Posts for January 2006

'Goobuntu': Let the rumors commence...

So, is Google going to release it's own version of Linux? Hey, the rumor is it's based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. All the kool kids use Debian (me, Second Life, Google...who else matters? *grin* (Of course, the funny thing from that article is that, if it's true, the domain name goobuntu.com has been registered in the last few days...but not by Google. Doh!)

January 31, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Site subversion repos

Just in case anyone is wondering about exactly what I did do in the 5 lines of Python I mentioned in my previous post...I have forgotten to mention recently, but my subversion repository for this site is publicly readable:

Site code: http://sources.kenzoid.com/repos/djweb/trunk/

Site templates: http://sources.kenzoid.com/repos/djweb-templates/trunk/

I probably need to update/add the LICENSE file, but it's all Python license. Have fun...you know you want to! *grin*

January 28, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

I like URL fixing made easy

Slap me silly. I went through my recent apache logs tonight to focus on a known issue; I've been through multiple backends with this website, and I've kept all the data...but my URLs have gone brokey as I switch. An example; what is now at

used to be at

Same post, different URL. And that's happened more than once. I've had a zope backend twice, a flat file backend, and a different database-backed backend than I do now. That I can remember offhand. Ouch. Zoinks, even.

Since I can be anal about this sort of stuff (vs. many other things that I am definitely NOT anal about), I've been careful enough to keep the numeric ID values of the old urls around (usually in the relevant db record). And I've always figured, I can just whip up some redirects as I identify bad requests from my logs. How hard can it be? (while unconsciously dreading the potential ickiness).

Luckily, with Django, it is indeed freakin' trivial. I tracked down my first one (in fact, the example above), and ended up with approximately 5 lines (one of a regex and Django view call, 4 in the called function) to fix it. This shit is awesome!! Fixing these will actually be fun!

Have I mentioned I love Django? *grin*

January 28, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

All-in-one car MP3 FM transmitter gadget

Car Audio FM Stereo Transmitter/Thumbdrive MP3 player ($36.95!) Looks pretty slick: Plugs straight into lighter socket for power, accepts music via USB port (via thumbdrive or other storage) or via 1/8" audio plug (for CD/DVD/MP3 player), and transmits to FM.

About the only weakness I see here is that (like many of the cheaper FM transmitters) it is limited to certain pre-set channels at top and bottom of dial. But for $40, not bad!

Link from Scripting News

January 26, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Cory Doctorow speaks on copyright in Antwerp

Cory Doctorow gave a great 40 minute talk in Antwerp last night. Cory always does a bang-up job with these talks, but he really hit all the high notes this time in particular. From clarifying the copyright bargain, to describing the futility of DRM, to the dangers of legislation like the DMCA and the new "analog hole" proposals, Cory makes his points clearly and cogently. If you haven't listened to him before, this is an excellent introduction. (Direct link to MP3 [18MB]). Thanks, Cory!

January 25, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Piracy is good...

I hadn't surfed through Mindjack before, but this is a great essay: Piracy is Good. Subtitled How Battlestar Galactica killed broadcast TV, the piece runs through the concept of hyperdistribution (BitTorrent swarming, basically...though any Internet distribution mechanism suffices), and shows how this tech turns broadcast programming and advertising models on their head. Nothing new for the uber-geeks out there, but a good overview, especially for those unfamiliar with the specifics.

Thanks to reddit for the link.

January 20, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Wow...everything has DEPTH!

After a long wait, all the pieces of the puzzle (kernel driver, Mesa libraries, OpenGL voodoo, X stuff) have all fallen into place, and I have accelerated 3D with my open-source video drivers! Yay! Thanks very much to all the folks at the r300 sourceforge project, X.org, and the DRI project (and anyone else) who've made this work. It's awesome, both functionally (hey...3d acceleration works!) and architecturally (they got this working for Radeon 9200+ cards with VERY little help from ATI).

Now there are some cool GPL'd 3D games I can play...some rendering/modeling tools that work much better now, and once the Second Life Linux client decloaks, I can play SL without rebooting. Plus, down the road, much of the eye candy being developed for various desktops relies on OpenGL. Which I now have on all platforms. Joy!

January 15, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Grandma got run over by a mi-go!

How did I possibly miss this back on the solstice? Some Servant of Cthulhu I am! Great job, Cheryl!

January 13, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2006

Head on over to The Well and check out this year's fun. Bruce Sterling has been doing these amazing rambling rants on topical global issues for years now, and they never fail to both entertain and educate. Bruce is one of my absolute favorite writers, fiction or non-fiction, and I try to never miss an opportunity to watch him at his craft.

