Changes
January 8, 2005
I have now upgraded this site. The most visible change is that this blog (or diary, as it was known) has moved to the document root. What used to be here has now been moved to about. I have also cleaned up the menu in the blog’s sidebar and done some minor adjustments to the text on some pages.
The backend storage for this blog has changed from PostgreSQL to SQLite. I’m hoping that should result in faster response times (the blog used to be slow if it had not been accessed for a while, since Pg would be swapped out). I’ve not done any benchmark here though, it is just a hunch. At any rate it allows me to turn off Pg as this blog was the only thing using it.
Changes imminent
January 8, 2005
Expect this site to undergo some changes this weekend. As mentioned earlier I have been playing with Class::DBI and SQLite. I have been working to change my blog to use these instead of straight DBI and PostgreSQL. The improvement in the readability of the code is remarkable. The changes are not all to the backend, however. Expect some visible changes to (parts of) the site too.
dh-make-perl
January 6, 2005
If you’re on Debian and sometimes find yourself installing modules from CPAN directly because they don’t come prepackaged, have a look at the dh-make-perl utility. It can download a module from CPAN and wrap it in a Debian package (and even install it) in one step. Using it is as easy as this:
dh-make-perl --build --cpan Some::Module
sudo dpkg -i libsome-module-perl
You can do the install in the same step as well (with –install) but I prefer to build the package as a non-priveleged user.
Google AdSense
January 3, 2005
I’ve just removed the Google ads from my site. In close to six months I’ve earned just over 3 dollars. It’s becoming clear that this get-rich-quick scheme is not working for me. So, until I get more readers I’ll turn the ads off, in an attempt to avoid pissing off the few readers I actually have.
SQLite
January 3, 2005
I’ve been playing with SQLite (which, by the way, rocks considerably) a bit lately and might end up migrating to it from PostgreSQL for my blog. That would allow me to turn off Pg, as my blog is the only thing that uses it.
At the moment PostgreSQL swaps out when the blog has not been accessed for a while (it’s running on a machine with 64MB RAM) which makes first access slow. By using SQLite instead I expect this situation will improve.
Class::DBI has_many() headache
January 3, 2005
Today I’ve been playing with Perl’s Class::DBI with the aim of using it when I refactor the code for this blog. For some time I struggled with creating a many-to-many mapping; the example in the manpage did not work for me. In the end it turned out that it is sensitive to the order of defining the classes (Tony Bowden pointed that out in this post). That could have been mentioned in the docs, don’t you think? :)
Update (21:48): Er… Upon further reading it turns out the Class::DBI documentation actually does mention that the ordering is significant…
ArchZoom upgrade
January 3, 2005
I’ve just upgraded the ArchZoom installation at arch.brautaset.org to the newly released 0.4.0. Most notable new feature: ArchZoom can now tell me in which changesets a particular file was affected.
Back in London
January 3, 2005
I’m back in London. Nadia and I drove down from Peterlee earlier today. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by the remarkably clean water in Mrs. Turtle’s tank. We mused on whether this could be because of less algae-growth due to the lower temperature when we’ve been away.
Upon inspection, however, it turned out that the automatic feeder had jammed. Mrs. Turtle had not been pooing much going pretty much without food for 10 days, which is why her tank was so clean.
New Year’s resolution giving you trouble?
January 1, 2005
Here’s an idea for a New Year’s resolution you can make that will be easy to keep: I shall give money to people in need. Then, head straight to DEC’s website and max out your credit card in support for their Tsunami earthquake appeal.
