From grant at mclean.net.nz Wed Sep 5 16:28:49 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:28:49 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Meeting next Tuesday Message-ID: <1189034930.28594.34.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Hi Mongers The September meeting of Wellington Perl Mongers is next Tuesday at the usual place and time: 6:00pm Tuesday 11 September 2007 Level 2, Eagle Technology House 150 Willis Street Wellington http://wellington.pm.org/ This month's speakers: * Brenda Wallace and Neil Bertram - PostgreSQL/MySQL bake-off * Donovan Jones - Using LibXML to generate KML for Google maps mashups * Finlay Thompson - Building a daemon with POE See you there. Grant From grant at mclean.net.nz Wed Sep 5 18:19:02 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:19:02 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] [Fwd: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, August 24] Message-ID: <1189041542.28594.40.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> -------- Forwarded Message -------- > From: Marsee Henon > Subject: Newsletter from O'Reilly UG Program, August 24 > Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:14:38 -0700 > > Hi there > > O'Reilly's created a brand new website (http://beautifulcode.oreillynet.com) > devoted to the topics in our new book "Beautiful Code." > > We're looking for sites that fit the spirit of Beautiful Code. Send us a > link so we can blog about it: > http://beautifulcode.oreillynet.com/suggest_site.php > > Be on the lookout for two new Web 2.0 related titles: "Programming > Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications" > (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529321/) and "Web > 2.0: A Manager's Guide" (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529963/). > > As always, I'm looking for Amazon and Slashdot reviewers for these > titles or any of our new releases. Are you or someone you know > interested? > > Just send me an email with your choices and we'll ship them out. > > --Marsee > > ================================================================ > O'Reilly News for User Group Members > August 24, 2007 > ================================================================ > --------------------------------------------------------------- > New Releases--Books, Short Cuts, and Rough Cuts > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Get 35% off from O'Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, > Pragmatic Bookshelf, Rocky Nook, SitePoint, or YoungJin books > you purchase directly from O'Reilly. > > Just use code DSUG when ordering online or by phone 800-998-9938. > > > Free ground shipping on orders of $29.95 or more. > For more details, go to: > > > Did you know you can request a free book or PDF to review for your > group? Ask your group leader for more information. > > For book review writing tips and suggestions, go to: > > > > ***3ds Max 9.0 (Young Jin) > ISBN 10: 8931433719 > > > ***The Artist's Guide to GIMP Effects (No Starch) > ISBN 10: 1593271212 > > > ***The Book of Qt 4 (No Starch) > ISBN 10: 1593271476 > > > ***Designing Web Navigation > ISBN 10: 0596528108 > > > ***Dynamic Learning: Flash CS3 Professional > ISBN 10: 0596510586 > > > ***FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual > ISBN 10: 0596514131 > > > ***Forbidden LEGO (No Starch) > ISBN 10: 1593271379 > > > ***Google in Education > ISBN 10: 0596515189 > > > ***Head First SQL > ISBN 10: 0596526849 > > > ***iPhone: The Missing Manual > ISBN 10: 0596513747 > > > ***JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook, Second Edition > ISBN 10: 0596514085 > > > ***Learning PHP & MySQL, Second Edition > ISBN 10: 0596514018 > > > ***The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book (No Starch) > ISBN 10: 1593271506 > > > ***MAKE: Technology on Your Time Volume 11 > ISBN 10: 0596513879 > > > ***Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual > ISBN 10: 0596528361 > > > ***The Nikon D200 Dbook (Rocky Nook) > ISBN 10: 0596514018 > > > ***The Nikon D80 Dbook (Rocky Nook) > ISBN 10: 1933952156 > > > ***Photoshop Lightroom Adventure > ISBN 10: 059610099X > > > ***Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit, Second Edition > (Pragmatic Bookshelf) > ISBN 10: 0977616673 > > > ***Programming Collective Intelligence > ISBN 10: 0596529325 > > > ***Security Power Tools > ISBN 10: 0596009631 > > > ***SOA in Practice > ISBN 10: 0596529554 > > > ***Visualizing Data: Rough Cuts Version > ISBN 10: 0596515936 > > > ***Windows Vista Accelerated (Young Jin) > ISBN 10: 8931434383 > > > > ***MAKE Magazine Subscriptions > MAKE Magazine Subscriptions > The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you > subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--one plus four > more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this > great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. > Subscribe at: > > > > ***Craft Magazine Subscriptions > The annual subscription price for four issues is $34.95. When you > subscribe with this link, you'll get a free issue--the first one plus > four more for $34.95. So subscribe for yourself or friends with this > great offer for UG Members: five volumes for the cost of four. > Subscribe at: > > > ================================================ > Upcoming Events > ================================================ > For more events, please see: > > > ***O'Reilly Authors at No Fluff Just Stuff eXchange 2007, Aug 29-31 > --London, England > NFJS eXchange 2007 will feature over 50 sessions covering core Java, > Enterprise Java, Web Services, Open Source Technology, Architecture, and > Agile Software Development. The NFJS eXchange is a technically focused > event, which is vendor free and offers a limited attendance model > ensuring a great deal of interaction between speakers and attendees. > Come learn from industry experts and from each other, see