• Unlike a home web server, SSH is read/write, meaning you can get and put files on a server with it.
• Unlike a home FTP server, SSH is secure. All the transactions are encrypted and cannot be sniffed.
• Unlike a VNC server, SSH alone doesnt let you drive your computer remotely, and it is also secure and encrypted while VNC is not.

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The site provides an administrator username and password for every system which allows you to to add and delete content, change the way things look, basically be the admin of any system here without fear of breaking anything. Each system is deleted and re-installed every two hours.

At the upper left hand side of your screen you will see a clock that is counting down. What it shows is how much time is left in this two hour demo window. Once the clock hits 00:00:00, opensourceCMS.com will shut down and the demos are completely refreshed.

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Google gives an example of usage:
“For example, lets say you are in charge of your club soccer teams website, and you want to add a current weather forecast so your fans can plan for your games or you want to include a daily brainteaser on your site without having to come up with something new everyday. Google Gadgets lets you do this easily. Just visit the directory of “Google Gadgets for your webpage” to find gadgets that youd like to add to your own page and select your preferences for how the gadget will appear on your page. Then, copy and paste the HTML from the window into the HTML code for your own website. Its an easy way to get the content you need and want without spending hours writing code”

Previously, some gadgets could be included in Google Page Creator if you selected the experimental features.
Here’s an example (called babelfish):

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1. Install plugin.
2. Choose which page to be the home page.

Thats the functionality I’m using at the moment.
I’m also experimenting with the appearance of a subdirectory – not really much use for me as this blog appears under the playpen directory anyway, but for the sake of science and to while away another SAP install…

1. Install plugin.
2. Choose which page to be the home page.
3. Declare the directory you wish for your blog.

OK so that’s a tiny bit more complicated… It even double checks the structure for permalinks, and tells you how to create a home page template.

BTW, doing this without a plugin is covered in the wordpress documentation at Creating a Static Front Page.

EDIT: as it turned out, the virtual subdirectory link is usefull… It lets me put a link to ../playpen/blog over in the sidebar, so that every page can go straight back to the latest posts.

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One issue I did come up against is that although you can put Template Tags and PHP code into a Page Template, you cannot put these into the content of a Page and expect them to run. This meant I had to use a PHP evaluating Plugin (example: RunPHP) to enable the < ?php randomFeedList() ?> feature of the Feed List plugin.

EDIT: October 10
I’ve completely revamped how I use this plugin.

• I have a WordPress Page with it’s own template (page_rss_parent), that is an exact replica of my standard Page template except it incldues the Dynamic Ajax Content from www.dynamicdrive.com. As you select a link to a particular RSS feed, this Page loads it dynamically.
• The RSS feeds are each in their own page, using the FeedList plugin . These pages have their own template ( page_rss) that has no call to sidebar or footer. This is because these pages will be loaded into a DIV on already already existing page, with the header, sidebar footer etc already present.
• I have another page that is the parent of the pages with the RSS feeds. This means I can exclude this page (and therefore the underlying RSS Feed pages) when using wp_list_pages in my header.
• I don’t need the runPHP plugin.

Next step is to write it up as a plugin. The big issue is where to store the RSS feeds:

• If I store them in WordPress as Pages, you’ll need to do the wp_list_pages hack described above.
• If I store them in another table, it raises issues of tidiness and compatibility with later versions
• If I store them as a text file in the plugin directory, there’s issues around the read/write permissions

from http://arstechnica.com – arstechnica.

1. Bacterial light-harvesting proteins make a regenerating solar cell -

   

   Photovoltaic cells are becoming cheaper and more efficient each year, but there are still some questions regarding their long-term sustainability. Most technologies involve the use of elements that may be limited in supply, toxic, expensive, and difficult to recycle, which may ultimately limit our ability to produce them on the sorts of scales that a wholly renewable energy economy would require. One possible alternative to the traditional hardware is the use of biological materials, which are invariably comprised of abundant elements, and are produced in bulk by organisms simply as part of their normal life. The main downside of biologicals has been that they're far less stable than solid-state devices, which can last for decades. But a study released by Nature Chemistry indicates that it's possible to use an organism's own self-repair systems to keep proteins operating long past the end of their normal lifespan.

