Feeds

Have you wondered about graph theory and how to start exploring it in Python? What resources and Python libraries can you use to experiment and learn more? This week on the show, former co-host David Amos returns to talk about what he's been up to and share his knowledge about graph theory in Python.

[ Improve Your Python With 🐍 Python Tricks 💌 – Get a short & sweet Python Trick delivered to your inbox every couple of days. >> Click here to learn more and see examples ]

Announced in https://www.drupal.org/drupalorg/blog/ending-packagesdrupalorg-support-for-composer-1, Drupal Composer 1 support is being phased out!
1️⃣ New Drupal.org packages/releases will not be available for Composer 1 after Aug 12, 2024.
2️⃣ Composer 1 support for older packages will be dropped after Oct 1, 2024.

Pre-orders are now open for the Akademy 2024 T-shirt, this is only for those who will be attending Akademy, in person, in Würzburg

Pre-orders will close on 31st July

We will  be opening in a few weeks separate online orders for t-shirts for those who aren't attending in person

Let’s go for my web review for the week 2024-28.

Take action to stop chat control now!

Tags: tech, politics, law, privacy

It’s time to push European governments to abandon this nonsense.

https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/take-action-to-stop-chat-control-now/

VLMs are Blind

Tags: tech, ai, machine-learning, gpt, computer-vision

Those brand new models keep failing at surprisingly simple tasks.

https://vlmsareblind.github.io/

Universal Code Execution by Chaining Messages in Browser Extensions

Tags: tech, browser, security

This is a concerning finding. One can escape from the browser to the system with such chaining.

https://spaceraccoon.dev/universal-code-execution-browser-extensions/

Let’s talk about supply chain attacks and backdoored dependencies

Tags: tech, security, supply-chain, dependencies

Good tour of all the way dependencies might get compromised in your supply chain. Getting this easy to detect is needed.

https://kerkour.com/supply-chain-attacks-and-backdoored-dependencies

Ubuntu Security Updates Are a Confusing Mess | Grey Lumpy Dinosaur

Tags: tech, ubuntu, security

The title is a bit pushing it. Still, I didn’t realize some of the fine prints of the Ubuntu support schemes.

https://gld.mcphail.uk/posts/ubuntu-security-updates-are-a-confusing-mess/

An Empirical Study of Rust-for-Linux: The Success, Dissatisfaction, and Compromise | USENIX

Tags: tech, linux, kernel, rust

It’s nice to have a balanced view on the matter. It’s not just roses and rainbows. This gives a good overview of the current limitations and where Rust can give most benefits in the kernel.

https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc24/presentation/li-hongyu

A new way to develop on Linux

Tags: tech, linux, system, systemd

Interesting approach to test system changes. Especially welcome on immutable systems.

https://www.codethink.co.uk/articles/2024/A-new-way-to-develop-on-Linux/

nmbl: we don’t need a bootloader

Tags: tech, linux, uefi, boot, system

Looks like GRUB days as the standard bootloader are counted. Booting straight using the Linux kernel could bring interesting benefits. Probably not doable on every hardware platform though.

https://fizuxchyk.wordpress.com/2024/06/13/nmbl-we-dont-need-a-bootloader/

Towards Idempotent Rebuilds?

Tags: tech, linux, packaging

An interesting puzzle to pursue. Is it possible to rebuild exactly the same binary distribution packages?

https://blog.josefsson.org/2024/07/10/towards-idempotent-rebuilds/

Binary Search Tree with SIMD

Tags: tech, simd, performance

Another interesting algorithm to handle using SIMD.

https://clement-jean.github.io/simd_binary_search_tree/

Making Python Less Random — Andrew Healey

Tags: tech, linux, system

It’s really a good reminder of how powerful ptrace is. You can nicely intercept and change the behavior of syscalls with it.

https://healeycodes.com/making-python-less-random

Cryptomator: end-to-end encrypt files in any cloud

Tags: tech, cloud, storage, cryptography, security, tools

Looks like a nice tool indeed. Might be handy.

https://www.andreagrandi.it/posts/cryptomator-end-to-end-encrypt-files-in-cloud/

Dirty writes – Surfing Complexity

Tags: tech, databases

A simple explanation about dirty writes during database transactions.

https://surfingcomplexity.blog/2024/07/05/dirty-writes/

PostgreSQL and UUID as primary key

Tags: tech, databases, uuid, performance

Forced to use UUID as primary key in a table? Then make sure to use them properly to not kill the performance more than necessary. Ideally use something else though.

https://maciejwalkowiak.com/blog/postgres-uuid-primary-key/

Unravelling attribute access in Python

Tags: tech, programming, python

Ever wondered how attributes work in Python under the hood? Here is how.

https://snarky.ca/unravelling-attribute-access-in-python/

Making an iterator out of a function | mathspp

Tags: tech, programming, python

An interesting Python construct to make iterators based on a simple function.

https://mathspp.com/blog/til/making-an-iterator-out-of-a-function

State of Text Rendering 2024

Tags: tech, gui, fonts

Very long read but will be an essential resource to have a fine understanding of text rendering in its current form.

https://behdad.org/text2024/

the software crisis

Tags: tech, quality, craftsmanship, engineering, complexity, history

Interesting musing about the “software crisis” which was declared in the late 60s. We’re coping with it by piling levels of abstractions but clearly we’re still not out of it. Our craft still needs to grow.

https://wryl.tech/log/2024/the-software-crisis.html

Standups: Individual → Teammate - by Kent Beck

Tags: tech, team, organization, agile

Good reminder that teams are made out of people. It’s good to look at the daily standups less as a technical management tool and more as a need to get into the work.

https://tidyfirst.substack.com/p/standups-individual-teammate

Bye for now!