real world > case studies and delve into hands-on code examples. Features Scott > Davis(JBoss at Work: A Practical Guide and GIS for Web Developers), Ted > Neward (C# in a Nutshell, Second Edition and Shared Source CLI > Essentials), and Venkat Subramaniam (Practices of an Agile Developer and > .NET Gotchas). O'Reilly readers get a free Nintendo Wii when booking a > ticket! Just quote NFJS-ORE644. > > > > ***O'Reilly at Photoshop World Expo, Sep 6-8--Las Vegas, NV > This conference brings together photographers, designers, artists, > educators, motion graphics designers, and Photoshop users of every kind > for a three-day Photoshop love fest of training, learning, and fun. Stop > by the O'Reilly booth (# 220) to say hi, and pick up some great new > books. > > > > ***Ignite Boston 2! Sep 6--Boston, MA > Mingle and talk tech with your fellow FOOs, alpha geeks, and techies > from the greater Boston area. We've picked a venue that is more > acoustically-oriented and should allow everyone to hear what's going on. > And we are planning to mix-up the format a little. There will be some > short "launches," followed by lightening talks, and a couple of other > ideas that we will inform you of in the coming weeks. Let's show our > tech colleagues around the country that Boston/Cambridge have a vibrant > tech community that gets involved in talking about cool new technologies > and ideas. Not to mention that it's a social event to get to know other > developers in the area. If you plan to attend, email IgniteBoston at > oreilly dot com for the chance to win $300 worth of O'Reilly books of > your choosing. You must be present to win. > > > > ***Steve Souders at The 2007 Rich Web Experience, Sep 6-8-- > San Jose, CA > Author Steve Souders (High Performance Web Sites) will be presenting a > workshop titled "High Performance Web Sites with Tenni Theurer." > Yahoo!'s Exceptional Performance team has identified 14 best practices > for making web pages faster through a series of research studies on > Yahoo!'s properties. These guidelines focus on the front end, for > example, why it's bad to use "@import" for including stylesheets and why > ETags disable browser caching. These best practices have proven to > reduce response times of Yahoo! properties by 25-50%. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 11-13--Los Angeles, CA > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 11-13--Dallas, TX > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > > ***Derrick Story and Mikkel Aaland at the Sonoma County Book Festival, > Sep 15--Santa Rosa, CA > Authors Mikkel Aaland (Photoshop Lightroom Adventure and Photoshop CS2 > RAW) and Derrick Story (Digital Photography Hacks and Digital > Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Ed.) discuss "Photography Publishing > Opportunities in the Digital Age" at the Eighth Annual Sonoma County > Book Festival. > > > > ***RailsConf Europe, Sep 17-19--Berlin, Germany > Get on board with the latest Rails developments and hang out with the > experts and other Rails fans making it all happen. Co-presented by Ruby > Central and O'Reilly Media. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3",Sep 18--Orlando, FL > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 18-20--San Francisco, CA > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > > ***Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene at PMI Mass Bay, > Sep 20--Boston, MA > Head First PMP authors Andrew Stellman and Jennifer Greene talk through > the ways that software projects fail, using the signature humor and > insight in the acclaimed "Head First" series. There's an old saying: > "There's only one way to succeed, but a million ways to fail." But that > saying just isn't true when it comes to software projects. As it turns > out, there are a small number of ways that projects fail, and they'll > sound eerily familiar to any project manager, software engineer or > programmer who's been around for more than a few years. Many software > projects that started out as a small, stopgap utility turn into raging > behemoths, sucking seemingly unlimited time from your programmers. Or > the president of your company announced that your project will be done > this week, even though you know that it still has an enormous number of > bugs. Or your team delivered the software, only to have users complain > that an entire feature is missing. Or every time the team fixes a bug, > they seem to uncover a dozen more?including ones that you know were > fixed six months ago. Once you know how projects fail, you can do what > you need to do to keep them on track. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 25-27,--Minneapolis, MN > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > > ***Dynamic Learning Series Authors & the AGI Creative Team Host > "Mastering the Adobe Creative Suite 3", Sep 25-27--Toronto > Learn from the team of authors and instructors that created many of > Adobe's official training titles and have now combined their talents to > bring you the Dynamic Learning series of seminars, books, and training > videos. Come discover the new features and understand hard-to-find tips > and tricks that can save you hours of time. > > > ================================================ > Conference News > ================================================ > ***Registration is Open for RailsConf Europe, > 17-19 September in Berlin, Germany > Use code "re07usrg" when you register, and receive 15% off > the registration price. > > To register for the conference, go to: > > > For complete conference information, go to: > > > > ***ETel 2008 call for participation is now open > The O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference is happening March 3-4, 2008. > We welcome plenary submissions for our audience of people who, like you, > are pushing through the boundaries of communications into new ways of > thinking and doing. Topics will be