Techwag

How durable is your blogging

Dan — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:03:58 +0000

I have taken about 10 months off to work on two projects, one a cloud computing book covering Amazon Web Services and pushed that out as an e-book over on Kindle. I am also working on a compilation of Google Hacks (Google Dorks) that is up to about 10,000 known Google searches for finding cool stuff on the internet. The strange part is that as I wrote my last serious blog entry over on ITToolbox, I pretty much so knew that these two projects along with a work schedule of 80 hours a week would pretty much so consume my time. As I am winding down these two projects and getting ready to turn the Google Dorks over to a very awesome free Google dork recovery tool I was contacted by Toolbox to let me know that I was in the top 10 bloggers for 2012.

The problem then is that I didn’t blog much after April 2012, but I had 120,000 page views anyways.

Most people think of blogging as an ephemeral issue, one where we are responding to the events of the day, but I am finding that what I wrote about Hadoop, Amazon Web Services (some going back to 2008), hacking and hacking culture has retained popularity long past the events that originally spurred the original blog entry.

This is the long tail in action, but what is more surprising is that more people are not talking about Cloud Computing, hacking, and hacking culture.

How durable is your blogging?

Are you saying things and writing things that people will want to see for a good long time? Long past the original issues, ideas, and thoughts that cropped up and you were writing about?

Something to think about as you pound out those blog entries, how durable will it be? Are you going after the now, or are you writing for the decade?

But I am also getting back into blogging; I plan on serializing my cloud computing book once the videos are done for it, and talking about Google Hacking, risk, hacking and hacking culture just a little bit more than I have been lately.

Why I think I can win in Small Claims Court against my Mentally Ill neighbor

Dan — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:34:58 +0000

I got an interesting comment from a person named Sam who visited from the K20 network in Everett about small claims court. He stated:

“Given your complete lack of understanding about Washington state law for small claims court, I would tend to believe this whole story is made up.”

Believe me when I say this story is not made up.

Personally I think you are a troll, but you raise a good point that is worth discussing. Any good discussion often leads to interesting ideas and processes down the road. So even though I think Sam is a troll, this one is worthy and will help me work out the process I am thinking of doing. This is why I think I can win in small claims court over the phrase in the HOA Rules and Regulations Document, Quiet enjoyment of my home.

Let’s take this from the top, which is the rules and regulations for Small Claims Court off the King County Web site. Please feel free to click on over there and see what they state you can and cannot do.

Who Can Sue And Be Sued?

Anyone can be sued for any reason; there are two things I would be suing over, one the noise from her car radio at 1 or 2 AM which violates King County noise ordinances, the damage to the common property such as damage to the walls, the art work, and trash around the building (the HOA should do this but they won’t, they prefer to fine her every month for this). I am debating to sue over the smell of cigarette smoke up and down the entire floor of the condo building which I happen to share with the person I am planning on suing. I would be using the argument over “quiet enjoyment of my property” and using the process of trash, destruction of common area property, smells, and noise ordinances. I might only be able to get the noise ordinance to be the effective tool for this lawsuit.

At the very least I can get a no-contact order for the noise issues based on what I am reading on the King County web site for no-contact orders. Either would suit me just fine, we will be doing the no-contact order regardless of what happens in small claims court. This is specific to Washington State and other local jurisdictions will differ. But I think I have two plausible arguments here, assuming that I am going to have a judge similar to Judge Judy on this one, and that is how I am framing this in my mind.

How Much Does It Cost?

Cost is not really an issue, I can do all this for around 200 dollars between court costs, process serving, and other fees between getting this case registered and processed.

How Do I Get Started?

I am planning on going down to the court house; I will need according to them the following: It is the plaintiff’s responsibility to accurately identify the defendant, provide a proper address and, if possible, provide a phone number. All of this is public record, as she has an extensive series of records in King County. Since I live in the same condo complex, the address is not a problem.

Serving the Notice

I will have the local police department serve the notice.

How Long Do I Have To File My Case?

I have a year from the time of the first incident, since this is ongoing and I have a detailed log going back to August, and this is an ongoing issue, I think that if I file this month I will meet this criteria.

What If We Settle?

