The best way to get things up and running (while still being able to test the setup) is to run the django fastcgi process in non-daemonized mode.

python manage.py runfcgi socket=/home/www/mysite.example.com/run/mysite.sock pidfile=/home/www/mysite/run/mysite.pid method=threaded daemonize=false

Now configure an nginx virtual-host in /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf (or your config) like so:

# This serves the development site mysite.example.com.
    server {
        listen  80;
        server_name mysite.example.com;
        access_log  /home/www/mysite.example.com/log/access.log;
        error_log   /home/www/mysite.example.com/log/error.log;

        location / { 

            # Specifying the location of all the fastcgi parameters that are required to-
            # allow nginx to talk to the django fastcgi process.
            fastcgi_pass    unix:/home/www/mysite.example.com/run/moviedb.sock;
            fastcgi_param PATH_INFO         $fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD    $request_method;
            fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING      $query_string;
            fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE      $content_type;
            fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH    $content_length;
            fastcgi_param SERVER_PORT       $server_port;
            fastcgi_param SERVER_PROTOCOL   $server_protocol;
            fastcgi_param SERVER_NAME       $server_name;

            # Pass authorisation requests through to the application.
            fastcgi_pass_header Authorization;
            fastcgi_intercept_errors off;
        }
    }

And that’s it – bring nginx up (which ever way you do on your OS) and away you go!

From a TV content providers perspective, it may be that the main problem is providing content to viewers which can generate revenue. Now often TV shows are screened on cable or free to air TV stations at roughly the same time worldwide. My proposal is that television shows are DRM’d for a certain period of time i.e. 3 – 6 months after which the DRM restrictions are lifted and the content can be encoded for viewing on other hardware devices.

What do you think?

Secondly, even after installation and boot woes are sorted out – networking for whatever reason is busted. It took me forever to figure out why – first I installed Debian, then Ubuntu to no avail – APT would fail to resolve the mirrors even though I could ping (ICMP) the servers. I thought it could have been due to the firewall rules on the host machine, but these wheren’t the problem! It turned out that the fix was to change the network adapter from PCNET-FASTIII to Intel PRO/1000 T Server. After that, I had no trouble with DNS resolution and traffic issues. I’m lazy so I haven’t bothered to check what the underlying problem might have been – but hopefully this helps someone else out there!

Tip #1: Terminal.app 101
Getting to know Terminal.app not only increases your karma points a hundred fold, but can provide some marked gains in productivity. First things first, locate the application and run: /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app.

Once you’ve got the Terminal running, we’re going to pimp out our colour-scheme to give our Terminal that awesome Matrix uber-hacker look!

With Terminal.app open navigate to the settings window, select Terminal > Preferences > Settings. Here you can pick from a number of built-in themes – so pick a style that fits you (I’ve always found the ‘Pro’ theme the easiest to read and I love the retro green-screen look).

Next, you want to make sure that you’ve enabled “Antialias text” to help make the font legible under all conditions. If you prefer not to enable this feature, you may want to uncheck the “Use bright colors for bold text” option, since you may find some text difficult to read.

Setting the Terminal's colour scheme and font settings.

Now if the plain black terminal background doesn’t cut it for you, try setting the background’s transparency in the Window tab to 90% (this allows you to keep reading the Terminal while the background windows are not terribly annoying).

Setting the Terminal's background transparency.

NB: If you SSH frequently into boxes running GNU/Linux or Solaris via the Terminal, you’ll want to ensure that the DELETE key sends the CTRL+H keyboard sequence. To do this, simply check the option in Terminal > Preferences > Settings > Advanced > “Delete sends CTRL+H”. While you are in this tab, if you don’t like the Terminal beeping at your mistakes, simply uncheck the “Audible Bell” option – I recommend leaving the “Visible Bell” option enabled so that you know when you’ve made a mistake.

If you like your Terminal.app to be a certain fixed size every time its opened instead of the default size – create a window group. To do this, simply open up any number of windows and terminal tabs (just like in Safari!) and select Window > “Save Windows as Group…” – give the group a name and ensure you’ve ticked the box “Use group when Terminal starts”.