January 12, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Radio Babylon

SON ofabitch! Ignore that previous post about the HDTV tuner...if you want to see what actually makes me drool, versus just something nerdy, check out Radio Babylon. For less than $200, that's a bad-ass embedded development system, and with Andy's Radio Babylon code, you can turn it on near a friendly wireless network that contains iTunes shares and plug your headphones in. It picks a random iTunes share, picks a random tune and starts playing. Repeat until bored or the batteries are dead.

Amazing. I've been looking at gumstix for awhile, but this pushed me way over the edge. This shoots straight to the top of my birthday list of toys.

January 10, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Gadget alert!

OK, admittedly, I don't have a HDTV, I seldom watch any TV, and I don't even have a Tivo to catch what I would watch (though I'm rebuilding my Linux DVR as we speak, after an hardware failure. So I'll catch up on Battlestar Galactica eventually). But this USB HDTV Tuner has the geek chops, if nothing else. Use your laptop to watch HDTV! The bundled software lets you record, and even "backup your favorite episodes to DVD". Exxcellent....

January 9, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Stay alert, trust no one...or should you?

Mark Wallace (of Walkerings) has a great article on MMORPG trust and the various player-to-player/player-to-company interactions that can occur in that sphere. It focuses on notable 2005 goings-on in two of my favorites: Second Life and EVE Online. Well worth reading, if you're into MMORPGs, even if you don't play those two in particular. The ramifications are relevant for the entire MMORPG space.

January 8, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Cool project, cool framework

As I mentioned earlier, I've changed the web application framework underneath this website to Django; an awesome, Python-based, easy-to-use toolkit for dynamic websites. There are several pretty high-profile sites using Django (it was originally developed for The Lawrence Journal-World [newspaper in Lawrence, KS]), and the latest big site has been announced. The US Congress Votes Database tracks voting for every member of Congress, allows you to subscribe to a member's voting record as an RSS feed, and contains records of every vote since 1991. Pretty cool, and a testament to the power of this framework.

January 5, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

A-Hole torrent available on DVD...

(Heh...got your attention there, didn't I? *grin*) Well, it's probably not what you think. This is just a quick note that I have been meaning to post for awhile to my "local" readers. Which is basically Lee and (maybe) Andy (no link...no trace. He's a wraith).

Anyway, point being that I downloaded the Broadcast Flag and Analog Hole hearings from last November, and have them available as a V-CD (OK, so I lied about the DVD) if anyone is looking to watch them. Almost as exciting as C-SPAN, I suppose...but this is important stuff. You ARE paying attention to the Digital Transition Content Security Act (aka: Analog Hole Legislation), aren't you? HR 4569, to be exact. And if you need a link to it's status...well, here ya go.

January 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

RSS feed valid!

And with pubdate to boot. w00t! Did I mention Django is cool?

January 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

FlightAware: jazzy!

FlightAware is a free IFR flight tracker...dang, this is cool. Includes live flight tracking of any flight, instant info for an airport, aggregate data for analysis (flights/day by time, etc.), and nifty animated flight video. I'm not a plane nerd or anything, but this IS pretty cool. (Thanks, reddit!)

January 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

So far, so good...

Well, so far the migration appears pretty successful. Nothing appears to be lost. The template generating my RSS feed needs some editing; it only has title info right now, and no datetime data. That's pretty trivial. Definitely some CSS tweaking, but that was expected.

And I get a real web framework again! Nothing against blosxom in general; it ably powered my weblog for a while. Much longer than intended, in fact. And I could have added things like comments to blosxom, of course...but it was always a solution limited to my weblog, vs. my entire site. Rebuilding my reading list, for example, it really beyond the scope of blosxom (though possible, I'm sure, with much tweaking).

Using Django, OTOH, gives me a full-blown application framework. Clean integration with databases, all the python libraries available, flexible templating language, caching capability, framework plugins...the list goes on. This thing is great!

In addition, Django has an underappreciated (by me, anyway) bonus; the admin interface. Through The Web, easy to use and customize, full control of the data in the app. And built in...when I build a data class, the admin stuff basically comes for free (along with the DDL for the db table, for that matter...truly a DRY infrastructure). I didn't really grok how much I'd like it until I tried it (as I am now, writing this blogpost in it).

I've already slapped the above-mentioned reading list back in, turned on commenting, and I'm preparing some more additions. Django is fun!

January 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

New beginning!

OK...I think this is ready. Heck with it...if it breaks, it breaks. New backend (django)! Now with comments (again)! All hail python!

To bed. Seems to be working, hopefully no horrible errors. Those I will fix tomorrow. *grin*

January 4, 2006 permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier posts -- Later posts