We're spending the week in Surfside, TX enjoying a bit of post-SXSW de-connectivity before plunging back into the fray. I'm catching up on some software projects for Wikitravel and some other projects as well. It's pretty fun. Surfside is really beautiful -- fine white sand, gentle waves from the Gulf, flocks of brown pelicans passing by our deck in the morning. There's been some damage to the village due to Hurricane Rita and long-term erosion, but it's still really fun. And not particularly over-run, even during Spring Break this weekend. We've got a few hundred yards of beautiful beach in front of our house practically to ourselves. The downside has been that the vacation home we rented doesn't have the WiFi coverage we'd hoped for. We had the Mayor of Surfside (!) over at our house yesterday trying to set up a directional antenna so we could get a bitstream from the volunteer fire department, but no luck. So I'm doing updates at the restobar on the main street, and then editing offline at home. It's been great playing in the sand and waves with Amita June. This is her first time really playing on the beach, and she's having a great time. tags: travel surfside texas amita june wikitravel

Montreal Gazette article A few weeks ago I met with local reporter Steve Faguy about Wikitravel, living in Montreal, and wikis and technology in general. He wrote a great profile of me and Wikitravel, a sidebar about my blog (!), a description of wiki and a list of good wikis. I like the story; it's well-written, and Steve knows enough about technology to write a good article while still making it accessible for non-professionals. I also like the image of me; that's a pretty good shot of me. The one omission I am kicking myself for was failing to note that Montreal will be the location of not one but two Wiki conferences this year. RoCoCoCamp is 18-20 May, and WikiSym is in October. Ray King calls Portland (Oregon) "Wiki City, USA", but I think Montreal is giving it a run for its money on the international scene. tags: montreal gazette steve faguy wikitravel wiki me montreal press

Twitter 2007 == Friendster 2003 So, I'm really concerned about Twitter's performance and stability problems since SXSW. Remember Friendster, the social networking platform of 2003? The site failed to support a surge of traffic in mid-2003, about a year into the service. The deluge of users meant that pages wouldn't serve, images timed out, and edits were impossible. Consequently, the social networking market was fractured as users went to smaller services like Tribe.net, MySpace, Orkut and LinkedIn. The other services might not have all your friends on them, but at least they worked. It was a phenomenal fumble by Friendster that was entirely attributable to failure to scale. Would other social networks have come up anyways? Probably. But there's a network effect to social networking, and people would probably have stuck with Friendster a lot more than they actually did. I think Obvious Corp. has got to get on the ball if they're going to capitalize on the success of Twitter. There's a similar network effect advantage for Twitter-like services, and if they can execute well, they're going to Pwn. But the software and interface are pretty easy to replicate, and there are other services like Twitter out there already. Better keep an eye on your lunch, fellas. tags: twitter obvious corp friendster network effect network effect

So far, all network monitoring solutions I've tested suck.

• Nagios, the dinosaur of network monitoring is a pain to configure, and somewhat half of it's features feel incomplete to me. It also spawns a lot of processes, which probably isn't very efficient. I find the UI pretty much useless, thats why I rely mostly on "naglite" (a dirty PHP script) to provide a status screen. I don't think it has any "numerical" monitoring for things like e.g. diskspace, you can only configure alerts when it hits a certain trigger value. I have to admit that Nagios is very powerful when it comes to alerting people based on schedules etc. That probably us why it's #1 for monitoring, it can be setup to send an alert to exactly the right person on duty... Another good feature is the scheduling of downtimes.
• Munin, formerly known as LRRD, is a general purpose graphing tool. It's especially useful in combination to nagios, since it provides some features nagios is missing and duplicates little. Nagios is nice for doing e.g. a usage analysis of you VPN or graphing network load etc. However it doesn't do trend or some more complex analysis.
• Zabbix is written in PHP, and suffers apparently from the same problems as most PHP programs: looks like it's great, but lots of stuff isn't working right or correctly. To me it felt like it was developed without a master plan or any kind of software engineering in the background, but by randomly adding and changing features. I found configuring it a pain, I was tempted to write my own configuration tool for it. But maybe they've changed their configuration again, they had been doing that pretty much every version back then (one of the reasons why I felt it was developed without much of a plan). I also had the impression that it's monitoring is quite inefficient and not capable of handling irregularities in scheduling well. So as long as your network is working great, it will probably work as well, but if you have some serious network problems, it will maybe get totally messed up.
• NetMRG can plot you all kinds of graphs you do not need.
• Tons of other monitoring tools I tested which had random problems, from just being able to graph data, but not to assign a meaning to them to being a Java GUI app...

What I'm looking for is a network monitoring solutions, which

• Allows me to setup monitoring with the host, service model I use for my tasks, ideally even allowing me to easily move a service from one host to another. Should be class based, and allow multiple classes per system.
• Understands that some services are important (e.g. firewall), and others are not (paper availability in the printers)
• Doesn't waste my time with millions of configuration settings, network mapping, SNMP digits, listing every single SNMP value...
• Doesn't bother me with all the thousands of values it could collect
• Handles dependencies, and doesn't alert me separately for obvious consequences
• Has a good alerting system, with little to setup
• Has a good monitoring scheduler, that will adjust it's monitoring interval to the current monitoring load (e.g. reduce scheduling density when all services are timing out, do multithreaded pinging / querying of hosts, avoid busy polling, use push instead of poll where possible.
• Has a very minimalistic status screen, as long as everything is okay it should just say so; if something is down, it should show some report on what is wrong, but never ever fill the screen. The main monitoring screen doesn't have a mousewheel or any other input device! (Test: should be useful even without colors!)
• Multi-host monitoring with synchronization, so I can e.g. have a monitoring service in the internal network and one in the DMZ. If they are disconnected, they monitor independenctly and merge data afterwards.
• Does real trend analysis on numeric values, with some prediction model, for e.g. diskspace. Diskspace often follows daily, weekly and monthly patterns. Especially log file partitions. The monitoring tool should alert me if it looks like the disk is going to be full "anytime soon", not just when it's too late!
• Not written in a bad language such as PHP, efficient, not spawning thousands of processes...