Python is special. It's used by the big tech companies but also by those you would rarely classify as developers. On this episode, we get a look inside how Python is being used at a Children's Hospital to speed and improve patient care. We have Dr. Somak Roy here to share how he's using Python in his day to day job to help kids get well a little bit faster.<br/> <br/> <strong>Episode sponsors</strong><br/> <br/> <a href='https://talkpython.fm/sentry'>Sentry Error Monitoring, Code TALKPYTHON</a><br> <a href='https://talkpython.fm/posit'>Posit</a><br> <a href='https://talkpython.fm/training'>Talk Python Courses</a><br/> <br/> <strong>Links from the show</strong><br/> <br/> <div><b>Somak Roy</b>: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/somak-roy-1034bb48/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">linkedin.com</a><br/> <b>Cincinnati Children's Hospital</b>: <a href="https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cincinnatichildrens.org</a><br/> <b>CNVkit: Genome-wide copy number</b>: <a href="https://cnvkit.readthedocs.io/en/stable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">readthedocs.io</a><br/> <b>cnaplotr</b>: <a href="https://github.com/roysomak4/cnaplotr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">github.com</a><br/> <b>hgvs</b>: <a href="https://hgvs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">readthedocs.io</a><br/> <b>openpyxl</b>: <a href="https://openpyxl.readthedocs.io/en/stable/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">readthedocs.io</a><br/> <b>Hera is an Argo Python SDK</b>: <a href="https://github.com/argoproj-labs/hera" target="_blank" rel="noopener">github.com</a><br/> <b>insiM: in silico Mutator software for bioinformatics</b>: <a href="https://github.com/thesushantpatil/insiM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">github.com</a><br/> <b>Bamsurgeon</b>: <a href="https://github.com/adamewing/bamsurgeon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">github.com</a><br/> <b>pysam - An interface for reading and writing SAM files</b>: <a href="https://niyunyun-pysam-fork.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">readthedocs.io</a><br/> <b>Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates</b>: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">theverge.com</a><br/> <b>BioPython</b>: <a href="https://biopython.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">biopython.org</a><br/> <b>Watch this episode on YouTube</b>: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6AAOmob07o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">youtube.com</a><br/> <b>Episode transcripts</b>: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/episodes/transcript/470/python-in-medicine-and-patient-care" target="_blank" rel="noopener">talkpython.fm</a><br/> <br/> <b>--- Stay in touch with us ---</b><br/> <b>Subscribe to us on YouTube</b>: <a href="https://talkpython.fm/youtube" target="_blank" rel="noopener">youtube.com</a><br/> <b>Follow Talk Python on Mastodon</b>: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@talkpython" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i class="fa-brands fa-mastodon"></i>talkpython</a><br/> <b>Follow Michael on Mastodon</b>: <a href="https://fosstodon.org/web/@mkennedy" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i class="fa-brands fa-mastodon"></i>mkennedy</a><br/></div>

Review: The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa

Publisher: Saga Press Copyright: July 2023 ISBN: 1-6680-0849-1 Format: Kindle Pages: 372

The Splinter in the Sky is a stand-alone science fiction political thriller. It is Kemi Ashing-Giwa's first novel.

Enitan is from Koriko, a vegetation-heavy moon colonized by the Vaalbaran empire. She lives in the Ijebu community with her sibling Xiang and has an on-again, off-again relationship with Ajana, the Vaalbaran-appointed governor. Xiang is studying to be an architect, which requires passing stringent entrance exams to be allowed to attend an ancillary imperial school intended for "primitives." Enitan works as a scribe and translator, one of the few Korikese allowed to use the sacred Orin language of Vaalbara. In her free time, she grows and processes tea.

When Xiang mysteriously disappears while she's at work, Enitan goes to Ajana for help. Then Ajana dies, supposedly from suicide. The Vaalbaran government demands a local hostage while the death is investigated, someone who will be held as a diplomatic "guest" on the home world and executed if there is any local unrest. This hostage is supposed to be the child of the local headwoman, a concept that the Korikese do not have. Seeing a chance to search for Xiang, Enitan volunteers, heading into the heart of imperial power with nothing but desperate determination and a tea set.

The empire doesn't stand a chance.

Admittedly, a lot of the reason why the empire doesn't stand a chance is because the author is thoroughly on Enitan's side. Before she even arrives on Gondwana, Vaalbara's home world, Enitan is recruited as a spy by the other Gondwana power and Vaalbara's long-standing enemy. Her arrival in the Splinter, the floating arcology that serves as the center of Vaalbaran government, is followed by a startlingly meteoric rise in access. Some of this is explained by being a cultural curiosity for bored nobles, and some is explained by political factors Enitan is not yet aware of, but one can see the author's thumb resting on the scales.

This was the sort of book that was great fun to read, but whose political implausibility provoked "wait, that didn't make sense" thoughts afterwards. I think one has to assume that the total population of Vaalbara is much less than first comes to mind when considering an interplanetary empire, which would help explain the odd lack of bureaucracy. Enitan is also living in, effectively, the palace complex, for reasonably well-explained political reasons, and that could grant her a surprising amount of access. But there are other things that are harder to explain away: the lack of surveillance, the relative lack of guards, and the odd political structure that's required for the plot to work.

It's tricky to talk about this without spoilers, but the plot rests heavily on a conspiratorial view of how government power is wielded that I think strains plausibility. I'm not naive enough to think that the true power structure of a society matches the formal power structure, but I don't think they diverge as much as people think they do. It's one thing to say that the true power brokers of society can be largely unknown to the general population. In a repressive society with a weak media, that's believable. It's quite another matter for the people inside the palace to be in the dark about who is running what.

I thought that was the biggest problem with this book. Its greatest feature is the characters, and particularly the character relationships. Enitan is an excellent protagonist: fascinating, sympathetic, determined, and daring in ways that make her success more believable. Early in the book, she forms an uneasy partnership that becomes the heart of the book, and I loved everything about that relationship. The politics of her situation might be a bit too simple, but the emotions were extremely well-done.

This is a book about colonialism. Specifically, it's a book about cultural looting, appropriation, and racist superiority. The Vaalbarans consider Enitan barely better than an animal, and in her home they're merciless and repressive. Taken out of that context into their imperial capital, they see her as a harmless curiosity and novelty. Enitan exploits this in ways that are entirely believable. She is also driven to incandescent fury in ways that are entirely believable, and which she only rarely can allow herself to act on. Ashing-Giwa drives home the sheer uselessness of even the more sympathetic Vaalbarans more forthrightly than science fiction is usually willing to be. It's not a subtle point, but it is an accurate one.

The first two thirds of this book had me thoroughly engrossed and unable to put it down. The last third unfortunately turns into a Pokémon hunt of antagonists, which I found less satisfying and somewhat less believable. I wish there had been more need for Enitan to build political alliances and go deeper into the social maneuverings of the first part of the book, rather than gaining some deus ex machina allies who trivially solve some otherwise-tricky plot problems. The setup is amazing; the resolution felt a bit like escaping a maze by blasting through the walls, which I don't think played to the strengths of the characters and relationships that Ashing-Giwa had constructed. The advantage of that approach is that we do get a satisfying resolution and a standalone novel.

The central relationship of the book is unfortunately too much of a spoiler to talk about in a review, but I thought it was the best part of the story. This is a political thriller on the surface, but I think it's heart is an unexpected political alliance with a fascinatingly tricky balance of power. I was delighted that Ashing-Giwa never allows the tension in that relationship to collapse into one of the stock patterns it so easily could have become.

The Splinter in the Sky reminded me a little of Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. It's not as assured or as adroitly balanced as that book, and the characters are not quite as memorable, but that's a very high bar. The political point is even sharper, and it has some of the same appeal.

