Discovery for the day
29 Jul
Today I discovered lastlogin(8). It can tell you the last time every user on the system logged in, which is a lot easier that piecing together a script with last checking against multiple archived wtmp files. I wish I'd known about it when trying to figure out whether I can remove accounts in my previous sysadmin jobs.
Life's little amusements
28 Jul
Today I got token 42 when I went to go get a Gatsby for lunch. Then, on my way back, I pressed the button to call the lift. All four lifts arrived on ground within three seconds of each other...
Some nice Twisted advice
16 Jul
Moshe Zadka gave some good advice to me on my various Twisted projects. My Initial request for critique evoked quite a bit of advice for tnntprss. Thanks Moshe!
Netcraft reports that there are nearly 2 Million Active Sites running FreeBSD. The June hosting report also shows FreeBSD at the first five positions in Hosting Providers sites ordered by failures (or, rather, lack of failures). Go FreeBSD!
Assigning more points
09 Jul
Since I'm assigning points, I must give SARS a few for their increased efficiency, shorter returns, and their helpful clerks at the returns desk (where I spent less than 15 minutes waiting two days before returns are due - a record!). They have a lot to catch up for to me personally, but they're doing a good job for most everyone else.
xdebug niceness
08 Jul
Logging and error handling are must-haves, not nice-to-haves, for any application infrastructure. While they were reasonably easy to set up, I'll hopefully document what I've done here sometime. But, one thing irritated me - not knowing anything about my calling function in PHP. Xdebug fixes that, allowing me to find out where certain SQL queries or similar operations are coming from. Points also go to PEAR's DB abstraction to make it easy to capture errant SQL queries based on query length and running time.
Becoming familiar with PHP
04 Jul
I've been quiet - mostly because of being sick, but also because I've been spending most of my computer time discovering more about PHP. Its limitations are unfortunate - basically revolving around the more useful OO things I've been spoilt with by python. But, now knowing the limitations, I'm working out how to make the best of what it does offer - and it does offer more than enough for my purposes at hand (or at work, in this case).
Fluff piece
01 Jul
Well, I'm getting complaints I haven't posted for a while. So, a fluff piece. It's that time of years that OBWs are Obligatory Body Warmers and not just Organic Body Warmers. I've also been convalescing in bed since Saturday recovering from some flu analog. Work is challenging, but I'm starting to generate a plan of attack.