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fix line endings from import

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James Walker 2012-01-03 00:31:54 -05:00
parent bd91995487
commit 414a5c83bf
246 changed files with 1645 additions and 1645 deletions
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_posts/2002-09-07-happy-1st-week.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/happy-1st-week
tags:
- camryn
---
so camryn is just over a week old... that means there are more pictures. she's a great baby, hardly ever cries. andrew loves her too.
so camryn is just over a week old... that means there are more pictures. she's a great baby, hardly ever cries. andrew loves her too.
speaking of andrew... i finally uploaded pictures of our camping trip as well. they're cute. we had a blast.

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_posts/2003-01-08-oh-my-god.md
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---
<!--timestamp:1042080745:-->
so... it looks like it's been a while. *ahem*
so... it looks like it's been a while. *ahem*
i just went through our digital pics from the past couple months and picked out some good ones to put up. and, like a good parent of two children. i picked 16 for andrew's section and 16 for camryn's. i'm pretty sure camryn wouldn't protest if it had been uneven. but i feel better inside this way.
i just went through our digital pics from the past couple months and picked out some good ones to put up. and, like a good parent of two children. i picked 16 for andrew's section and 16 for camryn's. i'm pretty sure camryn wouldn't protest if it had been uneven. but i feel better inside this way.
otherwise, i've been busy, but we've made it one year deeper into this new millenium. rejoice.

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_posts/2003-03-29-what-huh-new-site.md
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@ -6,20 +6,20 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/what-huh-new-site
tags:
- site
---
<!--timestamp:1048918620:-->
<p>ok... i've been really quiet again. but now i'm back and things have changed. i've redone my site as a <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> site. This means, amongst other things, that i have a decent way to maintain the site above and beyond my normal method. *hopefully* this will result in more frequent posts. but, more importantly, it means that i can take advantage of neat features that other people have written without re-writing them myself. as cool as it is to do that... i've got other things to do.</p>
<p>2 things that I haven't yet incorporated into drupal are:</p>
<ol>
<li>my pictures... drupal has an "image" module... but converting things is more of a hassle that i'm into right now... but all the pictures are still available in the same old place (linked above)</li>
<li>my file downloads... since most of these are just symlinks to my actual config files, that's much easier for me to maintain outside of drupal.
</ol>
<!--timestamp:1048918620:-->
<p>ok... i've been really quiet again. but now i'm back and things have changed. i've redone my site as a <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> site. This means, amongst other things, that i have a decent way to maintain the site above and beyond my normal method. *hopefully* this will result in more frequent posts. but, more importantly, it means that i can take advantage of neat features that other people have written without re-writing them myself. as cool as it is to do that... i've got other things to do.</p>
<p>2 things that I haven't yet incorporated into drupal are:</p>
<ol>
<li>my pictures... drupal has an "image" module... but converting things is more of a hassle that i'm into right now... but all the pictures are still available in the same old place (linked above)</li>
<li>my file downloads... since most of these are just symlinks to my actual config files, that's much easier for me to maintain outside of drupal.
</ol>
<p>Long story short... come on in... heck sign up for an account... make comments... get involved. yay.</p>

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_posts/2003-04-09-tax-er-playoff-season.md
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@ -10,14 +10,14 @@ tags: []
---
<!--timestamp:1049945400:-->
so... it might be tax time, but tonight opened the nhl playoffs... and while my <a href="http://www.bostonbruins.com/" target="_blank">team</a> lost to new jersey in their first game... my adopted <a href="http://www.torontomapleleafs.com" target="_blank">team</a> won.
so... it might be tax time, but tonight opened the nhl playoffs... and while my <a href="http://www.bostonbruins.com/" target="_blank">team</a> lost to new jersey in their first game... my adopted <a href="http://www.torontomapleleafs.com" target="_blank">team</a> won.
and there was much rejoicing.
and there was much rejoicing.
TOR 1 - PHI 0
TOR 1 - PHI 0
BOS 0 - NJ 1

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_posts/2003-04-17-i-love-this-game.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/i-love-this-game
tags:
- family
---
so, i had an awesome night last night. a new friend of ours was able to score gold tickets -- row 11!!! -- to last night's leafs / flyers game. we lost 3-2 in triple-OT ... which stunk. but what fun! and, since we were there for 2 games worth of hockey, i don't feel quite as bad about paying way too much :)
unfortunately, the bruins just finished their season's tailspin... getting eliminated by the devils :(
TOR 2 - PHI - 2
so, i had an awesome night last night. a new friend of ours was able to score gold tickets -- row 11!!! -- to last night's leafs / flyers game. we lost 3-2 in triple-OT ... which stunk. but what fun! and, since we were there for 2 games worth of hockey, i don't feel quite as bad about paying way too much :)
unfortunately, the bruins just finished their season's tailspin... getting eliminated by the devils :(
TOR 2 - PHI - 2
BOS 1 - NJ 4 :(

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_posts/2003-05-29-chicken-pox.md
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@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1054216980:-->
so, it's been a long time, and lots has happened but the big news this week is that andrew has the chicken pox. poor kid. the worst part is that he's got a bunch of stuff going on these days. he's missing a field trip today, he'll probably miss soccer next week, and then his uncle chad is coming to visit and his graduation is next thursday.
so, it's been a long time, and lots has happened but the big news this week is that andrew has the chicken pox. poor kid. the worst part is that he's got a bunch of stuff going on these days. he's missing a field trip today, he'll probably miss soccer next week, and then his uncle chad is coming to visit and his graduation is next thursday.
poor guy.

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_posts/2003-06-10-chicken-pox-redux.md
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@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1055291160:-->
so, now that andrew is done with chicken pox and back in school... guess who's covered in spots? yup. camryn's got the pox. but at least she's young enough that they don't seem to bother her... and she can't quite scratch them yet.
so, now that andrew is done with chicken pox and back in school... guess who's covered in spots? yup. camryn's got the pox. but at least she's young enough that they don't seem to bother her... and she can't quite scratch them yet.
in other news... chad was up from atlanta on the weekend (with his new girlfriend raven). we had tons of fun. we even went to canada's wonderland for the first time in years. naturally, i totally forgot my camera, so the memories are entirely in our heads. neener neener. :p

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_posts/2003-06-20-the-ever-changing-address.md
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@ -10,12 +10,12 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1056125640:-->
so, i think i told everyone the saga i had with the town office about our house's address. long story short... sometime back last november the town of aurora decided that our house should have a different address. so they changed it. we're a corner lot, and they re-addressed based on the other street.
so, i think i told everyone the saga i had with the town office about our house's address. long story short... sometime back last november the town of aurora decided that our house should have a different address. so they changed it. we're a corner lot, and they re-addressed based on the other street.
anyway, the big news is that after some nasty phone calls, a letter, and a lot of waiting our original address has been officially restored. yeah.
anyway, the big news is that after some nasty phone calls, a letter, and a lot of waiting our original address has been officially restored. yeah.
(p.s. the kids are all healthy again).

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_posts/2003-07-06-some-site-fiddling.md
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@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1057514820:-->
so, i've been playing around with the site a little bit... playing some more with drupal, and re-arranging some other stuff. most notably, i've seperated my "files" and "gallery" stuff. they're available via links in the right-hand column... but also you can go directly to: <a href="http://cvs.walkah.net/">http://cvs.walkah.net/</a> or <a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/">http://gallery.walkah.net/</a>.
so, i've been playing around with the site a little bit... playing some more with drupal, and re-arranging some other stuff. most notably, i've seperated my "files" and "gallery" stuff. they're available via links in the right-hand column... but also you can go directly to: <a href="http://cvs.walkah.net/">http://cvs.walkah.net/</a> or <a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/">http://gallery.walkah.net/</a>.
(p.s. i also uploaded 2 - that's right 2! - new pictures from canada day)
(p.s. i also uploaded 2 - that's right 2! - new pictures from canada day)
(p.p.s. there's a list of my geek toys <a href="/title/toys">here</a>)

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_posts/2003-07-11-happy-birthday-to-me.md
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@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1057936020:-->
so, yesterday i turned 26... on what seemed to be a gloomy, rainy work day. they say patience is a virtue, well i just needed to wait yesterday. 'cause after work, sandi and i had a wonderful dinner - "grown-up time" - and she gave me new shoes! (i've had footwear issues for some time, so yes that is a big deal for me).
so, yesterday i turned 26... on what seemed to be a gloomy, rainy work day. they say patience is a virtue, well i just needed to wait yesterday. 'cause after work, sandi and i had a wonderful dinner - "grown-up time" - and she gave me new shoes! (i've had footwear issues for some time, so yes that is a big deal for me).
the other big news is that when we got home, i discovered that we actually *finally* had grass in our backyard! (it only took 14 months!) so now perhaps, i should take a set of completed house pictures.

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_posts/2003-08-25-long-time-no-see.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/long-time-no-see
tags:
- geek
---
so, it's been well over a month. so much has happened... we've been to rockport and back. had a great trip despite the rain. there are pictures that will appear in the <a href="http://gallery.walkah.net">gallery</a> at some point.
so, it's been well over a month. so much has happened... we've been to rockport and back. had a great trip despite the rain. there are pictures that will appear in the <a href="http://gallery.walkah.net">gallery</a> at some point.
the big news, however, is that camryn has started to take steps on her own! she can do about 3 or 4 steps before collapsing in a fit of giggles in your arms. it's great fun.

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_posts/2003-09-11-my-oh-my.md
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@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1063286460:-->
where does the time go. jeez. since i last put anything here camryn has turned 1 and andrew is rapidly approaching his 6th (!!!!) birthday. not to mention the fact that i have a bunch of pictures that are still just sitting on the camera. problem with my big 256mb flash card is that i don't take enough pictures to need the room on the camera very often :P
where does the time go. jeez. since i last put anything here camryn has turned 1 and andrew is rapidly approaching his 6th (!!!!) birthday. not to mention the fact that i have a bunch of pictures that are still just sitting on the camera. problem with my big 256mb flash card is that i don't take enough pictures to need the room on the camera very often :P
oh well. i'll catch on to this whole blogging thing one day. not yet though apparently.

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_posts/2003-09-12-trying-out-gnome-blog.md
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@ -10,6 +10,6 @@ tags:
---
<!--timestamp:1063392360:-->
<p>so, in an effort to increase my blogging production, i thought i'd try using a blogging utility. thinking at first that i'd probably write one myself (as a chance to play with <a href="http://www.daa.com.au/~james/pygtk/">pygtk</a>), i thought i'd <a href="http://www.google.com/">google</a> for an existing one just in case. well, of course, one already exists. so this is my first post with <a href="http://www.gnome.org/%7Eseth/gnome-blog/">gnome-blog</a>.</p><p>
<p>so, in an effort to increase my blogging production, i thought i'd try using a blogging utility. thinking at first that i'd probably write one myself (as a chance to play with <a href="http://www.daa.com.au/~james/pygtk/">pygtk</a>), i thought i'd <a href="http://www.google.com/">google</a> for an existing one just in case. well, of course, one already exists. so this is my first post with <a href="http://www.gnome.org/%7Eseth/gnome-blog/">gnome-blog</a>.</p><p>
seems nice so far anyway...</p>

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_posts/2003-09-15-gnome-blog-cvs-hacking.md
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@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ tags: []
---
<!--timestamp:1063654080:-->
<p>so i finally got <a href="http://www.gnome.org/~seth/gnome-blog/">gnome-blog</a> working from CVS. i had some troubles at first because my box (running <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a>) was trying to use an older version of automake. however, i fixed this and now have things working properly.</p><p>
<p>so i finally got <a href="http://www.gnome.org/~seth/gnome-blog/">gnome-blog</a> working from CVS. i had some troubles at first because my box (running <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a>) was trying to use an older version of automake. however, i fixed this and now have things working properly.</p><p>
my next task is to tweak gnome-blog so that it works-for-me. one feature i'd like to see is editing of previous posts. but my first hack is to add title tags to the bloggerAPI module (since <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> groks those).</p><p>
my next task is to tweak gnome-blog so that it works-for-me. one feature i'd like to see is editing of previous posts. but my first hack is to add title tags to the bloggerAPI module (since <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> groks those).</p><p>
consider this post a test.</p>

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_posts/2003-10-03-my-powerbook.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/my-powerbook
tags:
- mac os x
---
it's here. i can't believe it, but it's actually here. those of you that have listened for the past couple years as i droned on and on about how much i'd love to have a powerbook, well you won't have to endure it any longer! my laptop has arrived!
world... meet pollock.
it's here. i can't believe it, but it's actually here. those of you that have listened for the past couple years as i droned on and on about how much i'd love to have a powerbook, well you won't have to endure it any longer! my laptop has arrived!
world... meet pollock.
hey, that reminds me, i need to re-instate my toy list... but i've got some real work to do first...

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_posts/2003-10-17-picture-backlog.md
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@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/picture-backlog
tags:
- family
---
so, i had a rather large backlog of pictures on the camera, but (sadly) not a lot of them turned out that well. :( i think i need to go back through the manual for my camera, because a lot of pics are coming out overexposed and/or blurry.
so, i had a rather large backlog of pictures on the camera, but (sadly) not a lot of them turned out that well. :( i think i need to go back through the manual for my camera, because a lot of pics are coming out overexposed and/or blurry.
anyway the ones that were ok (and public) are up in the <a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/">gallery</a>.

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_posts/2003-11-14-back-to-drupal.md
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@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/back-to-drupal
tags:
- site
---
so, i've gone back to <a href="http://drupal.org/" target="_blank">drupal</a> for hosting my site. i'll probably keep it like this for a long time. it's too much work to convert back and forth :P
i've also been doing some drupal hacking lately, but more on that later...
so, i've gone back to <a href="http://drupal.org/" target="_blank">drupal</a> for hosting my site. i'll probably keep it like this for a long time. it's too much work to convert back and forth :P
i've also been doing some drupal hacking lately, but more on that later...

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_posts/2003-11-17-blogapi-module.md
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@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/blogapi-module
tags:
- drupal
---
so, i mentioned i'd done some <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal</a> hacking... well, following my 2nd commit of my first contributed module, <a href="http://www.buytaert.net">dries</a> added the module to the drupal core (check it out: <a href="http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/drupal/modules/blogapi.module?rev=1.1&amp;view=auto">here</a>). the module replaced bloggerapi.module, and adds support for <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog API</a> and some <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_programmatic.html">Movable Type API</a> extensions (for things like categories, etc).
so, i mentioned i'd done some <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal</a> hacking... well, following my 2nd commit of my first contributed module, <a href="http://www.buytaert.net">dries</a> added the module to the drupal core (check it out: <a href="http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/drupal/drupal/modules/blogapi.module?rev=1.1&amp;view=auto">here</a>). the module replaced bloggerapi.module, and adds support for <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog API</a> and some <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/docs/mtmanual_programmatic.html">Movable Type API</a> extensions (for things like categories, etc).
i feel all warm and fuzzy :)

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_posts/2003-12-02-sudden-thoughts.md
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@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/sudden-thoughts
tags: []
---
so, lately in my "spare" time (i.e. the wee hours of the morning), i've been helping my brother, chad, launch a little website he calls <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">sudden thoughts</a>.
for those of you who don't know, chad is a brilliant writer and a total music nerd. sudden thoughts is a showcase of both of these attributes. the site currently features cd reviews (focus on lesser-known jazz & hip-hop), in depth coverage of up and coming labels and a neat feature in which artists are contributing their own 'view from the trenches' - the first of which was contributed by <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;uid=UIDCASS70312021700042613&amp;sql=B7267gjirj6ix">steve coleman</a>.
i encourage everyone to check it out!
so, lately in my "spare" time (i.e. the wee hours of the morning), i've been helping my brother, chad, launch a little website he calls <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">sudden thoughts</a>.
for those of you who don't know, chad is a brilliant writer and a total music nerd. sudden thoughts is a showcase of both of these attributes. the site currently features cd reviews (focus on lesser-known jazz & hip-hop), in depth coverage of up and coming labels and a neat feature in which artists are contributing their own 'view from the trenches' - the first of which was contributed by <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&amp;uid=UIDCASS70312021700042613&amp;sql=B7267gjirj6ix">steve coleman</a>.
i encourage everyone to check it out!
&lt;plug&gt; i did all the design and coding behind the site using (of course) <a href="http://drupal.org">drupal</a>&lt;/plug&gt; ;)

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_posts/2003-12-04-all-i-want-for-christmas.md
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@ -6,5 +6,5 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/all-i-want-for-christmas
tags:
- geek
---
... is one of <a href="http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html">these</a>! anyone who has been over for a dinner party or otherwise at our house knows that I use a little old laptop to try and acheive the same thing with minimal success. since my entire music collection is digitized, i have long been looking for a way to take advantage of that fact in the rest of the house. well here it is... and it even supports wifi!
... is one of <a href="http://www.slimdevices.com/index.html">these</a>! anyone who has been over for a dinner party or otherwise at our house knows that I use a little old laptop to try and acheive the same thing with minimal success. since my entire music collection is digitized, i have long been looking for a way to take advantage of that fact in the rest of the house. well here it is... and it even supports wifi!
*drool*

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_posts/2003-12-04-safari-color-problems.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/safari-color-problems
tags:
- mac os x
---
i came across something very odd recently while trying to futz my way around photohop. i was trying to create an image for a <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">site</a>, and thus was using the hex code from the site background for the image background. However, when the resulting image was viewed on a PC (with IE 6 or Mozilla) the colors did not match. after trying the same image with <a href="http://www.gimp.org">the gimp</a>, the colors matched successfully on windows browsers (and even moz et. al on linux). *however*, they didn't match under safari (and still don't).
it appears that photoshop and safari (at least) seem to share some image rendering code that is applying some broken color "correction". the (not very) good news is that it appears i'm not the only one experiencing this... <a href="http://trainedmonkey.com/entry/1252">here</a> is at least one other documented case.
i came across something very odd recently while trying to futz my way around photohop. i was trying to create an image for a <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">site</a>, and thus was using the hex code from the site background for the image background. However, when the resulting image was viewed on a PC (with IE 6 or Mozilla) the colors did not match. after trying the same image with <a href="http://www.gimp.org">the gimp</a>, the colors matched successfully on windows browsers (and even moz et. al on linux). *however*, they didn't match under safari (and still don't).
it appears that photoshop and safari (at least) seem to share some image rendering code that is applying some broken color "correction". the (not very) good news is that it appears i'm not the only one experiencing this... <a href="http://trainedmonkey.com/entry/1252">here</a> is at least one other documented case.
if anyone knows of a fix/workaround/etc i'm all ears! (i've already tried other colorsync profiles in system prefs, and yes my display is set to millions of colors).

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_posts/2003-12-07-hats-off.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/hats-off
tags:
- andrew
---
hat trick + 1 for andrew this morning! 4 goals! who knew?
it's been really, really fun to watch him fall in love with hockey, work his buns off trying to get better, and then seeing the results. i'm very, very proud.
hat trick + 1 for andrew this morning! 4 goals! who knew?
it's been really, really fun to watch him fall in love with hockey, work his buns off trying to get better, and then seeing the results. i'm very, very proud.
:)

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_posts/2003-12-09-my-first-drupal-bug.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/my-first-drupal-bug
tags:
- drupal
---
so, my first drupal bug (one assigned to me anyway) has come and gone. <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/4192">this bug</a> is now fixed. in doing so, <a href="http://www.natrak.net">kjartan</a> and i came up with a couple other bugs or things otherwise needing fixing in the module.
the net result of all this is that i know have a (perhaps brief) renewed interest in xmlrpc based blogging. since my free trial of netnewswire (non-lite) has expired, and i wasn't crazy about it's blog posting inteface, i'm still on the hunt for a free (preferably as in speech, not beer) blogging tool for osx.
so, my first drupal bug (one assigned to me anyway) has come and gone. <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/4192">this bug</a> is now fixed. in doing so, <a href="http://www.natrak.net">kjartan</a> and i came up with a couple other bugs or things otherwise needing fixing in the module.
the net result of all this is that i know have a (perhaps brief) renewed interest in xmlrpc based blogging. since my free trial of netnewswire (non-lite) has expired, and i wasn't crazy about it's blog posting inteface, i'm still on the hunt for a free (preferably as in speech, not beer) blogging tool for osx.
this post is brought to you by <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/kunglog.php">kung log</a> :)

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_posts/2003-12-11-i-hate-ie-i-hate-it-a-lot.md
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@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/i-hate-ie-i-hate-it-a-lot
tags:
- site
---
... on all platforms, all versions. over the past 24 hours, i have wasted waaaay too much time trying to fix and/or work around stupid stupid things that internet explorer does.
first off, there is the <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/msiepng/petition.html">often-discussed</a>, <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/pngopacity/">frequently-worked-around</a> lack of support for transparent PNG images in IE on windows. silly me, in playing designer on <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">sudden thoughts</a>, i made some transparent pngs. they, of course, looked like crap in IE and have since been converted to .gifs :(
then, there is the idiotic CSS wonkiness that was breaking the otherwise elegant dropdown menus at sudden thoughts. (yes those menus are straight ul's - inspired by <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/dropdowns">this article</a>)
finally, <a href="http://www.daemon.co.za/">adrian</a> pointed out that my own site was broken in IE... since i'm not sure when. anyway, i redid the css to use all absolute positioning and IE seems to be happy for the moment.
... on all platforms, all versions. over the past 24 hours, i have wasted waaaay too much time trying to fix and/or work around stupid stupid things that internet explorer does.
first off, there is the <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/msiepng/petition.html">often-discussed</a>, <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/pngopacity/">frequently-worked-around</a> lack of support for transparent PNG images in IE on windows. silly me, in playing designer on <a href="http://www.sudden-thoughts.com/">sudden thoughts</a>, i made some transparent pngs. they, of course, looked like crap in IE and have since been converted to .gifs :(
then, there is the idiotic CSS wonkiness that was breaking the otherwise elegant dropdown menus at sudden thoughts. (yes those menus are straight ul's - inspired by <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/dropdowns">this article</a>)
finally, <a href="http://www.daemon.co.za/">adrian</a> pointed out that my own site was broken in IE... since i'm not sure when. anyway, i redid the css to use all absolute positioning and IE seems to be happy for the moment.
god i wish everyone would just use <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">real</a> <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">browsers</a>.