That would be awesome, as it is still a determination, although I don’t think we will settle, this is always an option, and one I would not mind pursuing. I really don’t care what the person does as long as it is not in the parking lot right next to my window at 1 or 2 AM.

Preparing For The Trial

The King County web site states:

You can help yourself by being well prepared. To prepare for the trial, collect all papers, photographs, receipts, estimates, canceled checks, or other documents that concern the case. It may be helpful to write down ahead of time the facts of the case in the order that they occurred. This will help you to organize your thoughts and to make a clear presentation of your story to the judge. It is also a good idea to sit through a small claims court session before the date of your hearing. This will give you first-hand information about the way small claim cases are heard.

I have a detailed log of everything that has happened since August that shows a pattern of behavior I am seeking to not have happen. I have records from the HOA about fines for the same behavior; I have pictures of the aftermath of said behavior, and other information to aide my case of “quiet enjoyment of my property”. Really this all hinges on what is “quiet enjoyment of my property” and I will be relying on the R&R’s from the Condo, and ordinances from King County for noise. There is actually a specific ordinance on car radios which I was surprised to find. If the “quiet enjoyment of my property” argument fails then small claims fails. This does not mean that I can’t get the no-contact order, that is a separate argument that falls more under the noise ordinances and some verbal issues that have happened in the past.

What Happens At The Trial?

I am planning on Judge Judy, I need all my data to be fair and honest and factual. So far I have that.

What If My Opponent Does Not Appear For Trial?

Then I win by default and will give the person an opportunity to pay, if not I can send this off to bill collection.

How Do I Collect My Money?

The King County site states: A money judgment in your favor does not necessarily mean that the money will be paid. The Small Claims Court does not collect the judgment for you. If no appeal is taken and the judgment is not paid within 30 days, or the time set by the court in the payment plan, you may request (in writing) and upon payment of a $20 fee, that a transcript of the judgment be entered into the civil docket of the court. At that time you may proceed with a method of collection such as garnishment of wages, bank accounts, and other monies of the defendant or an execution may be issued on cars, boats, or other personal property of the judgment debtor. Remember, the clerks cannot give you legal advice. You may need the assistance of an attorney or collection agency at this point. In the alternative, you may take your transcript of the judgment and file it in superior court for a fee of $20. Other fees may be required by the superior court clerk or county auditor. When this is done, it places a lien against all real estate in the name of the judgment debtor that is located in the county. When the judgment has been paid in full you must send written notice to the district court that the judgment has been satisfied.

Can You Appeal A Case If You Lose?

If I lose, I am not worried about it, at least I made an attempt. Personally if I lose I’ll sell the property, take out a signature loan for the remainder of the balance owed, and quit the property. While I would like the issues to stop, the ultimate and last thing I can do is simply leave, and that is on the table as an option. Since it does not look like I will be able to rent it based on what other people who live on the same side as I do because of the smell, trash, and noise, I’ll probably just short sale it and call it good. It is more important for me to be happy and healthy in my own home than it is to keep living in a place that is unhealthy for me to live in.

Thanks Sam, and even though I think you are a troll, you seem like a nice troll, and well worth having the discussion with.

Name and Shame Child Predator Facebook Page ordered shutdown

Dan — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:29:43 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Regardless of your opinions of how you feel about Child Sex Predators, or how you feel about a story like this, there are some interesting things that need to be addressed. In the UK a court has requested that Facebook take down a page that seeks to collect and share sex predator information across the UK. The Facebook page has no problems naming names, and posting pictures of the offenders. What made the case for the offender who has been able to get the court to agree to this is that the Facebook Page “Keeping our kids safe from predators” should be taken down was over a 20 year old case.

While this is UK law, and I am not familiar with UK law at all, should we name and shame a sex predator from a 20 year old case. The courts in this specific opinion believed that he had served enough time, and that it would be improper to have additional information about something 20 years old. Of course people feel very strongly about rape and child sex, so the comments on the page are pretty much so in line with what you would expect. There are threats of violence, and that was one of the other things noted in the BBC article, that he was worried about being burned out of his house for the 20 year old offense.

With time honored traditions in social media, there is now a Keeping our kids safe from predators 2 page, as well as another page with very similar content under Children have rights in society.

