ntop network monitoring FTW!

 

A number of our projects require stress testing and lately I’ve been using ntop to monitor the network aspect of the tests.  In a nutshell, ntop monitors your network interfaces and then you can view all the data that it logs in a nifty web view in your browser #hawt

One of my fav features is the ability to add your own protocols in /etc/ntop/protocols.list (on debian) and then they appear in the web page in its own chart.  For example, we have a node.js server running on a non-standard port so I just append NodeJS=<port #> to the protocols.list file, restart ntop, and now it appears in its own chart.  Cake!

 

 

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We’re On Wired!

 

Pete Brook wrote a lovely article on our project thiswildidea.

Read the article here: http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2012/01/stolen-gear-is-small-hurdle-for-year-long-photo-project/

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SOPA PIPA – Internet Police

 

If you are looking for a short answer on why these bills are a bad idea the short answer is:  these acts give the government the authority to decide what you look at on the internet.

If that doesn’t strike you as a bad idea then check this out: http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase

You can sign a petition at: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

One of the more impressive displays of activism against SOPA PIPA today was the take down of php.net! They replaced the entire site with a black screen displaying this message:

503: Stop SOPA/PIPA

The SOPA/PIPA bills threaten the open nature of the Web and thus threaten Open Source projects like ours. If you have the ability to vote in the United States, help us out and contact your representatives. If you are not able to vote in the United States, you can help by petitioning the U.S. state department. Bills like these have a habit of spreading to other countries if we don’t stop them at their source. Visit AmericanCensorship.org to learn how to do both.

I only found this out from a friend of mine. He was trying to download the latest version of PHP for a client and had to find another way to get at it.

 

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Maddie On Things

 

A necessary addition to our thiswildidea project has arisen, and we could no longer ignore the obvious next step. Introducing maddieonthings.com, a collection of wonderful images of a faithful companion placed in precarious positions.

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Coindexter

 

Coindexter

Wow.  We’ve been super excited about this since Spring 2011, and finally the day is here!  Coindexter is an online game for kids/tweens (though I’ve known several grown-ups who have played for hours) and Bearhanded has had the amazing privilege to work with Applause Marketing to bring the world of Coindexter to you!

Coindexter Games

The art for Coindexter is incredible and the games are fun to play again and again.  After you make money playing the games you can spend it on game upgrades, new clothes, item upgrades or game items – and the entire time, kids are learning about how to save money and spend it by managing their savings account and their wallet.  You also earn trophies for various game achievements as well as for spending and saving achievements.

Not only are the mini-games entertaining, there’s an over-arching plot line to save the professor Coindexter who is stuck in time.  Repair his time machine so you can go back in time and save him while exploring and playing games along the way!

Head over to Coindexter.com to sign up for your free trial account.

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This Wild Idea – on the road

 

It all started with this project: http://30.thiswildidea.com/

This idea culminated into a conversation between us and artist/friend Theron Humphrey. Together we decided it was a necessary venture to tell the story of the common person in America for a year, one person a day. Plenty of artists are photographing subcultures that are driven by angst, we didn’t want to do that. Being human is a valid enough reason to be taken note of. In a day where we put emphasis on fame and power we wanted to show honor to unrecognized and overlooked. The farmer who grows your food or the mechanic that fixes your car, they are the proverbial “heartbeat of america”, and they deserve our attention.

Theron is currently on his 30th day. Check out some of the amazing stories so far and follow the journey for the next year!
http://www.thiswildidea.com

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Chalk Party – the world drawing together

 

A note from Aaron

About a year ago, Chris Barnes and I were having coffee and rummaging through ideas for a new project that Bearhanded could be involved in. I presented 10 or so concepts, with Chris giving feedback on each. One idea stuck out above the rest: what if there were a place where anyone with an internet connection could draw together, in real-time, without the boundaries of space? We envisioned an international community of artists and doodlers, spontaneously creating art in a fundamentally new way.

What we started out calling a “graffiti wall” turned into a much more refined project: Chalk Party. I fleshed out and explored Chalk Party for several months, with Bearhanded giving invaluable input on everything from user-interface design to selecting the right technologies to make the experience as accessible and enjoyable as possible.

A few days ago, we moved toward the next step in bringing collaborative art to the masses. I launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds needed to produce Chalk Party. If we succeed in our campaign, Bearhanded will be building this exciting art platform. Visit the Kickstarter page for Chalk Party to see how you can get involved in starting the party:

CLICK IT SUCKA!!!

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This Wild Idea Phase 2

 

A note from Theron

In the winter of 2011 the cancer in my Grandfather finally took his life. Before he passed, I traveled to his farm to document his way of life and tell his story. This Wild Idea is an opportunity to shares stories across America, to create a portrait of the country, and to document your way of life.

The idea is simple, the goal is straightforward, but I need your help! I’m going meet 1 new person a day, everyday, for 365 days. The goal is to makes images that age well and increase in value over time; images that will become part of your family story, which we can pass on to the next generation.

You can help me out in a few ways! I’d love for you to change my route, so you can actually become a part of this project. This project is a new look at social media; it’s not about self-promotion, it’s about everyone in America having an opportunity to connect to the project and shape its direction.

You can help by following along on the website starting August 1st and helping me spread the word! Simply clicking the Facebook “like” button is a great contribution. Tell your friends, neighbors, and folks walking down the street about the project too!

You can help by donating to the project. The scope of the project is immense, but the reward will be beautiful! The next year of my life will be dedicated to this project. Living simple is my mantra. Camping out, cooking basic meals, and connecting to folks in a honest way.

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Pictul Watermarker

 

 

We have a lot of friends in the photo industry that needed an easy way to watermark there images. We took a look at what was out there and what we found just wasn’t quite giving photographers the flexibility that they needed to watermark their images the way they wanted.

We made Pictul so as a drag and drop solution for watermarking. It makes the process so easy and allows the flexibility to add borders and margins as well as rounded corners. With all the setting options in Pictul there are literally thousands of ways to watermark your images but none of the complexity of other applications.

This is the first of a suite of tools that we are building for photographers. So hit us up in the comments if you have ideas for other software we could include in the suite. We love creating apps that save time and Pictul does just that.

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Dcrypto Beta

 

The Dcrypto Platform is currently in private BETA. Remember those hidden messages that were on boxes of Transformers? Well the same technology is being used in an all new platform that will be deployed on the web and mobile devices.

Customers will be able to set up their own campaigns with hidden messages in the structure of an instant win game. The hidden messages will be used to reveal weather the players have won a prize or not. It’s been really fun thus far to be working on this project as the possibilities are really just starting to become realized. Follow the project here to see our progress.

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