Whether you want to keep your kids eyes away from inappropriate content or your employees from wasting time online, you'll find a variety of great tools available for filtering internet access in today's Hive Five.
Photo by Zach Klein.
Last week we asked you to share your favorite method of filtering internet content. While we originally intended to approach the topic from a software angle, it quickly became apparent that software didn't cut it for most people and that the majority of you are using either a combination of desktop software and a proxy server/firewall or just the latter by itself. The following solutions range, in difficultly of installation, from as simple as requiring five minutes to install to as complex as setting up a physical computer as a Linux-based content filter.
DansGuardian (Cross Platform, Free)
One way to measure whether or not Dansguardian is the right filtering tool for you is your willingness to install and tinker with an operating system like Linux. If OpenDNS (below) is the Mac-like "It just works!" one click solution, DansGuardian falls into a much more Linux-like "I can change every setting and experience real, ultimate power!" category. Dansguardian runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Mac OS X, HP-UX, and Solaris. DansGuardian is extremely configurable and allows you to do all sorts of things, like block all images, filter ads out across your entire home network, block files from being downloaded by extension type, and control the effects of the filters, whitelists, and more based on which computer on your network is doing the accessing. You can deploy different filters for different computers based on domain, user, and source IP so your high school student doesn't get the same ultra-filtered content your elementary student does. DansGuardian needs to be paired with a proxy as it doesn't serve the web pages itself but only acts a filter—many users use Squid, also mentioned in the entry for SquidGuard.
K9 (Windows/Mac, Free)
Many of us have had experiences with K9's internet filtering, if for no other reason than it's used in thousands of schools across the country. One of K9's strong points is the division of filtered content into 60+ categories which allows you to easily block and unblock large chunks of their blacklist without having to get your hands too dirty. K9 is a desktop solution; you install the software and it checks all the internet requests you make against the filters you have specified. In an effort to overcome the limitations of working from a static database, K9 introduced Dynamic Real-Time Rating to actively access the content of websites and ban them if they fall into the filter categories you've selected.
OpenDNS (Cross Platform, Free)
OpenDNS is a perfect solution for people who either lack the time or expertise to set up and administer a full-out content-filtering server. OpenDNS replaces your current DNS server and allows you to filter every connection coming out of your house if you change the DNS settings at the router level. No matter if someone is on your main desktop or connecting into your wireless with laptop, everything will be filtered by OpenDNS. You can set custom filters to white list and black list specific sites and customize the range of filters they provide for you. If you're considering using OpenDNS as your household filter, check out our previous article on the topic.
SquidGuard/Squid (Linux, Free)
SquidGuard is similar to Dansguard in that it is a stand alone filtering tool you connect into with a proxy, in this case the popular Squid proxy. Also like Dansguard, you have a high degree of flexibility—dream up a combination of filtering parameters and there's a good chance you can make it happen with SquidGuard. No Hello Kitty between the hours of 9AM and 10PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Not a problem with the highly customizable SquidGuard. SquidGuard is natively a UNIX-environment only tool, and you can install it onto Linux, FreeBSD, and so forth.
Hosts File (Cross Platform, Free)
Many of you like to get your hands dirty—as evidenced by the popularity of Dansguard and Squidguard—and tinkering with the hosts file is a great way to do that while setting up a filter in the process. The hosts file is essentially a mini-directory on your computer of IP addresses and what they should be resolved to. If you go into your hosts file, for instance, and make an entry for 127.0.0.1 pointing at www.google.com, every time someone goes to visit google on that computer the web browser will direct them right back to the machine they are sitting at. You can manually edit your hosts file, but many of you use applications like Hostsman to make editing and configuring easier. Editing your hosts file is easy, but its effectiveness is largely limited to how strong the blacklist you've downloaded or created is. If your blacklist doesn't include a site or a string that catches part of the site's name, it will fail to block it at all.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the—rather varied—list of tools for filtering your internet connection, it's time to cast your vote for which tool you think is best:
Which Content Filtering Tool is Best?(trends)
If you've got your own tips, tricks, or even unmentioned tools for filtering internet access, we'd love to hear them in the comments.
In today’s economic climate many photographers are finding it tough. Today Annie Tao from www.annietaophotography.com shares some tips on getting through the economic downturn.
Image by kwerfeldein
You can ask 10 photographers what they think is their key to success in a bad economy – okay, flat out terrible economy – and you may get 10 different responses. Recently, a fellow photographer who had been following my blog commented that he wished he was busier, “but not Annie-busy!” He was stating this because I post client photoshoot sneak peeks on my blog every few days. Being a successful photographer is more than having a lot of business, it’s also about being profitable and, more importantly, being happy. That last point may sound hokey, but if having one photoshoot every few weeks makes you happy or making just enough to send your family on vacation is what you strive for, then that’s success.