I had so much fun reading this book. You may need to suspend your disbelief about some of the politics, and I wish the conclusion had been a bit less brute-force, but this is great stuff. Recommended when you're in the mood for a character story in the trappings of a political thriller.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Like each month, have a look at the work funded by Freexian’s Debian LTS offering.

Debian LTS contributors

In June, 18 contributors have been paid to work on Debian LTS, their reports are available:

• Adrian Bunk did 47.0h (out of 74.25h assigned and 11.75h from previous period), thus carrying over 39.0h to the next month.
• Arturo Borrero Gonzalez did 6.0h (out of 6.0h assigned).
• Bastien Roucariès did 20.0h (out of 20.0h assigned).
• Ben Hutchings did 15.5h (out of 16.0h assigned and 8.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 8.5h to the next month.
• Chris Lamb did 18.0h (out of 18.0h assigned).
• Daniel Leidert did 4.0h (out of 8.0h assigned and 2.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 6.0h to the next month.
• Emilio Pozuelo Monfort did 23.25h (out of 49.5h assigned and 10.5h from previous period), thus carrying over 36.75h to the next month.
• Guilhem Moulin did 4.5h (out of 13.0h assigned and 7.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 15.5h to the next month.
• Lee Garrett did 17.0h (out of 25.0h assigned and 35.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 43.0h to the next month.
• Lucas Kanashiro did 5.0h (out of 10.0h assigned and 10.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 15.0h to the next month.
• Markus Koschany did 40.0h (out of 40.0h assigned).
• Ola Lundqvist did 10.0h (out of 6.5h assigned and 17.5h from previous period), thus carrying over 14.0h to the next month.
• Roberto C. Sánchez did 5.25h (out of 7.75h assigned and 4.25h from previous period), thus carrying over 6.75h to the next month.
• Santiago Ruano Rincón did 22.5h (out of 14.5h assigned and 8.0h from previous period).
• Sean Whitton did 6.5h (out of 6.0h assigned and 0.5h from previous period).
• Stefano Rivera did 0.5h (out of 0.0h assigned and 10.0h from previous period), thus carrying over 9.5h to the next month.
• Sylvain Beucler did 9.0h (out of 24.5h assigned and 35.5h from previous period), thus carrying over 51.0h to the next month.
• Thorsten Alteholz did 14.0h (out of 14.0h assigned).

Evolution of the situation

In June, we have released 31 DLAs.

Notable security updates in June included:

• git: multiple vulnerabilities, which may result in privilege escalation, denial of service, and arbitrary code execution
• sendmail: SMTP smuggling allowed remote attackers bypass SPF protection checks
• cups: arbitrary remote code execution

Looking further afield to the broader Debian ecosystem, LTS contributor Bastien Roucariès also patched sendmail in Debian 12 (bookworm) and 11 (bullseye) in order to fix the previously mentioned SMTP smuggling vulnerability. Furthermore, LTS contributor Thorsten Alteholz provided fixes for the cups packages in Debian 12 (bookworm) and 11 (bullseye) in order to fix the aforementioned arbitrary remote code execution vulnerability.

Additionally, LTS contributor Ben Hutchings has commenced work on an updated backport of Linux kernel 6.1 to Debian 11 (bullseye), in preparation for bullseye transitioning to the responsibility of the LTS (and the associated closure of the bullseye-backports repository). LTS Lucas Kanashiro also began the preparatory work of backporting parts of the rust/cargo toolchain to Debian 11 (bullseye) in order to make future updates of the clamav virus scanner possible.

June was the final month of LTS for Debian 10 (as announced on the debian-lts-announce mailing list). No additional Debian 10 security updates will be made available on security.debian.org.

However, Freexian and its team of paid Debian contributors will continue to maintain Debian 10 going forward for the customers of the Extended LTS offer. Subscribe right away if you sill have Debian 10 which must be kept secure (and which cannot yet be upgraded).

Thanks to our sponsors

Sponsors that joined recently are in bold.

• Platinum sponsors:
  • TOSHIBA (for 105 months)
  • Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) (for 73 months)
  • VyOS Inc (for 37 months)
• Gold sponsors:
  • Roche Diagnostics International AG (for 115 months)
  • Linode (for 109 months)
  • Babiel GmbH (for 99 months)
  • Plat’Home (for 98 months)
  • CINECA (for 73 months)
  • University of Oxford (for 55 months)
  • Deveryware (for 42 months)
  • EDF SA (for 27 months)
  • Dataport AöR
• Silver sponsors:
  • Domeneshop AS (for 120 months)
  • Nantes Métropole (for 114 months)
  • Univention GmbH (for 106 months)
  • Université Jean Monnet de St Etienne (for 106 months)
  • Ribbon Communications, Inc. (for 100 months)
  • Exonet B.V. (for 90 months)
  • Leibniz Rechenzentrum (for 84 months)
  • Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires Étrangères (for 68 months)
  • Cloudways by DigitalOcean (for 57 months)
  • Dinahosting SL (for 55 months)
  • Bauer Xcel Media Deutschland KG (for 49 months)
  • Platform.sh SAS (for 49 months)
  • Moxa Inc. (for 43 months)
  • sipgate GmbH (for 41 months)
  • OVH US LLC (for 39 months)
  • Tilburg University (for 39 months)
  • GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH (for 30 months)
  • Soliton Systems K.K. (for 27 months)
  • THINline s.r.o. (for 3 months)
• Bronze sponsors:
  • Evolix (for 120 months)
  • Seznam.cz, a.s. (for 120 months)
  • Intevation GmbH (for 117 months)
  • Linuxhotel GmbH (for 117 months)
  • Daevel SARL (for 116 months)
  • Bitfolk LTD (for 115 months)
  • Megaspace Internet Services GmbH (for 115 months)
  • Greenbone AG (for 114 months)
  • NUMLOG (for 114 months)
  • WinGo AG (for 113 months)
  • Ecole Centrale de Nantes - LHEEA (for 109 months)
  • Entr’ouvert (for 104 months)
  • Adfinis AG (for 102 months)
  • Tesorion (for 97 months)
  • GNI MEDIA (for 96 months)
  • Laboratoire LEGI - UMR 5519 / CNRS (for 96 months)
  • Bearstech (for 88 months)
  • LiHAS (for 88 months)
  • Catalyst IT Ltd (for 83 months)
  • Supagro (for 78 months)
  • Demarcq SAS (for 77 months)
  • Université Grenoble Alpes (for 63 months)
  • TouchWeb SAS (for 55 months)
  • SPiN AG (for 52 months)
  • CoreFiling (for 48 months)
  • Institut des sciences cognitives Marc Jeannerod (for 43 months)
  • Observatoire des Sciences de l’Univers de Grenoble (for 39 months)
  • Tem Innovations GmbH (for 34 months)
  • WordFinder.pro (for 33 months)
  • CNRS DT INSU Résif (for 32 months)
  • Alter Way (for 25 months)
  • Institut Camille Jordan (for 15 months)

In this episode, we worked on a trial banner that could persist across all pages on the site. Because the banner needed data that was only available on the index page, we had to refactor the banner into an inclusion template tag to make the tag work consistently.

