November 10, 2006

Rant

Crappy Piece Of Crap Of The Day

Today's crappy piece of crap is beagle-build-index, which has so far spent five and a half hours indexing the documentation on my new Fedora Core 6 install.

It's not the only thing that runs for ages after a fresh install, either.

Feh.

If I wanted Gentoo, I'd have downloaded Gentoo.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:15 PM | Comments (184) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Geek

Need For (Quad) Speed

Running yum update for a new Fedora install under VMWare and snarfing my daily podcast fix via iTunes.

That's more than enough to turn a 2.6GHz Pentium 4 into jelly.

Just on that subject, is iTunes a complete and utter cow on MacOS too, or does that version actually work? Grabbing 100% of the CPU simply to download a file (at, I might add, an effective speed of 128kbps) seems a bit much.

Hrrm. I have a 7.02 update to apply. Bet you twenty cents it doesn't help.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:54 AM | Comments (724) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cool

Burning Thread Of Fire

It burns, burns, burns:

Hello Pixy Misa, you are logged in to Minx.
Processing 0.38 seconds.
17 queries taking 0.059 seconds, 1027 records returned.
Page size 377 kb.
Powered by Minx 0.7 alpha.
But Minx don't do too bad.

Most of that time is taken up by the HTML sanitiser, which is dynamic (it runs every time, rather than storing the sanitised HTML*) and uses an SGML parser written in Python instead of a C library. I'm looking to improve that, but in the meantime, 0.38 seconds for 1000+ comments on older hardware (2GHz Opteron) without the benefit of Psyco (which had a memory leak) is, as I said, not too bad.

* Because the sanitisation rules are context-sensitive.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:41 AM | Comments (32) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 09, 2006

Rant

Comment

The Fedora Package Updater is frigging useless.

There have to be a dozen superior open-source package managers already in existence, so what's the excuse?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:08 PM | Comments (123) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Blug

I have a wonderful new Core 2 Duo system with 4GB of memory at work.

Naturally, my job has just changed and it looks like I'll mostly be working at home from now on.

And my home PC is a three-year-old Pentium 4.

I'm building a development environment under Linux under VMWare right now, and let me say, yes, there really is a difference. Even though the clock speed of my home PC is faster than that of the office machine.

I wonder if they'll let me swap...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:22 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Anime

Whee

I forgot Madman's Tenth Anniversary Sale - they're selling their entire back catalogue at $10 per DVD - but fortunately (for me) their servers fell over during the stampede and they decided to extend it.

So I just picked up:

The first two-and-a-half seasons of Galaxy Angel
Days of Midori and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, which I loved on fansub but never got around to buying
Porco Rosso, Pom Poko (which I might already have somewhere...), Nausicaa, and a spare copy of Millennium Actress to foist upon the unwary
Kaleido Star
Burst Angel
Colorful (heh)
Uh, and something that rhymes with Mickey Mousen
Should keep me occupied for a day or three.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:41 AM | Comments (705) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Blog

Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Michelle Malkin:

I'm hanging it up for the night, er, morning. Unlike Michael Moore in 2004, however, I will not be staying in bed for three days in a catatonic state. I will not need PEST shock therapy. I will not move to Australia.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:44 AM | Comments (112) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 08, 2006

Geek

INXSS

My current headache is cross-site scripting, or XSS.

Cross-site scripting is an unforseen product of the combination of browser programmability and communally-updated websites. Javascript and XMLHttpRequest let your browser do all sorts of nifty things; community web sites let people build really nifty things; together they let bad people steal your ID.

Anyone can create a web page that will read your cookies, but browsers aren't stupid, and they will only cough up the cookies for that web site. Which was not a problem in the past, because before anyone could do anything untowards they had to take control of the website by some other means.

But if you have a community site where people can insert unfiltered HTML, that lets other people steal your cookies for that site. Badness.

The approaches to this problem seem to be threefold:

1. The listen-to-nanny approach, as typified by CERT: Tell people to turn off Javascript, and not to browse unknown web sites, especially after dark.

2. The patch-it-and-hope approach: Scrub the HTML for any untowards Javascript. If your site can restrict what users put up on their pages, you may be able to eliminate Javascript altogether - though even then, you might get tripped up the way MySpace was.

3. The keep-the-doors-and-windows-locked approach: Don't use cookies that give users global access. I think Blogger may be doing this, and that's why you keep having to log in to comment.

You have to do some of 2 in any case. If you don't scrub comments of bad HTML, you will find your page layouts corrupted in very short order. 3 looks likely to be the most robust, but at the cost of user functionality.

Anyone know of any in-depth resources on this? Or are people keeping their solutions close to their chests?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:09 PM | Comments (41) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 07, 2006

Geek

Ping!

SoftLayer, our new hosting company, now has Xeon 3060's available. That's a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, for those of you who've lost track.

Same monthly price as our existing servers, but 60% faster.

Sob.

Oh well. I knew they were coming, and I need them for my new project anyway. So this is actually good.

And our existing servers mostly aren't CPU bound. And wouldn't be CPU bound at all, if we weren't still running Movable Type. And my new project is all about getting us off Movable Type...

Meanwhile, mu.nu is looking at its first 2TB month. Who the heck is reading all those blogs?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:09 PM | Comments (38) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 04, 2006

Life

Signs

I must be getting better, because I just can't drink that sickening crap any more.

For two weeks, tea laden with honey was all that was keeping me going, but now, bleah.

So yeah, either I'm on the mend or I should start composing witty epitaphs. I certainly feel better - which probably has as much to do with having actually slept last night as any direct effect of the medicine on my irksome microbial tenants.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:22 PM | Comments (382) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Pixy Unfair To Codeine!