Hearing this new term, Annie-busy, made me think about how I’d explain to other photographers what I’ve done in this economic recession that has kept my business flourishing. Though there are certainly other things that can be added to this list, here is what has been working for me.
There are three main points:
1. Have The Right Attitude
Even if you are a leader in your field, you need to keep learning new things – whether they are new gadgets and equipment or new techniques. You can take classes, attend seminars, and read industry publications. You can connect with other photographers to brainstorm ideas and learn tips.
Once you feel complacent and have an attitude that you don’t need to learn anything further, you will fall behind the pack.
2. Don’t Wait For Business
Whether you are busy with multiple photoshoots every week and a positive cash flow or your camera is collecting dust, there are many things you can do that can help your business.
Take action.
Here are some ideas to get you started: Can you update your portfolio? Are there vendors you wanted to try? Is there anything you can improve on your website? Are there things your competition is doing that you are interested in doing/having (ie, cool paper products, a blog)? Is there a way to expedite your workflow? Did you want to try out a new technique?
3. Think Outside The Box
I come from a Marketing background, so in my opinion, the three biggest reasons for one product’s success over another is Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. In this case, your “product” is you.
With that said, think about what else you can do to market your business.
You first have to have good online presence. So make sure you are happy with your website, and happy with how you and your business are presented to the public.
In addition to the traditional marketing methods, like advertising where your target audience will see the ad, there are also marketing avenues that are more effective… and often free! A good example is Relationship Marketing. It starts with creating a relationship with your clients. If your client refers you to someone else, that is 100 times more effective than having 100 people see your ad. Also, you can talk to business owners who share the same clients. You may be able to find common interests and run a co-promotion or find a way to help each other out. In this kind of economy, many businesses have to cut their advertising and marketing budget, so you may want to consider a product/services trade.
In the last few years, social networking has been growing in popularity, but it has also proven to be the new way to advertise. And it’s free! Networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, are places millions of people frequent every day. I have gotten clients within minutes of an existing client posting their photos on their Facebook page. It is like getting an instant referral because that person knows my client, and referrals go a long way in this industry!
Another consideration is expanding your business in the form of your product line or even type of photography. I started out as a lifestyle photographer specializing in children, maternity and families, then tried out commercial photography and event photography this year – and really liked it! The commercial and event photography balances out the fast-paced, running-and-jumping-with-the-
If you do this, don’t forget to stay true to yourself. Know what makes you happy and don’t change what you love only to grow your business. Clients will be able to detect your passion, or lack thereof, for the business. Plus, your artwork will reflect how you feel, so stick to doing what you love.
So test the waters, think outside the box, don’t wait for business to come to you, and have the right attitude regardless of the state of the economy.
Annie Tao is a lifestyle, commercial and event photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area.
You can view her site at www.annietaophotography.com or read what she’s been up to on her blog at www.annietaoblog.com.
Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.
How To Survive a Down Economy As A Photographer
It's pretty easy to get rid of useless clutter, like yard sale purchases you probably should have left in the yard you found them in. What about your collections, the stuff that might have value? Declutter them with honest evaluation.
Once bitten by the decluttering bug, most people have little trouble getting rid of the crap they have piled up on or in their office desk, or the magazines they didn't get around to reading. When it comes to digging into personal collections or memorabilia, however, people can be quite stubborn.
In the following video Marc Sotkin, of the Baby Boomer-centric blog Boomer Alley, urges us to take a good hard look at our collections of things and decide if it's worth having them around:
But losing the tree is painful. And given that it shades our house from the west, I suspect that our summer cooling bills will go up.
- Mood:
sad
If Earth received this
message from deep space, could we
decode it?
The people from the
Cosmic Call project sent the
above image as the first page of a longer message.
The
message
was broadcast
toward local stars by
radio telescope
during the summer of 1999.
Another message was
sent in 2003.
The single-dish, 70-meter diameter telescope that send the
messages
is located in
Ukraine on the
Crimean peninsula near the town of
Yevpatoria.
This first page of the
Cosmic Call 1999
message, shown above, involves only numbers and so is
easier for puzzle solvers to decode than a
more famous message broadcast
toward distant star cluster M13 in 1974.
(The solution is
here.)
