Tag Archives: technology

Google@Mcgill

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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!

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

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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! :)

March To Be Month of PHP Bugs

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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… ;)

OpenMoko is Picking Up Steam

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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.

parseMe 20070213 Update

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It’s time for another quick update to parseMe, my little GPL’ed PHP-based RSS/Atom feed reader for mobile phones and other web-capable devices. Pfew [deep breath], that was quite a mouthful, wasn’t it? ;)

  • It now loads the destination links without images by default, for performance improvements on most sites. Links still go through the Google Mobile gateway.
  • Small screen-related interface improvements for the feed selection form.

You can find the appropriate links below:

Hoping you’ll enjoy it as much as I do in the bus, on the way to and from work.