Dave’s Guide to the Best of the Web

    Some readers (if there are any left) are probably wondering where I’ve been. Well, to be honest, I abandoned Dave’s Best of Web. Why? It was a heck of a lot of work. I thought I had a pretty big collection of sites - but it wasn’t big enough. Okay, that’s sad. So should you abandoned Dave’s Best of Web altogether? Yes, BUT…But what? I’ve got a new site which (so far) is easier to maintain and on a similar topic - so why don’t you give it a try. Its called daveenjoys.com. It is the child, in a sense, of this site. When I realized I simply didn’t have enough diversity to maintain Dave’s Best of Web without making it into a full-time job I also realized there wasn’t a real need to limit what I shared to websites. So daveEnjoys reflects this wider focus better.

What sorts of stuff will I be talking about? Websites will, of course, still be high on the list. Add to that software (which I already hit upon occasionally), household products, services, entertainment, movies, books, and you begin to get the picture. So take a look, I think you’ll like it.

    My real job is as a network engineer for Collages.Net Inc. As anyone who works in the industry will know the field of knowledge is vast and the challenges continuous. How does one deal with the continuous expansion of knowledge and challenges? One way is by subscribing to Informit’s Safari Tech Books Online.

Safari is an online bookshelf with hundreds of titles from many of the most renowned publishers (O’Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Sams, Que, Cisco, Microsoft) and authors (Gary McGraw, Michael Miller, Jesse Liberty) in the industry. Topics covered include applied sciences, artificial intelligence, technical certifications (e.g. A+, CCNA, MCSE), computer science, databases, desktop publishing, desktop applications, e-business/e-commerce, enterprise computing, internet, programming, multimedia, networking, and security amongst others.

Here is a quick sampling of the sort of volumes you can expect from Safari:

• Programming Collective Intelligence, Toby Segaran (Artificial Intelligence).
• Cisco ASA, PIX, and FWSM Firewall Handbook by David Hucaby  (Networking/Security).
• Beautiful Code by Andy Oram and Greg Wilson (Computer Science).
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Unleashed by Ray Rankins, & co. (Databases).
• Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan (Programming).

Okay, those are some pretty technical volumes, but for those just getting started there are some excellent volumes as well. Whether you need to learn basic web design, how to edit multimedia files, it management skills, or any of dozens of areas of expertise - Safari InformIT can help.

It does cost money - but the cost is reasonable. Technical volumes don’t sell many copies (how many people want to read about low-level kernel details?) so authors and publishers have to make up for this lack in readership by increasing the price of volumes. A good technical volume can oftentimes run $50 or more at a traditional bookstore. With Safari InformIT you can read several books at a time for $9.95 per month, or get even more at a higher price. You really can’t argue with the price.

    Here are a few articles/videos I discovered over the last few days I found to be pretty good. This isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the whole site, it just means these particular pages/videos were entertaining. I’ve also been working on The Informed Networker, please take a look at that as well.

Articles:

• Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations by techeblog. - If you haven’t seen these creations, check them out, they are really unbelievable.
• Linebacker, 59, to play college ball by Jaime Aron (Charlotte Observer). - Wish I was in good of shape now at my age as he is at his.
• Weird Deep-Sea Creatures Found in the Atlantic (National Geographic). - A few pictures of fascinating sea creatures. Especially fascinating is the glass squid and phronima - they are amazing!
• Real Life Sea Monsters by John (Who-Sucks). - Similar to the above National Geographic article but in larger quantities, this some amazing and disgusting sea creatures.

Videos:

• Public Bathroom (TheFunnyStuff). - Some pranksters place an office around a porta-potty while individuals are inside - when they walk out they are surprised to find themselves entering an important business meeting.
• The Meaning of American Pie (StumbleVideo/YouTube). - A fascinating video montage that explains much of the lyrics of the popular song classic song American Pie.
• Just for Laughts (StumbleVideo/YouTube). - Man pretends to be proposing and asks random strangers to videotape. Results are hilarious.

Have your own? Let me know. I always enjoy a good informative/entertaining video or article.

Apple’s iPhone is a pretty sweet device from all reports, but by no means perfect. While many consumers enjoy the device for its own qualities, many open source advocates and other strange geeks (I’m talking about myself, so I feel qualified to make fun of myself) look upon the iPhone not so much as a gigantic step forward as an actual device, but rather as what it represents - a push for more innovation and a challenge to the incumbent cell phone carriers to offer more.

But what if everything Apple is offering and will offer will in the long-term be considered only a footnote in history? I think that there is a grand possibility that this will happen. Why? Because of a small company called OpenMoko which is building upon the revolutionary concepts of open source.

