Build a linode from the command line

I recently had cause to create a number of linodes at the same time, and discovered the LinodeAPI. It's a pretty sweet api and allows you to do quite a few things. The attached python script uses the linode-python module to query linode and builds a debian wheezy server. There are some limitations to the script. The biggest limitation at the moment is that the disk sizes are hard coded. It's probable that you'd want to modify those sizes for any linode larger than the smallest plan.

Tags:

Attack on Anonymous Speech

For immediate release
 
Attack on Anonymous Speech
FBI seizes server providing anonymous remailer and many other services from colocation facility

Contacts:
Riseup Networks, Devin Theriot-Orr, 206-708-8740, sunbird [at] riseup.net
May First/People Link, Jamie McClelland, 917-509-5734, jm [at] mayfirst.org
ECN: Isole Nella Rete, inr [at] riseup.net

Installing Debian and configuring wifi and sleep on an Asus U56E BBL6

The Asus U56E budget laptop offers some great features, especially the significant battery life. However, if you want to install Debian on this machine, it can be a significant challenged. The biggest and most frustrating challenge is getting the operating system fully installed. Due to the newness of the Atheros Ethernet card:


Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8151 v2.0 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)

Squeeze disk images do not have the necessary drivers for a wired connection and the wifi card

Programmatically Add Taxonomy Terms in Drupal 7

It took a while for me to figure this out, so I thought I would create a quick post to help anyone in the same situation.

What I needed to do was add taxonomy terms to selected nodes using Views Bulk Operations. It seemed like it would be easy coming from Drupal 6, but I found the list of possible operations lacking. I did not do research to find out how to add an operation, I decided to just "Execute arbitrary PHP script," the only operation that would let me deal with taxonomies.

Links From My Computer to My Droid

As much as I like screwing around with my Droid X, I would never actively choose to surf the webs with my droid over my computer. Who would? It just takes so much longer to type, and don't get me started talking about voice recognition for urls, blech! Still, I do want to get my rss feeds on my phone, so I can casually keep up with important events like Charlie Sheen's most recent dada statements.

Video Module and SWF Tools: The Nightmare After Settings

I stayed up till 5:30 this morning because the video and swftools developers are sadistic bastards. It seems unlikely that they could have implemented modules with more settings than these two modules together share and less likely still, that the two modules could have less of a seamless interaction. I shake my fist at their broad vision of video for everyone! As usual, part of the difficulty had to do with my ignorance, but I have no qualms blaming others for my stupidity. "Damn you developers!"

The Nonexistent

A piece of popcorn got stuck in my gums. When did this happen? I ate popcorn a few nights ago, that must have been when. But what if it wasn't? How long can one of those flat kernel shells parade as a tooth, rammed deep into the space between the actual tooth and the gum-line? Weeks? Months? What if this was a piece of popcorn from my last trip to the zoo in 1990? Yuck.

Taxonomies and D7 Confusion

It took a while, way too long as far as I'm concerned, to figure out how to use taxonomies in this new Drupal beast. Yes by default articles come with free tagging turned on, and maybe in my little brain somewhere that should have been an obvious sign. Brain too little apparently. So if you happen to be like me and find yourself wondering "How do I add taxonomies to a content type?" here's the sitch.

Quick Solution: CSV File and Python

Today I was tasked with de-duping a csv file that had around 25,000 single entry rows of emails. There were numerous duplicates, and I needed a way to read the file, find out how many duplicates, and then rewrite the file without duplicate entries. I wanted to use python because I tire of php and have little to no experience with any other programming language. Maybe I should have chosen another language to complicate my life, but for time's sake, python became my goto language.

Drupal 7 - New things freak me out.

The initial install of Drupal 7 is quite similar, but the first thing I noticed,
when attempting to set up my database manually through settings.php, was the
change in the database structure. Drupal 7 has switched to using PDO as an
abstraction layer, db information goes into an array, like this.

Subscribe to deleuzer.net RSS