Published September 27th, 2007
in Technical and Programming.
One of the greatest things about blogs and search engines is that for 90% of the things you want to do, someone else has already done it and blogged about it. Today’s post is on trac, postgres, and sqlite.
Backstory: As a part of the research I do in the Aerospace Systems Laboratory, I run a mid-sized Subversion repository and trac project so we can keep all the 100-something people involved on the same page. When I setup this giant system, I decided to use postgresql as the trac database backend (as postgresql is my database of choice).
The Problem: trac + postgresql = chaos
The database frequently double inserts rows, has odd issues with keeping the revisions in sync with Subversion, and general stability issues (due to the python library they are using).
Solution: trac + sqlite3 = well supported
sqlite seems to be the preferred database by the trac developers. Sadly, there is no way (documented or otherwise) of backing up / restoring a non-sqlite trac database. Read on for the steps to hand migrate.
Continue reading ‘Trac, Postgres, and sqlite’
Published March 7th, 2007
in Technical, Programming and Productivity.
Long live Webmail!
In my revitialized quest for email that doesn’t suck, I have come to the harsh realization that my webmail most definately sucks. I have two options.
- Better Webmail Programs
- Text-based email clients
For a long time, I would sit down and drop in a new version of webmail, probably horde’s imp. I still might. What I want is one place I can go to check all my email. The key here is encryption, not of all my email, but of the one password that lets me in. OpenID comes to mind immediately.
One account to rule them all…
The unfortunate later part of the line is “and in the darkness bind them.” My idea could be the single greatest idea I have had yet, or the single point of my downfall. The idea is simple. Open up SSH access into my MacPro. This is a little scary for me as a security idiot conscious user, but it might be worth it.
The other downside to my personal box, is that at any given time it sits behind 2-3 firewalls. Yuck. Thankfully SSH (my networking Swiss Army knife) has me covered in one palletable command.
ssh tunnel@erik.karulf.com -fNg -R 2222:spekkio.fort-awesome.net:22
The downside is it binds to port 2222 (without opening serious holes in your security, users can not bind to ports < 1024) This is not too big of an issue, as I just redirect port 443 -> 2222. This lets me access my site through almost any internet accessible computer, as even the most draconian of administrators does not close off port 443 (https) and the traffic looks almost identical to the encrypted traffic you will see from a regular https website. The last hurdle is a tough one, how to SSH from a public kiosk. Well I generally drag around PuTTY and Terminal.app on a USB stick. However, the classy gents at JavaSSH also have a client that will run through a web browser.
Published February 13th, 2007
in Technical, Programming and Life.
I am officially giving my blog an IOU in the vain attempt I might actually listen to myself. So, here it goes…
I need to write a blog post about Comcast being a ripe with idiocy, if for nothing else but to have a place to point rather than tell the same story ten times.
I need to change my blog software. Atleast give it a shot. Wordpress rocks, it just doesn’t match my style. I’m thinking of getting a blog/wiki hybrid. Here is the list as far as I have it.
- WikyBlog - PHP/MySQL - Feature rich
- WikePage - PHP/MySQL - Feature tiny
- TipiWiki
- MoniWiki
Instiki is also in the running, though as a pure wiki. The idea is fairly simple, once I have a hybrid, I can use the blog part to post complete thoughts and the wiki part to jot down ideas and quick notes.
For starters, I’d like to get my FreeBSD thoughts written down. Config files, bootstrapping process, ports. I’d like to be able to use my blog as a personal search engine. It’s an interesting concept to be sure, and as funny as it sounds, I think other people might be able to use it too. To be honest, I’d be willing to move this whole thing over to the Fort Awesome website and have others contribute. I’ll bring up the idea with the other Fort Awesome people. The biggest loss would be my site would be tough to navigate and uglier. I like the current site because anybody can navigate it and it is really nice to look at thanks to my awesome theme. I’ll sleep on it.
Published May 8th, 2006
in Ruby on Rails.
I just submitted my application into Google’s Summer of Code. The proposal is to write Confab, the worlds fastest and most scalable web forum. Most of you have heard me ranting about Confab for a while now, though it had yet to be named until this morning. I was able to talk to my mentor, Sean Chittenden, a lot today and he was able to help me compact my application. We also jammed about an idea for an ADT that is a variation of a Splay Tree. Very cool stuff. I’ll keep you all posted when I hear back from Google.
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