centered around the innovations and > projects occurring at the intersection of voice, instant messaging, the > mobile ecosystem, and the Web. Submit a proposal to speak at ETel. > Proposals are due September 17. > > > > ***O'Reilly's inaugural Money:Tech Conference has been announced > The dates are February 6-7, 2008 in New York City. That's right, in the > heart of the financial universe, New York, NY, Money:Tech will raise the > level of conversation around technology advances in the investment > industry, and bring together innovators with established players to > increase adoption and awareness and push the technology forward. Learn > more about Money:Tech > > > ================================================ > News From O'Reilly & Beyond > ================================================ > --------------------- > General News > --------------------- > ***Ignite Boston 2! September 6 > Attention all New Englanders?-here's a heads-up that we're having a > second Ignite Boston on Thursday, September 6, from 6 to 10pm at > Hurricane O'Reillys. Yes that's right, Hurricane O'Reillys at 150 Canal > St, Boston, MA. No, it's not Tim's office after FOO Camp. We've picked a > venue that is more acoustically-oriented and should allow everyone to > hear what's going on. And we are planning to mix-up the format a little. > There will be some short "launches," followed by lightening talks, and a > couple of other ideas. > > > > ***What is O'Reilly Editor Andy Oram Up to These Days? > Andy continues his research into the free documentation written by users. > Recent articles on the topic include "Why Do People Write Free > Documentation?" > (http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2007/06/14/why-do-people-write-free-document\ation-results-of-a-survey.html) > which analyzes the results of an O'Reilly survey answered by > over 350 respondents, and "How to Help Mailing Lists Help Readers" > (http://praxagora.com/andyo/professional/mailing_list_follow_up/) which > finds interesting results concerning how many questions get answered on > mailing lists and how long the list members spend on questions. Andy > presented his results at the July 2007 Open Source convention in > Portland, OR. For more information or to read Andy's articles, go to: > > > > ***The Watering Hole > A weekly comic poking fun at O'Reilly and the technology industry in > general. Think of it as User Friendly with animals. > > > > ***DIY O'Reilly Gear > Create Your Own Calendar, Shirt, Notebook, Poster...In just three easy > steps you can create one of a kind calendars, greeting cards, keychains, > luggage tags, magnets, mousepads, mugs, notebooks, postcards, posters, > shirts, hoodies, and stickers adorned with your favorite O'Reilly > animals. Create yours now! > > > > ***Top 5 Blog posts on the O'Reilly Network: > > M. David Peterson--Dear WhyFirefoxIsBlocked.com > > > Carla Schroder--Linux Journal: the Last Idiot's Club > > > Jeremy Jones--Is Firefox on Mac Unusable? > > > Joshua Scott Emmons--Bad Thurrott==Good Design > > > Carla Schroder--Dear Linux Journal: News Flash--Women Are People > > > > ***O'Reilly School of Technology Courses: UG Members Receive > a 30% Discount > O'Reilly School of Technology has opened its virtual doors with > educational offerings and certification for IT students looking to > further their careers or to launch one. As an O'Reilly User Group > member, you save on all the courses in the following University of > Illinois Certificate Series: > > -Linux/Unix System Administration > -Web Programming > -Open Source Programming > -.NET Programming > -Client-Side Web Programming featuring AJAX > > To redeem, use Promotion Code "ORALL1," good for a 30% discount, > in Step #2 of the enrollment process. Each course comes with a free > O'Reilly book and a 7-day money-back guarantee. > Register online: > > > --------------------- > Open Source > --------------------- > ***Cookin' with Ruby on Rails > Bill Walton, well known for his "Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited" > tutorials, is back with a new series that takes Rails to the next level. > > > > ***Introduction to Flex Using PHP > Flex is Adobe's next-generation platform of deploying browser-based > applications. Jack Herrington provides us with an introduction to Flex, > by showing us how to integrate it with a PHP-based backend. > > > > ***Mono: A Progress Report > Mono has always been a bit of an outsider. Open source folks distrust it > because it helps people use Microsoft technologies on non-Microsoft > platforms. Microsoft people don't see the need for it. But this social > outcast has been making steady progress and can offer a lot if you take > the time to check it out. Edd Dumbill gives us an update on the state of > Mono. > > > --------------------- > Digital Media > --------------------- > ***iLife '08 for Aperture Users with Joe Schorr > Apple recently released iLife '08 with a truckload of goodies for > Aperture users. In this podcast, Joe Schorr tells you how to use some of > these new tools and discusses the latest Aperture update (1.5.4). > > > > ***Thinking Camera, Lens, Lightroom before taking the shot--George Mann's Blog > When I saw this scene in front of me, I realized that it was going to be > very difficult to get what I was seeing. For one it was very dark and I > was standing on a very narrow and slippery ledge between the lichen > encrusted ruins of Banteay Kdei (Angkor, Cambodia) and the jungle. I > didn't have a tripod with me but it was doubtful that I could have > gotten the angle I was after even if I had one anyway (where is that > Gitzo ladder tripod when you really need one). > > > > ***Highlight and Shadow Recovery in Harsh Light--Derrick Story's Blog > Nothing like a midday August wedding to strike fear into the heart of > this digital photographer. Harsh sun, sparse shade, black suits, white > gowns, black skin, white skin ? often all in the same