Blog posts

A couple of weeks ago I attended my first Grand Rapids Perl Mongers meeting in order to hear a presentation about the City of Grand Rapids’ efforts to build a GIS driven by perl and hosted on linux. The presentation was interesting, though the coverage of the technology used didn’t dig much deeper than “we used perl and linux because they’re free and we had staff who advocated them” and “this is all done in perl,” and I didn’t get a sense of a broad vision for the future potential of such a system (by contrast, the Mayor’s speech when launching the latest phase of citywide WiFi testing demonstrated a broad vision for enhancing city services through the use of pervasive technology). ...

It’s been quite a year for documentary film making. While long tail providers such as Netflix have made it easier for interested parties to get hold of minority-interest films on DVD, a number of documentaries have made box office waves. In Grand Rapids the rejuvenation of Wealthy Theatre has provided an additional venue for documentary screenings. Six of the nineteen films we’ve seen in the cinema so far this year have been documentaries. ...

The issue of Iran and nuclear power was in our headlines yet again this week, as the EU “offered incentives” for Iran to drop its uranium enrichment plans and the Iranian government (the reins of which were this week handed over to Ahmadinejad’s administration) rejected them. On the surface the EU deal looked like an attractive package and Iran’s rejection of it a nail in the coffin of any possible settlement, but it’s more complex than that. ...

Rosie Thomas’ website hasn’t been updated for some time. If it had, we might have had more advance notice of the fact that her third album is now just over a month away. Sub Pop have the news that “If Songs Could Be Held” will be out on September 13th: At their best, well written, expertly executed songs do more than just tell a story — they pose important questions. On If Songs Could Be Held, her third full-length for Sub Pop, Seattle songwriter/vocalist Rosie Thomas approaches the sometimes difficult but universal topics of introspection, identity and love with bravery, honesty, and above all, stunning beauty. These songs aren’t all about Thomas’ personal experience, however, and that departure into the fictitious marks the first of several artistic stretches on the album. “It was very freeing,” Thomas, who approached her songwriting technique and vocal delivery from a more confident, methodic place this time around, explains. Although longtime collaborator and close friend Eric Fisher was an integral part of the process as he was on previous records, If Songs Could Be Held marks the first time Rosie has collaborated with musicians outside her circle of family and friends. Recorded by Mike Busbee at Brown Welch in Pasadena, CA, If Songs Could Be Held also features Liz Phair guitarist Dino Meneghin, accomplished film soundtrack string arranger Josh Myers, and a duet with Ed Harcourt. ...

Londonist draws our attention to “guerilla artist” Banksy’s holiday escapades. It seems he’s taken his trademark irreverence with him to Israel, where he’s helping decorate that rather controversial new wall. I particularly enjoyed this exchange: Soldier: What the fuck are you doing? Banksy: You’ll have to wait until it’s finished. Soldier (to colleagues): Safety’s off The Guardian has a gallery of the what he was, in fact, doing. I very much enjoyed his New York escapades a few months ago, but this is something else. ...

UPDATE (Aug 9th ‘05): Thanks to feedback from Lukas Smith and Laurens Nienhaus I’ve made some updates which show better ways to get at some properties. Having described in my ‘Configuring LiveUser’ entry how to configure and instantiate LiveUser it’s now time to talk about how we start connecting together our login system with more sophisticated permissions management. This time around we’re going to be making use of the LiveUser_Admin module, which can be instantiated using the same configuration array as LiveUser, with: ...

I’ve joked many times about the fact that my status in the US represents “taxation without representation.” I am not eligible to vote, but am required to pay for the government that that those around me elect. Today I was reminded of a rather less amusing side of my status. Those males immigrating to the United States within a certain age bracket are automatically enrolled for the Selective Service and today my enrollment card arrived. Naturally I won’t be fighting in any wars this country fights in. If the reasoning for future wars is anything like that lately demonstrated, chances are I’ll be too busy opposing them. But I can be called upon. ...

Written in response to this post on Laurence’s blog, chiefly based on his reference to this Observer article. I’ve read a number of articles such as the one quoted from the Observer (though not, I confess, that one, yet), and agree that it’s something to keep an eye on, but it often feels like those writers are watching from the sidelines and not getting involved in what’s happening amongst the early adopter community. ...

There have once again been several stories about Iran in the press this week. Primarily they’re once again focussed on some heinous human rights abuses, though the long running nuclear dispute is once again raising its head. In the midst of that comes this excellent report in the Guardian. The tag-line sells the piece a little short: Iran, with its unabashed nuclear ambitions, is top of the US’s next-to-invade list. Is the mood in the country fearful or defiant? James Meek sounds out hardline clerics, Tehran liberals, mosque-goers, workers and the near-destitute - and finds surprising resonances with their superpower enemy. ...

For a current (PHP) project I need a highly flexible authentication and permissions management system. Having heard plenty of mentions on the various PEAR lists I decided to try out LiveUser, which seems to currently be the most comprehensive such system for PHP. It’s a large codebase that seems to cover most of the necessary permutations and includes a number of prominent coders amongst its developers. What I hadn’t taken into account, of course, was the lack of documentation. I spent quite a while trawling through their wiki and googling before concluding that the best way to work LiveUser out would be to work through the code piece by piece. And since that’s a long, slow process it seemed worth documenting here. I’m going to do that step by step, starting today with configuration and instantiation. ...