While naming and shaming has been a huge topic lately, especially after Gawker outed Violentacrez, and a bunch of high schoolers for posting racist comments on twitter, there is also already a web site called “whosincourt.co.uk” that basically posts information about who has shown up in the crown court for any reason.

Naming and shaming is not anything new, for Seattle King County and City Data all have data and maps on registered sex offenders in the area so you know what you are living next to when you go shopping for a house. These records rarely ever disappear out of the public database, so you are liable to run across decades old cases. And yes there are plenty of Facebook pages that seek to out sex offenders in the name of public service.

Naming and shaming, tying into public records databases, even just going through your local county or city records for any kind of crime is one of those things that big data and mashups allow us to do. While the case might be 20 years old, people are going to be interested in what is going on, who lives where, and what protections we need to take for ourselves or our families. If I had known that my condo complex was going to sell a unit to a mentally ill person with a history of violence, I would never have bought the unit I live in. Can I name and shame her and the HOA board for issues I have carefully documented or recorded on camera? Yes, yes I can as long as I am willing to pay the price for my freedom of speech. Is a sex offender really truly ever rehabilitated? I think with some yes, with others no, it depends on the person. Do I have a right to see if someone near me has a court record for being a sex offender, yes, can I publish it as just the facts, yes as long as I am willing to pay the price for what I am saying, and I had better be darn factual about it so I don’t get sued for libel.

Naming and shaming is part of independent web sites, Facebook is just an extension to that. While Facebook now faces a court order to shut down the original page, more pages have cropped up on Facebook with similar/same content. Even the Huffington Post talks about similar issues with a page that has since been shut down or removed (for whatever reason including the person taking it down themselves).

Facebook is now the new billboard, we used to post crimes in the paper, police blotters are part of both the web and newspapers. You can go back through any newspaper and read it for the police blotter to find out what is happening in your area. Facebook presents a really large bill board to post on, the question is what do we do about older data, that might not be relevant any more or might cause the loss of life to a sex offender who has not reoffended?

Girl Genius IOS App now on Kickstarter

Dan — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:33:04 +0000

Phil Foglio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While I am a fan of Girl Genius by Phil Foglio and find the story line amazingly wonderful for my niece, something about this project is not feeling right. Generally I am a big fan of video games and fairly familiar with what the development costs for an average game is for the IOS system, and the Kickstarter request for $7,500 just does not feel right. So of course I had to dig a bit deeper into this one to see what was going on.

I think a Girl Genius game is a good idea, and it would be a game I would purchase, but not sure if it is something I would back on Kickstarter. Mostly because the numbers do not add up, however, the developer is also realistic in that they understand the risks this game might never come off. They also state they are already through the majority of the game itself making the $7,500 a bit more realistic as a request point. This is starting to read like help me get over the hurdles and let’s see if we can get a bit of crowd funding to help us out.

The company developing the application is Gizmocracy LLC and only has one App Store game right now as a free app. Of their two games, Barnstormer Betty and Spycross, only Spycross is still in the ITunes store right now. Game spy says they have two games, but with one of them down, and Spycross with only one review, and no web site for Gizmocracy, it is hard to figure out what kind of company they are. Honestly a video game company without a web site in Google makes me question this project all the more in the longer run.

Yes they do have a Facebook page.

But come on – 2012, no web site? I have some serious doubts about this project not just from the numbers side, but this is starting to look funny as well from the social side.

From best estimates on Quora and OSXDaily, and Lolerapps.com the average good well done IOS game runs about $30,000 for a quality game. Depending on where Gizmocracy is in with their development, and they do state that they are almost done, with a very short track record, one active game, no web site other than Facebook, this one just does not feel right as a Kickstarter project. Not that you should not donate if you want to, but donate with the idea that this might not be a good quality game like I would expect, that the developer is really new other than time in the industry (heck even I have time in the industry, what did the developer do while they were in the industry?), and only has one game in the App Store today there is a lot of questions here that probably are not going to get answered.

Donate – but donate with due caution and care – best recommendation that I can make, because this does not add up on the numbers side based on what I know about game development for the IOS and what others are saying it should cost for a quality game. The studio is unknown, and the bio for the developer is really minimal, there is no way to go back and validate the developers’ credentials and they are not in Google.