shot. This is a > situation where you have to shoot Raw and thank goodness for the > Highlight and Shadow recovery sliders in Aperture. I have lots of tricks > for dealing with bad lighting (find shade whenever possible, fill flash, > reflectors, etc.), but as you know, sometimes clients say, "We don't > have time to walk over there; let's just take the shot here." Horror. > "Not here!" I think. "This is the last place on the planet I want to > take this shot." > > > --------------------- > Mac/Apple > --------------------- > ***The Good Easy on OS X > Giles Turnbull examines Mark Hurst's "Good Easy" productivity tools and > methods for Macs. Giles spoke with the author of "Bit Literacy" about > his philosophy and choices for simplifying computing. > > > > ***Understanding Exceptions and Handlers in Cocoa > Learn how to use Cocoa to build an exception handling system. This > article shows the classes and keywords needed, how to prepare and raise > a Cocoa exception, as well as how to intercept and process the > exception. > > > --------------------- > Microsoft/.NET > --------------------- > ***Build Dynamic Database Applications in .NET with Project Codename > "Jasper" > Instead of moving to Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET developers might consider > Project Codename "Jasper" and the growing number of .NET dynamic > languages. In this article, you'll learn how to use Jasper. > > > > ***Introduction to JavaFX Script > In this article, Anghel Leonard give us a walkthrough of JavaFX Script, > the syntax, several examples, and usage within Eclipse and NetBeans. > > > --------------------- > Head First > --------------------- > ***Big Head Photo Contest Ends this month > Brain packed full of Head First learning? Show us! Send in a photo of > yourself in the Head First "Big Head" style (like on the covers of our > books). At the end of August, we'll pick our favorite one and send the > winner a free Head First T-Shirt and their pick of $200 in O'Reilly > books. We might put the picture inside our next Head First book. If it's > cool enough, we might even use it on the cover. > > > > ***New Forums for Head First SQL > Head First SQL is at the Printers. And now you can chat with the author > and other SQL readers at our new forums. > > > --------------------- > Web > --------------------- > ***Inside Adobe's onAIR Summer Bus Tour > FOOs and O'Reilly Folk Hit the Road. Read our blog posts, tips, photos, dates, and more. > > > > ***Nifty Navigation Using CSS > Navigation is the key to surfing the Web, and in this collection of > ready-made solutions Rachel steps us through horizontal and vertical > menus, drop-down, fly-out, and tabbed navigation systems. > > > > ***Microformats: More Meaning from your Markup > Hidden on many pages of the Web are tiny packets of information -- > people, places, events, and more. You and I can read them, but they're > invisible to machines. Imagine the possibilities if that information > became visible to other sites and applications! In this article, Brian > shows how the addition of microformats to your web site markup can open > up a whole new raft of possibilities. > > > > ***OSCON 2007 Coverage: High Performance Web Pages > Matthew Eernisse covers O'Reilly author Steve Souders (High Performance Web Sites) > session at OSCON in Portland this year. > > > > Until next time-- > > Marsee Henon > > > ================================================================ > O'Reilly > 1005 Gravenstein Highway North > Sebastopol, CA 95472 > http://ug.oreilly.com/ http://ug.oreilly.com/creativemedia/ > ================================================================ From grant at mclean.net.nz Wed Sep 5 18:19:38 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:19:38 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] [Fwd: UG News--Women in Tech Series from www.oreillynet.com] Message-ID: <1189041579.28594.41.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> -------- Forwarded Message -------- > From: Marsee Henon > Subject: UG News--Women in Tech Series from www.oreillynet.com > Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:48:01 -0700 > > Hi > > Please share the following press announcement with your members > if you think they will be interested. > > --Marsee > > > Women of Tech: Hear Us Roar, A Special Series from www.oreillynet.com > The Mighty Voices of Sisterhood in Tech > > Sebastopol, CA--There's no doubt that women coders, developers, designers, > and programmers are a powerful force in the modern tech industry, despite > their smaller numbers compared to men. At the same time many of the major > impacts and innovations of women at every level of the development and > evolution of technology--from the first female coders to today's Web 2.0 > pioneers--aren't all that well known. > > But starting now, O'Reilly Media aims to celebrate and give voice to the > real-world experiences and concerns of these female trailblazers by > publishing a new online series, "Women in Tech." The brainchild of Tatiana > Apandi, an associate editor at O'Reilly, the series features articles > solicited from technology's female side--and all focused on what it's like > to carve out a career in technology. > > The timely new series reveals the challenges, rewards, and, sometimes, > frustrations of being a woman in an industry still dominated by men. "Each > day, we'll present a different woman's story that I believe will open > readers' eyes to her unique perspective," explains Apandi. "We have > contributions from conference organizers, authors, programmers, > developers, and more--women who have pioneered prosperous careers in > technology." > > "As the series progresses, I hope readers find that this myriad of female > perspectives shows how valuable it is to hear different points of view," > says Tatiana. "Whether readers think there are issues on which we need to > work or that there are no issues at all, one