I just earned the ‘Crisp as Day (Level 2)’ badge on @untappd! https://t.co/ST7GHtl0tD

Dumping dollars left and right

“DOD charged the American taxpayer $43 million for what is likely the world’s most expensive gas station.”

That’s what Special Inspector General John F. Sopko found when he looked at the construction of a natural gas station in Sheberghan, Afghanistan.

According to the report, at most that station should have cost about $500,000. But in this case, the Department of Defense’s Task Force for … ⌘ Read more

I just earned the ‘Beer Connoisseur (Level 2)’ badge on @untappd! http://t.co/jxLOIMTwjN

Looks like the second big wave of site optimizations will come with HTTP/2 https://t.co/2oHl11Lio4

📚 Finished reading Crux (Nexus, #2) by Ramez Naam

NixOS 14.12 released
NixOS 14.12 “Caterpillar” has been released, the third stable
release branch. It brings Linux 3.14, systemd 217, Glibc 2.20,
KDE 4.14.1, and much more. See the release\
 notes
for details. You can get NixOS 14.12 ISOs and VirtualBox
appliances from the download\
 page. For information on how to upgrade from older release
branches to 14.12, check out the [manual section\
 on\
 upgrading](/manual/nixos/stable/ind … ⌘ Read more

@yurukov дали е PHP 5.3.2+ ?

@cloudfront is really not great at caching large pages. My miss ratio is ~75% for 1-yo static site with 2 yrs expire for pages.

NixOS 14.04 released
NixOS 14.04 “Baboon” has been released, the second stable
release branch. It brings Linux 3.12, systemd 212, GCC 4.8,
Glibc 2.19, KDE 4.12, light-weight NixOS containers, and much
more. See the release\
 notes for details. You can get NixOS 14.04 ISOs and
VirtualBox appliances from the download page. For information on
how to upgrade a 13.10 system to 14.04, check out the [manual\
 section on upgrading](/manual/nixos/stable/#sec … ⌘ Read more

NixOps 1.2 released
NixOps\
 1.2 has been released. This release contains contains many nice new features. See the manual
for details. ⌘ Read more

#ceehack14 day 2 starting after 20 minutes…

Stdenv updates branch merged into master
The stdenv-updates branch has\
 been merged into the master branch of Nixpkgs. The main
change are that brings is that Nixpkgs/NixOS are now based on
GCC 4.8 and Glibc 2.18, in addition to many smaller updates. ⌘ Read more

Cold winter morning small talk
We have 36 Fahrenheit degrees this morning (2.2° Celsius). That is mighty cold for almost-always warm, sunny Florida. I stressed it to my child yesternight: he must wear warm clothes the next day. Reluctantly he said “OK”.

Then comes this morning, and the iMessages exchange look like this:

Child:“Mama is trying to make me wear an incredibly uncomfortable shirt and is yelling like a siren.”Me:“Why? What’s going on?”Child:“She wants me to wear a … ⌘ Read more

Nix 1.5.2 released
Nix 1.5.2
has been released. This is a bug fix release. ⌘ Read more

Nix 1.2 released
Nix 1.2
has been released. See the release\
 notes for details. For installation information, see the manual. ⌘ Read more

Non-Social
Almost over two years ago I left Facebook. A few months ago I left LinkedIn and Twitter. Two weeks ago I left Google+. I also left Groupon (I don’t even know why I ever sign up for that junk!). Next is to leave here. I guess this is my way to pursuit happiness.

As Mark weblog is gone1 —perhaps step 9 was, “ Get rid of the weblog“— I enumerate what he wrote:

1. Stop buying stuff you don’t need.
   
2. Pay off all … ⌘ Read more

Microdata – wie Microformats bloß besser… (Teil 2) ?~L~X https://notiz.blog/b/11Z

Photo: Полуфабрикатен крем карамел. Малко прахче, малко мляко 2 минути бъркане и готово. Модената храна е… http://tumblr.com/x9tf8wf7z

Selling iPhone
In an effort to start saving money towards an Android based device (would love HTC Hero), I am selling my 2G 16GB iPhone. As the eBay listing reads, it is a very well kept, 2G 16GB iPhone, unlocked and jailbroken. No scratches, no blemishes. Bid starts at $1, no reserve. Yes, $1. ⌘ Read more

Радва ме това момче, засега само питон е повторил 2 пъти http://bit.ly/22uQ9y

Facebook and OpenID caching
When I first read that Facebook was going to allow OpenID logins, I was happy. OpenID means less usernames and passwords to remember. So I merrily went to setup mine, just to find out that their support was exclusively for OpenID version 2.0, and my implementation was 1.1. No graceful fall back, Facebook demands OpenID 2.0. So I decided it was time for me to upgrade my implementation for one capable to handle 1.1 and 2.0.

