Sun, 18 Jun 2006

Planet Yak Shaving

I had a bunch of browser tabs open containing blogs I wanted to add to Planet NZTech so I decided I would do so. Net result: about another 17 or so extra blogs on the roll (About 75 on the roll all up--where did they all come from? :-) ).

As it happens, I pulled about 12 of the new blogs from the Planet WLUG site. I contemplated just subscribing to their feed or requesting the appropriate part of their Planet config.ini file but decided I'd hack up a quick script to generate the configuration information from their OPML file. (My excuse for writing the script was that the first option would presumably lose the individual blogger info and the second option required me to write an email and, you know, didn't give me instant gratification...)

So, anyway, here's opml2ini.py hardcoded filename and all (requires ElementTree)... 

#!/usr/bin/python

# convert OPML file (from Planet) to ini file (for Planet)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from elementtree import ElementTree

    doc = ElementTree.fromstring(open("opml.xml").read())

    for o in doc.getiterator("outline"):
        print "[%s]\nname = %s\n" % (o.attrib['xmlUrl'], o.attrib['text'])

It's been suggested I upgrade the version of Planet I'm running, so I thought I'd see how much hassle it'd be. Unfortunately Planet still doesn't have an official 1.0 release yet. I thought I'd try the nightlies which many people seem to run but moved my old install out of the way first as I'd read of issues with cache files and old templates and so forth...

Unfortunately--after configuring the new install--on execution I encountered this lovely message: 

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "planet/planet.py", line 23, in ?
    import planet
  File "/<...>/planet/__init__.py", line 35, in ?
    import dbhash
  File "/<...>/lib/python2.3/dbhash.py", line 5, in ?
    import bsddb
  File "/<...>/lib/python2.3/bsddb/__init__.py", line 40, in ?
    import _bsddb
ImportError: No module named _bsddb
Apparently the error is a result of a "broken" Python install on the FreeBSD server on which I'm running all of this. As I don't have root access to the host the Planet has been reverted to the previous version for now.

Posted at: 06:55 | category: / | Comments ()

Consequences of computing decisions

When I started buying Apple products a few years ago I realised I was making a conscious trade off. Namely, I was choosing just works over totally open.

I've read with interest the attention given to Mark Pilgrim's recent decision to choose totally open over any other criteria. It would seem for him now is the tipping point where openness is more important (and presumably) any downsides are less significant than before.

Personally, I made the decision to use a non-Free environment (hardware/OS/software) because it appeared to work "better" (for qualities outside of Open/Free-ness) than the other options at the time. A decision made in full awareness there may--or likely, probably will--be a time when the decision would come back and bite me. (Speaking of which, anyone know of a FLOSS plugin/utility for reading AppleWorks .cwk word processor and spreadsheet files?)

Observations at Open/Free-related conferences I've attended would suggest I'm not the only person with an interest in FLOSS to make the choice I've made. At times I wonder what negative impact the success of OS X has had on the speed of development of FLOSS environments. (I'm well aware my choice was at least partly based on the fact it was easier to live with a "open enough" solution than to put the work into making a truely Open/Free solution meet my other needs.)

At the moment my priorities seem to include "just work"-ness, design, open-ness and simplicity--I do not know of a hardware/software combination that currently excels in all these areas but I look forward to its birth.

I also wonder at what point in the future and for what reason I will decide that open enough is no longer open enough for me.

Posted at: 03:15 | category: / | Comments ()

Electronics source

This is more a bookmark than anything else--I think I've noticed Spark Fun Electronics ("Your Source for Prototyping Supplies") before but I'm still looking for an excuse to buy something from there. :-)

On the subject of bookmarks, what happens after I bookmark a page? I'm sure 99% of the time I never look at a page again after I bookmark it--perhaps they go to the same place golf balls do on the last hole of a mini-golf course...

Posted at: 01:25 | category: / | Comments ()

Sat, 17 Jun 2006

I have a confession...

