James's blog

New Blog

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:39:12 -0700

Hello Opusers,

I've set up a new blog on HOWTO's and tutorials at jamesandres.com. If anybody is still following this blog, please head that way for all new posts.

The blog deals with Drupal, PHP and Ruby Ruby primarily, but I also touch on other topics.

I look forward to seeing you,

The Democracy Player: Internet TV Done, Mostly, Right

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:48:18 -0800

Hello all,

I know it's been a while since my last blog post. I'd like to blame that on my Christmas vacation, but really I've just been lazy. Anyway, I found something worth blogging this afternoon, namely a plug for the Democracy Player.

Haven't heard of the Democracy Player? It's no surprise. For all their marketing efforts (check the propaganda www.getdemocracy.com) this project has barely made a blip on the Internet radar. Their low profile made sense to me last time I spotted them because the early few versions were a bit crash prone and the selection of videos was pretty slim--actually slim is an understatement.

Music Purchase Checkout Updated!

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 16:27:36 -0800

Hello Opusers,

Time to talk "things Opus" for once this week .

We have just released a fairly massive overhaul to our purchasing system. The pervading idea behind this release was "quit making easy things hard." Here's what that thought translated into:

[list]
[*] In place download buttons! Hey, a free song is a free song right? Why not let user's download them right there and then without all the page flipping hassle. Look for the new orange download buttons to see what I mean -->

Lesson learned: Apache2 MaxClients Variable.

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 10:56:12 -0800

This post has now moved to my new blog. You can find it at http://jamesandres.com/post/show/Lesson-Learned--Apache2-Max-Clients-Variable-2

Yea, I finally got around to reading about what the MaxClients variable in the apache2.conf is for. Please keep your laughter to yourself, but i thought what MaxClients meant was "how many clients can connect at one time." So logically, I set it at 255. Well, I'm not sure if MaxClients is a cryptic name, or maybe I just missed the boat, but actually this variable controls how many server processes will run simultaneously!

A Linux Distro You Probably Haven't Heard Of.

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:25:19 -0800

I Discovered "Gobo Linux" today (http://www.gobolinux.org/) and I think I can say this is one of the more interesting distros I've encountered in quite a while. I'm not sure if their schemes are revolutionary, but definitely steps in the right direction. If they can make it work....

What am I talking about?
Gobo Linux is different because they have managed to ditch the standard UNIX directory structure (entirely). And, amazingly, they claim to still be backwards compatible with most (all?) of the UNIX based software out there.

Window's Vista to include Monaco (well, kinda)

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 20:37:30 -0800

Found something neat today on ldopa.net. Apparently Microsoft's latest Windows offering will include a font that is basically Monaco, or a Monaco copycat. The font in question is Consolas (I'm not sure if it's a LOTR allusion).

This is great news for developers as Monaco is, IMO, the best text editing font known to mankind. After using a Mac for so long at work I can finally feel comfortable looking at a Windows text editor again.

PHP opcode caching and SMP (multiple processors)

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:53:30 -0800

This post has moved to my new blog. You can find this post at it's new home: http://jamesandres.com/post/show/Php-Opcode-Caching-And-Smp--Multiple-Processors--1

Hello all,

Off-Topic Note
I've decided to start blogging on a bit more of a regular basis. I'm not much of a blogger, but who knows ... it might just stick this time. I have a hunch problem was subject matter. So from now on I plan to stick to what I know best. Geek stuff!

Messing with an iPod

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 13:11:02 -0700

Hi,

I tried and tried and just couldn't think of anything music related to talk about. So instead I'll talk about what's eaten up most of my time this weekend. Putting linux on my ipod!

As you might be gathering this is going to be a geeky post. If your interest isn't peaked yet, feel free to head on to the next blog .

Microsoft's Urge Rips Off Linux Icons!

Wed, 17 May 2006 17:52:49 -0700

This is a follow up to David's post on the new Microsoft / MTV service called Urge.

Begin rant now.
[list]
[*]The icons (arrow icons) seem very "inspired" by the GPL icon set made by Everaldo which is used primarily in--you guessed it--KDE Linux!!!! (proof: Crystal Icons on KDE-Look.org, Everaldo's website (top left corner), and KDE Konqueror) The down arrow icon is Everaldo's too, I just can't find an image on google.

Freeing the Project Opus code!

Thu, 04 May 2006 16:31:29 -0700

Drupalers Here This!

"We plan to release code from Project back to the community," it's been said many times. Sometimes more directly and usually more discreetly, and we know everyone is tired of hearing it (and not seeing it).

Now that things have settled down, a bit, we've been working on ways to make releasing code easier for us and you, the Drupalite. We hope this will translate into: code being released more quickly, and code being released more smoothly.

So now we've got BBCode

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 10:48:52 -0700

This blog post is partially informative and partially a test of the new BBCode system.

There ya go!

The code used here was:
[quote]
This blog post is partially informative and partially a {b}test{/b} of the new BBCode system.

{img}http://www.projectopus.com/system/files?file=normal_image_02.jpg{/img}

It's been a while

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 12:14:45 -0700

It's been a long time since I've posted a blog entry on opus. It's high time I got back into the swing of blog. Expect to see more!

James.

New video iPod ... is it worth it?

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:12:50 -0700

Hmm, so I just bought my nano a week and a bit ago and don't regret being hasty one bit

I was looking for a really really small portable audio device that I could still quickly locate my music on. Which is great, the nano does that for me perfectly.

However, I just don't get this mentality (which is as old as media, as far as I can tell) that since audio is great adding pictures must be that much better (audio^2 maybe?). As the video phone is clearly better than the audio phone; wait .... no it isn't! Who want's to change into nice clothes, shave .. etc .. just to talk to your boss on the phone?

My nano has insomnia!

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:30:28 -0700

I've done some web scouring and found other users with similar situations. My new iPod nano (which is great btw) doesn't fall asleep sometimes. Not even when told!

Hopefully the problem will be fixed in future upgrades.

Anyone else living on the bleeding edge with a restless nano?

Time to solidify

Wed, 12 Oct 2005 17:27:58 -0700

It's time we start solidifying Opus. We are trying to hold off on more features and instead are working to squash bugs and refactor designs. This sounds like boring stuff but in fact it is one of the coolest stages since here we decide what will stay and what will go in the "final" release.

This is all about building a foundation. Some of these aspects include: proper version control (subversion anyone?), better server setup (multiple distributed servers), and other technical bits.