Recent blog entries for robster

Now at Cambridge and reading Computer Science, which is fun.

Back at school again, preparing for exams which take place over the coming weeks.

No luck still on the Debian Planet front the server is still down. But I spent most of last night beavering away at doing some development of the new site. Python is a really marvelous language and I try and use it for all my development, however, i'm not sure it is the most ideal thing. Having to implement sessions/cookie management etc myself feels such a bore. However I did enjoy coding a little SQL wrapper to help make replication work and writing a little templating system. Of course its nothing great as i'm not a great coder. But it does the job and certainly scratches my itch. Does anyone have any favourite Python based web development systems, Zope is nice and powerful but rather overwhelming, the guys at Twisted have amazing ideas, but maybe the solution is not mature enough.

Arrgh, the Debian Planet server has gone to pot, not really sure why, but from what I know, people i've talked to suspect drive failure. Hopefully not all is lost as the system has a RAID configuration. So hopefully the mirror should be able to be restored. Its been down for a while as no one has really been available to go fix it. :(

I've spent doing family things but also hacking on the Debian Planet code. The development language is Python and this is a complete and utter "start-from-scratch-and-prey-it-works" (tm) approach. An approach i'm famous for starting and never finishing.

Aww, feeling really bad today.

I'm now back in the empty void of the British countryside. I enjoyed my stay in London at Xinit. It has been a refreshing oppurtunity to put faces to the names of the people i have been working alongside in these past months.

Also it was great fun spending time with the various #brits crew and especially with Robert McQueen.

Lots of interesting things are happening with Debian Planet. We will soon be moving to new system which i have developed (so it will be very buggy) and a new webserver.

I've also had an idea for a new software project to hone my Python skills, a personal portal for Open Source fanatics. WIth cool features to make my life easier, and yours too.

OOh lazy day yesterday, involving hacking DP code to use externally linked CSS not style="" in tags.

Today, played with Xinit servers and php and had fun in #brits as usual, playing Banzai.

Updated anjuta packages entered sid today and also i got advocated.

Spent evening setting up new testnet for OPN and usual IRCOP style admin.

Well its been a while ;) I've now turned 16, finished my exams, been on holiday and are commencing my long summer holiday, with plenty of time for coding.

I'm proud to report that the Open Projects conversion is proceeding, albeit slowly, but we should have moved over to dancer-ircd, in the next few months. We also now have a traditional automake powered build system.

There have been many ups and downs for Debian Planet recently, the slashdotting of our article on woody freezing, led our ISP to temporarily suspend our service. That has now been resolved, however whilst i was away the server was compromised. Fortunately xinitsystems.com are donating a server for us to run the site on.

Thinkopen.co.uk is relaunching and is in desperate need of content, contact Denny.

Much interesting stuff is happening at Xinit, however muks almost got RH on the webserver, but i got my way and Debian woody will grace the box, i do hope he isnt too annoyed ;).

The linux expo in London on the 4/5th July was great, and a big hello to all those who i met, especially those at the debian.org who made me feel welcome, and it provided ,e with a signed GPG key.

New code for the DP site is progressing well and i hope it should be mostly complete by saturday ;) I'm having fun with ideas for caching and mirroring but these wont be used initially. Expect an initial release of venom my python powered webserver soon, which is like zope but easier to use ;)

I may finally get round to getting myself a website, where i can host much of my software.

I'm in the NM process for Debian and have had anjuta a gnome/gtk IDE for C/C++ uploaded.

Wow, the number of comments on that article has gone up to 70+!!