Monthly Archives: November 2005

PostgreSQL 8.1

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Good news just keeps coming. PostgreSQL 8.1 has been released. There are several changes in this new version, I suspect for many having pg_autovacuum tied in as part of the database server will be a big plus. Roles and Two Phase Commit are other nice features that will be very helpful. If you are into local GUI apps for database administration then having pgAdmin 1.4.0 included will be welcome, especially for Windows users. Overall this release seems like a solid step forward.

Now we just need PHP 5.1, Apache 2.1 to be released and we’ll have a completely updated stack when combined with FreeBSD 6.0 and PostgreSQL 8.1.

PINGQueue.com

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Some months ago I sat down and spent some time thinking about Ping-o-Matic and what sort possibilities there are in that kind of service. I started putting some ideas down on paper and talked to Jim about it, we agreed it sounded interesting so I started writing up some code. Thus PINGQueue.com was born.

I’ve gone through a couple revisions of the code and database and I’m fairly happy with where things are at. There are still more features that I’d like to add, some for users and others behind the scenes, but for now I think it is at a good starting point. So go and try it out, especially if you are looking for possible Ping-o-Matic alternatives.

You can submit pings via an HTML form at http://www.pingqueue.com/ or use the XML-RPC function weblogUpdates.ping at http://www.pingqueue.com/rpc/. If you are using WordPress then you can configure it to automatically ping PINGQueue via Options -> Writing -> Update Services (at the bottom of the page) and put in the URL http://www.pingqueue.com/rpc/ in the textarea and click on the ‘Update Options’ button.

PINGQueue.com has its own blog (with RSS Feed) and a contact form if you’d like to ask questions.

So try it out and let me know what you think.

Sony Rootkit For Windows

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Most of have come to terms with the idea that some software come with rather evil components that try to take over Windows systems, or attack others, etc. Usually the software packages that do this are on shaky ground to start with, are fairly easy to avoid. I guess Sony was looking to change all that.

Before you go out and buy another CD read through “Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far“. It seems that the CD “Get Right with the Man” by Van Zant will install a poorly written rootkit on your Windows system. This is bad news, it is becoming increasingly difficult to know who to trust in these matters. Before it was a pretty good rule of thumb that if you only installed software from reputable vendors then you’d be okay. The list of vendors considered reputable seems to be decreasing rapidly.