Welcome to another edition on how to automate the hell out of your workflow. Preface One thing I have been addicted to since I learned it was source control. I don’t understand how some developers work without it… and I really don’t understand how any syadmins live without it. I have actually found it more useful as a sysadmin as a programmer, but only because at my day job I have used it in most of our major configs.

Backstory My git-fu sucks. I have to use an awesome git tool called SourceTree to do the git wizardry that I do. It’s totally free and for the Mac so if you want to just jump into git and have expert features clicks away go download this. I bought it back when it cost money but now you can have it for free. I’ll wait… Anyways, I’ve been rolling around in the lap of GIT/SourceTree luxury these past months; clicking away and using features I only wished SVN could ever touch.

Since the beginning of the year I have been mildly obsessed with reversing and malware. Studying ASM and low level debugging is put an awesome edge on my understanding of computer science, programming, and hacking in general. A week or so ago I started reading the Malware Analyst’s Cookbook and DVD: Tools and Techniques for Fighting Malicious Code where they recommend you build up a honeypot to collect malware. Of course I can’t a simple suggestions and set up a normal honeypot; Being a SysAdmin at heart I have to automate the hell out of everything.

Pelican 3.0 is almost out the door now. It’s been great working on a “real” project with other developers for what is, in retrospect, the first time ever. Some programmers I know would rather fork a project and trudge off into the snow with the code base, then fork off their own leg and write their way back before working on someone else’s code; I think at some point I caught that same fever from someone close to me.

I’ve been stalling a lot on writing this post. I guess I wanted everything to be perfect by the time I actually wrote about it however my willpower to finish these test cases is weak. The site has now changed, yet again. I decided not to wait 5 years between refreshes this time. The biggest change people should notice is at first glance you shouldn’t notice change. When you click around it should be easy to realize that the site isn’t WordPress based anymore though.

Things like this happen sometimes :::irc [4:27 PM] <SnowLprd> tBunnyMan: Nice work on #389. I can see how that will come in handy. :^) [4:27 PM] <tBunnyMan> Thanks! [4:28 PM] <tBunnyMan> I really just wanted a 404 and 50x error that matched my theme... but making it more extensible helps everyone [4:28 PM] <tBunnyMan> I just need to finish this test case for it when work stops being annoying [4:29 PM] <SnowLprd> Nice of you to generalize it for everyone, despite only needing it yourself for 404/50x errors.

I haven’t posted in a while because I am working on redoing this site. Once I am done with the backend I will start updating regularly.

Backstory When I bought my NOOK Simple Touch™ in January of this year I rediscovered calibre E-book management. While software always felt clunky in Mac OS X you could never deny it’s power and sheer amazing once you got past the UI. Being a big fan of ReadItLater I immediately tried to have the program pump my massive reading list into my Nook. To my dismay I discovered that the plugin was hardly complete.

Through my whole life I have always struggled to find the perfect tool for the job. No matter what I am doing I from the big to the little I question methods and tools I am using. Sometimes I find it, sometimes I struggle on and on. This is a story about how I think I found perfection. I have always had a fascination with wallets. They are where we keep the summary of our life and our valuables.

“Everything happens for a reason.” I read this normally innocuous phrase on a friend’s blog recently and wanted to toss my coffee mug. The notion of the phrase makes me want to jump out of my chair and flip my keyboard. I’m not going to rag on them for saying or even feeling it, it’s simply not my place to tell people how to live their lives, however it bothers me that people who I care about in the world think like that.