Tip #2: Nice directory listings

One of the most frequently performed tasks in any shell is to list all files within a directory – the problem is that the ls command’s output is not very pretty at first sight. We’re going to fix this…

In a shell enter the following command:
pico ~/.bash_profile – This creates a new file in your home directory which will store our shell’s extra properties.

Now in the editor window, enter the following strings:

export LSCOLORS=Exfxcxdxahegedabagacad
export CLICOLOR=1

What we’ve done above, is enabled colour highlighting for the ls shell command. If you don’t like my colour scheme feel free to explore the various colour combinations by viewing the appropriate man page (i.e. man ls).

Tip #3: Alias this!

The UNIX alias command is invaluable in creating quick shortcuts for frequently used commands like ls. I’m lazy and prefer to type a shortcut to list all the files in my current directory, rather than having to type: ls -lhF – so to make my life easier, I’m going to use the alias shortcut to assign a shorter keystroke for the same directory listing command.

In the same ~/.bash_profile file that we edited previously, add the following line:

alias ll='ls -lhF'

This will give you a nice coloured listing of the files, folders and applications in your current working directory. Feel free to experiment and if you have any trouble – don’t hesitate to leave me a comment

The whole process was really straight forward, the development turn around for such a simple app is of course ridiculously low, but what was great was the fact that there wasn’t too much ‘mind-bending’. In other words, you develop as though you would with django, with some minor changes to your data models and the URL mapping (which is done by AppEngine using a Yaml file).

You can check out the 5 minute intro on YouTube to get a feel for how straightforward the whole process is:

This awesome picture of Hard Rock Cafe in China, is from a good friend of mine Yi Wang.

After longing for product improvements at Yahoo; I decided that I’d not wait around any more – and finally ditched ‘em. I don’t complain much (not that you could tell from this blog) but my experience with Yahoo over the last few years have been bittersweet.

So – cya Yahoo!

In a funny twist of conversations over the weekend – while discussing Micheal Moore’s latest movie “Slacker Uprising” (and our local government elections) – I realised that it was only in communist countries, or dictatorships where people don’t always have the right to vote (I do realise that this is a slight generalisation, but heh – sue me).

In essence… if you don’t vote you’re a communist! How’s that for a poster?

Personally, I cherish my right to vote and can’t understand why people kick up a fuss that they have to vote (it takes a few minutes of one day every few years – get over it folks – and get out there to vote!).

Over the last year, my frustrations with Yahoo’s ageing services have mounted. I’ve been hosting business email with Y! for almost 3 years – over which period the mail application has received one trivial update (still more needs to be done); however face-lifting one piece of software isn’t enough in the current Internet age – where fast moving competitors such as Google are releasing products that iterate/evolve a lot faster that most of its competitors.

While mail received a facelift, the ancillary services, for example – calendaring and the account management control panel all look like they’re from the 90’s.

Additionally, the email application lacks proper POP3 support (when I say proper – I mean the ability for Yahoo to store email sent via POP3 in the ‘Sent’ mail folder) and no IMAP support, making Yahoo’s Business email less and less useful compared to Google’s offerings. A migration for all business email customers was due in August 2008 (I’m still waiting – if the system is truly exceptional, I will consider staying… otherwise I’m switching to Google Apps as soon as my Y! contract is over).

The final nail in the coffin is their absolutely shit customer service – here’s the usual process:

1. You have problem with X
2. You contact customer support
3. You get an automated email response saying that your problem will be dealt with within 24 hours
4. 24 hours later, you receive ANOTHER email saying that your query was received, and that it will be dealt with in 24 hours
5. 4 – 5 days later, when you’ve figured out workarounds for all the problems, you receive an unhelpful response from Yahoo customer support
6. You respond requesting further clarification
7. Receive second response saying that it will not be possible to help due to limitations/insert/other/excuse within the current system
8. ??? Limitations WTF ???

If Yahoo! doesn’t up its game soon, it’ll be the death of what was once a great company. This would be a real shame, especially considering how much I used to admire this company & love the brand (and still do… somewhat).

Update: The Yahoo Zimbra desktop looks like it could save Yahoo! Business email from being chucked into the digital dust-bin, although this will depend on their integration efforts.

Update No. 2: Heard back from customer support noting that my issues could not be solved and to call and discuss the problem with customer support in the US (yeah right!).