I created a new module and uploaded it to the CPAN. It allows for Perl-based access to Debian's APT package management tools. It's a bit like Windows Update for Debian-based Linux distributions. In theory it should work for other Linux distros that have had APT added on non-standardly, though I haven't tested that yet.
Right now it lets you list the packages to upgrade, install/upgrade packages, and remove/purge packages. I plan to add searching (for installable packages) and whatever other functions that people request.
You should find it on the CPAN sometime today, when it's finally indexed, distributed, and made available on the CPAN site.
Debian has some modules that basically do the same thing, but they're complicated and aren't typically available for those that have installed APT on non-Debian distros. This module is easy to use and doesn't have any dependencies other than a Linux distro that can use APT itself. Plus it's pure-perl, so it doesn't even need compiled. This means that as long as the distro can use APT, it shouldn't matter what environment or processor it uses.
So the docs poked a hole in my neck, push a fishing instrument down into my heart, and recovered the catheter that went AWOL. No trouble, no pain, and no anesthesia.
The doc said that the catheter was flattened at the end that broke off. It seems that it was crushed by some bone in my chest and eventually gave way. I'm glad I wasn't getting chemo at the time. That wouldn't have been pleasant.
The office that was to help pay for the operation didn't know why I was there and had to wait until they talked to the boss to approve any help. They did finally say that I was to get a discount (though I doubt it'll be much of a discount).
The only real annoyance I had on the trip was a bunch of homeless people asking for money I didn't have.
Otherwise, all went well. And it was nice to get away from town for awhile.
Today is hey.nu's tenth anniversary. I've been running the place for a whole decade now. It started when I was in high school. So many people have come and gone. In its heyday, it was a highly ranked site according to Alexa. It was the #1 free webhosting provider on many free hosting ranking sites. At one point, we were getting more than a million pageviews a month.
And today is the last day of hosting. After today, all hosting (not otherwise arranged with Megagram) will be shut off. The board and IRC will live on, but hosting will not.
The cost of running the place greatly exceeds the donations and advertising revenue (what revenue?). I've put in tens of thousands of dollars into the community over the years.
And with the greatly reduced community activity, it doesn't make sense to continue to pay for the service. The board is infrequently used and IRC is much less active than it had been in the past.
My inaction is partly to blame, but as a community, others must step up to keep it alive. I posted a call to action at the end of last year that didn't produce any results. To me, it only makes sense to halt a failing project than to suffer through it through its eleventh year.
It's been a great experience for me. I've learned so much about so many things, especially about hosting a large number of accounts and maintaining the systems and automations that are involved. It has been a highly valuable experience for me and am grateful for the chance to be part of it.
I've met many great people in the community and have even got together in person with a few of them.
It is indirectly because of hey.nu that I ended up living with John (a former admin), meeting Aimee, and moving to Washington. It is because of hey.nu that I met Kosta (a current admin) and through him met Anna, who I met in Seattle several years ago (and had quite a crush on her, which I'm amazed to be admitting here). I also met Oren (who had met and dated Anna because of hey.nu) when he was interviewing with Microsoft. If I had my crap in order, I would have met Kosta in Vancouver a few years ago, which I regret to this day. And of course there's Nina, my favorite hey.nu'er who I wish I could have met, but she lives so far away it was pretty much impossible.
One of our former users created SnapperMail, a highly popular email client for Palm OS, during the time they were hosted at hey.nu. We also hosted a mirror for Trillian during their early days (for which we only got a free one-year license to Trillian Pro.. pfft).
So much has happened at hey.nu. So much has happened because of hey.nu. My life and so many other lives would have been drastically different had it not been for hey.nu and the hey.nu community. I have so much to thank hey.nu for.
It greatly saddens me to see hey.nu's end, but I'm quite happy with the experiences I'll cherish forever.
Joy's sister's house caught on fire tonight. The family is okay, but are at the hospital overnight for treatment of smoke inhalation. The back half of the house isn't so okay.
Her mom called me around 4am to ask me to run to Wal-Mart in Colby to pick up a few things for them. Of course I'm willing to lend a hand, but I'm quite surprised she called me. She figured I'd still be awake. Usually I am (and I was when she called), but lately I've been going to bed earlier than usual and would have, as of late, been asleep already. I'd have gone even if I had been asleep. I'm actually a little happy she called me. She's never seemed to like me at all. Either she secretly doesn't hate me or I just happened to be the most likely person awake. I'd like to prefer the former.
I stopped by the hospital for about five minutes to say hi and hand over the goodies. They seem to be mostly in good spirits. I'm sure being displaced from your home is a terrible feeling, but I'm sure they'll bounce back. I do hope they had insurance.
Tomorrow I finally get my port removed. My port has been detective for many months now and, with my oncologist's help, I finally have a surgeon willing to remove it knowing that they probably won't get paid for it.
I'm already past $150,000 in medical debt and bankruptcy is a likely outcome. I don't know any other way to deal with it. Medicaid and Social Security are unwilling to help me any more than they have (one session of chemo is all I was able to get from them) and having no health insurance hurts the situation. If you don't have health insurance, figure out how to get it.
In my research, I've found that Lymphoma isn't really preventable. Other than taking loads of vitamin B3 (something between 5000 and 10000 IUs per day), there isn't a lot you can do. I went from being a normal, healthy 24 year old to an being critically unhealthy Stage 4a Primary Mediastinal Large B-Cell Lymphoma cancer patient. It hit me hard and can hit you too.
I think the last time it was successfully flushed was in August or September. When I went back for my routine port flush, the Oakley hospital nurses couldn't flush it. I went to Colby to see if they could do it, with no luck. Now it's likely filled with lovely blood clots and is a definite health hazard for me. The port feeds direct into my SVC, which apparently leads directly to the heart. If one of those clots come loose, it could cause me some seriously unhappy health trouble. I'm sure you can imagine what trouble that would be.
The doctors and nurses believe that the tube that runs from the port to the SVC is cracked and leaking. When the nurses tried to flush the port, it caused terrible pain outside of my port, to the left side (where the port doesn't go) and there was no blood return at all. I had a similar reaction when I was in the hospital and my IV had started leaking outside of the vein in my arm. Thankfully neither of those times I was getting chemo as that stuff is horribly toxic.
Anyway, I'm getting the damned port out. I'm very happy about this.
I've uploaded Win32::WindowsUpdate to the CPAN. I uploaded 0.2 as well, but it isn't nearly as good as 0.3, so I skipped that announcement.
0.2 used VBScript inside of Perl to install the updates, but 0.3 just uses Perl. Much better.
Enjoy.
