martinmurphy.com - Martin Murphy » Blogs http://martinmurphy.com/blog Martin Murphy's Weblog Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:48:00 +0000 en hourly 1 Can you crack a code? http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2009/01/05/76-can-you-crack-a-code/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2009/01/05/76-can-you-crack-a-code/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:50:00 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/?p=76 Saw this on Bruce Schneier’s blog, it’s the FBI’s Dec 2008 cryptanalysis problem. Can you crack a code?

Good fun.

]]> http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2009/01/05/76-can-you-crack-a-code/feed/ 0 Friday Fun: The Internet Crash of 2007 http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/07/20/57-friday-fun-the-internet-crash-of-2007/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/07/20/57-friday-fun-the-internet-crash-of-2007/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:18:59 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/07/20/57-friday-fun-the-internet-crash-of-2007/ Saw this on LifeHacker, it’s a fun video from the onion about the Internet crashing:

Friday Fun: The Internet Crash of 2007 – Lifehacker

]]> http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/07/20/57-friday-fun-the-internet-crash-of-2007/feed/ 0 Upgrading WordPress http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/55-upgrading-wordpress/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/55-upgrading-wordpress/#comments Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:45:56 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/55-upgrading-wordpress/ Well, after my earlier problems with the automated Fantastico upgrade, I did the “manual” upgrade to my WordPress installation. I was moving from 2.0.6 to 2.2.1 following the instructions from WordPress.

It all went perfectly. Well done on the instructions (and the software).

At the end of the upgrade instructions, there’s a section called
Special note for Fantastico Upgrades, which mentions removing the DB_CHARSET and DB_COLLATE parameters if upgrading with Fantistico. Presumably the DB_CHARSET parameter is what affected the accented characters in my earlier upgrade attempt. So, if upgrading WordPress using Fantistico, read the manual instructions! (pity I didn’t see this earlier.) I expect this will soon find itself into the Fantastico procedures, or at least the documentation, however I think I’ll stick with the manual upgrade in future.

]]> http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/55-upgrading-wordpress/feed/ 0 Back to basics (or some rules for software upgrades) http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/54-back-to-basics-or-some-rules-for-software-upgrades/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/54-back-to-basics-or-some-rules-for-software-upgrades/#comments Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:35:58 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/54-back-to-basics-or-some-rules-for-software-upgrades/
  • Don’t upgrade just because there is a newer version available.
  • Check the release notes and other documentation for any problems with the new software.
  • Verify the upgrade in a test environment first. This is not always a realistic option, but if you don’t do it then backups become even more important.
  • Backup your current live system (and verify the backup).
  • Allow enough time for the upgrade of the live system.
  • Verify everything is working correctly after the upgrade. This is the point where the problems appeared for me. However, I was able to revert to the earlier version – which had luckily been backed up by the software doing the installation and not me (I should learn to follow my own advice.)

    • In case you’re wondering, the problem was “just” a visual, where accented characters were not being displayed correctly in WordPress 2.2, hopefully 2.2.1 fixes it. I’ll have to wait until I get some more time to do a test and a hand install, rather than the automated Fantastico install.

    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/06/24/54-back-to-basics-or-some-rules-for-software-upgrades/feed/ 1     RubyCocoa 0.11.0 released – The Unofficial Apple Weblog TUAW http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/52-rubycocoa-0110-released-the-unofficial-apple-weblog-tuaw/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/52-rubycocoa-0110-released-the-unofficial-apple-weblog-tuaw/#comments Fri, 25 May 2007 10:08:18 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/52-rubycocoa-0110-released-the-unofficial-apple-weblog-tuaw/ Just saw this post on TUAW: RubyCocoa 0.11.0 released – The Unofficial Apple Weblog TUAW

    Looks interesting for anyone wanting to develop Mac applications in Ruby.

    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/05/25/52-rubycocoa-0110-released-the-unofficial-apple-weblog-tuaw/feed/ 0     Google Notebook http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/02/13/36-google-notebook/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/02/13/36-google-notebook/#comments Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:13:30 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/02/13/36-google-notebook/ Maybe I’ve been hiding somewhere for a while, but I just discovered Google Notebook yesterday. In the past, while I’ve been browsing I’ve used a text editor to keep notes for myself, cutting from the webpage and pasting into a text file. Google have a Firefox plugin (I don’t know if it’s available for any other browsers) that allows you to select some text on a web page, right click, and choose “Note this”. This saves the text and the link to a web-based notebook at Google. (You need a Google account.) I’m sure that there are alternatives available that do a similar task, but I haven’t been using them.
    So far, this seems pretty good.
    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2007/02/13/36-google-notebook/feed/ 0     Blogging and the work–life balance http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/12-blogging-and-the-work-life-balance/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/12-blogging-and-the-work-life-balance/#comments Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:40:22 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/12-blogging-and-the-work-life-balance/ There is a new “blogging initiative” at work (well I think it’s new, I’m not there long myself). The company line seems to be that blogging is good for both the employer and the employee. The company has offered to setup blog hosting on their servers. It seems like a reasonable idea, but, I’m not convinced that the company website needs to be associated with the latest news at the local dog show, cinema, or companies alluding to the discovery perpetual motion machines. I’m equally unconvinced that local movie-goers, dog-lovers, or mad scientists are interested in advances in the state-of-the-art in telecommunications software and systems.

    So I would suggest that personal blogs are good for subjects that the blogger is interested in, and that work blogs are useful for dissemenating project related info on a per project basis. In addition, seperate work CV pages can be used for “these are our incredibly smart employees” and “why you should put money into our project” pages. And because of hypertext links (which are fundanemtal to “the web”) all of these can be associated, while keeping their individual identies.
    I’m interested in what other people think about this.

    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/12-blogging-and-the-work-life-balance/feed/ 0     Delays are in the mind of the beholder http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/11-delays-are-in-the-mind-of-the-beholder/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/11-delays-are-in-the-mind-of-the-beholder/#comments Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:11:49 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/11-delays-are-in-the-mind-of-the-beholder/ Wow! it’s been a while since the last post. Looks like August never happened. I must at least think about blogging a bit more often.

    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/09/04/11-delays-are-in-the-mind-of-the-beholder/feed/ 0     Dave Johnson: Beyond Blogging: Understanding feeds and publishing protocols http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/07/31/9-dave-johnson-beyond-blogging-understanding-feeds-and-publishing-protocols/ http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/07/31/9-dave-johnson-beyond-blogging-understanding-feeds-and-publishing-protocols/#comments Mon, 31 Jul 2006 08:56:53 +0000 Martin Murphy http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/07/31/9-dave-johnson-beyond-blogging-understanding-feeds-and-publishing-protocols/ Mícheál Ó Foghlú links to this PDF slideset. I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds interesting.

    ]]>     http://martinmurphy.com/blog/2006/07/31/9-dave-johnson-beyond-blogging-understanding-feeds-and-publishing-protocols/feed/ 0