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_posts/2003-12-16-drupal_not_found.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
so, a little side effect of my changing my site around as much as i have is that there are some links out there in the wild that reference content that no longer exists. this is not the end of the world, but i typically like to keep track of them. (i.e. which pages aren't found). well, since sometime around drupal 4.2 there has been support for a feature known as 'clean urls' , which involves apache mod_rewrite, but essentially makes every requested path a valid one as far as apache is concerned. this means drupal should handle when requests are not found. and i wasn't the only one who <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/2102">thought so</a>.
anyway, after much <a href="http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-devel/2003-12/msg00451.html">back and forth</a> between myself and the other developers, i managed to get a patch into drupal core that rectifies this. what's even better is that in addition to sending a proper 404 header and logging the not found request in watchdog... you can also specify a custom 404 page.
so, a little side effect of my changing my site around as much as i have is that there are some links out there in the wild that reference content that no longer exists. this is not the end of the world, but i typically like to keep track of them. (i.e. which pages aren't found). well, since sometime around drupal 4.2 there has been support for a feature known as 'clean urls' , which involves apache mod_rewrite, but essentially makes every requested path a valid one as far as apache is concerned. this means drupal should handle when requests are not found. and i wasn't the only one who <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/2102">thought so</a>.
anyway, after much <a href="http://lists.drupal.org/archives/drupal-devel/2003-12/msg00451.html">back and forth</a> between myself and the other developers, i managed to get a patch into drupal core that rectifies this. what's even better is that in addition to sending a proper 404 header and logging the not found request in watchdog... you can also specify a custom 404 page.
thanks to <a href="http://www.buytaert.net">Dries</a> and <a href="http://www.natrak.net/">Kjartan</a> for accepting the patch and making sure it was sane. :)

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_posts/2003-12-16-you-rock.md
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tags: []
---
this made me laugh out loud :)
this made me laugh out loud :)
<img src="http://irc.evtek.fi/urllog/2003/12/12/AL6901G.jpg" alt="you rock" />

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_posts/2003-12-17-centralized-rss.md
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tags:
- geek
---
<a href="http://www.alexking.org/blog">alex king</a> has a really good idea on his blog about having an API for centralized rss feed subscriptions, etc. including tracking which articles have been read. i, for one, think this is a great idea. since i tend to move back and forth between computers (and operating systems), i've taken to doing most of my RSS reading with <a href="http://www.ranchero.com/netnewswire">NetNewsWire</a> on my powerbook.
<a href="http://www.alexking.org/blog">alex king</a> has a really good idea on his blog about having an API for centralized rss feed subscriptions, etc. including tracking which articles have been read. i, for one, think this is a great idea. since i tend to move back and forth between computers (and operating systems), i've taken to doing most of my RSS reading with <a href="http://www.ranchero.com/netnewswire">NetNewsWire</a> on my powerbook.
this solution, however, would allow me to use <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/straw/">straw</a> more. which means i might be inclined to hack on it. hopefully this idea doesn't go the way of the dodo, and alex and <a href="http://feedster.com/">feedster</a> can work out a solution.

2
_posts/2003-12-27-happy-belated-boxing-day.md
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---
i wasn't online much over the holidays... but now that we're beyond all that, i'm back at my desk momentarily (still in my pj's at 3pm). the whole christmas marathon has come and gone and was by all accounts a roaring success. as for me personally, i received probably the top 2 things on my personal wishlist: new hiking boots (from sandi) and an <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/">iPod</a> from pat.
i wasn't online much over the holidays... but now that we're beyond all that, i'm back at my desk momentarily (still in my pj's at 3pm). the whole christmas marathon has come and gone and was by all accounts a roaring success. as for me personally, i received probably the top 2 things on my personal wishlist: new hiking boots (from sandi) and an <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/">iPod</a> from pat.
i must say, i'm a pretty happy camper... now back to dumping tunes onto the iPod :)

2
_posts/2004-01-05-happy-belated-new-year.md
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tags: []
---
i'm just not quite on the ball with this whole blogging thing quite yet. reading around the web... there are actually people who posted new years wishes on new years day! well. it's the 5th and here's mine. i never really make new years resolutions... but i'm planning on 2004 being a big year for me personally. i'll probably post more specifically as i go.. but i intend to increase my involvement in various free software projects (particularly drupal and gallery to start), but i'd also like to really do some <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">gnome</a> hacking and write some software for my mac. i'm looking forward to having a great year with my family... it looks like we may even take our first *real* family vacation.
i'm just not quite on the ball with this whole blogging thing quite yet. reading around the web... there are actually people who posted new years wishes on new years day! well. it's the 5th and here's mine. i never really make new years resolutions... but i'm planning on 2004 being a big year for me personally. i'll probably post more specifically as i go.. but i intend to increase my involvement in various free software projects (particularly drupal and gallery to start), but i'd also like to really do some <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">gnome</a> hacking and write some software for my mac. i'm looking forward to having a great year with my family... it looks like we may even take our first *real* family vacation.
the dreams are big for 2004 :)

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_posts/2004-01-07-big-mac-day.md
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@ -6,14 +6,14 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/big-mac-day
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>so yesterday was apple's big <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf04/">macworld</a> keynote by steve jobs... and for the first year, i actually watched it. i haven't sat through too many keynote-type industry things.. though i did see linus torvalds give one in person (which was cool), but i have to say... apple knows how to put on a show.</p>
<p>anyway, it's inspired me to add a quick little note to my apple category.</p>
<p>i finally broke down and ordered more ram from <a href="http://www.crucial.com/">crucial</a> a week ago or so. It arrived monday... and my powerbook is *much* happier.</p>
<p>i also want to post some thoughts on my <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod">iPod</a> here, but overall i really love it. Too bad the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodmini">iPod mini</a> isn't that impressive (or at least a bit cheaper).</p>
<p>what was cool about yesterday's keynote was the look at <a href="http://www.apple.com/hardware/video/virginiatech/">vatech's cluster</a>.</p>
<p>so yesterday was apple's big <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf04/">macworld</a> keynote by steve jobs... and for the first year, i actually watched it. i haven't sat through too many keynote-type industry things.. though i did see linus torvalds give one in person (which was cool), but i have to say... apple knows how to put on a show.</p>
<p>anyway, it's inspired me to add a quick little note to my apple category.</p>
<p>i finally broke down and ordered more ram from <a href="http://www.crucial.com/">crucial</a> a week ago or so. It arrived monday... and my powerbook is *much* happier.</p>
<p>i also want to post some thoughts on my <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod">iPod</a> here, but overall i really love it. Too bad the new <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipodmini">iPod mini</a> isn't that impressive (or at least a bit cheaper).</p>
<p>what was cool about yesterday's keynote was the look at <a href="http://www.apple.com/hardware/video/virginiatech/">vatech's cluster</a>.</p>
<p>i also thought the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/">iLife</a> updates looked promising.. but no more free iPhoto downloads sucks, though <a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband">Garageband</a> might actually make me fork over the $49usd anyway. :P</p>

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_posts/2004-01-13-in-support-of-maildir.md
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tags:
- geek
---
<a href="http://www.off.net/~shaver/diary/">shaver</a> - i would definitely support the move to maildir (from mbox). i made the switch over a year ago (or was it two?) and have been very happy. the thing that killed mbox for me was locking... any imapd will lock the whole mbox file which means when i'd leave client running at home, i'd have to ssh in and kill it from work (read pain in the arse). i also find webmail a bit snappier with maildir (others even formally <a href="http://www.courier-mta.org/mbox-vs-maildir/">benchmark</a> crap like that).
my current mailhosting setup (and i've rolled it out in a couple locations) consists of postfix, procmail (using maildir), courier-imap and spamassassin. works for me(tm).
<a href="http://www.off.net/~shaver/diary/">shaver</a> - i would definitely support the move to maildir (from mbox). i made the switch over a year ago (or was it two?) and have been very happy. the thing that killed mbox for me was locking... any imapd will lock the whole mbox file which means when i'd leave client running at home, i'd have to ssh in and kill it from work (read pain in the arse). i also find webmail a bit snappier with maildir (others even formally <a href="http://www.courier-mta.org/mbox-vs-maildir/">benchmark</a> crap like that).
my current mailhosting setup (and i've rolled it out in a couple locations) consists of postfix, procmail (using maildir), courier-imap and spamassassin. works for me(tm).
however, as far as doing the conversion... i looked at a couple scripts but just ended up doing it by hand with mutt. i get nervous easily when messing with people's mail :P

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_posts/2004-01-20-ski-day.md
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tags:
- family
---
so, on very short, last-minute type notice, i ended up attending andrew's first ever ski trip today with his school. while i didn't end up skiing myself (rather spent the day manning the 'lift' and the line on the beginner hill) but andrew had an absolute blast. looks like we're gonna be hittin' the slopes on a semi-regular basis, if he has his way.
so, on very short, last-minute type notice, i ended up attending andrew's first ever ski trip today with his school. while i didn't end up skiing myself (rather spent the day manning the 'lift' and the line on the beginner hill) but andrew had an absolute blast. looks like we're gonna be hittin' the slopes on a semi-regular basis, if he has his way.
now, i just need to find a nice quiet hill with nobody on it to see if i can still remember how to ski :P i'm sure it's "just like riding a bike".

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_posts/2004-01-23-translate_node-module.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
so one of the main challenges in building 'canadian' websites is the whole 2 official national language thing. to add to the complexity, it is customary for government sites to have a language 'toggle' that takes you from any page to an identical page in the other language. so, i've written a small module to try and cope with this issue (so that node/view/$nid shows you the appropriate translation based on your currently selected $locale value).
<a href="http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/contributions/sandbox/walkah/translate_node/">translate_node.module</a> (although still a bit rough around the edges) in conjunction with core's locale.module can allow drupal-based sites to fulfill this requirement.
so one of the main challenges in building 'canadian' websites is the whole 2 official national language thing. to add to the complexity, it is customary for government sites to have a language 'toggle' that takes you from any page to an identical page in the other language. so, i've written a small module to try and cope with this issue (so that node/view/$nid shows you the appropriate translation based on your currently selected $locale value).
<a href="http://cvs.drupal.org/viewcvs/contributions/sandbox/walkah/translate_node/">translate_node.module</a> (although still a bit rough around the edges) in conjunction with core's locale.module can allow drupal-based sites to fulfill this requirement.
i also have a 'language toggle' patch that I'll be posting as well when i get the chance.

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_posts/2004-01-29-back-to-fluid.md
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tags:
- site
---
so, after briefly flirting with a fixed width design, i've got back a "fluid" layout for this site. thanks mainly to peter at <a href="http://openflows.org/">openflows</a> for some <a href="http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/oct02.asp#bobbailey">good</a> <a href="http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/12/15/fixedorliquid.htm">articles</a> on the merits of liquid layouts. i've personally come to the conclusion that both approaches have their own merits, and as usual it's a matter of fitting the design to the application. that said, this blog (imo) looks better liquid - too damned much white space otherwise. besides, not enough people read it to really make a difference ;)
so, after briefly flirting with a fixed width design, i've got back a "fluid" layout for this site. thanks mainly to peter at <a href="http://openflows.org/">openflows</a> for some <a href="http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/oct02.asp#bobbailey">good</a> <a href="http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/12/15/fixedorliquid.htm">articles</a> on the merits of liquid layouts. i've personally come to the conclusion that both approaches have their own merits, and as usual it's a matter of fitting the design to the application. that said, this blog (imo) looks better liquid - too damned much white space otherwise. besides, not enough people read it to really make a difference ;)
as an interesting aside... i also dug up <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/elastic/">this article</a> discussing "elastic" design (a sort of compromise). looks like an interesting 3rd party.

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_posts/2004-02-04-what-did-i-do.md
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tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>for the first time in quite sometime (perhaps ever) i actually bought a piece of "shareware" (or otherwise low-cost software). i think having my powerbook is really starting to do odd things to my brain. anyway, the story is that my beta release of <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/ecto/">ecto</a> expired (since the final version was released). *however* i didn't buy ecto. instead, i decided to buy <a href="http://www.ranchero.com/netnewswire/">netnewswire</a> instead. why? well, because i've become completely addicted to reading a bunch of RSS feeds in the morning (it's replaced my previous habit of <a href="http://slashdot.org/">slashdot reading</a>) and the full version of netnewswire also has a built-in blog poster (plus more options for news reading). so, i decided if i'm gonna buy something, might as well buy one that does both. </p>
<p>i do like some features of ecto and would recommend it for those interested. however, now that i'm a paying customer, i'll see if i can get netnewswire to bolster it's blog poster.</p>
<p>for the first time in quite sometime (perhaps ever) i actually bought a piece of "shareware" (or otherwise low-cost software). i think having my powerbook is really starting to do odd things to my brain. anyway, the story is that my beta release of <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/ecto/">ecto</a> expired (since the final version was released). *however* i didn't buy ecto. instead, i decided to buy <a href="http://www.ranchero.com/netnewswire/">netnewswire</a> instead. why? well, because i've become completely addicted to reading a bunch of RSS feeds in the morning (it's replaced my previous habit of <a href="http://slashdot.org/">slashdot reading</a>) and the full version of netnewswire also has a built-in blog poster (plus more options for news reading). so, i decided if i'm gonna buy something, might as well buy one that does both. </p>
<p>i do like some features of ecto and would recommend it for those interested. however, now that i'm a paying customer, i'll see if i can get netnewswire to bolster it's blog poster.</p>
<p>to the author of netnewswire: congrats on some mighty fine work!</p>

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_posts/2004-02-05-itunes-tricks.md
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tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>decided to checkout 2 things today to make my iTunes experience more pleasurable:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mt-daapd.sourceforge.net/">mt-daapd</a> is a little daemon that implements the daapd protocol (used by iTunes sharing). what's so cool about this? it enables me to make my (rather extensive) audio library available automatically when my laptop is at home. i'd read <a href="http://www.whatsinyourbox.org/article28.html">an article</a> on how to do this before, but mt-daapd was much simpler, they've got <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a> packages! :)</li>
<li>the other thing is a little utility called <a href="http://www.sprote.com/clutter/">clutter</a> it's a little app that shows your currently playing song (with some simple controls) in a small window. the other thing that's really cool about it, is it also displays the cover art for the song (fetched from amazon)</li>
</ul>
now, i can enjoy my music that much better while working at home. now to actually get some work done ;)
<p>decided to checkout 2 things today to make my iTunes experience more pleasurable:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mt-daapd.sourceforge.net/">mt-daapd</a> is a little daemon that implements the daapd protocol (used by iTunes sharing). what's so cool about this? it enables me to make my (rather extensive) audio library available automatically when my laptop is at home. i'd read <a href="http://www.whatsinyourbox.org/article28.html">an article</a> on how to do this before, but mt-daapd was much simpler, they've got <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a> packages! :)</li>
<li>the other thing is a little utility called <a href="http://www.sprote.com/clutter/">clutter</a> it's a little app that shows your currently playing song (with some simple controls) in a small window. the other thing that's really cool about it, is it also displays the cover art for the song (fetched from amazon)</li>
</ul>
now, i can enjoy my music that much better while working at home. now to actually get some work done ;)
</p>

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_posts/2004-02-18-commuting-tragedy.md
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---
<p>had a very unfortunate end to my workday yesterday. i was downtown, and as usual rode the <a href="http://www.gotransit.com/">go train</a> home. as we were approaching the aurora station, our train suddenly came to a halt. there was little information given to us passengers on the train other than there had been a "railroad crossing accident".</p>
<p>had a very unfortunate end to my workday yesterday. i was downtown, and as usual rode the <a href="http://www.gotransit.com/">go train</a> home. as we were approaching the aurora station, our train suddenly came to a halt. there was little information given to us passengers on the train other than there had been a "railroad crossing accident".</p>
<p>looking through the headlines this morning, it appears "accident" was a typical official euphemism. in reality, <a href="http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&amp;call_pageid=971358637177&amp;c=Article&amp;cid=1077059708152">two people were killed</a>. i feel awful :(</p>

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_posts/2004-03-26-irssi-proxy.md
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tags:
- geek
---
for a while now, i've been on a kick to move toward more graphical computing environments. i no longer use <a href="http://mutt.org/">mutt</a> to read my email on a regular basis and i even occasionally use osx finder or *gasp* nautilus under <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">gnome</a>. one thing i hadn't addressed yet was irc. i use irc a lot for co-ordinating with others on projects, etc. therefore, i like my irc to be 'always on'. this has meant using <a href="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> inside <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/screen.html">gnu screen</a>. for a while, i've been contemplating running an irc proxy so i can experiment with other gui irc clients. until i found this:
<a href="http://irssi.org/?page=docs&doc=proxy">irssi proxy</a>. this allows my currently running irssi + screen to simply act as a proxy for other clients. very cool!! so now, i've got the best of both worlds. check out xchat via irssi proxy:
<a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/view/screenshots/xchat_proxy_fc1.png"><img src="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/download/528-2/xchat_proxy_fc1.png" /></a>
for a while now, i've been on a kick to move toward more graphical computing environments. i no longer use <a href="http://mutt.org/">mutt</a> to read my email on a regular basis and i even occasionally use osx finder or *gasp* nautilus under <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">gnome</a>. one thing i hadn't addressed yet was irc. i use irc a lot for co-ordinating with others on projects, etc. therefore, i like my irc to be 'always on'. this has meant using <a href="http://www.irssi.org/">irssi</a> inside <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/screen.html">gnu screen</a>. for a while, i've been contemplating running an irc proxy so i can experiment with other gui irc clients. until i found this:
<a href="http://irssi.org/?page=docs&doc=proxy">irssi proxy</a>. this allows my currently running irssi + screen to simply act as a proxy for other clients. very cool!! so now, i've got the best of both worlds. check out xchat via irssi proxy:
<a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/view/screenshots/xchat_proxy_fc1.png"><img src="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/download/528-2/xchat_proxy_fc1.png" /></a>
you also may notice (from the screenshot) that i'm now running <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora core 1</a> on my main workstation instead of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a>. more on that later...

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_posts/2004-04-02-drupal-4-4-is-out.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
<p>i didn't say anything about it yesterday, but dries managed to get <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/6853">drupal 4.4</a> out the door. while chances are if you care, you didn't hear it here first, but it's pretty cool because 2 of "major changes" are my fault. specifically:
<ul>
<li>Added support for the MetaWeblog API and MovableType extensions.</li>
<li>Refactored 404 (file not found) handling to support custom 404 pages.</li>
</ul>
<p>i didn't say anything about it yesterday, but dries managed to get <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/6853">drupal 4.4</a> out the door. while chances are if you care, you didn't hear it here first, but it's pretty cool because 2 of "major changes" are my fault. specifically:
<ul>
<li>Added support for the MetaWeblog API and MovableType extensions.</li>
<li>Refactored 404 (file not found) handling to support custom 404 pages.</li>
</ul>
with any luck, by the time 4.5 (or maybe version 5?) gets out the door, I'll have contributed a lot more. but, hey... it's a start.</p>

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_posts/2004-04-15-ecto-redux.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
so, i was contacted the other night by <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/blog/">adriaan tijsseling</a> , the author of the <a href="http://walkah.net/node/view/42">aforementioned</a> <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/ecto/">ecto</a> - a stellar blogging app for os x. he reported a <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/7163">small bug</a> in drupal's blogapi.module (which i've since fixed).
so, i was contacted the other night by <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/blog/">adriaan tijsseling</a> , the author of the <a href="http://walkah.net/node/view/42">aforementioned</a> <a href="http://www.kung-foo.tv/ecto/">ecto</a> - a stellar blogging app for os x. he reported a <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/7163">small bug</a> in drupal's blogapi.module (which i've since fixed).
however, it's also led me to revisit using ecto for blogging... and as you can see by today's flurry of posts - i'm liking it a lot. :) congrats to adriaan on a great bit of software - i highly recommend it!

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_posts/2004-05-06-drupal-world-domination-com.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
man, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. there are some really <a href="http://www.civicspace.org/">interesting</a> <a href="http://www.peopleaggregator.com/">projects</a> (and a couple others that i can't yet link to) out there that are committing to <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> . the really exciting part is that, for whatever reason, <a href="http://blogs.it/0100198/2004/04/26.html#a2645">some people</a> have decided that i'm a <a href="http://devel.peopleaggregator.com/DrupalGods">drupal god</a>. well, i'm completely flattered (though, the real deity in the drupal world is certainly still <a href="http://buytaert.net/">dries</a>). the end result has been getting to meet lots of interesting people and it looks like i'll be working on lots of very exciting projects moving forward.
man, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. there are some really <a href="http://www.civicspace.org/">interesting</a> <a href="http://www.peopleaggregator.com/">projects</a> (and a couple others that i can't yet link to) out there that are committing to <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a> . the really exciting part is that, for whatever reason, <a href="http://blogs.it/0100198/2004/04/26.html#a2645">some people</a> have decided that i'm a <a href="http://devel.peopleaggregator.com/DrupalGods">drupal god</a>. well, i'm completely flattered (though, the real deity in the drupal world is certainly still <a href="http://buytaert.net/">dries</a>). the end result has been getting to meet lots of interesting people and it looks like i'll be working on lots of very exciting projects moving forward.
i'm pretty excited. i've really enjoyed getting involved in the drupal community, there are some outstanding folks involved, and the future is very bright. yay!

16
_posts/2004-05-11-thunderbird.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/thunderbird
tags:
- geek
---
after reading <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/01/essentials">mark pilgrim's post</a> about software choices (as well as some recommendations from <a href="http://daemon.co.za/">others</a>), i decided to give <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/">thunderbird 0.6</a> a go on my powerbook. i already use IMAP for all of my mail, so i regularly switch between clients when moving between platforms. however, my ideal would be to have a cross-platform set of tools that i can use. i already use <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">gnu emacs</a> on osx and linux and recently started using <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/">firefox</a> exclusively. so far i feel pretty good about the switch. the things i really like so far are:
<ul>
<li>message labels. i've already started to use 'important' and 'todo' extensively, and being able to quickly limit my view to all 'todo' messages is great.</li>
<li>next unread. i can't believe mail.app doesn't do this... but it doesn't. hitting 'n' to go between messages is almost as easy as <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> ;) </li>
<li>signatures from file. this is a big advantage over most gui mail clients, since i keep my config files typically in <a href="http://cvs.walkah.net/">cvs</a>, i can then keep my .sig there as well and thunderbird will always use the current one.</li>
<li>offline ldap. i haven't used it yet, but i'm _totally_ gonna set up an ldap address book again now just to use it (syncing ldap for on the road with the powerbook would rock</li>
</ul>
after reading <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/01/essentials">mark pilgrim's post</a> about software choices (as well as some recommendations from <a href="http://daemon.co.za/">others</a>), i decided to give <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/">thunderbird 0.6</a> a go on my powerbook. i already use IMAP for all of my mail, so i regularly switch between clients when moving between platforms. however, my ideal would be to have a cross-platform set of tools that i can use. i already use <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">gnu emacs</a> on osx and linux and recently started using <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/">firefox</a> exclusively. so far i feel pretty good about the switch. the things i really like so far are:
<ul>
<li>message labels. i've already started to use 'important' and 'todo' extensively, and being able to quickly limit my view to all 'todo' messages is great.</li>
<li>next unread. i can't believe mail.app doesn't do this... but it doesn't. hitting 'n' to go between messages is almost as easy as <a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a> ;) </li>
<li>signatures from file. this is a big advantage over most gui mail clients, since i keep my config files typically in <a href="http://cvs.walkah.net/">cvs</a>, i can then keep my .sig there as well and thunderbird will always use the current one.</li>
<li>offline ldap. i haven't used it yet, but i'm _totally_ gonna set up an ldap address book again now just to use it (syncing ldap for on the road with the powerbook would rock</li>
</ul>
i can also honestly say, i don't have any real complaints yet. it's not quite as snappy as mail.app on osx, and there have been a couple odd crashes, but otherwise pretty impressive for a 0.6 version. if you move between operating systems, i'd recommend it.

