Revision 3

Revision 3

Penguins are not only Linux

This is a penguin from a bio company I got swag from. More later.

This was first a phone-blogging exerciese, and yes, it seems like I can't keep my phone company from adding a lot of useless text.

Installing Ubuntu @ Work ....

I had a momentary hitch, where the partition mojo wouldn't work because I had the drive I wanted to partition mounted. Surprised that didn't work.

Been thinking recently. A recent Slashdot article asked "What would you change in Linux development if you could?" It made me consider the changes I've seen in Linux.

I first started dealing with it as an undergrad, around 1998. I made a 386 router (with great help from friends) and later had my work box at ECE running Red Hat. I had been using Solaris workstations and servers before, and, as a user, the only difference I really noticed was that both GNOME and KDE looked lots better than CDE. And just got better.

I can see some differences in stark relief, because my main connection to Linux during my time working at the clinic was my account on CSociety, and during that time, lots changed. Linux ~2000 was close to a classic workstation/server configuration. It was an OS that loved to know who it is and where the next bit, the next watt and the next file were coming from, and where they should be headed. Linux ~2007 is lots more laptop-friendly. Plenty goes to advances in hardware design, especially 802.11b and so on, and in 2000, DHCP was new enough that a friend (who I always trust as a Linux hand) needed to install it at an installfest to make his machine work), and it's part and parcel now.

The biggest and coolest thing I've seen recently is FUSE, or Filesystem in USErspace. As a user, not root, I can check out my local SMB network or mount UNIX filesystems securely over SSH. It's just the coolest thing. The one thing that, given an attempt to be mobile with 2000 technology, I would've asked for. With DHCP, Linux can work out where it's bits come from and go to. With FUSE, it can work at user request to more and more dynamically interact with whatever environment it meets. That's so cool!

Evidently, phone blogging is easier than I thought.

Just send a photo, and it saves it and adds it. Cool.

Finding a chunk of news ....

YAPC::NA 2008 is in Chicago! Again! This is a good thing. This places it within easy travel, thus making it possible for me to go. I had a great time last time, and I'm sure this next time will be great, too.

I read the bid, and their hoped and planned venue is DePaul University, which is on the north side, with returning to Illinois Institute of Technology (south side, across the interstate from where the White Sox play) being a fallback.

I'm really jazzed about this and plan to go. I know it's ten months away, but still.


I have Beautiful Code, an O'Reilly book about ... well, beautiful code. And, because I was given it free, on condition that I review it.

It's a good book.

That is not the review.

I gave a short review at a Perl Mongers meeting, where I covered my enjoyment and problems with the book. Yes, I have some problems. More in expectations than in actual content.


And also my Perl Mongers group will be having a meeting tonight, in the Cafe Royale in the beautiful Chauncey Village.

Liveblogging Perl Mongers ....

My friend, Mark Senn, is presenting at Perl Mongers on the topic of A Perl::Critic Complaint. Like, right now.

For the first time, I'm liveblogging.

"I never use it because it's such a pain."

On use strict: "You can't do anything automatically."

Quoting Larry Wall: "Different things should look different. Similar things should look similar. I agree with them. '&&' and 'and' look different and are different. ... Why is Perl::Critic warning me about this?"

"I want it to do what I want, out of the box!"

That's it.

Mulling a coming book review ....

(It is wrong to start a post with a parenthetical, but I am doing so anyway. I hate the phrasing "as a member of ...., I". I try hard to avoid using it. So I fumble over it on occasonally.)

I'm a member of my local Perl Mongers group, and our Perl Mongers group is a member of the O'Reilly User Group program. O'Reilly sends out copies of books to groups for review so that their name gets spread. For any abstract technical issue, the first book I will reach for is an O'Reilly. So, I was offered a free book for the price of reviewing it.

And abstract it is. Beautiful Code is about writing code that is more than functional, more than elegant, into the realm of the beautiful.

Whatever that means.

Which I will find out, and express to you.

Many, however, will be surprised to find that "Perl" and "Beautiful Code" to be referenced in the same book without negation.

Commenting on Text Email ...

The last post was posted via email from my phone. And boy, is my thumb tired. </rimshot>

Today, the mobile phone is a data center, with the talking taking a minor part. I got religion on texting at Disneyland, when I tried to hook up with the rest of the family. We had agreed to meet at the statue of Mickey and Walt at the center of the park. Unfortunately, that's when everyone else in the world, including the Parade, planned to be, too. We tried to call, but connections were sketchy and everything was loud, so we couldn't hear. So, I texted them, they replied, and we met up.

Since then, I've had texting as the core of my mobile data center.

I'm a Verizon user. I haven't really tried the others, so I don't know the details. I do know that sending your cameraphone pictures to your email is a better bet than using their Pix site.

If you have mail on a UNIX machine you have procmail on, even better:


:0
* ^From: xxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com
{
:0 c
| ~/Procmail/handle_cameraphone_shots.pl
:0
mailfromphone
}


That's all it takes to pipe your pics into a program to unpack 'em. (They're MIME attachments. Like I said, it's all just email.)

And what's in handle_cameraphone_shots.pl?


use MIME::Parser ;
my $parser = new MIME::Parser ;
$parser->output_under('/home/jacoby/www/Cell/') ;
my $entity = $parser->parse(\*STDIN) or die qq{parse failed\n} ;
$entity->dump_skeleton ;


I'm a Perl geek, but I am sure something similar is possible in Python, Ruby or your other favorite dynamic language.

texting is fundamentally email, but

texting is fundamentally email, but with a simplified interface. If you go Verizon, yr address is xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com.

Testing via Email ...

This is an email test.

My friends joke that I try to make things convert to other
things. I've written web pages that send email and scripts
that send web pages when you send them an URL via email.

This is mostly an attempt to figure out if this thing works.

I will hope to have something approaching content soon.