IPC::System::Simple 0.08 released
Hot on the heels of v0.07, I've released IPC::System::Simple v0.08. The most important changes are documentation fixes thanks to Matt Kraai, a mistake fixed in one of my tests, and better support for taint under Perl 5.6.x.

You can grab the new release from a CPAN mirror near you once it finishes indexing.

IPC::System::Simple 0.07 released</b>
I've released version 0.07 of IPC::System::Simple, a module that makes it easy to do the right thing when calling Perl's system() command, including providing comprehensive diagnostics when things go wrong.

The new version provides better diagnostics when used with tainted data, better testing under some more exotic systems, and a few documentation tweaks. You can grab the new version from a CPAN mirror near you (once it finishes indexing), and if you like the module, you can even vote for it using CPAN ratings.

Holy web 2.0 Batman! I've been dugg!
Woke up today to discover an unusually large number of comments on my talk on fixing the web with greasemonkey posted to youtube. I figured that the video had been indexed somewhere, similar to the rush of views it saw when it was submitted to stumble-upon.

I discovered I'd been dugg.

Quite amusingly rather than my blog entry on the talk being dugg, or my posting on youtube, it was a copy of the video on 5min.com that was getting all the attention. I didn't even know 5min.com existed, or that my material had been posted there. Regardless, I was happy for the attention.

With maybe 500 people in the audience at linux.conf.au, 8,500 hits on youtube, and 21,000 hits(!) on 5mins, I'm guessing I've managed to absorb more than two person-months of audience time. For a three-and-a-half minute talk, I'm pretty pleased.

I've got a bunch of other talks I've been meaning to put on-line for a while now, but given the amazing response to this one, I think I'll be starting with my other lightning talks.

RFC: lethal - lexical exceptions for Perl
I've been scratching a long-time itch of mine, which is that while Perl allows me to use Fatal to get subroutines and built-ins to throw exceptions on failure, such a change was always done on a package-wide, rather than lexical (block) basis.

However with Perl 5.10 we have the ability to fix that, and I've put together a proof-of-concept module that enables exception-throwing subroutines on a lexical basis.

I'm looking for input into its naming, interface, and concept in general. Rather than filling up a blog post with it, you can read the node on PerlMonks.

Mod your own home-made dance mat

Our new dance mat, created by Tamara Olliver for linux.conf.au 2008.

This blog entry comes with photographs. If you're viewing this on use.perl, advogato, planet anything, or blog mirrors, you probably can't see them. Try viewing them on my main blog here.