4
_posts/2004-05-14-new-phone.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/new-phone
tags:
- geek
---
well, i took the plunge. thanks for <a href="http://walkah.net/node/view/65#comment">the feedback</a> guys. i got a t616. all i can say is : "cool". i'm by no means a veteran in the whole cell phone scene. i haven't had all the cool phones. but, i like this one a lot (granted, my old phone sucked which has lowered my expectations). i love that my connections seem to be clearer, it's _not_ a flip phone, and most of all.... bluetooth! my first iSync over bluetooth was a wonderful experience - worth the price of admission.
well, i took the plunge. thanks for <a href="http://walkah.net/node/view/65#comment">the feedback</a> guys. i got a t616. all i can say is : "cool". i'm by no means a veteran in the whole cell phone scene. i haven't had all the cool phones. but, i like this one a lot (granted, my old phone sucked which has lowered my expectations). i love that my connections seem to be clearer, it's _not_ a flip phone, and most of all.... bluetooth! my first iSync over bluetooth was a wonderful experience - worth the price of admission.
perhaps tomorrow i'll play with the built-in camera a bit :)

4
_posts/2004-05-28-flash-7-for-linux.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/flash-7-for-linux
tags:
- linux
---
so, if you use linux on your desktop (as i do) and frequent sites that use a lot of flash (as i do), then you'd probably be happy to know (as i was) that macromedia released <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2004/flashplayer_linux.html">flash player 7 for linux</a> yesterday. so, since i am currently running <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora core 2</a> on my desktop i ran over and grabbed the <a href="http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/site_ucsc.html">new rpms</a>.
so, if you use linux on your desktop (as i do) and frequent sites that use a lot of flash (as i do), then you'd probably be happy to know (as i was) that macromedia released <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2004/flashplayer_linux.html">flash player 7 for linux</a> yesterday. so, since i am currently running <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora core 2</a> on my desktop i ran over and grabbed the <a href="http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/site_ucsc.html">new rpms</a>.
all i can say is performance is <strong>much</strong> better!

4
_posts/2004-06-04-shiny-newmediaobject.md
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tags:
- drupal
---
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/first_phone.jpg" alt="me from my t616" align="right" />after a fair bit of delay, i've finally implemented metaWeblog.newMediaObject() in drupal's blogapi.module, and <a href="http://www.natrak.net/">Kjartan</a> was nice enough to commit the patch for me. now i won't have to look at <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/4878">this nagging little issue</a> anymore, and can move on to add some other functionality. it also means that, when using great tools like <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto</a>, you can upload pictures and stuff directly (ecto even has iPhoto support!).
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/first_phone.jpg" alt="me from my t616" align="right" />after a fair bit of delay, i've finally implemented metaWeblog.newMediaObject() in drupal's blogapi.module, and <a href="http://www.natrak.net/">Kjartan</a> was nice enough to commit the patch for me. now i won't have to look at <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/4878">this nagging little issue</a> anymore, and can move on to add some other functionality. it also means that, when using great tools like <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto</a>, you can upload pictures and stuff directly (ecto even has iPhoto support!).
in the interest of killing two birds with one stone, i've also uploaded a sample picture from my <a href="http://walkah.net/node/view/69">new phone</a>. so, that's me.. in my basement office. right on.

12
_posts/2004-06-14-teeth-shrek-and-other-tidbits.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/teeth-shrek-and-other-tidbits
tags:
- family
---
haven't done a good family update for a while (trying to scare people off with all the geek talk), but here goes:
sometime last week (and i'm not even going to try to remember which day) andrew lost his 8th tooth (8th!!). he's now sporting a nice gap all around his 4 adult teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). and, since andrew lost a tooth, camryn had to get a new one... she's now (finally!) got all of her teeth.
since we had our first grey day of the spring, sandi and i left camryn with gramma for her nap and took andrew to see <a href="http://shrek2.com/" title="shrek 2">shrek 2</a>. it was fantastic - i actually laughed out loud (which i also did <a href="http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/nemo/" title="nemo">nemo</a>). it's nice to see that dreamworks is doing their part to keep pixar on their toes :)
haven't done a good family update for a while (trying to scare people off with all the geek talk), but here goes:
sometime last week (and i'm not even going to try to remember which day) andrew lost his 8th tooth (8th!!). he's now sporting a nice gap all around his 4 adult teeth (2 top and 2 bottom). and, since andrew lost a tooth, camryn had to get a new one... she's now (finally!) got all of her teeth.
since we had our first grey day of the spring, sandi and i left camryn with gramma for her nap and took andrew to see <a href="http://shrek2.com/" title="shrek 2">shrek 2</a>. it was fantastic - i actually laughed out loud (which i also did <a href="http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/nemo/" title="nemo">nemo</a>). it's nice to see that dreamworks is doing their part to keep pixar on their toes :)
otherwise, andrew's got a week left at school, soccer season has started, and everyone is doing just fine.

12
_posts/2004-06-17-meet-audrey.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/meet-audrey
tags:
- audrey
---
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/DCP_1390.JPG" height="133" width="200" alt="DCP_1390" align="right" />quite some time ago, i came into the possession of a 3com audrey. for those of you that have never heard of an audrey: audrey is a failed "internet appliance" discontinued by 3com a couple years ago. full specs on audrey can be seen <a href="http://www.canoma.com/audrey/specs.html">here</a>. the cool part about these gadget, is that they run a stripped down version of <a href="http://www.qnx.com">qnx</a> - and, as it turns out, they are <a href="http://www.audreyhacking.com/">very hackable</a>.
so, i've finally set mine up and gone through <a href="http://www.3rdmoon.com/crusso/audrey/initialsetup/updateaudrey.htm">these instructions</a> to get a root shell. let the hacking begin!
my first task, is that i wanted to use audrey as a digital photo frame - i.e. have it rotate through a bunch of my digital images (stored on my fileserver). after some digging (and disappointment that many projects seem to have disappeared), i came across <a href="http://bloodyeck.com/projects/audrey/">this site</a>. after some struggling with it (thanks for your help alex!) i managed to get it working the way i wanted. you can almost see the results in the attached photo.
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/DCP_1390.JPG" height="133" width="200" alt="DCP_1390" align="right" />quite some time ago, i came into the possession of a 3com audrey. for those of you that have never heard of an audrey: audrey is a failed "internet appliance" discontinued by 3com a couple years ago. full specs on audrey can be seen <a href="http://www.canoma.com/audrey/specs.html">here</a>. the cool part about these gadget, is that they run a stripped down version of <a href="http://www.qnx.com">qnx</a> - and, as it turns out, they are <a href="http://www.audreyhacking.com/">very hackable</a>.
so, i've finally set mine up and gone through <a href="http://www.3rdmoon.com/crusso/audrey/initialsetup/updateaudrey.htm">these instructions</a> to get a root shell. let the hacking begin!
my first task, is that i wanted to use audrey as a digital photo frame - i.e. have it rotate through a bunch of my digital images (stored on my fileserver). after some digging (and disappointment that many projects seem to have disappeared), i came across <a href="http://bloodyeck.com/projects/audrey/">this site</a>. after some struggling with it (thanks for your help alex!) i managed to get it working the way i wanted. you can almost see the results in the attached photo.
i'll continue to log any further hacks <a href="/taxonomy/page/or/15">here</a>.

8
_posts/2004-07-02-if-you-are-using-ie-then-the-terrorists-have-already-won.md
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@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/if-you-are-using-ie-then-the-terrorists-have-already-won
tags:
- geek
---
for the geekier portion of my audience you will have already seen the news <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/02/1441242">here</a>, but to the rest of you: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&#38;cid=74&#38;e=3&#38;u=/cmp/20040702/tc_cmp/22103407">U.S. Steers Consumers Away From IE</a>. that's right, the department of homeland security is advising folks to stop using microsoft's internet explorer. while it's been years since i used IE with any regularity (not actually running windows anywhere in my home), i know most of you do. stop it. stop it now.
allow me to just take this opportunity to recommend <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox">firefox</a>:
for the geekier portion of my audience you will have already seen the news <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/02/1441242">here</a>, but to the rest of you: <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&#38;cid=74&#38;e=3&#38;u=/cmp/20040702/tc_cmp/22103407">U.S. Steers Consumers Away From IE</a>. that's right, the department of homeland security is advising folks to stop using microsoft's internet explorer. while it's been years since i used IE with any regularity (not actually running windows anywhere in my home), i know most of you do. stop it. stop it now.
allow me to just take this opportunity to recommend <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox">firefox</a>:
<a href="http://getfirefox.com/" title="Get Firefox - Take Back the Web"><img src="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/buttons/takebacktheweb_large.png" width="185" height="72" border="0" alt="Get Firefox"></a>

28
_posts/2004-07-08-drupal-made-pretty-terminus1525-ca.md
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@ -7,17 +7,17 @@ tags:
- drupal
- terminus1525
---
<p>i was digging through some old unread feeds when i came across <a href="http://urlgreyhot.com/drupal/node/view/1902">this post</a> over at urlgreyhot.com. it's rather flattering:</p>
<a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/terminus-square.png" height="90" width="90" alt="terminus1525.ca" class="left" /></a>
<blockquote>"terminus1525 is a Canadian collaborative work space for young emerging artists. It is perhaps the most visually stunning Drupal design I've seen so far."</blockquote>
<p>besides making me blush, michael's post made me realize a couple things:</p>
<p>first, i've never actually said anything here about my involvement with terminus. i'm the one that hacked and slashed <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal</a> to pieces to make it look like that (i'm even <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/user/view/1">uid #1</a> ;) ). it is one of the more fun and challenging projects i've worked on, and i'm proud to say that i'm involved.</p>
<p>the other thing, though, is i must admit that i didn't actually have anything to do with the actual design of terminus. the real credit goes to the fine folks at <a href="http://www.zincroe.com/">zincroe</a> (specifically <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/3">jason</a> and <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/150">luke</a>). they're pretty darned creative guys and fun to work with too :)</p>
<p>so, what are you waiting for? head over to <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/">terminus</a>, sign up and post your art!</p>
<p>i was digging through some old unread feeds when i came across <a href="http://urlgreyhot.com/drupal/node/view/1902">this post</a> over at urlgreyhot.com. it's rather flattering:</p>
<a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/terminus-square.png" height="90" width="90" alt="terminus1525.ca" class="left" /></a>
<blockquote>"terminus1525 is a Canadian collaborative work space for young emerging artists. It is perhaps the most visually stunning Drupal design I've seen so far."</blockquote>
<p>besides making me blush, michael's post made me realize a couple things:</p>
<p>first, i've never actually said anything here about my involvement with terminus. i'm the one that hacked and slashed <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal</a> to pieces to make it look like that (i'm even <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/user/view/1">uid #1</a> ;) ). it is one of the more fun and challenging projects i've worked on, and i'm proud to say that i'm involved.</p>
<p>the other thing, though, is i must admit that i didn't actually have anything to do with the actual design of terminus. the real credit goes to the fine folks at <a href="http://www.zincroe.com/">zincroe</a> (specifically <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/3">jason</a> and <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/150">luke</a>). they're pretty darned creative guys and fun to work with too :)</p>
<p>so, what are you waiting for? head over to <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/">terminus</a>, sign up and post your art!</p>

20
_posts/2004-07-12-gentoo.md
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tags:
- linux
---
<a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/view/screenshots/gentoo-2004-07-12.png"><img src="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/download/530-4/screenshots.png" alt="my new gentoo desktop" class="right"/></a>so, for quite some time i've been on a bit of a quest to find my ideal linux distribution for <em>my</em> desktop (which, yes, i realize may or may not be the ideal linux desktop solution -- i tend to fall into the "power user" category). i'm a long time <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a> user and fan and don't envision using much else on servers (when i have the choice) for a long time to come. however, i've been fairly frustrated by some things with debian on the desktop for a while. specifically, even in unstable, packages tend to take a long time to get adopted (even if the software is deemed stable by the "vendor") and, while socially conscious, the licensing restrictions tend to leave out a fair bit of really useful applications.
so, after brief stops with various revisions of <a href="http://www.redhat.com/">redhat</a>/<a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora</a>, i finally decided to give <a href="http://gentoo.org/">gentoo linux</a> a try. i must say, this is not aunt millie's distribution :)
one of my big reservations about trying gentoo had always been my fear of a 3 day lapse to get the system to a usable state. well, thanks to a stage3 live cd and the outstanding install instructions in the <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml">gentoo handbook</a>, i was up and running in a single afternoon (and still worked on my powerbook for most of the afternoon).
it's been a couple weeks now, and i'm quite fond of gentoo on the desktop. apps are always current, so far emerge has "just worked" and there isn't an application that i use regularly that isn't available.
one thing that i really dig, is that there are "ebuilds" for a couple of the other distributions' artwork packages (notably redhat and <a href="http://www.ximian.com/">ximian</a>). one of the main reasons i kept trying fedora was because i really like the <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/artwork/">bluecurve</a> theme. well, on gentoo it's a simple "<code>emerge redhat-artwork</code> " away.
<a href="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/view/screenshots/gentoo-2004-07-12.png"><img src="http://gallery.walkah.net/main.php/download/530-4/screenshots.png" alt="my new gentoo desktop" class="right"/></a>so, for quite some time i've been on a bit of a quest to find my ideal linux distribution for <em>my</em> desktop (which, yes, i realize may or may not be the ideal linux desktop solution -- i tend to fall into the "power user" category). i'm a long time <a href="http://www.debian.org/">debian</a> user and fan and don't envision using much else on servers (when i have the choice) for a long time to come. however, i've been fairly frustrated by some things with debian on the desktop for a while. specifically, even in unstable, packages tend to take a long time to get adopted (even if the software is deemed stable by the "vendor") and, while socially conscious, the licensing restrictions tend to leave out a fair bit of really useful applications.
so, after brief stops with various revisions of <a href="http://www.redhat.com/">redhat</a>/<a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">fedora</a>, i finally decided to give <a href="http://gentoo.org/">gentoo linux</a> a try. i must say, this is not aunt millie's distribution :)
one of my big reservations about trying gentoo had always been my fear of a 3 day lapse to get the system to a usable state. well, thanks to a stage3 live cd and the outstanding install instructions in the <a href="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml">gentoo handbook</a>, i was up and running in a single afternoon (and still worked on my powerbook for most of the afternoon).
it's been a couple weeks now, and i'm quite fond of gentoo on the desktop. apps are always current, so far emerge has "just worked" and there isn't an application that i use regularly that isn't available.
one thing that i really dig, is that there are "ebuilds" for a couple of the other distributions' artwork packages (notably redhat and <a href="http://www.ximian.com/">ximian</a>). one of the main reasons i kept trying fedora was because i really like the <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/artwork/">bluecurve</a> theme. well, on gentoo it's a simple "<code>emerge redhat-artwork</code> " away.
i also get a wide array of j2sdk options, and there's even a package for <a href="http://www.transgaming.com/">transgaming's</a> winex.

8
_posts/2004-07-15-ok-flickr-rocks.md
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tags:
- geek
---
so, much like some <a href="http://boris.bmannconsulting.com/">friends</a> of <a href="http://www.jluster.org/">mine</a>, i've been playing a bit with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> lately. it's a really cool service, with lots of neat <a href="http://www.flash.com/">flash</a>-based gizmos - but for those of you that don't know, essentially flickr is a place to store photos and share them with your friends and family.
what's really cool is it seems like they add new features almost faster than i can keep up with. you can include a feed of your latest flickr photos on your own site (as I've done over there --&gt;). but another really cool trick is annotating pictures. to play around with it, i uploaded a random shot of my desk (with all my little geek toys on display - amongst the mess). well, almost as quickly as i'd gotten <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=80233">this picture</a> online, <a href="http://boris.bmannconsulting.com/">boris</a> had marked up all the interesting bits on my desk.
so, much like some <a href="http://boris.bmannconsulting.com/">friends</a> of <a href="http://www.jluster.org/">mine</a>, i've been playing a bit with <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> lately. it's a really cool service, with lots of neat <a href="http://www.flash.com/">flash</a>-based gizmos - but for those of you that don't know, essentially flickr is a place to store photos and share them with your friends and family.
what's really cool is it seems like they add new features almost faster than i can keep up with. you can include a feed of your latest flickr photos on your own site (as I've done over there --&gt;). but another really cool trick is annotating pictures. to play around with it, i uploaded a random shot of my desk (with all my little geek toys on display - amongst the mess). well, almost as quickly as i'd gotten <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=80233">this picture</a> online, <a href="http://boris.bmannconsulting.com/">boris</a> had marked up all the interesting bits on my desk.
pretty sweet.

22
_posts/2004-08-12-state-of-the-drupal.md
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@ -6,15 +6,15 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/state-of-the-drupal
tags:
- drupal
---
so, while i was away a *lot* happened with everyone's favourite <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">content management system</a>. it looks like version 4.5 is going to really be awesome! some of the really cool stuff that happened while i was away:
<ul>
<li>node access : allows modules to restrict access to individual nodes</li>
<li>new locale.module : allows import/export of gettext .po files to greatly simplify translation (hear that <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/">terminus</a> folks?)</li>
<li>plus, some work towards allowing multiple sites to run off a single drupal code base</li>
</ul>
read more about what's coming in 4.5 <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/9652">here</a>.
plus, drupal.org just got it's <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/10000">10,000th node</a>!!
so, while i was away a *lot* happened with everyone's favourite <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">content management system</a>. it looks like version 4.5 is going to really be awesome! some of the really cool stuff that happened while i was away:
<ul>
<li>node access : allows modules to restrict access to individual nodes</li>
<li>new locale.module : allows import/export of gettext .po files to greatly simplify translation (hear that <a href="http://www.terminus1525.ca/">terminus</a> folks?)</li>
<li>plus, some work towards allowing multiple sites to run off a single drupal code base</li>
</ul>
read more about what's coming in 4.5 <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/9652">here</a>.
plus, drupal.org just got it's <a href="http://drupal.org/node/view/10000">10,000th node</a>!!
i've got some things i'd like to sneak into 4.5 as well, so i'll get back to working on those now :)

12
_posts/2004-08-18-ecto2-beta.md
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@ -7,10 +7,10 @@ tags:
- drupal
- mac os x
---
so, i woke up this morning to find an email from the amazing <a href="http://blog.kung-foo.tv">Adriaan</a> with instructions on how to download and install the <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001087.php">beta version of ecto2</a>. i've been looking forward to this since i first read the announcement that it was coming. so, naturally, i've spent the last couple minutes downloading and playing around with the beta. my first impression: i love it!
i don't really maintain a lot of blogs (hell, i don't even really update this one regularly), but ecto2 might encourage me to maintain more. the "paradigm shift" towards multiple post editing is really nice. rather than launching directly into a new post window, you're faced with a list of recent posts from your various blogs (of course, other than this one, my list consists of test accounts for various drupal installs :P). you can then easily begin a new post for any of your blogs (and work on a couple at the same time).
overall, i really dig it! oh and it works perfectly with drupal (which is what i'm supposed to be testing ;) )
so, i woke up this morning to find an email from the amazing <a href="http://blog.kung-foo.tv">Adriaan</a> with instructions on how to download and install the <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001087.php">beta version of ecto2</a>. i've been looking forward to this since i first read the announcement that it was coming. so, naturally, i've spent the last couple minutes downloading and playing around with the beta. my first impression: i love it!
i don't really maintain a lot of blogs (hell, i don't even really update this one regularly), but ecto2 might encourage me to maintain more. the "paradigm shift" towards multiple post editing is really nice. rather than launching directly into a new post window, you're faced with a list of recent posts from your various blogs (of course, other than this one, my list consists of test accounts for various drupal installs :P). you can then easily begin a new post for any of your blogs (and work on a couple at the same time).
overall, i really dig it! oh and it works perfectly with drupal (which is what i'm supposed to be testing ;) )
<em>[this post brought to you by <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto 2.0b4</a>]</em>

4
_posts/2004-08-25-rush.md
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@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/rush
tags:
- music
---
so, i realize it's a couple days late... but on sunday chad and i took in the <a href="http://www.rush.com/">rush's 30th anniversary tour</a> show at the molson amphitheatre. two words: it rocked. watching neil peart live always makes me regret that my drums are in storage. anyway, we had so damned much fun, we bought t-shirts. it's been over 10 years since i bought a concert t-shirt, it was that good. not bad for a bunch of old dudes.
so, i realize it's a couple days late... but on sunday chad and i took in the <a href="http://www.rush.com/">rush's 30th anniversary tour</a> show at the molson amphitheatre. two words: it rocked. watching neil peart live always makes me regret that my drums are in storage. anyway, we had so damned much fun, we bought t-shirts. it's been over 10 years since i bought a concert t-shirt, it was that good. not bad for a bunch of old dudes.
if you like rush, and their coming to your town - check it out.