Pretty much every monitoring solution I've seen so far is great at collecting tons of data, but doesn't help me with actually handling this amount of data. Anyone has a recommendation for a good network monitoring tool? I'd be really interested in doing the last point - a real statistical analysis for network monitoring. This would be so useful... predicting peaks in network usage, predicting when a system will be overloaded or a disk full... but I'm phasing out of network administration; so my interest here is mostly in being able to give advice to others. [Update: no, you don't need to point me to Cacti. It's just another grapher and data collector that doesn't actually do what I would call 'monitoring'. It also seems to not have a smart scheduler, and is written in PHP (which is bad!) I was also told a non-success story with OpenNMS which just crashed when adding a host to be monitored with a totally unhelpful stack trace. I had a look at their online demo, but it felt very complex and not very useful to me...]

Ran the annual March Madness Half Marathon in Cary, IL, today. Really nice morning with temperatures just above freezing, but gloriously sunny and no winds which made for excellent running conditions. As I somehow managed to leave my Garmin GPS at home, I had to run with little information about pacing and relative speed -- all I got were times announced at about two thirds of the mile markers. So I ended going out somewhat fast, and then working hard not to completely crumble. The end result was rather nice: 1:31:30.4 -- or a pace of 6:59.11 per mile -- and over a minute faster than my previous PR at this distance from last summer, and over four minutes faster than last year's March Madness. Needless to say, I am tired now :) But I guess it shows that the ongoing training for Boston in four weeks is doing some good. Kudos to Greg for a nice training schedule.

Debian is participating in the Google Summer of Code again. Russell Coker offers to mentor SELinux projects, and so do I. I'm available for mentoring SELinux and Debtags related projects in particular. This years idea pool in the Debian Wiki. Make sure to also check last years idea pool (some of which will no longer be open, though). And of course your idea doesn't need to be on these pages already; we're of course interested in anything that goes beyond that. One thing with SELinux I'm particularly interested in is install scripts. That is quite some work to do, and you might want to automate it somewhat. Debian install scripts can be quite complex. Some things are obvious such as restarting services on upgrade. But some scripts do much more. SELinux uses a deny by default approach (which is the only sane security approach, btw.); in particular this means that many Debian install scripts will be failing. Right now, package postinst scripts are being run with the full permissions of the apt-get domain. It would be good to reduce that to a "postinst" domain. It would be a possible GSoC project to analyze which permissions package postinst scripts need, and if we can e.g. add a "postinst extended" domain for just a few postinst scripts that really need extended permissions. An example for extended postinst tasks in Debian (I don't think Redhat, Fedora or Gentoo does that yet): precompiling all python modules for all installed python versions (and to avoid having programs try to precompile them on demand, which will result in audit errors and such). I wrote a module for that called python-support. It adds a restricted domain which can exactly do this task of precompiling Python. But there is other such stuff, such as updating the menus, managing alternatives etc. But feel free to suggest your own ideas.

A common criticism of fluorescent lights is the inability to use dimmers, as mentioned in Julien Goodwin's blog.

However with some thought at the time the lights are installed this problem can be solved. The first thing to keep in mind is that an infinite number of levels of illumination (analogue scale) is not really required. In most cases two or three levels should do.

If you have two compact fluorescent lights that use 5W and 10W then you have the options of 5W, 10W, and 15W. If you have a large room to light (such as a lounge room) which needs 30W of fluorescent lighting for full illumination then you could have six 5W globes dispersed and have anything from one to six of them turned on to give different levels of illumination.

Of course if you don't plan electrical work then it's easiest to just use incandescent lights in those areas. As long as the areas that use the most light for the longest time have fluorescent lighting it shouldn't make too much difference.

In response to a post on Planete Beranger, saving energy DOES matter. Sure you saving a few KWh isn't going to make much difference on it's own, but when a million other people do the same it all adds up.

The lack of public transport in the US causes more problems for the country than just environmental damage. It hurts the economy by making it more difficult for people to get to work. It will hurt the defence forces in the (unlikely) event of an invasion (trains are the best way of moving large numbers of troops, heavy weapons, and military supplies. It also hurts the national interest in decreasing the ability to react to civil emergencies. For example the entire population of New Orleans could have been evacuated in time using a single platform of a European station. If every city had multiple stations that had a reasonable number of platforms and multiple redundant train lines then evacuating civilians and bringing in emergency equipment and workers would be very easy. In the Netherlands train lines often run on top of dikes, this means that the dikes are very strong (if they can sustain the weight of a freight train then they aren't going to be washed away by a wave) and that trains can still operate while flood waters are rising. If New Orleans is to be rebuilt to it's former glory then the Americans should consider a similar design.

Large cars are a temporary issue. As fuel prices rise people will choose smaller cars. Also hopefully people will start to realise that 4WD and SUV vehicles are actually less safe than cars and stop buying them for perceived safety.

The Chinese government doesn't worry about the same environmental issues, however they have more agressive targets for renewable energy use than most countries. It's not a matter of being nice (they aren't), but of looking out for their own self interest. It's a pity that the governments of the US, Australia, and EU countries have not yet done the same - but it will happen eventually.

As for supermarkets using open fridges, if the vent the heat outside the building then it will be just part of the building air-conditioning system. Every adult dissipates about 100W of heat when at rest, when shopping it would be more than 100W. Get 100 people in a supermarket (not the peak business time) and 10KW would have to be removed by the A/C system without counting heat from lights (fluorescent lights dissipate about half their energy as heat, they are much more efficient than incandescent lights but much less than LEDs),
and heat from other machinery.

Finally, if you want to see changes in government policy then join your local Green party!

[UPDATE: I'm closing comments on this post, because the spammers have discovered it -- dnb]

Lars says:

The uncomfortability of Synaptic may be partly due to the fact that it is
a different model from Windows: you get all your programs from one place,
instead of anywhere on the Internet, partly due to just not using Synaptic
much at all, and partly due to Synaptic not being perhaps as easy to
understand as possible. I personally find Synaptic to be very nice, and
use it regularly, but I am biased by having used Debian package managers
for over a decade.

