FireHaus Network

Someone has it backwards—it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.

Found on Gizmodo, says it with feeling, the way I’ve been feeling about it…

Why is Trudy right?

Until you can load FLASH in a web browser like this, for example:

(open carrot) fla src=”sample_flash.swf” attribute=”auto”…. (close carrot)

WITHOUT the need for a separate browser plugin…

WITHOUT a development cycle separate from all web browsers…

WITHOUT performance requirements separate from the browser itself…

WITHOUT incompatibilities across different hardware, even when the browser software is the same…

WITHOUT the plugin itself being of a closed an proprietary nature…

WITHOUT every browser vendor in existence beholden to the motivation of a single company to develop and optimize it’s source in hopes that a given browser may have a chance of running this plugin in a way that does not break web pages and does not egregiously consume computing resources thereby compromising the overall performance of said web browser…

Until, then, FLASH will remain nothing more than *another program* installed on a computer or mobile device, running in parallel with a browser, separately interpreting and rendering code to be *embedded* within the browser contents.

These are the facts. Now, it doesn’t mean that web developers and designers do not enjoy the creative freedom afforded to them by Adobe Flash-based vector graphics design and audio/video media creation.

Adobe should understand, though, that it’s multimedia solution is not unlike, for example, MS developing a PowerPoint browser plugin for Internet Explorer.

Macromedia developed flash and Adobe bought it – they didn’t stake their business on it. Heck, before flash-video, embedded Flash was mainly a tool for designer presentations, animated buttons and ads.

Adobe has tried very hard to make people think that “swf” and “flv” are web standards like “img” and “href” – they certainly are not. There are no standard cross-platform, cross-browser hooks directly into Flash APIs, beyond the use of javascript variable settings when embedding swf wrappers, which are used to call up flv files and depend on XML files which may or may not be dynamically updated by the embed script.

Layers upon layers of embedding and abstraction – who could EVER expact Flash to be resource friendly.

The truth is that Adobe has to re-invent the wheel every time a new browser comes out or a major upgrade is released or some new hardware platform is developed. Bugs and security vulnerabilities have to be separately maintained. Performance issues have to constantly be monitored and optimized as both it’s host browsers and operating systems get upgraded and evolve.

Let’s take for example the most ubiquitous of Flash implementations – video:

What wrapper file will you use?
-The swf file defines your video “window”. XML file(s) will define parameters.
-Actionscript in the swf wrapper files will hook into javacript variable settings and XML defenitions (or rather the other way around).
-Don’t forget video dimensions!

How will you embed that wrapper file?
-You’ll have to use javascript to call up the swf.
-You need to makes sure you set startup variables correctly for viewing the flv through the swf

Is the browser compatible?
-Chrome, Firefox, IE6,7,8,9, Opera, etc. all need compatible plugins

HTML layout?
-Oooh, make sure you set proper z-indexes
-Make sure you’re not accidentally covering modal windows with that Flash.
-Again, don’t forget video dimensions!
-Also, don’t forget to account for the player tool bar and frame.

Now, how do you embed video with HTML5?

Ex:

(open carrot) source src=”__VIDEO__.MP4″ type=”video/mp4″ (close carrot)

(slight over-simplification, since above is iPhone/iPad compatible. Webkit, whatever…)

Flash is not a true web standarded – it is an embeddable application. It is the aforementioned pitfalls that Apple is trying to avoid by not embracing Flash compatibility.

Do I wish, for example, that the iPad supported Flash? Sure, just like I want all my computers to open JPEG’s, Word Docs, Excel Spreadsheets, check email, run PowerPoints, etc. etc.

Macromedia developed a great web-compatible multi-media tool. Adobe, you bought it and had your chance to open it up and allow it’s use as a browser-agnostic audio & vector-graphic HTML standard, while still retaining the rights to the Flash development platform. You got greedy, lethargic and stubborn. Check back on this post in a couple years and it will read as either “Good Luck” or “Good Riddance” – only time will tell. Reply

Edited by Stevox at 04/21/10 9:22 PM

There is a new e-mail phishing scam circulating that has the potential to easily catch you off guard, especially if you make purchases from the iTunes or Apple stores. It works because if you get this message you’re going to think right away “I didn’t make any Apple Store purchase” and you’ll click on the link to check your order status.

The message looks like one of those innocuous messages you might  be familiar with acknowledging a purchase and/or download from the iTunes or Apple stores. It is definitely a scam and should be deleted.

You can always check your iTunes account safely from within the iTunes application and any orders made or not from the Apple Store can be checked by going directly to the Apple Store web site.

For a variety of reasons the main server room for the firm I support is located in an electrical “closet” in the headquarters building’s basement. There is no AC, only a powerful blower to introduce fresh air to the small space. This has meant that the servers have always been sucking in very warm air, frequently very dusty, and sometimes literally full of small flying bugs.

To make things a little stranger there is an actual properly built server room also in the basement. However, it is a very large room that was obviously set up for the oil company that used to occupy the building in the 1990’s. Currently this “server room” is used for filing storage for client discovery and up until a few months ago the room was quite full of file boxes. I gave my IT Admin the job of figuring out how we could fit in a 4-post server rack inside this room without losing any storage space for the files. Seems difficult since the room was full but when I looked at the way things were in there it seemed like there was a lot of wasted space.

