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Well if you want your voice to be heard and believe that openSUSE would be so much cooler if only they would add or change something, now is your chance. There is an ideas page for openSUSE 11.1. There are already several ideas up there and I’m sure they are looking for some refinement and new ideas there.
This is the perfect time to do it as they are gearing up for openSUSE 11.1 alphas.
openSUSE 11.1 Gnome ideas (These are for the Gnome desktop)
I actually work as a sysadmin at a local ISP. I am currently trying to work out a better hosting system. I am exploring many ideas. Many of these ideas will be worked out here on my personal hosting platform.
I have always admired Dean Allen, and have been following his work through Textile, Textpattern, and now TextDrive. The TextDrive weblog and knowledge base have a huge amount of detail about their hosting methods. Many of them are really exciting and wonderful. Obviously I have stolen many. Including using Webmin and Virtualmin.
Skype is one of my favorite applications. I recently used Skype to call someone in Russia and it only cost a few cents. I’ve also been studying the Skype API, which opens some interesting possibilities.
On a Mac, you can combine simple Applescript commands with simple Skype commands to open a lot of possibilities. For example, this Applescript opens Skype and calls the best taco shop in Provo, UT:
tell application “Skype”
send command “CALL +18013774710″ script name “Call the best taco shop in Provo, UT”
end tell
Skype can be scripted to automatically make phone calls, chat by video or text, or send text messages. You can also pipe in any audio or record the phone call.
This has interesting implications for companies like MacMiniColo.net that use Macs as servers (disclosure: I’m a friend of its owner and staff, and I’ve done contract work for them in the past.) Combining Applescript, Skype, shell scripting, and the say command, your server could be configured to call your cell phone when there’s an outage and tell you what the problem is.
Jon Udell’s podcast about communications-enabled business processes discusses the integration of voice calls into computer processes. They discuss examples where a business process may need approval from a supervisor. With voice integration, the computer could call a manager with a “press 1 to approve, press 2 to disapprove” message.
Skype + Applescript is sort of the poor man’s version of VOIP web services, but it’s exciting that you could actually do something interesting with it today.
On Monday postal rates went up to $.02. In my opinion, it’s not enough. I still get junk mail.
I use stamps so rarely that even doubling the price of a stamp would keep my annual budget under $5. But for bulk mailers who send me junk, every penny increase is certain to hurt. I’m all for it.
One solution to junk email is to use more email addresses. If you own a domain name, you can use ebay@yourdomain.com for eBay, amazon@yourdomain.com for Amazon, etc. They all get delivered to the same place, but then when you receive junk mail you can tell who sold you out.
In Gmail, anything after a plus sign is ignored. Add “+” and any word and it still gets delivered. For example,
richard+ebay@gmail.com and richard+amazon@gmail.com both get delivered to richard@gmail.com
Maybe this would work for postal mail. You could write a Suite number on all the mail to your house. (Who’s to say you can’t divide your own house into suites?) For a credit card application, your address is 123 Maple Suite 1. For a magazine subscription, it’s 123 Maple Suite 2. For your paycheck, it’s 123 Maple Suite 3, and so on. Now you can track your addresses.
Who wouldn’t like more analytics on their postal mail? (Don’t answer that.)