July 27, 2008

organise

URLInfo Reveals Hidden Web Site Server Details

Posted by Kevin Purdy at 7:00 AM on July 27, 2008

Webapp URLInfo does something pretty simple—grab data from the header files dished out by web servers, usually hidden from browser view—but it is oddly fascinating to peer into the machines serving up web sites. The Daily Gyan blog did a little digging with URLInfo and found out that a certain tech site you're reading uses an usual name for its publishing system, that Linux.com runs on, erm, Unix servers, and, according to its header, Web Worker Daily hides job referrals in its header files. Note that the site likes when you enter full URLs (http://www.site.com) more than shortened URLs, which it can't always parse.


Read More »

work

How Coverville's Brian Ibbott Gets Things Done

Posted by Kevin Purdy at 2:00 AM on July 27, 2008


Podcaster Brian Ibbott has turned out Coverville, a 40-minute podcast of cover songs and commentary, three times a week since September 2004, with only a few misses here and there. Ibbott works freelance as a web consultant in the mornings, listens to and sorts dozens of requested songs every afternoon, and shuts down his laptop at 5PM to spend time with his wife and child. When he hits 500 episodes of Coverville on August 15, it'll happen at a five-act Las Vegas concert he booked and organised mostly himself. Brian Ibbott, in other words, is a busy man, but his show is a light-hearted breath of fresh air for roughly 15,000 music fans each week. We spoke with the man behind one of the net's earliest and most consistent podcasts about his organisation techniques, working as a true freelancer, and what it's like to manage 108 GB of music as part of your job.


Read More »

design

Give Your Ubuntu Desktop the Complete Mac Look

Posted by Kevin Purdy at 1:00 AM on July 27, 2008


ubuntu_leopard.jpgNo, you won't actually have a Mac at the end of this transformation tutorial and, yes, it's just a tad bit, well, excessive. But if you're going to go through the effort of turning your Linux desktop into a Leopard clone, you may as well give it the full ride. Going beyond previously-posted guides, Make Tech Easier tackles how to transform your menu bar, add a dock and retractable widgets, create a floating stack over your places menu—even your boot-up screen is given the cold-steel apple and a minimalist progress bar. If you've got the time, it's at least worth the confused faces on your friends' and co-workers' faces.