underlying truth is that we > need to support each other as individuals and help one another with our > separate goals." > > With clarity, honesty, and wit, this collection reveals what it's like to > be in the minority of the male-dominated geek culture. Here are just a few > of the voices in this upcoming series: > > - Anna Martelli, Ravenscroft, Pythonista > - Audrey Eschright, independent programmer/designer/publisher > - CJ Rayhill, SVP of Product Management and Technology for Safari Books > Online > - Dawn Foster, Director of Developer Relations at Jive Software > - Dru Lavigne, Chair of the BSD Certification Group Inc > - Gabrielle Roth, member of the Portland Perl Mongers > - Jeni Tennison, independent consultant and author > - Jill Dyche, partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting > - Juliet Kemp, Systems Administrator for the Astrophysics group at > Imperial College > - Julia Lerman, Board member of the Vermont Software Developer Alliance, > runs the Vermont.NET User Group > - Kaliya Hamlin, unconference Shesgeeky.org organizer > - Kirsten Jones, webmaster for The Perl Foundation > - Lauren Wood, Chaired for the W3C DOM Working Group > - Leslie Hawthorn, works for Open Source Programs Office at Google > - Selena Deckelmann, leads PDXPUG, a PostgreSQL Users Group > - Shelley Powers, software developer/architect, photographer, and author > > The "Women in Tech," series starts Sept 4. Find out what they have to > share and join the discussion here: > http://www.oreillynet.com/womenintech/ > > About O'Reilly > O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, > online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media > has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in > on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by > amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the > future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has > a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism. > > # # # > > O'Reilly is a registered trademark of O'Reilly Media, Inc. All other > trademarks are property of their respective owners. From grant at mclean.net.nz Mon Sep 10 14:34:09 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:34:09 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Meeting Tonight Message-ID: <1189460049.15469.2.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Hi Mongers The September meeting of Wellington Perl Mongers is this evening at the usual place and time: 6:00pm Tuesday 11 September 2007 Level 2, Eagle Technology House 150 Willis Street Wellington http://wellington.pm.org/ This month's speakers: * Brenda Wallace and Neil Bertram - PostgreSQL/MySQL bake-off * Donovan Jones - Using LibXML to generate KML for Google maps mashups * Finlay Thompson - Building a daemon with POE See you there. Grant From grant at mclean.net.nz Tue Sep 11 15:09:34 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:09:34 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting Message-ID: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Hi Mongers Wow what a great turnout last night - I counted 24! I would be interested to hear people's thoughts (on or off list) on what makes for a good meeting and what we can do to maintain high attendance levels. A big thank-you to our speakers. I think we can all agree that Neil's 12 months without MySQL is a mighty accomplishment and with the support of his peers perhaps he can kick the habit for good. I know I picked up some good stuff from Brenda and Neil's database feature comparison, Donovan's mapping adventures and Finlay's POE examples. Thanks folks. I'll put the slides up on the web site as they come to hand. http://wellington.pm.org/archive/ The next meeting will be on October the 9th. It looks like we might have a talk about using threads lined up and maybe even one about Event.pm. I am always keen to hear from potential speakers. Regards Grant From dan.horne at redbone.co.nz Tue Sep 11 15:24:25 2007 From: dan.horne at redbone.co.nz (Dan Horne) Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:24:25 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <010201c7f4c2$82eafee0$6403a8c0@rdbxp02> > Wow what a great turnout last night - I counted 24! I would > be interested to hear people's thoughts (on or off list) on > what makes for a good meeting and what we can do to maintain > high attendance levels. Hey Mongers I first attended last month and was lurking at the back last night. I enjoyed what I saw, and appreciated the effort put in by the presenters. Unfortunately, I think I was suffering from watching too much of the RWC, so I started fading a bit at times - I am particularly curious about POE, but missed most of the presentation :-( I hope it goes online! Looking forward to next month... Dan From sam at vilain.net Thu Sep 13 16:35:18 2007 From: sam at vilain.net (Sam Vilain) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:35:18 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> Grant McLean wrote: > > The next meeting will be on October the 9th. It looks like we might > have a talk about using threads lined up and maybe even one about > Event.pm. I am always keen to hear from potential speakers. Hmm... sounds like a call for an evening on multiprocessing. So in the context of Perl this varies from: - fork(), emulated via threads on Windows - the varying threads implementation attempts from the 5.004->5.6 Perl series, leading to the current one, interpreter threads - co-operative, event/queue-driven systems like Event.pm, or the ones in Gtk, Tk, etc. POE can work within all of these FWIW - co-operative, task switching systems - co-routines - via Coro in Perl 5 and the "produce" keyword in Perl 6. These are really neat. - semi-pre-emptive/per-opcode multi-threading systems. I don't know of any of these for Perl, but it's how Ruby threading works. - Software Transaction Memory (STM) - one of the big buzzwords at OSCON