On being an Adjunct

Dan — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:54:56 +0000

Students taking a test at the University of Vienna at the end of the summer term 2005 (Saturday, June 25, 2005). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over at the Adjunct Project there is an endlessly fascinating data sheet about what it is like to be an Adjunct across the United States right now. If the statistics they are citing are absolutely true, we are looking at about 70% of all teaching positions right now in this nation are filled with Adjuncts. Adjunct instructors often work class to class and term to term for a set wage that from my experience ranges from 400 dollars for a 5 week term, to 800 for a 16 week term of which the instructor only teaches for 8 of those weeks while instructors are swapped out, to about 3200 per term per class regardless of the class size, that usually is well over the maximum class size set by the university. If the average class is something on the order of 24 students, and the pay is 400 for the whole term, for five weeks, the instructor is paid an average of 16.67 dollars per student for the whole term. Students will consume much more than 17 dollars in resources from any instructor over a five week period.

I have taught at for profit colleges, not for profit colleges, and community colleges over my time being an adjunct. By far the community college system here pays much better so I tend to make them my primary, and then fill in what is missing in terms of salary by working at for profit or not for profit online only.

I am also fortunate in that I can do this and not have to worry about medical or dental because of my spouse’s job. For me the real issue is trying to figure out where all I have a 401K that I contribute to, and how to manage them across institutions. The other issue is trying to do my own research, my own business, and other things that keep me busy, knowing that the bills need to be paid, so I have to teach at on average three colleges a term to help support our life style.

The Adjunct Project brings about some really interesting information in their data sheet about pay across the board. From my own experience I have found that online, not for profit or for profit colleges pay the least, while State run or State supported colleges often pay the best. The data from the Adjunct project basically supports that finding on my own part. I’ll be tearing apart the data later on this week as part of my own interest in how pay ranges from state to state, and how for profit, not for profit, or state colleges range in pay against what students pay in tuition.

I will state though before I start this project that I am a happy Adjunct.

I will also state though before I start this project that we trust the education of our college students to Adjuncts that are emotionally and mentally disengaged from the educational organization. Since we are part time, we don’t have to play with politics, we don’t have to deal with offices, or phones, or other accoutrements of position. We can be completely disengaged from the organization; we don’t have to care about the college or the quality of its instruction. All we have to worry about is the tyranny of what the students think of us, and keep on praying that we remain popular with them. We also need to worry about the tyranny of politics to a limited extent, as we don’t play in the organization; we also are at the mercy of the organization. That assumption from the Adjunct Project is valid given my own experience.

The interesting part is what is driving this is a few ideas that are coming out of the tenured track faculty. In some ways this is self-serving to them – if Adjuncts can be paid so little for teaching, why are tenured faculty being paid so much? This is an argument for further pay decreases or holding pay raises in place until sometime 20 years down the road adjunct pay maybe catches up with full time tenured faculty pay. It is in tenured faculties interest to ensure that pay is somewhat equitable, because they are increasingly feeling the heat from fewer full time to more and more part time. It becomes harder to justify a high pay scale for tenured faculty when 70% of the university is working without benefits, without a safety net, without offices, phones, or copiers. Comptrollers are not missing this message, and tenured professors are more and more of an endangered species because of it.

What is not mentioned though in any of the articles over on the Adjunct Project, Copy Paste, The Chronicle, or New Faculty Majority is that there is a level of disengagement between Adjuncts and the Institution.

As an Adjunct I don’t have to care about your school, your students, your “educational objectives”, your employees (if I even engage with them on a regular basis), you mission, vision, or other non-sense that makes a University a home away from home for thousands of students. Or even begins to prepare them for the jobs they are praying to get. I don’t have to care about anything other than making students happy. Some Adjuncts I have known never give anything lower than a B, some Adjuncts are so removed from the institution that they show up in their online classes once a week to set up each week and call it “facilitated learning”. In other words don’t bug me, I am in once a week to make sure things are going good, in the meantime make sure you are teaching yourself or the class is teaching itself. Why care for 17 dollars per student per term?

