It seems that the third beta version of DarkChannels is the good one : for some days now, I'm testdriving this version, and everything behaves nicely. In this last version, I have added timestamp support, which basically means that websites which do not carry the Last-Modified HTTP header (eg many PHP based sites), still get a timestamp in DarkChannels if they provide new information. In the past versions, such websites did not get such a timestamp, and ended up on the bottom of the list. Now, the left column has a nice chronological overview of all modified sites.





I'm going to introduce quite some modifications in the DC-0.6.0 package, as not all files are located in the place they should be : the sites file is basically a configuration file, so it should end up in /etc, and not in the current /usr/lib/darkchannels. That way, the Debian package should also be lintian clean. I'm going to carry out some more tests, and if everything turns out to be A-Ok, I''ll start the packaging.




It seems that a new XULChannels might still be far away, as Tim stated, so he ended up playing with Planet Planet, to create PlanetBlog, a collection of Dutch and Flemmish blogs.

The PC HabiCase allows your gerbil, hamster or mouse to live INSIDE your computer. The ultimate case mod or animal abuse ? Decide for yourself.

My back is feeling better each day. The big breakthrough, however, will be next Wednesday, when the metallic stiches will be removed. I am quite curious how big the scar will be, and how much scar tissue will remain visible. I secretly hope there will remain some, as it is the perfect excuse to place that tattoo I want. BMEzine has already a nice tattoo gallery to choose from.

1. Grab the nearest book.


2. Open the book to page 23.


3. Find the fifth sentence.


4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

From The eyes of the dragon by Stephen King :
And it is quite possible that that was actually the only reason.

What's on TV tonight? Nothing! That's right, it's the tenth annual TV turn-off week..

DarkChannels 0.5.0 has been released. I ran into too many problems with the XML::Simple implementation, which the previous module handled so nicely for me. So I restored the XML::RSS::Parser::Lite module, but adapted it so it is capable of parsing RDF feeds. I sent the patch to the module author, and hope he will apply it.




What's even more, you can download the source, and install DarkChannels on your own webserver. The source has been released under the GPL - if you have any remarks, bugreports, or wishlists, please send them to me.

I have released DarkChannels 0.4.9, which is an alfa release of 0.5.0. This version supports all RSS versions, which was the last thing that bugged me in DarkChannels. To accomplish this, I needed to replace the XML::RSS:Parser::Lite Perl module by something other : I first tried XML::Twig, but the API seemed too complex, and I switched to XML::Simple instead. This meant replacing the core of the DarkChannels engine, so expect things to break from time to time in the next days.




I suffer from a heavy outbreak of hernia, so this version is mainly coded under the influence of strong painkillers - hence the release name (and another reason to call this an alfa release ;)

Cool : there aren't so many Belgian developers who have their own blog, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out that Wouter Verhelst (fellow Linux geek and Debian developer) maintains his own LiveJournal.

This (Siemens MC60) is my new cellphone. Color screen, integrated camera, WAP, GPRS and Java (what, no Perl ?).



Oh, and you can call someone with it too ;)

your beauty strikes like a punch out of nowhere
your passion bites and i''m willing to get there

take your place behind the wheel
you're in command, take me where you want to
i'm a passenger waiting for departure



-- Rotersand, Almost Violent


Music time ! All of the last CDs I''ve bought recently were pure new wave related stuff :

• And One - Spot


• And One - IST


• And One - Aggressor


• Covenant - Northern Light


• FischerSpooner - Nr.1


• Front 242 - Backcatalogue


• Front 242 - Geography (2CD limited edition)


• Rotersand - Electronic World Transmission (Remix album)


• Wolfsheim - Popkiller