webdevgeeks

This week I am taking FreeBSD 8.0 for a spin. So far, I like it enough that it will probably be my normal desktop environment. It seems to have the right stuff: my PC seems markedly faster. FreeBSD's slogan is...

Wikileaks Launched on Stolen Documents (Wired) -- Wired claims the first set of documents was obtained by running a Tor node that users connected to ("exit node") and saving the plaintext that was sent to the users, without their knowledge. Reminds me of the adage that nothing big in Silicon Valley starts without being some degree of evil first:...

PSTSDK -- Apache-licensed code from Microsoft to read Outlook files. Covered by Microsoft's Open Specification Promise not to assert related patents against users of this library. Cheap Android Tablet -- not multitouch, but only $136. Good for hacking with in the meantime. (via Hacker News) Real-Time Collaborative Editing with Websockets, node.js, and Redis -- uses Chrome's websockets alternative to...

Google Hiring by the Lake Wobegon Strategy -- having just run some interviews myself, I recognise the wisdom in what they say. Another hiring strategy we use is no hiring manager. Whenever you give project managers responsibility for hiring for their own projects they'll take the best candidate in the pool, even if that candidate is sub-standard for the...

Python's xml.etree.ElementTree library makes it easy to use XML data in your application or library.

Epigrams in Programming -- all from the remarkable Alan Perlis. By the time I learned that he was responsible for such gems as "Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon", "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing", and "Around computers it is difficult to find the correct unit of time to...

This post shows how to write a web service using Test-Driven Development. Our source code example is the exemplary active_merchant contribution to Ruby on Rails. It reveals how developer tests can correctly attack remote web services. Programmers writing clients (or servers) for any kind of web service should use these techniques. My next post will extend this one into the Abstract Test Pattern.

zxing -- barcode library for iPhone, Android, Java, and more. Guido's Python -- how the compiler and interpreter see your Python programs. It wasn't until I had this level of knowledge of Perl that I really know what the hell I was doing. (via Hacker News) UK Election Data -- this was posted on the eve of the UK...

Common MySQL Queries -- a useful reference. MySociety's Next 12 Months -- two new projects, FixMyTransport and "Project Fosbury". The latter is a more general tool to help people organise their own campaigns for change. riak -- scalable key-value store with JSON interface. (via joshua on Delicious) Notes from NoSQL Live Boston -- full of juicy nuggets of info...

To whatever part of the general non-geek public is even aware of Linux the names "Linux" and "Ubuntu" are all but interchangeable. Over the past few years I've come to the conclusion that this state of affairs is, at best, unfortunate.

I knew in advance that venting my frustrations with Ubuntu in the form of an article yesterday would stir up a hornet's nest. [...] Having read all the comments I'd like to clarify my thoughts on the subject.

Spear Phishing the Masses: When Open Data is Dark Presented by Jeff Jonas May 6, 2010 Nullology: The Zen of DatabasePresented by C.J. DateMay 7, 2010 5 Reasons Why SharePoint 2010 Will Revolutionize Your Organization Presented by Dux Raymond SyMay 11, 2010 What is Gov 2.0?Presented by Tim O'ReillyMay 11, 2010 Hiring the Next-Generation of Cyber Security Professionals in GovernmentPresented by Lewis Shepherd May 13, 2010 O'Reilly Gov 2.0 Webcast - Cloud Computing and Security: Can't We all Just Get Along?Presented by Bernard Golden May 19, 2010 CouchApp Evently Guided Hack w/ CouchDBPresented by J. Chris Anderson May 20, 2010 High Dynamic Range Imaging and Adobe Photoshop CS5Presented by Jack HowardMay 25, 2010 Check out our Webcast page for on-demand videos of past webcasts and more upcoming live events.

I often write HTML pages or documentation that includes code samples. When the code is presented this way, it's much easier to follow if it features syntax highlighting. I had found a script that could highlight Perl code, and then I realized I needed the same thing for C code as well. I've posted a new script on my web site that inserts HTML markup into source code files to provide colored syntax highlighting.

The O'Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo is now underway at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Check the O'Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo site for news coverage and more. Morning events include: MySQL Cluster Tutorial with Andrew Morgan (Oracle), Geert Vanderkelen (Sun Microsystems), Andrew Hutchings (Oracle Corporation) MySQL Configuration Options and Files: Basic MySQL Variables (Part 1) with Sheeri K. Cabral (The Pythian Group) MySQL Dual Master Setups with MMM with Arjen Lentz (Open Query), Walter Heck (Open Query) The Replication Tutorial with Mats Kindahl (Sun Microsystems), Lars Thalmann (MySQL) Using Partitioning in MySQL 5.1 and 5.5 with Giuseppe Maxia (Oracle) Diagnosing and Fixing MySQL Performance Problems with Baron Schwartz (Percona Inc.), Morgan Tocker (Percona, Inc.) MySQL DBA Certification Tutorial, Part 1 with Kai Voigt (Sun Microsystems)

In time for next week's MySQL Conference & Expo, Brian Aker discussed a number of topics with us, including Oracle's motivations for buying Sun and the rise of NoSQL.

I recently had a long conversation with Joe Stump, CTO of SimpleGeo, about location, geodata, and the NoSQL movement. Stump, who was formerly lead architect at Digg, had a lot to say. Here's the highlights, you can find the full interview elsewhere on Radar.

In addition to its parsing capabilities, ElementTree also supports creating well-formed XML documents from Element objects constructed in your application.

There's a Rootkit in the Closet -- lovely explanation of finding and isolating a rootkit, reconstructing how it got there and deconstructing the rootkit to figure out what it did. It's a detective story, no less exciting than when Cliff Stohl wrote The Cuckoo's Egg. This and more in today's Four Short Links.

Consistent use of indentation is important in a langauge like Python, where white-space is significant. The tabnanny module provides a scanner to report on "ambiguous" use of indentation. The simplest way to use tabnanny is to run it from the command line, passing the names of files to check. If you pass directory names, the directories are scanned recursively to find .py files to check.

Rapportive -- a simple social CRM built into Gmail. They replace the ads in Gmail with photos, bio, and info from social media sites. (via ReadWrite Web) Best Practices in Web Development with Django and Python -- great set of recommendations. (via Jon Udell's article on checklists) These and more in today's Four Short Links.