this year. Done with the "contend { }" keyword in Perl 6. I guess I could talk about one or more of these or perhaps just give a big overview. What are people most interested in hearing about? Sam. From Andrew.Boag at catalyst.net.nz Thu Sep 13 17:52:48 2007 From: Andrew.Boag at catalyst.net.nz (Andrew Boag) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 12:52:48 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> Message-ID: <46E9DB60.3030502@catalyst.net.nz> Sound interesting. Sam Vilain wrote: > Grant McLean wrote: > >> The next meeting will be on October the 9th. It looks like we might >> have a talk about using threads lined up and maybe even one about >> Event.pm. I am always keen to hear from potential speakers. >> > > Hmm... sounds like a call for an evening on multiprocessing. > > So in the context of Perl this varies from: > > - fork(), emulated via threads on Windows > > - the varying threads implementation attempts from the 5.004->5.6 > Perl series, leading to the current one, interpreter threads > > - co-operative, event/queue-driven systems like Event.pm, or the ones > in Gtk, Tk, etc. POE can work within all of these FWIW > > - co-operative, task switching systems - co-routines - via Coro in Perl > 5 and the "produce" keyword in Perl 6. These are really neat. > > - semi-pre-emptive/per-opcode multi-threading systems. I don't know of > any of these for Perl, but it's how Ruby threading works. > > - Software Transaction Memory (STM) - one of the big buzzwords at OSCON > this year. Done with the "contend { }" keyword in Perl 6. > > I guess I could talk about one or more of these or perhaps just give a > big overview. What are people most interested in hearing about? > > Sam. > _______________________________________________ > Wellington-pm mailing list > Wellington-pm at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/wellington-pm > > From richard at walnut.gen.nz Thu Sep 13 18:35:22 2007 From: richard at walnut.gen.nz (Richard Hector) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:35:22 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> Message-ID: <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 11:35 +1200, Sam Vilain wrote: > Hmm... sounds like a call for an evening on multiprocessing. > > So in the context of Perl this varies from: > > - fork(), emulated via threads on Windows > > - the varying threads implementation attempts from the 5.004->5.6 > Perl series, leading to the current one, interpreter threads > > - co-operative, event/queue-driven systems like Event.pm, or the ones > in Gtk, Tk, etc. POE can work within all of these FWIW > > - co-operative, task switching systems - co-routines - via Coro in Perl > 5 and the "produce" keyword in Perl 6. These are really neat. > > - semi-pre-emptive/per-opcode multi-threading systems. I don't know of > any of these for Perl, but it's how Ruby threading works. > > - Software Transaction Memory (STM) - one of the big buzzwords at OSCON > this year. Done with the "contend { }" keyword in Perl 6. My memory is hazy, but doesn't Quantum::Superpositions fit in here somewhere? Richard From grant at mclean.net.nz Thu Sep 13 19:40:42 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:40:42 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <1189737643.23106.26.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 13:35 +1200, Richard Hector wrote: > On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 11:35 +1200, Sam Vilain wrote: > > > Hmm... sounds like a call for an evening on multiprocessing. > > > > So in the context of Perl this varies from: > > > > - fork(), emulated via threads on Windows > > > > - the varying threads implementation attempts from the 5.004->5.6 > > Perl series, leading to the current one, interpreter threads > > > > - co-operative, event/queue-driven systems like Event.pm, or the ones > > in Gtk, Tk, etc. POE can work within all of these FWIW > > > > - co-operative, task switching systems - co-routines - via Coro in Perl > > 5 and the "produce" keyword in Perl 6. These are really neat. > > > > - semi-pre-emptive/per-opcode multi-threading systems. I don't know of > > any of these for Perl, but it's how Ruby threading works. > > > > - Software Transaction Memory (STM) - one of the big buzzwords at OSCON > > this year. Done with the "contend { }" keyword in Perl 6. > > My memory is hazy, but doesn't Quantum::Superpositions fit in here > somewhere? Not really. Quantum::Superpositions (or 'junctions' as they're known in Perl 6) are a fancy way of working with sets of possible values to answer questions like: is the value in $a greater than all of the values in ($b, $c, ...) It uses operator overloading to reduce concepts that are easy to express concisely in english to concise snippets of Perl code. Whether these concise snippets are as easily understandable as the original english description is open to debate :-) Sam's suggestion (which echos Evan's off-list suggestion) was more on the theme of programs which have to handle multiple concurrent streams of execution - for example a daemon handling requests for multiple clients. I think this is an excellent suggestion and would be happy to contribute a short talk on writing such a daemon without any of the fancy modules - the details of that might make it clearer why the fancy tools are a good idea. Sam: with luck Evan will tell us about Event.pm so if you could tell us about Coro/produce and/or STM then I'd be interested. If we do end up with 4 talks then we should be aiming for about 15min each. Cheers Grant From douglas at paradise.net.nz Thu Sep 13 20:28:57 2007 From: douglas at paradise.net.nz (Douglas Bagnall) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:28:57 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <1189737643.23106.26.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1189737643.23106.26.