Yesterday was Drupal Barcamp day for me.

about 25 to 30 people - Mostly developers turned up, with maybe 4 non-developers

I bookmarked a couple modules that will be handy - i turned on the boost module for my blog so you're all reading this via a static file and apache2, no drupal involved in the serving of content anymore. Damn fast, i need to benchmark it now. It works by using the hook_cache that usually puts a copy of page output in the database in drupal's performance section. Instead the boost module put a copy of the page html on the file system, in the right structure. Some mod_rewrite rules means apache2 finds these instead of drupal's index.php. If during a request the cached files aren't there (404), then drupal runs to generate it. Drupal's cron job is then responsible for removing files that need regenerating, so i had to up my cron job frequency to 4 minutes.

this was also my first encounter wth Drupy, a port of Drupal to Python. They're more then halfway complete. It's currently python with a whole lotta statics to emulate global function etc. to be like drupal php - worth watching where the Drupy project goes once they're complete. If you're a pythonite, come contribute.

I learned of Quercus, a full reimplementation of php inside java. This means the next project that "must be java" can be php compiled into java and then every will be happy. Drupal is tested and runs in quercus.

I'm still finding only New Zealand has accepted electronic money.

Elsewhere folks still carry cash.

My wallet doesn't have a space for coins or notes. For years at a time i don't touch real money in NZ.

Elsewhere the same facilities exist. I'm in Sydney today, and they don't use electronic payments much at all. I suspect they'd use it occasionally - but last night at dinner I quickly whispered the aussie rules to the NZer beside me (his first time in Australia). In New Zealand, you'd tick off which items you ordered, swipe you card, enter you credentials+pin and you're one. I use electronic money 100% of the time. In australia, after the group meal, they estimate how much each person should pay, and then swap notes and coins with each other until there's enough in the middle of the table.

Bill and ted, originally uploaded by Br3nda

i miss Reed, originally uploaded by Br3nda

never mind your ssh keys --- 20,000 people dead in earthquake in china today.

openssl used the pid and some uninitialized memory as their source of entropy.
that was all their entropy

debian removed the unintialised memory use - they asked on the openssl list if this was okay, and got the nod
that leaves only the only pid for entropy.

........

i'm sorry, but putting back in the uninitialised memory as an entropy source doesn't sound very random to me

can has /dev/random?

i don't think this is over yet.

If you're using sshkeys generated on debian (or debian deriviatives like
ubuntu) then you may need to re-generate your ssh key and then replace on every
server you have.

The problem is that openssl has been generating weak keys that are easily exploitable since Etch (well 2006-09-17 in unstable).

Here is an example of an ssh attack that works: (gaining access to my account,
without my private key - note i've replaced it since)

The Debian security announcement about this:
http://www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1571

If you're using NZ debian mirrors, it appears they still have the old keygen
up, haven't re-synced yet.

ubuntu mirrors (nz.archive.ubuntu.com) are good

I'm off to Sydney for a couple days, and so I asked twitter what to pack
(i've never seen Australia in winter before)
http://twitter.com/singingfish/statuses/808926042
I like the description - 10 to 25 degrees, not much rain, and a good supply of rainbow coloured umbrellas are on hand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4521911a10.html

just WTF! one quarter? they must not have polled in Wellington. i'd say 80% of Wellingtonians leave their cars at home every single day -- that is assuming they even have a car, which a good chunk of them don't.

crazy people in the rest of the country, refusing to pay for public transport, electing folks who just wanna build more roads instead...

but - here's hoping more cars get off wellington streets, making it safe to bike or scooter into town -- the bypass has shown no noticable drop in the traffic levels in the central city - it's really only increased the traffic along the bypass roads, and created a fun game for me every time i cross the bypass to work 4 to 8 times a day, and have to guess if there's one more car about to hurtle outta willis street and through the red and take me out during the pedestrian phase of the lights. It's a really really fun game.

thanks to you wellingtonians who DIDN'T VOTE...!! I BLAME YOU!

i'm not convinced of the value of buying over renting.

If i was to guesstimate the value of this house - the neighbour's house sold for $640k last month, but our house is much nicer, has heating, bigger yard, doubleglazing, and the neighbours don't -- so lets assume this is a $700k house.

With a $20k deposit and a 30 year mortgage that's a repayment of about $1400 per week..

I'm currently paying $160 per week in rent.. (we have 2 flatmates)

so, if i stay where i am, paying rent, and putting that extra $1,240 per week into a bank account every week, after only 10 years i'll have > $600,000 in savings.

If i'd taken the mortgage, then after 10 years i'd still owe the bank $640,000 of the house - meaning i'd barely have paid off any of it

of course the house would increase in value too - but so would my $600,000 in savings. Predicting which would grow more is a hard one.

IMG_0704, originally uploaded by serenecloud

Some scientific proof that if you're not happy, then breeding some bebbehs isn't gonna solve it. Popping out babies will make it worse.

http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dtg/gilbert.htm

People's happiness goes into steep decline after they have children, and never recovers its old level until the children leave home.