Now, synaptic is a lot nicer for users than scary console frontends like aptitude. But it's really a tool for "power users". Here's a quick list just of what I see when I start it (bearing in mind that my UI design skills suck):

• The "quick introduction" screen that pops up is way too long. The fact that it needs to be so long is already bad.
  
• There's a huge, and I mean HUGE list of sections down the left. What are these? Which one do I look in? For that matter, what is "gnome", and are "shells" programs for the seashore?
  If I want to find software for processing video, do I look in "graphics" or "multimedia"? (and what are these funny "(contrib)" markers?) Which of the huge number of packages in each section do I want? From the point of view of a new user (especially), this categorization is useless, not to mention often wrong or misleading.
  
• The four buttons in the lower-left, which change the display, are a good idea, but they don't say what they do. A label saying something like "Group By" would go a long way here.
  
• I think the version numbers in the main display probably provide too much information for a novice user. They won't really know what to make of them, and if they need the information it can be provided on demand; as it is, it's just one more distraction to sort through while looking for what they really want. The extra space could, e.g., be used to provide more room for the status column (currently labeled "S").
  

So much for superficial observations. There are a few more things that I see that are worth more discussion.

Mechanics of selecting packages

To change the state of a package, you click on the unlabeled little box to its left, then select the correct option from a list containing "Unmark", "Mark for Installation", "Mark for Upgrade", "Mark for Reinstall"...you get the idea. Even if only one option is valid, the menu still appears with all but one option grayed out, and you have to select the one you want.

This is complicated, cumbersome, and surprising. It also introduces terminological confusion, since "Unmark" isn't really what you think of when you go to cancel an installation or whatever.

The best option I can think of here is a pulldown menu (which I believe the GTK+ list widget (god, I almost wrote "control") supports). The menu should default to the current state, e.g., "not installed", and should have options that describe what will be done with the package, e.g., "install", and so on. Only valid actions should appear on the menu. The Package menu should probably adapt in the same way as you select packages. I don't recall offhand how GTK+ menus work, but if possible commonly used commands like "remove" should be closer to the mouse when the menu appears than uncommon commands like "reinstall".

Another choice I can see, if you want to avoid menus, would be something like this: have two checkboxes, one for "install" and one for "upgrade". "install" would be checked for installed packages and not checked for not-installed packages. Checking or clearing it would mark packages for installation or deletion. "upgrade" would mark or unmark packages that were installed for upgrade. Of course, this introduces a redundant column for not-installed packages, which I don't like. It also seems to me that it would be less obvious what's going on for new users. But it would be more efficient for power users (who should all be using aptitude anyway ;-) ).

Progress bar madness

I haven't extensively used synaptic, but several core misfeatures of apt and our archive pretty much guarantee that if it displays progress bars for key operations like loading the cache or updating the package lists, the progress bars either run multiple times (i.e., don't actually tell you how close to finishing you are) or actually go BACKWARDS -- yes, BACKWARDS.

The great package hunt

Maybe the biggest problem is that unless you know what package you're looking for, basically all our package interfaces are useless. There are lots of fancy searching features you could add, but actually a quick test in synaptic suggests to me that this would be going in the wrong direction. Unlike aptitude, synaptic includes descriptions, and searches for stuff users might actually want (like, say, "burn CD") seem to turn up relevant results (i.e., software that burns CDs).

I'm sure the search algorithm could be improved (with inexact matching, better indexing (a package description suffix tree?), etc), but the big problem I see is that you tend to get back several dozen results, many of which are libraries, development packages, command-line software or software that doesn't work; some of the other software is software that can burn CDs but whose purpose is not to burn CDs (e.g., backup software).

How can we solve this? The first thing that springs to mind for me is to use popularity-contest data to weight the list. I know it's not terribly accurate, and it has some skewing problems (stuff in the default install will be favored), but I suspect it would greatly bias the results in terms of software that's useful to many people (using the "recently used" tallies might especially help here).

I don't have many other good ideas on the searching problem; I've seen vague suggestions of counting reverse dependencies, but this doesn't seem like a good metric of useful software to me; trying to extract more information from the short and sometimes inaccurate package descriptions seems like a really hard problem to me. (Google can do cool statistical analysis partly because it has so much data to work with AIUI; even a single Web page typically has orders of magnitude more information than a package description)

Another issue is the problem of finding related software once you've installed one piece. We have "suggests" and "enhances", but they aren't exactly displayed in a prominent or easy-to-understand way by any frontend. I think it might be good to display a clickable list of suggested packages somewhere visible (e.g., at the top of the description box) when the user has selected a package for installation. We could even display a little bar, like on (eg) Amazon: "Debian suggests installing these packages..." ;-)

It might also be interesting (if this is considered acceptable; since the data is anonymous I don't see a problem) to analyze the popcon data to find out what packages are being installed in tandem. I don't know if we have enough information to do it, but it could turn out to be really useful to be able to click on a package and see other packages that are popular with users who installed that package. Going back to online stores again, those "other people who bought 'Types and Programming Languages' also bought 'Introduction to Category Theory'" links are amazingly useful, and something similar would probably be a big help in Debian.

For all of you that were clamoring to have 1.2 packaged, I’ve finally managed to tie up most loose ends. 1.2.7-1 is now available in experimental. The only problem that seems to remain is that it doesn’t build in kFreeBSD, because it is using network manager, which seems to be available only for Linux. I’ll correct that in a future upload. (Update: It’s been brought to my attention that packages.debian.org does not yet list the upload. If you encounter this problem, please just wait a few hours for the pages to be regenerated. The packages are already in the pool and they should hit your friendly neighborhood mirror in the next update, at the most.)