Friday, 12 July 2024

KDE today announces the release of KDE Frameworks 6.4.0.

KDE Frameworks are 72 addon libraries to Qt which provide a wide variety of commonly needed functionality in mature, peer reviewed and well tested libraries with friendly licensing terms. For an introduction see the KDE Frameworks release announcement.

This release is part of a series of planned monthly releases making improvements available to developers in a quick and predictable manner.

New in this version Attica

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

Baloo

• Revert "[Extractor] Change to QCoreApplication". Commit. Fixes bug #487628
• Port QML modules to declarative type registration. Commit.
• CI: update clang-format image. Commit.

Bluez Qt

• Add core/primary services for LE Audio: CSIS, MCS, BASS, PACS, CAS. Commit.
• Add comments to improve readability and maintainability. Commit.
• Manager: Add list property for connectedDevices. Commit.
• Manager: Sort out property shorthand in tests. Commit.

Breeze Icons

• Use newly introduced ColorScheme-Accent. Commit. Fixes bug #446468
• Improve excalamation point placement in data-warning/dialog-warning icon. Commit. Fixes bug #487626
• Add generic translate icon, symlink crow-translate-tray. Commit.
• Add non-symbolic base version of network-wireless-bluetooth icons. Commit.
• Mark as non gui executables to have output on Windows. Commit.

Extra CMake Modules

• Avoid spurious message about appstreamtest. Commit.

KArchive

• Don't accept tar files with sizes < 0. Commit.
• Fix crash with malformed files. Commit.

KAuth

• Move dbus dep to backend & tests. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KBookmarks

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KCalendarCore

• Add missing QtCore dependency to QML module. Commit.
• Add QML bindings for CalendarListModel and CalendarPluginLoader. Commit.
• Add CalendarListModel. Commit.

KCMUtils

• Plugins: Use help-about icons instead of dialog-information. Commit.
• SettingHighlighterPrivate: Optimize connections. Commit.
• Plugins: Use symbolic versions of the icons. Commit.
• Declare missing QML module dependency. Commit.
• Properly declare KQuickConfigModule as having attached properties. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.
• Ensure KCM load function is called only once. Commit. Fixes bug #487388

KCodecs

• Remove unused static tables. Commit.

KCompletion

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KConfig

• Fix two cmakelint types of issue. Commit.
• Fix KCONFIG_USE_QML=OFF by moving ECMQmlModule behind the conditional. Commit.
• Kconfig_compiler: Don't generate .moc include. Commit.
• Kconfig_compiler: Allow generating QML type registration macros. Commit.
• Kconfig_compiler: Use automoc for GENERATE_MOC. Commit.
• Avoid unused variable definition. Commit.
• Allow desktop files to be a symbolic link. Commit.
• Fix compile. Commit.
• KStandardActions: Use C++11 for loop. Commit.
• Fix compile dependencies for windows. Commit.
• Register KCoreConfigSkeleton to QML. Commit.
• Provide a generic named USE_DBUS option to allow to choose if to use it. Commit.
• Don't warn if no dbus enabled. Commit.

KConfigWidgets

• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.

KCoreAddons

• Rename deprecated argument CLASSNAME to CLASS_NAME in ecm_add_qml_module() for KCoreAddonsPlugin. Commit.
• Kurlmimedata: warn about problems while retrieving files from portal. Commit.
• Decode os-release as UTF-8. Commit.
• Use REQUIRED_QT_VERSION for dbus, too. Commit.
• Provide USE_DBUS option to allow to turn on/off dbus parts. Commit.

KCrash

• Add missing QtOpenGL dependency. Commit.

KDBusAddons

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KDeclarative

• Add missing copyright to KeySequenceItem. Commit.

KDocTools

• Remove silly goose from template. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KGlobalAccel

• Fix cmakelint issues. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KGuiAddons

• KColorSchemeWatcherMac: update name in copyright. Commit.
• Clipboard: Add roundtrip when setting clipboard. Commit. Fixes bug #466414
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.

KHolidays

• Add holidays for Germany, Bremen and Germany, Hamburg. Commit.
• Add public holidays for Uzbekistan. Commit.
• Holiday_pe_es - add Peru holidays per "Decreto Legislativo 713". Commit. Fixes bug #488513
• Update russian holidays substitution for 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024. Commit.
• Update holiday_ph_en - fix syntax error "of august" should be "in august". Commit.
• Change optional name to Philippines. Commit.
• Introduce a holidays file for Philippines. Commit.

KI18n

• Make country name detection substring matching more strict. Commit.

KIconThemes

• Flip logic when to use Accent/HighlightedText. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.

KIdletime

• Port towards QNativeInterface::QWaylandApplication. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KImageformats

• Fixed wrong plugin options behaviour. Commit.
• EXR: Full support for gray image/colorspace. Commit.
• Disable JXR plugin due to crashes in JXRLIB. Commit.
• PFM: Portable FloatMap read only support. Commit.
• PXR: Pixar raster read only support. Commit.
• Sanity checks (fuzzer). Commit.
• XCF: fixed wrong composite on Grayscale images. Commit. See bug #476755
• Fix compilation. Commit.
• Use of metadata macro definitions. Commit.
• JXR: added CMYK image to read test. Commit.
• XCF: Increased maximum property size. Commit. See bug #426222
• JXR support. Commit. See bug #451584
• PSD: support native CMYK introduced by Qt 6.8. Commit.

KIO

• Core: use QString to format number. Commit.
• Remove unnecessary space character in empty text file template. Commit. Fixes bug #487768
• Port DropJob to KJobWidgets::windowHandle(). Commit. See bug #488515
• Use resolved executable in KProcessRunner::fromExecutable. Commit.
• Handle using parent environment correctly in SystemdProcessRunner. Commit.
• Prepare environment for systemd in SystemdProcessRunner. Commit.
• Enable CommandLauncherJob tests (modulo _KDE_APPLICATIONS_AS_SERVICE on CI). Commit.
• Kmountpoint: use advised call params when possible for libmount. Commit.
• Remove unused includes. Commit.
• Drop unused modifiers support from user agent code. Commit.
• [kprotocolmanager] Remove unused http_config. Commit.
• Remove unused includes. Commit.
• Don't pass proxy config to workers. Commit.
• Drop protocol proxying. Commit.
• Deprecate KProtocolInfo::proxiedBy. Commit.
• [ftp] Drop ProxiedBy=http. Commit.
• Kfileitem.cpp: If fileMode is not unknown, set InitCalled to true in readUDSEntry. Commit. Fixes bug #485771
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• [webdav] emit ERR_UNSUPPORTED_ACTION when performing fileSystemFreeSpace on a file. Commit.
• Add desktop file for kiod. Commit. Fixes bug #459054
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.
• Kfileitemtest: testBasicDirectory relax size assertion. Commit.
• Commandlauncherjob: emit error when no executable. Commit.