Playing with one's offspring rates just above doing housework but below talking with friends, eating, or watching TV, research has shown.

found via http://www.stuff.co.nz/4518284a19716.html

I've got requests from the occasional conference organiser (more so now that geekspeakr exists) when they discover that every single submission to their conference was by men - or the women are only submitting the traditional women's topics, (graphic design, community management.... ) and not the hardcore stuff. They want more balance.

(i need a better word than "hardcore".. because graphic design and community management can be hardcore too)

I'm still looking for yet more New Zealand women who can speak on topics of technology, science and engineering. There's a few up already @ http://geekspeakr.com/new-zealand

There lotsa opensource tech speakers up there already, as well as speakers on business, project management, baby wrangling and blogging.

What's missing is the women working in closed source (there are some, right?), and the science and engineering folks.

Where can I find these folks?

This is brenda's rant on this you should do

1. Functions (or subs) should be small, concise, and to the point. Don't write functions that are > 100 lines.
2. declare your variables. use strict; E_STRICT;
3. put your virtual host config in seperate files, in sites-available. Don't appeand to existing files.
4. Give code enough db and os permissions to do their job and no more. the postgres users connecting from php does not need to own the database and every table. It should have things granted that it needs to do. The apache running as www-data should not have write permission anywhere unless it needs to have it.
5. use transactions!!!!! if you need to insert to 3 tables to save something, put it into a transaction so you don't end up with half of it failing and leaving the DB as a mess.
6. Put your data integrity rules into the data schema. It'll also be in your code, but having it in the database as well with means less bugs, and never more. You'll notice that you screwed up.
7. turn error_logging on, and CHECK YOUR ERROR LOG well before you deploy to staging. Don't wait until it's on production before realising that it's spewing errors at us.
8. don't copy paste similar things over and over in code. MAKE A SUBROUTINE!
9. name your methods properly.. A function called exists() on it's own, not inside a class, is just WRONG!
10. Use comments. Both inline as you go, and a doxygen to describe each function, define, class ... everthing needs describing.
11. GLOBAL variables are wrong. Use a static class or a define.

Pizza thursday is something we do at catalyst. We're a giant flock of geeks hacking opensource at work all day, so we stop to rant to each other on thursdays.

Check out the topics for the next pizza thursday:
* ccache: gcc's best friend
* "thing's wot I lernt about technical writin"
* a rant about licensing

check out my new cellphone handset.
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=152864203

There's a write over at the google opensource blog on wellington's first gay geek dinner:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/05/wellington-geeks-keep-on-rocking.html

Put together by Brian Logan, it seems they had a great time.

I was sad to miss it while I was stuck in Hamiltron watching giant V8 Super cars crash into concrete barriers.

Michael Widenius (often called Monty), the main author of the original version of the open-source MySQL database and a founding member of the MySQL AB company, explain in this presentation the future of MySQL and why he believes MySQL is not a Open Source project, very interesting presentation.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2575733/The-future-of-MySQL-The-Project

Found via Andreano Lanusse

This week is New Zealand Signlanguage week.

It's also the first anniversary of New Zealand Sign Language becoming an official language in New Zealand.

Some signing tidbits:
* New Zealand Sign Languages is an indigeous language, unique to New Zealand.
* Lip reading really really sucks as a method to understand what someone is saying.
* Signs vary between auckland, wellington christchurch, but there is an official sign thanks to the publication of a dictionary.
* There are signs for many words in Te Reo Maori.
* NZSL is not sign for word the same as english - the grammar is different.
* NZSL uses facial expression (position of eyebrows etc) and spatial grammar, as well as your hands signing.
* If you spell Deaf with a capital, you're referring to the culture and proud identity of being Deaf. If you spell deaf lowercase, you're just referring to not being able to hear. If in doubt, use the capital.

There are free intro classes on Signlanguage all over New Zealand this week. The timetable is here: http://www.nzsign.co.nz/Calendar.aspx

The theme of this year's Deaf Language Week is Sign Language and freedom. Deaf people haven't always been free to sign, and NZ's history contains times when hearing people seized control of their decision for them, and forbade Deaf child to communicate except in spoken language that they could not understand. Many of the signs in NZ's signlanguage began as an underground language used secretly by children in dorm rooms at boarding school when adults were not looking, for fear of punishment. Hence NZ sign is different to signlanguages elsewhere, yet still contains many signs borrowed from other languages.

I like freedom. Infact i like freedom so much, my family's motto is "Pro Libertate", meaning "For Freedom". (p.s. If you saw the movie, know that our family has nothing to do with Mel Gibson, my family likes jews.).

http://www.nzsign.co.nz/

Sign language gives Deaf people the freedom to enjoy a full life through the ability to communicate. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like being unable to "talk" to others. Then you will understand the power that sign language gives the Deaf.

As one Deaf person put it "Sign Language allows us to stand on our own two feet. Without it we literally have no voice".

Sign language has given the Deaf a whole new freedom. Now they can be heard! (Well, seen, really - but the effect is the same). They can tell the rest of the world about their needs, their hopes, worries, dreams and emotions. They can ask for information, give evidence, tell jokes, to praise for good service, learn about the world around them and do all the things everyone should be able to do!