Maintaining old software on new systems
This post relates to a project at a previous employer, the University of Manchester. It's nine months since I left, but I still maintain contact with former colleagues and have been…
From Perl to Python
As part of the process of relearning Python, I tried converting my csv2qif script from Perl. It took me a while to get round the different syntax, particularly for reading from…
Converting CSV to QIF
I've recently become the treasurer of Manchester Friends of the Earth, a local environmental campaigning group that I've been involved with sporadically since I was at university. We've moved our accounts…
Programming language proficiency
As a freelancer, I have a degree of control over which languages I invest the time required to achieve a level of proficiency -- albeit somewhat guided by the market…
Check TLS certificate dates on the command line
I've recently started rolling out encrypted connections for the services I run for myself and other people, such as IMAP, SMTP and HTTP. I'm using LetsEncrypt for free automated certificates which work…
Relearning Python
A few weeks ago I posted about the trials of choosing a language and GUI toolkit. The requirements I had meant that I was leaning towards Java -- particularly because…
Configuration management with Ansible and Git slides
Earlier this week I delivered a talk entitled Configuration Management with Ansible and Git at the FLOSS UK Spring conference. I've now uploaded the slides for my talk, which you can view…
FLOSS UK Spring conference discount
The FLOSS UK Spring conference is coming up soon, and there are still a few tickets available. If you use the discount code LOYAL (or book using this link), you…
Which version of PHP will be in Ubuntu 16.04?
Ubuntu 16.04 is only about 6-8 weeks away from final release, and there's still a debate raging about which version of PHP should ship with the distrubtion. At the moment, both PHP…
Adding a progress bar to Mercurial
Most open source projects seem to use Git, but there are a few which have opted for Mercurial instead, most notably Mozilla projects such as Firefox and Thunderbird. For some inexplicable reason,…