i summon one kim

I’ve released DoFollow 2.0 to go with WordPress 1.5.1. The functionality is the same as before, and the plugin can be used with (an unpatched) 1.5 as well.

The patch I had proposed to core WordPress functionality is gone: the developers prefer to keep the current nofollow implementation as is. If you had previously applied the patch, you can download a copy from Mosquito issue #1087 and reverse it (e.g. using patch -p -R).

I wanted to make this change to DoFollow, as it removes a chunk of code that was digging in some internal structures of WordPress that don’t have an exposed and documented API. Now it is much less likely that changes to DoFollow would be required for maintaining compatibility with future WordPress releases.

It’s difficult to say right away why one should read this book. In fact, it would seem easier to say why one might not want to read it. Mary Doria Russell’s latest book, A Thread of Grace, is about Jewish refugees in North-Western Italy during the last couple of years of WW II. It’s fiction, but based on memories and stories of real people.

At first it seems there are too many characters to keep track of, but soon when the book switches between each storyline you’ll recall them all. In the back of your mind you can’t wait for the next turn for each of the characters while reading the chapters about others. (And if you temporarily lose track, there’s a list in the beginning of the book for your reference.)

While I was reading the book I kept thinking how impossible it is to understand what was going on in WW II. You’ll get an idea from the book, but I don’t think words can properly convey it all. The people who have experienced it are probably not likely to want to share their stories. What happens when the generations with the memories are gone?

The name of the book refers to the courage and generosity demonstrated by the Italians providing shelter for the refugees. However, having just finished the book, it feels haunting to me. It would be easier to not think about wars — in a way they seem unreal to me, never having experienced one (and hopefully I never will).

Yet I’d recommend this reading this book. I also recommend passing it on to a friend so you can talk about it afterwards, rather than keeping your thoughts to yourself.

Well, the moving has started: I’ve relocated these pages to a server in Finland. The timestamps are now in Finnish (East European) time, although I’m still in the New York area for a couple more months. In a couple of weeks I expect to be able to start powering down servers in the USA, and in a couple of weeks more the movers should be here packing everything.

When experts say moving is one of the most stressful events of your life, believe them! It certainly is: even while you know exactly what needs to be done to get ready for the move, it seems like either there is too much to do or you feel like you are not doing enough. Either way, losing sleep is the result…

I’m having trouble deciding what to do immediately after June 30th. I think I only have a couple of days to decide, and then I should be busy ordering tickets for the flights.

“Return for a visit,” you ask? That is, unless you’ve already been participating in the rumors of my upcoming move to Finland.

It’s true — after 13 years in the States, I’m moving out. I’ve given 10 weeks notice on my apartment. My office is being closed, and I’m taking the opportunity to move back to Finland. (more…)

I’ve been reading about the new passport requirements the USA is making of visa-less visitors, and now there was an article about it in Hesari. I guess I should plan to return for a visit before my passport expires in 2007.

Unless they implement the plan to issue RFID tags to all foreigners for automatic tracking. Traveling is supposed to be something you do for fun, and I don’t consider wearing an electronic ankle bracelet much fun. I guess plan B is to meet all my American friends in Montreal or Vancouver.

I just hate it when I test a new version of NetBSD on a couple of machines successfully, and only run into trouble when I push the ugprade to a busy server. After upgrading the server where these pages live to 3.99.1 the machine paniced in the TCP/SACK routines roughly once every 36 hours (really has to do with the traffic, not time). I tried upgrading again, to 3.99.3, but that was worse: the machine would hang within 2 hours. Now I’ve downgraded back to 3.99.1 and disabled SACK, hoping to get a stable environment.

I’m still running 2.99.15 on other busy machines, and it has been very solid — I cannot recall a single panic, hang or crash. It’s just that a) somebody needs to test the new stuff, b) I keep hearing things like “it only happens on your machine” (ugh) and c) holding off from upgrading for too long tends to make for painful upgrades. However, it might still be possible to convince me to run the netbsd-3 stable branch…

So if you can’t read this, please check back soon — I’m just recovering from a panic. :-)