Kirigami

• Fix: install KirigamiPrivate soversion. Commit.
• Add Kirigmai.Action unit tests. Commit.
• Fix static build. Commit.
• Allow initializing a Kirigami.Action from a QAction. Commit.
• NavigationTabButton: improve text legibility. Commit. Fixes bug #489573
• Dialog: Add horizontal padding to prevent content from leaking onto borders. Commit.
• ActionTextField: de-duplicate action icon code. Commit.
• Dialogs/Dialog.qml: removed colorSet. Commit.
• ActionTextField: fix QML errors. Commit.
• Update build.gradle in application template to Qt 6. Commit.
• Remove unused KItemModels import. Commit.
• Fix: The issue of abnormal touch events. Commit.
• Relax property types to QtQuick.Templates counterparts. Commit. See bug #487904
• Units: decouple grid unit from font metrics. Commit.
• Fix typo. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• PlaceholderMessage: Announce the text and description to a11y. Commit. Fixes bug #482753

KItemModels

• Kdescendantsproxymodel: fix nested signals on source model reset. Commit.
• Kdescendantsproxymodeltest: use model tester in the tests where it passes. Commit.
• Port kdescendantsproxymodeltest to std::unique_ptr. Commit.

KItemViews

• Relicense files from LGPL-2.0-only to LGPL-2.0-or-later. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.
• KWidgetItemDelegateEventListener: remove useless destroy event sending. Commit.

KJobWidgets

• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KNewStuff

• Remove Icons view. Commit.
• Remove user-facing view switcher. Commit.
• Use Tiles view by default. Commit.
• Add punctuation to warning. Commit.
• BigPreviewDelegate: Fix "Update" action. Commit.
• Action: Remove dead code. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KNotifications

• Fix missing HAVE_DBUS usages. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Adapt Android default notifications and documentations to KF6 search path. Commit.

KNotifyConfig

• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Port to KStandardActions. Commit.

KPackage

• Remove stray lib. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KParts

• PartLoader: Allow reading of InitialPreference from KParts object. Commit.
• PartLoader: Add mechanism to provide capabilities standardized in JSON metadata. Commit.

KPeople

• Add missing send. Commit.
• Remove no longer used var. Commit.
• Fix non-dbus path. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.

KPlotting

• Fix cmakelint issues. Commit.

KPTY

• Fix "Connecting from COMPAT signal" warning. Commit.

KQuickCharts

• Controls: Don't use visible for hiding text in LegendDelegate. Commit.
• Controls/legenddelegate: Always hide name if its width is 0. Commit.

KRunner

• Fix build with QT_NO_CAST_FROM_ASCII. Commit.

KService

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.
• Fix description in metainfo. Commit.
• Fix tier information. Commit.

KStatusNotifieritem

• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KSVG

• Fix masks of completely black mask frames. Commit.
• Restore proper devicepixelratio when extracting from cache. Commit. Fixes bug #488295
• Fix description in metainfo. Commit.
• Remove explicit maintainer from metainfo. Commit.

KTextEditor

• Add a tool to test javascript scripts. Commit.
• Fix JS API result of view.executeCommand(). Commit.
• Kateregexpsearch: fix FAST_DEBUG. Commit.
• API documentation: fix typo on kte_design page. Commit.
• Add action to popy the current file name and line. Commit. Fixes bug #488027
• Prefer even indent sizes. Commit. Fixes bug #474505
• Try different way to read file for digest. Commit. See bug #482800
• Remove gradient, looks ugly. Commit.
• Add missing :, are there for all other entries. Commit.
• Don't remember encoding if known to be broken. Commit. Fixes bug #445015
• Ensure we don't keep old session config keys. Commit. Fixes bug #486648

KTextWidgets

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KUserFeedback

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KWallet

• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KWidgetsAddons

• Fix the since version of KJobWidgets::windowHandle,setWindowHandle. Commit.
• Kjobwidgets: Force setWindow() creating a window handle. Commit. See bug #488515
• Kjobwidgets: Add functions to associate QWindow with a KJob. Commit. See bug #488515
• KTitleWidget: restore size policies to Preferred & vertical centering. Commit. Fixes bug #488319
• KTitleWidget: do not autoFillBackground by default, drop StyledPanel frame. Commit. Fixes bug #475898
• Make compile fine without qt6.7 deprecated methods. Commit.

KWindowSystem

• Fix compiler error when memfd is absent. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

KXMLGUI

• Remove old dead code from KDE4. Commit.
• Use static constexpr for global int value definitions instead of enums. Commit.
• Revert "Avoid a crash in broken Konsole code for now, waiting for fix release". Commit.
• Port away from deprecated signal QCheckBox::stateChanged. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

Network Manager Qt

• Add missing find_dependency call on Qt6Network. Commit. Fixes bug #489094
• Fixed occasional lag issue with ActiveConnection. Commit.
• Recognize OWE in AP capabilities and connection security. Commit. See bug #464615
• Add VRF and loopback device types. Commit.
• Recognize the "loopback" connection type. Commit.
• Fix check for device and AP cipher compatibility. Commit.

Prison

• Adjust scanner-qt6.qml for newer QtMultimedia. Commit.

Purpose

• JobView: Fix switch-case: add default branch. Commit.
• Plugins/barcode: Fix up QML. Commit.
• Widgets: Rework type registration and property initialization, improve QML. Commit.
• Don't let the Heading overflow. Commit.
• AlternativesModel: Use logging category. Commit.
• AlternativesModel: Drop unused header. Commit.
• Tests: Rework testing share tool. Commit.
• Tests: Set initial properties instead of introspecting objects later. Commit.
• Tests: Correctly check for additional positional arguments. Commit.
• Tests: Remove duplicating calls to add help and version CLI options. Commit.
• Tests: Add missing translation domain. Commit.
• Drop QML import versions. Commit.
• Fix some QML and C++ code style. Commit.
• Use ellipses instead of triple period. Commit.
• AlternativesModel: Use correct role for a tooltip. Commit.
• Kdeconnect: Don't let the Heading overflow. Commit.
• Namespace embedded resources. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

QQC2 Desktop Style

• Combobox: Set focus on text field within combobox. Commit.
• Delegates: Use inset to control spacing around hover/selection highlight. Commit.
• Limit focus workaround to affected versions. Commit.
• Itembranchindicators: Store QPersistentModelIndex instead of QModelIndex. Commit.
• Itemindicators: Don't access thread-unsafe data from the render thread. Commit. Fixes bug #487850
• Implement baselineOffset for more controls. Commit.
• KQuickStyleItem: Mark baselineOffset method as const. Commit.
• Implement SplitView with splitter handles. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.