Open Source rebels against the traditional concepts of capitalism in some senses. I have talked to many who embrace that traditional concept and when explaining to them the options they have from open source I often find them responding with befuddled expressions indicating their confusion as to how anything that is really free can also be really profitable. If you aren’t a geek (yeah, with big glasses and never having met a girl in your life) you might not be aware of open source - but its real and revolutionary. You would probably recognize some of its successes such as Linux (an operating system and the grand-daddy of successful open source software), Mozilla Firefox (the web browser), or OpenOffice.Org (the office suite).

Open source is spreading itself throughout society. While initially operating mainly within the confines of computer software it has spread to the furthest reaches of the imagination - including cell phones. OpenMoko has recently released to the public (though asking that only developers purchase them) the Neo1973. This phone is expected to become widely available according to The Economist in November 2007. OpenMoko is an open source phone. It provides most of the features hardware wise you could hope for in a phone and then leaves the phone open for innovation by developers and users. Developers can write applications for it, users can connect to it on any of a variety of carriers. No longer is one locked into a mandatory (and unnecessary) set of applications or to a certain carrier - rather the phone is designed to allow anyone to design applications for it and to be utilized by any carrier that will allow it.

So, take a look at the OpenMoko sites. They are attractive, the phone is attractive, and the concept is attractive. While OpenMoko’s Neo1973 isn’t the phone to buy just yet, I expect it to begin chopping up market share like crazy in the near future. OpenMoko has two sites - the first is for the public consumption of the phone, the second is for developers (or those interested in weird things) to view and assist in the creation/editing/maintenance of the code base/featureset for OpenMoko’s cell phones.

Bookmark OpenMoko. They aren’t anybody just yet - but they will be.

Note: I am aware that Ubuntu is not “Linux” in its most technical and basic conception, but it is one of the best distributions of Linux available and I chose it as a representative of the whole.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower.

War. The war is so civil and hides behinds its mask an ugly monster. Humans, individuals normally united by common bonds and interests are split apart and become driven by man’s most basic instincts. Thrust, slash, run, shoot, dig, kill, die. Blood pours upon the ground and fathers, sons, brothers, mothers, daughters, sisters die. The statistics are easy to press into the back of our mind. What does a thousand mean? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Millions? Bar charts, graphs, numbers - impersonal, till a loved one never returns.

“War is hell.” - William Tecumseh Sherman.

In spite of its horror it is still something which draws the focus of our minds. We have made some of our greatest artistic works about it - consider Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace or Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Our heroes are oftentimes those whose greatest achievement is the role they played in a deadly conflict - George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchhill. As a little child I know I picked up my wooden gun and for hours and days I would embark on grand battles against imaginary enemies with my siblings and friends. It would take some years before I would come to realize that there was nothing so grand about war.

Still, as adults many of us engage in a practice known as wargaming. In this practice it is usual to simulate historical (as well as fantasy or science fiction) warfare. What is it that attracts the human mind to such a practice? I do not think it is a love for violence or death, but rather an interest in conflict and competition. But, I will not too long indulge in the reasons for our interest in wargaming, it is beyond the scope of this article. Rather, my purpose is to acknowledge this interest and point towards one of the best resources on this subject - The Wargamer.

The Wargamer is the most prestigious website dealing with wargaming currently on the internet, though Grognard holds a close second place (mainly limited by its focus on more hardcore wargaming). It was established in 1995 and over the years has seen significant growth and expansion. To briefly note, here are a few of its key features:

• Daily News - The Wargamer provides daily updates on the latest developments on the wargaming front, letting you know ahead of time what is happening in the world of wargaming and providing reports after important conferences, events, etc.
• Reviews & Articles - The Wargamer is a vast repository of reviews on wargames. While the games are mainly computer wargames there are also a number of board and card games as well. Whether you are looking for a review of a recent game or one that came out ten years ago - The Wargamer is a good place to look. They also offer interesting historical articles on various battles and historical events.
• Forums - The Wargamer has very active forums where you can discuss all aspects of wargaming as well as chat with those of similar interest about casual topics.
• Downloads - There are also a large number of scenarios and campaigns hosted by The Wargamer. These can be downloaded at no cost and offer significant additions to the built-in capabilities of many games.
• Opponents - If you have mastered your computer opponents, The Wargamer can help you find an unlimited number of human opponents to test your mettle against.

The Wargamer is a great place to learn about wargames and extend your current wargaming experience. I would encourage those (such as myself) who partake in this hobby to ensure that this gaming is never done without a ready acknowledgment of the horrific nature of the actual conflicts…That computer pixels or miniatures have no life and come back to combat another day, but that mere mortal humans have no such luxury.

Thanks to The Quote Cache for the quote by Dwight D. Eisenhower.