doubtfulace

• UK Number 10 petition for marriage equality. Please sign and forward.

• The revenge of Cat Le-Huy.

• Not that this is me or anything.

• Searching with Bing will actually cost you money.

• NotN: Turnbull still stuck with Liberal leadership; "Going Rogue" sells 500,000 copies, some read; Jordan eats kangaroo's anus; Boris Johnson to become Sheriff of London.

This week I got a NEW CAMERA, had lunch with nyecamden (and got a video of the Russell Square fountain for Wikipedia — a picture of a fountain is nothing to watching it actually burbling away) and was very tired. And played with Freda a lot and got stuff done at work.

After spending some time earlier in the week hand-reconciling three VirtualHost httpd.conf files that were different not only to the checked-in version but to each other (for our biggest-earning site, so rather important to get right), I asked on Twitter/Facebook about how to do macro expansion in Apache httpd.conf. The answer is, of course, mod_macro. The catch is that there are no binaries readily available for anything but Leengux, so they have to be hand-compiled for Solaris. This is fine when your Apache was compiled with gcc, less so when your live servers (12 CPU/96 thread T5140 Niagara beast machines) are running Web Stack, a Solaris-optimised AMP compiled with Sun CC. The answer is to get out there and shave that yak: download a 493MB .tar.bz2 of the entirety of Sun Studio 12.1 (which I wasn't aware is now freeware), spend ten minutes uncompressing it to 530MB (why isn't pbzip2 used by everyone?), spend twenty installing it then compile the single 30KB mod_macro.c file. And it Just Works. *exhale*

(I thought gcc-compiled .so were meant to be able to link to Sun CC programs, at least in C if not C++. httpd appears to feel otherwise, however.)

TRANSLATION FOR NON-GEEKS: I have done (obscure technical trick) that required (going ridiculously out of my way to do what should have been a simple thing) but which worked brilliantly, and will save me having to do (ridiculous effort from a few days ago) and will save us (a twisty maze of configuration files, all different when they should all be the same). Computer roadieing, man. Everything is gaffer tape.

Today we are going shopping, then I am rebuilding the front room and bleaching my hair and going to Vagabonds with the NEW CAMERA and capturing your soul. Just as soon as I have yet more caffeine.

I tweeted the following, in a discussion with someone else:

@jeamland mr landeryou has some history on wikipedia. (i did the sockpuppet investigation.)

Mr Landeryou saw fit to send me a threat for this:

( full headers )

--0016364275f7efd07804795b1708
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

dgerard@gmail.com

Mr Gerard,

I am told you made reference to me in your musings on Twitter. I don't know
you, would rather not have to become familiar with who you are and what on
Earth possessed you to comment so freely about me or to edit Wikipedia to
say absurd things about me.

Your entitled to your opinion of me but I think it might be best for you to
discuss claims you make about me with me first. If you don't, I'll promise
to return the favour after an investigation into exactly what ails you. And
that really would be a waste of time for me and a very unpleasant outcome
for you, so I urge you to Twit more carefully in future.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Landeryou

I look forward to an exchange involving pie charts.

p.s.: if you don't want your months-long-running Wikipedia shenanigans remembered, it helps not to have done them. Oops, too late.

( First shots from new camera! Can you guess who it is? )

• David Nutt spanks glib Sky News interviewer. Pwnage.

• When Tories start even sidling up to "family values," the stockings, suspenders, binbag and tangerine are close behind.

• World's tallest model.

• NotN: Shroud of Turin proven genuine after Large Hadron Collider switched on; Chrome OS's ability to boil babies disputed by Microsoft; Microsoft in exclusive search-engine deal with Murdoch.

I have bought a camera, the Fujifilm F70EXR I've been lusting after volubly since it was announced. Dispatched today, arriving tomorrow via ShittyLink. 10× optical zoom. And ISO TWELVE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED, man. Holy crap. I will be going wild with it at Vagabonds on Saturday.

Signs you might be a big poof: you keep adding "in the metaphorical sense" when you say you're feeling utterly buggered.

I have volunteered to help with the Open Rights Group board election. Being Australian is a plus point for working on a single-transferable-vote election. The precise method used will be Meek's, which is sorta complicated for more than two winners but is quite manageable for two — more complicated than an Australian House election, less complicated than an Australian Senate election. The fancy bit in Meek is that the winner's votes over quota get partially redistributed to help determine the second place. I need to write up the worked example.

(Join today. Five quid a month to kick Mandelson's bloody stupid idea to the kerb.)

Thank goodness the three-quid Co-Op Spanish red wine is eminently guzzlable, with only a soupçon of a petrol aftertaste.

• Fight Mandelson's Digital Economy bill. Join the Open Rights Group. £5/mo direct debit. They kick arse.

• On which topic, I wish I'd written this.

• Personally, I blame Fight Club.

• A marching band does "Personal Jesus."

• NotN: In full: The Queen's Speech; Tesco Value Internet enters the broadband market; European Union renamed "Greater Belgium".

I think that's enough Roxy Music. Early Years suggests why they were slightly musically interesting at the time, but oh God the lyrics.

I had a nice date with nyecamden on Wednesday evening. That he lives in staggering distance of work helps.

Freda has been recovering nicely and is much perkier and more playful. Her four front teeth are no longer there, so she has these two fangs and a slight lisp. She's still puzzled by the missing teeth.

Today we do more house shuffling. w00t!

A question for the geeks: what is the use case for accepting OpenID in business? Why does hardly anyone do so? Boss's boss had a customer ask if we were accepting it. It's hard enough finding providers; accepters are like hen's teeth. I can think of all sorts of caveats off the top of my head, I'm looking for examples of using it. All I know of are blogging sites that accept it as easier than filling in your name and email each time. Dreamwidth is pretty much the greatest user I know of. Is there anyone in the world who accepts it in a context where money may be involved?

Work conversation: "Right, so what's that program written in?" "Their own poop, at a guess."

• The person responsible for the Windows 7 Party video appears to have escaped custody. AUGH MY EYES.

• NotN: Household chemicals turning boys all girly.

Freda's dental operation appears to have been a complete success, only a year after she needed it. Six teeth removed and we have them in a little jar for when she starts asking about tooth fairies. She puked spectacularly all over arkady on the way home on the tube (a known side effect of the anaesthetic gas) but went OM NOM NOM on Arkady's special fried rice for dinner.

Meanwhile, I have been exceedingly tired the past few days, actually fell asleep for a while in the hospital and am currently lying in bed with aching muscles. I could quite do without flu right now kthx. Date with nyecamden tomorrow evening.