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <46E9FFF9.7060009@paradise.net.nz> Sam: >>> Hmm... sounds like a call for an evening on multiprocessing. >>> >>> [...] Richard: >> My memory is hazy, but doesn't Quantum::Superpositions fit in here >> somewhere? Grant: > Not really. Quantum::Superpositions (or 'junctions' as they're known > in Perl 6) are a fancy way of working with sets of possible values to > answer questions like: > > is the value in $a greater than all of the values in ($b, $c, ...) > [etc] I think what Richard's hazy memory is recalling is the time when superpositions/junctions were predicted to able to somehow, automatically, spread their work across all available processors. While these kind of operations are inherently parallelisable, the perl process that contains them is not (or at least is awfully less so). So if junctions are doing this, they will be using magic that is similar to something from Sam's list. I suspect that they aren't, though. douglas From jarich at perltraining.com.au Thu Sep 13 20:57:20 2007 From: jarich at perltraining.com.au (Jacinta Richardson) Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:57:20 +1000 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <46E9FFF9.7060009@paradise.net.nz> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1189737643.23106.26.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9FFF9.7060009@paradise.net.nz> Message-ID: <46EA06A0.2080102@perltraining.com.au> Douglas Bagnall wrote: > I think what Richard's hazy memory is recalling is the time when > superpositions/junctions were predicted to able to somehow, > automatically, spread their work across all available processors. While > these kind of operations are inherently parallelisable, the perl > process that contains them is not (or at least is awfully less so). So > if junctions are doing this, they will be using magic that is similar to > something from Sam's list. I suspect that they aren't, though. Unless I misread http://pugs.blogs.com/pugs/2006/10/smp_paralleliza.html or unless Audrey has since discovered otherwise... hasn't Pugs been parallelizing junction evaluation since October last year? Audrey gives a number of other in-built threading examples here: http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=580042 There is probably a more up-to-date list somewhere with the Pugs perl 6 pages too. All the best, Jacinta -- ("`-''-/").___..--''"`-._ | Jacinta Richardson | `6_ 6 ) `-. ( ).`-.__.`) | Perl Training Australia | (_Y_.)' ._ ) `._ `. ``-..-' | +61 3 9354 6001 | _..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,' | contact at perltraining.com.au | (il),-'' (li),' ((!.-' | www.perltraining.com.au | From grant at mclean.net.nz Mon Sep 17 20:49:38 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:49:38 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB Message-ID: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Hi Mongers In my talk about Unicode the other month, one subject I didn't get time to explore properly was working with databases. I've now done a little more of work in this area with Postgres. The initial question was how to 'round-trip' a Unicode string. For example say I insert a row with a text field containing the string 'M?ori' (or "M\x{101}ori" in ASCII Perl). This string is 5 characters long, but 6 bytes long because the second character is a multibyte character. I found that if I subsequently queried that value what I got back was effectively a binary string. It's the same 6 bytes I inserted but without the UTF8 flag set on the Perl scalar, so it appears to be a 6 character string. I could use Encode::decode to translate that into a scalar with the UTF8 flag set but that's a bit tedious. It turns out that the Postgres driver (DBD::Pg) has a flag which can be set to do the decoding automatically, e.g.: my $attr = { RaiseError => 1, AutoCommit => 0, pg_enable_utf8 => 1, }; my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $user, $passwd, $attr); With the pg_enable_utf8 flag set, Unicode strings are round-tripped correctly automatically. It's mildly concerning that this flag is labelled "experimental and may be subject to change" but I'm sure if it was changed it would only be for the better :-) Cheers Grant From srdjan at catalyst.net.nz Mon Sep 17 21:37:12 2007 From: srdjan at catalyst.net.nz (Srdjan) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:37:12 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB In-Reply-To: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <46EF55F8.3020103@catalyst.net.nz> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Is that deficiency of DBI::Pg or postgres client library? Grant McLean wrote: > Hi Mongers > > In my talk about Unicode the other month, one subject I didn't get time > to explore properly was working with databases. I've now done a little > more of work in this area with Postgres. > > The initial question was how to 'round-trip' a Unicode string. > > For example say I insert a row with a text field containing the string > 'M?ori' (or "M\x{101}ori" in ASCII Perl). This string is 5 characters > long, but 6 bytes long because the second character is a multibyte > character. > > I found that if I subsequently queried that value what I got back was > effectively a binary string. It's the same 6 bytes I inserted but > without the UTF8 flag set on the Perl scalar, so it appears to be a 6 > character string. > > I could use Encode::decode to translate that into a scalar with the UTF8 > flag set but that's a bit tedious. > > It turns out that the Postgres driver (DBD::Pg) has a flag which can be > set to do the decoding automatically, e.g.: > > my $attr = { > RaiseError => 1, > AutoCommit => 0, > pg_enable_utf8 => 1, > }; > > my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $user, $passwd, $attr); > > With the pg_enable_utf8 flag set, Unicode strings are round-tripped > correctly automatically. > > It's mildly concerning that this flag is labelled "experimental and may > be subject to change" but I'm sure if it was changed it would only be > for the better :-) > > Cheers > Grant > > _______________________________________________ > Wellington-pm mailing list > Wellington-pm at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/wellington-pm -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFG71X4ZtcHxCitRpgRAuspAJ9SQf9nN5Jq/LQUK1vzhyCHKlv0XgCfUbM0 C350+TLXlMxZbRcchd8ytss= =Snpa -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From grant at mclean.net.nz Mon Sep 17 21:44:19 2007 From: grant at mclean.net.nz (Grant McLean) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:44:19 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB In-Reply-To: <46EF55F8.3020103@catalyst.net.nz> References: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46EF55F8.3020103@catalyst.net.nz> Message-ID: <1190090659.11275.23.