20
_posts/2004-08-26-geektool-world-clock.md
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@ -6,13 +6,13 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/geektool-world-clock
tags:
- mac os x
---
while this isn't directly <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght</a> related, one of the things that we've been trying to adjust to is the fact that we span 3 time-zones - which makes coordinating our efforts tricky. i know that <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team/adrian">adrian</a> bought a couple extra clocks to help himself keep track. i, however, am far too cheap for that, so i half-heartedly checked around for a platform-independent "world clock" tool. after some searching, i discovered a tool in debian called "<a href="http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/tzwatch">tzwatch</a>" - which turns out to just be a simple shell script that simply uses date(1). of course! if you set $TZ before calling date, that is the timezone used. after getting over feeling dumb, i threw the following into a little shell script:
<code>
TZ=Canada/Pacific date +"Vancouver: %I:%M %p %D"
TZ=Africa/Johanessburg date +"Africa: %I:%M %p %D"
</code>
so, i can now easily see the local time of my coworkers. however, i was reading <a href="http://www.jluster.org/node/253">jonas' post</a> about <a href="http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/">geektool</a> and thought "perfect". so i downloaded and installed geektool on my powerbook, and set it up to use my little "script". the result looks like this:
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/geektool-clock.jpg" height="61" width="295" alt="geektool-clock.jpg" title="geektool-clock.jpg" />
while this isn't directly <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght</a> related, one of the things that we've been trying to adjust to is the fact that we span 3 time-zones - which makes coordinating our efforts tricky. i know that <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team/adrian">adrian</a> bought a couple extra clocks to help himself keep track. i, however, am far too cheap for that, so i half-heartedly checked around for a platform-independent "world clock" tool. after some searching, i discovered a tool in debian called "<a href="http://packages.debian.org/stable/utils/tzwatch">tzwatch</a>" - which turns out to just be a simple shell script that simply uses date(1). of course! if you set $TZ before calling date, that is the timezone used. after getting over feeling dumb, i threw the following into a little shell script:
<code>
TZ=Canada/Pacific date +"Vancouver: %I:%M %p %D"
TZ=Africa/Johanessburg date +"Africa: %I:%M %p %D"
</code>
so, i can now easily see the local time of my coworkers. however, i was reading <a href="http://www.jluster.org/node/253">jonas' post</a> about <a href="http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/">geektool</a> and thought "perfect". so i downloaded and installed geektool on my powerbook, and set it up to use my little "script". the result looks like this:
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/geektool-clock.jpg" height="61" width="295" alt="geektool-clock.jpg" title="geektool-clock.jpg" />

8
_posts/2004-08-30-more-gmail-invites.md
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@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/more-gmail-invites
tags:
- geek
---
<p>
i've got 'em... who wants one? email your plea to <a href="mailto:walkah@gmail.com">walkah@gmail.com</a>.
</p><p>
<strong>UPDATE</strong>: I'm giving them to <a href="http://walkah.net/node/104">spread firefox</a>.
<p>
i've got 'em... who wants one? email your plea to <a href="mailto:walkah@gmail.com">walkah@gmail.com</a>.
</p><p>
<strong>UPDATE</strong>: I'm giving them to <a href="http://walkah.net/node/104">spread firefox</a>.
</p>

28
_posts/2004-09-09-my-first-skype-call.md
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@ -7,18 +7,18 @@ tags:
- geek
- mac os x
---
<p>
so, i'm certainly not the first to post about <a href="http://www.skype.com/">skype</a>, nor the first to post about either their <a href="http://www.skype.com/download_linux.html">linux beta</a> or their recently released <a href="http://www.skype.com/download_osx.html">beta for mac os x</a>, however, i thought i'd jot down some first impressions since i finally had my first call. for those of you who have never heard of skype:
</p><blockquote>
We&#8217;ve got a simple bit of software we want to give you. It&#8217;ll let you make free phone calls to your friends all over the world. And we don&#8217;t want any money for it. It&#8217;s free.
<br />
<br />You could think of us as the big, free Internet telephony company. We prefer to think of ourselves as a big group hug, even a present. Yes&#8230; that&#8217;s it&#8230; we&#8217;re a present&#8230; but without the ribbon.
</blockquote><p>
so, since Toronto - Vancouver phone calls aren't cheap <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team/roland">roland</a> and i figured we'd give skype a shot for a discussion this afternoon (plus we were having firewall issues at some end with <a href="http://www.apple.com/ichat/">iChat AV</a>).
</p><p>
how was it you ask? i must say, i was impressed. i'm not a VoIP/Internet telephony expert by *any* means (unlike <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/">some people</a>), but i found the quality to be quite good. it wasn't perfect, but given the fact that my cell reception in the basement approaches 0, it was no worse than that. plus, i have an old headset (and i don't even remember why i have it), which i just plugged into my powerbook and it made for a nice handsfree experience (also unlike my cell).
</p><p>
the interface on the osx client is good too ... it doesn't feel like a windows app turned cocoa. i may well be using skype more in the future (though, i will say - i agree with boris that there should be an <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1215">open source alternative</a>).
</p><p>
oh, and if you care... my skype id is 'walkah' (surprise surprise)... so <a href="callto://walkah/">call me</a> :)
<p>
so, i'm certainly not the first to post about <a href="http://www.skype.com/">skype</a>, nor the first to post about either their <a href="http://www.skype.com/download_linux.html">linux beta</a> or their recently released <a href="http://www.skype.com/download_osx.html">beta for mac os x</a>, however, i thought i'd jot down some first impressions since i finally had my first call. for those of you who have never heard of skype:
</p><blockquote>
We&#8217;ve got a simple bit of software we want to give you. It&#8217;ll let you make free phone calls to your friends all over the world. And we don&#8217;t want any money for it. It&#8217;s free.
<br />
<br />You could think of us as the big, free Internet telephony company. We prefer to think of ourselves as a big group hug, even a present. Yes&#8230; that&#8217;s it&#8230; we&#8217;re a present&#8230; but without the ribbon.
</blockquote><p>
so, since Toronto - Vancouver phone calls aren't cheap <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team/roland">roland</a> and i figured we'd give skype a shot for a discussion this afternoon (plus we were having firewall issues at some end with <a href="http://www.apple.com/ichat/">iChat AV</a>).
</p><p>
how was it you ask? i must say, i was impressed. i'm not a VoIP/Internet telephony expert by *any* means (unlike <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/">some people</a>), but i found the quality to be quite good. it wasn't perfect, but given the fact that my cell reception in the basement approaches 0, it was no worse than that. plus, i have an old headset (and i don't even remember why i have it), which i just plugged into my powerbook and it made for a nice handsfree experience (also unlike my cell).
</p><p>
the interface on the osx client is good too ... it doesn't feel like a windows app turned cocoa. i may well be using skype more in the future (though, i will say - i agree with boris that there should be an <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1215">open source alternative</a>).
</p><p>
oh, and if you care... my skype id is 'walkah' (surprise surprise)... so <a href="callto://walkah/">call me</a> :)
</p>

52
_posts/2004-09-14-new-firefox-and-thunderbird-releases.md
View File

@ -8,30 +8,30 @@ tags:
- mac os x
- linux
---
<p>
i'm not the first to point out that everybody's favorite <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox">web browser</a> and<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird"> mail clients</a> both released updates today. i've got to totally disagree with <a href="http://www.jluster.org/">jonas</a> here, i have to say that both the new versions rock.
</p><p>
however, there's even a cool drupal tie-in! check out <a href="http://spreadfirefox.com/community/">spread firefox</a>, a new site devoted to firefox advocacy - and oh ya, it's powered by <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> / <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a>. right on.
</p><p>
<strong>firefox</strong>
</p><p>
maybe it's wishful thinking, but firefox 1.0RC seems to be a bit snappier on os x than 0.9 was. my only real complaint is that the incredible <a href="http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensions.html.en">tabbrowser extensions</a> don't seem to be updated yet. (i'll live). however, that extension allows you to put close buttons on each tab, re-order tabs by drag and drop (and a whole lot more).
</p><p>
the latest version also includes a funky RSS - bookmark thing. i'm not sure i really would ever use it, but when you're browsing a site that has an atom/rss feed there's a little "RSS" button that you can click to 'bookmark' the feed... which then creates a folder in your bookmarks that contain a list of headlines. nice i guess, though it ain't netnewswire ;)
</p><p>
the #1 reason i still love firefox though: the <a href="http://webdeveloper.mozdev.org/">webdeveloper extension</a>. it kicks serious butt. if you're unfortunate to spend most of your life building websites or web applications you should try it.
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=58"><img border="0" alt="Get Firefox!" title="Get Firefox!" src="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/180x60/get.gif"/></a></p>
<p>
<strong>thunderbird</strong>
</p><p>
thunderbird 0.8 brings one big new improvement (as far as i'm concerned) and that's the ability to quick search by different fields in a manner similar to mail.app. the other feature (on os x) is that the dock icon now shows a count of new messages (instead of the green checkmark) - though i wish it was persistent a la mail.app.
</p><p>
i still have some nit-picky complaints with thunderbird, namely i wish that you could quickly limit the message view to all 'flagged' messages (on IMAP accounts) <em>or</em> if the thunderbird markings were stored on the IMAP server (rather than the local cache) so that they persisted across machines. the only other thing is that, i agree with jonas here, not doing addressbook.framework integration is stupid on os x, though it looks like there is a patch.
</p><p>
i was a long time mutt user... and still use it on occasion. but mutt's imap support sucks (no local cache makes imap unfun for lots of mailboxes &#38; messages). and, it's _really_ hard to compose multiple messages at once on a text mode mail application.
</p><p>
i'll still stick with the mozilla* family. the apps are good - but the #1 motivation for me is that they provide me (in combination with gnu emacs) a truly cross-platform solution for my "mission critical" applications.
</p><p>
... now if only there were a linux equivalent of <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto</a>. ;)
<p>
i'm not the first to point out that everybody's favorite <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox">web browser</a> and<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird"> mail clients</a> both released updates today. i've got to totally disagree with <a href="http://www.jluster.org/">jonas</a> here, i have to say that both the new versions rock.
</p><p>
however, there's even a cool drupal tie-in! check out <a href="http://spreadfirefox.com/community/">spread firefox</a>, a new site devoted to firefox advocacy - and oh ya, it's powered by <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> / <a href="http://www.drupal.org/">drupal</a>. right on.
</p><p>
<strong>firefox</strong>
</p><p>
maybe it's wishful thinking, but firefox 1.0RC seems to be a bit snappier on os x than 0.9 was. my only real complaint is that the incredible <a href="http://white.sakura.ne.jp/~piro/xul/_tabextensions.html.en">tabbrowser extensions</a> don't seem to be updated yet. (i'll live). however, that extension allows you to put close buttons on each tab, re-order tabs by drag and drop (and a whole lot more).
</p><p>
the latest version also includes a funky RSS - bookmark thing. i'm not sure i really would ever use it, but when you're browsing a site that has an atom/rss feed there's a little "RSS" button that you can click to 'bookmark' the feed... which then creates a folder in your bookmarks that contain a list of headlines. nice i guess, though it ain't netnewswire ;)
</p><p>
the #1 reason i still love firefox though: the <a href="http://webdeveloper.mozdev.org/">webdeveloper extension</a>. it kicks serious butt. if you're unfortunate to spend most of your life building websites or web applications you should try it.
</p>
<p><a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=58"><img border="0" alt="Get Firefox!" title="Get Firefox!" src="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/180x60/get.gif"/></a></p>
<p>
<strong>thunderbird</strong>
</p><p>
thunderbird 0.8 brings one big new improvement (as far as i'm concerned) and that's the ability to quick search by different fields in a manner similar to mail.app. the other feature (on os x) is that the dock icon now shows a count of new messages (instead of the green checkmark) - though i wish it was persistent a la mail.app.
</p><p>
i still have some nit-picky complaints with thunderbird, namely i wish that you could quickly limit the message view to all 'flagged' messages (on IMAP accounts) <em>or</em> if the thunderbird markings were stored on the IMAP server (rather than the local cache) so that they persisted across machines. the only other thing is that, i agree with jonas here, not doing addressbook.framework integration is stupid on os x, though it looks like there is a patch.
</p><p>
i was a long time mutt user... and still use it on occasion. but mutt's imap support sucks (no local cache makes imap unfun for lots of mailboxes &#38; messages). and, it's _really_ hard to compose multiple messages at once on a text mode mail application.
</p><p>
i'll still stick with the mozilla* family. the apps are good - but the #1 motivation for me is that they provide me (in combination with gnu emacs) a truly cross-platform solution for my "mission critical" applications.
</p><p>
... now if only there were a linux equivalent of <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto</a>. ;)
</p>

10
_posts/2004-09-24-getting-rid-of-those-pesky-gmail-accounts.md
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@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/getting-rid-of-those-pesky-gmail-accounts
tags:
- geek
---
<p>
it seems that everyone i know that knows what the hell <a href="http://gmail.google.com/">gmail</a> is, either already has an account or doesn't want one. (it's nice, since i provide mail service for most of my family, that they're happy enough to stay put). so, for the longest time i've had <a href="http://walkah.net/node/98">unused invitations</a> . it seems that every time i actually manage to get rid of one, they top me up with more.
</p><p>
but now, i have a solution! the super folks over at <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/">spread firefox</a> are doing some promotion with gmail invites, and have a nice new system for <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/1701">donating gmail invitations</a>. so, i just donated the 5 i had kicking around. i feel much better now. oh and, if you haven't yet...
<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=64"><img border="0" alt="Get Firefox!" title="Get Firefox!" src="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/110x32/get.gif"/></a>
<p>
it seems that everyone i know that knows what the hell <a href="http://gmail.google.com/">gmail</a> is, either already has an account or doesn't want one. (it's nice, since i provide mail service for most of my family, that they're happy enough to stay put). so, for the longest time i've had <a href="http://walkah.net/node/98">unused invitations</a> . it seems that every time i actually manage to get rid of one, they top me up with more.
</p><p>
but now, i have a solution! the super folks over at <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/">spread firefox</a> are doing some promotion with gmail invites, and have a nice new system for <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=node/view/1701">donating gmail invitations</a>. so, i just donated the 5 i had kicking around. i feel much better now. oh and, if you haven't yet...
<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=64"><img border="0" alt="Get Firefox!" title="Get Firefox!" src="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/community/images/affiliates/Buttons/110x32/get.gif"/></a>
</p>

18
_posts/2004-10-08-google-local-now-via-sms.md
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@ -6,13 +6,13 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/google-local-now-via-sms
tags:
- geek
---
<p>so, google continues to add features... and sometimes they're really useful! you may or may not have heard about <a href="http://local.google.com/">google local</a> - which is a neat tool (even though the <a href="http://local.google.ca/">canadian equivalent</a> suffers from some pretty spotty data). but, they've now made it just a bit more useful... you can now query google local via SMS (like, from your phone). I think <a href="http://www.zacker.org/">zacker</a> summed it up the best:
</p>
<pre>
13:55 &lt; Zacker&gt; holy crap
13:55 &lt; Zacker&gt; http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html#business
13:56 &lt; walkah&gt; ya. that's the rock.
13:56 &lt; Zacker&gt; that is going to change my life
</pre>
<p><b>UPDATE:</b> argh. i just tried from my phone (which is on rogers) and it failed to send, because the 46645 (GOOGL) shortcode is for US only apparently. :(</p>
<p>so, google continues to add features... and sometimes they're really useful! you may or may not have heard about <a href="http://local.google.com/">google local</a> - which is a neat tool (even though the <a href="http://local.google.ca/">canadian equivalent</a> suffers from some pretty spotty data). but, they've now made it just a bit more useful... you can now query google local via SMS (like, from your phone). I think <a href="http://www.zacker.org/">zacker</a> summed it up the best:
</p>
<pre>
13:55 &lt; Zacker&gt; holy crap
13:55 &lt; Zacker&gt; http://www.google.com/sms/howtouse.html#business
13:56 &lt; walkah&gt; ya. that's the rock.
13:56 &lt; Zacker&gt; that is going to change my life
</pre>
<p><b>UPDATE:</b> argh. i just tried from my phone (which is on rogers) and it failed to send, because the 46645 (GOOGL) shortcode is for US only apparently. :(</p>
<!--break-->

8
_posts/2004-10-14-goin-to-vancouver.md
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@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/goin-to-vancouver
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>
just a quick note to say... i'm officially booked for my first business trip as a <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght guy</a>. i'll be headed to vancouver at the end of this month (Oct 25th - 30th). it's been a couple months of working together, and finally we can sit down and match faces to voices and email signatures. i'm excited to meet up with <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team">boris, roland and richard</a> - too bad we couldn't get adrian here for this one :(
</p><p>
also, roland has <a href="http://drupal.org/node/11593">publicly announced</a> that we're gonna have a big meet-up with <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/">dries</a> on the 29th. if you're in the vancouver area on the 29th and have any interest in drupal, come on out! the <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> guys are gonna be there too... should be a blast! i know i owe dries at least a beer or two. :)
<p>
just a quick note to say... i'm officially booked for my first business trip as a <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght guy</a>. i'll be headed to vancouver at the end of this month (Oct 25th - 30th). it's been a couple months of working together, and finally we can sit down and match faces to voices and email signatures. i'm excited to meet up with <a href="http://www.bryght.com/about/the-team">boris, roland and richard</a> - too bad we couldn't get adrian here for this one :(
</p><p>
also, roland has <a href="http://drupal.org/node/11593">publicly announced</a> that we're gonna have a big meet-up with <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/">dries</a> on the 29th. if you're in the vancouver area on the 29th and have any interest in drupal, come on out! the <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> guys are gonna be there too... should be a blast! i know i owe dries at least a beer or two. :)
</p>

14
_posts/2004-10-18-drupal-4-5-is-out.md
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@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/drupal-4-5-is-out
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>
it's finally been <a href="http://drupal.org/node/11696">officially released</a> into the wild. i must say, it's by <strong>far</strong> the best drupal release yet. and things are looking great moving forward. here's to a job well done (Dries - you'll get your beer(s) in about 10 days :) )
</p><p>
i've intended for a while to write up some of my personal goals for the next release, but just haven't gotten that far yet. soon.
</p><p>
<strong>UPDATE:</strong> of course, as soon as i hit "post" <a href="http://www.acko.net">UnConeD</a> took the wraps off his new theme "bluebeach". i'd have to argue that now <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal.org</a> is one of the best looking drupal sites :)
</p>
<p>
it's finally been <a href="http://drupal.org/node/11696">officially released</a> into the wild. i must say, it's by <strong>far</strong> the best drupal release yet. and things are looking great moving forward. here's to a job well done (Dries - you'll get your beer(s) in about 10 days :) )
</p><p>
i've intended for a while to write up some of my personal goals for the next release, but just haven't gotten that far yet. soon.
</p><p>
<strong>UPDATE:</strong> of course, as soon as i hit "post" <a href="http://www.acko.net">UnConeD</a> took the wraps off his new theme "bluebeach". i'd have to argue that now <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal.org</a> is one of the best looking drupal sites :)
</p>
<!--break-->

24
_posts/2004-10-28-live-from-vancouver-land-of-the-beer-tower.md
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@ -7,16 +7,16 @@ tags:
- geek
- drupal
---
<p>
so, here i am in vancouver meeting with the bryght guys - super bloggers that they are, and i haven't made a single entry (been here since monday). read on for a brief recap.
</p>
<!--break-->
<p>
<strong>monday</strong>: i arrived hassle free in the early afternoon. <a href="http://www.rolandtanglao.com/">roland</a> met me at the airport, it was cold and raining, as it should be in vancouver. i got checked into the hotel, where i later established my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/1094320/">mobile office</a> . then we headed to <a href="http://www.vaneats.com/reviews/restaurants/brioche">brioche</a> for some yummy food. that was followed with a tour of the prestigious bryght offices, and then off for an early evening.
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/1085821/"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/1085821_3d8ea6d471_m.jpg" alt="the beer tower" class="left" /></a><strong>tuesday</strong>: our first "big day". <a href="http://bmannconsulting.com/">boris</a> and i had meetings all morning, followed by lunch at a small little place with good hummus (the name escapes me). then back to the office to get not quite enough done to consider it working before <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/">dries</a> dropped us a line to let us know he had a free minute, so we went for a long walk - a tourist excursion for us foreigners. when our legs were finally tired, we went to grab some refreshments - and my love of the beer tower is born (more over at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/tags/vancouver/">my flickr account</a>).
</p><p>
<strong>wednesday</strong>: we more or less worked all day today. though we did have lunch (and dinner) with the very entertaining <a href="http://anarkystic.com/blog/">andy "termie" smith</a>.
</p><p>
the rest of the week looks to be at least as busy, since tomorrow the <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> gang gets to town and our <a href="http://dev.bryght.com/t/wiki/DinnerWithDriesAndCivicSpaceDevelopers">big dinner</a> happens friday. i'll try to post a bit more consistently.
<p>
so, here i am in vancouver meeting with the bryght guys - super bloggers that they are, and i haven't made a single entry (been here since monday). read on for a brief recap.
</p>
<!--break-->
<p>
<strong>monday</strong>: i arrived hassle free in the early afternoon. <a href="http://www.rolandtanglao.com/">roland</a> met me at the airport, it was cold and raining, as it should be in vancouver. i got checked into the hotel, where i later established my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/1094320/">mobile office</a> . then we headed to <a href="http://www.vaneats.com/reviews/restaurants/brioche">brioche</a> for some yummy food. that was followed with a tour of the prestigious bryght offices, and then off for an early evening.
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/1085821/"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/1085821_3d8ea6d471_m.jpg" alt="the beer tower" class="left" /></a><strong>tuesday</strong>: our first "big day". <a href="http://bmannconsulting.com/">boris</a> and i had meetings all morning, followed by lunch at a small little place with good hummus (the name escapes me). then back to the office to get not quite enough done to consider it working before <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/">dries</a> dropped us a line to let us know he had a free minute, so we went for a long walk - a tourist excursion for us foreigners. when our legs were finally tired, we went to grab some refreshments - and my love of the beer tower is born (more over at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/tags/vancouver/">my flickr account</a>).
</p><p>
<strong>wednesday</strong>: we more or less worked all day today. though we did have lunch (and dinner) with the very entertaining <a href="http://anarkystic.com/blog/">andy "termie" smith</a>.
</p><p>
the rest of the week looks to be at least as busy, since tomorrow the <a href="http://www.civicspacelabs.org/">civicspace</a> gang gets to town and our <a href="http://dev.bryght.com/t/wiki/DinnerWithDriesAndCivicSpaceDevelopers">big dinner</a> happens friday. i'll try to post a bit more consistently.
</p>

14
_posts/2004-11-04-mike-doughty-has-a-label-and-a-cd-in-time-for-christmas.md
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@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/mike-doughty-has-a-label-and-a-cd-in-time-for-christmas
tags:
- music
---
<p>
consider me officially putting this on my christmas wishlist:
</p><p>
i just noticed over at <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/" title="Mike Doughty, former Soul Coughing frontman">mike doughty's blog</a>, that mike has <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/archives/000083.html">officially signed with ATO records</a>. in the short term, it means that he's re-releasing skittish as part of a two disc set that will include rockity roll and some songs of <em>evenhand</em> and other goodies. that's awesome news, 'cause i had to download skittish, 'cause i waited too long (until after he'd sold all his copies) to buy myself a copy. though, i bought rockity roll from the man himself (money that went straight to his gas tank, i presume).
</p><p>
btw, anyone else here think that mike should run a <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="Drupal Content Management">drupal</a>-based community? mike: have your people call <a href="http://www.bryght.com/" title="Bryght hosted community content">my people</a>.
</p>
<p>
consider me officially putting this on my christmas wishlist:
</p><p>
i just noticed over at <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/" title="Mike Doughty, former Soul Coughing frontman">mike doughty's blog</a>, that mike has <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/archives/000083.html">officially signed with ATO records</a>. in the short term, it means that he's re-releasing skittish as part of a two disc set that will include rockity roll and some songs of <em>evenhand</em> and other goodies. that's awesome news, 'cause i had to download skittish, 'cause i waited too long (until after he'd sold all his copies) to buy myself a copy. though, i bought rockity roll from the man himself (money that went straight to his gas tank, i presume).
</p><p>
btw, anyone else here think that mike should run a <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="Drupal Content Management">drupal</a>-based community? mike: have your people call <a href="http://www.bryght.com/" title="Bryght hosted community content">my people</a>.
</p>
<!--break-->

14
_posts/2004-11-09-happy-firefox-day.md
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@ -8,11 +8,11 @@ tags:
- mac os x
- linux
---
<p>
so, it's november 9th, which means <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82" title="Firefox Web browser">firefox 1.0</a> is out. if you're not using firefox, you should. i love it so much, i bought the t-shirt:
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/1368111_c7a3dfb4ad_m.jpg" alt="My Firefox t-shirt" /></a>
</p><p>
go now. <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82" title="Get Firefox">getfirefox.com</a> . take back the web.
</p>
<p>
so, it's november 9th, which means <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82" title="Firefox Web browser">firefox 1.0</a> is out. if you're not using firefox, you should. i love it so much, i bought the t-shirt:
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82"><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/1368111_c7a3dfb4ad_m.jpg" alt="My Firefox t-shirt" /></a>
</p><p>
go now. <a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=7295&amp;t=82" title="Get Firefox">getfirefox.com</a> . take back the web.
</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> apparently one of the big secrets was that the new firefox start page is really a <a href="http://www.google.ca/firefox/?en-US&act=1">firefox-branded google page</a>. welcome to the future, google. :)</p>