If there is a crisis, and there is, Higher Education is about as dysfunctional at this point as anything else because of multiple reasons (insert educational heresy here), the real point to all this is that no amount of organizing, no amount of pay, and no amount of anything else is going to make me care about your college other than making students happy. I don’t care about your institution because even if unionized, I will remain disposable, I still won’t get an office or if I do I will be sharing it with two or three other adjuncts. I will get the worst possible school supplied computer, and be at the tail end of any kind of perk. That will always show through because even if I am paid 7000 per class, even if I get all the other things they want, I am still an adjunct, and still at the mercy of the students and at the mercy of the institution.

The goal of this should add, get me to care about your company, your college, make me feel welcome, warm and fuzzy. Make me a part of the team, part time never is going to be “part of the team”, living term to term, semester to semester is not going to make me care about your institution, for as long as I remain disposable, the converse holds true, I need you only so much as I need a paycheck, and most adjuncts are so used to this game that they always have three or four places they work to ensure they can still pay the bills.

Making an attempt to cope with a mentally ill neighbor

Dan — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:40:09 +0000

It has been six months now since my neighbor went off her meds and started acting out against the voices in her head. Since then it has been an unmitigated reign of terror in the condo complex that I live in, and I want to move. But I can’t move because my condo is 120K under water and if I short sale this bad boy my credit rating will be ruined for seven years. I have talked to the police, the crisis and commitment people here in the county, the condo board has fined her thousands of dollars in damage and cigarette smoke smell in the hallway (trust me when you smoke and you gag on the smell of smoke it is horrible). I have seen real estate agents walk into the lobby and walk right back out again because of the smell. It is getting so you can’t sell the units in the condo because she lives off the lobby, and when you hear screaming and yelling or smell cigarette smoke people will and do walk away from the unit forever. I have seen people who cannot rent their condo units because of the smoke smell, the burns in the carpet from her dropping her cigarettes everywhere, the horrible sounds coming out of her apartment, the yelling, the screaming, and the 1 or 2 AM screaming and music and revving her engine in the parking circle. The screaming that she is “blind” can you help me as she gets into her car and drives off over the grass embankment.

My beautiful house has become a trap, a hell hole, a stinky filthy screaming hot mess of trash strewn about the hall way and near the garbage dumpsters. The stench of urine and cigarette smoke reminds me of some of the more horrible living situations that I have had occasion to visit. My beautiful home that I spent a lot of money on has become a tenement, the dark blot on the neighborhood, the place where no one goes because of the crazy lady who lives there.

I feel like I have to escort my family members in and out of the building because I am worried what will happen if they run into her unprotected and unguided.

I don’t have friends over anymore.

I have called the police, they can’t do anything until she actually breaks a law, being a nuisance, noise ordinances, she can destroy her own stuff, and she can throw trash in the hallway or around the garbage dumpsters. None of that is breaking the law, even if it is annoying that someone else has to clean up after the disasters she creates. The Police have been putting up with this for 20 years according to the local court records, and can’t do anything about it until she breaks a local law. It is getting dull calling the police to come ask her to be quiet, because they really do have other things to do than deal with a 50 year old mentally ill woman.

I have called crisis and commitment here in the county, and they can’t do anything until she is a true danger to herself and others. Even if she hits herself so hard she is giving herself bruises, even though I have seen her hit herself so hard she nearly knocks the glasses off her face she is still not a danger to herself and others. Even though we have heard the horrible screaming and banging and clanging out of her apartment all the way down the hallway on a weekly basis. Even though we have seen the broken pottery, the broken glass from her fire place and something else where the glass is ¼ inch think. Even though we have documented burn marks in the hallway carpet from her careless cigarette smoking (it was her own door mat, she is allowed to destroy her own property). Even though we have seen her throw messages on her door that she is blind, deaf, horrible, and using racial epithets. Even though we have seen her and called the police over her asking children as young as 11 if they want to “do her up the ass”. Even though we have seen her grabbing her tits screaming about anal sex in the parking circle, she is not a danger to herself or others.

I have talked to our Home Owners Association board, and they have fined her thousands of dollars for the damage to the condo common property, they can’t do anything either. All they can do is fine her for her behavior.

I have tried talking to her, but like most mentally ill people, it is in one ear and out the other. She simply does not get the disruption she is causing to the condo unit. She is responding to internal voices in her head, those horrible self-destructive voices that surround her daily, and not telling her to do anything other than damage herself.