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> On Tue, 2007-09-18 at 16:37 +1200, Srdjan wrote: > Is that deficiency of DBI::Pg or postgres client library? What deficiency? The fact that you have to turn on an option to enable transparent utf8 round-tripping? From srdjan at catalyst.net.nz Mon Sep 17 22:35:25 2007 From: srdjan at catalyst.net.nz (Srdjan) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 17:35:25 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB In-Reply-To: <1190090659.11275.23.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46EF55F8.3020103@catalyst.net.nz> <1190090659.11275.23.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <46EF639D.1080700@catalyst.net.nz> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Yep. If I insert something as utf8, I sure do expect it to come out as utf8. Grant McLean wrote: > On Tue, 2007-09-18 at 16:37 +1200, Srdjan wrote: >> Is that deficiency of DBI::Pg or postgres client library? > > What deficiency? The fact that you have to turn on an option to enable > transparent utf8 round-tripping? > > _______________________________________________ > Wellington-pm mailing list > Wellington-pm at pm.org > http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/wellington-pm > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFG72OcZtcHxCitRpgRAuH1AKDLLo/lQdD6W5fhDJPp01aoo4iOWgCgv3t/ WjtPVH5J74j/0XEIqnijtRU= =npeN -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From sam at vilain.net Tue Sep 18 00:15:20 2007 From: sam at vilain.net (Sam Vilain) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:15:20 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] Roundup of last night's meeting In-Reply-To: <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1189548574.3003.12.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <46E9C936.7050704@vilain.net> <1189733722.14539.1.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <46EF7B08.3090709@vilain.net> Richard Hector wrote: >> - co-operative, task switching systems - co-routines - via Coro in Perl >> 5 and the "produce" keyword in Perl 6. These are really neat. >> >> - semi-pre-emptive/per-opcode multi-threading systems. I don't know of >> any of these for Perl, but it's how Ruby threading works. >> >> - Software Transaction Memory (STM) - one of the big buzzwords at OSCON >> this year. Done with the "contend { }" keyword in Perl 6. > > My memory is hazy, but doesn't Quantum::Superpositions fit in here > somewhere? Oh yes, autothreading or "how making good use of massively multi-core CPUs is just a matter of xxx in Perl 6" Where xxx is at least: making sure any functions are 'pure', re-writing code to use junctive idioms, and of course being sure that the auto-threading is enabled on the Perl 6 platform. Sam. From michael at diaspora.gen.nz Tue Sep 18 02:52:23 2007 From: michael at diaspora.gen.nz (Michael Robinson) Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:52:23 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB In-Reply-To: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> References: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> Message-ID: <20070918095223.GA10212@diaspora.gen.nz> > For example say I insert a row with a text field containing the string > 'M?ori' (or "M\x{101}ori" in ASCII Perl). This string is 5 characters > long, but 6 bytes long because the second character is a multibyte > character. Going off on a tangent here, one of the fun facts about Unicode, particularly for those dealing with Maaori, is that there are "combining characters". This means that the following two strings are equivalent: M\x{304}aori M\x{101}ori Because 0x304 is the combining character "COMBINING MACRON" (see unicore/EastAsianWidth.txt in your Perl 5.8 distribution). So, if you're trying to canonicalize text input, say in a search engine dealing with Maaori source documents, and you need to deal with the fact that some people input macrons, and some don't, then you probably also need to consult Unicode::Normalize. (Not that I'm bringing back bad memories here, or anything :). -- michael. From sam at vilain.net Thu Sep 20 16:04:30 2007 From: sam at vilain.net (Sam Vilain) Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:04:30 +1200 Subject: [Wellington-pm] More on Unicode and DB In-Reply-To: <20070918095223.GA10212@diaspora.gen.nz> References: <1190087378.11275.20.camel@putnam.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz> <20070918095223.GA10212@diaspora.gen.nz> Message-ID: <46F2FC7E.1080307@vilain.net> Michael Robinson wrote: > So, if you're trying to canonicalize text input, say in a search engine > dealing with Maaori source documents, and you need to deal with the fact > that some people input macrons, and some don't, then you probably also > need to consult Unicode::Normalize. And then there's the ones that the Unicode consortium are in denial about. Like, ? vs ?, ? vs ??, ? vs ?? etc. Apparently fontmakers are supposed to distinguish these combinations (much like ? must not look like t) despite them appearing identical on the Unicode codecharts. Sam.