Woo-freakin-hoo! I’m downloading the Second Life Linux client as we speak (er, post, whatever). It’s alpha, and there are known issues, but I am psyched. I would LOVE for this thing to get the kinks knocked out of it; I spend much less time in Second Life than I would simply because of the activation energy required to stop, shut things down, and reboot to Windows. If I could just pop in at will, I really feel that I’d spent a lot more time there. And it’s an increasing returns sort of thing…when I dig in and start playing around in-game, I get so involved, and have so many ideas, that I want to log in even more…cool!

So I’m actually looking forward to the inevitable coredump hell. Color me masochistic, I suppose. Download complete. Cross your fingers; here we go!

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!)

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*

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

• http://www.kenzoid.com/blog/archive/284/

used to be at

• 
  http://www.kenzoid.com/Members/kkennedy/weblog_storage/blog_30982

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*

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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.