Being the thoughts and writings of one Gustaf Erikson; father, homeowner, technologist.
One dumb employee, or a set of stupid support policies, can just ruin your entire day.
Any resemblance to other situations in any way, shape, or form are entirely coincidental… ¶
Posted at 21:55,
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I had to try to extract about 12,000 IP addresses from our click database, over a period of one and a half months. The table is famously big[1] (140,000 rows a day) and indexed on the date.
I don’t know what flew in me, but my first attempt was to generate SQL queries for each IP and run that query over the timespan. That’s 12,000 queries at about a minute apiece, in other words 8 days. Plus I couldn’t run it all the time, as it bogged down the database.
Then I found a better way. I took all rows for the timespan and checked if the IP was in a hash. If it was, I kept it, otherwise I just went on to the next one. I can’t believe I was so stupid I tried the first approach at all, and that I’m now blogging about it…
[1] in our system, you probably have much bigger tables.
Posted at 21:22,
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A new installment in the Malazan series, this moves the action to a wholly different part of the world? universe? — it’s not clear. It’s been a while since I read the preceding book, and my grasp of all the different races, gods, and demons is a bit shaky, but I’m pretty sure we haven’t encountered the Tiste Edur in detail before.
They are an agricultural people about to be conquered by the rapacious Letherii, whose society is like a caricature of our own Western society. But all is not as it seems, as the closest this series has to a figure of pure evil, the Fallen God, has other plans…
A good read as usual with Erikson.
Posted at 13:25,
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The English language is incapable of expressing how much I loathe Outlook. I’d have to learn Klingon to really get the point across. ¶
TPN Rock on iTunes Music Store.
If the above doesn’t work, try searching for “tpn rock” in the podcast directory. ¶
Updated: Ewan points to the canonical location.
Updated on Friday, 2005-12-09.
Posted at 10:52,
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It feels both surreal and sickening to have to defend out fundamental freedoms against those who want to stop people from sharing music. How is possible that we can contemplate so much damage to our society simply to protect the business model of a handful of companies. ¶
[…] OPML, as specified, is a non-format. It’s the alluring vapor of a specification that isn’t there. ¶
Posted at 22:07,
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Yesterday I decided to do something about my frayed nerves and headed into town for (consumer) R&R.
I went to SF-Bokhandeln in Gamla Stan to stock up on Steven Erikson books. I just bought the first one in the Malazan series though, as I remembered that the second has a horrific battle scene at the end that I don’t really think I can handle right now.
Gamla Stan was of course packed with holiday shoppers standing around like lost sheep in the corners of the alleys, blocking the way with their umbrellas.
After that ordeal I grabbed something to eat at Söderhallarna and went to see the new Harry Potter flick on an impulse. The films are even more episodic than the books, which read as loosely coupled scenes hung together with the very thinnest of plot threads. The movies just lurch from one FX scene to another.
Posted at 16:52,
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Posted at 21:26,
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The ITU’s institutional bias is towards complex solutions that enshrine the role of legacy telcos, managed scarcity and self-proclaimed intelligent networks that are architected to prevent disruptive change by users on the edge. ¶
Posted at 16:10,
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I made the mothership’s fortune file with the following:
<gerikson> some guy was complaining that we (systems and support)
didn't do anything but always pointed to <acronym title="Sarbanes-Oxley Act">SOX</acronym>
<gerikson> we told him to shut up and submit a ticket instead
Posted at 10:53,
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This may be the final iteration of the post-observation.pl script —
now with plinks and fancy-smanchy CSS styling. ¶
Just a new observation to test appending.
I’ll add a new para just for the fun of it.
