Devvyn.com

Apparently Mac OS X 10.5 comes with the PHP module installed on the Apache web server.  The “Web Sharing” option in System Preference actually switches on a pre-installed, full-fledged web server.  I’ve known about the web server for a while, but it’s pretty cool that I didn’t have to install the PHP module.

What this is all about is I wanted to use PHP to do server side includes so I didn’t have to update as many files when I make changes to my client’s sites, but I wanted to preview the pages while I worked on them.  The best solution was to preview the files through the Sites folder on my Mac by steering my browser to http://127.0.0.1/.  The Mac is now my test server!

It wasn’t working at first, though.  I had to look up some tutorials on the subject to find out how to edit the appropriate configuration files.  I went one step further and installed Webmin so I can spend less time manually editing configuration, which are annoying because they’re hidden files in hidden folders so unless I want to force Finder to show hidden files, I have to use Terminal to open the file.

On top of all that work I had somehow broken my web sharing without realizing it.  I did a port scan and found Privoxy answering port 80 instead of apached.  For the life of me I don’t know how that got there.  Once that was gone, port 80 was closed even though System Preferences showed it still open.  I checked console logs and discovered that somehow I’d lost the directory apached was trying to save log files to.  I also had no configuration file (there used to be a default one) for my user account.

When all was said and done I got it working and the whole experience has given me a better idea of how web servers work.  It was actually kind of fun.

Well, I have my first client in my new casual web development business.  A friend of mine referred one of his previous clients to me and so now I’ve taken over.  He’s an alternative health practitioner in Saskatoon.  I have a pretty skeptical attitude about things like homeopathy, iridology, Ayurveda, acupuncture, magnet therapy, astrology, herbalism and naturopathy.  That’s not to say I outright deny all benefits of following these treatment modalities, it’s just that I’m way more convinced by the scientific method when it comes down to demonstrating efficacy.  Homeopathy and astrology in particular are so far fetched I doubt there will ever be empirical evidence to support them. (Note: in true pretentious asshole fashion I’ve linked each pseudoscience to statements criticizing them.)

I don’t want to start an emotional debate about alternative health philosophies.  I’m also not claiming to be a fountain of unquestionable knowledge.  I think you should look at some (preferably objective) viewpoints and seriously criticize them, and look for holes that can’t be filled.  Start by digging around in the skeptical community, who pride themselves in critical thinking.  Skeptics can be persuaded to change their minds, it’s just that they can actually decide what it would take to convince them, whereas “true believers” are pathologically averted to losing their grip on their own pre-established beliefs.

Recommended critical thinking podcasts: Skeptic’s Guide 5×5, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, and Skeptoid.

Nonetheless, getting my hands on HTML again is kind of fun, and this is a paid job.  Considering I’m not employed full time, this is nice for me.  I’ll just have to be professional and non-judgemental if I want to take this seriously.  I can separate my feelings from my work, so this should be fine.

So, here’s something fascinating to a geek like me that I started thinking about now that I’m back in Saskatoon (after a two-year stint in Niagara Falls).  SaskTel runs an IPTV service called “Max Interactive“.  They give their customers set top boxes made by Pace (model DSL4000 and possibly newer ones for HDTV since the launch of the service in 2003). IPTV itself is a specialized protocol but the box also uses a video on demand feature which is accessed through a web interface. (When the box calls on a video to begin playback, it uses some kind of internal resource scheme name but appears to call on an Internet resource.)

Okay, why is this fascinating? It implies that the set top box is fundamentally a computer playing videos from the Internet.  This means that it can probably be tricked into playing videos from another computer on the network, and possible from the Internet.  It also implies that with the right software, the Max Interactive service might not know the difference between a box and a computer since they both get video over ethernet connected to a regular DSL modem.

So, I want to do this but I don’t know enough of the specs on the box to understand what I can get away with.  I also don’t know enough about the network activity the box is conducting to access the Max video streams.  It may even be possible to download program listings on a computer, too.

A few people started up a promising discussion about this on a forum back in 2004.  It seems they even started a small website with a wiki about these shenanigans.  Unfortunately, the site looks defunct and the trail of information has gone cold.

Has anyone had success doing experimental things with the Pace DSL4000 or SaskTel Max?

I’ve got a completely new setup on my dusty old vanity site, www.devvyn.com. I used to hate the tedious process of uploading a song or image, then editing the HTML code in the relevant file on the server to include the appropriate link (which meant careful checking of the page in the browser). That’s my excuse for neglecting what could be a central resource for collaborations with other artists. So, the new system has a gallery and a blog I (and others) can sign in to. No more hand coding!

If I’ve done this right so far, this post should be showing up in LiveJournal in some fashion. If this works, the next step is to start uploading juicy content and see who wants to work with me on image and audio collaborations.

I just did a site overhaul.  All the old directories full of junk are gone, aside from a few images that are linked to from posts on other sites.

Very soon there will be a constantly growing gallery of music and images related to my own creative doings.  It will be largely automated so I won’t procrastinate due to the amount of work involved in posting each new upload to an index page (which I hated having to do.)

Comment if you’ve read this!  Let me know who you are and how you got here.