Almost every day there is some new thing, mostly trash in the hallway, but on those every two weeks or every week when she is out in the parking circle making noise at 1 or 2 AM she is very quick about it. She at some level knows that this is a game, she is quick and stealthy. She excels at coming out of nowhere with radio blaring for 10 minutes, and then zooming off again. It is a disruptive game, and there is no one left on this side of building near the parking circle other than us, two Asian families, and one other family. Out of the 12 units on this side of the building, only four are occupied full time. That is eight empty units, that can’t be rented, can’t be used, can’t be lived in, can’t be sold, and are basically a drag on the neighborhood because they are empty. We lose what could be good neighbors, we lose the sense of community, we lose the sense of a beautiful home because of the disruption that one person has caused to the condo unit I live in.

There is no recourse

There is nothing I can do

The police can’t do anything because she is not breaking a law other than noise ordinances. And I agree, they do have better things to do with their time.

Crisis and Commitment can’t do anything until she is a demonstrable consistent danger to herself or others. That means she had to hurt herself so badly she has to go to the hospital, or hurt someone else so badly that they have to go to the hospital.

The HOA Board can’t do anything other than fine for trashing the common area on a regular basis.

People are getting tired of talking to me because I really just want this to stop, just stop, I want to sleep through the night, and I want my nice quiet clean beautiful house back. The Police are getting tired of me calling on the non-emergency number to report the noise complaint because she comes and goes so fast that they can never catch her in the act. Crisis and Commitment is tired of me calling because she is not really a danger to herself or others on a regular basis. She has not hurt herself or anyone else other than the punching herself in the face or asking people about anal sex. The HOA is tired of me sending pictures nearly every day about the trash and the smell and the living conditions because all they can do is fine her. As long as she can keep on cutting 1000 or 2000 dollar checks to the HOA in fines every month, they are just fine with what she is doing. At this point I am making a right royal nuisance of myself, and starting to look like I have a vendetta or I am the crazy one. So I need to stop, stop calling, stop cleaning up after her in the common area, stop complaining about the smell of urine and smoke, stop annoying the police and crisis and commitment. But I really believe that at some point she is going to hurt herself or others, or burns this place to the ground.

I really just want this to stop, and I can’t move, and I can’t sleep, and I can’t stop her, and I can’t get her help, and I can’t get anyone involved, and it will stay this way until she hurts herself so bad she goes to the hospital, hurts someone else so bad that they end up in the hospital, or burns the condo unit to the ground because of careless cigarette smoking and disposal.

Realistically I am still stuck, stuck in a hell not of my own creation with a mentally ill neighbor who has gone off their medications. There are no resources I can use, people are tired of me calling and complaining, and I am starting to look like I am harassing her because I want to sleep through the night, not have to deal with the stench of cigarettes and trash and filth spread through the hallway. I live in an upscale expensive neighborhood that is slowly turning into a tenement.

If anyone has any experience dealing with the mentally ill, please feel free to comment on this article. I am at a loss, there are no resources, there is no recourse, she is functioning enough to evade the courts and the police and crisis and commitment. She knows the game too well, and I am a new player on the board with limited resources and limited ability to understand the rules.

Yet another script to mount an AWS S3 bucket in Linux

Dan — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:26:54 +0000

Screenplay (Photo credit: Matt-Richards)

This was a script written by Alex Brooks who gave me permission to use the base script and change it along the way. Mounting a bucket in S3 on a linux box can be a tricky issue, especially when it does not want to set the permissions to the bucket right so that the average web server can use it. While the integrated person management system is awesome, sometimes you need to set up your bucket manually and latch onto it manually. Unfortunately while this is stupid easy in Windows, in Linux it can be a bit of a chore.