Plone is a content management system that is built on the powerful Zope application server. The project experienced many delays with its 2.1 release. This made it difficult for Plone consultants to choose whether to use the old release or wait for the new one, and users faced many upgrade issues when 2.1 was finally released and had many changes. Partly to address these problems and partly in order to sync their releases with Zope, they decided in 2005 to move to a six month time based release cycle.

Version	Date	Months
1.0	2003-02-06
2.0	2004-03-23	13
2.1	2005-09-06	17
2.5	2006-06-16	9

Past problems

• Releases, in particular version 2.1, took a long time to get out.
• Releases had many changes and caused some migration problems.
• Many Plone developers work as consultants building web sites. Because of the unpredictability of Plone, it was difficult for them to decide which version to use for future projects.

Solutions

• Plone moved to a time based release, partly because the Zope framework on which it builds has done so. This allows them to make use of new Zope features in their software.
• Time based releases allowed the project to implement more structure. For example, new features have to be proposed as a Plone Improvement Proposals (PLIP) which the framework team reviews.
• Deadlines have motivated developers to get their features done within a certain time frame.
• Plone consultants can decide in advance which version of Plone to use for future commercial projects.

Outstanding problems

• As the project has moved to time based releases only recently, they still need to show whether they can consistently release on time.

This isn't all housing, but much is: seen via vitavonni A. Copy the list below to your own journal and:
Bold the actions you are already taking
Underline the actions you plan to start taking
Italicise the actions that don't apply to you B. Add one (or more) suggested action(s) of your own C. Leave a comment here, so that she can track the meme to your journal, and copy your suggested action(s) back to the master list. Update: the sodding original is only open for comments from livejournal customers. Silly. Very silly.

1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs
2. Choose energy efficient appliances
3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water
4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50C (125F) - I've put it to 60C, but it's not possible to go lower at present, thanks to stupid location of the tank meaning the hot water runs at least halfway round the edge of the house before getting to a point it needs to be hot. When I replace the water heating, this should be possible.
5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you're out of the house)
6. Register with the [Canadian Marketing Association's] Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. - Substitute MPS. Must do this.
7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) - but what's a feedlot?
8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible - I live in the countryside, yet still move large packages on my bike.
9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible
10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter
11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner - air con would be evil here.
12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible
13. Reduce air travel
14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket - it's got a spray-foam cover and the outside is cold to the touch. Wrapping the loft tanks in insulation jackets made a big difference.
15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
16. Plant a tree - soon
17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
18. Keep your car tuned up and your tyres inflated to their optimal pressure
19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc.
20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water
21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you're not using them - well, I switch them off at the wall
23. Plug air leaks and draughts around doors and windows with weatherstripping - need to fix a couple of windows, but it's beyond me and local tradesmen seem crap at responding.
24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc.
25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance
26. Reuse bathwater, maybe to flush the loo, water the garden, etc.
27. Make sure your roof is well-insulated.
28. Always wear a jumper/sweater and socks indoors unless it's warm enough outdoors to go without both.
29. Run your vehicle on biofuel/sustainable fuels
30. Set up a grey water barrel to use when clean water isn't necessary
31. Put grey water on your garden immediately without storing it.
32. Install tanks to collect rain-water from your roof for watering the garden, washing your car, etc.
33. Don't keep windows open when your heater is on
34. Turn off lights that you don't need
35. Stop your engine when waiting more than 10 seconds
36. Install a solar panel on your roof for water heating - who fits them in England? I hate roof-work.
37. Ask your bank for an online-only account - I have one, but won't move the rest until they make it secure.
38. Try to make more use of daylight
39. Walk and run more - I'm not walking for the hell of it. Waste of energy.
40. Wrap loft water tanks in insulation jackets where possible
41. Lower the power consumption of your computer with cpudyn, device power managers and similar tools
42. Use non-air-con ways to keep cool whenever possible

Well, we've been back in the country for about 2 months now. I figure it's about time to write about what's been going on lately around here.

The big controversy is about the county jail. Apparently the county is sharply divided about this. People are angry. Profanity has been uttered at county commission meetings. Some people want to build a new, larger county jail because the current jail has been overcrowded for years. Some don't see any problem with the current situation. Others want to close our county jail entirely and pay other counties to house our prisoners, saying that we usually have less than 6 prisoners total.

Yes, in all seriousness, the county is all abuzz about our jail where a population of 6 means overcrowding.

The weather has been getting warmer and that means an increase in traffic. Today I met two cars on the roads near our house -- one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That's a new single-day record. Usually I don't meet that many vehicles in a week.

And our local high school boys' basketball team made it to the state tournament for the first time since the late 80s. That was quite something. It's probably been years since our school had one of their games broadcast live on the radio. And probably about that long since any local business bothered to advertise on the radio. It even got mentioned in a sermon at church. (They took 4th in the state -- congrats!)

I also have prepared this helpful chart for you explaining a few differences about living out here.

Item	City	Country

Check this before leaving homeTraffic report, so you can avoid the big 5-car pileup on the InterstateWeather report, so you can avoid the roads that are impassible if it rained last night You might comment on this when you get home in the eveningThree of the cars in the daily 5-car pileup were on fire and there was gas on the roadway and helicopters everywhere and you drove right past itSomeone drove down our road at night Always yield to...Trains, school busesEscaped cows and those trying to catch them Neighbors will be mad if...You are blaring loud music at 3AM Monday nightYou notice the gate to their pasture is open and you don't tell them Neighbors will not notice if...A car drives by at nightYou are blaring loud music, anytime Minor everyday dangersManiac drivers, drug dealers, Taco BellCow pies, electric fences, thistle infestations Seasonal events that prolong commute timeIndianapolis 500Harvest Bank tellers ask you...What your account number is, and could you give them a photo ID with thatHow your remodel has been coming Bank presidents...Never spek to youAsk about your brothers Distance from house to mailbox...50 feet or less1 mile or less Your car is sporty if...It can do 0-60 in a respectable timeIt can do 0-60, then slow back to a stop, before leaving your driveway Power flickers duringHurricanes and tornadosWind Water meters read byComputer or city employeesYourself; you write the reading on your payment stub each month, if you are lucky enough to qualify for a water service Free meals attainable by...Using a 2-for-1 couponAttending the annual business meeting for your electric company A good time for fundraising is...End of year so people can get a tax deduction on that year's taxesJust after harvest Fundraising benchmarks include...We have less than the price of a new house to raise!We have less than the price of a new combine to raise!