   Compared to some of the best devices on the market today, the systems cells used to harvest sunlight during photosynthesis aren't very efficient. But they do have two major advantages. Since life evolved to rely on some of the most abundant elements around—primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen—producing more of them and recycling damaged components is incredibly simple. It also partially eliminates the manufacturing issues, since bacteria will happily pump out more of the light-harvesting proteins each time they divide. That doesn't mean there's a requirement for some hardware to support the proteins, but this is generally simpler and cheaper than the hardware used to harvest light.

   

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2. Report: ACTA secrecy is all the United States' fault -

   The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) got a bit more transparent this year, as negotiators held a few meetings with civil society types and released one official draft text some months ago. But this wouldn't be ACTA without secret meetings and unreleased draft texts, would it?

   This isn't a serious problem for those who want to read the draft texts after each negotiating session; leaks have become routine, which made this week's leak (PDF) of the most recent draft text so unsurprising. At this late stage in the negotiations, after so much criticism in the US and Europe, one might expect ACTA negotiators to operate as transparently as they have promised to do. Unfortunately, the US stands in the way.

   We've seen reports for months that the US contingent was one of the strongest pro-secrecy voices among the negotiators from the EU, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and other countries, but EU sources are now confirming it. According to EurActiv, EU policy sources say that "American officials blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on an EU website after a Washington-based round of negotiations in August."

   Apart from the occasional letter, Congress has little interest in ACTA; the EU Parliament, by contrast, has made far more noise, demanding more briefings and more deference from the European Commission which is negotiating the deal. But the European Commission briefed European members of parliament that after this year's round of negotiations in Lucerne, the meeting remained secret—so Pirate MEP Christian Engström left. He didn't even bother to attend the most recent briefing, which was also secret.

   As for the content of the most recent draft, it's much the same as previous drafts. The truly substantive change came from the US, which has backed off on some of its demands for secondary liability that could implicate ISPs when users do bad things online.

   Looking through the text, it's clear that divisions remain, including some major ones; the EU still demands that its geographical marks (like "Champagne" or "Parmigiano-Reggiano") receive protection from ACTA countries, while most other negotiators want to limit the text to copyrights and counterfeits. KEI, which obtained the most recent leak, has a nice rundown of its changes.

   But most of the major issues are settled, and ACTA certainly seems on track for completion by year's end.

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3. Major file-sharing bust in Europe targets P2P admins -

   Sweden's Frederick Ingblad is a specialized intellectual property prosecutor, and this morning he made a very specialized announcement: at the request of Belgian authorities, Ingbland and Swedish police had just made a series of coordinated raids on ISPs and universities. Their target: "The Scene."

   For two years, Belgium has been looking into the online operations that obtain, crack, and distribute software, games, and media, operations collectively referred to as The Scene. Ingblad targeted several ISPs, Umeå University, and sites in Malmo and Eslöv. The ISP raids were to gain information on particular IP addresses (Sweden has a recent law requiring ISPs to retain more information on their users for just such cases), but some of the other raids were actually made to scoop up individuals. Four people have been detained, along with servers and personal computers.

   

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4. Sony releases mandatory PS3 update in response to jailbreak -

   To the shock of absolutely no one, Sony has announced a new mandatory update for the PlayStation 3. Don't expect any new features, but if you have one of those new, fancy USB-based hacking devices you may want to hold off on updating. Just sayin'.

   "Hi everyone! A minor update to your PS3 system is now available via system software update v3.42 that includes additional security features," Sony's Director of Hardware Marketing wrote on the official blog. "For more details and instructions on how to update the system software for the PS3 system, please visit the PS3 System Updates page."

   Ah, the mandatory updates, who doesn't love them? This is Sony's way of blessing everyone who bought a PlayStation 3 with the gift of annoyance. We'll see how long it takes for another fix from the hacking community, which will be met with yet another firmware patch. This is like your parents fighting: you may not be involved, but you're still stuck in the middle and suffering for it.