Solid

• Fix "Connecting from COMPAT signal" warning. Commit.
• Support USE_DBUS option to enable/disable dbus use. Commit.
• Narrow down types of backend objects to Ifaces::DeviceManager. Commit.
• Doc: Port 0 to nullptr. Commit.
• Drop a reference to non-existent interface class. Commit.
• Add missing forward declaration. Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

Syndication

• Dublincore.h "organisation" -> "organization" (prefer en_US). Commit.
• Gitignore: add VS Code dir. Commit.

Syntax Highlighting

• Add CustomType highlighting and improve import highlighting. Commit.
• Corrected Gleam syntax. Commit.
• Add Gleam syntax. Commit.
• OrgMode: add header-item folding, properties folding, more todo keywords. Commit.
• Avoid that we try to open files without name. Commit.
• [dracula.theme] Fix "ISO/Delphi Extended" for Pascal. Commit.
• Nginx: update for new directives and variables. Commit.
• Systemd unit: update to systemd v256. Commit.
• Add basic syntax highlighting rules for opsi-script. Commit.
• [dracula.theme] Fix "Special Variable" for PHP. Commit.
• Add Typst highlighter. Commit.

An overview of the ongoing efforts to improve and roll out support for free-threaded CPython throughout the Python open source ecosystem

I'm excited to announce the formation of the Drupal Starshot Advisory Council. When I announced Starshot's Leadership Team, I explained that we are innovating on the leadership model by adding a team of advisors. This council will provide strategic input and feedback to help ensure Drupal Starshot meets the needs of key stakeholders and end-users.

The Drupal Starshot initiative represents an ambitious effort to expand Drupal's reach and impact. To guide this effort, we've established a diverse Advisory Council that includes members of the Drupal Starshot project team, Drupal Association staff and Board of Directors, representatives from Drupal Certified Partners, Drupal Core Committers, and last but not least, individuals representing the target end-users for Drupal Starshot. This ensures a wide range of perspectives and expertise to inform the project's direction and decision-making.

The initial members include:

• Imre Gmelig Meijling, React Online / Drupal Association Board - Fundraising Committee
• Suzanne Dergachev, Evolving Web / Drupal Association Board - Marketing Committee
• Mike Herchel, Agileana / Drupal Association Board - Innovation Committee
• Tim Doyle, CEO at the Drupal Association
• Tim Lehnen, CTO at the Drupal Association
• Kristen Pol, Salsa Digital - Drupal Certified Partner representative
• Chris Yates, Pantheon - Drupal Certified Partner representative
• Luis Ribeiro, CI&T - Drupal Certified Partner representative
• Kathryn Carruthers, alakasam - End User representative
• Emma Horrell, University of Edinburgh - End User representative
• Nathaniel Catchpole (catch), Third and Grove / Tag1 Consulting - Drupal Core Committer
• Théodore Biadala (nod_), Très Bien Tech - Drupal Core Committer

The council has been meeting monthly to receive updates from myself and the Drupal Starshot Leadership Team. Members will provide feedback on project initiatives, offer recommendations, and share insights based on their diverse experiences and areas of expertise.

In addition to guiding the strategic direction of Drupal Starshot, the Advisory Council will play a vital role in communication and alignment between the Drupal Starshot team, the Drupal Association, Drupal Core, and the broader Drupal community.

I'm excited to be working with this accomplished group to make the Drupal Starshot vision a reality. Together we can expand the reach and impact of Drupal, and continue advancing our mission to make the web a better place.

Last fall, we toured the Champagne region in France, famous for its sparkling wines. We explored the ancient, underground cellars where Champagne undergoes its magical transformation from grape juice to sparkling wine. These cellars, often 30 meters deep and kilometers long, maintain a constant temperature of around 10-12°C, providing the perfect conditions for aging and storing Champagne.

25 meters underground in a champagne tunnel, which often stretches for miles/kilometers.

After sampling various Champagnes, we returned home with eight cases to store in our home's basement. However, unlike those deep cellars, our basement is just a few meters deep, prompting a simple question that sent me down a rabbit hole: how does our basement's temperature compare?

Rather than just buying a thermometer, I decided to build my own "temperature monitoring system" using open hardware and custom-built software. After all, who needs a simple solution when you can spend evenings tinkering with hardware, sensors, wires and writing your own software? Sometimes, more is more!

The basic idea is this: track the temperature and humidity of our basement every 15 minutes and send this information to a web service. This web service analyzes the data and alerts us if our basement becomes too cold or warm.

I launched this monitoring system around Christmas last year, so it's been running for nearly three months now. You can view the live temperature and historical data trends at https://dri.es/sensors. Yes, publishing our basement's temperature online is a bit quirky, but it's all in good fun.

A screenshot of my basement temperature dashboard.

So far, the temperature in our basement has been ideal for storing wine. However, I expect it will change during the summer months.

In the rest of this blog post, I'll share how I built the client that collects and sends the data, as well as the web service backend that processes and visualizes that data.

Hardware used

For this project, I bought:

1. Adafruit ESP32-S3 Feather: A microcontroller board with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, serving as the central processing unit of my project.
2. Adafruit SHT4x sensor: A high-accuracy temperature and humidity sensor.
3. 3.7v 500mAh battery: A small and portable power source.
4. STEMMA QT / Qwiic JST SH 4-pin cable: To connect the sensor to the board without soldering.

The total hardware cost was $32.35 USD. I like Adafruit a lot, but it's worth noting that their products often come at a higher cost. You can find comparable hardware for as little as $10-15 elsewhere. Adafruit's premium cost is understandable, considering how much valuable content they create for the maker community.

An ESP32-S3 development board (middle) linked to a Sensirion SHT41 temperature and humidity sensor (left) and powered by a battery pack (right). Client code for Adafruit ESP32-S3 Feather

I developed the client code for the Adafruit ESP32-S3 Feather using the Arduino IDE, a widely used platform for developing and uploading code to Arduino-compatible boards.

The code measures temperature and humidity every 15 minutes, connects to WiFi, and sends this data to https://dri.es/sensors, my web service endpoint.

One of my goals was to create a system that could operate for a long time without needing to recharge the battery. The ESP32-S3 supports a "deep sleep" mode where it powers down almost all its functions, except for the clock and memory. By placing the ESP32-S3 into deep sleep mode between measurements, I was able to significantly reduce power.

