keep the tentacles/arms from touching the sides. Mine both ended up touching and I had to pull them out, breaking the shape a little. I’ll be more careful next time.

Let the shape sit in the Borax over night, but feel free to check periodically. The crystals grow very fast, which is great for impatient geeks (like me!).

And… voila! The next morning, you’ll see a sparkly, crystal-encrusted version of your design! A very satisfying, geeky, and rather unusual Halloween decoration for your party or your house.

You can also play with food coloring and different color pipe cleaners for a variety of effects, not to mention using glow-in-the-dark paint if you want to up the spooky factor.