Pure Perl CGI Server
Posted 9:25 PM

I wrote a rather efficient bare-bones web server that is only capable of serving perl CGI programs. The very cool thing about it is that it's single-threaded, like thttpd.

Since the webserver is written in perl, you're not execve'ing on every hit. And the server itself is very lightweight, so dprof will probably tell you that slowdowns are coming your CGI.

Note: If your perl program ever blocks on IO, don't think about using this server. But you wouldn't do that, would you?

In summary, if you have a perl CGI that's slow under Apache and you need to handle hundreds of CGI requests per second on a cheap box, ppcgid might help.

Let me know if/how you find it useful.

Labels: perl, web development

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Cafe Upgrade
Posted 9:50 AM

Never, ever throw out your old copies of Wired, New Scientist, Nature and Scientific American. Leave them in a cafe instead. Read on.

In the U.S., ignorance of science is a national crisis. People who don't know what "somatic nuclear transfer" is are busy voicing their opinions and motivating activists to stop it.

Of course people naturally react with fear when new technology is deployed. I'm sure the first time a caveman used fire, all the other cavemen said, "For God's sake Og, stop it - do you want to burn the whole world down?".

Yes, we need regulation of dangerous technology. We can't have companies pouring mercury into our water supply, or publishing the DNA sequence for military grade pathogens on websites. But regulation needs to be targeted and intelligent - not blind.

Fortunately, it's easy to get educated on scientific issues. Modern science magazines are more interesting, educational and fun than ever before. Anyone with a high school reading level can grok enough of New Scientist or Scientific American to be up on the latest issues. And even Nature, a highly technical journal, has a large and easy-to-read leader section devoted to "Science News".

Our citizens absolutely need to be current on the state of technology so that they can support appropriate legislation.

If the millions of readers of science magazines decided to get just a bit more generous, we could, together, help spark a wave of interest in science.

(This is not my idea. Please don't credit me. Please steal this idea, and call it our own idea if you want.)

Labels: politics, science

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Secret Service Electronic Crimes Branch
Posted 4:01 AM

Yet another visit from the very active and remarkably clueless SS-ECB at our office today, asking us to turn off a website (fbi.pp.ru). This is the second time someone from their office came by.

When I asked them if they knew that we were running the entire .GOV domain, they said they didn't. They also didn't know that we were involved in several other ongoing ECB investigations.

Seems like that's the sort of thing an agency should know before sending a couple of agents over to shut things down.

Don't ask me why they had to send two large armed men to our office, instead of making a phone call or sending an email. Your tax dollars - hard at work.

Labels: politics

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