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Author: Stephane Daury

  • Web 2.0 Expo and Conference

    The O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo is just finishing up, and my co-worker and I had a blast with most of it. Working in the academic sphere, it really feels great to get first hand confirmation that we are perfectly on track with the rest of the industry with our vision of what is to come. Now, if only we were given the means to do it all as fast as we can dream it, which is always a challenge in a large public institution. But we’re working on that. 🙂

    One of the highlights of the conference for me, was to find out (confirm) how close the Digg architecture is to the one that we’ve been developing for our university for many years now: LAMP (though we use PostgreSQL), memcache, Linux, clustering, etc. They actually seem to be facing some challenges that we’ve already tamed in the last year and a half. They’re hiring, by the way.

    On the other hand, it was my first time in San Francisco (about time…), and I won’t lie: it’s even better than I imagined it would be! Truly a fantastic city, populated with wonderful people. First time, but definitely not the last one, especially given that I just don’t have the time to stay a few extra days to visit Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Cupertino, Mountain View, etc. Next time!

    On this, I’m going to go and enjoy the city before I have to leave tomorrow morning.

  • Google@Mcgill

    Yes! We’ve done it. McGill is now using a Google Search Appliance as its main search engine backend, which is the main reason I have been so busy in the last while.

    Despite early hardware issues and a few bugs I faced in the caching engine and XML APIs (most of which have been or are being addressed by the Google Enterprise team), I have to admit that it’s been one of the most motivating and enjoyable projects I have handled at McGill.

    You can try it out for yourself on our main search page.

    We also enabled other areas, such as our advanced course search, and classified search.

    This is of course only the tip of the iceberg, since the architecture is quasi-infinitely extensible through the feeds and OneBox concepts (both of which we already use). And as usual, I already have a head full of ideas on how to further leverage the enormous amount of digital content on campus.

    Fun times ahead!

  • What Happens When…

    What happens when you’re enjoying your work a bit too much? Well, you end up working some more in the evening instead of spending some quality time with your… blog. 😉

    I’ll get more chatty again when I’m done with the projects I’m currently handling.

  • 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

    Ars Technica has a great article on IPv6 (via Slashdot):

    As of January 1, 2007, 2.4 billion of those [IPv4 addresses] were in (some kind of) use. 1.3 billion were still available and about 170 million new addresses are given out each year. So at this rate, 7.5 years from now, we’ll be clean out of IP addresses; faster if the number of addresses used per year goes up. Are you ready for IPv6?

    If you’re not in a geek reading mood, this post’s title expresses the number of addresses IPv6 will allow for. C’mon, try and pronounce it! 🙂

  • Oops, the jig's up

    From the source article, on ABC News:

    […] spring breakers, here’s a thought: Before going online to post those pictures of you and your friends dancing atop a table at Senor Frog’s, know that your debauchery will probably pop up on many more screens than you intended. Potential employers, school administrators and admissions officers, and vindictive exes can see them too, and decades from now, when college is a mere memory, those photos will still live on the Web.

    When the mainstream press and the audience it targets both start catching on to this, you just know that 5,345,961 blogs, photo/video sharing communities and other social networking sites just closed and/or lost their venture capital today alone. Did I just hear a pop? Nah…

  • March To Be Month of PHP Bugs

    From the source article, on SecurityFocus (via Slashdot):

    Stefan Esser is the founder of both the Hardened-PHP Project and the PHP Security Response Team (which he recently left). Federico Biancuzzi discussed with him how the PHP Security Response Team works, why he resigned from it, what features he plans to add to his own hardening patch, the interaction between Apache and PHP, the upcoming “Month of PHP bugs” initiative, and common mistakes in the design of well-known applications such as WordPress.

    Given the success of the Month of Apple Bugs project, I think it’s a fantastic idea. This said, our sys admin at work isn’t too thrilled by the prospect of having to patch our many PHP installs everyday in March… 😉

  • Action Plan for Killer Asteroids

    From the source article, on the Beeb:

    A draft UN treaty to determine what would have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year. […] The association has asked a group of scientists, lawyers, diplomats and insurance experts to draw up the recommendations.

    Sorry, it’s hard to type while I’m laughing so hard… Yeah, those are definitely the people to put on the job! All they’re missing are religious leaders, and we’re sure to have a speedy conclusion to that project. 😉

  • OpenMoko is Picking Up Steam


    From the source article, over at the always great LinuxDevices.com:

    FIC has announced an on-sale date for its Neo1973, expected to be the first low-cost, high-volume phone with a user-modifiable Linux-based operating system. Additionally, the OpenMoko project building open-source software for the phone has published a wealth of technical resources. […] The first [release phase was] Feb. 11, with free phones for prominent open source community members. The real sale date will be March 11. That’s when the online store opens, and everyone can buy one direct, for about [US] $350.

    I read about the OpenMoko project the same day the iPhone was announced, and I really think I’m more eager to see a Neo1973 than I am to see Apple’s upcoming solution.

    There are very good photos (1, 2, etc) of the device’s innards on the project’s wiki for the hardware enthusiasts.

  • Minilogue/hitchhikers choice

    The stop motion animation in the following music video is beautiful on its own, but the fact that the medium is a simple white board truly makes it amazing to me.

    Music by Minilogue
    Animation by ljudbilden & piloten

  • Is this Really Fair?

    The above image shows the OS X weather widget for Montreal (Quebec) and Boynton Beach (Florida): -13°C v. 23°C (or 9°F v. 73°F). Why, you ask? Because I’m in the former, and my wife and kids are in the latter for the week…

    Does that sound fair to you?

    But I’ll have my revenge when I go to San Francisco for the Web 2.0 Expo in April, and maybe the Red Hat Summit in San Diego in May. Muhahahaha!