14
_posts/2004-11-24-ecto2-with-amazon.md
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@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/ecto2-with-amazon
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>
just a few days ago, i had some ideas about some neat ways to incorporate some <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">amazon</a> stuff on my blog - partly as an excuse to play around with their webservices api (i know, day late - dollar short) - so i signed up for an associates account. well, as if he was reading my mind, the <a href="http://blog.kung-foo.tv/" title="Adriaan Tijsseling">amazing ado</a> <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001207.php" title="ecto amazon support">blogged</a> about his latest feature for ecto2 : amazon link building. so, to test it out, let's try building a link to... say... the new mike doughty album:
</p><p>
<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006FO8SO.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006FO8SO/walkah-20">"Skittish / Rockity Roll" (Mike Doughty)</a>
</p><p>
shazam! now, that's good stuff.
<p>
just a few days ago, i had some ideas about some neat ways to incorporate some <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">amazon</a> stuff on my blog - partly as an excuse to play around with their webservices api (i know, day late - dollar short) - so i signed up for an associates account. well, as if he was reading my mind, the <a href="http://blog.kung-foo.tv/" title="Adriaan Tijsseling">amazing ado</a> <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001207.php" title="ecto amazon support">blogged</a> about his latest feature for ecto2 : amazon link building. so, to test it out, let's try building a link to... say... the new mike doughty album:
</p><p>
<img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006FO8SO.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" />
<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006FO8SO/walkah-20">"Skittish / Rockity Roll" (Mike Doughty)</a>
</p><p>
shazam! now, that's good stuff.
</p>

24
_posts/2004-12-30-holiday-loot.md
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@ -7,16 +7,16 @@ tags:
- family
- geek
---
<p>
it's been a good holiday. in addition to getting some much needed downtime and adding a few pounds around my midsection, i also got quite a few geek toys for christmas. prior to christmas, i made a point of updating my amazon wishlist for those of my non-technical family members (i.e. all of them) who find me difficult to buy for. it turned out to work quite well - although the funny part was none of my family members actually bought things from amazon - they checked out list and wandered off to local bricks and mortar type establishments.
</p><p>
nevertheless, it resulted in an overwhelming amount of toys... here's a quick recap:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AAAPF/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000AAAPF.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AAAPF/walkah-20">Griffin iTrip FM Audio Transmitter for 3G Apple iPods</a> - while, ideally i'd prefer to never drive... i do actually spend a fair bit of time in the car, because when i do drive it tends to be a trip to downtown toronto - which is a good 45 minutes away (at least!). this will be excellent to have since, well, most radio stinks.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007KDVI/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007KDVI.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007KDVI/walkah-20"> "Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router"</a> - i've wanted one of these for a long time. my current wireless setup is only 80211.b - which means i miss out on a lot of speed for my powerbook. also, i've been dying to hack the linux</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002OZXG0/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002OZXG0.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002OZXG0/walkah-20"> Apple iSight</a> - oh yeah. you know you want one too.
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00064O1P0/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00064O1P0.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a> as if that weren't enough... my darling wife heard my subtle hints for a new, smaller, faster digital camera. so, i am now (after some research and exchanging) the *very* proud owner of a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00064O1P0/walkah-20">canon sd200</a>. first impressions - this is an awesome little camera, and exactly the kind of thing i was looking for - more later.
</li>
<p>
it's been a good holiday. in addition to getting some much needed downtime and adding a few pounds around my midsection, i also got quite a few geek toys for christmas. prior to christmas, i made a point of updating my amazon wishlist for those of my non-technical family members (i.e. all of them) who find me difficult to buy for. it turned out to work quite well - although the funny part was none of my family members actually bought things from amazon - they checked out list and wandered off to local bricks and mortar type establishments.
</p><p>
nevertheless, it resulted in an overwhelming amount of toys... here's a quick recap:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AAAPF/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000AAAPF.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000AAAPF/walkah-20">Griffin iTrip FM Audio Transmitter for 3G Apple iPods</a> - while, ideally i'd prefer to never drive... i do actually spend a fair bit of time in the car, because when i do drive it tends to be a trip to downtown toronto - which is a good 45 minutes away (at least!). this will be excellent to have since, well, most radio stinks.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007KDVI/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00007KDVI.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00007KDVI/walkah-20"> "Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router"</a> - i've wanted one of these for a long time. my current wireless setup is only 80211.b - which means i miss out on a lot of speed for my powerbook. also, i've been dying to hack the linux</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002OZXG0/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002OZXG0.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002OZXG0/walkah-20"> Apple iSight</a> - oh yeah. you know you want one too.
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00064O1P0/walkah-20"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00064O1P0.01._SCTHUMBZZZ_.jpg" class="left" /></a> as if that weren't enough... my darling wife heard my subtle hints for a new, smaller, faster digital camera. so, i am now (after some research and exchanging) the *very* proud owner of a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00064O1P0/walkah-20">canon sd200</a>. first impressions - this is an awesome little camera, and exactly the kind of thing i was looking for - more later.
</li>
</ul>

22
_posts/2005-03-02-back-from-belgium.md
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@ -6,15 +6,15 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/back-belgium
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>
the first ever <a href="http://drupal.org" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a> conference is over and i'm home safe and sound.
</p><p>
i've actually been home for nearly 48 hours, but it's taken me until now to sort through all the pictures, get them online, and shake off some jet lag. overall, i had an awesome time. I've put up a ton of pictures both from <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery/v/travels/europe2005/paris/" title="Paris gallery">paris</a> as well as stuff from <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery/v/travels/europe2005/drupalcon2005/" title="drupalcon / belgium pictures">belgium</a>. there is <a href="http://drupal.org/node/17995#new" title="Drupal conference update">a post on drupal.org</a> with a brief recap, and links to other's pictures.
</p><p>
obviously, i didn't take many pictures of me... my current favourite though is this one from <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/" title="Drupal conference update">dries</a> (the caption is the best):
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.buytaert.net/albums/drupal-conference-2005/1/"><img src="http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupalcon-antwerp-2005-james-walker-prays-to-druplicon-150x100.jpg" alt="James walker prays to druplicon." /></a>
<br />"James walker prays to druplicon."
<br />
<br />lots of great ideas came out of the code sprints... if even half of it all gets implemented for drupal 4.7 it's gonna rock. i'd say more, but i need to start writing code ;)
<p>
the first ever <a href="http://drupal.org" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a> conference is over and i'm home safe and sound.
</p><p>
i've actually been home for nearly 48 hours, but it's taken me until now to sort through all the pictures, get them online, and shake off some jet lag. overall, i had an awesome time. I've put up a ton of pictures both from <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery/v/travels/europe2005/paris/" title="Paris gallery">paris</a> as well as stuff from <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery/v/travels/europe2005/drupalcon2005/" title="drupalcon / belgium pictures">belgium</a>. there is <a href="http://drupal.org/node/17995#new" title="Drupal conference update">a post on drupal.org</a> with a brief recap, and links to other's pictures.
</p><p>
obviously, i didn't take many pictures of me... my current favourite though is this one from <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/" title="Drupal conference update">dries</a> (the caption is the best):
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.buytaert.net/albums/drupal-conference-2005/1/"><img src="http://buytaert.net/cache/images-drupalcon-antwerp-2005-james-walker-prays-to-druplicon-150x100.jpg" alt="James walker prays to druplicon." /></a>
<br />"James walker prays to druplicon."
<br />
<br />lots of great ideas came out of the code sprints... if even half of it all gets implemented for drupal 4.7 it's gonna rock. i'd say more, but i need to start writing code ;)
</p>

20
_posts/2005-04-01-php-quebec-conference-recap.md
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@ -7,14 +7,14 @@ tags:
- geek
- drupal
---
<p>
i'm back home and rested now after <a href="http://conf.phpquebec.com/en/" title="PHP Quebec Conference 2005">PHP Quebec</a> - where I did a presentation on <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a>'s distributed authentication and <a href="http://www.sxip.com/" title="SXIP - Identity 2.0">sxip</a>. i have to admit, i'm still pretty new to the whole conference going / speaking scene - but the time (while short and fast) was enjoyable - thanks to the php quebec organizers for a good show.
</p><p>
a couple personal highlights :
</p><ul>
<li>caught <a href="http://www.lerdorf.com" title="Rasmus Lerdorf">rasmus</a>' presentation - he's doing some pretty cool stuff over at yahoo! - and i finally got to shake his hand. rasmus and I are very loosely linked by friends of friends in the toronto area, and yet i've never actually had a chance to meet him (largely 'cause he lives in california).</li>
<li>met <a href="http://www.stevesgallery.com/" title="Steve Mansour">steve mansour</a> - who was doing photography for the conference - and is a big drupal fan. he was nice enough to take this poor little anglophone under his wing. we got to talk a lot about some of the cool stuff he's up to using drupal - he's also heavily into the community wireless scene in montreal. very cool.</li>
<li>turns out, one of steve's good friends is "<a href="http://bopuc.levendis.com/weblog/" title="Boris Anthony">bopuc</a>" - who's path i've crossed via #joiito (and it seems i can't leave the house anymore without having jonas' name come up in conversation these days), so after last night's speaker dinner we met up with boris and grabbed a couple beers. some pretty heavy, and very interesting conversation ensued. oh, and guys - next time you're in the toronto area - beer's on me.</li>
</ul><p>
the one thing i did realize, though, is that despite having used PHP for development since 1997 (is that really 8 years ago?!?!), i've never gotten involved in the PHP community at large. i think that's something i'd like to change - time permitting of course. but there are some pretty cool things going on in the community and some pretty cool folks behind it. hopefully they'll have me back :)
<p>
i'm back home and rested now after <a href="http://conf.phpquebec.com/en/" title="PHP Quebec Conference 2005">PHP Quebec</a> - where I did a presentation on <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a>'s distributed authentication and <a href="http://www.sxip.com/" title="SXIP - Identity 2.0">sxip</a>. i have to admit, i'm still pretty new to the whole conference going / speaking scene - but the time (while short and fast) was enjoyable - thanks to the php quebec organizers for a good show.
</p><p>
a couple personal highlights :
</p><ul>
<li>caught <a href="http://www.lerdorf.com" title="Rasmus Lerdorf">rasmus</a>' presentation - he's doing some pretty cool stuff over at yahoo! - and i finally got to shake his hand. rasmus and I are very loosely linked by friends of friends in the toronto area, and yet i've never actually had a chance to meet him (largely 'cause he lives in california).</li>
<li>met <a href="http://www.stevesgallery.com/" title="Steve Mansour">steve mansour</a> - who was doing photography for the conference - and is a big drupal fan. he was nice enough to take this poor little anglophone under his wing. we got to talk a lot about some of the cool stuff he's up to using drupal - he's also heavily into the community wireless scene in montreal. very cool.</li>
<li>turns out, one of steve's good friends is "<a href="http://bopuc.levendis.com/weblog/" title="Boris Anthony">bopuc</a>" - who's path i've crossed via #joiito (and it seems i can't leave the house anymore without having jonas' name come up in conversation these days), so after last night's speaker dinner we met up with boris and grabbed a couple beers. some pretty heavy, and very interesting conversation ensued. oh, and guys - next time you're in the toronto area - beer's on me.</li>
</ul><p>
the one thing i did realize, though, is that despite having used PHP for development since 1997 (is that really 8 years ago?!?!), i've never gotten involved in the PHP community at large. i think that's something i'd like to change - time permitting of course. but there are some pretty cool things going on in the community and some pretty cool folks behind it. hopefully they'll have me back :)
</p>

16
_posts/2005-04-13-gallery-2-beta-2-holy-hand-grenade-released.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/gallery-2-beta-2-holy-hand-grenade-released
tags:
- gallery
---
<p>
Congrats to the full team on another fine release! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do wish I had more time to contribute to the gallery project than I do... but lately I've been limited to working on the <a href="http://drupal.org/project/gallery" title="drupal gallery2 integration">drupal integration</a> and, of course, using it for my personal photos <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery" title="walkah's gallery">here</a>. But the good news is, the other folks have been hard at work!
</p><p>
from <a href="http://gallery.menalto.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=155&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" title="gallery2 beta2 announcement" id="155&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">gallery.menalto.com</a>:
</p><blockquote>
This is the second installment in the Gallery 2 beta cycle. In the past 5 weeks we've made considerable improvements to the product. We're one step closer to having a final product. As with the beta-1 release, we are now providing a well tested upgrade path from here until the final Gallery release. If you're using Gallery 2 Alpha 4 or more recent, you can upgrade without losing any of your data.
</blockquote><p>
go get it now! :)
<p>
Congrats to the full team on another fine release! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I do wish I had more time to contribute to the gallery project than I do... but lately I've been limited to working on the <a href="http://drupal.org/project/gallery" title="drupal gallery2 integration">drupal integration</a> and, of course, using it for my personal photos <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery" title="walkah's gallery">here</a>. But the good news is, the other folks have been hard at work!
</p><p>
from <a href="http://gallery.menalto.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=155&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" title="gallery2 beta2 announcement" id="155&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">gallery.menalto.com</a>:
</p><blockquote>
This is the second installment in the Gallery 2 beta cycle. In the past 5 weeks we've made considerable improvements to the product. We're one step closer to having a final product. As with the beta-1 release, we are now providing a well tested upgrade path from here until the final Gallery release. If you're using Gallery 2 Alpha 4 or more recent, you can upgrade without losing any of your data.
</blockquote><p>
go get it now! :)
</p>

30
_posts/2005-04-14-im-a-mike-doughty-fan-boy.md
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@ -7,19 +7,19 @@ tags:
- music
- doughty
---
<p>
... and proud of it.
</p><p>
it's recently come to my attention that i have a bit of an addiction. i'm seriously hooked on the tunes, writings, ramblings, etc of <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/" title="mike doughty">mike doughty</a>. if you don't know - he's the dude that used to front <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Coughing" title="Soul Coughing">soul coughing</a>. not since my early obsession with <a href="http://rush.com/" title="Rush - the band (i love neil peart)">rush</a> have i done things like this, but lately i've:
</p><ul>
<li>read every single post on his <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/">blog</a></li>
<li>saw him at <a href="http://www.leespalace.com/">lee's palace</a> in toronto - bought an autographed copy of rockitty-roll (his solo EP).</li>
<li>pre-ordered a copy of his re-release of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006FO8SO/walkah-20">"Skittish/Rockity Roll"</a> - with a tshirt</li>
<li>pre-ordered of his first "official" solo album <a href="http://stores.musictoday.com/store/dept.asp?dept_id=3709&band_id=828" id="3709&band_id=828">haughty melodic</a></li>
<li>ordered tickets to see him play the <a href="http://rivoli.ca/">rivoli</a> in Toronto in May.</li>
<li>not to mention, i'm in the top 20 for "<a href="http://www.audioscrobbler.com/music/Mike+Doughty">mike doughty fans</a>" over at <a href="http://www.audioscrobbler.com/">audioscrobbler</a> (he's my #2 on my top artists list).</li>
</ul><p>
<a href="http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1.JPG" onclick="window.open('http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1.JPG','popup','width=2048,height=1536,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1-tm.jpg" height="100" width="133" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="bustin up a starbux" title="bustin up a starbux" class="right" /></a>yep. it scares me too. but the worst part, is when i was <a href="http://walkah.net/node/142">in paris</a> recently, my brother and i walked by a starbux that had it's front window smashed and the *first* thing i thought was "bustin' up a starbux". but, wait... it gets worse. i actually took this picture and emailed him!! worse, though... i never got a response :( though, i can't blame him. i wouldn't respond to me either.
</p><p>
i'm not totally sure what's gotten into me. perhaps it's too much time alone in the basement. but mike - if you're reading (and I'm *sure* you are) - I'll see you in May and keep on rockin'.
<p>
... and proud of it.
</p><p>
it's recently come to my attention that i have a bit of an addiction. i'm seriously hooked on the tunes, writings, ramblings, etc of <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/" title="mike doughty">mike doughty</a>. if you don't know - he's the dude that used to front <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Coughing" title="Soul Coughing">soul coughing</a>. not since my early obsession with <a href="http://rush.com/" title="Rush - the band (i love neil peart)">rush</a> have i done things like this, but lately i've:
</p><ul>
<li>read every single post on his <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/">blog</a></li>
<li>saw him at <a href="http://www.leespalace.com/">lee's palace</a> in toronto - bought an autographed copy of rockitty-roll (his solo EP).</li>
<li>pre-ordered a copy of his re-release of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0006FO8SO/walkah-20">"Skittish/Rockity Roll"</a> - with a tshirt</li>
<li>pre-ordered of his first "official" solo album <a href="http://stores.musictoday.com/store/dept.asp?dept_id=3709&band_id=828" id="3709&band_id=828">haughty melodic</a></li>
<li>ordered tickets to see him play the <a href="http://rivoli.ca/">rivoli</a> in Toronto in May.</li>
<li>not to mention, i'm in the top 20 for "<a href="http://www.audioscrobbler.com/music/Mike+Doughty">mike doughty fans</a>" over at <a href="http://www.audioscrobbler.com/">audioscrobbler</a> (he's my #2 on my top artists list).</li>
</ul><p>
<a href="http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1.JPG" onclick="window.open('http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1.JPG','popup','width=2048,height=1536,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/IMG_0017_1-tm.jpg" height="100" width="133" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="bustin up a starbux" title="bustin up a starbux" class="right" /></a>yep. it scares me too. but the worst part, is when i was <a href="http://walkah.net/node/142">in paris</a> recently, my brother and i walked by a starbux that had it's front window smashed and the *first* thing i thought was "bustin' up a starbux". but, wait... it gets worse. i actually took this picture and emailed him!! worse, though... i never got a response :( though, i can't blame him. i wouldn't respond to me either.
</p><p>
i'm not totally sure what's gotten into me. perhaps it's too much time alone in the basement. but mike - if you're reading (and I'm *sure* you are) - I'll see you in May and keep on rockin'.
</p>

12
_posts/2005-04-20-praying-to-druplicon.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/praying-to-druplicon
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>
so after months of slaving away on the vectors, <a href="http://www.acko.net/" title="Steven Wittens a.k.a. UnConeD">Steven</a> has finally dressed up <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/albums/drupal-conference-2005/1/" title="James Walker praying to druplicon">Dries' photo</a> of me from DrupalCon to look something like this:
</p><p>
<a href="http://walkah.net/files/walah.png" onclick="window.open('http://walkah.net/files/walah.png','popup','width=650,height=500,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/walah-tm.jpg" height="200" width="260" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Walah" /></a>
</p><p>
i don't know about you... but it made me laugh. looks like i've got a new avatar ;)
<p>
so after months of slaving away on the vectors, <a href="http://www.acko.net/" title="Steven Wittens a.k.a. UnConeD">Steven</a> has finally dressed up <a href="http://www.buytaert.net/albums/drupal-conference-2005/1/" title="James Walker praying to druplicon">Dries' photo</a> of me from DrupalCon to look something like this:
</p><p>
<a href="http://walkah.net/files/walah.png" onclick="window.open('http://walkah.net/files/walah.png','popup','width=650,height=500,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=yes,left=0,top=0');return false"><img src="http://walkah.net/files/walah-tm.jpg" height="200" width="260" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Walah" /></a>
</p><p>
i don't know about you... but it made me laugh. looks like i've got a new avatar ;)
</p>

16
_posts/2005-04-21-netjuke-jinzora.md
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@ -7,12 +7,12 @@ tags:
- music
- netjuke
---
<p>
as was made public yesterday on <a href="http://netjuke.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">both</a> <a href="http://www.jinzora.org/pages.php?pn=overview&sub=inthenews&id=8">sites</a>, the <a href="http://netjuke.org/" title="Netjuke : streaming media">netjuke</a> and <a href="http://www.jinzora.org/" title="Jinzora">jinzora</a> projects have decided to merge - to create what I think will be the ultimate in web-based jukebox / music management software.
</p><p>
those of you playing along at home know that I've been involved in the netjuke project for a while now - and there hasn't been much by way of news to report. like several free software projects, we've suffered from lack of resources. basically, the team has consisted of three of us - two of us are always swamped with work, and the other is a full time student. this means, that while we have great ideas and vision of what something like netjuke2 could be - we've spent a long time not really getting as far as we'd like.
</p><p>
in comes jinzora, a project that is making headway much more rapidly. while consisting principally of only two people - they each have far more time to devote to the project - and it shows.
</p><p>
so, I had a brief <a href="http://www.skype.com/">skype</a> call with <a href="http://www.jasbone.com/">Ross Carlson</a> (lead from the jinzora prjoect) yesterday for introductions, etc. and i must say i'm pretty psyched. this should give me a chance to (in my copious spare time) get some of my ideas actually implemented and unleashed on the world. stay tuned :)
<p>
as was made public yesterday on <a href="http://netjuke.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=50&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">both</a> <a href="http://www.jinzora.org/pages.php?pn=overview&sub=inthenews&id=8">sites</a>, the <a href="http://netjuke.org/" title="Netjuke : streaming media">netjuke</a> and <a href="http://www.jinzora.org/" title="Jinzora">jinzora</a> projects have decided to merge - to create what I think will be the ultimate in web-based jukebox / music management software.
</p><p>
those of you playing along at home know that I've been involved in the netjuke project for a while now - and there hasn't been much by way of news to report. like several free software projects, we've suffered from lack of resources. basically, the team has consisted of three of us - two of us are always swamped with work, and the other is a full time student. this means, that while we have great ideas and vision of what something like netjuke2 could be - we've spent a long time not really getting as far as we'd like.
</p><p>
in comes jinzora, a project that is making headway much more rapidly. while consisting principally of only two people - they each have far more time to devote to the project - and it shows.
</p><p>
so, I had a brief <a href="http://www.skype.com/">skype</a> call with <a href="http://www.jasbone.com/">Ross Carlson</a> (lead from the jinzora prjoect) yesterday for introductions, etc. and i must say i'm pretty psyched. this should give me a chance to (in my copious spare time) get some of my ideas actually implemented and unleashed on the world. stay tuned :)
</p>

8
_posts/2005-04-25-new-ecto.md
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@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ tags:
- geek
- mac os x
---
<p>
congrats to adriaan on the <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001365.php">new ecto release</a>! 2.3 is pretty sweet looking and i love the new icons (i've always been a sucker for eye candy). there are also iPhoto , iTunes and Amazon buttons in the toolbar, for easy access.
</p><p>
not exactly a full review, but a quick first impression is two thumbs up! :)
<p>
congrats to adriaan on the <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/001365.php">new ecto release</a>! 2.3 is pretty sweet looking and i love the new icons (i've always been a sucker for eye candy). there are also iPhoto , iTunes and Amazon buttons in the toolbar, for easy access.
</p><p>
not exactly a full review, but a quick first impression is two thumbs up! :)
</p>

12
_posts/2005-04-27-upcoming-org-rocks.md
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@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ tags:
- upcoming
- webservice
---
<p>
finally spent a little time another one of those "gotta have" social-y sites to emerge over the past : <a href="http://www.upcoming.org/" title="upcoming events">upcoming.org</a> . i gotta say, i love it. it's got all the "must have" parts for today's sites : a <a href="http://upcoming.org/services/api/" title="upcoming api">RESTful API</a>, event <a href="http://upcoming.org/tag/" title="upcoming tags">tagging</a> and of course <a href="http://upcoming.org/friend/" title="Upcoming friends">buddy lists</a> (man, those <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/" title="FOAF project">FOAF</a> guys might be on to something). I also dig that they've got iCal feeds too.
</p><p>
For those of you just in it to stalk me ... my page is <a href="http://upcoming.org/user/13655/" title="James Walker on upcoming">here</a> . Oh, and because I can't get through a post without it, there is (of course) already a <a href="http://hybernaut.com/upcoming-module">drupal module</a> in the works. I'll be checking that out for sure (but, of course if I enable it here - everyone will know how infrequently I leave the house).
</p><p>
oh, and... i just *had* to add the <a href="http://upcoming.org/event/18322/" title="Mike Doughty at the Rivoli">mike doughty show</a>. ;)
<p>
finally spent a little time another one of those "gotta have" social-y sites to emerge over the past : <a href="http://www.upcoming.org/" title="upcoming events">upcoming.org</a> . i gotta say, i love it. it's got all the "must have" parts for today's sites : a <a href="http://upcoming.org/services/api/" title="upcoming api">RESTful API</a>, event <a href="http://upcoming.org/tag/" title="upcoming tags">tagging</a> and of course <a href="http://upcoming.org/friend/" title="Upcoming friends">buddy lists</a> (man, those <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/" title="FOAF project">FOAF</a> guys might be on to something). I also dig that they've got iCal feeds too.
</p><p>
For those of you just in it to stalk me ... my page is <a href="http://upcoming.org/user/13655/" title="James Walker on upcoming">here</a> . Oh, and because I can't get through a post without it, there is (of course) already a <a href="http://hybernaut.com/upcoming-module">drupal module</a> in the works. I'll be checking that out for sure (but, of course if I enable it here - everyone will know how infrequently I leave the house).
</p><p>
oh, and... i just *had* to add the <a href="http://upcoming.org/event/18322/" title="Mike Doughty at the Rivoli">mike doughty show</a>. ;)
</p>