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5. Samsung Galaxy S-variant Fascinate launches on Verizon this week -

   

   The Samsung Galaxy S is coming to Verizon's network this week in the form of the Samsung Fascinate. The latest in the Galaxy S smartphone line will be available Wednesday online and Thursday in Verizon Wireless retail stores nationwide. Unlike other Android phones from HTC and Motorola, though, the Fascinate doesn't carry Verizon's Droid branding.

   The internal hardware of the Fascinate is identical to other Galaxy S smartphones, including a 1GHz Hummingbird ARM processor, 4" Super AMOLED touchscreen, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 5MP autofocus camera with 720p video recording. It's also powered by Android 2.1 and comes with the innovative Swype keyboard as the default.

   The main difference between the Fascinate and other Galaxy S variants launched on AT&T and T-Mobile is the cosmetic appearance—which looks quite nice in the photos we have seen so far—and the bundled apps. VCAST will be featured over Amazon MP3 for OTA music downloads, along with a VCAST-branded music identification app. Verizon Navigator will also come preloaded; Google Navigation will need to be downloaded via Android Marketplace if you'd prefer that option. Other preloaded apps include the exclusives NFL Mobile and Blockbuster, as well as Skype Mobile and Amazon Kindle.

   The Samsung Fascinate costs $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract. Plans including voice and data start at $70 per month.

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6. Fall to bring Google TV, just in time for Apple TV faceoff -

   Google CEO Eric Schmidt has reiterated the company's plans to release its TV product in the US this fall. Schmidt made the comments during the IFA show in Berlin, noting that Google TV would go international next year. Additionally, he said the company would begin working with content providers to get movies and shows on the device, but that it was was "very unlikely" that Google would get into the content production business itself.

   Google announced Google TV in May of this year during its own developer conference, touting the device as a more open alternative to the closed set-top boxes out there (particularly the Apple TV). Because it will be Android-based and search-driven, third-party developers are expected to hop on board with a plethora of TV offerings—companies like Netflix and Amazon have already created native apps to run on Google TV.

   Since the announcement, Google promised the FCC that it "seeks to achieve the vast pro-consumer potential of video convergence," but first, the FCC must make the proposed "AllVid" video interface a reality. Hollywood, however, isn't so gung-ho about Google TV and AllVid (surprise!), arguing that their wares would be presented alongside illegal content. "In essence, this 'shopping mall' approach could enable the purveyor of counterfeit goods to set up shop alongside respected brand-name retailers, causing consumer confusion," the MPAA said of the proposal.

   Still, Google is pressing on with its plans to roll out a set-top box from Logitech, a Google TV-enabled Blu-ray player from Sony, and a Sony HDTV with Google services built-in. The new $99 Apple TV is also set for release this fall (the end of September, to be exact); although it is still a very different product than what Google TV hopes to be, many TV-watching geeks will keep an eye on both.

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7. Feature: Advertisers get hands stuck inside HTML5 database cookie jar -

   Even casual Internet users know that if you want to hold your privacy in check, it's good practice to clear out your browser cookies every once in a while. Our recent coverage about "zombie" Flash cookies has shown us, however, that simply clearing your browser cookies the old fashioned way isn't always enough. As highlighted by a study out of UC Berkeley, some companies have begun using Flash-based cookies that not only recreate themselves when deleted without the user's knowledge, they reach into the Flash storage bin for the just-deleted user info so that they can keep tracking you and your stored history instead of starting anew.

   It's because of this behavior that some of our readers drew our attention to something called RLDGUID, a Safari database that has been popping up more and more on iOS devices. What is it, who put it there, and what purpose does it serve? The company behind this database, Ringleader Digital, is basically using some of the modern HTML5 capabilities of mobile browsers to perform the same tasks as a traditional cookie, but out of sight of most users. We decided to dig in and see what RLDGUID is all about, and what we found was sometimes confusing. More importantly, however, it highlights why users should be made more aware of what their browsers are storing about them. 

   

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8. Learn your history, the Android way -

   Some weeks ago, after reading the Droid X reviews on Ars Technica (here and here), I got myself one. Sure enough, I loved it, and like any good, patriotic smartphone consumer, I started downloading lots of Android apps. How did I find them? I clicked on the Market Store, of course, and typed in a search word.