Now that you understand the high-level design goals, including deep sleep mode, I'll share the complete client code below. It includes detailed code comments, making it self-explanatory.

[code c]#include "Adafruit_SHT4x.h" #include "Adafruit_MAX1704X.h" #include "WiFiManager.h" #include "ArduinoJson.h" #include "HTTPClient.h" // The Adafruit_SHT4x sensor is a high-precision, temperature and humidity // sensor with an I2C interface. Adafruit_SHT4x sht4 = Adafruit_SHT4x(); // The Adafruit ESP32-S3 Feather comes with a built-in MAX17048 LiPoly / LiIon // battery monitor. The MAX17048 provides accurate monitoring of the battery's // voltage. Utilizing the Adafruit library, not only helps us obtain the raw // voltage data from the battery cell, but also converts this data into a more // intuitive battery percentage or charge level. We will pass on the battery // percentage to the web service endpoint, which can visualize it or use it to // send notifications when the battery needs recharging. Adafruit_MAX17048 maxlipo; // The setup() function is used to initialize the device's hardware and // communications. It's executed once at startup. Here, we begin serial // communication, initialize sensors, connect to Wi-Fi, and send initial // data. void setup() { Serial.begin(115200); // Wait for the serial connection to establish before proceeding further. // This is crucial for boards with native USB interfaces. Without this loop, // initial output sent to the serial monitor is lost. This code is not // needed when running on battery. //delay(1000); // Generates a unique device ID from a segment of the MAC address. // Since the MAC address is permanent and unchanged after reboots, // this guarantees the device ID remains consistent. To achieve a // compact ID, only a specific portion of the MAC address is used, // specifically the range between 0x10000 and 0xFFFFF. This range // translates to a hexadecimal string of a fixed 5-character length, // giving us roughly 1 million unique IDs. This approach balances // uniqueness with compactness. uint64_t chipid = ESP.getEfuseMac(); uint32_t deviceValue = ((uint32_t)(chipid >> 16) & 0x0FFFFF) | 0x10000; char device[6]; // 5 characters for the hex representation + the null terminator. sprintf(device, "%x", deviceValue); // Use '%x' for lowercase hex letters // Initialize the SHT4x sensor: if (sht4.begin()) { Serial.println(F("SHT4 temperature and humidity sensor initialized.")); sht4.setPrecision(SHT4X_HIGH_PRECISION); sht4.setHeater(SHT4X_NO_HEATER); } else { Serial.println(F("Could not find SHT4 sensor.")); } // Initialize the MAX17048 sensor: if (maxlipo.begin()) { Serial.println(F("MAX17048 battery monitor initialized.")); } else { Serial.println(F("Could not find MAX17048 battery monitor!")); } // Insert a short delay to ensure the sensors are ready and their data is stable: delay(200); // Retrieve temperature and humidity data from SHT4 sensor: sensors_event_t humidity, temp; sht4.getEvent(&humidity, &temp); // Get the battery percentage and calibrate if it's over 100%: float batteryPercent = maxlipo.cellPercent(); batteryPercent = (batteryPercent > 100) ? 100 : batteryPercent; WiFiManager wifiManager; // Uncomment the following line to erase all saved WiFi credentials. // This can be useful for debugging or reconfiguration purposes. // wifiManager.resetSettings(); // This WiFi manager attempts to establish a WiFi connection using known // credentials, stored in RAM. If it fails, the device will switch to Access // Point mode, creating a network named "Temperature Monitor". In this mode, // connect to this network, navigate to the device's IP address (default IP // is 192.168.4.1) using a web browser, and a configuration portal will be // presented, allowing you to enter new WiFi credentials. Upon submission, // the device will reboot and try connecting to the specified network with // these new credentials. if (!wifiManager.autoConnect("Temperature Monitor")) { Serial.println(F("Failed to connect to WiFi ...")); // If the device fails to connect to WiFi, it will restart to try again. // This approach is useful for handling temporary network issues. However, // in scenarios where the network is persistently unavailable (e.g. router // down for more than an hour, consistently poor signal), the repeated // restarts and WiFi connection attempts can quickly drain the battery. ESP.restart(); // Mandatory delay to allow the restart process to initiate properly: delay(1000); } // Send collected data as JSON to the specified URL: sendJsonData("https://dri.es/sensors", device, temp.temperature, humidity.relative_humidity, batteryPercent); // WiFi consumes significant power so turn it off when done: WiFi.disconnect(true); // Enter deep sleep for 15 minutes. The ESP32-S3's deep sleep mode minimizes // power consumption by powering down most components, except the RTC. This // mode is efficient for battery-powered projects where constant operation // isn't needed. When the device wakes up after the set period, it runs // setup() again, as the state isn't preserved. Serial.println(F("Going to sleep for 15 minutes ...")); ESP.deepSleep(15 * 60 * 1000000); // 15 mins * 60 secs/min * 1,000,000 μs/sec. } bool sendJsonData(const char* url, const char* device, float temperature, float humidity, float battery) { StaticJsonDocument<200> doc; // Round floating-point values to one decimal place for efficient data // transmission. This approach reduces the JSON payload size, which is // important for IoT applications running on batteries. doc["device"] = device; doc["temperature"] = String(temperature, 1); doc["humidity"] = String(humidity, 1); doc["battery"] = String(battery, 1); // Serialize JSON to a string: String jsonData; serializeJson(doc, jsonData); // Initialize an HTTP client with the provided URL: HTTPClient httpClient; httpClient.begin(url); httpClient.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json"); // Send a HTTP POST request: int httpCode = httpClient.POST(jsonData); // Close the HTTP connection: httpClient.end(); // Print debug information to the serial console: Serial.println("Sent '" + jsonData + "' to " + String(url) + ", return code " + httpCode); return (httpCode == 200); } void loop() { // The ESP32-S3 resets and runs setup() after waking up from deep sleep, // making this continuous loop unnecessary. }[/code] Further optimizing battery usage

When I launched my thermometer around Christmas 2023, the battery was at 88%. Today, it is at 52%. Some quick math suggests it's using approximately 12% of its battery per month. Given its current rate of usage, it needs recharging about every 8 months.

Connecting to the WiFi and sending data are by far the main power drains. To extend the battery life, I could send updates less frequently than every 15 minutes, only send them when there is a change in temperature (which is often unchanged or only different by 0.1°C), or send batches of data points together. Any of these methods would work for my needs, but I haven't implemented them yet.

Alternatively, I could hook the microcontroller up to a 5V power adapter, but where is the fun in that? It goes against the project's "more is more" principle.

Handling web service requests

With the client code running on the ESP32-S3 and sending sensor data to https://dri.es/sensors, the next step is to set up a web service endpoint to receive this incoming data.

