Building simplicidade.org: notes, projects, and occasional rants

Notes

last update:

I spent the last 30 minutes chasing down this bug. The following tests should all pass but the last one doesn't: use strict; use warnings; use Test::More 'no_plan'; use XML::LibXML; use XML::LibXML::XPathContext; my $parser = XML::LibXML->new; ok($parser, 'XML::LibXML parser created'); my $xml = '<x:me xmlns:x="some_namespace" />'; my $xdoc = $parser->parse_string($xml); ok($xdoc, 'Valid XML parsed'); $xdoc = XML::LibXML::XPathContext->new($xdoc); ok($xdoc, 'Converted to XPathContext'); my ($node) = $xdoc->findnodes('/me'); ok(!$node, 'Not found because no prefix means NULL namespace'); ($node) = $xdoc->findnodes('/x:me'); ok($node, 'Found because using document prefix'); $xdoc->registerNs( new => 'some_namespace' ); ($node) = $xdoc->findnodes('/new:me'); ok($node, 'Found because using new specific prefix'); # Notice the change of namespace my $uri = $xdoc->lookupNs('x'); is($uri, 'some_namespace', 'x prefix is some_namespace'); $xdoc->registerNs( x => 'other_namespace' ); $uri = $xdoc->lookupNs('x'); is($uri, 'some_namespace', 'x prefix is still some_namespace'); ($node) = $xdoc->findnodes('/x:me'); ok(!

The DNS wars

The recent DNS bugs sent me reading the cr.yp.to site for old stories, long forgotten. djbdns is one of the DNS server softwares that was immune to this problem from the start. Some pearls: a Usenet posting of 2001 comparing the attack space of crypto-secure DNS request vs the alternatives;a page about DNS forgery;a blurb about the recent attacks;(not in the cr.yp.to site but still...) djb credited in original post about this latest exploit (search for DJB).

STFU

So you have a friend who is going to spend some time traveling and that journey includes the United States. Usually you would buying him a travel guide. But our times require something different. I recommend that you send your fiend the link to Professor James Duane talk entitled "Don't talk to the Police". In a country where habeas corpus is no longer controlled by the court system, those 26 minutes could save your friend a lot of trouble (as confirmed in the follow up presentation by a police officer).

STFU

So you have a friend who is going to spend some time traveling and that journey includes the United States. Usually you would buying him a travel guide. But our times require something different. I recommend that you send your fiend the link to Professor James Duane talk entitled "Don't talk to the Police". In a country where habeas corpus is no longer controlled by the court system, those 26 minutes could save your friend a lot of trouble.

Back...

The latest weeks where a bit crazy but normality is returning.

Tweaks to MySQL installation

After you install one of the MySQL packages available for the Mac, there are some steps that you should do. First, make sure your MySQL installation knows about time zones. This is important if you want to run your MySQL in the UTC time zone. To update the mysql database time zone tables, do: mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql Type the password at the prompt (hit enter if you don't have one yet).

DBD::mysql and db_imp errors

I'm installing all my MySQL stuff in a Leopard 10.5.4 desktop and I made some mistakes along the way that I though about documenting here for future reference. First, although the hardware and OS are 64-bit in a lot of places, the standard perl installed is not one of those. So stick with the i386 MySQL package (or try a 64bit server, but use the 32bit client...). I'm using the Proven Scaling MySQL packages mentioned earlier, and I'm happy so far.

$chromatic++

Nothing to add, really. Maybe another day.

QOD

In response to the FSF article on the iPhone, let me point you to the balanced view of Stu Charlton. Quote of the day: The OpenMoko counter-argument is "give it time, in the long run, it will win". And look, in a way, I hope so. Using the iPhone is a great case of following Keynes' adage, in the long run, we are all dead., where we optimize for short term gratification at the expense of our future.