   What word did I use? Well, take a look at my last four longish Ars stories (German copyright laws in the 19th-century; Thomas Edison's bid to hijack the movies; the 1962 UHF TV mandate; and the censorship of comic books in the 1950s).

   

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9. Feature: Review: Microsoft Hohm and a whole-house power monitor -

   Microsoft's Hohm energy efficiency and tracking service, still in beta, has a unique sense of style. Who expects a discussion about insulation R-values to involve pirate jokes?

   "What do pirates look for in attic insulation?" Hohm asks. "The arrrr value! Insulation R-value measures how well a material stops heat flow, the higher the better."

   This can be a bit jarring at first—are the sorts of people who write about "arrrr value!" really the ones you go to for home improvement questions?—but if you're going to use Hohm, you'd better get used to it.

   "Read and follow the instructions that came with your new refrigerator. (This will not harm your street cred)," says a tip on buying more efficient iceboxes. You'll also want to keep the new fridge away "from anything hot like an oven, direct sunlight, or visiting supermodels." 

   When it comes to lighting your room, consider task lighting; it can save money because, the site informs us, "you won't need to turn on the overhead light for your ironic cross-stitch." Advice from Bob Vila this is not.

   

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10. Belgian broadcasters try kneecapping DVRs, demand compensation -

    Belgians are probably most interested in knowing whether their country will survive its strife between the French and Flemish-Dutch speaking groups, or whether it will break apart into separate nations. Here at Ars, however, we’re more interested in the country's peculiarities with respect to copyright law and broadband technology (and, of course, Belgium's wide variety of beers and chocolate). We recently wrote about Belgian bandwidth hogs, and in the past on ISPs having to filter P2P and newspapers suing Google News. This week it’s Belgian broadcasters seeking to cripple Digital Video Recorders and get compensation for their introduction.

    

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Blond and Danish or not, do be careful broadcasting your IP address with BT – Check out some info on anonymous BT so you can at least try to hide.

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Programs and services that start whenever Windows boots do so in various ways. The simplest way to install programs and services that start whenever Windows boots is to create a shortcut to the program within the Startup folder for the current user (or for each user on the machine). To open your Startup folder, click Start, then Run, and type the following:

%userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

To open the Startup folder for all users, click Start, then Run, and type the following:

%allusersprofile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

In addition, Registry keys are another common way to launch programs or services at startup. You can also use tools like your System Configuration Utility (click Start, then Run, type msconfig.exe, click OK, and select the Startup tab) or a third-party tool like Autoruns from Sysinternals. Once you’ve found all this junk though, how do you get rid of it?

Removing items from your Startup folder (or the common Startup folder) is generally safe, but deleting values from your Registry should be done only as a last resort. In fact, sometimes deleting a registry value won’t even work–as soon as you run the application associated with the startup program, the deleted registry value may get automatically re-created!

The best way to proceed is to first try to see if the application itself lets you remove the feature or component that’s starting up every time Windows boots. You might need to rerun your application’s Setup program to do this. If this fails, then (and only then) should you consider deleting a registry value (but always back up your registry before making any changes to it).

Finally, here a few more sources of information on the topic of startup programs:

• How to Remove Startup Programs
• How To Manage Windows Startup
• Configure Auto-Starting Applications
• How to Modify the List of Programs that Run When You Start Windows XP
• Restore Your Computer’s Performance with Windows XP

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EverythingLinux’s excellent rsync tutorial discusses some of the reasons why rsync is better than ftp.

• Diffs – Only actual changed pieces of files are transferred, rather than the whole file. This makes updates faster, especially over slower links like modems. FTP would transfer the entire file, even if only one byte changed.
• Compression – The tiny pieces of diffs are then compressed on the fly, further saving you file transfer time and reducing the load on the network.
• Secure Shell – The security conscious of you out there would like this, and you should all be using it. The stream from rsync is passed through the ssh protocol to encrypt your session.

previous links:

Rsync on Windows
rsync – Windows, MAC, Unix, Linux, BSD

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