Demon Clown Baby

So you want to add mod_deflate to Apache but without recompiling it. You can compile just that module and add it dynamically.

What we need to do is create mod_deflate.so where the .so stands for shared object.

First find where apxs and apr-config are located. For me it was in /usr/local/apache/bin

Edit the apr-config file and change this line:

LDFLAGS=""

to this one:

LDFLAGS="-lz"

Then go to your Apache source files (or download them off of apache.org). Go to modules/filters and find the mod_deflate.c file.

Run this:

apxs -c mod_deflate.c

You should now have these files:

mod_deflate.c
mod_deflate.dsp
mod_deflate.exp
mod_deflate.la
mod_deflate.lo
mod_deflate.o
mod_deflate.slo

Notice there is no mod_deflate.so file there. This is where I got stuck. Fortunately on Apache’s site they indicate to do this:

apxs -i -a -n deflate mod_deflate.la

That creates the mod_deflate.so file, puts it in the modules folder, and adds this to your httpd.conf:

LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so

There you go.

Apparently, Opera (the web browser company) isn’t satisfied that Microsoft has included a “get rid of Internet Explorer completely” switch, they also want Microsoft to include other browsers as options.

I am not by anyone’s standards a Microsoft fan.

But I really don’t get this. What is the problem with them including their own browser. I don’t see WS_FTP suing them over including their own [useless, command line] ftp client.

So they include a browser. Why wouldn’t they? If they didn’t, how would people even download an alternative?

MS Word isn’t included in the OS. What’s there is notepad and wordpad. Does Wordperfect sue them over wordpad? No. A text editor is a standard tool for a robust OS. If Wordperfect doesn’t want to create their own OS, they can create a document editor better than Wordpad. And they did. (MS Word might be preferable, but we’re talking OS-included vs. 3rd party here.)

The point is no one thinks MS is evil for including basic tools. You know who should be upset? Users. They should complain that they want a bare-bones browser (like wordpad is a bare-bones editor), which would result in a cheaper OS they can then customize by adding the browser of their choice.

Oh. But that wouldn’t result in a cheaper OS, because without the revenue brought in by MS search engine being the default in their own browser, the OS would cost more.

Maybe that’s why users aren’t complaining. Just other software companies.

Who are upset that MS has a better business model than they do.

Um… tough.

Let’s be clear, I hate Internet Explorer. I stayed on Netscape 3.01 for years rather than switch to IE. I finally switched, and as soon as I learned Firefox existed I went to that. IE is rubbish.

But so what if it’s included in Windows? It doesn’t hurt me. It doesn’t take away my choice.

Now, if MS refused to allow any other browser to even install, that would be bad. (Whether the government should get involved is another story, there are points on both free market and anti-free market sides. I lean free market a lot but when it comes to, say, children dying of cholera from unpasteurized milk (read your history), I’m firmly on the side of government regulation, and the free market can go hang.)

So Opera doesn’t think MS should have a browser embedded in the OS at all? That’s a bit daft. I’d hate for installing Wordperfect to eradicate Wordpad. There’s a use for having default tools, even if the user chooses to install better tools.

Opera thinks MS should install their software? Why? Just to be nice? They don’t have to. Whatever income they would get from such a partnership is less than continuing to emphasize IE, so why would they? Only if they were as dumb about business as they are about security. (Zing!)

My wife is making custom birthday hats now. We’ll see if we can make any money at it. The hats are quite nice. But either the product is good enough or our marketing is good enough to make it work, or it isn’t. We’re not going to run to mommy and sue Party City for not carrying our hats in stock.

All this does is make Opera look lame.

In the meantime, I’ll still be using Firefox.

Richard Allen Davis is now trying to get his conviction underturned.

This guy’s been in prison 15 years for kidnapping, raping, and murdering a little girl.

He was sentenced to death, but of course no one has gotten around to doing it yet.

Polly’s death at the hands of Davis, who had an extensive kidnap and assault record going back to the 1970s, led to the creation of California’s three-strikes law.

How about the one strike law for things like kidnapping? We have millions and millions of people in this country. Kidnapping is something no one should ever do at all, so why give people a second chance? We’re not going to run out of people, we don’t need kidnappers to shore up our numbers. Let’s get rid of the kidnappers right away, not wait until they do it two more times.

But let’s get rid of the death penalty. We’re too wussy to use it (else Davis would already be dead, as there is NO ONE who thinks he’s innocent, he CONFESSED). So let’s just stop arguing about it and lock people up forever.

I’d prefer us to execute these scumbags, but since we never will, let’s at least lock ‘em up in supermax prisons.

Polly’s still dead, and this guy is still alive, trying to get out. If you don’t remember, at his sentencing, instead of remorse, he claimed Polly told him “Just don’t do me like my dad.” A confessed kidnapper and murderer, it wasn’t enough to end Polly’s life and destroy her family, he had to make a pathetic last-ditch effort to hurt the family even more by vicious slander.