Day: March 3, 2004

I had this idea for an application. A mirror that has limits. I don’t know if this exists yet, but here’s the idea. Let’s say I wanted to be a mirror for a popular download. In this case, a completely legal MP3 file. I would put the file on my server, and provide a download link. Instead, it would be cool to put the file on my server, and have an application manage the serving of the file, so we can track the number of times it’s downloaded, total that up, and then make the download unavailable when bandwidth has exceeded a certain limit. When the bandwidth limit is exceeded, it should send you to another mirror, or to the original download site.

For all I know, this exists, perhaps CPAN or the SourceForge mirrors already do this. Of course maybe P2P is another solution. You know what, nevermind…

I’m sure you’ve wondered what’s up with the lack of photos around here? Well, the camera is somewhat broken. By somewhat I mean that it seems to work about 5% of the time. If you turn it on and off repeatedly. Which, in reality, means that it doesn’t work. It’s like a car that only starts on Sundays, it ain’t gonna get you to work…

I’ve attempted to troubleshoot it, but to no avail. My troubleshooting included hitting it really hard, which is the technique that works well with our television when it gets cranky. So the next step is to try to track down some info using the InterWeb. I’m not too hopeful though. I did get it as a manufacturer refurb almost two years ago, for right around $150 US dollars. While at the local Radio Shack I noticed that some of their cameras were less than $100, and had double the resolution. Still, I’m one for fixing what I’ve got rather than throwing money (I don’t have) at a problem to fix it.

In the meantime I’m pretty sure I’ll get to see Bigfoot, Nessie and perhaps a few UFO‘s while the camera is non-functional…