Of course, the first one I tried I did not like it … ⌘ Read more

Nixpkgs 0.12 released
Nixpkgs\
 0.12 has been released. See the release\
 notes for details. Meanwhile, the Nixpkgs trunk has been
updated
to GCC 4.3.3, Glibc 2.9 and X.org 7.4. ⌘ Read more

KDE 4.2 in Nixpkgs/NixOS

Image

We now have a fairly complete set of KDE 4.2 packages in Nixpkgs
and NixOS. Previously we had KDE 3.5, but it was rather
incomplete: just kdelibs and kdebase.
Now we have all that desktop goodness, such as
kdemultimedia, kdenetwork and kdegames.
You can enable KDE 4 in NixOS by setting the
services.xserver.sessionType option to
kde4. Thanks go to Yury G. Kudryashov, And … ⌘ Read more

Lesbos islanders dispute gay name
Who has the right to be called Lesbian?

Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term “lesbian”.

The islanders say that if they are successful they may then start to fight the word lesbian internationally.

The issue boils down to who has the right to call themselves Lesbians.

Is it gay women, or the 100,000 people liv … ⌘ Read more

Russia warned over Georgia move
Russia warned over Georgia move

Nato has warned Russia that its recent troop build-up in Georgia’s two breakaway regions undermines its neighbour’s territorial integrity.

Would everyone chill out, please? This time Russians, specially. I think a “Back off, and chill” behavior is mandatory. ⌘ Read more

Prepare to pay more
It seems that within four years –if nothing is done to prevent it (and nobody really knows what to do)– we [americans] will be paying $7 for a gallon of gasoline.

A very interesting post over Wired explains some of the reasons. A brief summary of them:

1. Oil companies getting tax breaks, and not passing those savings down, butpocketing them.
   
2. Theeconomic development in China and India, which increases the dema … ⌘ Read more

Ubuntu Hardy Heron released
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Service Temporarily Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to
maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) Server at www.ubuntu.com Port 80

Duh! (Homer Simpson style) ⌘ Read more

Only in Russia

Drunk Russian sleeps off knifing – A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six inch (15 cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.

Yuri Lyalin, 53, took a bus home, ate breakfast and apparently slept like a baby before his spouse noticed a handle sticking out of his back.

He was rushed to casualty but doctors found no vital organs damaged.

Amazing, isn’t it? ⌘ Read more

Vicepresident? No, thank you
Obama spurns double ticket hints

“I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to somebody who is in first place,” he told a rally in Columbus, Mississippi.

“I don’t want anybody here thinking that somehow ‘well, you know, maybe I can get both.’ Don’t think that way. You have to make a choice in this election.”

“I’m not running for vice president. … ⌘ Read more

Bush endorses McCain
Bush endorses McCain in US race

US President George W Bush has endorsed John McCain’s White House bid after the Vietnam veteran sealed the Republican nomination on Tuesday.

Mr Bush said his one-time rival would be a president with the “determination to defeat an enemy and a heart big enough to love those who hurt”.

Now you know who not to vote for. Clear, right? Any questions? ⌘ Read more

The $2 Trillion Nightmare
The $2 Trillion Nightmare

“Normally, when America goes to war, nonessential spending programs are reduced to make room in the budget for the higher costs of the war. Individual programs that benefit specific constituencies are sacrificed for the common good … And taxes have never been cut during a major American war. For example, President Eisenho … ⌘ Read more

Programmers != Antisocials
BBC NEWS: Business: Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed

A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.

This isn’t true at all.

Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with cu … ⌘ Read more

When you thought you hear it all
BBC NEWS: Toilet conference opens in Delhi

A World Toilet Summit has opened in the Indian capital, Delhi, with more than 40 countries taking part.

The four-day meeting will examine solutions and technologies that can be used to provide a basic need for nearly half the worlds population.

According to estimates, 2.6bn people around the world lack access to a hygienic toilet. The United Nations h … ⌘ Read more

OpenOffice in Nixpkgs

Image

New build farm hardware at TUD

Image

Here’s what we have: 5 Intel Core 2 Duo DualCore machines
with 1GB RAM, 2 Mac minis with 1,83-GHz Intel Core
Duo-processor, another Core 2 Duo a UPS to deal with spikes in
power supp … ⌘ Read more

Nazi crimes archives set to open
BBC News: Nazi crimes archives to set open.

The 47 million files hold Nazi records of forced labourers, concentration camp victims and political prisoners. They have been used to help people trace their relatives, but were kept closed to protect victims’ privacy. Many people felt the files should be opened to historical researchers to ensure the details of the Holocaust ( [Nazis genocide](http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/holocaust_overview_01.s … ⌘ Read more

Nix 0.9.2 released
Nix\
 0.9.2 has been released released. This is a bug fix
release that addresses some problems on Mac OS X. ⌘ Read more

BBC and WoW
From one article on today’s BBC Online news:

Occasionally gryphons and hippogriffs swept majestically overhead taking their riders to elsewhere in Azeroth or, as it is also known, the World of Warcraft (WoW).

