Writeroom, AwesomeNote and Instapaper

I got writeroom for mac during macheist 3 for free. Recently I became interested in writing again and decided to give it a try. I was impressed with how much I like the no distractions approach to writing. Sure it is inconvenient if you need to do stuff like checking references and getting some “inspiration” from someone else’s work. But for writing down stuff that is 90% opinion like my blog it’s just perfect. Another cool feature is the “typewriter effect” of keeping the area I’m currently typing in the middle of the screen.

I’m finding it surprisingly therapeutic to just write stuff down… it’s sort of the GTD way: get stuff out of your head and into a “System”. This “system” consists of a directory of text files synchronized with SimpleTex.ws.

In fact when I start to work seriously on my thesis I plan to take a no distraction’s approach by turning off IM, email and facebook notifications and closing firefox instead of just moving to another space.

I’ve written most of this post on my iphone which i’m finding much more appealing for text input than before. In part that’s because I decided to shell out the 4 eur that writeroom for the iphone costs (yeah didnt even wait for a promotion… It was a leap of faith! Much better than evernote and still capable of online sync. I’m not dropping evernote for actual notes completely, just for blog posts and other large blocks of text that aren’t strictly speaking “notes”.

I had previously began using AwesomeNote for quick notes such as song names and contact info (names, emails, skype/IM contact) before either adding them to the app (facebook, skype,…) or addressbook at a more convenient time. I do not need these notes to be synched.

I’m also more interested in reading. I was using read it later but the iphone app has some inconveniences – it failed to keep track of position and scrolling was often an issue. Both of which were solved by switching to the paid instapaper app: it keeps track of my position in the text between sessions and tilt scrolling works awesomely. And since I switched to Instapaper I actually stopped using firefox tabs to keep track of what I had to read – even things that I can’t/don’t want to read on the iPhone (stuff containing videos, lots of images, …) and stuff that I want to blog. There was never that big of a reason to to that before and I hadn’t forced myself into that system with read it later.

So far it’s working. I’m reading all those articles that would normally linger in my firefox session until I finally gave up on ever reading them or accidentally closed them or whatever.

PS: The iPhone is the best invention since electricity

Barcamp Portugal 2008 and my proposed talk

Link

When: September, 6 & 7
Where: Coimbra, Portugal
Dep. de Engenharia Informática
da Universidade de Coimbra

I’ve proposed talking about the basics of MySQL performance & optimization. A draft topic list is available here.

I would appreciate your comments:

- Is it boring/useless or something like that?
- Should some of the topics in the draft be left out? (I’m inclined to totally remove the section currently entitled “Pointers”)
- Is there something important I’m missing?
- Any other comments

reihttpd – a basic web server in C

My “Computer Networks” (Redes de Computadores) assignment is writing an HTTP server that implements GET and conditional (if-modified-since) GET with persistent connections.

Here’s the code – Obviously, no guarantees.

Game and Anime Soundtracks

KHinsider is a website I just found for downloading (standard http) game and anime soundtracks as either normal mp3s or as ringtones (haven’t tried to download any ringtone though).

Unfortunately, in order to use the mass download feature you have to either post in the forums or refer the site to other people. So even if you’re not interested in using the site, please click on the link so I can download entire albums without hassle. Thanks

Top 10 Reasons Websites Get Haked

Top 10 Reasons Websites Get Hacked (2007) by OWASP via Zone-H/Full Disclosure.

Pure Pwnage

Pure Pwnage is, according to wikipedia,

a webisode series by ROFLMAO Productions featuring a Canadian professional video game player named Jeremy. The show portrays the making of one “gamer’s life”. Settings for the show include Toronto and occasionally Calgary or Montréal. Jeremy reveals to the viewers throughout the series what it is like to be a pro gamer. He claims to use “Über Micro” (an actual style of video gaming) which he displays to fellow gamers as a form of communication.

You might know them from the very famous “FPS Doug” episode from which quotes such as “I run faster with a knife” and “BOOM! HEADSHOT!” originated (or at least became popular).
Very funny.

SANS Webcasts

SANS Webcasts are live web broadcasts that allow you to hear a knowledgeable speaker while viewing presentation slides that you download in advance. You need either Real Audio Player or Windows Media Player (free downloads are available on the webcast access page), and a SANS Portal account. If you don’t have an account, just go to the SANS Portal page and fill in the simple registration form, it’s free. Once you have an account you can also access an archive of past webcasts.

SANS Tool Talks are special webcasts that offer an opportunity for you to hear from Information Security Vendors. At SANS we believe that you cannot accomplish Information Security tasks without tools. A surprising number of security professionals have no idea what technology is available in the marketplace. Tool Talks are designed to give you a solid understanding of a problem, and how a vendor’s commercial tool can be used to solve or mitigate that problem.

ModSecurity Again

I previously mentioned ModSecurity but I was still suprised to learn how powerful it is.

BSDCan 2005

BSDCan 2005 seems to have been interesting, specially day 2.

I’m still lagging behind a few days from the rest of the net… first the thing with google web accelarator and now this… sigh.

Google puts the brake on Web Accelerator

Google puts the brake on Web Accelerator

Google has disabled downloads of its Web Accelerator software less than a week after introducing the service. The suspension follows reports that the software was caching sensitive content, such as user control panels to online forums.

This happened like 5 days ago and apparently I missed it then.

siFEUP Feeds

I don’t know when this happened but siFEUP now publishes news in RSS and Atom feeds. This might’ve happened a (long) while ago but the site recently changed (for the better in my opinion) and i noticed the RSS and Atom images on the front page.

UPDATE: Apparently, the site was changed just minutes before i saw it. Also SiFEUP changed name to SIGARRA.

The Wait

Bored to death waiting for AS to reset I saw a few funny things around the web:
This Online Kinky Test – a vampire?!? 218 is kinda low score but i’m still young
hehehe good work guys.
And if you’re portuguese you might find this funny too.
And while we’re on the topic:

In October 2004 it was discovered by MaxPatrol team that it is possible to defeat Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 Heap protection and Data Execution Prevention mechanism.

Haven’t read it yet tough.

Magnatune

Magnatune (via Doug Kaye, previous post), from their webpage:

We’re a record label. But we’re not evil.
We call it “try before you buy.” It’s the shareware model applied to music. Listen to 326 complete MP3 albums we’ve picked (not 30 second snippets).
We let the music sell itself, because we think that’s the best way to get you excited by it.
Our selection is intentionally small: we never waste your time with mediocre music.
If you like what you hear, download an album for as little as $5 (you pick the price), or buy a real CD, or license our music for commercial use.
Artists keep half of every purchase. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep all the rights to their music.
No major label connections and no venture capital.
We are not evil.

I only found it less than 30 minutes ago and I’ve already decided to purchase an album (as soon as I get myself a credit card). The album in question is Ehren Starks – The Depths of a Year and I’m listening to it as I type this. After thinking for a while about it, I’m going with the physical CD, I think the security and the options (rip it yourself, play it in a normal stereo without mp3 support – like the one currently in my car) are worth the extra ~$8 USD.
Final remark: Magnatune is a good idea, a good site and a good service.