I got the idea for this from Ben Hutchings.A. Copy the list below to your own journal and

Bold the actions you are already taking
Underline the actions you plan to start taking
Italicize the actions that don't apply to youB. Add one (or more) suggested action(s) of your ownC. Leave a comment here, so that she can track the meme to your journal, and copy your suggested action(s) back to my master list.

1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs
2. Choose energy efficient appliances - I'm documenting the power consumption of my computers
3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water - Colder than what? I suspect this is based on American machines that are controlled by mixer valves rather than using a thermostat.
4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50 C (125 F) - this is a good safety measure anyway
5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you're out of the house)
6. Register with the [Canadian Marketing Association's] Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. - Substitute MPS.
7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) - For practical purposes I'm vegetarian, with occasional exceptions.
8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible - I'm writing this on the tram
9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible
10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter
11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible
13. Reduce air travel - pity that long-distance trains suck in Australia
14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible - don't own a clothes dryer, hanging up clothes inside near a heater works on cold days
16. Plant a tree - pity my trees are dying because of the drought / climate change
17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
18. Keep your car tuned up and your tires inflated to their optimal pressure - also minimise driving. I drive about 5000Km per year.
19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc.
    
20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water - remember the Benzene incident...
21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you're not using them - the power use is small so I only do this for rarely used chargers.
23. Plug air leeks and drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping
24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc - I've done this for most things, could improve though.
25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance - second-hand and refurbished computers are so powerful and so cheap that you don't need to care about the environment to do this.
26. Reuse bathwater, maybe to flush the loo, water the garden, etc.
27. Make sure your roof is well-insulated. - I think it is, but as tenants it's not really our choice.
28. Always wear a jumper/sweater and socks indoors unless it's warm enough outdoors to go without both.
29. Run your vehicle on biofuel/sustainable fuels
30. Set up a grey water barrel to use when clean water isn't necessary - grey water should never be stored. It contains chemicals that are used as food for bacteria.
31. Put grey water on your garden immediately without storing it.
32. Install tanks to collect rain-water from your roof for watering the garden, washing your car, etc.

Ben, Erich and Russell bit - Why shouldn't I?

A. Copy the list below to your own journal and
Bold the actions you are already taking
Underline the actions you plan to start taking
Italicize the actions that don't apply to you
B. Add one (or more) suggested action(s) of your own
C. Leave a comment here, so that she can track the meme to your journal, and copy your suggested action(s) back to my master list. Shame - I cannot comment on this, as I'm no a LiveJournal registered user. And I don't intend to be either.

1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs
2. Choose energy efficient appliances - always a criteria when I have a choice. Not always the dominant criteria, though
3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water
4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50 C (125 F) We have a on-route boiler (calentador de paso - any translators? :) ), it only heats when the hot water pipe is active. Of course, it burns much more intensely than a tank, but still, I feel it's an overall saving
5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you're out of the house) - Pfff... Artificial weather in Mexico City? Don't be silly! ;-)
6. Register with the Canadian Marketing Association's Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. - Would love to.
7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) - Nadezhda is a vegetarian, I seldom eat meat
8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible
9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible - In this country, recycling is a lot. We hand-recycle some things, but of course, at a very artesanal level
10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter
11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible
13. Reduce air travel
14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
16. Plant a tree
17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen (Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce)
18. Keep your car tuned up and your tires inflated to their optimal pressure
19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc.
20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water - And not only because of the environment - huge price difference!
21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you're not using them
23. Plug air leeks and drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping - I guess this applies to places with heating/AC
24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc. - As much as possible, of course. Or try to reuse those meant to be disposed.
25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance

I was away in Philadelphia over the past week for the annual Drosophila meeting. My boss presented our work, and I shared a poster about it with the postdoc in the lab. I was constantly running from talk to talk and from poster to poster, trying to soak up as much as I could. I also got to meet a fair number of famous people, which was pretty awesome. It's not every day you get to meet a Nobel laureate, but that's why you go to these things. We got a lot of good feedback on our work, and we've basically gone in to overdrive to try and get the paper (which will be my first one) submitted.

Since I've been back, I haven't had any significant time to do Debian work, mainly because I've been in the lab or just taking care of life stuff almost non-stop. I managed to sneak in some time to tweak the XSF wiki pages, but the rest of the team has been handling things in my absence. I wish I could report on what they've been up to, but I haven't looked at any non-personal email for the past week.

Finally having a chance to check planet Debian today, I'm excited to see Martin's various posts about the release management for different free software projects. Obviously that's been the major thorn in our side for a while now, and while we're improving we can obviously do better. I'm looking forward to a post-mortem report and discussion from the release team about what the next steps we need to take are. I have my own ideas of course, but the release team has a much wider field of view than I've been able to achieve.

Off to see the Shins tonight, hopefully they're as good live as I've heard.

Via Russel Coker. A. Copy the list below to your own journal and Bold the actions you are already taking
Underline the actions you plan to start taking
Italicize the actions that don't apply to you B. Add one (or more) suggested action(s) of your own C. Leave a comment here, so that she can track the meme to your journal, and copy your suggested action(s) back to my master list.

