Small amusements
One of the great things about playing with pre-release software is you come across these little things that make you giggle and you know will make others you know giggle if they could see it with the proper context, and of course one of the annoying things is you're not allowed to tell...
In an upcoming version of VoodooPad, one of those chuckles was supplied by reading "VoodooPad now contains a built-in web server" in the release notes -- and since I was still wanting to shake my head every time I went to the control panel weeks into using it, Gus allowed me to post the above so long as I that's all I post and all I say.
While you won't have all the context to round out the feature, you can glean some of it from the "Of the geeks, by the..." section within Of Lux, the strategy game and bane of productivity, and that Gus apparently enjoys writing http, servlet and mp3 servers over and over "for fun."
Posted by drunkenbatmanMay 03, 2006, at 05:49 PM
Comments (24)
Posted by: Kay at May 3, 2006 06:50 PM
Aaah, this is cool, but unfortunately it's not. I seem to recall that I do already have a webserver running on my system...next thing you know, every f***ing app will have one embedded, because it's soo cool....:(
Posted by: Dan at May 3, 2006 07:14 PM
Wow, I'll look forward to messing with that. If it can at least let me see my VoodooPad docs from work where I don't have a Mac to work on I'll be happy. If I could use it (edit, create, etc) from the web then I'd be one ecstatic camper.
I don't see every app having embedded web servers though, but being available via Bonjour could be cool (web server like but more a custom protocol). There is a time and place for embedded web servers, but just to do it to have it is silly.
Posted by: stridey at May 3, 2006 07:15 PM
*totally freaks out*
If this means what I think it means, I am pissing my pants excited.
@Kay (and other doubters): The difference is that VoodooPad is already a wiki, with export to web features. It's its own wiki-based WYSIWYG web editor.
Posted by: Other_Matt at May 3, 2006 07:34 PM
Sorry, gotta side with the others that a webserver built into the App is kinda dumb. I use(d) Voodoo Pad on a laptop, so I have to leave my laptop on and accessible via the network to access this? Kinda silly. And yeah, there is a webserver built into the OS, but it may be that this is just a control panel built into Voodoo pad that configures Apache for you, which would be cool.
Mind you, I got rid of the laptop recently :-(
Loved it to death, but it wasn't practical anymore, I work at a desk most of the time now days, and need more screen real estate.
Posted by: Twist at May 3, 2006 08:58 PM
I really hope that they are just leveraging the power of Apache that is built into every Mac OS X machine out there and not really building their own web server into the application. Surely this is just a front-end for editing a few of the Apache settings for people too dumb, scared, or uncaring enough to do so using the normal methods. Why reinvent the stone wheel when we already have pneumatic rubber ones?
Posted by: bonaldi at May 3, 2006 10:21 PM
That's a brilliant idea! It's time far more apps did this. Syncing to a web interface is the best option, obviously, but for those of us with one FatMac in the corner doing everything and always running, this is by far the second best.
All apps should be able to have a GUI interface and a web interface, and serving it should be built into the OS.
Posted by: AnonymousCoward at May 3, 2006 10:33 PM
Sounds like a great security attack vector to me! Can anyone say "buffer overflow"?
Posted by: Gus Mueller at May 4, 2006 12:28 AM
BUFFER OVERFLOW!
There, I said it. Problem is, ... I'm not using any apis where something like that can be exploited. And VP defaults to having the webserver turned off, and you have to explicitly turn on sharing for a document.
The reason I wrote my own webserver and not using Apache is so there is zero lag between typing a word in a page and letting your neighbor see it in their browser. However if you want to use Apache you can. And you can even do it today just by using the web export command. Just write the document out to whatever directory you want to serve it up using Apache. Tada!
So I wouldn't say that having a webserver built in is dumb, enough people asked for it so I built it in. I just imagine someone taking notes in a meeting, and having his/her co-workers looking through a VoodooPad document that's being shared out. That's kind of cool.
I should also note, so that no one has unreasonable expectations, that the webserver stuff is read-only. There's a big disconnect between editing in a browser and editing in VoodooPad.. RTFD doesn't make it through the net in any reasonable way.
Posted by: Rosyna at May 4, 2006 12:33 AM
Gus, doesn't matter. Tom Ferris is still going to issue a vulnerability warning document based on that screenshot alone.
