Interview with Stephan Gregoire, the Linux Indy 500 driver
Bob Moore from the Tux500 Indy car project did an interview with Stephan Gregoire, the man who will be driving the Linux car in the Indianapolis 500 for Chastain Motorsports. Although not a computer person, Stephan said that the effort put into the project has led him to try Linux on a computer that will go to his daughters.
You can find the full interview over at Tux500's radio blog.
Subversion, Bugzilla and Package repository downtime
Due to a change of IP addresses several services are temporarily unreachable until the new DNS settings have replicated over the net. This should take at most 72 hours although for most of you it should be far less—24 hours max. This currently affects Bugzilla, Subversion (both the repository as the ViewVC webinterface) and the Ubuntu package repository.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Automagically convert Python objects to MySQL
by Sander MarechalI recently ran into an annoying little snag when using MySQL. Apparently MySQL cannot handle ISO 8601 datetime variables such as used by XML-RPC that use the format YYYYMMDDTHH:MM:SS. MySQL will simply convert such values to 0000-00-00 00:00:00 with a warning, so I was faced with the unpleasant prospect of converting all my XML-RPC dateTime values to something MySQL could understand.
I searched for a way to do this automatically and I came across a way tucked inside the MySQLdb Python module. MySQLdb contains a list of conversion functions and datatypes between MySQL's column types and Python's datatypes. It is possible to extend this list and pass it to the connect() method and have any datatype supported that you want. Here's how to do it.
Configuring Debian/etch on a Dell Latitude D520
by Sander MarechalA new job brings new toys :-) My new employer has supplied me with a Dell Latitude D520 laptop for programming. It came loaded with Windows XP professional which—ofcourse—had to go. Nothing inhibits productivity quite like Windows—except perhaps for the pool table and game consoles in the lunch room. Basic installation of Debian/etch went without a hitch as expected. I used the official 4.0 netinstall ISO using a cable instead of relying on wireless. After the reboot I did find a few small problems though. I'll describe them here, and what I did to fix it, so I can hopefully save other people the headaches.
Linux community attempts to sponsor Indy 500 car
The Spread Firefox community only talked about it, but the Linux community has actually set up the framework for a Linux Indy 500 sponsorship fund drive in cooperation with Acceleration Marketing. Lobby4linux's Helios was the one to announce the Tux 500 program.
The goal: to raise US$ 350.000,- or more and gain primary sponsorship of a car, including the right to name the car officially. That name will be used in all press releases and by all the media for nearly a full month. While the Tux 500 site has a slick looking model of the car on their front page, the design is still up in the air. They are running a design contest for the car.
Server move list server
Because of a new internet connection, the IP adres of the listserver has changed. Due to the nature of the DNS system, expect problems connecting for 72 hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.
SCO files motion to subpoena Groklaw's Pamela Jones
SCO in its wisdom has just guaranteed that the judges in SCO v. IBM and SCO v. Novell will have to read Groklaw. In a stunning move of stupidity they filed a motion in SCO v. IBM to subpoena Pamela Jones and they want IBM to help them get it. To quote Lamlaw:
These guys are a bunch of jerkheads. I have other words that better describe people who abuse the legal system and attempt to harm members of the public for no reason other than to engage in their illegal conduct unfettered by public opinion and comment. (Any attack on PJ is an attack on everyone at Groklaw or anyone who has ever expressed an opinion openly.)
SCO believes it is entitled to IBM's help because they think IBM actively helps Groklaw. Their evidence: A couple of blog comments, some (probably planted) editorials and the fact that IBM donated some hardware to Ibiblio, a public service internet archive that happens to host Groklaw for free.
From: Groklaw
