March 2007 Archives

Why did you start this separate blog?

My main blog is not really appropriate for posting work on software development projects. I just needed a place where I could post things that I have written that might be of some marginal utility to others beside me. I guess that is sort of a given, since I don't do anything that is so far removed from what most people do that my coding efforts would be only useful to me. Needless to say, the reason this blog exists is to collect all of my work as a hobbyist software developer.

What license do you use?

I think that all depends. I had to grudgingly put the Limited Use Password Plugin under the GNU GPL because it borrowed a few lines of code from one of the WordPress files that handles that sort of thing. The rest of my work is not really licensed per se. I am going to keep the copyright on it firmly, but beyond that, I don't think it's really much of a concern for me right now. The licensing terms are pretty simple:

• You may use it without paying for it.
• You may give it to others without paying for it.
• You may not modify the code, claim credit for the project and/or sell it without my written permission.

Similar to the GNU GPL, but not as restrictive, I guess.

I incorporated Jim Carson's bug fixes into the script, and now for lack of a better version number, it's been moved up to version 1.2. So far, so good with the export. I tested it on my fiance's blog without any discernible problems. Obviously, if you encounter any bugs, please leave a good description of the bugs in the comments section.

Download it here.

The following are some free and/or open source programs that you may not have heard about, but that are worth having:

• TrueCrypt - disk encryption made easy. It will allow you to create encrypted drives and disk images, making it so that everything you write to them is transparently encrypted on the fly for you. As long as TrueCrypt is running, everything happens behind the scenes so you don't have to do anything like run your files through an encryption app to decrypt them before using them.
• Eraser - securely move and delete files, as well as purge the free space on your hard drive of anything that you don't want others to get access to later on. This sort of app is also called a "file shredder" because of the way that it systematically chews up the data associated with the files and free space you tell it to work on.
• Sage - the easiest way to keep track of the blogs you read. It is a Firefox plugin that integrates as a side panel. If you have to use Firefox (I can't stand using Opera with proxy servers) then it's the way to go.