I’ve half-written quite a few blog entries in the last week. I must push this logjam through to be able to write new things. Prepare for the onslaught.

KinoSearch – A Search Library for Perl

I discovered KinoSearch via a post to the Plucene mailing list last week. After a few false starts it whipped me into shape and I got it working. The verdict is that KinoSearch beats the living hell out of Plucene. I created an index of a few thousand small records and ran the same search through both. Plucene clocked in at 3 seconds and Kino at 0.3. You do the math.

Markup

If you make webpages — in any capacity — please take the time to read a few blogs concerning said trade. This means developers, designers, and artists alike. We all could use some pointers from the pros. Try an aggregated feed like 9rules’ Design Community. For something with less activity (but much more polish) try A List Apart. Check out The Web Standards Project. I’ve got 31 different feeds in my aggregator. I’ve ditched aggregated sites for a cherry-picked few I liked while doing temporary time with things like 9rules. Reading this information will help you understand why we should put thought into our pages. It’s not about ditching tables for floating divs. It’s about producing quality work.

Open Source and People

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two choices a business can make. Invest in your employees or give money to companies. My employer, for example, has chosen to pay higher salaries and less in software costs. They’ve hired (in my opinion) quality developers and admins that know how to leverage free software to get the job done. We are allowed to contribute back to the projects we use. We do this with money in some cases and patches and support in others. Other companies I’ve worked for have been more interested in hiring, say, a Sun Certification than a person. I’ll pick on Java. The company makes a decision to use Sun’s platform because they know they can pick up a certified developer off the street, put her in a cubicle and expect a reasonable return. Working with Open Source sometimes requires a bit more finesse. I’m not saying either side is right, I’m just making a distinction. I could spend days debating this topic.

Summary

Between girlfriend, work, and day-to-day stuff. I’ve not had too much cause to wax poetic about things. Being content will do that to you. I hope that clearing up this little log jam will allow ideas to freely flow again. If not, I’ll just poke my head back in and scream a few choice lines some other time.

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Posted at : March 21st, 2006 - 1:15 pm
Filed under : Code, Design, General, Languages, MacOS, Operating Systems, Perl, Useless Information, Work
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