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Archive | February, 2004
Google fractures blogging communities
Dan Gillmor’s eJournal logs: Google’s Syndication Changes: Atom, not RSS. “Google’s Jason Shellen confirms that the company is dropping RSS support in favor of Atom. Blogger-created blogs that were using RSS 1.0 before had the chance to keep it going, he says.” If you’re interested in lots of details, follow the links to Dave’s post to Roger’s posts.
If you’re not, here’s the scoop from my standpoint: blogs I was reading in Blogger have disappeared from my news aggregator with no notice or clue. Google, owner of the Blogger software, changed their feed formats from RSS 1.0 to Atom 0.3. Why? I can’t understand why they were just cut off. The feeds could have been paralleled, feeding both, perhaps with a nagging note to change to the new format.
It wouldn’t be so bad if I thought there was any substantial technical advances being made. It’s pretty obvious there are some nasty folks on every side of this debate, and I’m not particularly enamored of any of them. As a consumer, I’m annoyed. As a developer, I feel that more work has been made for me without any notice. A lot of news aggregator developers are staying up late tonight trying to extend their compatibility.
Google, with a mission statement of “Don’t be evil,’ could have handled this much better.
Python progress
Found the flaw with my install last night — it’s right in the post. A dot where there should have been a slash. I thought I had gone back and fixed it, but I did something funny with the line editor in the shell window and duplicated the line, fixing it in the second copy. Left it to cook while Laura and I watched the Westminister Kennel Club show last night, and the wxPython demos work today. Hurrah!
Microsoft Security Bulletins
Microsoft issued four today, and you should evaluate them carefully to ensure your systems are secure:
- MS04-004: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer(832894)
- MS04-005: Vulnerability in Virtual PC for Mac could lead to privilege elevation (835150)
- MS04-006: Vulnerability in the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS) Could Allow Code Execution (830352)
- MS04-007: ASN .1 Vulnerability Could Allow Code Execution (828028)
Code Execution means that someone else can run code on your machine, perhaps taking it over. Serious stuff. It’s the seventh week of the year. Trustworthy computing continues.
UPDATE:Wired News picks up on the story here: Microsoft: Oops! We Did It Again. “Six months after researchers warned Microsoft about critical security flaws in Windows, the software company alerts users to the problem and offers a patch on its website. One researcher calls the delay ‘just totally unacceptable.'” and the New York Times: Technology page features it:Microsoft Warns Software Users of ‘Critical’ Flaw. “Users of Microsofts operating system software have to patch their systems again, or their computers will be vulnerable to attacks.” NYT story by John Schwartz.
Murphy kicks in
Down but not out. Successfully installed Python and have it running, but wxPython is eluding me. On the last step on the installation instructions, my luck ran out, with error messages:
[root@localhost wxPython]# python setup.py \ WX_CONFIG=$WXPREF/bin.wx-config \ build install Preparing CORE... Preparing GLCANVAS... Preparing OGL... Preparing STC... Preparing XRC... Preparing GIZMOS... Preparing DLLWIDGET... usage: setup.py [global_opts] cmd1 [cmd1_opts] [cmd2 [cmd2_opts] ...] or: setup.py --help [cmd1 cmd2 ...] or: setup.py --help-commands or: setup.py cmd --help error: invalid command 'python' (no module named 'distutils.command.python')
Ooof. A quick Google for the bottom error (the cause of the rest, if I read it correctly) points to problems in the distutil package. Attempting to reinstall that from the source brings no joy, with more obscure errors:
[root@localhost Distutils-1.0.2]# python setup.py install
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "setup.py", line 30, in ?
packages = ['distutils', 'distutils.command'],
File "/root/Distutils-1.0.2/distutils/core.py", line 101, in setup
_setup_distribution = dist = klass(attrs)
File "/root/Distutils-1.0.2/distutils/dist.py", line 130, in __init__
setattr(self, method_name, getattr(self.metadata, method_name))
AttributeError: DistributionMetadata instance has no attribute 'get___doc__'
So, at the end of the day, the score is tied: I won the Python install, Murphy the wxPython install. Tomorrow’s another day.
Installations on Linux, still a challenge
Slashdot readers debate the pros and cons of Building A Better Package Manager. As a newbie, I can say I’m certainly frustrated with the experience of trying to install packages on my Linux machines.
I spent some time today installing Python 2.3.3 and wxPython on my development workstation. First, because I’m still afraid of breaking something, I tried downloading the precompiled binarys in RPM (RedHat Package Manager) format, and clicking on them in the Nautilus graphical shell to install them. Dialogs cheerfully appeared and disappeared, progress bars filled, and then,… nothing. Presuming that no news was good news, I try running, and no, version 2.2 is still installed. Grrr. Many fumbles later, the RPM command informs me the package is not installed. I knew that. I wish I had been told, however.
So, I attempt the dreaded “building from source.” This involves downloading the source code for the package (typically C code) and running through a series of steps to properly configure it for your system and compile it. Python turned out to be a piece of cake: 3 commands (./configure, make, make install) fill the terminal window with inscrutable stuff, but eventually seem to complete successfully. Bravo to the team that put that together!
wxPython was a little more challenging. The readme file was a bit more intimidating, as the ethusiastic author wanted to make sure I understood more options than I was comfortable with. I’m about halfway through that process now, and while the stuff flying by in the window looks okay to me, we’ll see how the process comes out…
FireBird becomes FireFox
Slashdot notes that Mozilla Firebird gets .8 Release, and New Name, with the usual requisite complaints, slashdotting, links to mirrors and BitTorrent sites (BT worked fast for me!). The Register reports “Public offering for Opera, Mozilla renames browser.” and asks “Who says the browser is dead?”
Computers!
Computers just present an unending series of technical difficulties. While I am still enjoying bliss with my (er, Laura’s) Mac, and network reconfiguration here at Ted Roche & Associates have made life much better here, Radio Userland seems to be having a failure of its commenting system, causing page responses to slow to a crawl. In an attempt to speed the rendering of my home page, I’ve turned comments off for a while. If you have suggestions for a better comment server, well, I’d appreciate an email.
Microsoft: MSN and Server/Tools in the red in 2Q
From Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley: Ouch. Two Formerly Profitable MSFT Divisions See Red. F”or its second quarter in fiscal 2004, not only was Microsoft’s MSN business unit back in the red, but its Server and Tools division was, as well.”
I (heart) My iMac
I bought Laura an iMac for Christmas, and it arrived last Tuesday. What a joy to work with. As the switchers say, “It Just Worked!” Installed with 5 cables, on the internet, registered, reading, writing, rocking to CDs, playing DVD, updating, installing software. Very smooth.