1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs - my room has a 12 W bulb. How much watts do you need for lighting?
2. Choose energy efficient appliances
3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water
4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50 C (125 F)
5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you're out of the house) - it is often sufficient to have the heater go on at like 7 at night and 5 in the morning for an hour each
6. Register with the [Canadian Marketing Association's] Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. - Substitute MPS.
7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) - it's a lot healthier anyway. I enjoy the occasional steak, but you actually enjoy any taste more if you have more variance
8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible - I don't have a car. If I need to transport something big, I borrow one. I do my regular shopping via bicycle or public transit, which saves me looking for a parking space etc. anyway. Also note that when using public transit, you can work a bit, read a book, enjoy some music, ... and you arrive less stressed out than when driving a car.
9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible
10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter - at my parents
11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible - tastes much better anyway
13. Reduce air travel - pity that long-distance trains suck in Australia
14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible - don't own a clothes dryer, hanging up clothes inside near a heater works on cold days - you often can do without ironing, too, by hanging them on a clothes hanger for drying they'll often be reasonably straight. My washing mashine has a program helping at that, too. It uses 40 C and takes just about .8 kWh and is called "easy iron".
16. Plant a tree - pity my trees are dying because of the drought / climate change
17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen - especially with meat I do really notice a better taste
18. Keep your car tuned up and your tires inflated to their optimal pressure - I don't have or need a car
19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc. - causes less allergies
20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water - our tap water here in Munich is better than bottled water anyway, and it saves you from carrying it, too.
21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you're not using them - consider to use a master switch for them
23. Plug air leeks and drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping
24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc. - especially shopping bags and beverage containers is easy
25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance - saves energy and money
26. Reuse bathwater, maybe to flush the loo, water the garden, etc.
27. Make sure your roof is well-insulated.
28. Always wear a jumper/sweater and socks indoors unless it's warm enough outdoors to go without both. - and turn down the heater a bit, it saves a lot of energy and money. Sweater and socks are quite comfortable...
29. Run your vehicle on biofuel/sustainable fuels
30. Set up a grey water barrel to use when clean water isn't necessary
31. Put grey water on your garden immediately without storing it.
32. Install tanks to collect rain-water from your roof for watering the garden, washing your car, etc. (at my parents; we also installed an overflow valve which will automatically redirect overflow water to plants that can always use more water)
33. Don't keep windows open when your heater is on - especially don't keep them half-open. If you want better air, turn off the heater and open the windows for a few minutes completely. This will quickly refersh the air in the room. Then close the window and turn the heater on again.
34. Turn off light that you don't need
35. Stop your engine when waiting more than 10 seconds - for example at train crossings; maybe doesn't apply to Diesel as much because it relies on a operating temperatrue, but I doubt it cools down that quickly
36. Install a solar panel on your roof for water heating - especially in summer or in sunny regions, this will allow you to completely turn off the heater during summer or even most of the year. A solar water heater will easily heat your water to 60 C (on hot days we reach 70 or 80 C), while even keeping your house a bit cooler). It can be installed yourself. At the same time, maybe add insulation to your pipes. If you minimize temperature loss over night, you'll even have warm water left in the morning.
37. Use air circulation for cooling - much cooling can be achieved by having a good air flow, wearing appropriate clothing and avoiding heavy work during the hot hours. Consider doing a siesta and work in the morning and evening
38. Ask your bank for an online-only account - some banks even offer lower fees if you don't use paper-based banking
39. Try to make more use of daylight - that's like free light, you know.
40. Walk and run more - it's healthy, saves you fitness club costs and it saves some energy if you are not using the lift. Walk to the supermarket or fitness club!
41. Use your local recreational facilities - there are probably nice parks nearby where you can go running, maybe some place to go climbing nearby, some pool, ...; this can be an interesting alternative to watching a movie, too
42. Use the refridgerator smartly - don't leave it open when not necessary, and keep the temperature only as low as you need it. Bring all your shopping into the house, sort it, and then open the refridgerator and put it all in in one go, for example.
43. Learn how to cook energy efficient - for example, if you plan ahead you can put frozen foods into the refridgerator to defrost at virtually no power cost. It's also better for the food. Use lids when boiling water; you can also use it often for cooking if you turn down the heat. For rice, I usually put on the lid, and when the water is boiling I can turn the heat off again. With the lid on, the rice will end up cooked just fine. Also pick an appropriate applicance. A real water cooker will be more power efficient for making your tea than putting a small pot on a large flame.

Yesterday I had a meeting in the fucking middle of nowhere, aka Campo de las Naciones (one of Madrid s premier business parks in close proximity to downtown and Barajas International Airport) where my very small company has its virtual headquarters. Pablo, one of my cow-orkers offered to give me a lift on his motorbike. Having been a chatapaquete (hard to translate, but basically, the girl who rides on the back of her bf s motorbike) for many years, I happily accepted without giving it much thought. Which lead to a very strange motorbike ride.

I waited for him downstairs, and getting to sit on the bike was hard, I almost flipped it over, much to Pablo s dismay. It was the first sign of how out practice I was at this. It was a phat CBR 900, and quite had what I call a destroy look. I like bikes that have this neglected, worn out, look. On the way to the meeting I was mostly scared as hell, basically because of the noise from the engine, the lack of control, and the brutal feeling of the wind on my face. Which made me realize how much I used to trust Chicho, that means completely, having ridden much more powerful bikes with him, definitely much faster, but not necessarily more dangerously, even though I used to enjoy the risk, and was usually the instigator: faster, harder, bigger. As if I could only enjoy extreme situations.

Pablo s way of driving the bike was sharp, abrupt but precise, it kept my heart all bouncy anticipating the next obstacle. It felt somewhat like a video game, which didn t make it the least scary. My thoughts were also fast and furious. I thought about feeling old, the trust I lost, getting my now old helmet spray-painted with a Debian swirl, getting more tattoos, fighting the aging in my heart someway, realizing how bourgeois I have become.

On the way back, I managed to relax, and even enjoyed gliding through the heavy traffic, roads busy at peak hour. Which is funny because I remember not enjoying the last bike Chicho had. Which probably was, now that I see it with enough distance, related to a loss of trust, and the knowledge that bikes are certainly dangerous.

My hair is still tangled from the ride. So is my heart.