Actually, two confessions... Last night I went and saw, voluntarily, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. And quite enjoyed it (contrary to what you might expect on seeing its current 3.5 IMDB rating). Of course, if you didn't like any of the others in the Fast and the Furious franchise you won't like this either--Shakespeare it ain't--but I think it's better than the second.

Ah, it always feel better after you confess doesn't it? :-)

Speaking of movies, if you live in Christchurch or Wellington and want to know what's on at all the cinemas you'll want to check out No Remote. The site lets you see on one page what's on in all the cinemas in your town. A great idea and well executed.

Posted at: 22:35 | category: / | Comments ()

Thu, 15 Jun 2006

libgmail gets props from Jon Udell

I think it's considered unseemly in New Zealand to toot one's own horn, but I made a pleasant discovery today I thought I'd share with the world in a wanton display of immodesty.

I've always been amazed that libgmail -- a Python binding for Google's Gmail service has lived on as long as it has--it'll be two years old next month. It certainly seems like longer than two years ago that I established it. As it happens I'm no longer involved in its maintenance and development but it was still nice to see some comments written earlier in the year by Jon Udell at InfoWorld:

"This is possible thanks to libgmail, a third-party Gmail API that's so nicely done I consider it a work of art." link
"...I found libgmail, an elegant Python library that makes it a snap to do all kinds of stuff with your Gmail account..." link
"I think Gmail should hire the libgmail team, make libgmail an officially supported API, and tie it in with all the extraordinary Greasemonkey work that's been done for Gmail. The combination of these things is as potent in the email domain as the mapping stuff is in its realm." link
"In this case the useful outcome was a new appreciation of the value of libgmail. I'd originally seen it as just a way to archive messages. I've since come to see it as one of several enablers that combine to make Gmail the most productive (and strategic) email platform going." link
"With the still-unsupported libgmail API, for example, I've illlustrated how easy it can be to issue a complex Gmail query, gather all the messages in the found threads, and combine them." link
"It was another user who created libgmail, an API that's making me more productive while at the same time giving me ideas for follow-on innovations that leverage programmatic search." link

The fact it still works is of course thanks to the current maintainers and is the beauty of Free/Open Source software--if something's useful it'll still get maintained even if the original developer gets distracted by...ooo, shiny!

Posted at: 03:20 | category: / | Comments ()

Wed, 14 Jun 2006

Watching Where 2.0

I've been keeping an eye on the IRC channel for Where 2.0 in San Jose. I was at last year's event (thanks to O'Reilly) and had a blast. I also have a vested interest in the reaction OpenLayers (Open standards based Javascript Map Viewer library) and the other MetaCarta Labs projects like Gutenkarte ("Explore Gutenberg.org's books through maps") get.

A couple of interesting links (thanks to the Poly9 crew--who rock):

Posted at: 19:00 | category: / | Comments ()

State of the Blog

So, I haven't written much here for a few months principally because things weren't entirely set up "right"--or at least to my liking. I have now, however, decided to make myself get back into writing here even when the setup isn't quite perfect. :-)

On my to do list:

Entries should now also be appearing on Planet NZTech in all their imperfect glory. :-) (And don't get me started on my to do list for NZTech...)

Posted at: 02:00 | category: / | Comments ()

The Valley in Christchurch in June

Another month has rolled around and so did another evening of The Valley in Christchurch. Another good turnout with 12 people attending including three first timers. People seemed to enjoy themselves and it is rewarding to see the group working out well.

I want to try to promote the group more directly to some of the tech companies and other tech groups in Christchurch but I think that will wait until after the August get together.

For anyone in Christchurch please feel free to attend--we meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Sign up to the tvic mailing list if you want a reminder. Here's a little bit of the spiel:

The best thing about Silicon Valley is the people and the casual conversations that lead to bigger things. These often happen in Chinese restaurants. Christchurch has Chinese restaurants and it has techy people so why not bring the two together?

Posted at: 01:50 | category: / | Comments ()