Guillaume “Zifro” Desrat’s former blog

Free deleted the WP_COMMENTS table && (true) last post

Filed under: healthy life — Zifro March 12, 2008 @ 1:11 am

Hello,

here it is, the very last post on this blog. I don’t feel neither sad nor happy. It’s just like it appears : made out of necessity.

I’ve been thinking about stopping blogging for some time. There was a week or two I was very active, but as I don’t code as much as before at home, and I don’t like to (nor am I authorized to…) write about my work, the posts content were slightly different than before. Lesser IT or geeky posts, more mylife.com ones.
And since I talk about my life about the ones who care to me (relatives and close friends), it’s no use to relate it here too. Right, no ?

So, I was thinking about it. Free made me do it.
This blog uses WordPress, and it receives some spam. But this spam resides in the comments table, and doesn’t appear on the blog, since I wipe them on a regular basis. Anyone can register, but it requires to have a first comment approved to then bypass this step.
Free decided there was too much spam. They deleted the comments table, desactivated this space and the related FTP account. I clicked on the “re-activate all the stuff” link and waited for 24 hours to have everything work again.
Note that this is the first warning. For the second warning, it takes 72 hours to re-activate your personal space. There’s no third warning, but a complete and definitive account deletion.

So I collected everything I could before writing this post.
hazzard.info and hazzard.info/zifro/ are going to move to the Bricabox (hosted by my friend pouype. The first will host some pages and pictures about what the Hazzard community was, its members, the IRC parties we made. The second will relate why this blog closes, what Free made, and it will invite you to visit the nice blogs I read.

I might end up saving all these posts by moving them into a new blog (Typo ?). For the moment, you can keep on reading http://hazzard.free.fr/zifro/ ; I’ll update this last post with whatever you’d need to keep access to the information this blog contains.

BarCamp (Ruby &) Rails in Paris ?

Filed under: parties, Ruby — Zifro February 26, 2008 @ 8:59 am

The French Ruby users association, Ruby France is looking forward organizing a BarCamp in Paris.
If you’re interested, please take a look and answer the poll.

For more information, read this post (warning : French language).

Trousers have firmware, too

Filed under: misc, geek — Zifro February 24, 2008 @ 5:25 pm

One week ago, I went to a factory outlet to buy some trousers (mine were definitely out of usage).
For the same model and same size, I found three different jeans : I didn’t fit in the first, and I felt comfortable in the two others, even I felt differently in those.

I bought the two latters, and, asking the sales woman for what the codes I noticed were, she explained me one was the textile code and the other … well, I don’t remember what the other was.
I reminded me how tricky it is when you buy computer parts ; you always have to check which firmware there is in.

Trousers have firmware, too.
2008 is so incredible !

Like powerful cars ? Leave France !

Filed under: cars — Zifro @ 5:21 pm

Since the beginning of 2008, there’s a law in France that gives you a bonus or a malus when buying a new (means : from your car dealer) car, according to the amount of CO2 it produces per kilometer.

If your car produces :
* less than 60 g CO2 / km : the bonus is 5000 EUR
* from 61 to 99 g CO2 / km : the bonus is 1000 EUR
* from 101 to 120 g CO2 / km : the bonus is 700 EUR
* from 121 to 130 g CO2 / km : the bonus is 200 EUR
* from 131 to 160 g CO2 / km : no bonus nor malus
* from 161 to 165 g CO2 / km : the malus costs you 200 EUR
* from 166 to 200 g CO2 / km : the malus costs you 750 EUR
* from 201 to 250 g CO2 / km : the malus costs you 1600 EUR
* more than 250 g CO2 / km : the malus costs you 2600 EUR

Note that only electric cars produce less than 60 g CO2 / km.
The government declared that the bonus will be financed at 100 % by the tax the malus represent. No need for a new tax.
This would ideally lead people to buy cars which pollute less. But if they do so, the bonus will be more important than the malus… how will the government pay for it without setting up a new tax ?

Asked for why the tax occurs only at buy time by the ecologists, Jean-Louis Borloo, the French transport ministre, replies that he thinks about turning the malus for cars producing more than 250 g CO2 / km into a yearly malus. Sweet… no :-(

Of course, it is necessary to protect the planet, but instead of proposing credible alternatives for everyday trips, it seems to be more interesting to tax people.
One of my colleague is found of cars. He’s considering affording a Nissan 350 Z before petrol costs too much. He comes to work by train, everyday, so he don’t pollute much. So why should he pay more for a nice car while someone with another one will save money for buying an “eco car” which he or she will use more and then pollute much more ?

Is Prague sweet in late March ? (EuRuKo 2008 inside)

Filed under: Ruby — Zifro February 3, 2008 @ 9:10 pm

The 2008 European Ruby Conference will be held in Prague, on March 29th and 30th.
The website has been launched few days ago, so I don’t feel sorry for not relaying this kind of information faster :)

A call for paper has been made, so if you’re a Ruby enthusiast with something nice to present, send them your paper.
For more information, visit http://www.euruko2008.org/.

