Sadly not because of any extensive benchmarking. There are two main reasons we’ve made the decision to go with Gentoo Linux. our sysadmin couldn’t get FreeBSD installed on the 6GB dual Xeon servers. Apparently not all the drivers for the hardware are available yet. with our main database server in torrid shape, we need to… Continue reading Linux wins out over FreeBSD for our MySQL servers
Same-sex marriage
Interesting news that the Supreme Court of Appeals has approved same-sex marriages. I say interesting because although I support the ruling, it raises interesting questions for me personally. I am unmarried, although I have a child, and am in a stable relationship – at least as much as I believe is possible 🙂 For me,… Continue reading Same-sex marriage
Google Ads and Search
I’ve added Google ads and the Google search bar to my site, more out of interest than in expectation of a vast revenue stream. The process was remarkably easy – it’s good to have a pleasant surprise technology-wise for a change. The search bar doesn’t yet search the greenman domain properly, as Google still have… Continue reading Google Ads and Search
IOL Vacancies – sysadmin and developer
An exciting day today with two resignations in the technical department. Blogging helped Russel Beattie get a job at Yahoo (at least according to this post by Jeremy Zawodny, where he claims the appointment as further proof that blogging can help smart people get jobs). Jeremy also regularly advertises Yahoo vacancies on his blog, so… Continue reading IOL Vacancies – sysadmin and developer
Wikipedia for Africa
Came across an interesting post by Ethan Zuckerman entitled What does Wikipedia want to be? Particularly topical as I’m helping Walton Pantland research an article on Wikipedia, aimed at a South African audience. My main interest in Wikipedia is the potential it has, as a multi-lingual project, to act as a body of knowledge for… Continue reading Wikipedia for Africa
Go_Open begins
I was impressed with the first episode of Go_Open. The presenter, John Vlismas if I remember the name, is, ‘funny’ according to the 18 year old sister of my partner. A relief after I feared a boring voice droning on to an already converted audience. Of course, competing with the rugby and Survivor didn’t help,… Continue reading Go_Open begins
M&G blogs, $1 DVD’s and pushing hands
I’ve been following the Mail and Guardian’s entry into blogdom quite closely, and so far been quite disappointed. The functionality seems limited, anonymous readers can’t post, and, most importantly, there aren’t many contributions. One of the few contributors I enjoy (and one of the few active contributors) is Ian Fraser. A friend of mine is… Continue reading M&G blogs, $1 DVD’s and pushing hands
History is the home address
I’ve been getting a surprising amount of referals looking for Sarah Johnson’s Personae. Of course, being far, far from an A-list blog, my hits are so low it could just be one person (or perhaps the author herself 🙂 ) looking for information. Unfortunately I haven’t read the work yet, but I plan to soon.… Continue reading History is the home address
Arrogance, slashing Slashdot (and MySQL) and the end of America
Doing some research for an upcoming Tectonic article, I came across some writings by Fabian Pascal and Christopher J. Date. They are both well-known in the relational database world, and have been particularly harsh on MySQL, calling it ‘one of the worst SQL options‘. Written before MySQL even supported transactions, and while the developers were… Continue reading Arrogance, slashing Slashdot (and MySQL) and the end of America
Firefox usage growing quickly amongst South Africa readers
With Firefox 1 being released, there’s been a rush of sites displaying their browser statistics. However, none of the big South African sites to my knowledge have done this. I’m hoping to get these stats on the IOL site itself quite soon, but I couldn’t wait. Here’s what IOL readers are using (which is probably… Continue reading Firefox usage growing quickly amongst South Africa readers