Matthew's Weblog

So I finally got invited to the Boxee alpha, and had to move the apps to the ATV.  I couldn’t find a clear way to get the frappliances until I found a forum entry describing the process.  It’s still kind of kludgy given the rest of the stuff I’ve seen from the app/company… you’ve got to download the atvusb installer and then expand it and then pull the frappliances out of the build:

Path to find the apps in the atvusb-creator is: atvusb-creator\atvusb-creator.app\Contents\Resources\payloads\patchstick \plugins

copy them onto your ATV where your other plugins live in /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns

and then restart the finder.  Worked great.  Now to find out what all the hubbub is about…

So an interesting contrast in articles yesterday… one column on how Windows Is Free, due to the widespread sharing and ineffectiveness of the registration process, and another column on Software Copyright and Role Models – the impact of software sharing on ethics, morals, and society. The intertwining thread is the Law of Unintended Consequences, where people’s actions have far wider ripples than they anticipate. It really stopped me in my tracks.

I have, in the past, observed unlicensed software being installed. Sometimes, because my own hands were acting on the copied CD. I’ve found it much easier to be in compliance recently because of MSDN access, but now I have kids. I want them to have a computer to use and to play on, and many of their games are Windows-only. Now I have to consider how to move forward.

I’ve purchased computers in the past with Windows installed on them, then blitzed it in order to install Linux. Now I feel like I should have a floating license for that Windows OS, but is that actually fair? I know it’s not legal according to the contracts, but what is really fair? And what do I do to show the kids that I really believe in doing what is right? I work in software development, for goodness sake… you’d think I wouldn’t be conflicted at all.

But all I have are questions right now… no answers.

(At least my Macs are legal, with no questionmarks!

Technorati Tags: Windows, Mac, Linux, ethics

Ready for your computer to whisper sweet nothings in your ear with no one else to hear?  Sign me up…

An overview – with a possible scoring system – for picking which open source projects will survive and thrive.  A good set of characteristics and something that I mostly follow but not so well thought out as theirs. Something useful for future evaluations…

Technorati Tags: open+source, business+software

Article from Computerworld about Google’s application deployment system, Slack and how it is used…

Technorati Tags: google, web+application, standard+operating+environment

Carbonite – looks interesting but isn’t currently Mac or Linux compatible. Hmmm… still, might be good for protecting less-technical folks’ computers.

A very cool insight into MSN and their monitoring methods… tracking multiple layers of the application and the behaviors, with the monitoring cooked into the application so it can be tremendously granular in the items measured.  Lots of stuff inspired by manufacturing processes, which really shows the Henry Ford repeatability mantra.

Technorati Tags: web+application, monitoring

How to roll out Firefox in an enterprise

Finally found out how to run Firefox with multiple versions at once… thanks to a FAQ on DSLReports.

C:\>cd C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox>set MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox>firefox.exe -p
-or-
C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox>firefox.exe -Profile “C:\Path\to\profile”

It’s also shown on Mozilla’s dev site, but without the helpful steps…

And you can force the profile manager to show up (to keep your profiles separate for each version with a tip from galfi.com – To do this, add ” -profilemanager” to the end of [your] shortcuts in the Target field

Bad Behavior (as previously noted – only two comment spams since installation)
Easier custom field insertion when writing posts
Easier display of custom fields in posts
Random Quotes

Installed but not used (effectively) yet:
WP Database Backup
WPTheme Manager

And suggested by RWC:
Technorati Tagging
File Organizer