The Internet Archive

Posted on 2005-03-12 by Stephan Sokolow

I’ve used The Internet Archive‘s Wayback Machine for years to find pages which had otherwise dropped off the web. What I didn’t notice until recently, is their extensive and highly useful collections of other media.

Why bother with such an archive? See their reasoning or take a look for yourself. For example, their video collection has:

They also have an archive of non-web texts and are working to archive old software so that copies will remain in existence when their copyright has expired.

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NoDoS 1.0 alpha

Posted on 2005-03-11 by Stephan Sokolow

I consider myself a pretty likeable guy but occasionally, I run across someone with a chip on their shoulder or someone who has a whole lot of IRC bots and is trigger-happy. And then there are the people who don’t like me because they don’t like my friends. As such, my home connection has been pushed off the net three times in the last 18 months by what’s called a Flood-style Denial-of-Service attack.

In each case, all I had to do was disconnect and reconnect to throw them off by changing my IP address. (Well, and avoid whatever method they were using to find my IP address) But last time, I was sleeping all day and my brother woke me up at 3PM because he needed the net back.

Long story short, I wrote something to automatically trigger a disconnect-reconnect cycle when I get DoSed. If you’re a geek, check out NoDoS in the Python section of my main site. If not, just think about this; my home network should now be able to survive without any maintenance for over a year without falling to viruses, spyware, or hack attacks as long as I keep paying my internet bill. (Well, and replace any failed hardware but that’s still beyond the reach of self-repairing programs.)

I think that means it’s more secure than most corporate networks, wouldn’t you agree? (Note: User training is also an important part of my security strategy.)

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Fanfiction – “Slayers Demiurge”

Posted on 2005-03-10 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Demiurge
URL: Main Site, RAAC-stored copy of the first six chapters. (Note: Main site has some nice fan art)
Author: Stefan Gagne
Source: Slayers
Rating: 5.5/6
Type: Continuation/AU (A continuation, but a fairly big deviation from how things would have continued in Canon)
Length: 8 Chapters, Complete

This is one of those stories that just holds together, actually gets to the end, and falls into that category of pseudo-professionalism that you get from the best fanfics. I highly recommend it if you don’t mind something that’s almost an alternate universe. I’d try to summarize the story but I can’t really do that without killing at least one of the jokes.

Bonuses:
+1 for general good writing
+2 for not only being funny, but funny in a way which feels original and flows well as an integrated part of the story. In addition, it lasts throughout the series without getting boring.
+1 for going above and beyond the call of duty in originality. (Need to read more Slayers fanfics first but even so, I think I know a good original story when I see one)

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TV-B-Gone

Posted on 2005-03-04 by Stephan Sokolow

I know what I want as my next gift, TV-B-Gone.

What? You think I’m nuts for not liking TV, Turn Off Your TV. (And I found the site AFTER I lost interest in TV)

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Women in Science History

Posted on 2005-03-03 by Stephan Sokolow

http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/contents.html

I must say, I knew that Grace Murray Hopper invented the compiler but I never knew that Rózsa Péter invented recursive function theory.

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Fanfiction – “Young At Heart”

Posted on 2005-03-03 by Stephan Sokolow

Title: Young At Heart
Author: Gregg Sharp
Source: Ranma 1/2
Rating: 5/6
Type: Uncontinued Bet Entry
Length: One-Shot

Normally, I’d probably give this a 4/5 for lack of length but, as it’s an uncontinued bet entry and therefore has it’s own special category, it gets a 5/6. I’ve always had a soft spot for the portion of the manga from which it is derived. (The Mushroom of Ages)

The premise is, what if Ryoga at the 17-inch mushroom and prevented Ranma from getting re-aged to 16? I think it’s quite well written and, if anyone does a good job continuing it, I’m willing to give them a reward. (Negotiable)

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C.A.S.E. – Age of Consent

Posted on 2005-03-02 by Stephan Sokolow

C.A.S.E. – Age of Consent

*Sigh* And I thought we Canadians were supposed to be more civilized than many other countries. I definitely support their recommended definition although I think there should be an additional part to cover situations where one of the partners turned 18 but the other is still 17.

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