06 Apr, 07
I’m getting ready to go to the Headway Festival 2007 in Amstelveen (near Amsterdam), NL, this weekend. Although Headway is happening indoors, in P60, I will take a tent and a sleeping bag; I suppose I’ll be in for a little adventure.
The original plan was to go see both days of the festival: To-Mera, Sun Caged and California’s Zero Hour on Friday, and Saturday ending with a triple play of Loch Vostok, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and finally, Redemption. (Besides, what is it with Californian prog metal acts and websites that end in …web.com?)
So, I would go with some friends, we’d get some hotel rooms, and drive home Saturday night. As is often the case with plans, they’re subject to change. It turned out that we had to leave Friday night for personal reasons. Aside from not seeing SGM, that raised some problems: A week after we planned the trip, I got accredited to take photos for Bright Eyes Magazine, who, naturally, want me to cover both days. There was also the minor issue of having to cancel the hotel reservations, but that was free of charge, luckily. However, with no one else staying, I had to look for new accomodation, and good luck with that in Amsterdam, on Easter.
There was no chance I could get any hotel close enough to the venue for that time, and there was no chance in hell I would pay €230 per night at the Dorint or some similarly luxurious place, when all I needed and wanted was a floor to lay on, and maybe a roof over my head. Only rather late did it occur to me to check for hostels, bed and breakfast, and… camping grounds!
So now, after everyone else leaves on Friday night, I will try to get to the camping site Het Amsterdamse Bos, crawl into my tent, and hope I won’t freeze. Then, on Saturday night, do the same thing. On Sunday, well-rested (I hope), I’ll start marching towards Amsterdam Zuid WTC train station, to board an ICE going back home. Sound fun? Hell yes. Until you try to put two sleeping bags and a tent and some clothes into a photo backpack… :)
I’m off to bed, for too little sleep and trying to fit too many things into too small a bag, and then to go to the Netherlands for some good, old, concert photography. Cross your fingers for good weather :)
‘Till Monday! \m/
04 Apr, 07
Den Twist an der Sache erkennt man erst bei näherem Hinsehen:
Fein [bestellen][cat]? Oder im [Shop][shop] stöbern? **[Nur zu!][shop]**
01 Apr, 07
Okay, seriously. Habari 0.1.1 Developer Release is now available for download and hacking:
The 0.1.1 version includes a fix for the search XSS problem and removes the misleading warning in the installer.
I don’t recommend using it on a public site without being aware of the problems! At the very least, you should put your Habari install on a different domain that does not hold any important data.
You’re welcome to drop by on irc.freenode.net #habari and join us in our inspired fork… barbe… hacking!
01 Apr, 07
Hey, don’t worry! We’re just kidding! You’re reading Habari’s April Fools joke.
Update: ForkPress made 20,070,401 downloads already! I can’t believe it!
It started with great promise, great promises, and at an opportune time. Everyone and their mother were starting to get disgruntled with WordPress - it had its share of scandals, its codebase contained a lot of baggage from ye olde times, some of Matt’s decisions didn’t go over so well with people, and some didn’t like the whole dot-com stuff going on.
Habari promised everything - a complete rewrite, using today’s technology, under a truly free license, and with a meritocratic development process. And it had a number of big names behind it.
It was a nice idea while it lasted.
It is now obvious to me that both the meritocratic process as well as truly free licenses absolutely and utterly fail to produce open, free software.
You might think this to be a strange thing to say, considering Habari finally released the Developer Review version today. Well, see for yourselves:
If I appear to be angry, it’s because I am! Scott (skippy) and Owen - both cofounders of Habari - have left the very project they founded in the dust, choosing to pursue commercial interests instead. The best part is that the codebase for their fork is probably Habari, and our choice of license allowed - encouraged - them to just take the code! Considering the timing of this decision, and the polish that went into their new projects already, it seems obvious to me that this move has been planned since quite some time — taking the hard work of volunteers, and going dot-com. And the worst part? They probably won’t hire me either, just like Automattic didn’t! In short: WTF BBQ.
I must say I feel happy about Habari’s Development Review release, but at the same time, I feel utterly betrayed. On the bright side, it is a statement about Habari’s quality, but still…
Skippy, Owen… good luck with your new ventures — ForkPress and bbqPress.
Hire me?
Update: Chris J. Davis also talks about the topic.
01 Apr, 07
I kid, I kid. I have no intention of changing operating systems, at least until Linux finally is ready for the Deskop.
Plan 9 still is nice, though!
Much is foul in the state of computing today. Proprietary software is used throughout the industry as well as on the majority of personal computers. The promised Linux Desktop revolution, announced since years, has not happened so far, and people are beginning to doubt it ever will happen.
This madness must end.
No longer can we use proprietary software! Be it the proprietary operating system we use, or closed source drivers, protocols that are neither open nor standardized, or even embedded firmware in devices.
No longer must people get away with “I use Mac OS X because it’s userfriendly”, when large parts of their OS are completely closed and locking them in.
No longer can “Well, I use Windows XP, but it’s ok, I run Cygwin under it!” be tolerated, lest we all lose our GNU-given freedom.
No longer can we just watch the proliferation of patents, software or otherwise, spreading like a cancer and trying to smother our liberty.
We must stand up and fight! We must retake our freedom! We can not stand and watch as the walls grow closer, not wait until they suffocate us!
Today I’m doing the first step towards my personal free software freedom. And this freedom can not, it must not depend only on some license, or development model considerations. Licenses are manmade. The Tao of Operating Systems is bigger than that.
I’m switching to an Operating System that is pure in itself, whose radiant beauty enlightens the galaxy of computing. One which treats all resources equally, in its infinite wisdom. One which uses the only true encoding - UTF-8 - everywhere. One whose name is funny, and not some ego boosting thing (say what, Linus?).
UNIX may be dying. BSD may be dead. But from the ashes of sockets and ioctl rose the phoenix that is Plan 9.
Replacing a tried-and-true installation of Windows XP with an equally able setup of Plan 9 is easy. You just install Plan 9 — there is no need to bother with backups, partitioning, or selecting packages. After an installation procedure taking some twenty minutes, you reboot into a new, blissful existence. Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.
I want to take this opportunity to ask everyone of you, my readers, to get yourself a Plan 9 installation/live CD. In the month of April, set yourself the task of converting at least five computers from a proprietary, egoistically named, or user-friendly Operating System to the salvation that is Plan 9. Do not try to reason with the unbelievers you encounter, for you will encounter them, and they shall not be swayed from the path of darkness. Only through force can you rescue them from this downward spiral, the lefthand path, the path of usable systems and working devices. By the sword you shall spread the righteousness and glory of the path of light. Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.
Go forth, and spread it.
Remember: The open source zealot’s blood is the seed of Freedom’s tree. This is madness, you say? Madness? This is Plan 9!
Screenshots of my new Plan 9 system will follow as soon as I get my screenshot file working.
Plan 9 is the Tao, and the Tao is Plan 9.