16
_posts/2005-05-09-adding-a-family-member.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/adding-a-family-member
tags:
- family
---
<p>
haven't done a "family" post in a while... but it looks like our four is soon to be five. we've spent a long time talking about it and mulling it over, but it looks like we're gonna get a dog. the kids are *really* eager to get a pet, and camryn spends a lot of time to be a dog.
</p><p>
after lots of reading, and emails to breeders we've settled on a breed (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizsla" title="vizslas">vizsla</a>) and looks like we may even have found a breeder. so saturday, we drove out to rockwood ontario to meet the newborn (2 week old) puppies. here's our current favourite (temporarily known as "blue"):
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/319211/" title="vizslas on flickr"><img src="http://photos11.flickr.com/13129480_2345a5d935_m.jpg" alt="vizsla puppy" /></a>
</p><p>
um, yeah, they're cute. like *real* cute.
<p>
haven't done a "family" post in a while... but it looks like our four is soon to be five. we've spent a long time talking about it and mulling it over, but it looks like we're gonna get a dog. the kids are *really* eager to get a pet, and camryn spends a lot of time to be a dog.
</p><p>
after lots of reading, and emails to breeders we've settled on a breed (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizsla" title="vizslas">vizsla</a>) and looks like we may even have found a breeder. so saturday, we drove out to rockwood ontario to meet the newborn (2 week old) puppies. here's our current favourite (temporarily known as "blue"):
</p><p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/319211/" title="vizslas on flickr"><img src="http://photos11.flickr.com/13129480_2345a5d935_m.jpg" alt="vizsla puppy" /></a>
</p><p>
um, yeah, they're cute. like *real* cute.
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/vizsla" rel="tag">vizsla</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/puppy" rel="tag">puppy</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

16
_posts/2005-05-10-itms-does-video.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/itms-does-video
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>
So, it looks like <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1062" id="1062">the rumours</a> that started yesterday about <a href="http://www.apple.com/">apple</a>'s latest version of iTunes ( 4.8 ) supporting video <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/05/20050509215340.shtml">are true. </a> Apple's iTunes Music Store is now selling videos (as well as music). But here's the best part (from <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/05/20050509215340.shtml">macrumors.com </a>):
</p><blockquote>
These videos are simply animated shorts rather than music videos - and in this particular instance - do not utilize any Digital Rights Management.
</blockquote><p>
One would have to think that this is a first step in a move toward distributing movies, etc, via iTunes - which makes the often rumoured 'iHome' machine look much more probable.
</p><p>
It's also one more reason for me to re-consider picking up a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini/">mac mini</a> for the living room. I've sold Sandi on the beauty of <a href="http://www.btefnet.net/">tv torrents</a> - but the dance i do to hook my powerbook up to the TV is less than ideal, and means that my powerbook has to be available.... ah, if only money grew on trees.
<p>
So, it looks like <a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1062" id="1062">the rumours</a> that started yesterday about <a href="http://www.apple.com/">apple</a>'s latest version of iTunes ( 4.8 ) supporting video <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/05/20050509215340.shtml">are true. </a> Apple's iTunes Music Store is now selling videos (as well as music). But here's the best part (from <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/05/20050509215340.shtml">macrumors.com </a>):
</p><blockquote>
These videos are simply animated shorts rather than music videos - and in this particular instance - do not utilize any Digital Rights Management.
</blockquote><p>
One would have to think that this is a first step in a move toward distributing movies, etc, via iTunes - which makes the often rumoured 'iHome' machine look much more probable.
</p><p>
It's also one more reason for me to re-consider picking up a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini/">mac mini</a> for the living room. I've sold Sandi on the beauty of <a href="http://www.btefnet.net/">tv torrents</a> - but the dance i do to hook my powerbook up to the TV is less than ideal, and means that my powerbook has to be available.... ah, if only money grew on trees.
</p>

28
_posts/2005-05-11-doughty-at-the-rivoli.md
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@ -6,18 +6,18 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/doughty-at-the-rivoli
tags:
- music
---
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/13377106/in/set-325018/" title="doughty pictures on flickr"><img src="http://photos10.flickr.com/13377106_8f1ad50805_m.jpg" alt="walkah and doughty" class="right" /></a>
</p><p>
i finally got to satiate the obsession for an evening. that's right, mike doughty was in town last night. i was there, i got the t-shirt - it's a nice t-shirt too.
</p><p>
i must say, the concert rocked. i really like his solo guitar sound - and the stage banter. it's *all* about the stage banter. <a href="http://rivoli.ca/2003/">the rivoli</a> turned out to be a great venue too - very cozy - and i was right in the front row (like a good fan boy should be).
<br />
<br />the show was quite a bit different from when he was here last year (at lee's palace), most notably with the addition of "handsome dan chen" (his toronto-native keyboard player). but he also didn't do a lot of the "usual" stuff - no firetruck, no janine, no loud and obnoxious sing-along. that said, there were plenty of highlights - from opening with "bustin' up a starbux" to "st. louise is listening" in the encore - and all the "victory" in between.
</p><p>
i had a blast. check the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/325018/">pics on flickr</a> ... i also have almost 30 seconds of video (just shot with my canon sd200) of the pre-chorus from bustin' up a starbux that i'll try and get online at somepoint. (perhaps on <a href="http://ourmedia.org/">ourmedia</a>?).
</p><p>
to sum it up: small rock (or medium rock) ... well.... rocks :)
</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> mike just posted his recap of the toronto show <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/archives/000196.html">on his blog</a> ... anyone recognize the guy in the front left corner of the 2nd picture? ;)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/13377106/in/set-325018/" title="doughty pictures on flickr"><img src="http://photos10.flickr.com/13377106_8f1ad50805_m.jpg" alt="walkah and doughty" class="right" /></a>
</p><p>
i finally got to satiate the obsession for an evening. that's right, mike doughty was in town last night. i was there, i got the t-shirt - it's a nice t-shirt too.
</p><p>
i must say, the concert rocked. i really like his solo guitar sound - and the stage banter. it's *all* about the stage banter. <a href="http://rivoli.ca/2003/">the rivoli</a> turned out to be a great venue too - very cozy - and i was right in the front row (like a good fan boy should be).
<br />
<br />the show was quite a bit different from when he was here last year (at lee's palace), most notably with the addition of "handsome dan chen" (his toronto-native keyboard player). but he also didn't do a lot of the "usual" stuff - no firetruck, no janine, no loud and obnoxious sing-along. that said, there were plenty of highlights - from opening with "bustin' up a starbux" to "st. louise is listening" in the encore - and all the "victory" in between.
</p><p>
i had a blast. check the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/325018/">pics on flickr</a> ... i also have almost 30 seconds of video (just shot with my canon sd200) of the pre-chorus from bustin' up a starbux that i'll try and get online at somepoint. (perhaps on <a href="http://ourmedia.org/">ourmedia</a>?).
</p><p>
to sum it up: small rock (or medium rock) ... well.... rocks :)
</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> mike just posted his recap of the toronto show <a href="http://www.mikedoughty.com/blog/archives/000196.html">on his blog</a> ... anyone recognize the guy in the front left corner of the 2nd picture? ;)</p>
<!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/toronto" rel="tag">toronto</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/concert" rel="tag">concert</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/music" rel="tag">music</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/doughty" rel="tag">doughty</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

24
_posts/2005-05-13-lucky-friday-13.md
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@ -6,16 +6,16 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/lucky-friday-13
tags:
- geek
---
<p>
wow. *that* was close.
</p><p>
nobody else probably noticed - but the machine that this site (along with all my email) is hosted on, spent nearly 12 hours offline. what's worse, is that one of our cars has been in the shop since Monday (with an undiagnosed "engine light" issue) - so I couldn't head downtown to the co-lo facility to check it out myself. so, i had to sit and wait (and sweat)...
</p><p>
happy friday the 13th :(
</p><p>
why was I sweating... well, 'cause I seem to have neglected to backup this little server for ... well... a while. i know, i know... i should know better. and i do. a case of the shoemaker's son, i guess.
</p><p>
anyway, just as i was about to crawl under the bed and spend the rest of the day crying, I saw a blessed ping response from the server. the good folks at <a href="http://www.eicat.ca/">eicat</a> (where this box is hosted) were able to restore the machine. no data loss, life is good.
</p><p>
all is well that ends well - and there's a good lesson here: back up your stuff, stupid (BUYSS ?)
<p>
wow. *that* was close.
</p><p>
nobody else probably noticed - but the machine that this site (along with all my email) is hosted on, spent nearly 12 hours offline. what's worse, is that one of our cars has been in the shop since Monday (with an undiagnosed "engine light" issue) - so I couldn't head downtown to the co-lo facility to check it out myself. so, i had to sit and wait (and sweat)...
</p><p>
happy friday the 13th :(
</p><p>
why was I sweating... well, 'cause I seem to have neglected to backup this little server for ... well... a while. i know, i know... i should know better. and i do. a case of the shoemaker's son, i guess.
</p><p>
anyway, just as i was about to crawl under the bed and spend the rest of the day crying, I saw a blessed ping response from the server. the good folks at <a href="http://www.eicat.ca/">eicat</a> (where this box is hosted) were able to restore the machine. no data loss, life is good.
</p><p>
all is well that ends well - and there's a good lesson here: back up your stuff, stupid (BUYSS ?)
</p>

14
_posts/2005-05-22-apple-store-yorkdale-first-in-canada.md
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@ -7,11 +7,11 @@ tags:
- geek
- mac os x
---
<p>
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/366639/"><img src="http://photos13.flickr.com/15198862_b0485c376d_m.jpg" alt="apple store yorkdale opening day" class="right" /></a> i don't know how he did it, but <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/" title="Boris Mann">boris</a> managed to sneak away and <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1481">blog this already</a>... but it's true. canada now has an apple store, and Boris and I made it to the grand opening (see <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/366639/" title="Apple Store pictures on flickr">my pictures</a>).
</p><p>
we didn't line up at 3am, nor were we amongst the lucky first 1500 customers (who each received a free t-shirt). in fact, we weren't even there until after lunch - and still we had to wait in line. once inside - the hot, sweaty, *very* crowded inside - we were indeed overwhelmed by the need to buy something! problem is... my apple toy collection is rather complete (EXCEPT FOR A G5). so, i grabbed a car-charger for my iPod (which I've "needed" for a while) and decided to work on pulling Sandi deeper into the ghetto (or <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1481#comment-7066">gated community</a> ).
</p><p>
watching sandi with her new iPod was neat : these apple guys really are marketing geniuses. she has yet to plug it in, hasn't even fully taken the plastic off and she loves it. the box is just so damned cool. the whole event was pretty spectacular - i saw very few people walk out empty handed (as I had originally intended to). let's face it : apple is cool. even the *bags* were cool.
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/366639/"><img src="http://photos13.flickr.com/15198862_b0485c376d_m.jpg" alt="apple store yorkdale opening day" class="right" /></a> i don't know how he did it, but <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/" title="Boris Mann">boris</a> managed to sneak away and <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1481">blog this already</a>... but it's true. canada now has an apple store, and Boris and I made it to the grand opening (see <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/sets/366639/" title="Apple Store pictures on flickr">my pictures</a>).
</p><p>
we didn't line up at 3am, nor were we amongst the lucky first 1500 customers (who each received a free t-shirt). in fact, we weren't even there until after lunch - and still we had to wait in line. once inside - the hot, sweaty, *very* crowded inside - we were indeed overwhelmed by the need to buy something! problem is... my apple toy collection is rather complete (EXCEPT FOR A G5). so, i grabbed a car-charger for my iPod (which I've "needed" for a while) and decided to work on pulling Sandi deeper into the ghetto (or <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1481#comment-7066">gated community</a> ).
</p><p>
watching sandi with her new iPod was neat : these apple guys really are marketing geniuses. she has yet to plug it in, hasn't even fully taken the plastic off and she loves it. the box is just so damned cool. the whole event was pretty spectacular - i saw very few people walk out empty handed (as I had originally intended to). let's face it : apple is cool. even the *bags* were cool.
</p>
<p>here's one thing though... <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/15198197/in/set-366639/">the flyer</a> mentions that you can subscribe to an iCal feed for in store events from <a href="http://www.apple.com/ca/retail/yorkdale/">the yorkdale page</a> on apple.com. I sure don't see a link... anyone else?</p> <!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/apple" rel="tag">apple</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mac" rel="tag">mac</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/toronto" rel="tag">toronto</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

24
_posts/2005-05-26-growl-0-7-why-i-love-notification.md
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@ -6,16 +6,16 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/growl-0-7-why-i-love-notification
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>
the longer I go using my powerbook as my primary (only) desktop machine, the deeper certain things become ingrained in my daily routines. one big example is <a href="http://growl.info/" title="growl homepage">growl</a>. so, in honour of the latest release (0.7) i thought i'd publicly exclaim just how much i like having growl.
</p><p>
for those that haven't tasted this particular kool-aid: growl provides a framework so that applications (on Mac OS X) can create little popups when "things happen". so, some examples are : when the song changes in <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/" title="Apple iTunes">iTunes</a>, new mail arrives, or someone says something in <a href="http://www.apple.com/ichat/">iChat</a> or <a href="http://www.adiumx.com/">Adium</a>.
</p><p>
the interesting thing is that human brains are *really* good at recognizing patterns, and determining (almost instantly) relative importance. so, without really looking up from the code, email or blog entry i'm currently writing, i can stay on top of other things going on - without having to switch applications, etc.
</p><p>
for example: i'm currently writing a blog post, and without changing apps (or even pausing) i can see that iTunes just changed - to "About A Girl" by Nirvana, and that <a href="http://daemon.co.za/">Adrian</a> wants to get a <a href="http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.aspx" title="Sony Playstation Portable">sony psp</a>, eventually.
</p><p>
some people might find it distracting, but it's amazing how quickly your mind and eyes become trained to find the important things. that's where growl's ability to re-style messages on a per-application basis comes in handy. i use the "music video" style for iTunes changes (which shows track information along the bottom) vs. new mail notification using the "bezel" style. so - without even reading anything, i know based on where a notification appeared whether it's low importance (song change) or worth glancing at (new mail).
</p><p>
just one of those things that makes me more productive... i suppose at some point i should do a more complete post on my "essential" apps... another time.
<p>
the longer I go using my powerbook as my primary (only) desktop machine, the deeper certain things become ingrained in my daily routines. one big example is <a href="http://growl.info/" title="growl homepage">growl</a>. so, in honour of the latest release (0.7) i thought i'd publicly exclaim just how much i like having growl.
</p><p>
for those that haven't tasted this particular kool-aid: growl provides a framework so that applications (on Mac OS X) can create little popups when "things happen". so, some examples are : when the song changes in <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/" title="Apple iTunes">iTunes</a>, new mail arrives, or someone says something in <a href="http://www.apple.com/ichat/">iChat</a> or <a href="http://www.adiumx.com/">Adium</a>.
</p><p>
the interesting thing is that human brains are *really* good at recognizing patterns, and determining (almost instantly) relative importance. so, without really looking up from the code, email or blog entry i'm currently writing, i can stay on top of other things going on - without having to switch applications, etc.
</p><p>
for example: i'm currently writing a blog post, and without changing apps (or even pausing) i can see that iTunes just changed - to "About A Girl" by Nirvana, and that <a href="http://daemon.co.za/">Adrian</a> wants to get a <a href="http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.aspx" title="Sony Playstation Portable">sony psp</a>, eventually.
</p><p>
some people might find it distracting, but it's amazing how quickly your mind and eyes become trained to find the important things. that's where growl's ability to re-style messages on a per-application basis comes in handy. i use the "music video" style for iTunes changes (which shows track information along the bottom) vs. new mail notification using the "bezel" style. so - without even reading anything, i know based on where a notification appeared whether it's low importance (song change) or worth glancing at (new mail).
</p><p>
just one of those things that makes me more productive... i suppose at some point i should do a more complete post on my "essential" apps... another time.
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/growl" rel="tag">growl</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/osx" rel="tag">osx</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/essential" rel="tag">essential</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

20
_posts/2005-05-27-strongbad-parenting.md
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@ -7,14 +7,14 @@ tags:
- family
- geek
---
<p>
been a while since i've done a 'family' post... so much happens, that i need to either write a novel here or just gloss over it for the nuggets that might have mass-web appeal. so here's one:
</p><p>
when <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/">the Boris</a> was in town last weekend, he got sucked into doing chalk drawings on the driveway (one of camryn's favourite pastimes). after running out of things - he ended up doing a drawing of <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html">trogdor, the burninator</a>. (those of you who don't know <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html">strongbad</a> are missing a seriously important part of the internet).
</p><p>
well, andrew thought "trodgor" was hilarious - and has been drawing an "S" followed by a "more different 'S'" ever since. here's his latest:
</p><p>
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/16006791/" title="trogdor on flickr"><img src="http://photos10.flickr.com/16006791_8a6c566e57_m.jpg" alt="trogdor the burninator" /></a>
<br />
<br />the cutest part was definitely "dad, how do you spell 'burninator'?". for whatever reason, the drawings of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger">ligers</a> didn't catch on in the same way...
<p>
been a while since i've done a 'family' post... so much happens, that i need to either write a novel here or just gloss over it for the nuggets that might have mass-web appeal. so here's one:
</p><p>
when <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/">the Boris</a> was in town last weekend, he got sucked into doing chalk drawings on the driveway (one of camryn's favourite pastimes). after running out of things - he ended up doing a drawing of <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail58.html">trogdor, the burninator</a>. (those of you who don't know <a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html">strongbad</a> are missing a seriously important part of the internet).
</p><p>
well, andrew thought "trodgor" was hilarious - and has been drawing an "S" followed by a "more different 'S'" ever since. here's his latest:
</p><p>
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/walkah/16006791/" title="trogdor on flickr"><img src="http://photos10.flickr.com/16006791_8a6c566e57_m.jpg" alt="trogdor the burninator" /></a>
<br />
<br />the cutest part was definitely "dad, how do you spell 'burninator'?". for whatever reason, the drawings of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liger">ligers</a> didn't catch on in the same way...
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/strongbad" rel="tag">strongbad</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/andrew" rel="tag">andrew</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/trogdor" rel="tag">trogdor</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/drawing" rel="tag">drawing</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

12
_posts/2005-06-01-ah-slashdot.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/ah-slashdot
tags:
- geek
---
<p>
someone *please* explain to me why "<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/01/2043242">Longhorn Drops 'My' Prefixes</a>" is frontpage news...
</p><p>
i mean, it's one thing that <a href="http://slashdot.org/">slashdot</a> doesn't do full-post RSS feeds or that they strip out all links (trying to eek every last advertising dollar). but, lately every post on slashdot worth reading is already in my <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire">aggregator-of-the-week</a> (as a full post, usually). and now.... now i come home to this? what, am i to expect intriguing discussion in the comments?
</p><p>
sorry slashdot, it's been a fun ride...
<p>
someone *please* explain to me why "<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/01/2043242">Longhorn Drops 'My' Prefixes</a>" is frontpage news...
</p><p>
i mean, it's one thing that <a href="http://slashdot.org/">slashdot</a> doesn't do full-post RSS feeds or that they strip out all links (trying to eek every last advertising dollar). but, lately every post on slashdot worth reading is already in my <a href="http://ranchero.com/netnewswire">aggregator-of-the-week</a> (as a full post, usually). and now.... now i come home to this? what, am i to expect intriguing discussion in the comments?
</p><p>
sorry slashdot, it's been a fun ride...
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/slashdot" rel="tag">slashdot</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/windows" rel="tag">windows</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/who cares" rel="tag">who cares</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

16
_posts/2005-06-11-pretzels-beer-and-mouth-pockets.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/pretzels-beer-and-mouth-pockets
tags: []
---
<p>
just a quick update from stuttgart to say things are going quite well here. so far we've met some really great people in <a href="http://www.ilabra.org/" title="Ivan Labra">Ivan</a> and <a href="http://www.exposur3.com/" title="Chris Rynearson">Chris</a> , and the work-related aspects have been going exceptionally well (see <a href="http://www.bryght.com/blog/boris-mann/open-source-in-stuttgart" title="Boris on bryght.com">Boris' post</a> for some more details).
</p><p>
although we've been keeping fairly crazy hours, and eating sporadically we have had some very good meals. german food (at least what I've been exposed to) seems to consist of beer, meat, cheese and pretzels. i've also been exposed to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/18752876/" title="mouth pockets">maultaschen</a> (which literally translates to "mouth pockets").
</p><p>
in a really nice departure from my last two trips (to <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/back-from-belgium">belgium</a> and <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/php-quebec-conference-recap">montreal</a>), i actually got a chance to do a bit of sight-seeing today. thanks in very large part to <a href="http://bmannconsulting.com/" title="the boris mann">Boris'</a> relatives Manfred and Gertrud here in Stuttgart, I got to get out and see some things and take some pictures.
</p><p>
keep an eye on my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/tags/stuttgart/" title="walkah stuttgart pictures">stuttgart tag</a> (at flickr) for all the pictures.
<p>
just a quick update from stuttgart to say things are going quite well here. so far we've met some really great people in <a href="http://www.ilabra.org/" title="Ivan Labra">Ivan</a> and <a href="http://www.exposur3.com/" title="Chris Rynearson">Chris</a> , and the work-related aspects have been going exceptionally well (see <a href="http://www.bryght.com/blog/boris-mann/open-source-in-stuttgart" title="Boris on bryght.com">Boris' post</a> for some more details).
</p><p>
although we've been keeping fairly crazy hours, and eating sporadically we have had some very good meals. german food (at least what I've been exposed to) seems to consist of beer, meat, cheese and pretzels. i've also been exposed to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/18752876/" title="mouth pockets">maultaschen</a> (which literally translates to "mouth pockets").
</p><p>
in a really nice departure from my last two trips (to <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/back-from-belgium">belgium</a> and <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/php-quebec-conference-recap">montreal</a>), i actually got a chance to do a bit of sight-seeing today. thanks in very large part to <a href="http://bmannconsulting.com/" title="the boris mann">Boris'</a> relatives Manfred and Gertrud here in Stuttgart, I got to get out and see some things and take some pictures.
</p><p>
keep an eye on my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/tags/stuttgart/" title="walkah stuttgart pictures">stuttgart tag</a> (at flickr) for all the pictures.
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/germany" rel="tag">germany</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/stuttgart" rel="tag">stuttgart</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