And how about some code?
print FILE $anchor, "\n";
print FILE join "\n", @input;
print FILE ' ' . $anchor_link, "\n\n";
There, done. ¶
Today I learnt that it’s always a good idea to include a WHERE clause in an UPDATE. ¶
Posted at 11:52,
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The purple number meme resurfaces. I’ve been thinking about this the last days since I implemented them for this kind of post. ¶
Posted at 23:42,
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Posted at 23:10,
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Sindy and Ester. ¶
Posted at 20:38,
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Posted at 21:23,
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As much as I think Dave Winer is an ass sometimes, I must say that the free-form blogging he engages in — just post a link and a comment to it — is pretty attractive sometimes. Having to invent a descriptive title every time you want to write something gets old fast, especially in Blosxom, where your title is essentially your filename in your text editor.
Thus “Observations”, a new dubious feature of The occasional scrivener. Inspired by Fredrik Lundh I will use these as a scratchpad for random thoughts and one-liners. Todo: add anchors so people can link to the nuggets. This will have to be automated somehow, or perhaps Markdown has support for this now.
Update 2005-11-20: I hacked together a little Perl script for this. Next plan is to use this as an input method for mails sent from my mobile. Ubiquitous blogging, ahoy!
I also created a new category for them. However, due to the fascist nature of the Atom plugin, I won’t move the already created posts there.
Updated on Sunday, 2005-11-20.
Posted at 20:19,
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Nothing sucks more than an iPod with a flat battery. The ‘hold’ button is there for a reason.
The process of acquiring cats is underway. When I post pictures of them, this will finally be a real blog.
I remember listening to Lloyd Cole’s Bad Vibes album and playing Wolfenstein 3D at the same time. God I’m old. ¶
I love the way you wear that Motorola generation chic, momma
[…]
You might call it ultra-violet radiation,
It’s only sunlight— Lloyd Cole, So you’d like to save the world
Bad Vibes is way under-appreciated. Snagged for the ‘pod tonight. ¶
Posted at 19:18,
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Posted at 21:38,
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Matt arrives safely in Kansas:
<Matt770> It is fscking cold
Happy birthday, Erik!
Mike Arrington gets the kiss of death from DaveW. Beware, Adam Curry is now persona non grata with the Davester, in spite of earlier praise.
In T9, ‘scoble’ is ‘ramble’.
It sucks that you cannot mark items as “Keep new” in Bloglines mobile, using the default browser on the 6630.
James Robertsson, Pity the PR Professional:
I, like many others, have grown tired and weary of the self-satisfied, holier than thou, “A-list bloggers” who believe they hold disproportionate sway on the matters of the day.
Isn’t it weird that MS VPN support under Unix is better in some ways than under Windows? I mean, you can configure your routing in Unix, I’ve yet to find out how to prevent my BT traffic to go via the corporate servers when using WinXP.
Note, I said “better” above, not simpler.
“Command & Conquer: Generals” is even more USA-tastic than the previous incarnations. At least you have a fighting chance as playing as the “terrorists”. I started with China though, gotta love that holdover Soviet vibe they have in the game.
Google Base is the next Orkut.
Rui:
Had a very productive work day (mostly due to the fact that an internal event whisked away a whole team and it was way quieter than average).
[…] Which leads me to the conclusion that whoever came up with the asinine theory that open-space offices make people more productive must have been ignored (or, more likely, snubbed) by his/her colleagues every day.
Update 2005-11-19: Scoble corrects the third observation above.
Updated on Saturday, 2005-11-19.
Posted at 19:51,
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Posted at 21:17,
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Dave Winer:
Singling me out for abuse should be, and I believe is, bad strategy, and bad representation for [Ratcliffe’s] client, Audible. They both owe an apology for this abuse. I don’t expect one from Ratcliffe (although I would accept it) but I do expect one from Audible.
Now where have I heard this before?
This is what Mitch Ratcliffe says on his disclaimer page:
You’ll probably not be surprised by the fact that I am often critical of companies and people with whom I do business, at least those of you who know me will not be: I get paid to be honest with people, to tell them exactly what I think and to pull no punches, whether in writing, consultative work or as an advisor.
I predict interesting consequences.
Update 2005-11-14: Mitch engages Dave in yet another post. Kudos to him for keeping his cool.
Update 2005-11-15: This is the last word as far as I’m concerned.
