Update: I added a cleaned up copy of my script, in case it comes in handy for anyone. Read the end of this post for more info...

I just finished whipping up a workable bash script to automate installing and (basically) configuring a new site on a shared Drupal hosting server.

Here's the basic scenario. First, you set up a "template" site, and configure it however you want all new sites to start. Add common accounts. Enable modules. Twiddle bits. Etc... Then, you export a mysqldump of that template site's database, and will use that to create new sites.

With the big brouhaha about the evacuation of Canadian (and American, and British, and French, etc...) civilians from Lebanon, I think we're all kind of missing the point.

There are 50,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon right now. The Canadian government has had to rent some cruise ships to ferry them to Cyprus and/or Turkey for further evacuation by air. The process is taking longer than many would like, but our people are being transported out of the danger zone. Prime Minister Stephen Harper even used his PM Airbus (our version of Air Force One) to ferry a few Canadian civilians out (Stephen, that was a classy move. The only thing that would have topped that, since you were already in the area, would have been to clear everyone off of the plane, fill it to the gills with civilians, and wait for it to return with backup).

This blog is about 2 posts away from devolving into a bona fide cat diary (and I'm not exactly a fan of cats). I'll be trying to stop barfing banality into the internet tubes, so as a result I'll probably be posting much less. Hopefully, as quantity goes down, quality (and relevance) may go up? Or, I might just wind up raising the bar so high that I finally fall out of this whole blogging thing. Either way, meh...

It's been 2 weeks since I started riding my bike to work (and home again). I'm feeling much better, cooling off faster after each rode, and gradually getting faster.

I've missed 3 rides (took one day off to hit the mountains, and had a family shindig one evening), but other than that, I've been riding full time. I don't see anything that would make me stop now, except for wet (or white) stuff.

Drupal is aimed at making it easy to publish and manage a website right out of the box. Its main goal is getting content online, without providing many restrictions on who gets to see it (you can turn off guest access to all content, or for some specific content types, but there isn't a native "audience" defined for content).

There are a whole bunch of really cool modules that add this additional functionality. Organig Groups lets users define their own groups on the fly, making it easy to discover content published to a group. Simple Access lets you define which roles get to see/edit/delete content. Taxonomy Access lets you define which roles get to see content tagged in a specified taxonomy/keyword. Etc... The list goes on and on. Lots of great access control modules, each doing different things to manage access to content according to various workflows and scenarios.

Brian 's finally getting back to blogging, after being dragged to the other side of the planet and back. He knocks one out of the park with this one.

So I too use Wikipedia as a nexus for discussing all manner of digital effects. Sure, you have to acknowledge some shortcomings, but I'll stack the benefits against the liabilities any day. And when, as is almost inevitable, someone asks "what do you think of students citing Wikipedia in an academic essay?" I simply shout back "what do you think of someone citing Britannica? Huh? HUH?" and glare at them a bit. That usually shuts them up, and shutting people up is the hallmark of authoritative instruction.

I'm trying out Zooomr - it's a photo sharing site similar to Flickr, but with some cool new features like Lightboxes and Inspectors. It's lacking all of the communities and contacts that keep me coming back to Flickr several times per day, but they're doing some cool things at Zooomr.

Not only does Zooomr drop the "e" in "er", they also throw in an extra "o" or two. These silly Web 2.0 names are getting to be a pain, but what are they going to do, with all "normal" domain names taken long ago?

IBM developerWorks has started a series of articles detailing what's involved with planning and implementing a fully featured community website - using Drupal.

It's a pretty good read (so far) and touches on issues that aren't unique to Drupal. But, it's nice to see Drupal getting some Big Corporate Loving™

Much of the articles are spent describing necessary customization for making Drupal sites behave nicely. Dries Buytaert (the lead of the Drupal project) hints that good news is in the works...

The stampede parade starts in a few minutes, so it's officially Stampede Season. The Canadian Forces just buzzed the UCalgary campus with what sounded like a CF-18 - I couldn't see it, but that's the only thing it could have been. They have one down on the grounds for display - having to drive it through city streets at 2am the other night to get it downtown. It would have been kind of surprising to look in your rear view mirror, and see a CF-18 pulling up behind you...

I was thinking I'd start hitting the wall as the week progressed, but I'm still riding, and feeling better. I thought I'd be feeling pretty dead by Thursday, but this morning's ride was a new personal best, and I feel great.

The only thing I'm a bit concerned about is the weather. Supposed to get thunderstorms this afternoon. That would suck if it hit while riding. Not the end of the world. I've been wet before. Better to get soaked on the way home, than on the morning commute...

A quick tour of the NMC Second Life campus. I walk around the virtual poster session, go for a walk/fly, and take a quick look around. Click the "play " or "download " links to take the tour.

The poster session seems odd at the moment - I'm not sure faithfully reproducing the physical world is the best way to take advantage of the virtual - but it may seem better on July 12 when the presenters will be on hand for discussion.