Void Main feat. Richard Stallman – Follow the GNU .ogg

Now, some of you may not ever write computer programs, but perhaps you
cook.  And if you cook, unless you're really great, you probably use
recipes.  And, if you use recipes, you've probably had the experience of
getting a copy of a recipe from a friend who's sharing it.  And you've
probably also had the experience -- unless you're a total neophyte -- of
changing a recipe.  You know, it says certain things, but you don't have
to do exactly that.  You can leave out some ingredients.  Add some
mushrooms, 'cause you like mushrooms.  Put in less salt because your
doctor said you should cut down on salt -- whatever.  You can even make
bigger changes according to your skill.  And if you've made changes in a
recipe, and you cook it for your friends, and they like it, one of your
friends might say, "Hey, could I have the recipe?"  And then, what do you
do?  You could write down your modified version of the recipe and make a
copy for your friend.  These are the natural things to do with
functionally useful recipes of any kind.

Now a recipe is a lot like a computer program.  A computer program's a lot
like a recipe: a series of steps to be carried out to get some result
that you want.  So it's just as natural to do those same things with
computer programs -- hand a copy to your friend.  Make changes in it
because the job it was written to do isn't exactly what you want.  It did
a great job for somebody else, but your job is a different job.  And
after you've changed it, that's likely to be useful for other people.
Maybe they have a job to do that's like the job you do.  So they ask, "Hey,
can I have a copy?"  Of course, if you're a nice person, you're going to
give a copy.  That's the way to be a decent person.

So imagine what it would be like if recipes were packaged inside black
boxes.   You couldn't see what ingredients they're using, let alone change
them, and imagine if you made a copy for a friend, they would call you
a pirate and try to put you in prison for years.  That world would create
tremendous outrage from all the people who are used to sharing recipes.
But that is exactly what the world of proprietary software is like.  A
world in which common decency towards other people is prohibited or
prevented.

The above text was taken from: http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt Feel free to spread the love of free software + music… and of course, follow the GNU! :-)

If you got interested in Stallman’s views, and would like to know a little more about his view on the music industry etc, feel free to take a look at this video that I have recorded on 2009′s IT Giants at Cracow AGH University:

What I don’t “like” there is that an server is bound to one special domain that they call the server’s “main domain“. Fair enough, he ought to have some “main” thing right? Basically, the domain is identified 1 to 1 with the server, and this one, has some special stuff it can do. It’s like “I’ll call this server example.com” and then you work with example.com, kinda not caring wtah server it is. And that’s not harmful at all but:

The problem comes up if you host multiple domains – each of which would like to be “mainish” – be able to setup email accounts easily etc.

The part with multiple websites is simple: you set it up using what they call “multidomains” (weird name…) – it’s basically like httpd’s VirtualHost stuff. “Ok, nice.”  – you think and then want to setup mail adresses for those domains you’ve hooked up to this server. Should be easy – right? You could just enter some [login]@[domain] and be done with it. But it’s not that simple since all you can do is add emails inside the servers “main domain” (if you’d try to youd get into relay domain denial stuff). You’re forced to buy some sucky (25MB POP accounts) extra “MX pack”… I’ve encountered this while using an domain not registered in OVH, so it’s possible that this is easier with domains bought “from them”, but I doubt it (nothing suggesting this in sight on their website).

To sum it up: You can only easily set up email accounts for an domain that is the servers “main domain” – it’s 2 clicks. Setting the same stuff up for an “not main domain” – will cost you a little extra.

Another weirdity is that if you want to change an servers main domain – it’ll cost you a little (not much).

That said – ovh is an reiable hosting company and does not try to “rob” the user from every penny he’s got like nazwa.pl does on their “WOWOWO FREEEE* domains” – you can guess what for the * there is… ;-) I’ve seen lot’s of hosting operators and ovh is certainly one of the best when it comes to “techy stuff”. I also often recommend (and have used) linuxpl.com it’s also very nice for virtual hosting – I’ve seen an VPS there and it was horrible – many “magical” things were happening there (it was openvz based if I recall propperly) but Virtual Hosting is top class there (svn, python, rails, ssh, synfony, all preinstalled :-))

Our server “Kopiec” is somewhat online (running CentOS off course) – we’re able to start/stop if thanks to a tool that’s called “remote insight”, and I’ve put 3 databases on there. MariaDB, InfiniDB and a clean MySQL instalation. We’re somewhat having problems with TokuDB, but that’s going to be our 4th database of interest. If you want to keep track of our test’s you can take a look at: http://mysqlintegra.project13.pl/.

The first step in getting things tested is filling those db’s with some data, and I mean a LOT of data. So we hacked up a more or less quick and dirty python script called dbfiller (source code avaiable on github) that would simulate a very simple table generation scheme (people working on shifts and checking in when they’re finished or start some activity). If you’re interested, our task is specyfied in the /doc/Opis.pdf file (sorry, only in polish). After a few days it’s up and running and we’re moving on to filling up those databases with some gigabytes of data.

Next we’re going to write some SQL Views/Procedures and then we’ll use Apache JMeter to run some performance benchmarks of some interesting data storage engines.

PS: If you’re wondering about my GWT-Crossword project – yeah, it’s still actual, and I’ll get right on it when done with some of the stuff here.
PPS: Yes, an Linux powered phone AT LAST in my hands! The HTC HERO is comming to me really soon – never again shall I use a ShitOS like WindowsMobile 6.5.

Yeah it’s simple, rough anc certainly not the next Katedra… ;-) But as a person that totaly sux at graphics I’m quite happy with it, take a look and let me know what you think.

Oh and some other animations by my classmates are avaiable on this youtube playlist, feel free to check it out -- some are really nice.

1. Found on google code:
   //here there be dragons [source]
2. Found on google code:
   //I am drunk and coding like I am the greatest coder of all time.
3. Found on google code:
   //Very hacky but it works!
4. From Symfony 1.2.8:
   // FIXME: the following 2 functions totally suck, are useless and should be replaced immediately.
5. Not really a comment but made me laugh:
   raise Exception(“Crap damn crap damn crap damn”) [source]

find . -type f | while read a; do sed -i 's/Old/New/g' $a; done;

If put into words it reads like:

Find all files from here deep in all sub-directories and for each of them let sed substitute the word Old with New, please do this globaly in those files, and in place. Thanks sed, you saved my day.