To Mount the Bucket at the command line one time until reboot usage

s3fs -o passwd_file=passwd-s3fs bucket_name mount_point

Or you can mount the bucket as a script so that if the box gets rebooted you don’t need to worry as much about running through your system to rebuild the links to the S3 bucket. First you set the permissions, and this is set as a read only bucket for the owner of the service/process, 700. You will want to change the permissions over to something closer to 744 or 755 depending on what you need to do with the objects. If the objects are meant to be writable, then it has to be set to 777, so there is some risk here if you set your mount point to be 777.

s3setup.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# script to set up an ubuntu 12.04 AMI with s3 support

# includes the key for cloud computing class

sudo aptitude install build-essential libxml2-dev libfuse-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev automake subversion

cd ~

svn checkout http://s3fs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk s3fs-read-only

cd s3fs-read-only

./autogen.sh

./configure

make

sudo make install

cd ~

touch passwd-s3fs && chmod 700 passwd-s3fs && echo ‘your AWS key’ > passwd-s3fs

# end script

And then mount that S3 Bucket

s3mount.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# s3 bucket mount script

# ./s3mount.sh bucket_name mount_point

s3fs -o passwd_file=passwd-s3fs $1 $2

# end script

If you want to change the whole bucket to public read, use this to mount to the S3 bucket

#!/bin/bash

# s3 bucket mount script

# ./s3mount.sh bucket_name mount_point

s3fs -o passwd_file=passwd-s3fs -o allow_other -o default_acl=”public-read” $1 $2

# end script

Kinda cool, and interesting, let me know if you have any problems with these scripts.

Why you should not use a photographer’s work for Bullying

Dan — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:43:01 +0000

Over the weekend I had a wonderful time doing coverage of Seattle’s own Slut Walk to help highlight the issues with sexual

English: Flying Spaghetti Monster, blinking (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

abuse, abuse, violence towards women, rape, and a host of other societal ills that I actually think are very uncool. This is one of those issues I have an opinion about. What was at first a wonderful experience of survivors, people who have helped, people who want to help has turned upside down for one member of the walk. See someone is using one of my pictures to harass and/or bully a person who was in the walk. It is bad enough for this person that I got this e-mail from the coordinators at Slut Walk via the victim to take down a couple of pictures off of the general Flickr Pool.

“A few pics of me have been posted to Dan Morrill’s flicker account, and there is one on Komo News 4. I didn’t mind artist’s snapping pics, but had I known (that) one person was a journalist that would post it on a news website, I NEVER would have consented, and had I known I would be threatened with the same kind of harm that made me a survivor in the first place, I wouldn’t have consented to anyone’s request for pictures. It’s been difficult dealing with random strangers yelling ugly things at me; I had a breakdown at work, and haven’t been back since. I’m terrified to go outside, as I don’t know if someone will recognize me and then say/yell something evil, or be the person that does more than just say.

I’m desperate for any modicum of feeling safe; please, please, is there any way that someone at SWS would contact Mr. Morrill and ask that he either remove my pics, or at least crop my face? One of the producers at Komo explained that legally, photographers can take a picture and keep it, particularly when posed for. I am asking for Mr. Morrill to please look at my situation through an empathetic lens; I just want my life back, I just want to feel safe. I will relievedly write down the image numbers and email them, should he oh-god-please-wrote-the-atheist agree to help me.”

Authors Note: Cleaned up some of the grammar, removed any personal references to names, dates, or work places, kept the general feel of the note intact.

While I cannot do much about the pictures on KOMO News 4, I can and will willingly take down the pictures that are causing distress to the person who sent this over to Slut Walk and then on to me. It is reprehensible to me to have my work used to hurt another person. I am now introducing a first rule of “using my pictures”.

The first rule now is “don’t use my pictures to hurt anyone, ever, if I find you, it will be bad with dire direct consequences”.

The most brilliant thing I can do is highlight society, the people we are, the things we do, and the outsiders. I do a lot of coverage of fringe elements of society, from Punk Rock shows to Burlesque to Anime Shows to Comic Book Shows. I have never before had my pictures used to harass anyone for any reason until today. Needless to say in my opinion, since I take these pictures, is that there is always, always, and always be room for and the need for documentation of elements of our society that are uncomfortable to know about, or have a wonderfully unique view of the world that we can all learn from. We need to show respect for those who march to their own drummer, acknowledge that they listen to their own tune, do their own thing, and generally just want to live their lives the way that they want to.

I really don’t cotton to bullying, and that is what this person is dealing with right now.

Via my work.

That alone is misuse of something I do, have done, and will continue to do.

In the future, please for the love of God, or anything else you hold holy including the flying spaghetti monster, do not use my work, my pictures, my documentation of the awesome beauty that are the multiple subcultures we have to bully, abuse, or otherwise harass people.

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