Big Spider!

You know when someone’s been reading bash.org too much sometimes..

<donncha> damn, fsck... left my camera usb cable at home.. got some great photos of a spider earlier.. must blog tonight :)
<Nargler> saw the big spider I've ever seen in my bath last weekend
<diamond> Nargler: bit you in the english did he?
<Nargler> was <---------------------> leg tip to leg tip and that's to scale!
<diamond> Nargler: on what res screen with what size font? -)
<Nargler> diamond: uhh average :]
<diamond> lol
<Nargler> can't you see what my font size is? ;)
<slaine> Some fonts are bigger than others :)
<diamond> Nargler: whatever size it is, it somehow ate 'gest' from your first remark. -)

WordPress Multi Blogs

Lots of ideas flying around the web: 1, 2, 3 by Matt, 4, 5, 6

I like the thin layer approach advocated by Ruben the best. I spent the last 2 nights attempting to coax WP into inserting a %wpblog% variable into the URL but it’s too intrusive and it’ll make tracking official releases of WordPress more difficult. Right now, my work is a “hack” on top of WP and I don’t want to spend time duplicating what other WP developers will do in the future.
When can you expect something from all this work? Maybe as early as next week! Keep yer eyes peeled!

DSL Router Troubles – ZyXEL Prestige and iolBB

Oh! The troubles I’ve seen! Every now and again my DSL router, a ZyXEL Prestige 623R-T1 would pack in and refuse to perform DNS requests. A mail to the ILUG on the matter didn’t help as nobody replied but I think I have come to a round about solution! Use a proxy server and caching name server!
So, I installed Squid and bind. Pointed my browser at Squid, /etc/resolv.conf at 127.0.0.1 and all seems fine!
I had previously noticed the router fail when I had opened a lot of browser tabs (6 web pages? Not much IMO) so I tried again with almost a dozen. Worked first time and because you’re seeing this, it’s still working!
Fingers crossed that it continues to work.

In pictures: Flooding in Cornwall

The BBC has pictures here and here of the awful flooding in Boscastle, Cornwall on Monday. Google News has more. Thankfully nobody was hurt although over 100 people were air-lifted to safety. Looks like animals and pets had a lucky escape too!

“We thought the cat would have had no chance.

“She could not believe her eyes when we saw the exhausted cat, precariously balanced on the edge of a piece of furniture, piled of top of other furniture.

“He must have found an air pocket and is incredibly lucky to survive.