Many panelists and other people mentioned books and authors at 4th Street. Sooo....for those of us who have memories for titles like a sieve. (ok, me) Could those people post what you recall? Or fill me in on the authors for the books. This is in hopes of possibly putting up a book list for the con at least on the wiki page.
{For those of you who are on my friends list. Thank you for being beta to this list.}
Some that have already been posted:
1491-Charles C Mann,
Alcatraz vs the Scriveners Bones- Brandon Sanderson
A Brothers Price-Wen Spencer
The Cabinet of Wonders -Rick Reordan,
Caught in Crystal- Patricia Wredes
Changeling-Delia Sherman
Color - Victoria Finley
Dead Girl Walking
A Deepness in the Sky-Vernor Vinge
The Dragon Princess
Even the Queen - Connie Willis
The Ever After War-Michael Buckley
Fable haven - Brandon Mullen
A Fire Upon the Deep -Vernor Vinge
Food Before 1066
The Fortunate Fall - Raphael Carter
Game of Thrones series - George RR Martins
Graceling
Hellspark- Janet Kagan
Homeward Bounders- Dian Wynne Jones
Harry Potter series- JK Rowling
How to Ditch a Fairy
Hunger Games
The Infinity Concerto-Greg Bear
Into the Wild-Sara Beth Durst
Iron Man - Chris Crutcher
Jennifer Morgue-Charles Stross
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell-Susanna Clarke
Lavender Blue, Elements of Arousal
Lifelode - Jo Waltons
The Magician- Michael Scott
Making a Good Script Great
Melting Stones- Tamora Pierce
Mission - San Xavier del Bac
Mairelon the Magician- Patricia Wrede
Munby
Mysterious Mr. Spimes
The New Yorker printed a story based on the Indian child fought over by Titania and Oberon
Pattern Recognition - William Gibson
Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George
Redwall Series
Route 66 A.D
Shadow Castle
The Siren Song - Ann Uran
Someone Comes to Town; Someone Leaves Town
The Sorceress- Michael Scott
The Tenth Ghost
Tooth and Claw - Jo Waltons
Understand Comics - Scott McCloud
Vorkosigan series -Lois McMaster Bujold
Voyager
The Well-Favored Man-Elizabeth Willey
Why Cooking Works that Way- Alton Brown
Why Things Bite Back Witch High
Authors who weren’t panelist:
Daniel Abraham
Aristotle
Ross Collins
Medusa Jones
Tanith Lee
Daniel Petrosky,
Daniel Pinkwater
Terry Pratchett
Sherwood Smith
TH White
William Shakespeare
- Mood:
curious
Today was devoted to travel home from Seattle. Along the way, I finished an ARC of
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cmpriest's Boneshaker, which I enjoyed greatly. I thought the start was a little rocky, but once it settled down into present-day narrative and got its legs under it, it barely slowed down for breath ever. At Clarion West, I finished Sean Stewart's Nobody's Son, which was beautifully written but seemed to me to be another one of those stories where the primary conflict is men dealing with problematic relationships with their fathers, and while I realize that this is a common issue for my XX compatriots, it's not one that gets its squids in me.Anyway, those were books # 33 and 34, and I'm nearly done with 35.
Tomorrow, the deathmarch through Chill begins again, as I really need to send it back to Anne as soon as possible, both to meet my deadline and so she will pay me. Yay, money!
- Mood:
exanimate
I've been thinking about doing a boulevard garden, so I've been paying attention to other people's gardens as I drive around my neighborhood. Today, I was driving back from an errand and saw a man outside watering a perfectly gorgeous one, and impulsively, I stopped the car and got out and asked him about it.
He called his wife in from the backyard, and she was pleased to answer my questions. In fact, hearing my admiration, she offered to show me her back yard and the plantings there, and she spent about a half hour answering my questions.
I was awestruck by the haven they'd created back there. They didn't have a speck of grass; it was all flowers and vegetables. They had created a pergola which they had covered with wisteria, and it was the most charming little seating area imaginable. There was a fountain and bird feeders and a patio with a table and chairs, under a magnolia tree.
She gave me her phone number, and she said she'd be happy to split some of her perennials once I figured out what I might want. I came away with my brain teeming with ideas and plans. Don't know if I'll put them into action. But it was lovely to see the possibilities.
Bee balm. Echinecea. Coreopsis. Daisies. Cornflowers. Roses. Lavender. Delphiniums. Lupine. Phlox.
Beauty.
