FAK3R

Blog

HOWTO build your own open source Dropbox clone

I KAN HAZ OPEN-SRC DROPBX? UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this, and the Reddit thread, as it has provided some great ideas building off of my concept. I’m starting to rethink about how we could have version control on top of things, and I’ll update things when I have more to share. Also, does anyone have iFolder (thanks for the proper linksalubrium) working? It looks like you need SUSE Linux, which I don’t have access to, plus I know most Novell projects need a *ton* of Mono dependencies installed to have any of their stuff working, at least on the server side; but it sounds like they have Mac, Linux and Windows clients, which is encouraging. While for my needs something a bit more ‘close to the bone’ (as below) might be better for the server side, having it be inter-operable with something like iFolder could provide a lot more functionality for others.

First off, if you haven’t tried Dropbox, you should check it out; sync all of your computers via the Dropbox servers, their basic free service gives you 2Gigs of space and works cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux). I use it daily at home and work, and just having a live backup of my main data for my work workstation, my home netbook, and any other computer I need to login to is a huge win. Plus, I have various ’shared’ folders that distribute certain data to certain users that I’ve granted access to, this means work details can be updated and automatically distributed to the folks I want to review/use the data. I recommend everyone try it out, and see how useful it is, it’s turned into a game changer for me. So a few months ago they made headlines on supporting Linux as they released the client as open source. While this got hopes up for many, it was only the client that was open source, the server is still proprietary. While slightly disappointing, this is fine, they’re a company trying to make money. I don’t fault them for this, it’s just that a free, portable service like that would be a killer app. (more…)

Sep 14, 2009 | Categories: geek, howto, linux | Tags: backup, diy, dropbox, howto, linux, mirror, open source, server, sync | Comments

Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200

factcheck_thumb With all the craziness around the health care debate, the facts are getting lost. There is simply no way we’re going to have a productive conversation on the issues when the facts are not known or heeded. There is a great article on Factcheck.org that debunks many of the non-truths that are being thrown around as justification for calling people Nazis. Let’s grow up and figure out a way to see both sides without name calling, please review these and expose them to others who are not using facts in their arguments. (more…)

Sep 09, 2009 | Categories: commentary, featured, headline, parenting, politics | Tags: barack obama, health, politics | Comments

Architecture for future LSID resolvers

NOTE: the following is my generalized overview of some thoughts I came up with months ago in regards to LSID resolvers, and how to architect a fault tolerant solution (LINK). I missed the meeting in Denmark last week (I was on a family vacation for once) where they were discussing this, and wrote the following for another attendee to submit on my behalf. I’m posting it here for further exposure and discussion of the merits and shortcomings of these ideas.

“In thinking about the architecture for future LSID resolvers we need to remember that a single point of failure will fail. This has been proven true too many times, and it’s clearly not the way to proceed if we want to build a system the community can rely on. To succeed we should follow successful implementations of distributed software services such as the domain name server (DNS), and the network time protocol (NTP). These succeed because the protocols are standardized and the software to connect to, and utilize, these services are simple to deploy. If we had a package-able server that would connect to these services and be easy to deploy, an institution could ultimately count on its own server (with other servers providing automatic fail over) to serve as a resolver that would be updated against lead node servers regularly. (more…)

Aug 18, 2009 | Categories: bioinformatics, geek | Tags: architecture, distributed architecture, dns, lsid | Comments

Equating Obama to Hitler is very dangerous!

Act now to stop...Obama's Nazi Health Plan? WTF!

I came across this image online, and I had to look into it to see if it was real or not. After I did that I knew I had to bring more people’s attention to it. Look, this is just too much, agree or disagree with our president, but equating him with Hitler destroys any chance of a reasonable conversation of the issue. The URL on the pamphlet is a real website for the LaRouche PAC, so I hit their site, and read many of their beliefs and press releases. Among other things, heir site promotes bringing swastikas and using SS symbols at anti-Health Care rallies, and states “…the proposed legislation which is an exact copy of the legislation for which the Hitler regime was condemned” I don’t think I should be giving this insanity too much attention, but just read a bit more of what this person is calling for (emphasis mine):

“President Obama is now impeachable, because he has, in effect, proposed legislation which is an exact copy of the legislation for which the Hitler regime was condemned in the post-war trials.
The President’s promotion of this “T-4″ as the non-negotiable element of his package is really a Nuremberg crime, LaRouche continued, and that becomes a basis for rallying the forces for defeating this thing, proving that this is a “T-4″ fascist program. It’s really an act of treason against the General Welfare clause of the Constitution.
Therefore, LaRouche stated, we have got to beat this thing now, because that represents a strategic forcing mechanism; whereas if they ram this thing through in the short term, which they are really desperate to do, then the Constitution is finished, the Republic is gone. It’s the equivalent of the Reichstag fire.

Can someone please tell me this is a satirical site like The Onion because this is very scary stuff. Again, agree or disagree with President Obama, but try to do what I did when I opposed many of Bush’s ideas, promote better ideas. Simply trying to whip up fever by bringing Nazi and Hitler comparisons will not bode well for your cause, and at worse it may lead to the kind of violence that we fought a World War to stop years ago. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS PEOPLE!

Aug 07, 2009 | Categories: commentary, hate, obama, politics | Comments