Programmer, Property Tycoon, Media Mogul
A spokesman for the Melbourne Fire Brigade commented on a fire at a bondage and discipline parlour in inner Melbourne that was under control in under 30 minutes:
“[firefighters] were tied up for some time but disciplined and controlled firefighting contained the blaze to one room on the second floor”
A spokesman with a sense of humour!
The call for papers is now officially out for the Open Source Developers’ Conference 2007. This year is the first non-Melbourne year, with the event being managed by a new organisational committee in Brisbane!
So add the 26th - 29th of November to your diaries, and get your papers submitted by the 30th of June, and I’ll see you in Brisbane in 6 months!
I was just sharing my future plans with a friend, who sent me this little story:
The Mexican Fisherman
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.
“Not very long,” answered the Mexican.
“But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?” asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.
The American asked, “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs… I have a full life.”
The American interrupted, “I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.”
“And after that?” asked the Mexican.
“With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.”
“How long would that take?” asked the Mexican.
“Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,” replied the American.
“And after that?”
“Afterwards? Well my Friend, That’s when it gets really interesting,” answered the American, laughing. “When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!”
“Millions? Really? And after that?” said the Mexican.
“After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends.”
Know where you’re going in life… you may already be there.
I’m configuring WordPress to work with an external authentication system and need to automatically log in a user and create a new user in WordPress if none exists. The user’s details are available to WordPress in environment variables.
To do this, I’m using three plugins:
Firstly, I’d like to thank Daniel for accepting (with changes) my patch to facilitate the creation of non-existent users, an option that can be disabled if you don’t want this feature.
The first two plugins solved nearly all of my issues, with the exception of using environment variables to fill in the user data on user creation, and in true open source fashion, these three distinct plugins now do a job particularly well, and can be used in conjunction with or separately from each other.
[Update 6th August] I’ve now had approval from the powers that be, and this plugin is now available for your enjoyment.