Should anyone ask, I hate social networking sites but everyone seems to be using them

I really don’t like the silos of information that the various social network operaters hold in their grip.  And I hate having to repeat my information and maintain “friends” on Xing, Linked-In, Facebook, AdultF^W (just kidding). There has to be money or at least ease for end users in aggregating these sites through a common protocol (I’ll propose the RFC number 37337 to cover this).Actually there’s been some progress on this. Livejournal now has their FOAF (friend of a friend) protocol to describe relationships and it’s now possible to integrate OpenID into most sites saving the YADPTR (yet another damned password to remember) problem.

So it’s with dismay that I read Apple’s about to start feeding the Silos.  The FT’s “Apple to sell music through UK Bebo network” is perhaps the best summary. Basically using these sites as a way to sell music.  Did the world forget the beauty of a hyperlink.  It can take the user to a dedicated online store. What next – Amazon selling books on the Chelmsford County Council Library site?If you can’t beat them, join them? Well perhaps…

My real peave with social networks is how they become an email substitute.  I have email for that.  It reaches me on my phone, I can archive it (my email spool reaches back to 1996),  and I can use a  huge range of readers to read it offline. So if you need to contact me, contact me outside of a social network.  My contacts page is up to date.

Should anyone ask, Apple has an interesting ZFS upgrade path (or not?)

Interestingly, Apple is going to need to be able to upgrade from HFS+ filesystems to ZFS.  Matthew alerted me to United States Patent Application 0070112891 filed by  Apple in the last month.  I expect this could equally be applied to an HFS+ upgrade to ZFS path.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION: In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a first file-system can be converted to a second file-system while one or more files stored on the computer readable medium remain virtually undisturbed in the same location. It will be appreciated that the second file-system can be generated primarily based on the location of the file(s) already stored on the computer readable medium. Thus, the file(s) can remain “in place” without being modified or rewritten. It will also be appreciated that there is no need for rewriting or storing the file(s) while the file-system is being converted. In one embodiment, a FAT file-system (e.g., FAT32) is converted to an HFS file-system (e.g., HFS Plus) by generating HFS data structures (Catalog, Allocation File and Extents) for file(s) already stored in the FAT file-system. The HFS data structures that are used to effectively implement a HFS file-system are primarily generated based on the number and location of the file(s). The number and location of the file(s) can be determined primarily based on the FAT file-system’s data structures (FAT and Directory). It should be noted that the file-system conversion process can be stopped before the FAT file-system indicators (partition map and boot sector which identify the operating-system) are overwritten. After the HFS data structure have been generated and successfully verified for the file(s) already stored on the computer readable medium, the HFS file-system can effectively replace the FAT file-system by modifying the partition map and writing a volume header that may overwrite that boot sector). It will also be appreciated that a HFS file-system can be converted to a FAT file-system in accordance with one embodiment of the invention. In general, any file-system used to organize and store files can be converted using the invention as the invention utilizes the information about the organization of files provided by a first file-system to generate a second file-system.

I wonder if another embodiment is ZFS?  Thanks Matthew.

Should anyone ask, the future is hung with surreal wallpaper

When imagiWohnung is constructed, I expect it to be hung with Surrealien wallpaper. I like. Unfortunately each piece needs to be custom generated and so it will be expensive.I like the idea of designing my own wallpaper but have no idea of where one gets it printed.

Technorati Tags: surreal wallpaper