Posted by: Casey at May 4, 2006 10:31 AM
I'm personally more interested in seeing what's under that shortcuts tab. Just yesterday I was wishing I could bind the Edit > Insert > Current Date to... well something.
Posted by: Sandy at May 4, 2006 12:05 PM
so I have to leave my laptop on and accessible via the network to access this?
There's an off button on these things? Wow! Who knew?
Mind you, I got rid of the laptop recently :-(
Loved it to death, but it wasn't practical anymore, I work at a desk most of the time now days, and need more screen real estate.
People use a laptop at their desks without a second screen?
(Apologies in advance for the snark Other_Matt. Both statements are so foreign to my thinking I couldn't resist.)
Posted by: Dan at May 4, 2006 01:23 PM
@Gus
Drat to it being read-only. Now I'm just going to have to get a Mac at work. Thanks for the information!
Posted by: AnonymousCoward at May 4, 2006 06:27 PM
"The reason I wrote my own webserver..."
Good luck defending that code. If Macs ever get popular you'll wish you didn't :-).
Posted by: Peter da Silva at May 4, 2006 06:55 PM
"The reason I wrote my own webserver and not using Apache is so there is zero lag between typing a word in a page and letting your neighbor see it in their browser."
I have written webservers as shell scripts.
The cool thing about HTTP is that it's so easy to implement that it really is about as easy to write a webserver in an app as to write an embedded (using CGI, PHP, or any other tool) version in Apache that's actually secure.
The reason that this isn't a security problem in and of itself is that it's about as easy to implement a security hole in a CGI, PHP, what have you as to implement one in your own webserver code in an application.
Posted by: Peter da Silva at May 4, 2006 06:57 PM
"Your message couldn't be submitted due to questionable content server corn" (where the "rn" is really an "m" but I can't post that way because that would make this message questionable.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over?
Posted by: cameron aka desk003 at May 7, 2006 12:19 AM
Gus: thank you. This is an awesome idea. Can't wait to play with it.
Posted by: Other_Matt at May 10, 2006 01:27 PM
Sandy :
No apologies necessary, in 4 years of laptop useage, I used the power button very rarely my uptimes tended to be around the same length of time as Apples patch cycle. That said, my laptop does like to sleep, and usually at that point, it stops talking on the network.
Having read Gus's post it's kinda clearer, real time updates of a page, I personally just can't see a real good use for that, and the sysadmin in me probably just hates the idea of running any kind of a server off a laptop. Cool, but to my mind, impractical.
I suppose it depends on what else was on Gus's to do list. :-)
As for getting rid of the laptop. I bought a 12inch, and it was perfect, I lugged it around everywhere, and it even fit on my lap when riding last class on planes.
It had one problem however, its size meant that my wrists lined up perfectly with it's edge, typing on it for extended periods was excruciating.
When I was a conslutant it was good, I had an external mouse, I could usually find an external keyboard if I was using it for extended periods, and even an external monitor, as I wandered from site to site.
Now I'm an admin for a single site, I don't move much, I have a PC on a desk at home with a 19inch and a 17 inch display, I have a company supplied PC at work, with a 19 inch LCD and a 17 inch LCD.
The laptop was downgraded to just a portable IRC platform, and occasional documentation system via VoodooPad, which was just not enough to justify keeping it.
Oh well, I sold it to my parents, I can always ask for it back at a later date ;-)
Posted by: drunkenbatman at May 10, 2006 01:30 PM
FYI, a few of the dates on the latter comments are screwy, because I screwed up during my slash-and-burn despamming, and am too lazy to actually go in and edit them after adding them back in, although chances are it would have taken less time than typing this comment.
Posted by: ...? at June 11, 2006 04:24 PM
Are you alive?
Posted by: Stephen Deken at June 13, 2006 10:02 AM
I think that's a "no."
Posted by: dvsjr at June 14, 2006 05:32 PM
batdude, where you at? Hope you're having fun and all, but we need stuff to read yo, so come on. Quit slackin.
peace.
Posted by: McCoy at June 27, 2006 12:54 PM
He's dead, Jim
:-(
That's pretty neat.
Now, if it could do publishing via FTP, or even webdav to put it on a real server...
...that'd be hot.