Updated on Tuesday, 2005-11-15.
Posted at 17:47,
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I really should have blogged this then (2005-11-11) but I simply didn’t have time (also, I was hung-over). I attended the weekly sub rosa breakfast gathering at KTH, which this day had a celebrity guest: Johan Norberg and was therefore packed. We were supposed to discuss the EU, but true to form the discussion rambled. I made the observation that there are at least three European Unions:
No conclusions were reached in the time I was there. I had to leave after an hour to get to work. Maybe the riots in France were discussed, I don’t know.
The rest of the day was rather hectic. Being as I noted a bit hung-over didn’t help. Even so, I feel pretty good about work right now. My colleague and I have found a pretty effective way of dealing with the daily deluge of issues, and we’re even finding some time to handle unscheduled stuff. Of course, there’s a whole lot of issues remaining, such as the pay and pensions situation, but I feel I can’t do anything about that right now anyway.
The evening was a nice little Ubuntu-fest, as previously noted.
Posted at 16:42,
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Posted at 22:16,
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Due to a little accident, my wife’s standard laptop is hors de combat — basically, I dropped our son on it (from a small height, I hasten to add) and the power connection broke. So it boots, for about 5 seconds, before discovering that the battery is flatter than Kansas.
I have in my possession an elderly laptop with no more than 256M of RAM, much too little to run a modern Microsoft OS. So I decided to check Ubuntu out. This is supposed to be “Linux for human beings”, so I figured this would be OK for non-geeks.
I downloaded an install CD via BitTorrent and used it to install it. The installation went really well. I had to fight my old-skool Debian and OpenBSD instincts and just let things go as designed. Ubuntu has made a great product — it installed seamlessly on the lappy and presented a clean, workable graphical interface that I think will be acceptable for Linux-o-phobes.
The only thing that didn’t work out of the box was the wi-fi pc-card I bought expressedly for its OpenBSD compatibility. However, I discovered that I had no less than four wi-fi cards lying around, and the oldest 3Com card worked fine.
I’ve been using this laptop all day (in between re-stacking our woodpile) and I really enjoy it. Small stuff, like Alt-Tab window-switching and Alt-F4 window close work exactly like in Windows. But having a real Debian system underneath just feels sooo much better than Windows crap leavened with Cygwin goodness.
Posted at 17:05,
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Posted at 21:57,
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Posted at 00:15,
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Posted at 23:14,
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My good friend Giséla Linde has finally got an online showroom/store. It’s at www.textoform.net, and the designs look fantastic. I must say her husband Petter has done a great job with the web design too.
There’s a blog too, at Gisélas silverblogg (in Swedish).
Posted at 22:26,
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Posted at 21:48,
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Feh. There should be a warning printed on this 1,144 page book:
This is the first book in a series
Dunno if I’ll buy the sequel. Hamilton is a capable wordsmith, and the plot moves along at a respectable clip. But the surface is a bit too polished, the characters a bit too much like cardboard.
scifi.com says:
This is the type of book that publicists call “epic” that others might less charitably describe as “bloated.” […] An editorial pruning might have put this prospective doorstop on more people’s “to read” lists.
Posted at 20:54,
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Posted at 00:34,
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Posted at 00:25,
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I came home late today after a phone meeting with the mothership, and should have gone straight to bed. I’m already running a sleep deficit, after all. But nooo, I just had to check some stuff out online first.
Posted at 01:14,
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Sunshine after a rainy day: Kathleen Edwards’ “Building 55”.
Posted at 21:39,
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To whom it may concern: my workday begins at 09:00 CET today.
Posted at 08:57,
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… for the BAFTA nomination!
And many thanks for TPN Rock. It really makes Friday’s special. I keep meaning to try to write it up, but I just can’t seem to find the time.
Posted at 22:32,
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Posted at 22:32,
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Question: what is defamation?
