Older blog entries for superuser (starting at number 29)

Discovered my companies server IP addresses are blocked by Spamhaus for something I don't know anything about. These are my servers, and I am on these IP addresses. And everyone here knows I wouldn't spam. Anyways, sent them an email. Let's see how this goes.

hadess: The point of my post didn't meant to imply he was telling people to use Microsoft over Linux. Though I admit, maybe my choice of words wasn't all good.

However, that had little to do with the meaning of the rest of my post. Simply put: Whatever the Red Hat CEO says, whatever SuSE and Novell are up to, whatever Microsoft says doesn't make a difference to the whole scheme of things. Every where I was reading about these events, people were treating it like it was the end of the world, or bad omens.

They aren't. It's evolution. Things happen, businesses change focus.

If you think that everybody should be using Linux, you're an idiot who can't see the missing bits. Probably as stupid as that Windows user who downloads warez, and uses mIRC thinking he's l33t. Just about.

Now, where do I even make this suggestion? Would I like everyone to use Linux, or alternative OS's? Of course. That would be great. Do I think we are at a state where this is possible? No. Do I think it's going in that direction? Yes.

Please don't suggest I am saying something I don't, nor believe.

It seems that Novell buying SuSE, and Red Hat only doing enterprise stuff is causing a big storm. Of course, the fact that the Red Hat CEO is saying use Windows for the desktop doesn't go over well with your normal open source crowd.

But even still, people are acting like this is the end of the world. As if suddenly Linux has no more support on the desktop. I've been using Linux as my sole desktop OS for more than a year now, and I have found that I don't need support. Well, I don't need support as much as I didn't need support on Windows.

So Red Hat isn't supporting the home user anymore. Big deal. Unless I am mistaken, Microsoft doesn't provide support to home users. If you want to pay for it, you can, of course.

And then there is the big Novell buys SuSE stories that go around, people proclaiming it's the end of KDE, or that SuSE is dead because Novell will kill it off. You know, because SuSE was the only supporter of KDE. And because Novell is going to ax KDE. I mean, you know Novell bought SuSE just to destroy it, right? And that there are no other desktop linux choices out there.

People, get over it. This is all for the better. Now Red Hat released Fedora. This means I can burn copies and sell it, and call it Fedora. And it's an open source distro of the Red Hat OS. The development is opened up.

What's going on now with SuSE and Red Hat isn't bad. It's good. It's evolution.

Hrm...this seems pretty interesting, just trying GnomeBlog out with the Advogato API set to see if it works. Might just have to incorporate this into my own blog software.

deekayen
Regarding your little adventure with phpMyAdmin, you would be surprised at what an IP address can do if you confront an ISP with it. I once tracked a spammer on my forums to an ISP. They apparently caught the person, and several days later, I got an email from the offender apologizing. It never hurts to see if you can do anything. Cracking is indeed a crime, and script kiddies need to learn.
7 Jan 2003 (updated 7 Jan 2003 at 04:21 UTC) »

Testing my Diary Editor

And it works!!! Yay, I have a Python/Tkinter based Advogato Gui Diary Editor. Okay it may not be the first ( I really don't know, never looked), but it's my first real Python Gui app program, so cool.

Py

BTW, for those interested, I have picked up the first two issues of Py (and another 4 issues subscription), an "Independent Zine for Python Developers" quarterly. Both issues are short (16 pages), but filled with wholesome goodness. Something about the feel of "Dead Tree" makes it a pleasant read. The paper quality is newspaper style, and fits well with what it is. However, the quality is of the content is wonderful.

While this may be nothing new to Python developer's, it is a great resource. You can find more information at PyZine.com.

Work

Well, it's time to move on, somewhat. I will be having a third interview at the new company, and will most likely be picked up. More money, more opportunities, a company that allows it's programmers to use whatever OS and tools they want as long as they can do the job. That ain't half bad.

Advogato

Been looking at advogato lately, and notice their RPC server setup. Since I have been messing around with Python lately, I will probably throw together a GUI program that allows me to enter my diary entries without actually having to come here. That would be pretty cool. Other things could be added as well.

Maybe something that checks the recentlog every once in a while (6 hours?) for new updates, and checkes them to see if someone said anything about me. Might be a good tool.

Yes, I would open source it.

Surprise...

My parent's had come up to visit me these past few days. They left (or so I thought) early the morning of the 1st so they could be home so my younger brother (9) could get back to school the 2nd.

Today, I had to go over my fiance's aunt's house for New Years dinner. Loe and behold, what do I find, but my family there! Surprise! Not only did I not even know this was going to happen, but I come to find out this has been planned for about a month.

Oh darn...I was proven wrong. =)

Programming & open source

I work on proprietary stuff all day long. Most of my work involves credit card processing software, finance software, and basically anything that deals with money, and monetary transactions. It's a lot of work. Unlike a game or an email client that can have bugs (as in, if a bug is found, you really don't loose money), these programs force you to double and triple check everything.

It's nice that no money has gone missing. It's not really that difficult. Most programming follows the same pattern. After a while, you know what to look for, you know how to test. Bugs happen when you hurry, when you skip those tests. Or just because you are lazy. Most good programmers aren't.

But with all my work for companies, I want to do something for open source. I have contributed to PEAR, done a few things, but not much.

I am beginning to think I should write my own open source version of the software I write at work. It would be difficult though. I mean, I write it once, and either I take the code I wrote and open source it without the company knowing, or I rewrite it? I could ask the company to open source it, but knowing the company like I do, it wouldn't fly.

There is also the idea of starting the rewrite of the next version of the program on my own time, releasing it GPL, and then using it at work. Might work out.

Or I could be overthinking all this.

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