Daily Bitekletas

No this is not related to advertisement on mobile websites / pages. It’s about this exciting strategy by an entertainment/cable network in the Philippines.

While on a quite junky bus going to work this morning, I noticed that the bus actually has a very nice LCD screen. I was impressed for such a bus to have this really nice screen that people can finally look at and not those junk old CRT TV. One thing that really impressed me the most is that I believe they are being sponsored by Solar Entertainment because the screen is showing local ads (fast food & shampoo), a couple of upcoming movies and a few Solar Entertainment programs. I believe that this is a very good move by the said company simply because huge number of people ride buses in Metro Manila. That’s  just huge ads impression market for advertisers.

Now I can watch TV on a bus knowing that it’ll not be showing those old pirated VCD/DVDS!

I just need to write something about this since I’ve been a victim of configuration overload lately. While I was setting up a demo site for a client, I kept of wondering why the site is not functioning properly. All RewriteRule entries are being ignored by Apache.

The idea that Apache may not be allowing .htaccess didn’t come to my mind at first. I deliberately put in invalid characters inside the .htaccess file hoping that Apache would throw in some server error message but it did not! Then I remember the keyword AllowOverride None. Aparently, this is the default setting in Apache (so don’t mess with it!). I had to put a custom setting for a specific directory in order for .htaccess to work. Here is a sample configuration on how to allow .htaccess to specific directory (assuming your files are in /var/www/sitea).

<Directory /var/www/sitea>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

AllowOverride can accept other values (except none) for fine-grain control. It can be embedded inside a <VirtualHost></VirtualHost> for specific needs (which I did) or just put it along with other global entries. Now .htaccess should work without a hitch!

This is only applicable to individual that has a superuser access to a system.

The patches includes a few significant features and many enhancement on the manageability and reliability of MySQL database server.

The features are:

• SemiSyncReplication - block commit on a master until at least one slave acknowledges receipt of all replication events.
• MirroredBinlogs - maintain a copy of the master’s binlog on a slave
• TransactionalReplication - make InnoDB and slave replication state consistent during crash recovery
• UserTableMonitoring - monitor and report database activity per account and table
• InnodbAsyncIo - support multiple background IO threads for InnoDB
• FastMasterPromotion - promote a slave to a master without restart

Enhancements include:

• LosslessFloatDump - support dump and restore of float/double without loss of precision
• Use 8X less memory for account and table privileges
• Use fastest compression rather than the default level for client/mysqld networking
• InnodbSampling - control the number of leaf blocks sampled for optimizer statistics
• InnodbStatus - display more statistics in show innodb status
• Reduced number of calls to fsync when the InnoDB background IO thread is active
• Changed InnoDB to recover when InnoDB and MySQL data dictionaries are inconsistent
• NewSqlFunctions - functions for checksums and floating point to string conversion
• Backported START SLAVE UNTIL
• Sort float columns with the order: -INF < negative < 0 < positive < +INF < NaN
• Change long_query_time to be dynamic and log all queries that run for greater than or equal this number of seconds rather than greater than.
• Count connection attempts tha are denied because of max_connections and display the count as denied_connections
• MoreLogging - log actions done on specified tables and SUPER users
• rpl_always_enter_innodb boosts the priority of the slave SQL thread (for replication) in InnoDB by making it ignore the InnoDB concurrency limits
• rpl_event_buffer_size sets the fixed size buffer that is allocated in the master for each connected slave. The buffer is used for replication events smaller than the buffer. This reduces memory allocation done to copy replication events from the master.
• Backported sync-binlog
• Added reserved_super_connections to reserve the final N connections for users with the SUPER privilege
• NewShowStatus - many new variables in SHOW STATUS

More details here..

BBC UK reports that a mineral matching the unique chemical composition of Kryptonite, described in the film Superman Returns, has been identified by a Serbian scientist. The new mineral will be formally named “Jadarite” after Jadar which is the place where the mine is located.

Is this the end of Superman? Or is there a real superman, now that his most feared substance has finally revealed itself?

So I was able to download the executable installer a bit quicker than expected. I installed the Joost client on my Windows XP Home powered laptop without a hitch, though the firewall software prompted me to confirm the connection being initiated by the client program to joost.com’s servers. The authentication is done via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) so it’s fairly secure.

The Joost client prompted me to login or create a name and so I happily clicked the ‘create a name’. I was excited! I was prompted with a form requiring me to enter the e-mail I used during the “beta testing sign-up” process. Everything went well for me and I was taken to the Joost Suggest’s “Welcome To Joost” video after the signup/login process.

Here are some of the screenshots:

Channel Catalog Home - beautifully laid out for your viewing pleasure

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I signed up as a beta tester for Joost (formerly called Venice Project) late last year but was not accepted due to a long list of applications. Today, I got a message from Joost letting me know that a downloadable software is now available at their website. The message reads:

Hello XXXX,

A while ago, you showed interest in trying out Joost and signed-up
as a beta tester, but haven’t confirmed your email address yet.

The good news is that you can download Joost right now by
clicking on the following link:

https://www.joost.com/download/__deleted_parameter.html

As you may know, we’re working on a project that will
revolutionise the way you’re watching TV - bringing you the best
of TV and the best of Internet.

If you’ve got any questions or want to share your thoughts, feel
free to check-out our forum www.joost.com/support and send us
your comments.

We hope you will enjoy our beta test program and thanks in
advance for helping us put on the finishing touches to Joost.

Enjoy and see you on Joost!

The Joost team

If you don’t download and register Joost within 14 days we will
delete your information and will not contact you again.

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