- WEP Cracking Redux: Beyond the Command Line (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Last week we showed you how to crack a Wi-Fi network's WEP key using a live CD and some command line fu. Today we've got other cracking options-but more importantly, clarification on the point of all this. - VLC Hits 1.0 with Better Playback and File Support (Windows/Mac/Linux)
VLC Media Player, the open-source solution to media players that can't play your media files, reaches the 1.0 milestone today. What's new? Support for HD and other new formats, finer speed controls, customizable toolbars, AirTunes streaming, and much more. - Hulu Video Downloader Saves Your Favorite Shows for Offline Enjoyment (Windows)
Hulu Video Downloader is a free application that saves Hulu videos to your desktop and converts them to virtually any popular, device-friendly format you might want-at least in theory. - Get Google Gears Up and Running in Firefox 3.5 (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Most developers did a bang-up job preparing their extensions for the Firefox 3.5 update, but on the Firefox 3.5 release day, one very popular extension didn't make the cut: Google's browser plug-in, Gears. - Are You Still Jailbreaking Your iPhone or iPod touch? (iPhone/iPod Touch)
The iPhone Dev Team just released updates to their cross-platform jailbreak and unlocking tools redsn0w and ultrasn0w, and while unlocks are definitely good news for folks who want to use an iPhone on non-sanctioned carriers, we're wondering: Do you still jailbreak? - Windows 7 ISO Verifier Ensures Your Downloads Are Legit (Windows)
The final RTM release of Windows 7 should be released later this month, and blogger and developer Long Zheng has created a small application designed to verify that your download is the real thing. - Cameras Improves the Way OS X Deals with Connected Cameras (Mac OS X)
Never been entirely happy with the way your Mac reacts when you plug in your various camera-sporting devices? Wish it could do something different when you plug in your iPhone versus your DSLR? Cameras can help. - HideTab is a Boss Key for Your Browser (Firefox)
Firefox extension HideTab minimizes open tabs into an icon on the status bar-and even adds a shortcut key to instantly hide everything. - Better Gmail 2 Updated for Gmail's Label Enhancements (Firefox)
Google's recent improvements to Gmail's labels broke one of Better Gmail 2's most-loved features: Folders4Gmail. Folders4Gmail displays labels with slashes in them as subfolders of a parent label, and I must say, I've missed it a whole lot this week. - VLC Portable 1.0 Puts Multi-Format Playing on Thumb Drives (Windows)
If you're eager to try out VLC 1.0's new features, or find yourself at a lack for decent media players at others' computers, PortableApps has bundled VLC's latest release in USB-drive-friendly form.
No, seriously, it was just what you'd expect of Yuen Woo-Ping directing an after-school special starring Donnie Yen. Including the parts where Beggar So's habit tears apart the family so badly that his father smacks the ugly out of his randy sister-in-law, and where we learn that the cure for opium addiction is forced wine consumption paired with drunken boxing.
Monsieur Cok: “Mister Cok is the owner of a large bomb factory. Looking for efficiency and profit, he decides to replace his workers with sophisticated robots.” (9.45 minutes)
The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9: Space-age bounty hunters after a scary monster. Very funny and very cute and a little sick. Made by a student at School of Visual Arts, Jake Armstrong. Jake talks about the movie on Carton Brew.
[Watch the movies after the jump]
Monsieur Cok
Franck Dion
The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9
Jake Armstrong
As always, check out more great animation on our Saturday Morning Cartoon Index.
Windows only: If you're going to create a photo mosaic, you might as well invest the time to do it well. Foto-Mosaik-Edda is a powerful tool for creating impressive, detailed, finely-tuned photo mosaics.
To use Foto-Mosaik-Edda you need a pool of source images—the bigger the better, as they recommend 2000 or more—and the actual image you want to base the mosaic off. In the case of our sample image we used 1,800 images of Marilyn Monroe and found that Foto-Mosaik-Edda did an excellent job using the variety of images we provided.
When you first use Foto-Mosaik-Edda, it does take a bit of time to get things moving. Point the application at the directory where your source images reside and it'll scan through and create a base set of "tiles" for your mosaic. With 1,800 images it took about 15 minutes. If you're scanning 10,000 family pictures to create a mega mosaic, plan on leaving your system for a while.
Once you have your pool of pictures scanned, creating a large mosaic is straight forward. Pick your primary image, give it a name, and then select the number of images and resolution of the final image. The size and resolution of the final image is largely limited by how much time you want to devote to letting your computer chug away at cranking out an image. For our sample image we created a 2600x3300px image using 8000 images, which took around 15 minutes to generate. If you have your own tricks and tools for creating interesting mosaic images, share the wealth in the comments below. Foto-Mosaik-Edda is freeware, Windows only.