Hi.

This is the codeine talking.

Okay, so we didn't have much effect the first time. But sometimes you have to give things a second chance, y'know?

And then, nighty-night.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:44 PM | Comments (23) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Rrrrrr

Isn't codeine supposed to do something?

Well, maybe the antibiotics will still shift it. Leaves me without any cough relief, though, except for the blasted tea. I think I've had more tea in the last two weeks than in my entire life up to that point. Well, not counting iced tea, which I do drink quite often.

Now my whole pantry smells of Lapsang Souchong.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:26 AM | Comments (267) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Mmmm

Antibiotics and codeine.

Yummy codeine.

I had one of my coughing spells right there in the doctor's office, which was handy. "I have this congestion in my throat, and this urge to cough, and it builds up and builds up and then I cough until..."

Coughcoughcoughchokecoughhack.

"Uh, pretty much like that."

I can't remember the last time I had to get a prescription filled. My medical needs in the last 15 years have consisted of (a) eye checkups and (b) getting my ankle looked at after falling down three flights of stairs.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 12:13 AM | Comments (34) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 03, 2006

Geek

Ugh

Server clock doing straaange things.

This entry was posted hours after the "Mmmm" and "Rrrrrr" posts.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:06 PM | Comments (34) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cool

Nuke 'Em Til They Glow

OPAL fires up for the first time.

I went to see the old reactor when I was a kid. Back then it was outside Sydney; now not so much, so there was a bit of fuss when they decided to build the replacement at the same site. Thankfully, no-one paid the protestors much attention.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:51 PM | Comments (88) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 02, 2006

Cool

Speaking Truth To... Something

You're the retarded offspring of five monkeys having butt-sex with a fish-squirrel. Congratulations.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:01 PM | Comments (362) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Uh-Oh

I was listening to myself cough just now, and I thought, uh-oh. I wasn't doing that before today, so I didn't think of it. In fact, I thought I was getting better.

The symptoms fit, and apparently vaccination wears off over time. (Which was the other reason I didn't think of it - hey, I've been vaccinated, right?)

On the other hand, reading further, what I have doesn't sound as severe. On the third hand, when you get an off-hand comment like If the patient survives the paroxysmal stage, recovery occurs gradually during the convalescent stage, that's probably not a disease you want to mess with.

Off to the doctor.

It may not be anything of the sort, but this has gone past any normal cold. I have some sort of infection, and it seems to be more bacterial than viral, and they can fix those.

Update: Just thinking about how my mind works:

You're sick. You should see a doctor. I'll be fine!

You're really sick. You need to see a doctor. I think I'm getting better!

Hmm. This might be contagious. Right, where's the medical centre?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:21 PM | Comments (73) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

November 01, 2006

Cool

My Honey Done Shot Me

I met her in a treehouse wrestlin' gators;
I can still recall the boxer shorts she wore;
She was talkin' in Swahili when she shot me,
and I knew that she was rotten to the core;
My Pooh Bear said I'd stay with her forever;
She said to me man wasn't meant to fly;
But who'd have thought she'd run off with a robot;
I pushed her off the bridge and waved goodbye.
(The Do-it-yourself Country & Western Song Generator)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:11 PM | Comments (464) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 31, 2006

Cool

a i u e o

The Hiragana Song.

Warning: Contains Hiragana Song.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:09 PM | Comments (73) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Got 'Em

(See below.)

They only had two copies of the Bujold left. Must be popular or summat.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 02:38 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 30, 2006

Cool

Ooh!

And there's new Repairman Jack and Lois McMaster Bujold goodies to be had!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:26 PM | Comments (305) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cool

Pure. Unalloyed. Cool.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:37 PM | Comments (403) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cool

Mosquito

More buzz.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:13 PM | Comments (457) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Life

Bleh

Took Friday off sick.

Got a call on Saturday that one of the systems was down. Said I'd look at it on Monday.

Monday arrives, and I look at it. Seems that both sides of a mirror had spontaneously converted themselves to unrecognised volumes. The system had become somewhat disconcerted, and crashed.

Yes, I had a backup. A complete, up-to-date backup.

Because I'm paranoid.

Fortunately, very soon all of this will become Not My Problem.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 03:35 PM | Comments (500) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

October 27, 2006

Life

Germs

So I'm back from my holiday, which was fun, but I brought some uninvited guests with me.

The worst cold I've ever had.

For four days my throat felt like I'd been gargling RFNA. The only thing that made any difference was tea. A nice mug of English Breakfast with honey would make the pain go away for half an hour, and keep it bearable for an hour more. After that, it became so uncomfortable that I was unable to sleep.

So a full night's sleep required five or six large mugs of tea... which comes with its own problems. Needless to say, I have not been sleeping well. (This morning I got four hours uninterrupted - starting at 6AM. That's the best I've done in the past week.)

But at least in the agonizing pain stage I wasn't much trouble to others. After four days of that, I returned home from my trip, and by the next day the pain had largely faded.

But I wasn't better.

I had moved on to stage two, which combined heavy (and pretty yucky) congestion with an incessant cough. The part where I bark like a seal is particularly amusing. So I need to take a decongestant and a cough suppressant, and use the manual override when I really do need to cough.

And an antihistamine, because just because I'm in bed with a horrible cold doesn't mean I don't get hay fever as well.

As of this afternoon, the cough seems to be under control. Either the codeine worked or it's just run its course; the last bad session was at 4AM. Now I just have to see if that's it, or if there's a stage three, where I presumably implode or break out in hives or something.

I'm not complaining - okay, I am complaining - just letting you know that I am back but not exactly running at full efficiency just yet.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:53 PM | Comments (192) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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