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October 27, 2005

Web 2.0 Cracks Start to Show?

According to Wired News, despite of its open structure and better engineering, Web 2.0 is vulnerable to, and already threaten by spam, scams and scatterbrains. Wired News claimed that this is inevitable -- "When you invite the whole world to your party, inevitably someone pees in the beer". Read the full story here.

Posted by Ji He at 8:10 AM |

October 20, 2005

Apache mod_redirect is Human Being's Saver

I have a few static web pages submitted to some scientific search engines such as citeseer. So I would like to keep them forever. How to integrate them to my dynamic weblog however presented a challenge. Luckly I found mod_redirect to be the saver.

I can simply delete my old static pages, and use mod_redirect to redirect the old URLs to the new URLs generated by my dynamic weblog. For example, to redirect my old "publications.htm" to my weblog's "publications" category, I just need add the below line to httpd.conf:

Redirect permanent /publications.htm http://www.jihe.net/research/publications/

With above, when visiting the non-existing publications.htm, instead of getting a 404 "not found" error, the web browser and search enginee will be taken to the new location http://www.jihe.net/research/publications/ and the new content will be indexed.

Posted by Ji He at 2:57 PM |

Death of a Software Company: Informix Teaches Lessons

Ever heard of Informix? I bet, as long as you were in the IT market five years ago. Knew what happened to Informix these years? AdvancedIPPipeline has the story about its death, and how a so-called innovative merger started that. At last the article says, "What are the lessons to take away from this cautionary tale? Focus, ... Keep your finger on the pulse of not only your customers but also your employees. If you're not the 800-pound gorilla in the market, don't taunt it and don't fight the battle alone; sign up some partners. And know your limitations as an executive."

Posted by Ji He at 12:49 PM |

October 19, 2005

Updated Blog System (and MoveableType is My New Friend)

I know this has been overdue for a long time, but finally I managed to migrate all my old blogs to MoveableType v3.2.

Compared with my old friend WordPress, MoveableType provides some unique features such as static html page generation and visual template switching through StyleCatcher (although I must say that installation of StyleCatcher presented a challenge to me -- thanks Earl Fogel!!).

Hopefully I could have enough time to migrate the rest of my web site such as the programs and data sets downloads. So guys stay tuned (and I will be back after a short commercial break...)

Posted by Ji He at 10:24 PM |

October 14, 2005

Sybase SQL Anywhere 9 for Linux FREE Download

OK here is another not-so-useless email I discovered out of my tones of spams. Sybase is giving away its SQL Anywhere v9 for Linux for free to the developers' community. Come together in the email are two free webcasts which I am not so interested in but just server as FYIs:

Learn more about the complementary features of SQL Anywhere and Linux by viewing this on-demand Webcast, and

Hit the ground running by viewing an on-demand Webcast that answers the most common questions of first-time SQL Anywhere users. Have more in-depth questions? Visit the iAnywhere Developer Community for code samples, EBFs, and our award-winning newsgroups.

Posted by Ji He at 2:27 PM |

October 11, 2005

Sybase ASE v15 for Linux Available for FREE Download

As a (very inactive) Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 15 beta tester, I just received an email notification from Sybase which stated that their free line of ASE for Linux, named "Express Edition", is available for free download at http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1032298. This is a good start point for those who wish to learn Sybase database at home. Hope this helps.

Posted by Ji He at 3:22 PM |