The reason I was able to read the NYTBR was because I was at finally at the pool this weekend, where I was also reading BEYOND HEAVING BOSOMS. A friend came by and asked, "Is that your autobiography?" Makes me wonder what people think about me?
It's like a martial arts after-school special starring Wong Fei-Hung and Beggar So about the dangers of smoking opium in 19th century China.
Folding a towel wouldn't seem an area in need of improvement and wiser time use, but folding a towel to go straight from the linen closet to the hanging bar saves real time.
Photo by davco9200.
Why fold a towel one way to store it, then have to refold it to hang neatly on the towel bar in your bathroom? If you fold it properly, you can simply pull it out of the linen closet and flop it right over the bar without having to refold or fuss. Over at the organization blog Unclutterer, they offer a simple photo tutorial on folding a towel so that it's ready to be hung right out of the closet. The steps:
1. Either lay the bath towel front-side down on a clean surface or, if your arms are long enough, hold the towel in a similar manner:
2. Fold into thirds (lengthwise):
3. Fold the long strip in half (bring short edges together):
4. Fold the strip in half again.
Check out the link below for the accompanying pictures. Have a home organization tip of your own, linen closet related or otherwise? Share it in the comments.
By Charles Stross
Recorded at Balticon 43, May 23, 2009
Read by:
Joe -Jared Axelrod (of The Voice of Free Planet X)
Maddie - J.R. Blackwell (of Voices of Tomorrow)
The Farm - Evo Terra and Sheila Dee (of Evo at 11, et al.)
Maddie - J.R. Blackwell (of Voices of Tomorrow)
Brenda the Barkeep - Dee Reed (of Nobilis Erotica)
Wendy the Rat - Laura Burns
Art the Boy Toy - John Cmar
Bob the Dog - Earl Newton (of Stranger Things)
Narrator - Stephen Eley
Special Thanks To:
Paul Fischer (of The Balticon Podcast) for instigating and organizing
Nobilis Reed (of Nobilis Erotica) for engineering
First appeared in Live Without a Net, ed. Lou Anders
Now available in Wireless, by Charles Stross
“Buggerit, I don’t have time for this,” Joe muttered. The stable waiting for the small herd of cloned spidercows cluttering up the north paddock was still knee-deep in manure, and the tractor seat wasn’t getting any warmer while he shivered out here waiting for Maddie to come and sort this thing out. It wasn’t a big herd, but it was as big as his land and his labour could manage – the big biofabricator in the shed could assemble mammalian livestock faster than he could feed them up and sell them with an honest HAND-RAISED NOT VAT-GROWN label.
“What do you want with us?” he yelled up at the gently buzzing farm.
“Brains, fresh brains for baby Jesus,” crooned the farm in a warm contralto, startling Joe half out of his skin. “Buy my brains!” Half a dozen disturbing cauliflower shapes poked suggestively out of the farms’ back then retracted again, coyly.
“Don’t want no brains around here,” Joe said stubbornly, his fingers whitening on the stock of the shotgun. “Don’t want your kind round here, neither. Go away.”
Rated PG for strong language, chemical violence, and drug-abusing dogs.
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Page Summary
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lifehacker : Five Best Content Filtering Tools [Hive Five] [+0] - digiphoto_skool : How To Survive a Down Economy As A Photographer [+0]
- lifehacker : Banish Clutter by Evaluating Your Collections [Clutter] [+0]
- scathach : Hey Kris! [+0]
- cakmpls : Losing the big elm [+0]
- apod3 : A Cosmic Call to Nearby Stars [+0]
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4th_st_fantasy :: prettymuchpeggy : 2009 4th Street-A booklist of sorts - [+0] - sciam_pc : Movie Magic (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) Part 2 [+0]
- matociquala : home again home again like a turtle to his balcony [+14]
- pegkerr : Dreaming of gardens [+3]
- marydell : Beautiful pics of the Obamas meeting mothers & babies in Ghana [+0]
- lifehacker : This Week's Top Downloads [Download Roundup] [+0]
- malcubed : Heroes Against Heroes [+0]
- torbooks : Saturday Morning Cartoons: “Monsieur Cok” and “The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9” [+0]
- lifehacker : Foto-Mosaik-Edda Creates Stunning Photo Mosaics [Downloads] [+0]
- lperkinsagent : Trend Spotting, and Bosom Heaving [+0]
- malcubed : (no subject) [+0]
- lifehacker : Fold a Bath Towel Efficiently for Easy Storage and Hanging [Efficiency] [+0]
- escape_pod_feed : EP206: Rogue Farm [+0]
- npr_waitwait : NPR: 07-11-2009 Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! [+0]