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Google Web APIs – Home

Develop Your Own Applications Using Google

With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 2 billion web documents directly from their own computer programs. Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so a developer can program in his or her favorite environment – such as Java, Perl, or Visual Studio .NET.

I added a list of pages similar to this one, as defined by Google, on the righthand column. I used the Google API, but this is just a static include for now. When I get more time, I’ll work on something dynamic. And ideally, it would use SOAP instead of java to fetch the data and perl to prep it for display as I do now. That will come later, as well. I just installed the SOAP stuff. That’s as far as I am going tonight.

national service: need it be military service?

10/11/2002: Mandatory military service in the US?

HR 3598, the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001 (Introduced in House), would, if passed: “… require the induction into the Armed Forces of young men registered under the Military Selective Service Act, and to authorize young women to volunteer, to receive basic military training and education for a period of up to one year.”
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King George and Saint Jimmy

Yesterday, we held a coronation of our current president, granting him the powers of a king, to make war at his discretion against the enemy of his choosing.

The Seattle Times: Nation & World

The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to grant President Bush the power to attack Iraq unilaterally, remove Saddam Hussein from power and abolish that country’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs.

At the same time, the Nobel Committee anointed former President Jimmy Carter as a secular saint for his tireless work since leaving office to improve the lives of millions in the developing world and averting war in the developed world.

ajc.com | News | Carter wins Nobel Peace Prize

Jimmy Carter, sometimes described as the greatest ex-president in American history, has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

They couldn’t be more different. One born of privilege, using his name and family connections to enrich himself and those around him, the other raised on a farm in an agricultural state, serving in the Navy, and then advancing his views and himself through local and state politics to achieve the presidency.

For his tireless efforts, Carter has been lauded by the international community and the UN, but vilified at home. I would submit he follows his heart and the example of another historical figure who endures lasting fame but in his time was also vilified and in the end, crucified.

It’s too early to tell how George W. Bush will be regarded by history, but if his father’s example is anything to go by, he’ll be seated with such luminaries as Polk, Pierce, and Fillmore.

The notion that the President is a latter-day JFK with Saddam’s Iraq as his Cuban Missile Crisis neglects to mention two important facts: a) JFK had proof that there were missiles and b) the proximity of Cuba represented a real threat. Bush fils has suspicion, supposition, and hope. There may be weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but finding them and neutralizing them is a task that requires more sophistication than your average Saturday afternoon western movie.

bsdpak for package/port management

SourceForge.net: Project Info – BSDPak

I was reminded of this tool tonight and was glad to see I had kept a copy of it. It’s similar to portupgrade but it seems to work faster and is less confusing (to me, anyway).

Here’s what it offers:

BSDPak 0.51 - A package management helper for FreeBSD and NetBSD
Copyright (C) 2000-2001 Rodney "meff" Gordon II

Usage: bsdpak-0.51/bsdpak.pl [options]

Where options are one of the below:
--help Help. (What you're reading now.)
--findpackage= Find a package, and its path in ports.
--installpackage= Find a package in ports, and install it.
(IN DEVELEOPMENT)
--upgradepackages Print commands to update your packages to
index versions.
--compare Compare currently installed packages with
the ports index.
Compare options:
--all Print comparison of all packages.
--needupdate Print packages that need updated.
--exceedindex Print packages that exceed the ports index.
--uptodate Print up to date packages.
--index=
Specify a path or url to use for the index file.

By default this program uses /usr/ports/INDEX or /usr/pkgsrc/INDEX
for the index packages, and pkg_info output for current packages.
Current info is not yet customizable (you shouldn't have to change
it.) However, the index path is, by using the previously mentioned
--index option, which may specify a path or URL.

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My first Segway sighting

Segway | Comparisons | Save Time

Using Segway HT instead of walking increases the area you can cover 50-fold — whether you’re working or running errands.

The city bought some of these and I saw one in use by a meter reader today: I stopped to ask if it was as fun as it looked, and he allowed that it was.

The look on the faces of the three elementary schoolboys as they saw it coming was priceless: a flying saucer or jetpack couldn’t have unhinged their jaws more completely.
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fun with mod_perl

So while I installed MovableType 2.5 without any problem, I decided to tackle the long-overdue installation of mod_perl.

This kind of message is always exciting . . . . .


************* WARNING *************

Apache headers found in unexpected location: ``/usr/local/include'', suggestions:
*) Remove via ``rpm -e apache''
*) Remove by hand
*) Complain to your os vendor about their poor layout choice
*) Complain to your sysadmin about their poor layout choice


************* WARNING *************
Enter `q' to stop search
Please tell me where I can find your apache src
[../apache_x.x/src] /usr/ports/www/apache13/work/apache_1.3.27
Configuring for Apache, Version 1.3.27
+ using installation path layout: Apache (config.layout)
configure:Error: invalid option '-file'
can't open /Makefile No such file or directory at Makefile.PL line 668, line 1.

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