http://returncontrol.com Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:28:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Amazon has agreed to refund the $175 fee I paid to attend its Amazon Web Services Developer Bootcamp in December.  I didn't feel the bootcamp quite lived up to what it promised.  A marketing manager for Amazon AWS says the organization has received some "valuable feedback" and that they "will ... http://returncontrol.com/update-amazon-refunded-my-aws-developer-bootcamp-fee-66 I'm attending the Amazon AWS Developer Bootcamp today in Silicon Valley, to learn how to use Amazon's "cloud computing" services like Elastic Cloud Computing (EC2), and Simple Storage Service (S3), for lowering Web hosting and infrastucture costs.  Unfortunately, we're off to a slow start. Nearly three hours into the class, we're ... http://returncontrol.com/at-amazon-aws-developer-bootcamp-today-65 I'm excited about announcing the release of my first open source project: a major update to the Search and Replace Scanner module for Drupal. The release builds on the work started by Tao Starbow of Starbow Consulting, which provided regular-expression-based search-and-replace functionality for CCK fields.  Version 2.0 adds an undo option, ... http://returncontrol.com/my-first-open-source-release-search-and-replace-scanner-for-drupal-64 I'm addicted to Lala.com.  Since signing up about a week ago, the site is one of the first I load in my browser each morning.  And then I leave it up in the background throughout the day so I can listen to music as I work. Without a doubt, Lala has ... http://returncontrol.com/recommended-music-site-lalacom-is-better-than-itunes-63 MSNBC is reporting that Governor Sarah Palin's office in Alaska quoted a $15 million fee to carry out a government records request from the Associated Press.  The AP asked for copies of all state emails to Palin's husband, Todd, an oil worker and snowmobile racer who is known to have ... http://returncontrol.com/15-million-to-search-palins-emails-i-call-bullshit-62 When my local swim center set up their P.A. system, they decided to make it accessible via phone.  That way, staff members wouldn't have to walk back to the office to make an announcement over the loudspeaker -- they could just pick up any phone at the center, dial the ... http://returncontrol.com/why-security-by-obscurity-only-works-for-a-little-while-61 Smarter Interfaces with jQuery (and Drupal)View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. http://returncontrol.com/created-smarter-interfaces-with-jquery-and-drupal-presentation-slides-60 Want to learn how jQuery can help you build smarter, more dynamic user interfaces -- in particular, within Drupal?  I'm presenting an intro session at this weekend's Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp) gathering in Berkeley. The session is on Saturday at 11am.  Drop by and check it out if you're attending.  ... http://returncontrol.com/building-smarter-user-interfaces-with-jquery-my-talk-at-this-weekends-badcamp-59 Looks like a DNS problem this time.  Both apps.new.facebook.com and apps.facebook.com, the domains from which applications are initially accessed, have gone offline several times today -- at least for Comcast customers -- according to reports in the forums.  (I can confirm this too, and I'm on Comcast.) It's unclear if it's ... http://returncontrol.com/facebook-apps-access-dropping-in-and-out-57 The only really shocking things to come out of the hacking of Sarah Palin's Yahoo-based email account are the revelations that: The Governor of Alaska uses the free Yahoo email service for work-related emails; and that Yahoo uses really bad security practices for its password recovery system. Indeed, it's the latter point that ... http://returncontrol.com/lessons-from-the-palin-email-hack-how-to-provide-more-secure-password-recovery-than-yahoo-55