Quitting Google services, one after the other

Filed under: 2007 — Zifro @ 2:30 pm

During 2007, I closed my Google account. I deleted the messages stored in my @gmail.com email service (although Google retains the right to keep them even if I do so) and then hit the magical link.
Because the Google account opens the door to all their services, such as Agenda, Documents, Groups or Orkut, I stopped using all of these as well.

The connection between all these services is really cool, but if you want to share something (your agenda, for example), it still requires a Google account (which you can create with the email address you like).
To use the Google Groups, you don’t need such an account, since someone can add you to one, but to modify your settings, you need to subscribe.

Today, I’m still chained to Google, as RubyFrance email service is hosted by the Moutain View company. The mailing lists were also moved to Google Groups, and, as I’m to manage them, I had to create an account.

Of course, one could argue that I’m not fair, and that would be right. Google services and products are nice, fully usable and even pleasant. But I don’t want this company to hold so much data about me.
Paranoïd ? No :)

This morning, I cleaned my RubyFrance agenda, because I didn’t get the point to keep up-to-date three agendas (iCal, Exchange and Google ones) and looked for how to desactivate it. Without luck. So from now I just drop it.

Crazy Q

Filed under: music, remember — Zifro February 1, 2008 @ 11:33 pm

Early in the evening, toresbe posted a YouTube link on our secret-IRC-channel-named-after-our-lovely-operating-system, OpenBSD.

If you miss those old Atari, Amstrad, Commodore sounds, or even the NES ones, listen to Crazy Q’s musics. This incredible guy also put its works on his MySpace webpage. It remembers me the time I played with ModPlug Tracker, but he’s far more talented than I am.

I wonder if there are nice trackers to play with under Mac OS X ; maybe I should just use my old Groovebox (the real one, the MC-303 !) ?

Anyway, I’m looking forward listening more from him, and if you know how to get an album he made, tell me ! (I <3 Swingers Club)

You Can’t Drink Just Six

Filed under: meta — Zifro @ 1:11 pm

Slusho! is a refreshing japanese drink.
Browse the website, listen to the cool music, even take a look at their store, where you can get fun tshirts and caps.
If you look at the distribution opportunities (because Slusho! isn’t available yet in your place), you’ll notice you can send an email to a @tagruato.jp address.

Heading to the Tagruato Corporation website (choose English in the dropdown listbox, others don’t seem to work), it appears that the Slusho! inventors have founded a mother company which the refreshing drink is only a subsidiary.
On the headlines page, one can read a problem occurred at the Chuai Station. The Chuai Station, one of the company’s fourteen deep sea drilling stations, is located in the Northern Atlantic ocean, not so far from the Big Apple, where Tagruato head Ganu Yoshida is promoting the Slusho! drink.

Now, just know that I was speaking of a movie I’m hardly waiting for :)
Clue : it was out on 01-18-08 in the USA, and will come on 02-06-08 in Europe.

ZFR teaser #3

Filed under: nextgen — Zifro January 31, 2008 @ 9:50 pm

ZFR (codename and shorter name for Zlab.FR), my next website, features a new teaser from now.

To be honest, those teasers aren’t ones. They’re just either pictures or texts, but they don’t serve neither teasing the visitor nor pimping the website. Those are just… well, thingies just to be allowed to say I update ZFR before setting up something.

I’d like ZFR to be a place for me and for you. For me because it will host my digital identity (instead of having it spread over the Web, on social networks, photo sharing websites, communities…), and will be where I’ll put my projects. For you because it will be what I wrote.

Stay tuned.

Back

Filed under: healthy life — Zifro January 20, 2008 @ 5:56 pm

Hello dear reader ; as promised, here I am, back ;-)

I don’t know if you liked 2007, but it has been a wonderful year for me.

During the first six months, I kept on working for the same employer, daily dealing with WinDEV projects, being put under pressure with little if no future.
I had been in touch with Teamlog for some time, but even if the job they were offering was very interesting (Ruby on Rails development, in an eXtreme Programming environment), we couldn’t agree on a (decent, in my opinion) salary.

Then, in early June, I was phoned by an English company offering me a freelance job in Luxembourg, and by a Luxembourg based one the day after.
Things went on quickly, and after having met the client, I quitted the job I had in the South of France to settle in the North-East, next to the France-Luxembourg frontier.

It’s been seven months I have started my new life here, and I must admit I don’t regret this change, not even a little.
I am a consultant for a services provider company, and I’m working for a bank, as a Ruby and Ruby on Rails expert. My employer provides me with an ADSL connection to the Internet and a car (an average one, but it goes as far as it’s asked for). My teammates are friendly, the job is interesting, and I’m better paid : nice :)

I’ve also speak at three events (Amiens’ RMLL, Lyon’s JDLL, and Paris on Rails) and was elected President of the French Ruby Users association, Ruby France.

So, what’s next for 2008 ?
I think I’m going to keep on studying, studying, studying, working, working and working.

Studying because I still want to get a computing & network master.
Studying because I want to get back into JAVA coding.
Studying because I’d like to take a closer look at Erlang.
Working because it’s what pays the bills :)
Working because Ruby France needs to evolve, and it requires some work.
Working because I’d like to open Zlab.fr as soon as it is ready ; I also have many projects ideas to work on.

Have a good time on this weblog :D

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