At the edge of the computer screen chatter constantly scrolled past as other WoW players sought members forguilds, buyers for magical items, help with quests or engaged in idle banter.

Go and read: [A Walk in the World of Warcraft](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4294122.stm “ … ⌘ Read more

Terri’s autopsy: What does it means?
The results of Terri Schiavo’s autopsy were released today. BBC News reported:

Examiner John Throgmartin said there was no evidence of trauma or strangulation prior to Schiavo’s collapse. The autopsy also could not prove that she was suffering from an eating disorder at the time – her diminished potassium levels at the time could have been affected by emer … ⌘ Read more

Not guilty!
This is just news:

Singer Michael Jackson has been found innocent on all 10 charges of child abuse at the end of his trial.

The singer strenuously denied the charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy. There were cheers from his fans outside the court as the verdicts were read.

He was also cleared of giving the child alcohol and conspiring to kidnap him and his family. – BBC News

Now, let’s sue those “parents”. B … ⌘ Read more

A hell of a week
It has been a hell of a week and continues to be so. KM has been the whole week (and still is!) sick. Sick to a point that kept me home all those days. Kim and I have been very worried and needless is to say that our days hasn’t been fun one’s, to say the least.

To top it off, now we have got Frances, the hurricane that is, about to slam on us. Are we unprepared? Yes. After the week we had had we do not need anything else, honestly. I just hope it will stay category 2 or less… or that it … ⌘ Read more

WordPress and how I did it
This might as well be my last entry completely related or dedicated to WP. I am sure I will mention it here and there in the future, but it would have to be something very important for me to talk about it exclusively in one entry.

As the few of you know, I used to run Movable Type (MT) and I was happy with it. The only thing that always bothered me was the rebuild times, which were getting bigger and bigger and the fact the every comment posted would take from 2 to 5 minute … ⌘ Read more

Living on the bleeding edge
I have made a habit to upgrade WP every morning and evening to the latest CVS. As I type this I am running WP 1.2 Epsylon RC2, two hours –more or less– old. Upgrades are such a breeze that it is actually fun. I find myself looking forward to the next upgrade.

I am not alone on the habit though. Upgrading WP is, certainly, contagious. ⌘ Read more

Drawing a blank
I am drawing a blank trying to decided the new layout of this site. I have no problems with the previous one, but as I am running a new engine here I would like the layout to be new as well. I spent a significant amount of time yesterday trying to come up with something and all went to waste.

Perhaps I am procastinating until I see Wordpress 1.2 out, and have all links to be cruft free. Right now the paging, whether on c … ⌘ Read more

Fedora Core Test 3
I have installed Fedora Core Test 2 on my new XPS (dual boot), ran up2date, gotten Test 3 and I must say it is one sweet, nice coming along distribution. Hardened with SELinux, running kernel 2.6.3 and with a nice set of packages available, Fedora will certainly stand out.

I am rea … ⌘ Read more

Life with an XPS
Three weeks ago I finally got motivated — read Kim gave me an ultimatum — and sold my two Rolleiflex at eBay. The main purpose of selling them was to buy a digital camera, to replace the one I don’t have. But after consideration of:

1. The one I wanted was too expensive.
   
2. The body did not come with a lens.
   
3. I barely have time to take pictures.
   
4. KM has monopolized our home workstation.
   

I decided that the b … ⌘ Read more

To Tampa back and forth
In the last five days I have been in Tampa four times, twice by myself and twice with Kim and KM. One may say it is only 90 miles each way, not a biggie, but once it is done several times consecutively it does makes a difference.

Three days ago we thought we had the perfect apartment there but this morning Kim thought otherwise and, as quite often, she was right. She saw another apartment, just 2.8 miles … ⌘ Read more

First working week; about to start
The 2004 first working week (at least for me) is about to start. I know it is going to be difficult after 4 and a half days off, but hey, “a man has to do what a man has to do…”. I hope we (TRC staff) will know early this week who was the choosen one for the position we interviewed people for.

Went to sleep early today (around 2:00 AM). I was playing with [AnyDVD](ht … ⌘ Read more

Newly digital
I started using computers back in 1985. The PC’s I used were old dinosaurs, running at the blazing speeds of 2 MHz, with 640KB of RAM, no hard drive and 5” ¼ floppy drives. I could turn the machine on and go to flirt with girls on the halls of my college while it was booting. Sometimes I even had time to make out!

Programing was done with Quick Basic or Turbo Basic, and floppies had to be swaped at times, in endless search of the “command.com”. I had a whole collection of floppies, all carefu … ⌘ Read more