Quad’s World

Back to fun

Ok. I finally am coming to have some free time and have already started making things for the public.

I noticed that there aren’t many (if any) good cURL tutorials that show you some of the power of cURL like manipulating cookies and such. Such a tutorial could be used for good (such as unit testing your work) or evil (trying to program a bot to do something that requires a login). After I get my contrived examples created and can demonstrate them, I’ll write up the tutorial that looks at cURL in more detail. This is supposed to both show users how to use cURL better as well as for site administrators to get an idea what could cause vulnerabilities. I will also discuss ways to create login systems to defeat cURL.

To be posted soon…

Save the Music

I love streaming radio (along with many types of music). As such, I am a strong supporter of the Save Internet Radio movement. I encourage you to also take the time and talk to your senators/representatives if you are in the US or spread the word and try to help in other ways if you are not (there are ways posted on this blog post. The internet radio world thanks you for your support.

Take a number…

I feel bad. I haven’t been able to get any new cds recently to review and really haven’t had the time to do much work on my dev project. All I can ask is you bear with me for a couple more weeks. Cardamar is taking preorders for his next cd, Where the Skies End, up until April 30. On the release page (linked in the last sentence), you can hear a 6 track preview to whet your appitite.

In other music related news, iTunes is going to start distributing its music without DRM. This will only be for EMI stuff, but that’s definitely awesome. Per track it’s USD 0.30 more, but the same for full albums¹. Also, Beat Port now sells wav’s (uncompressed pure quality) versions of music (for a premium) also. Very cool advancement. In both cases, the original versions are also available.

I need to get more time and music… working on both. Til later

Not exactly neglect

Ok so i haven’t posted in almost 20 days. That’s not exactly what I would call being attentive of my blog. Um… sorry? This isn’t exactly a fix. I haven’t gottent any new chillout and my other activities I want to keep hidden for now. Yes, I have been doing something that I will eventually post here. If you’re really curious, my development site is located at dev.quad341.com and does have information about what is going on. Hopefully by mid-April I will have a working example of this project and announce it to the world. I welcome actual inquery and the repository allows for anonymous checkouts. In the mean time, I need more music. Suggestions?

Small update

Well, I was trying to get PreFormance (I think that’s what the one blogging extension is called) set up through my Firefox installation under Linux, but that wasn’t working for a thus unsolved reason. I guess I’ll continue to use the web interface for the time being. Also, there’s a fairly severe security hold in WordPress version 2.1.1. Make sure you update to 2.1.2 as soon as you can. I have other matters that need more immediate attention, but I plan to post more about music soon.

Michael Diamond – Atlantis Rising

Before I go into the music itself, I want to get a little annoying technicality out of the way. Michael Diamond makes new age music which is not chillout. Well, not exactly chillout at least. To be honest, new age seems to be the American equivalent to European chillout. It tends to be less electronic also, but otherwise very close.

Atlantis Rising is a new age cd that follows the idea of new age is similar to chillout. This actually could be related to ambient at times as well. It does have quite a few synths in the music, but it is all flowing. At times it even seems to give off an organic feel. Throughout the CD though, it is very rich sounding. I wouldn’t call it as rich as someone such as S. Zeilenga, but it has good depth on every track. There is variety also. Not everything is very ambient nor is it all organic. Little bits of both will appear in every track though. Each leaves a distinct feeling in its wake, but all are very well done. One of the main downsides to the CD is its length. It lasts a mere 52 minutes and leaves you desiring more. I can’t say that the ends of the CD are poorly done though. The lead in and lead out tracks are particularly good at their jobs. It really can get you in the mood for what the rest of the CD is about to present. The end track, “The Hero’s Journey,” is a stronger and less delicate track that the introduction, but there is an organic element that ties the tracks together regardless. I would say the cd is pretty good overall. Most chillout lovers would be pleased.

Welcome to DreamHost

I don’t know if any of you have heard of DreamHost, but it is an amazing hosting site. The plans are crazy cheap and give you more bandwidth and space than you would ever imagine elsewhere. It is shared/managed hosting, but you get shell access and have access to most services you would ever want. I’m quite happy. It was a bit annoying to transfer everything (I ended up using scp through a shell thanks to a friend’s suggestion), but otherwise is great. The best part for all of you is that I can now give you a discount for the referral.

Here’s what you have to do:

1. Go to the DreamHost sign up page
2. Set up your account however you would like.
3. At the bottom enter QUADGIFT as your Promo Code to get $10 off of any hosting package you select
4. Finish registration and enjoy DreamHost!

I have nothing but good things to say about DreamHost thus far. I would highly suggest them for anyone looking for a new host.

Success! – Part 2

Ok, upgrade complete. Everything seems to be good. Now for the DNS update so others can see the new site (that seems exactly like the old site!) Next post will be about my new found host.

Success! – Part 1

If all has gone correctly, this will be the first post on the new server. I think all is good. I’m also still going to update wordpress, so one more post before i’m satisfied.

Server Change – Again

This seems like I did it recently… oh well. It’s been 10 months since I got this server and now I’m abandoning it. I honestly can’t handle the cost of the server with no income from it. The changes that everyone will see should be virtually non-existent. Everything is going to be moved to the new server before the DNS is told to change. As soon as the DNS updates, everyone will be looking at the new server without any changes in view (hopefully).

I should start playing with mod_svn (which will allow web based access to subversion) later and so on. If anything seems to break, feel free to send me an email at quad341@gmail.com. More details will be posted when I finish the transition.