16
_posts/2005-06-11-wirelesstoronto.md
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@ -7,12 +7,12 @@ tags:
- geek
- drupal
---
<p>
poking through my unread email, i noticed that the <a href="http://www.wirelesstoronto.ca/">wireless toronto</a> project finally launched a website. i was hoping to make a bit more noise about the fact that they were using <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="Drupal Content Management Platform">drupal</a> - but it looks like that is just for the <a href="http://dev.wirelesstoronto.ca/">"dev" site</a>.
</p><p>
my involvement with wireless toronto (like so many great projects) has been virtually none- and really there's a long list of circumstances (including beers with a <a href="http://www.stevesgallery.com/" title="Steve Mansour">couple</a> <a href="http://bopuc.levendis.com/weblog/" title="Boris Anthony">people</a> in Montreal) behind my even being aware of the project.
</p><p>
however, there are some great local people involved in the project, and community wifi access happens to be something I personally have some interest in (despite not actually living *in* Toronto). so, if you're in the area check them out.
</p><p>
i've also had some *very* preliminary talks about working on something akin to <a href="http://www.ilesansfil.org/wiki/WiFiDog/ContentDistributionSystem">WiFiDog</a> based on drupal - more later if anything comes of that.
<p>
poking through my unread email, i noticed that the <a href="http://www.wirelesstoronto.ca/">wireless toronto</a> project finally launched a website. i was hoping to make a bit more noise about the fact that they were using <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="Drupal Content Management Platform">drupal</a> - but it looks like that is just for the <a href="http://dev.wirelesstoronto.ca/">"dev" site</a>.
</p><p>
my involvement with wireless toronto (like so many great projects) has been virtually none- and really there's a long list of circumstances (including beers with a <a href="http://www.stevesgallery.com/" title="Steve Mansour">couple</a> <a href="http://bopuc.levendis.com/weblog/" title="Boris Anthony">people</a> in Montreal) behind my even being aware of the project.
</p><p>
however, there are some great local people involved in the project, and community wifi access happens to be something I personally have some interest in (despite not actually living *in* Toronto). so, if you're in the area check them out.
</p><p>
i've also had some *very* preliminary talks about working on something akin to <a href="http://www.ilesansfil.org/wiki/WiFiDog/ContentDistributionSystem">WiFiDog</a> based on drupal - more later if anything comes of that.
</p><!-- technorati tags start --><p class="technorati">tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/drupal" rel="tag">drupal</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/toronto" rel="tag">toronto</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/wifi" rel="tag">wifi</a></p><!-- technorati tags end -->

12
_posts/2005-06-28-itunes-phone.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/itunes-phone
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>
while there are a couple other posts I've been meaning to do lately... this little snippet caught my eye and has me all excited this morning. from <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/06/20050628065508.shtml">macrumors.com</a>:
</p><blockquote>
MacRumors confirms that iTunes 4.9 includes messages such as "Phone Preferences", "Configure Phone", and "iPod Phone Prefs".
</blockquote><p>
iTunes 4.9 is currently downloading to my powerbook... and I think I have a new birthday wish (if only it gets released on time...)
<p>
while there are a couple other posts I've been meaning to do lately... this little snippet caught my eye and has me all excited this morning. from <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/06/20050628065508.shtml">macrumors.com</a>:
</p><blockquote>
MacRumors confirms that iTunes 4.9 includes messages such as "Phone Preferences", "Configure Phone", and "iPod Phone Prefs".
</blockquote><p>
iTunes 4.9 is currently downloading to my powerbook... and I think I have a new birthday wish (if only it gets released on time...)
</p>

16
_posts/2005-08-16-spontaneity.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/spontaneity
tags:
- family
---
<p>
do you know where walkah is right now? chances are you probably don't that's 'cause late last week, Sandi and I decided to head back to my mom's place in <a href="http://www.rockportusa.com/">rockport, MA</a>. why? well, kinda just 'cause we can. we were without obligations for the week at home, and feeling like we hadn't quite gotten enough R&#38;R. So we boarded mango (oh yeah, did i mention we have a puppy?) and hopped in the car on Sunday.
</p><p>
spontaneous? well, not so much i guess. we spent a couple days preparing and arranging. i think mostly it's a testament to how bad we've been at "just doing stuff" as a family, but this is as close as we've gotten in a lot of years - something we need to change.
</p><p>
the more interesting part is that - without my explicitly saying anything - none of my co-workers / clients / etc. have any way to tell. i'm still in the same time zone, and i have a reliable internet connection. add in my powerbook and cell phone - and my office location is really irrelevant.
</p><p>
the coolest part? this office has windows and is a 3 minute walk to the beach :)
<p>
do you know where walkah is right now? chances are you probably don't that's 'cause late last week, Sandi and I decided to head back to my mom's place in <a href="http://www.rockportusa.com/">rockport, MA</a>. why? well, kinda just 'cause we can. we were without obligations for the week at home, and feeling like we hadn't quite gotten enough R&#38;R. So we boarded mango (oh yeah, did i mention we have a puppy?) and hopped in the car on Sunday.
</p><p>
spontaneous? well, not so much i guess. we spent a couple days preparing and arranging. i think mostly it's a testament to how bad we've been at "just doing stuff" as a family, but this is as close as we've gotten in a lot of years - something we need to change.
</p><p>
the more interesting part is that - without my explicitly saying anything - none of my co-workers / clients / etc. have any way to tell. i'm still in the same time zone, and i have a reliable internet connection. add in my powerbook and cell phone - and my office location is really irrelevant.
</p><p>
the coolest part? this office has windows and is a 3 minute walk to the beach :)
</p>

24
_posts/2005-08-24-talk-google-com.md
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@ -6,16 +6,16 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/talk-google-com
tags:
- jabber
---
<p>
WOW! so, <a href="http://thousandrobots.com/blog/archives/2005/08/using_googles_n.php">it's true</a>! there have been various rumblings <a href="http://gigaom.com/2005/08/22/here-comes-google-voice/">around</a> the <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/23/1313229&amp;tid=217" id="05/08/23/1313229&amp;tid=217">web</a>, but I just in fact was able to log on to talk.google.com using my gmail account info via <a href="http://www.adiumx.com" title="Adiumx - OSX IM client">adium</a>.
</p><p>
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/talk-google-com-online.jpg" height="37" width="552" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="talk.google.com online" title="talk.google.com online" />
</p><p>
what am i talking about? well, for those of you who don't know, the <a href="http://www.jabber.org/">jabber project</a> has been around for several years offering an *open* protocol for instant messaging (amongst other things). i've followed the project for quite a few years now - pretty sure that it was something special. not to take anything away from apple - who's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/">ichat av</a> supports jabber natively as of tiger - but i have a feeling that google's adoption may well be the biggest thing to happen for "consumer jabber". the best part (from my early stance) is that it's actually open, "true" jabber, i can connect with my standard drupal client - no vendor lock-in (although we can presume that google will distribute their own client, no?)
</p><p>
it's all coming at a pretty interesting time since i've been doing a fair bit of tinkering with jabber again lately (yes, it involved <a href="http://drupal.org" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a> and <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1538">yes, boris</a> i will release it real soon now). what's more, while in Portland (for OSCON) i actually got to meet two of the "big names" from the jabber foundation (namely <a href="http://www.saint-andre.com/blog/">peter saint-andre</a> and <a href="http://dizzyd.com/blog/">dave "dizzyd" smith</a>) who were interested in drupal albeit for other reasons, hopefully more on that later.</p><p>
looks like these "open standards", "free software" folks might be on to something...
</p>
<p>
<strong>UPDATE:</strong> and <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/">the google talk site</a> is now live. very cool
<p>
WOW! so, <a href="http://thousandrobots.com/blog/archives/2005/08/using_googles_n.php">it's true</a>! there have been various rumblings <a href="http://gigaom.com/2005/08/22/here-comes-google-voice/">around</a> the <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/23/1313229&amp;tid=217" id="05/08/23/1313229&amp;tid=217">web</a>, but I just in fact was able to log on to talk.google.com using my gmail account info via <a href="http://www.adiumx.com" title="Adiumx - OSX IM client">adium</a>.
</p><p>
<img src="http://walkah.net/files/talk-google-com-online.jpg" height="37" width="552" border="0" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="talk.google.com online" title="talk.google.com online" />
</p><p>
what am i talking about? well, for those of you who don't know, the <a href="http://www.jabber.org/">jabber project</a> has been around for several years offering an *open* protocol for instant messaging (amongst other things). i've followed the project for quite a few years now - pretty sure that it was something special. not to take anything away from apple - who's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/">ichat av</a> supports jabber natively as of tiger - but i have a feeling that google's adoption may well be the biggest thing to happen for "consumer jabber". the best part (from my early stance) is that it's actually open, "true" jabber, i can connect with my standard drupal client - no vendor lock-in (although we can presume that google will distribute their own client, no?)
</p><p>
it's all coming at a pretty interesting time since i've been doing a fair bit of tinkering with jabber again lately (yes, it involved <a href="http://drupal.org" title="drupal content management platform">drupal</a> and <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1538">yes, boris</a> i will release it real soon now). what's more, while in Portland (for OSCON) i actually got to meet two of the "big names" from the jabber foundation (namely <a href="http://www.saint-andre.com/blog/">peter saint-andre</a> and <a href="http://dizzyd.com/blog/">dave "dizzyd" smith</a>) who were interested in drupal albeit for other reasons, hopefully more on that later.</p><p>
looks like these "open standards", "free software" folks might be on to something...
</p>
<p>
<strong>UPDATE:</strong> and <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/">the google talk site</a> is now live. very cool
</p>

14
_posts/2005-08-29-camryn-is-three.md
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@ -7,10 +7,10 @@ tags:
- family
- camryn
---
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/38225334/" title="camryn is three!"><img class="right" src="http://photos22.flickr.com/38225334_fea68f7be3_m.jpg" alt="camryn" /></a></p>
<p>
unbelievable, my daughter is three years old today - and she's my *baby*! i'm mostly in shock... the baby days are getting further and further behind us. we went out yesterday and ordered her big girl bed, and in a few short days she'll start her parent and tot class at school.
</p>
<p>*sob*</p>
<p>happy birthday, camryn. i love you.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkah/38225334/" title="camryn is three!"><img class="right" src="http://photos22.flickr.com/38225334_fea68f7be3_m.jpg" alt="camryn" /></a></p>
<p>
unbelievable, my daughter is three years old today - and she's my *baby*! i'm mostly in shock... the baby days are getting further and further behind us. we went out yesterday and ordered her big girl bed, and in a few short days she'll start her parent and tot class at school.
</p>
<p>*sob*</p>
<p>happy birthday, camryn. i love you.</p>

12
_posts/2005-08-31-more-drupal-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at.md
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@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/more-drupal-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>it's been an exciting couple of days for new drupal sitings:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.evolt.org/">evolt.org</a> relauned their new site a couple days ago - a project that i knew had been in the works for months. glad to see the covers off! congrats guys.</p>
<p>more shockingly, though, the ever popular <a href="http://www.theonion.com/">onion</a> now appears to be drupal powered as well! anyone who's been online and has a sense of humour has undoubtedly read an onion article or two. </p>
<p>it's been an exciting couple of days for new drupal sitings:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.evolt.org/">evolt.org</a> relauned their new site a couple days ago - a project that i knew had been in the works for months. glad to see the covers off! congrats guys.</p>
<p>more shockingly, though, the ever popular <a href="http://www.theonion.com/">onion</a> now appears to be drupal powered as well! anyone who's been online and has a sense of humour has undoubtedly read an onion article or two. </p>
<p>drupal world domination. here we come.</p>

30
_posts/2005-09-02-a-tale-of-two-macs.md
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@ -7,18 +7,18 @@ tags:
- geek
- mac os x
---
<p>one of the things that happened, oh, around 6 weeks ago that i have yet to blog is the fact that i received a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini">mac mini</a> for my birthday. despite having to return my original as a DOA (which is a longer story, and not the point of this post), i'm really fond of the little machine. i'd been longing for a new desktop machine, but it had to be <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/no-more-linux-desktop" title="no more noisy desktop box">a quiet one</a>. All in all, the mini is an adorable, little-yet-powerful machine (particularly since i do lots of my web development on another box in the closet)- and it's more or less silent.</p>
<p>But, now i use two machines very regularly...</p>
<p>Wait! they're both macs, right? yes, my powerbook and my new mini. so, why not just sign up for <a href="http://www.mac.com/">.Mac</a> and be done with it? well, that's not my style. i've spent *plenty* of money with apple over the past couple years, that wouldn't help with windows or linux, and besides: i'm a geek</p>
<p>so, here's what i really want/need:</p>
<ul>
<li>My <strong>email</strong> in both places. <strong>check</strong>: long ago i switched all my mail to be served via IMAP from my own server.</li>
<li>My <strong>contacts</strong> available everywhere - this sort of works, if you have entered all of your contacts already - because, yes, address book will access your LDAP directory <em>read only</em>.</li>
<li>My <strong>calendar</strong> and (more importantly!) my todos everywhere. here is where the frustration really starts. i really like apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/" title="iCal calendaring">iCal</a>, and you can very nicely publish and subscribe to calendars not only on your .Mac account, but on any WebDAV server. Or so you would think. <strong>wrong</strong> you can publish <strong>or</strong> subscribe. ARGH! are you kidding me? even the alpha-ish <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html" title="sunbird calendar project">mozilla sunbird</a> will 'sync' remote calendars.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sure, there are other things such as syncing my documents and configuration - but I already use CVS (or svn) for some of that, and don't compose many "documents" per se, so those are lesser issues.</p>
<p>my big complaint is that, i really like the mac tools: but apple (and I know you're listening) why are they crippled? are .Mac sales *that* important to you? why no publish <em>and</em> subscribe for iCal on WebDAV? Why can address book search my LDAP directory, but not edit entries in it? Why doesn't LDAP have any way to store "Instant messaging" contact information ? (and yes, i google'd all around about this supposed "IMHandle" in my apple.schema, but I can't make it work)</p>
<p>i'm even talking about homogenous platforms here... I haven't gotten into cross-platform issues (yet).</p>
<p>i want a world in which my "digital life" is ubiquitous. across any platform, or machine, i need "my stuff" - and yes <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">marc</a>, i'm talkin' <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/DLA.htm">Digital Lifestyle Aggregation</a>.</p>
<p>So Apple : I like your apps, and I really like your hardware. You could make me a fan for life if you'd just let people own multiple macs, but use *existing* technologies to let them all work together. You know, something like <a href="http://google.com/talk">google talk</a> allowing any jabber client to play.</p>
<p>needless to say, i'm right in tune with the ideas of a <a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/08/googleos-webos">googleOS/webOS</a>.</p>
<p>one of the things that happened, oh, around 6 weeks ago that i have yet to blog is the fact that i received a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macmini">mac mini</a> for my birthday. despite having to return my original as a DOA (which is a longer story, and not the point of this post), i'm really fond of the little machine. i'd been longing for a new desktop machine, but it had to be <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/no-more-linux-desktop" title="no more noisy desktop box">a quiet one</a>. All in all, the mini is an adorable, little-yet-powerful machine (particularly since i do lots of my web development on another box in the closet)- and it's more or less silent.</p>
<p>But, now i use two machines very regularly...</p>
<p>Wait! they're both macs, right? yes, my powerbook and my new mini. so, why not just sign up for <a href="http://www.mac.com/">.Mac</a> and be done with it? well, that's not my style. i've spent *plenty* of money with apple over the past couple years, that wouldn't help with windows or linux, and besides: i'm a geek</p>
<p>so, here's what i really want/need:</p>
<ul>
<li>My <strong>email</strong> in both places. <strong>check</strong>: long ago i switched all my mail to be served via IMAP from my own server.</li>
<li>My <strong>contacts</strong> available everywhere - this sort of works, if you have entered all of your contacts already - because, yes, address book will access your LDAP directory <em>read only</em>.</li>
<li>My <strong>calendar</strong> and (more importantly!) my todos everywhere. here is where the frustration really starts. i really like apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ical/" title="iCal calendaring">iCal</a>, and you can very nicely publish and subscribe to calendars not only on your .Mac account, but on any WebDAV server. Or so you would think. <strong>wrong</strong> you can publish <strong>or</strong> subscribe. ARGH! are you kidding me? even the alpha-ish <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird.html" title="sunbird calendar project">mozilla sunbird</a> will 'sync' remote calendars.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sure, there are other things such as syncing my documents and configuration - but I already use CVS (or svn) for some of that, and don't compose many "documents" per se, so those are lesser issues.</p>
<p>my big complaint is that, i really like the mac tools: but apple (and I know you're listening) why are they crippled? are .Mac sales *that* important to you? why no publish <em>and</em> subscribe for iCal on WebDAV? Why can address book search my LDAP directory, but not edit entries in it? Why doesn't LDAP have any way to store "Instant messaging" contact information ? (and yes, i google'd all around about this supposed "IMHandle" in my apple.schema, but I can't make it work)</p>
<p>i'm even talking about homogenous platforms here... I haven't gotten into cross-platform issues (yet).</p>
<p>i want a world in which my "digital life" is ubiquitous. across any platform, or machine, i need "my stuff" - and yes <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">marc</a>, i'm talkin' <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/DLA.htm">Digital Lifestyle Aggregation</a>.</p>
<p>So Apple : I like your apps, and I really like your hardware. You could make me a fan for life if you'd just let people own multiple macs, but use *existing* technologies to let them all work together. You know, something like <a href="http://google.com/talk">google talk</a> allowing any jabber client to play.</p>
<p>needless to say, i'm right in tune with the ideas of a <a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/08/googleos-webos">googleOS/webOS</a>.</p>

8
_posts/2005-09-07-rokr-this.md
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@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ tags:
- mac os x
- gadgets
---
<p>the long awaited <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/mobile/" title="Apple mobile itunes">itunes phone</a> was just unveiled - finally. <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1550" title="Boris Mann on the ROKR">boris</a> wonders if we'll be able to use them in Canada (just swap SIM cards? or will they be locked?). I'd hope they're not locked ... but you never know.</p>
<p>I've got to say, I actually don't care either way. I hate to say it - I'm not sure I'm that desperate for one. As many of you likely know, I'm not a huge phone guy - and while I do love gadgets, I'm not sure an iPod phone is really going to get my money. I'm much more interested these days in having things like wifi & bluetooth, etc. It doesn't help either that my previous motorola phone was <strong>awful</strong>.</p>
<p>the long awaited <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/mobile/" title="Apple mobile itunes">itunes phone</a> was just unveiled - finally. <a href="http://www.bmannconsulting.com/node/1550" title="Boris Mann on the ROKR">boris</a> wonders if we'll be able to use them in Canada (just swap SIM cards? or will they be locked?). I'd hope they're not locked ... but you never know.</p>
<p>I've got to say, I actually don't care either way. I hate to say it - I'm not sure I'm that desperate for one. As many of you likely know, I'm not a huge phone guy - and while I do love gadgets, I'm not sure an iPod phone is really going to get my money. I'm much more interested these days in having things like wifi & bluetooth, etc. It doesn't help either that my previous motorola phone was <strong>awful</strong>.</p>
<p>of course, I can say this because a) I already have an iPod and b) nobody knows yet how easy it might be to use one in Canada. If I read that they're available on eBay and completely unlocked - I'll reconsider. Until then, I'll likely hold out for the <a href="http://www.nokia.com/n91">nokia n91</a>.</p>

12
_posts/2005-09-12-drupal-plus-gallery2-world-domination-com.md
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@ -7,10 +7,10 @@ tags:
- gallery
- drupal
---
<p>so, finally, after months and months - the <a href="http://gallery.sourceforge.net/">gallery project</a> has completed their site migration from it's former mish-mash of phpBB and postnuke to a much sleeker <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal site</a> (see <a href="http://gallery.menalto.com/page/welcome_to_the_new_gallery_website">the full announcement</a> for details).</p>
<p>the other very good news - that visitors of this site might appreciate - is that the new gallery2 drupal site uses the <a href="http://drupal.org/project/gallery" title="Drupal Gallery module">integration code</a> that I wrote originally. This means that, yes, the code has actually been updated to work with the latest version of Gallery2 (RC2).</p>
<p>I also spent some time to fix up <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery">my gallery</a> using this latest code. As you can see, "clean urls" are working again, and the default "matrix" theme for gallery blends in fairly well (with some minor modifications).</p>
<p>so, finally, after months and months - the <a href="http://gallery.sourceforge.net/">gallery project</a> has completed their site migration from it's former mish-mash of phpBB and postnuke to a much sleeker <a href="http://drupal.org/">drupal site</a> (see <a href="http://gallery.menalto.com/page/welcome_to_the_new_gallery_website">the full announcement</a> for details).</p>
<p>the other very good news - that visitors of this site might appreciate - is that the new gallery2 drupal site uses the <a href="http://drupal.org/project/gallery" title="Drupal Gallery module">integration code</a> that I wrote originally. This means that, yes, the code has actually been updated to work with the latest version of Gallery2 (RC2).</p>
<p>I also spent some time to fix up <a href="http://walkah.net/gallery">my gallery</a> using this latest code. As you can see, "clean urls" are working again, and the default "matrix" theme for gallery blends in fairly well (with some minor modifications).</p>
<p>Big thanks to <a href="http://www.mediratta.net/">bharat</a> (gallery's mastermind) for cleaning up some of my code to work with the latest G2! And a big congrats to both projects for continuing to produce quality code in spite of my involvement :)</p>

18
_posts/2005-09-12-hey-drupal-planet.md
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@ -6,13 +6,13 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/hey-drupal-planet
tags:
- drupal
---
<p>just read that drupal has finally joined the "planet" craze by launching <a href="http://drupal.org/planet">drupal planet</a>, and this little blog made the cut. now, besides just sticking myself into the feed for no good reason, I think there are two really cool things here:</p>
<p>first, as a sign of just how much the community has grown - I had no idea that "drupal planet" was launching today. I'd read talk of such an initiative, but others clearly took the ball and ran. way to go guys!</p>
<p>second (and coolest), from <a href="http://drupal.org/node/31026">the announcement</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Both, Planet Drupal and Drupal talk, use the improved builtin aggregator module from Drupal HEAD (the upcoming Drupal 4.7), which allows us to aggregate RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.x, RSS 2.0, and Atom feeds.
Unlike many other planets, we don't use the popular PlanetPlanet software, but rather Drupal itself in order to "eat our own dogfood".
</blockquote>
<p>just read that drupal has finally joined the "planet" craze by launching <a href="http://drupal.org/planet">drupal planet</a>, and this little blog made the cut. now, besides just sticking myself into the feed for no good reason, I think there are two really cool things here:</p>
<p>first, as a sign of just how much the community has grown - I had no idea that "drupal planet" was launching today. I'd read talk of such an initiative, but others clearly took the ball and ran. way to go guys!</p>
<p>second (and coolest), from <a href="http://drupal.org/node/31026">the announcement</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Both, Planet Drupal and Drupal talk, use the improved builtin aggregator module from Drupal HEAD (the upcoming Drupal 4.7), which allows us to aggregate RSS 0.9x, RSS 1.x, RSS 2.0, and Atom feeds.
Unlike many other planets, we don't use the popular PlanetPlanet software, but rather Drupal itself in order to "eat our own dogfood".
</blockquote>
<p>mmm. dogfood.</p>