GNOME provides a complete desktop environment that is easy to use. The project experienced major problems, such as delays, during its 1.x series and in particular during the preparation of its 2.0 release. GNOME introduced time based releases after its 2.0 release and has significantly improved release management. The project has published time based releases every six months for a number of years now and is considered as the reference model for a good implementation of time based release management. They have shown that it's possible to set and meet deadlines in volunteer projects and to release on time.

Version	Date	Months
1.0	1999-03-03
1.2	2000-05-25	15
1.4	2001-04-02	10
2.0	2002-06-27	15
2.2	2003-02-06	7
2.4	2003-09-11	7
2.6	2004-03-31	7
2.8	2004-09-15	6
2.10	2005-03-09	6
2.12	2005-09-07	6
2.14	2006-03-15	6
2.16	2006-09-06	6
2.18	2007-03-14	6

Past problems

• The main goal of version 2.0 was to change internal interfaces but after more than a year of work the project felt they had to deliver more user-visible changes, therefore leading to delays.
• Developers were disappointed with delays and that their work was not available to users.
• It was not clear what was going on. Developers constantly had to ask about the release status.
• Freezes were announced and people worked towards them but then they were delayed. Freezes also often came unexpectedly.
• Vendors had deadlines but the GNOME schedule was unpredictable. Vendors did not know whether they should aim for the next version or focus on the previous version and backport fixes.
• Vendors had to backport many changes to a version that the GNOME project considered as old.

Solutions

• The project introduced a rigorous schedule promising a release every six months.
• There was a core team so few people had to agree to the introduction of a schedule.
• GNOME introduced policies to keep the development tree fairly stable.
• The project introduced the idea of reverting: if a feature was not ready on a certain cut-off date, it would be taken out again.
• The project gained credibility because releases were actually performed on time.
• The schedule allowed vendors better planning, and hence vendors could implement their features on the main development tree.

Outstanding problems

• The six month schedule has been successful in the delivery of incremental updates. There are some concerns whether this release cycle makes the project less innovative and ambitious regarding major changes that would lead to GNOME 3.0.

I've been using Debian for about 10 years now. Debian was my first Linux distribution. For about 7 years I've been running a Debian m68k buildd now. For some time now I've been worrying about Debian and its future.
IMHO, there are several reasons to worry about its future.
a) Release cycles.
Funny enough Martin Michlmayr wrote today about Gnome release cycles. Apparently Gnome suffered from similar problems in Gnome 1.x times as Debian still does today. The big difference between Gnome and Debian is: Gnome has actually learned from its mistakes and changed its release model to something better. Really. I don't use "better" very often in conjunction with "Gnome", but in this regard, the Gnome project did really something good.
Debian, on the other hand, suffers more and more from its "release everything for all when it's ready" syndrome. Releases are always delayed, it's a big chunk of work for everyone involved, Debian is losing users because of the delays and so on...
b) Debian as a base for other distributions.
Lately, several distributions announced, that they will use Ubuntu as a base for their own distribution and not Debian any longer.
c) Internal problems.
Debian has many internal problems. Many of them have to do with communication problems. Others with "you can't force anyone to do anything in Debian" ideology. Some with unresponsive persons in key positions. Some problems are a mixture of all the above. Altogether, these problems are causing that many developers are losing their fun in the long run.
d) Flame wars.
Well, actually this could be listed in b) Internel problems as well, but it's a massive problem of itself, so I think it deserves its own section. Flame wars are really time consuming and destructive. I know what I say. Been there, done that.
e) Getting new people in.
It is often said, that there are >1000 Debian Developers. The truth is that many of them are inactive or MIA. There was a proposal lately to find those inactive DDs and handle them accordingly. Given this fact of many, many inactive DDs means, that there is more work for those left. To solve this problem of overworked DDs (it's another truth, that some DDs are very active and have far too many jobs within Debian), Debian needs to attract more people and encourage people to contribute. Currently, it's not that easy for people to contribute, because of bureaucratic formalisms like sponsored uploads and such. Additionally, not everyone willing to help wants to do packaging or other tasks. There is a lot of other work to do like making graphics, organizing booths or other events, etc. Currently those tasks are mostly done by DDs that could better spent their time on developing Debian itself (packaging, porting, ...).

Ok, enough for now. But how can those problems be solved?
ad a)
Martin mentioned in his post about the Gnome Release management, that they changed from "release when it's ready" to time based releases and gained credibility because of this.
I think, Debian would benefit as well from this type of release management. Additionally, every Developer can react to this new method and make his packages fit for the release because he knows "Hey! Just 4 weeks until the release! Let's get my packages ready for it!"
Another problem, IMHO, is the "release all packages for all archs at one time" problem. This lead to the drop of m68k for etch (via some obscure circumstances like a very broken gcc 4.0 version and some strange release criteria, sometimes referenced as Vancouver Massacre).
Someone of the contestants for the new DPL job mentioned in his world domination plan to have a stable release of some basic components every year and having sub-releases for desktop environments (KDE, Gnome, XFCE...) every 6 months. Basically I believe that this is the way to go. You can discuss the time frames, of course. Release a stable base every year or every 2 years? But really, I think this would be the best way to deal with many problems Debian has.
If every 1-2 years a new stable base would be released, everyone could be happy: the admins with long release cycles for their servers, the users with faster releases for their desktops and (maybe) the porters who can (maybe) omit a subrelease of the desktop apps and concentrate on porting the base system if needed. Really. 15000 packages for (let's say) 15 archs is way too much work for everyone.

ad b)
With the above mentioned changes, Debian could re-gain some more market share and users from other distributions like Ubuntu - and be a base for distributions again. The reputation of Debian would rise again, because the releases wouldn't be delayed again.
I think it would be ok for smaller ports (like m68k) to release differently than the main archs (i386, amd64, ppc, arm): if every year a new stable base release would be done, it could be ok for them to skip a release, if necessary. Of course, details must be elaborated more in detail.

