kchodorow

Foz do Iguacu

I just arrived in Brazil for Latinoware. I didn’t know what the weather would be like, so I packed everything from tank tops to long sleeves. Turns out it’s totally tropical. It started pouring a bit after we arrived, and it’s like a typhoon out there. It’s still 90 degrees, though. I’ll need to pickContinue reading “Foz do Iguacu”

Replacing $ in the MongoDB PHP Driver

I’ve just added a feature to the Mongo PHP driver (and I plan to add it to the Perl driver soon) to use a character other than $ for special ops. In Mongo, there are tons of interesting things you can do by using $-prefixed strings: // run a server-side function as part of aContinue reading “Replacing $ in the MongoDB PHP Driver”

Testing MongoDB Replica Pairs with Perl

I was just fixing this, and it’s a pain to setup/test, so I figured I’d put up what I did here, so at least I’d never have to figure it out again. So, start two db servers and an arbiter: $ mkdir ~/data1 $ mkdir ~/data2 $ $ ./mongod –pairwith localhost:27018 –arbiter localhost:27019 –dbpath ~/data1Continue reading “Testing MongoDB Replica Pairs with Perl”

Final Days in CA

I was reading my new book about the actress in rehab, and I was vaguely wondering why the writer’s name sounded familiar. I couldn’t quite place it, so I flipped to the back to see what her bio said. Suddenly I realized where I knew her from. “Hey Andrew, guess who wrote this book?” IContinue reading “Final Days in CA”

Reading in San Francisco

Andrew and I are relaxing in San Francisco this weekend. I gave a talk at the Perl Mongers meetup on Thursday, which was awesome, but stressful. I’m almost done with The Clown, by Heinrich Boll, which is one of the most depressing books I’ve ever read. “Didn’t you just read a depressing book before that,Continue reading “Reading in San Francisco”

Adventures in Ramen

Last night, I was exhausted. When Andrew and I got home, he wasn’t hungry, so I made some ramen. I have this special way I make ramen where I microwave it until the noodles are soft, then stir fry them. It’s really good. We were sitting around, reading the internets, when Andrew said, “Do youContinue reading “Adventures in Ramen”

I’m going to Brazil!

I have been invited to speak at Latinoware 2009! It’s October 22-24th and I’m giving a talk on non-relational databases in general, MongoDB in particular. I’ll be giving it in English, but it’s going to be simulcast in Spanish and Portugese. I’ve never been to South America, and I’m so excited. The conference is rightContinue reading “I’m going to Brazil!”

OSCON

I’m at OSCON, which is really fun (and exhausting). Last night, when my company’s venture capitalist found out I had MongoDB stickers, he asked me to put them on the tables scattered around the conference area, where everyone sat to talk and surf the web. For some reason, doing so made me feel like aContinue reading “OSCON”

Soccer: No Slimy GirlS Allowed!

Now, I love playing soccer, which I haven’t gotten to do much since high school. Recently, someone created a pickup soccer game meetup for IT professionals (http://www.meetup.com/soccer-nyc/). What with it being geeks+soccer, this sounded awesome, so I requested to join. Denied! Your request to join NYC Turquoise IT – Soccer For IT Professionals has beenContinue reading “Soccer: No Slimy GirlS Allowed!”

How do you make the web reliable?

Andrew and I were talking this morning about how we can count on the New York Times to be accurate, but an article linked to by Reddit is often horribly biased. We began thinking about how to hold the web accountable, and we came up with a nifty idea. Make it a wiki/competition/social network. Here’sContinue reading “How do you make the web reliable?”