i summon one kim

Klaus and Bernd are NetBSD developers in Karlsruhe, who took me sightseeing (by foot) around the city yesterday, and then for a well-deserved beer and other nourishment. I had never visited Karlsruhe before, dispite having driven past it a number of times. I think it was about a year or maybe two earlier that Bernd and I tried to arrange for a meeting, but my schedule kept changing too much. I’m glad this time everything worked out perfectly.

It is now wonder that businessmen don’t complain a lot about the burden of traveling. Who cares if you have to arrive at the airport two or more hours early, if you can spend half of that time dining. On the plane you can then survive with a snack, instead of trying to operate a knife and fork in the tight space assigned to you. Not that the space is tight in business class…

After deboarding there is another excellent idea: the arrivals lounge. Unfortunately I had to hurry to a connecting flight, so I couldn’t visit it to enjoy a hot breakfast and a shower.

The second flight of the day (from London to Frankfurt) behind me I’m feeling a little bit well traveled for the day, especially after stewing for an hour in the sunny glass enclosure that is the Fernbahnhof at the Frankfurt airport. Here is a tip for anyone taking a train: go downstairs and sit by the tracks! It is nice and cool there, even if a bit noisy when trains arrive and depart. (more…)

Well, no new problems, anyway. Although what I thought would be a very short day (thanks to the extra hours put in yesterday) wasn’t. Fortunately there are only so many hours in each day, so sooner or later they all come to an end.

The vacation is getting very close now — I can already feel it!

I think a disturbing trend is developing as my vacation draws closer:

Yesterday as soon as I had left the office our OC-3 to London goes down. I do not even make it to Grand Central Terminal before my cell phone rings.

Today after market close one of the core switch blades develops bad ports. Adam and I just finished installing the replacement, and I’m on the train home.

I’m afraid to think of what’s in store for tomorrow…

(A very tired commuter signing off.)

I’ve created a couple of small patches to improve how WordPress works with Markdown:

• markdown-balancetags.diff

  The balanceTags function was preventing the Markdown autotags feature from working by thinking <http://server/page> is actually some sorf of an http tag. I didn’t want to completely disable balanceTags, so I added code to pass through http, https and ftp “tags” untouched.

• markdown-first.diff

  The wptexturize function must be called after Markdown to avoid unwanted “texturizing” of preformatted and code blocks. The fix was easy once I learned that filters have priorities. The default priority is 10, so I modified markdown.php to install itself at priority 8.

I’m beginning to think I should import WordPress to my local CVS repository.

Earlier this week all files mirrored from ISC were suddenly deleted by the Funet FTP mirror. The GW FTP mirror of BIND (and BIND 9) is a bit more conservative, so it only reported the fact that all files appear to have been deleted from the ISC server.

I finally had some time today to look into it, and I guess ISC upgraded their FTP server software (or configuration). It now ignores the -R flag in directory listings (for recursive listing of all subdirectories). I “fixed” the problem by instructing the mirror software to iterate through all directories individually. It’s painful, but there is no other option (no /ls-lRat file on the server).

The mirror at Funet has already retrieved the deleted files again, so we are in good shape on that front.

Storing links in a database is an excellent idea. Storing links in multiple databases is not. To avoid having links all over the place to manage, I wrote wp-links.php for accessing the links table in the WordPress database. The idea is to be able to get lists of links as a “standalone” feature on pages that are not using WordPress, while still being able to manage the links through WordPress as well as use the links on the journal pages. (more…)

While I was stuck waiting for car service without Internet access, I couldn’t help but wonder how much it would cost to have it on my cell phone plan. I’ve probably fallen behind in understanding all the options.

I think I have GSM data on my plan, but I don’t think a 9600 bps connection would make me happy with a web browser. I’d also need to have dialup with my ISP — a service which I’ve chosen not to have since everyone I know has broadband Internet access (with the baffling exception of my brother).

GPRS to the rescue? I think that would be a fine idea. It only presents a couple of dilemmas: I think I’d need a new phone and a new laptop. I don’t think my phone can do GPRS, and other than unsightly wires and dongles, the only option for getting the bits from the phone to my laptop would be infrared (no bluetooth). And do I still need a separate ISP as well?

I guess I don’t drive enough. Every person I talked to at the New Country Audi Service was wondering why I’m bringing in the car as it has under 5,000 miles on it. But the service manual says “every 10,000 miles or 1 year”, and I wish to keep the warranty in good standing.

However, I will make every effort to drive more during the next 12 months! :-D

I should also make the service reservation in 11 months instead of waiting a full year. This way I may actually get a loaner car from New Country instead of going through the hassle of a rental car. Their reimbursement works well, though, and a rental is better than nothing, if you’d rather go somewhere than wait.

I thought I’d wait today, so I brought my trusty laptop with me. I was really hoping to find a friendly WLAN for waiting customers as well, but no such luck. They have a couple of cubicles, though, with power outlets, so you can be productive while you wait (or write for a blog — your choice).

I’m often way behind on my personal email, and many messages can go completely unanswered. When I get home from work in the evenings, I’m just not “in the mood” for writing email: there are all sorts of household chores that need to be taken care of, or I’ve just arrived home so late there is nothing else to do but sleep.

I’ve thought about portable before, but haven’t come up with any solutions yet that I could implement right away without having some concerns on feasibility in the long term. (more…)