Month: September 2003

Python, Perl, mod_perl

First half of today was great, sitting outside with my tentative partner and brainstorming for three hours with my wife supplying food and drink.  Then I dove into Apache/Python integration options like mod_python (urgh) and mod_snake (dead).

Discouraged by what I saw, I spent the next three hours setting up mod_perl.  Installation is straight forward except the docs I found skipped an important step, so I wound up going around in circles until I found the missing step and filled in the blanks.

mod_perl worked for a few minute, then my IE started acting weird like trying to download my test Perl script instead of serving what it generated.  Firebird didn't have any problem though.  Restarted everything and it's working again.  Maybe it was a mistake to install version 2.0 instead of stable 1.0.  Anyway, I'll have to reconfigure Apache to prevent script files from being served.  Sheesh.

I am moving on to installing AxKit so I can play with it tonight.  Meanwhile, I got O'Reilly's mod_perl book in tiny my Safari bookshelf to read over dinner.  I am hoping that my Perl allergy stays dormant.  I wonder how much trouble it would be to compile Python into Perl bytecode?

Update:

Don't you just love getting stuck in the open source house of cards?  I deferred playing with AxKit in favor of Mason which is supposedly in use by Amazon and Salon.  Woohoo, I said.  I already had Apache2 and mod_perl2 installed so I should be able to drop Mason on top and play, I said.

To make the long story short, I ended up ripping out everything I installed and still ended up destroying Apache2 installation over trouble with mod_perl2, Apache::Request, and libapreq modules.  Why did I go with mod_perl2?  Because mod_perl1 doc basically said I should use mod_perl2 for Win32.

Overall, it was a fun day.

Oops

Maybe getting Bambi to blog is not such a good idea…

I got fired from Bloomberg today because of this web site. I'll post more about it later but I need to start networking like mad now and find a job. – Chi-Chu Tschang (via Dan Gillmor)

I wonder if I have to wear a bikini to get my name into the Devil's Dictionary X?  With my stealth beer belly, it won't be a pretty sight.

Francisco, Bambi
a wall-eyed escapee from the Playboy Mansion who seems to have something to do with economics in a more specific way than how many $20s will fit in her bikini bottom. – Devil's Dictionary X

WASTE at SourceForge

While googling for the latest on crypto export law, I came across Nullsoft's WASTE living on at SourceForge.  FYI, WASTE is open source small P2P network software supporting IM, group chat, file browsing/searching, and file transfer.  It was released by Nullsoft and then removed by AOL, its parent company, in matter of hours.  WASTE is now up to version 1.1.  Go check out WASTE at SourceForge.

F**k You, I am Busy

Korean men tend to swear a lot.  I have this friend who grew up in Pusan area.  Normally, he talks like others, but when he relaxes, he uses foul language that will make sailors pale.  In few occasions, I have heard him talk with a friend he grew up with in Pusan and their conversation was amazing enough for me to wonder it could be bottled and sold as paint remover.  It didn't last more than five minutes but whole lot of killing, raping, castrating, and even cannibalism was used in a weird ritual of male bonding.

This is not limited to Korea nor others.  There was this executive level guy who was in habit of using foul language in the office and made the mistake of directing four-letter words to me.  I knew he really meant to say "Nice to see ya again", but it came out like "How's the bloodsucking biz, c**ksucker."  So I responded in the same language, "I see that you didn't get fired yet, a**hole."  Then he and I both grinned and shook hands.  Of course, people standing around us were a bit shocked, but I think they understood that there was little prospect of a fist fight breaking out.

What is the lesson here?  Well, let's just say there are languages and then there are lingos.  It might be fun to designated one day out of a month as Foulmouth Day for bloggers.

Fool of Friendship, Full of Sh*t

"Dave" writes on friendship and what happens when friends are full of sh*t.  I consider Dave to be a friend and I am also one of those people who has a different definition of the word than Dave does.

I call friendly people with whom I have interacted with, in person or online, as friends.  Pretty loose indeed.  When a friend and I get to know each other well, I call him/her a close friend.  When friendship lasts over a long time, I call him/her an old friend.  Regardless of depth or time, I call friends with admirable soul, good friends.

Friends whom I know very well, had known for decades, and have good souls are called my best friends.  I have very few best friends but among them there are those who will give their life for me and me likewise.  I call them true friends.  I have two true friends.

Regardless of all this, I tend to be liberal with my advices to my friends and conservative with questions.  My advices are, often enough, full of sh*t.  It's not that they aren't good advices.  It's just that what works for me often doesn't work for others.

Still, I dislike being told that I am full of sh*t when all I am doing is trying to share.  There are some I-know-more-than-you going on, but not enough to sour the main intent or instinct behind the offering of advice.  To me, it's like a common reaction people have when they taste something great or awful: try this!  That is all.

My intention with this post is not to disagree with Dave nor tell him that he should change his definition of friendship and how he deals with his friends.  My intention is to show that words are containers into which each of us put our own meanings into them and that what we pour out of those containers to others may not be what they are tasting.

What do you mean my beer taste like piss?  That's my son's peepee jar!

Upcoming and Enriching Blog Calendar

Andy Baio's Upcoming.org is an interesting service (via Marc via Matt Haughey).  No, there aren't any really new ideas there, but Upcoming is an implementation of ideas that were talked about before, something to grab and shake.  Ray also found Upcoming interesting and asks some good questions.

Upcoming is, of course, related to the idea of enriching ubiquitous calendar on every blog.  Events from Upcoming could be used to populate a blog's calendar as well as 'day' pages so one could see the events related to specific time period.  Since most interesting events are those yet to happen, blog architecture and UI has to change.  In the end, blog calendar turns into a calendar aggregator.

I am not happy with Upcoming UI though, but it's a start.

This post was brought to you by Shama Lama Ding Dong.

10 Python Pitfalls

Nice enumeration of odd python behaviors by Hans Nowak.  Most of Python language works as expected so you get used to cruising along right after diving into it.  But that easy rider feeling turns queasy when you wham straight into oddities like these.  If you enjoyed this, here are few more:

BTW, does anyone have answers to these two questions?

Google Cluster

I know I am late, but I am reading it now and thought some of you might have missed or have forgotten about the paper on Google cluster architecture (PDF) like I have.  Too bad it's a good read because that only leaves me wondering what else I might have missed.  Stress of living in the information-age I guess.

I got a few days of lull in my consulting practice just now so I am keeping myself busy on the latest about clustering technologies and practices.  I am not too interested in the academic side, just good ol' practical stuff along with some up-the-creek stories.  More companies like Amazon, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo should write about their experiences and solutions.

RFID and Shopping Carts

One of the common cited RFID use is a customer walking by checkout stand with a shopping cart.  Items in the cart are automatically noted and payment is also made automatically.  Fat chance.

Once RFID becomes common place, people will find ways to kill or replace RFID tags.  If checkout is automated, one could walk out with a cartful of expensive goods and pay nothing.

Adding a weight machine at the counter could help since a cart full of expensive wine weighs more than a pack of gum: "Please push the cart onto the blue plate and step back."  What if you had half of a watermelon and a sack of potato?  How easy is it to add weight information into RFID tags?  Sure, throw more equipment at the problem.

When all done, supermarkets will turn into US Customs.  Idle blue line leading straight to the exit, crowded red line for inspectors, and an armed guard at the exit.  So much for great shopping experiences.