ad c)
There are many internal problems. The most urgent one is "bad communication". Needless to say that it's very important to communicate with your work mates to get your work done. If someone fails basic communication skills (answering questions about the stuff s/he is responsible for) in a reasonable time frame, s/he's simply the wrong person in that position and should be replaced. Of course this interfere with the current understanding of "not being able to be forced to do things" in Debian. People should change their mind about that.
Basically, it's similar to NMUs: if a package maintainer fails to fulfill his responsibilities (fixing bugs), he can either be enforced to fix the problem in that package by a bugreport or he can somewhat be replaced by doing a NMU when he's not fulfilling his duties. If he fails often to get his package into a good shape, he can be replaced permanently by hijacking the package.
Or to give a real world example: If you are holding a honorary post, let's say, you're doing the financial paper work for your soccer club, you can't say "Oh no... I don't have the time to do the tax declaration now or the next month...". That just doesn't work. Either you do your duties on time or you need to step down from that post. Otherwise you would do damage to your club. This is valid for other volunteer organisations as well, like Debian. Do your duties on time or step down from your post.

ad d)
Well, I'm not innocent when speaking about flame wars. Anyway, people can learn and change their mind. Flame wars are really bad in Debian, but it seems to be something like a sport to me sometimes. And usually it needs two parties for a flame war. That's the reason why I believe that expelling a fellow DD because they were involved in some major flame wars in the past is simply wrong. Either expel all parties or none.
A party is not only involved when answering to mails on mailing lists, but also when doing stuff that forces the other party to react - for example by starting a flame war on a mailing list. There's always action and always reaction. Therefore you can't disjoin both and just judge upon one party.
When a mediation is tempted, both parties are required to obey the mediators decision. Of course there should be a fair decision that honors both sides. Both sides have to give in for a successful mediation attempt. If that's not the case, the mediator failed. Not obeying to the mediators decision, because "no-one can be forced to do anything in Debian" (see above), is plainly wrong.
Anyway, most people should know of what I'm speaking here. I think it's plainly wrong to expel developers that have done really great work in the past due to some flame wars. Debian as a community has failed when it chooses this ultima ratio. Debian just proves that it is unable to establish a community where people can work together, when developers are going to get expelled because they thing that a mischief was done to him.
How would you feel and react when someone would play bad games on you? Wouldn't you yell loudly as well?
So, how can something like this be avoided? Maybe a Code of Conduct could help, maybe that CoC wouldn't be necessary when everyone would be nice to anyone and remember that there's a human being each mail with feelings and emotions?
Anyway, Debian needs to abandon flame wars in general.

ad e)
Well, I've already written a little bit about this problem above. There are many tasks in Debian that doesn't need technical excellence of packaging details - instead it needs excellence in social skills. Something that many technically focussed people are missing. Debian needs to become more attractive to those kind of people that are good at this non-technical issues and encourage them to join the project - and not to frighten them away by a very technical and bureaucratic procedure like the current NM process. Those kind of people won't wait some years to be actually being able to do work. They will just go on and find a place where their skills are better welcomed.


Ok, that's for now, I think... it's been a long post and therefore I've used folding for it.

Conclusion:
Well, not a nice one. Debian needs big changes in its structure and the candidates for the upcoming DPL elections identified some of them and put them on their agenda for their DPL period (if they win, of course). But the history showed that none of the past DPLs had really the power or the will to push big changes and made hard decisions. So, after all everything will stay as it is now. Nothing will change for the better, I fear. Users will leave Debian because of its stale release cycles, more and more Debian-based distributions will change their base to Ubuntu and Debian will become more and more irrelevant over time instead of being a strong participant in the free software world.

Yves-Alexis Perez writes a bit about Debian and crypto-containers, comparing cryptsetup and encfs. The comparison is decent enough, except that it's fairly trivial to get cryptsetup to integrate into the whole gnome-volume-manager stack and have a dialogue pop up when you insert an encrypted USB stick or similar. Sure, it's mounted by a root process, but I wouldn't claim it's any kind of insecure because of that. What did really catch my eye was the line near the end:

[...] but this is a bruteforce attack against master password (1024 bits RSA key), not against 128bits aes key of the container.

Well, according to conventional research, a 1024 bit RSA key is about as strong as an 80 bit symmetric key. A semi-recent RSA paper confirms this too. And to the best of my knowledge, there has not been found weaknesses in AES which lower the effective key size.

South-by-Southwest is well and truly over now. I had a really good time. I don't have quite as much fun at general-Web conferences as at wiki-specific conferences, but I think it's also healthy for me to look outside my own narrow niche every once in a while and see what other people are doing. I think overall the conference was pretty great, although I don't feel like the passion of 2006 was here in 2007. I will say that I find it disconcerting that there are so few wiki people at SxSW. I think there should be considerably more, and I'm going to urge some intelligent and thoughtful people to come to Austin next year and get on panels. Practically every aspect of blogging gets covered at SxSW, but mine was the only wiki-specific panel this year. We're taking a week on the coast near Galveston to recharge batteries and get our work lives back on track. Then it's off to Las Vegas for the IA Summit. Maj will be in the conference area -- I'll be baby-sitting at New York New York or something. tags: sxsw07 austin wiki galveston las vegas

Dear LazyWeb Two questions:

• N800 movies. What ffmpeg or mencoder or transcode parameters should I use to convert video to run on the media player on my Nokia N800?
• Zip code of Canada. In the US, when you try to charge a tank of gas using pay-at-the-pump, frequently you're asked for the ZIP code of the billing address of your credit card. But if your residential address is in Canada (or anywhere outside the US), you don't have a ZIP code attached to the card. I usually go inside to the cashier and pay there, but I wonder: is there a special code you could use (like "00000") that means "I don't have a US ZIP code"? If not, why not?

Thanks for any answers (see Contact for how to get them to me). tags: lazyweb n800 zip code credit card canada

Twittering again It seems like Twitter is waking up from its own SXSW07 hangover and sending out the thousands of backlogged twits that weren't delivered at the right time. I don't think in the age of EC2 any public Web site should go AWOL due to too much traffic. Twitter suffered just the kind of surge that EC2 (and S3) are there to solve. tags: twitter ec2 sxsw07