Answer: An attack by speech on the good reputation of a person or business entity. Speech that involves a public figure—such as a corporation—is only defamatory if it is false and said with actual malice. It also must be factual rather than an expression of an opinion. In the United States, because of our strong free speech protections, it is almost impossible to prove defamation against a public figure.
Question: What is the difference between libel and slander?
Answer: Libel is a defamatory statement expressed in a fixed medium such as a writing, picture, sign or electronic broadcast. Slander is a defamatory statement expressed in a transitory form such as speech.
Question: What is disparagement?
Answer: As defined in Black’s Law Dictionary (7th ed. 1999), disparagement is “A false and injurious statement that discredits or detracts from the reputation of another’s property, product, or business. To recover in tort for disparagement, the plaintiff must prove that the statement caused a third party to take some action resulting in specific pecuniary loss to the plaintiff.”
(From FAQ about Protest, Parody and Criticism Sites.)
Posted at 22:26,
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Om personuppgifterna behandlas uteslutande för journalistiska ändamål gäller i huvudsak bara bestämmelserna om säkerhet i PuL. Inom ramen för ett journalistiskt ändamål ligger att informera, utöva kritik och väcka debatt om samhällsfrågor av betydelse för allmänheten. Undantaget är inte avsett bara för etablerade massmedier och personer som är yrkesverksamma inom sådana medier utan även andra kan behandla personuppgifter för journalistiska ändamål.
Uppgifter av rent privat karaktär omfattas normalt inte av undantaget, även om uppgifterna publiceras i ett sammanhang som i övrigt har journalistiska ändamål eller rör personer som det också lämnas andra uppgifter om som omfattas av det journalistiska ändamålet.
(Ur Vad gäller när personuppgifter behandlas på webbplatser?.)
Posted at 21:58,
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Update 2005-11-04: this post has been edited in accordance to the wishes of H & N Consulting.
[Note: I’m posting this during my lunch hour.]
A mail today [2005-11-02] from H & N Consulting:
Dear Mr. Erikson,
We regret to inform you that our company today has decided to take legal actions against you and your employer.
You have not lived up to the agreement you sent us yesterday. You are still slandering our company and CEO. We have proof that we did not spam any web blogs. These proofs will now be used against you in a court of law.
Unfortunately, we will also sue your employer since you have posted these accusations during regular business hours.
[…]
Sincerely,
H & N Consulting
[This email did not have a confidentiality agreement attached.]
This is my reply:
These accusations are absurd.
The are no references to the name “XXX” in my posts.
You have crossed a line. Go ahead with your lawsuit. When I have been served, I will comment on the situation in accordance to the rights of free speech. You may be assured that the name “XXX” will, in the future, be associated with suppression of free speech and legal posturing.
Good luck in trying to build a business with a reputation like that.
[The referenced name has been altered to “XXX”.]
Update 2005-11-03: after the first white heat of anger, I’m feeling much more sanguine about the whole affair.
I have contacted my hosting provider, and he suggested (but did not require) that I remove all references that may give cause for offence. I have now done so.
I have contacted my employer and explained the situation to them. By the way, this website is covered by a disclaimer.
The fact that the legal threats were not delivered by a legal representative gives rise to the suspicion that no-one within the profession will touch this with a ten-foot pole. That, or financial constraints.
I have uncovered some interesting facts about the Swedish data protection law, PuL. Specifically the Ramsbro case, where a man was acquitted for publishing the names of bank presidents and financiers on the internet.
Basically, you can publish personal facts (including names) if you do so in a “journalistic manner”, to inform, critizise, and cause debate. I feel that the fact that a 2-bit “search engine optimisation” company can use vague legal threats to shut down free speech on the internet to be cause for debate.
As to the accusations of slander, I cannot see how that applies, as slander is “defamatory statement expressed in a transitory form such as speech”.
Thanks to the good people in #mobitopia for their support and advice.
Updated on Friday, 2005-11-04.
Posted at 13:27,
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Update: edited to remove mildly offensive pun on a certain person’s name.
Updated on Thursday, 2005-11-02.
Posted at 14:39,
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