Category: Technology

Technology

Fixing libxml2, php, WordPress, and the missing angle brackets

petewareLeave a comment

Someone posted a temporary fix for WordPress that takes the raw xml and replaces the offending entities with characters. He found three places. The fix looks like:

//xmllib 2.7.0 -2.7.2 stripping leading angle brackets bug patch
if(LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.0' ||
  LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.1' ||
  LIBXML_DOTTED_VERSION == '2.7.2') {
  $xml =str_replace("&lt;","<",$xml );
  $xml =str_replace("&gt;",">",$xml );
  $xml =str_replace("&amp;","&",$xml );
}
//end Fix
xml_parse($parser, $xml);
Technology

Seeing a Virus in Three Dimensions

petewareLeave a comment

Sometimes my jaw just drops when I read about scientific advances. If the reporter understood this and I understood the reporter they are using a magnetic field causing protons to vibrate which is then measured with a tiny scale.
What makes me astounded is how quickly we are reaching into the molecular level. 15 years ago this was just some wild eyed, theoretical paper.
From A Breakthrough in Imaging – Seeing a Virus in Three Dimensions:
Virus in 3d

Magnetic resonance force microscopy employs an ultrasmall cantilever arm as a platform for specimens that are then moved in and out of proximity to a tiny magnet. At extremely low temperatures the researchers are able to measure the effect of a magnetic field on the protons in the hydrogen atoms found in the virus.
By repeatedly flipping the magnetic field, the researchers are able to cause a minute vibration in the cantilever arm which can then be measured by a laser beam. By moving the virus through the magnetic field it is possible to build up a 3-D image from many two-dimensional samples.

Technology

Fixing libxml2, php, WordPress, and the missing angle brackets

petewareLeave a comment

I was having problems with MarsEdit after updating to OpenSuse 11.1 because of a bug in php aggravated by a recent release of libxml2 (details here).
I was waiting for a real fix but lost my patience today. The advice was to “fall back to libxml2-2.6.32” so here’s what I did:

  1. Grabbed the RPM from the OpenSuse 11.0 cd. Or, if you trust me you can download it from here: libxml2-2.6.32-11.1.i586.rpm
  2. Install the RPM overriding any recent release which is what the “–force” flag does. Do the following as “root” from a terminal window: 
    rpm -i --force libxml2-2.6.32-11.1.i586.rpm
  3. Now fix the symlinks in /usr/lib so everyone uses the new (but old) library:

    cd /usr/lib
rm libxml2.so libxml2.so.2
ln -s libxml2.so.2.6.32 libxml2.so
ln -s libxml2.so.2.6.32 libxml2.so.2
  4. Actually, I didn’t do the above but instead replaced the actual 2.7.2 library:

    mv libxml2.so.2.7.2 libxml2.so.2.7.2.orig
ln -s libxml2.so.2.6.32 libxml2.so.2.7.2
  5. Restart apache so that PHP uses the new libraries:

    /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Technology

Refining google AdWords

petewareLeave a comment

I’ve been monitoring the results of trying a Google AdWord campaign ($25 for a month). This is the third day since I started to “brand” myself (it’s more painful then it sounds). Here are the searches that resulted in a click through:

  • “andaconda sports”
  • “python” but it was a search limited to http://www.france-pub.com
  • “snake game”
  • “where can i sell my snake”

Google associates Python, a programming language in my world, with “snakes”.
I went back to Google AdWords to refine my keywords and discovered a few more details. For example, you can add a “-” to mean “not this word” and you can surround a word in quotes to avoid the broad match (e.g. “snake” matches “python”). Here’s the set of words I’m using now:

  • PyQt
  • django
  • pyqt
  • python qt
  • qt
  • qt designer
  • “python”
  • -snake

So far I’ve spent $1.63 for six click thru’s that are totally worthless. That’s not such a big deal at this point though it does warn me about two things:

  1. If you don’t have an easy way to monitor what search words are being used you shouldn’t be using AdWords.
  2. A lot of people just click on the first thing that shows up. I have no idea why someone looking for “snake game” would click on a link “Pete Ware — Developer”!
Technology

Google adwords and “my brand”

petewareLeave a comment

I woke up early this morning and decided using Google AdWords was a brilliant idea and not at all creepy. So I followed the advice in item 5 and took out an ad via Google AdWords.
I chose pretty strange search words (python, qt, PyQt) so it’d be cheap. I also limited the searches to New York (fewer adds served). Finally, I had a $25 credit so it’s essentially a free experiment.
So searching Google for “PyQt” in New York results in this display:
google pyqt
The text is lame but it’s easy to change.
Google AdWords now shows I’ve had 850 impressions (Impr) and one click through (Clicks). What, I actually had a click through!
google adwords
I better go check that click through out:
wordpress stats
(that’s from WordPress and the StatPress plugin). The person was searching for “andaconda sports” and the results look like:
andaconda sports
The first time I looked, my page showed up first.
So the person immediately clicked on the very first link! That bozo cost me $0.43 while looking for a sporting goods store! I’m a software developer! WTF?
So how did my page show up? Google must have figured “Andaconda” was really “Anaconda” (which is a snake) and further decided that Anaconda and Python are related. So the bozo must be interested in me because I mentioned Python. So that blows half my advertising budget for today!

Technology

7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media

petewareLeave a comment

This article has some interesting ideas about looking for a job in our brave new world. I’m not wild about the idea of establishing a “brand” (go figure since I’m doing this on peteware.com) but it’s certainly conventional wisdom that you find a job by knowing people.
I need to ponder idea (5) — taking out a Google AdWord is either brilliant or really creepy. From 7 Secrets to Getting Your Next Job Using Social Media:

5. Advertise your brand using AdWords and Facebook Social Ads
Google AdWords is Google’s advertising platform, which offers CPC (cost-per-click) and CPI (cost-per-impression) pricing for advertisements on Google and partner sites. Some of their partner sites are newspapers, radio and TV.