I know it’s a little late but the usual drive of new year innovation and releases within the Open Source world have been keeping me busy recently.

New years resolutions

1. Package AuthStor
2. Learn another RDBMS – Oracle / MSSQL?
3. Upgrade my local servers to FreeBSD 7.1
4. Pick up the guitar at least once a week
5. Lay down my first audio track in Ableton Live

The year started with my attempt at some resolutions (you know the ones you never keep) of which I am already making good progress on.

First on my list was AuthStor which is working on a basic level at the moment but there is so much more that can be done to make it easier to use. Why has it taken so long you may ask?

Well apart from being the only developer last year, I made several attempts to re-write the app in something like JSP or Zend Framework, partly because there is a lot of activity in those communities but mostly due to the complications faced with packaging around 50 Perl modules that each have their own compile time dependencies – some of which change frequently often breaking the application (no strict API/Interfaces to adhere to).

So after several prototypes why did I decide to stick with Perl?
Well for starters the changes that did break the application often forced me to change the app in a way that was more logical or introduced a more structured design. I also found that JSP and Zend although cool frameworks tended to feel incomplete and introduced complexities elsewhere e.g. containers / authentication / roles. Catalyst is simple and extremely powerful providing both a development environment and production framework that takes little effort to introduce new features quickly. I can start 2009 in the knowledge that Perl and Catalyst are the right language / framework for the job. I just need to work on the packaging now!

The next item on my list is to learn yet another RDBMS. Why? Enlightenment first and foremost, plus I am a big believer in gaining as much knowledge as possible in my chosen field. You’ll never complete the jigsaw if you have several pieces missing, and seeing as I spent a good part of last year getting to know DB2 I decided this year that my focus would by Oracle and MSSQL, thus completing the picture.

With the release of FreeBSD 7.1 there are now so many cool features that I decided to upgrade some of my older servers that have been sitting in the corner running nicely on FreeBSD 6 (they never fail). DTrace and ZFS put a stop to FreeBSD slipping behind OpenSolaris and the ULE scheduler helps improve performance over your average Linux distro, and with ULE 3 due for release in FreeBSD 8.0 (June) you can expect to see further dramatic performance improvements.

Last on my list will be to pick the Les Paul at least once a week!. One of my prezzies in 2008 was a new orange amp! If that does not encourage me to pick up the guitar I don’t know what will!. You never know I might even mix something up with the copy of Live I got for Christmas

AuthStor came to life back in late 2007 after the Password Safe I had been using became corrupt. Not through any failure in Password Safe’s functionality but really to the way it was being used – Multi-User.

I had been seeking a decent Web Based Password Manager (Open Source of course) for ages but had not found anything that I liked. All the semi-decent software out there seemed to be Closed Source with license fees attached and to be honest I would feel more comfortable if I understood the inner workings, especially if this software is storing the key to my empire (mwuhahahaha).

So after a long history of Spreadsheets, Password Safe, Keychain and various other methods of storing passwords I finally decided to scratch the itch and roll my own password manager.

Now AuthStor is not my first attempt at a password manager, in fact I originally started to write an extension to MoinMoin that provided a method of storing passwords directly within the Wiki. This worked great for a while but was not the most secure method of managing passwords, especially as the secret key was embedded within the Python code!. I learned a lot from mmPasswords and hope to improve upon that greatly through the development of AuthStor.

So what is in store for AuthStor? (Get it? ) Well key features will include Multi-User capability, Full auditing, GnuPG encryption, REST like interface and that is just the start. Future plans include interfaces like SMS, VoIP and anything else I can think up.

Here is a sneak peak of the progress made so far:

The application itself is written in Perl and runs on top of the Catalyst Framework. Why Catalyst? Flexibility, Performance, Scalability, the list goes on… Catalyst’s plugin architecture provides multiple views (among many other things) so I can focus on the functionality and not worry about the presentation. Speaking of presentation, AuthStor makes extensive use of the Yahoo! User Interface Library to provide a rich interface with dynamic elements such as DataTable’s, Toolbars and Treeviews and all wrapped in a BSD License!!. Nice work folks!.

Expect a commit in the next few weeks…

2007 is almost over and what a year this has been for Wave2!

My programming preferences have gone full circle, from beginning the year playing snakes and ladders (Python), I spent the summer drinking coffee (Java) and finally settled down surrounded by Camel’s, Lama’s and Parrots (Perl). Bizarre but never dull!

Steady progress has been made all round and as always the Open Source community has proven a valuable resource. Not a day went by where I did not discover something new or think of a new idea that could be built using Open Source Software. I only wish I had more time in the day!.

My Christmas present came early this year in the form of a MySQL 5.1 Cluster DBA Certification Study Guide. I have been putting off the final MySQL certification while waiting for the book to arrive, and now it is in my hands the only thing preventing me from taking the exam is the lack of free space over the Christmas period. Hehe

I also ordered a Nokia N810 (My Techie Present). My laptop is not small enough to carry around with me and I am hoping to capture more development time on this device. Either that or feed my mind.

Anyway I’m off to hit the WarHawk servers before getting ready to see the New Year in Amsterdam – home of the Blender Institute. With projects like AuthStor making great progress and ideas such as Unix Architect and BinaryStor slowly maturing, I cannot wait to see what 2008 holds for Wave2!

Before I head off I have to mention the Catalyst Advent Calendar. Every year they pack 24 days of tutorials and tips into the month of December. If you are looking to get the most of the Catalyst Framework you really must take a look at this resource. I was able to prototype AuthStor in under 2 weeks and enjoyed every minute!

Wave2 Wishes You a Very Merry Christmas and an Open Source New Year!!!

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted here or even found time to develop any of the ideas that continually spring to mind. In fact this is the first weekend in several where my head is not stuck in a book about Perl, Solaris or UML. Why you may ask? (or not).

Well after finally getting round to taking the Solaris Network Administrator exam, I thought it only right that I complete the set and get to know Solaris Security a bit better by taking the SCSECA.

After achieving the SCSECA, I was just about getting ready to start writing code again when I stumbled upon the UML Certification Program.
I have been a fan of UML for a long time but never found a tool that I felt comfortable using, or more to the point a tool worth the money!. That was until on the very same day I decided to trial Visual Paradigm, could this be the UML tool I have been seeking?

Visual Paradigm for UML is not overly expensive (many price levels to cater for all requirements), it runs on Windows / Linux / OSX and it’s easy to use – I like it!.

Armed with the UML tool I have been looking for and a copy of the UML 2 Certification Guide I spent another week brushing up on my UML skills while studying for the first of 3 exams offered by the OMG, UML Certified Professional – Fundamental.
I passed the exam last week and learned a lot more UML along the way!
So finally, with all that studying out of the way I can finally get back to the fun stuff – Code.

But where does Perl fall into this jacked-in period? Well I have been waiting for Perl 6 for a long time now and plan to use Catalyst as the platform for BinaryStor and AuthStor. So what better way to get up to speed than a Perl readathon of as many Perl books as I can get my hands on. From Learning to Mastering and eventually Best Practices all over again, you never know I might just finish reading before the release of Perl 6.

As for the Code I cannot make my mind up as to where to focus my energy and so opted for a working NetUnit (I did think of porting it to Perl ). It’s far from complete of course and suffers from the constraint of root privileges, but I’m hoping a future Java release will fix that….