14
_posts/2005-09-14-ajax-based-im-meebo.md
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@ -7,11 +7,11 @@ tags:
- geek
- jabber
---
<p>just picked this up <a href="http://gigaom.com/2005/09/14/ajax-based-im-meebo/">via Om</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Through Ajax, the folks at meebo were able to create a virtual application-like experience within a single web browsing window. meebo integrates a user’s accounts from AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ into a single buddy list that is automatically populated upon signing into the meebo web site. Sort of like Trillian/Adium, but in a browser window.
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.meebo.com/" title="meebo web-based IM">meebo</a>, eh? well, hey guys... how about some <a href="http://www.jabber.org">jabber</a> support? i'd love to see an elegant, in-browser jabber client right about... now. so, <a href="http://blog.meebo.com/?page_id=2" title="meebo staff">folks</a> - how about it?</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I just noticed over on the <a href="http://blog.meebo.com/?p=13">meebo blog</a> that they're using <a href="http://gaim.sf.net/">GAIM</a> (libgaim, I presume) to connect to the IM networks:</p>
<blockquote>We use Apache and Linux (CentOS) on the servers, and connect to the networks through Gaim</blockquote>
<p>just picked this up <a href="http://gigaom.com/2005/09/14/ajax-based-im-meebo/">via Om</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Through Ajax, the folks at meebo were able to create a virtual application-like experience within a single web browsing window. meebo integrates a user’s accounts from AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, and ICQ into a single buddy list that is automatically populated upon signing into the meebo web site. Sort of like Trillian/Adium, but in a browser window.
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.meebo.com/" title="meebo web-based IM">meebo</a>, eh? well, hey guys... how about some <a href="http://www.jabber.org">jabber</a> support? i'd love to see an elegant, in-browser jabber client right about... now. so, <a href="http://blog.meebo.com/?page_id=2" title="meebo staff">folks</a> - how about it?</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> I just noticed over on the <a href="http://blog.meebo.com/?p=13">meebo blog</a> that they're using <a href="http://gaim.sf.net/">GAIM</a> (libgaim, I presume) to connect to the IM networks:</p>
<blockquote>We use Apache and Linux (CentOS) on the servers, and connect to the networks through Gaim</blockquote>
<p>not only is my request possible, sounds like it's in the works :)</p>

16
_posts/2005-09-17-forty-three.md
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@ -6,12 +6,12 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/forty-three
tags:
- geek
---
<p>... as in <a href="http://www.43things.com/" title="43things">things</a>, <a href="http://www.43places.com/" title="43places">places</a> and now <a href="http://www.43people.com/" title="43people">people</a>. let's face it, lists are in and I'm totally hooked.</p>
<p>i've been playing around with the beta-ish 43people (the latest offering from the gang at <a href="http://robotcoop.com/">robot co-op</a>), and I gotta say this just keeps getting better. the sites are clean, elegant and brilliantly tied together. though I knew it was in the works, I got an email today saying that <a href="http://kriskrug.43people.com/" title="Kris Krug - Bryght guy">kris</a> knew me. So, I clicked the link, and sure enough, I was logged *magically* using my 43places/things identity and instantly started marking the people I knew.</p>
<p>what's the point though? I mean, at some level - who cares what I want to do (or have done) and where I want to go (or have been). I'll be honest... I'm not sure I really know. But, I find myself bouncing around the 3 sites adding things here and there... and all of a sudden I've got a nice list of things - and start to see others with the same interests, desires, and where they've been, what they've done, who they know etc. What good is that? Well, besides proving once and for all that the Pacific Northwest tech scene is this insanely small, incestuous group of brilliant people that just keep turning out neat stuff... it makes the rest of the world just a little bit smaller.</p>
<p>social software - not pounded down your throat in terms of how many friends you have and how many groups you can get invited to. but, a little more organic. as in - these people are connected to you because they're (at some level) kinda like you. kind of like what I think <a href="http://www.last.fm/">last.fm</a> is doing with music.</p>
<p>... as in <a href="http://www.43things.com/" title="43things">things</a>, <a href="http://www.43places.com/" title="43places">places</a> and now <a href="http://www.43people.com/" title="43people">people</a>. let's face it, lists are in and I'm totally hooked.</p>
<p>i've been playing around with the beta-ish 43people (the latest offering from the gang at <a href="http://robotcoop.com/">robot co-op</a>), and I gotta say this just keeps getting better. the sites are clean, elegant and brilliantly tied together. though I knew it was in the works, I got an email today saying that <a href="http://kriskrug.43people.com/" title="Kris Krug - Bryght guy">kris</a> knew me. So, I clicked the link, and sure enough, I was logged *magically* using my 43places/things identity and instantly started marking the people I knew.</p>
<p>what's the point though? I mean, at some level - who cares what I want to do (or have done) and where I want to go (or have been). I'll be honest... I'm not sure I really know. But, I find myself bouncing around the 3 sites adding things here and there... and all of a sudden I've got a nice list of things - and start to see others with the same interests, desires, and where they've been, what they've done, who they know etc. What good is that? Well, besides proving once and for all that the Pacific Northwest tech scene is this insanely small, incestuous group of brilliant people that just keep turning out neat stuff... it makes the rest of the world just a little bit smaller.</p>
<p>social software - not pounded down your throat in terms of how many friends you have and how many groups you can get invited to. but, a little more organic. as in - these people are connected to you because they're (at some level) kinda like you. kind of like what I think <a href="http://www.last.fm/">last.fm</a> is doing with music.</p>
<p>of course, 43* is also killer, 'cause all they're stuff is not only all AJAX-y and slick, but they expose <a href="http://www.43places.com/about/view/web_service_api">web</a> <a href="http://www.43things.com/about/view/web_service_api">services</a> for everything. data in. data out. this is where I'd say something about web two point oh, but you get the drift.</p>

12
_posts/2005-09-19-talk-like-a-pirate.md
View File

@ -7,9 +7,9 @@ tags:
- geek
- drupal
---
<p>ahoy! in case you're not part of the perverse corner of the internet that knows... today is <a href="http://talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html">talk like a pirate day</a>. to honour the occasion - the posts in this blog have been re-written in "pirate speak".</p>
<p>of course, i didn't actually re-write anything. the magic, of course, is all done by drupal, and fellow <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght guy</a>, <a href="http://www.justagwailo.com/">richard eriksson's</a> lovely <a href="http://drupal.org/node/31270">pirate.module</a> for drupal.</p>
<p>yes, it's silly. and yes it will be gone tomorrow :)</p>
<p>ahoy! in case you're not part of the perverse corner of the internet that knows... today is <a href="http://talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html">talk like a pirate day</a>. to honour the occasion - the posts in this blog have been re-written in "pirate speak".</p>
<p>of course, i didn't actually re-write anything. the magic, of course, is all done by drupal, and fellow <a href="http://www.bryght.com/">bryght guy</a>, <a href="http://www.justagwailo.com/">richard eriksson's</a> lovely <a href="http://drupal.org/node/31270">pirate.module</a> for drupal.</p>
<p>yes, it's silly. and yes it will be gone tomorrow :)</p>

66
_posts/2005-10-13-goodbye-sweet-powerbook.md
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@ -6,37 +6,37 @@ permalink: blog/walkah/goodbye-sweet-powerbook
tags:
- mac os x
---
<p>i've been meaning to post this for a few days: it looks like my beloved 12" powerbook is destined for early retirement. a careful search of my "blog memory" reveals that "pollock" (as I'd named it) was just over <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/powerbook-shipped" title="powerbook shipped">two years old</a>. the problem started a week ago, when I started experiencing frequent kernel panics (if you've never seen mac os x's 4-language screen of death - it's not a happy place)....</p>
<p>(cue flashback music...)</p>
<p>i was in stuttgart, germany again (if you missed that it's a good indication of how sporadically I post here) - just finishing what turned out to be an intensely grueling 10 day sprint. my powerbook had essentially been running hard 18-20 hours a day for the 10 days, but it was the final day. i was happily working along (well, groggily at best), when it locked for the first time. odd i thought, but i rebooted and tried to continue. it locked up several more times, and i started getting the <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227">"4 language screen"</a>. eventually they became so frequent that I had to finish out the day standing at the rack in the (very well-cooled) server room to finish my tasks.</p>
<p>too tired to really try and diagnose it, i packed and flew home (spending most of the 8 hour flight completely comatose).</p>
<p>luckily, i was able to not really miss a step thanks to my little <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/a-tale-of-two-macs">mac mini</a> and my diligent use of version control and/or rsync. finally, on friday I took the time to look a bit deeper into the issues. after much googling, i finally decided to try running "the apple hardware test" - since all signs pointed towards a hardware failure. I had also been keeping panic.log output (which if you don't know is located in /Library/Logs/panic.log). The panic.log looked like my video card might be to blame:</p>
<pre>
Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access ...
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x3C191500)
PC=0x00A31B24; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x3D38134E; ...
Backtrace:
0x00A31C20 0x00A187DC 0x00A32AB8 0x00A132C8 0x005C04FC 0x005BB9AC
0x005BBE6C 0x005BBD14 0x0003C738 0x000A9694
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.GeForce(4.0.6)@0xa12000
</pre>
<p>note the "com.apple.GeForce" reference. so, sure enough, I run the hardware test and i get a failure in the video ram with the following error code:</p>
<pre>2NVD/1/4:2069</pre>
<p>(i actually typed that code from memory). feeling that I was armed with enough information to address an apple tech - and knowing that my laptop was outside the standard warranty period - I called my local apple service shop. The guy on the phone said he wasn't a tech and had no idea what was involved to fix that error - and that the service department was a week behind. *sigh*</p>
<p>so, i called apple's 800 service number. the guy on the phone was fairly helpful - he seemed to appreciate that I'd at least done my homework - and he suggested that apple had a flat rate service fee of $300-something dollars (US) and that in a roughly 2 week period they could return a working laptop. i thought to myself, "that's nice, but I'd really like to have my laptop sooner". so i asked the guy if the <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/apple-store-yorkdale-first-in-canada">apple store yorkdale</a> would be able to do the repair - for the same rate. he said "yes".</p>
<p>on saturday sandi and I headed to the mall, waited in line at the "genius bar" and - armed with my error code - i pulled out my powerbook and explained the situation. after some digging, the "genius" made a nasty looking face... *apparently* on the powerbook errors in the video ram (which he confirmed this was) - are treated as a logic board replacement. essentially, to repair it they would replace the entire logic board and charge me $1400 CAD (plus tax)!!!! AND it was going to take them a week to get the part in!</p>
<p>i mentioned the flat rate fee - and the "genius" responded that they do in fact offer that, but basically when the powerbook got to the apple techs in california, I would have received a notice that there were going to be additional charges. can't argue with a genius, right?</p>
<p>now here i am - with a basically unusable machine. and while i don't seem to have a clear answer as to exactly how much money and how long a fix would take, all signs point to "ouch".</p>
<p>i've spent some time sobbing ... i've also been trying to get my brother's old dell inspiron 2650 in a workable state (more on that later). it looks like my best bet will be to eventually replace my powerbook - but i need to do some saving and decide what exactly i want to do next...</p>
<p>i've been meaning to post this for a few days: it looks like my beloved 12" powerbook is destined for early retirement. a careful search of my "blog memory" reveals that "pollock" (as I'd named it) was just over <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/powerbook-shipped" title="powerbook shipped">two years old</a>. the problem started a week ago, when I started experiencing frequent kernel panics (if you've never seen mac os x's 4-language screen of death - it's not a happy place)....</p>
<p>(cue flashback music...)</p>
<p>i was in stuttgart, germany again (if you missed that it's a good indication of how sporadically I post here) - just finishing what turned out to be an intensely grueling 10 day sprint. my powerbook had essentially been running hard 18-20 hours a day for the 10 days, but it was the final day. i was happily working along (well, groggily at best), when it locked for the first time. odd i thought, but i rebooted and tried to continue. it locked up several more times, and i started getting the <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227">"4 language screen"</a>. eventually they became so frequent that I had to finish out the day standing at the rack in the (very well-cooled) server room to finish my tasks.</p>
<p>too tired to really try and diagnose it, i packed and flew home (spending most of the 8 hour flight completely comatose).</p>
<p>luckily, i was able to not really miss a step thanks to my little <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/a-tale-of-two-macs">mac mini</a> and my diligent use of version control and/or rsync. finally, on friday I took the time to look a bit deeper into the issues. after much googling, i finally decided to try running "the apple hardware test" - since all signs pointed towards a hardware failure. I had also been keeping panic.log output (which if you don't know is located in /Library/Logs/panic.log). The panic.log looked like my video card might be to blame:</p>
<pre>
Unresolved kernel trap(cpu 0): 0x300 - Data access ...
Latest crash info for cpu 0:
Exception state (sv=0x3C191500)
PC=0x00A31B24; MSR=0x00009030; DAR=0x3D38134E; ...
Backtrace:
0x00A31C20 0x00A187DC 0x00A32AB8 0x00A132C8 0x005C04FC 0x005BB9AC
0x005BBE6C 0x005BBD14 0x0003C738 0x000A9694
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.GeForce(4.0.6)@0xa12000
</pre>
<p>note the "com.apple.GeForce" reference. so, sure enough, I run the hardware test and i get a failure in the video ram with the following error code:</p>
<pre>2NVD/1/4:2069</pre>
<p>(i actually typed that code from memory). feeling that I was armed with enough information to address an apple tech - and knowing that my laptop was outside the standard warranty period - I called my local apple service shop. The guy on the phone said he wasn't a tech and had no idea what was involved to fix that error - and that the service department was a week behind. *sigh*</p>
<p>so, i called apple's 800 service number. the guy on the phone was fairly helpful - he seemed to appreciate that I'd at least done my homework - and he suggested that apple had a flat rate service fee of $300-something dollars (US) and that in a roughly 2 week period they could return a working laptop. i thought to myself, "that's nice, but I'd really like to have my laptop sooner". so i asked the guy if the <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/apple-store-yorkdale-first-in-canada">apple store yorkdale</a> would be able to do the repair - for the same rate. he said "yes".</p>
<p>on saturday sandi and I headed to the mall, waited in line at the "genius bar" and - armed with my error code - i pulled out my powerbook and explained the situation. after some digging, the "genius" made a nasty looking face... *apparently* on the powerbook errors in the video ram (which he confirmed this was) - are treated as a logic board replacement. essentially, to repair it they would replace the entire logic board and charge me $1400 CAD (plus tax)!!!! AND it was going to take them a week to get the part in!</p>
<p>i mentioned the flat rate fee - and the "genius" responded that they do in fact offer that, but basically when the powerbook got to the apple techs in california, I would have received a notice that there were going to be additional charges. can't argue with a genius, right?</p>
<p>now here i am - with a basically unusable machine. and while i don't seem to have a clear answer as to exactly how much money and how long a fix would take, all signs point to "ouch".</p>
<p>i've spent some time sobbing ... i've also been trying to get my brother's old dell inspiron 2650 in a workable state (more on that later). it looks like my best bet will be to eventually replace my powerbook - but i need to do some saving and decide what exactly i want to do next...</p>
<p>please if you have suggestions / recommendations / condolences - leave a comment. free beer to anyone who knows a simple/cheap fix that I've been unable to dig up :)</p>

12
_posts/2005-10-17-apple-front-row.md
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@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ tags:
- front row
- mac mini
---
<p>i was too busy to blog it last week, but the most interesting thing <em>for me</em> from last week's big apple media event was not the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html">video ipod</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/">itunes 6</a> (now with more video), or the <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac/">new imac</a> (with built-in isight). I think the coolest announcement was <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html">front row</a> - apple's "10ft interface" including the adorable little shuffle-like remote. now *this* is exactly the kind of thing i want from apple. I want to stick my mac mini in my living room, and have an interface to play all my songs through itunes, watch movies (downloaded or otherwise), and maybe even do the odd photo slideshow for guests (or not). I've long thought about building a <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/">mythtv</a> box for the purpose but the main limiting factor (aside from the boring old lack of time and money) is aesthetics. anything that goes in the living room has to be "wife approved" - i.e. it needs to not be a big, ugly beige box (with associated fan noise), and it needs to have a simple, elegant interface so that I'm not required to work it. front row sure looks like it fits the bill.</p>
<p>but WAIT! front row is apparently *only* available with a new iMac. WHAT?? that doesn't make any sense. As far as I can tell, the remote is bluetooth (which my mini supports) and the software is just software, no? Dear apple, I'd buy this today if I saw it on apple.com!</p>
<p>it appears i'm <a href="http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/14/0940246" title="macslash thread">not</a> the <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/12/new-imac-g5-with-frontrow-and-remote/" title="TUAW thread">only one</a> who <a href="http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/10/macminimedia/index.php" title="macworld">thinks so</a>. in fact, there's even an <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/frontrow/petition.html">online petition</a> - which i signed. please tell me there is a good reason for this besides pushing imac sales?</p>
<p>i was too busy to blog it last week, but the most interesting thing <em>for me</em> from last week's big apple media event was not the <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html">video ipod</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/">itunes 6</a> (now with more video), or the <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac/">new imac</a> (with built-in isight). I think the coolest announcement was <a href="http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html">front row</a> - apple's "10ft interface" including the adorable little shuffle-like remote. now *this* is exactly the kind of thing i want from apple. I want to stick my mac mini in my living room, and have an interface to play all my songs through itunes, watch movies (downloaded or otherwise), and maybe even do the odd photo slideshow for guests (or not). I've long thought about building a <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/">mythtv</a> box for the purpose but the main limiting factor (aside from the boring old lack of time and money) is aesthetics. anything that goes in the living room has to be "wife approved" - i.e. it needs to not be a big, ugly beige box (with associated fan noise), and it needs to have a simple, elegant interface so that I'm not required to work it. front row sure looks like it fits the bill.</p>
<p>but WAIT! front row is apparently *only* available with a new iMac. WHAT?? that doesn't make any sense. As far as I can tell, the remote is bluetooth (which my mini supports) and the software is just software, no? Dear apple, I'd buy this today if I saw it on apple.com!</p>
<p>it appears i'm <a href="http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/14/0940246" title="macslash thread">not</a> the <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2005/10/12/new-imac-g5-with-frontrow-and-remote/" title="TUAW thread">only one</a> who <a href="http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/10/macminimedia/index.php" title="macworld">thinks so</a>. in fact, there's even an <a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/frontrow/petition.html">online petition</a> - which i signed. please tell me there is a good reason for this besides pushing imac sales?</p>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong> apparently, according to <a href="http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=MA128G/A">this page</a> the remote, while available is IR *not* Bluetooth. *sigh*</p>

28
_posts/2005-10-26-trying-to-flock.md
View File

@ -8,18 +8,18 @@ tags:
- flock
- firefox
---
well, i *had* a fairly long post all about how nice I thought the latest version (0.4.9) of <a href="http://flock.com/">flock</a> was. i've been quietly kind of harsh on the idea since keeping pace with the <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com/">firefox</a> codebase can't be easy, and i already have tools and/or firefox extensions that accomplish large pieces of flocks "added value". i also formed these opinions based on version 0.2.
fast forward a couple months (and a couple conferences) and low and behold, flock is starting to come together. to be honest, I've been quiet about my reservations because i happen to know and really respect a <a href="http://www.factorycity.net/blog" title="Chris Messina">couple of</a> <a href="http://an9.org/blog" title="Andyface Smith">flockers</a>. so, i have faith that flock one day will totally rock. and given my current <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/goodbye-sweet-powerbook">forced</a> cross-platform-ness, the idea of a blogging app in my browser is much more appealing.
another really nice thing (from my point of view) is they've done an excellent job of ensuring that the popular (and as far as i'm concerned essential) firefox extensions all work with flock.
but i've still got a beef. like i said i *had* a long post. problem is, the blogging tool in flock isn't quite there yet. it's a minor bug - but one that makes posting from flock to <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="PHP CMS">drupal</a> impossible. so, after a few minutes of debugging, i managed to at least come up with a <a href="http://bugzilla.flock.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1312">bug report</a>. looks like someone from blojsom <a href="http://www.blojsom.com/blog/blojsom/2005/10/24/Flocking-XML-RPC.html">noticed too</a>.
anyway guys, keep up the good work... and if you ever have questions about ensuring harmony between drupal and flock - you know where to find me :)
OH - speaking of flock. so here's an off the wall rumour that is based on absolutely no real information. *but* it's no mistake that Y! (<em>not</em> google) is the default search engine for flock. factor in the out-of-the-box <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> integration, mix in constant rumours of the "google browser" and ... well... are we looking at a future Y! acquisition? who knows perhaps throw in some <a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Lightning">lightning</a> and <a href="http://www.upcoming.org/">upcoming.org</a> integration and away you go.
then, once we become <a href="http://www.bryght.com/" title="Bryght community content hosting">BrY!ght</a> - we'll all be co-workers.
well, i *had* a fairly long post all about how nice I thought the latest version (0.4.9) of <a href="http://flock.com/">flock</a> was. i've been quietly kind of harsh on the idea since keeping pace with the <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com/">firefox</a> codebase can't be easy, and i already have tools and/or firefox extensions that accomplish large pieces of flocks "added value". i also formed these opinions based on version 0.2.
fast forward a couple months (and a couple conferences) and low and behold, flock is starting to come together. to be honest, I've been quiet about my reservations because i happen to know and really respect a <a href="http://www.factorycity.net/blog" title="Chris Messina">couple of</a> <a href="http://an9.org/blog" title="Andyface Smith">flockers</a>. so, i have faith that flock one day will totally rock. and given my current <a href="http://walkah.net/blog/walkah/goodbye-sweet-powerbook">forced</a> cross-platform-ness, the idea of a blogging app in my browser is much more appealing.
another really nice thing (from my point of view) is they've done an excellent job of ensuring that the popular (and as far as i'm concerned essential) firefox extensions all work with flock.
but i've still got a beef. like i said i *had* a long post. problem is, the blogging tool in flock isn't quite there yet. it's a minor bug - but one that makes posting from flock to <a href="http://drupal.org/" title="PHP CMS">drupal</a> impossible. so, after a few minutes of debugging, i managed to at least come up with a <a href="http://bugzilla.flock.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1312">bug report</a>. looks like someone from blojsom <a href="http://www.blojsom.com/blog/blojsom/2005/10/24/Flocking-XML-RPC.html">noticed too</a>.
anyway guys, keep up the good work... and if you ever have questions about ensuring harmony between drupal and flock - you know where to find me :)
OH - speaking of flock. so here's an off the wall rumour that is based on absolutely no real information. *but* it's no mistake that Y! (<em>not</em> google) is the default search engine for flock. factor in the out-of-the-box <a href="http://www.flickr.com/">flickr</a> integration, mix in constant rumours of the "google browser" and ... well... are we looking at a future Y! acquisition? who knows perhaps throw in some <a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Calendar:Lightning">lightning</a> and <a href="http://www.upcoming.org/">upcoming.org</a> integration and away you go.
then, once we become <a href="http://www.bryght.com/" title="Bryght community content hosting">BrY!ght</a> - we'll all be co-workers.
er. i'll stop now ;)

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