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• If the price seems too good to be true that is because it probably isn’t true.
• The lowest price is not always the best price. Verify shipping charges before the final step of your order and if shipping charges cannot be verified then stop the order process immediately (close your browser if you have to).
• If it isn’t in stock then move on.
• Make sure you get a receipt online immediately, don’t wait for it to come via e-mail.
• Use search tools such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing to find reviews if the online retailer is unfamiliar to you. Try a search similar to “newegg opinions” or “best buy reviews“. You can also check up on a company using the bizrate.com store rating guide, resellerratings.com store ratings, or epinions.com.
• Read the customer reviews–if available–of the product you are buying as this may save you a headache later.
• Follow up afterwards by checking your credit/debit cards statements to make sure what you charged is what you were charged.

Sit back and enjoy the holiday shopping madness from the comfort of home.

There are many situations where a rack mounted 1U or 3U server just doesn’t fit into the budget or specific needs of a business. Many of us Apple IT guys have been using and/or recommending the Mac mini with Mac OS X Server installed as a great way to keep within budget while still retaining full network services.In fact I have an earlier post about using Mac minis in a 24/7 environment.

So Apple finally made it official a few weeks ago an now has a Mac mini server. It fits the bill for many business uses, creative uses, as well as even for a simple home network server.

In fact one business makes it their business to use Mac minis almost exclusively as their servers, providing web hosting and other services to their customers.

I get asked from time-to-time what software and hardware is used in a Mac-only law firm. This is a start that I plan to flesh out shortly.

For case management we use a custom in-house developed Filemaker solution which manages the contact-side and the matter-side. We are able to do nearly 100% perfect conflict checking because of the way ANY contact in the database can be linked up to a client/matter. On the accounting side we do use an “off the shelf” product called Brief Accounting.

I have investigated other solutions and the ones that are out there don’t work for us, because of our size, but might work for a smaller firm with less than 10 attorneys (we have 19). The selection is limited. Frankly, we are planning a complete ground up refresh of our Filemaker solution and expect to have something in 2010 that might cost about $20-30K which would also incorporate document management. This is using local Filemaker developers.

LawStream – this has been around for a long time but there hasn’t been a client/server model which is why it would not work for us.

Hipersoft P.I. Powertool – this is a Filemaker solution.

We don’t have a true document management solution in place–yet–but we are taking baby steps in that direction. We rely heavily on our Fujitsu scanners combined with ScanTango. The ScanTango software allows you to create scanning workflows that help automate (or more accurately semi-automate) repetitive scanning tasks. Mindwrap, the company that makes ScanTango does make a full document management system called Optix. I haven’t fully investigated this as this is really a decision that needs to be made by our records dept.

I am a sysadmin, aka “systems administrator”, which means that yes, I manage servers and networks, but I also manage circuit breakers, AC units, desktop and laptop computers, Blackberrys, iPhones, and the occasional audio cassette. I am a guru of technology (or so all the users I support hope I am).

The reality is that I become a generalist and even though I have a few things I am definitely an expert at, with most things I know “something” about them but not everything.

Occasionally, I find that it is simpler and quicker to do something myself rather than hire an expert (in this case an electrician) and because I am a generalist this is often what I do. For example the ancient air circulation fan that was in the telco closet of the firm I support simply died. Without this fan there is no true air circulation in the small closet that hosts the main PBX phone switch. I ordered an industrial blower instead of a fan simply because of the small space the fan has to fit. The blower moves a much larger volume of air per minute compared to a slightly larger fan.

So here’s what the sysadmin had to do to complete this Information Technology related project:

1. Research and purchase the replacement parts (purchasing dept.)
2. Cut a piece of wood to serve as a mount for the blower (facilities dept.)
3. Purchase the mounting hardware and electrical cord (facilities dept.)
4. Connect the AC cord to the blower unit safely and maintaining the ground (facilities dept.)
5. Mount the blower to the board and then attach everything to the wall (facilities dept.)
6. Plug in the blower unit to test (IT dept.)

My dad would be proud of the electrical wiring because it was done properly and I maintained the ground connection of the 3-pronged power cord. In fact all of the skills for this project I pretty much learned from my dad (my dad worked for United Air Lines (UAL) for some 36 years as a mechanic before retiring and before that served as an electrician in the US Army).

This is the telco closet with the blower installed near the ceiling in the center. The Tadiran phone switch is the big white thing near the bottom and the iBook serves as the hold music player.

This is a detailed view of the blower mounted on the board now mounted securely to the wall.

A man in a hot air balloon, realizing he was lost, reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.  He descended further and shouted to the lady “Excuse me, can you help me?  I promised a friend would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.  You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be in IT,” said the balloonist.

“Actually I am,” replied the woman, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct but I’ve no idea what to make of your information and the fact is I’m still lost.  Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all.  If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

The woman below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going.  You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.  You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.  The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my f***ing  fault.”

- Anon (another internet joke with no identifiable source)

OK, first things first, what is metadata? For that we turn to everyone’s favorite authority Wikipedia:

Metadata (meta data, meta-data, or sometimes metainformation) is “data about data”, of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.

For most small businesses I expect they have no idea what metadata is so the small business owner may assume they don’t need to know (“I don’t know what it is so I must not be using it“). Do you ever provide an electronic copy of a Microsoft Word document to a customer or client? If you answered yes then you have exchanged metadata with your customers or clients. Sounds a little like a one night stand doesn’t it?

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I don’t have any “free” time these days but I was staring at my terminal window and started chuckling when I saw the output displayed in one of the windows. So here it is. Enjoy!

System going down IMMEDIATELY