PHP Everywhere: To C or not to C, that is the question

John benchmarked a C PHP extension versus native PHP code and discovered the speed-up wasn’t that great and I have to agree, not worth the restrictions not coding in PHP provides.
At work, we’ve thought of moving code into a C extension lots of times but this proves it’s not worth it. If you use a PHP Accelerator/cache then it’ll make even less sense!
This is one weblog entry I’m posting around the office for general consumption.

KDE vs Gnome

Right, this is a completely personal observation. On my redhat 8 box here at work, KDE just kicks the ass off Gnome 2 for speed. I don’t use the file manager of either environment much, so this is simply and observation on how using Galeon, Gnome Multi-terminal, xchat and Kmail work. They just work faster!

mp3burn

mp3burn is a simple command line tool for making audio CDs from mp3s without filling up your disk with .wav files. It requires perl, mpg123, and cdrecord.
update! Why not use a self made script? (see comments)
Because I keep forgetting the parameters to pass to cdrecord, and it’s easier to have someone else maintain a package than me. Plus there’s a few graphical frontends for mp3burn that could be handy for the family.. Might finally get my brother interested in using Linux as a desktop!

Anger at move to restrict FoI Act

Here’s why the techies on ILUG didn’t get excited about the Government’s plan to restrict the Freedom of Information act:

  1. It came just a week after the data retention fiasco. There’s only so much ranting and raving one can do, even the ILUG! People are bored of politics.
  2. The FOI Act deals with data that most people just don’t care about in their day to day life. The data retention policy directly applies to me because I go online at home. Do I have any issue with the Governement that I need “secret” information to persue? No, of course not, but if you are concerned about the running of the Government then the FOI Act is important. In a perfect democracy all citizens would be concerned citizens..

MUD Players – us raid on iraq

What if mudders planned a war on Iraq?

US: Ok, putting together RvR group for Iraq raid… who’s in?
Turkey: Only if someone makes me new armor. Last Iraq raid I lost money on
US: *sigh* Ok, can’t build you the new armor, but I’ll help pay for it. How
much you need.
Turkey: 6 Plat.
US: WTF?! You’re not building the armor out of platinum, ya tard.. no
frikking way.