I've been keeping myself busy for the last two weeks. It all started when I read a mention of SquirrelMail on CamWorld. I tried it, loved it and just had to have it.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to install an OpenLDAP server to manage our various address books. It was a little trickier than I originally thought, but I did find a great tutorial on YoLinux. I spent quite some time making sure the LDAP attributes where compatible with Outlook Express and Entourage. I also found ldap-abook to provide web access. It's really ugly but quite functional. I'll revamp it whenever I have time. Finally, I located NcSv2Ldf, a nifty little utility to convert my address book to LDIF.

I wasn't quite done yet.

I wrote a Perl script to archive my old mail into MySQL. I used the Mail::Box module to handle the parsing. I had to tweak things to properly handle attachments, but I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. Of course, I had to build a web interface using jTalk to search, view and edit the archives.

I kept on going, and going…

I searched for a good web-based calendar/reminder-type tool, and stumbled onto the excellent WebCalendar, which I promptly tried and setup.

I just wouldn't stop.

I configured CVS and imported most of our source code. I even enabled ViewCVS to provide some web access.

I stopped. I had to get back to real work.

Seriously. What I've effectively done is moved all of my daily tools to server-based solutions. Most of them web-enabled. In the process I've seriously improved my productivity. No more flip-flopping between computers, everything I need is available from anywhere.

The sad part is that I haven't had a chance to play with the new Toshiba PDR-M25 digital camera we just bought for Vicki. We went to Costco a little while ago, just to see what they had, not really hoping for much and found this gem for a mere $199. I don't know much about cameras, but I know a good deal when I see one. As a matter of fact it was good enough for my partner, who had been looking for the right deal for a while, to rush to get one too.

p.s. I was the 27306^th person to sign.

Tu bosses toute ta vie pour payer ta pierre tombale,
Tu masques ton visage en lisant ton journal,
Tu marches tel un robot dans les couloirs du metro,
Les gens ne te touchent pas, il faut faire le premier pas,
Tu voudrais dialoguer sans renvoyer la balle,
Impossible d'avancer sans ton gilet pare-balle.
Tu voudrais donner des yeux a la justice
Imposssible de violer cette femme pleine de vices.

Antisocial, tu pers ton sang froid.
Repense a toutes ces annees de service.
Antisocial, bientot les annees de sevices,
Enfin le temps perdu qu'on ne rattrape plus.

Ecraser les gens est devenu ton passe-temps.
En les eclaboussant, tu deviens genant.
Dans ton desespoir, il reste un peu d'espoir
Celui de voir les gens sans fard et moins batards.
Mais cesse de faire le point, serre plutot les poings,
Bouge de ta retraite, ta conduite est trop parfaite
Releve la gueule, je suis la, t'es pas seul
Ceux qui t'enviaient, aujourd'hui te jugeraient.

Tu bosses toute ta vie pour payer ta pierre tombale,
Tu masques ton visage en lisant ton journal,
Tu marches tel un robot dans les couloirs du metro,
Les gens ne te touchent pas, il faut faire le premier pas,
Tu voudrais dialoguer sans renvoyer la balle,
Impossible d'avancer sans ton gilet pare-balle.
Tu voudrais donner des yeux a la justice
Imposssible de violer cette femme pleine de vices.
Antisocial, antisocial, antisocial, antisocial

Yesterday nite I smoked acid and I liked it. Serious.

Yesterday we launched Vicki's new Genealogy site, entirely built on jTalk, of course.

Definitely a labor of love. It took roughly a week to convert her old site from start to finish. Importing the loose data into databases turned out to be the one and only bottleneck.

I purposely used a HTML template very similar to this blog, shamelessly pushing the Thauvin's Look & Feel.

I'm pretty pleased with the result, especially when looking at it before and after.

Just as this blog does, there is a hidden interface for editing settings and data.