As I use Drupal for my website, I implemented the web service endpoint in Drupal. Drupal uses Symfony, a popular PHP framework, for large parts of its architecture. This combination offers an easy but powerful way for implementing web services, similar to those found across other modern server-side web development frameworks like Laravel, Django, etc.

Here is what my Drupal routing configuration looks like:

[code yaml]sensors.sensor_data: path: '/sensors' methods: [POST] defaults: _controller: '\Drupal\sensors\Controller\SensorMonitorController::postSensorData' requirements: _access: 'TRUE'[/code]

The above configuration directs Drupal to send POST requests made to https://dri.es/sensors to the postSensorData() method of the SensorMonitorController class.

The implementation of this method handles request authentication, validates the JSON payload, and saves the data to a MariaDB database table. Pseudo-code:

[code php]public function postSensorData(Request $request) : JsonResponse { $content = $request->getContent(); $data = json_decode($content, TRUE); // Validate the JSON payload: … // Authenticate the request: … $device = DeviceFactory::getDevice($data['device']); if ($device) { $device->recordSensorEvent($data); } return new JsonResponse(['message' => 'Thank you!']); }[/code]

For testing your web service, you can use tools like cURL:

[code bash]$ curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"device":"0xdb123", "temperature":21.5, "humidity":42.5, "battery":90.0}' https://localhost/sensors[/code]

While cURL is great for quick tests, I use PHPUnit tests for automated testing in my CI/CD workflow. This ensures that everything keeps working, even when upgrading Drupal, Symfony, or other components of my stack.

Storing sensor data in a database

The primary purpose of $device->recordSensorEvent() in SensorMonitorController::postSensorData() is to store sensor data into a SQL database. So, let's delve into the database design.

My main design goals for the database backend were:

1. Instead of storing every data point indefinitely, only keep the daily average, minimum, maximum, and the latest readings for each sensor type across all devices.
2. Make it easy to add new devices and new sensors in the future. For instance, if I decide to add a CO2 sensor for our bedroom one day (a decision made in my head but not yet pitched to my better half), I want that to be easy.

To this end, I created the following MariaDB table:

[code sql]CREATE TABLE sensor_data ( date DATE, device VARCHAR(255), sensor VARCHAR(255), avg_value DECIMAL(5,1), min_value DECIMAL(5,1), max_value DECIMAL(5,1), min_timestamp DATETIME, max_timestamp DATETIME, readings SMALLINT NOT NULL, UNIQUE KEY unique_stat (date, device, sensor) );[/code]

A brief explanation for each field:

• date: The date for each sensor reading. It doesn't include a time component as we aggregate data on a daily basis.
• device: The device ID of the device providing the sensor data, such as 'basement' or 'bedroom'.
• sensor: The type of sensor, such as 'temperature', 'humidity' or 'co2'.
• avg_value: The average value of the sensor readings for the day. Since individual readings are not stored, a rolling average is calculated and updated with each new reading using the formula: avg_value = avg_value + new_value - avg_value new_total_readings . This method can accumulate minor rounding errors, but simulations show these are negligible for this use case.
• min_value and max_value: The daily minimum and maximum sensor readings.
• min_timestamp and max_timestamp: The exact moments when the minimum and maximum values for that day were recorded.
• readings: The number of readings (or measurements) taken throughout the day, which is used for calculating the rolling average.

In essence, the recordSensorEvent() method needs to determine if a record already exists for the current date. Depending on this determination, it will either insert a new record or update the existing one.

In Drupal this process is streamlined with the merge() function in Drupal's database layer. This function handles both inserting new data and updating existing data in one step.

[code php]private function updateDailySensorEvent(string $sensor, float $value): void { $timestamp = \Drupal::time()->getRequestTime(); $date = date('Y-m-d', $timestamp); $datetime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp); $connection = Database::getConnection(); $result = $connection->merge('sensor_data') ->keys([ 'device' => $this->id, 'sensor' => $sensor, 'date' => $date, ]) ->fields([ 'avg_value' => $value, 'min_value' => $value, 'max_value' => $value, 'min_timestamp' => $datetime, 'max_timestamp' => $datetime, 'readings' => 1, ]) ->expression('avg_value', 'avg_value + ((:new_value - avg_value) / (readings + 1))', [':new_value' => $value]) ->expression('min_value', 'LEAST(min_value, :value)', [':value' => $value]) ->expression('max_value', 'GREATEST(max_value, :value)', [':value' => $value]) ->expression('min_timestamp', 'IF(LEAST(min_value, :value) = :value, :timestamp, min_timestamp)', [':value' => $value, ':timestamp' => $datetime]) ->expression('max_timestamp', 'IF(GREATEST(max_value, :value) = :value, :timestamp, max_timestamp)', [':value' => $value, ':timestamp' => $datetime]) ->expression('readings', 'readings + 1') ->execute(); }[/code]

Here is what the query does:

• It checks if a record for the current sensor and date exists.
• If not, it creates a new record with the sensor data, including the initial average, minimum, maximum, and latest value readings, along with the timestamp for these values.
• If a record does exist, it updates the record with the new sensor data, adjusting the average value, and updating minimum and maximum values and their timestamps if the new reading is a new minimum or maximum.
• The function also increments the count of readings.

For those not using Drupal, similar functionality can be achieved with MariaDB's INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE command, which allows for the same conditional insert or update logic based on whether the specified unique key already exists in the table.

Here are example queries, extracted from MariaDB's General Query Log to help you get started:

[code sql]INSERT INTO sensor_data (device, sensor, date, min_value, min_timestamp, max_value, max_timestamp, readings) VALUES ('0xdb123', 'temperature', '2024-01-01', 21, '2024-01-01 00:00:00', 21, '2024-01-01 00:00:00', 1); UPDATE sensor_data SET min_value = LEAST(min_value, 21), min_timestamp = IF(LEAST(min_value, 21) = 21, '2024-01-01 00:00:00', min_timestamp), max_value = GREATEST(max_value, 21), max_timestamp = IF(GREATEST(max_value, 21) = 21, '2024-01-01 00:00:00', max_timestamp), readings = readings + 1 WHERE device = '0xdb123' AND sensor = 'temperature' AND date = '2024-01-01';[/code] Generating graphs

With the data securely stored in the database, the next step involved generating the graphs. To accomplish this, I wrote some custom PHP code that generates Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs).

Given that is blog post is already quite long, I'll spare you the details. For now, those curious can use the 'View source' feature in their web browser to examine the SVGs on the thermometer page.

Conclusion

It's fun how a visit to the Champagne cellars in France sparked an unexpected project. Choosing to build a thermometer rather than buying one allowed me to dive back into an old passion for hardware and low-level software.

I also like taking control of my own data and software. It gives me a sense of control and creativity.

As Drupal's project lead, using Drupal for an Internet-of-Things (IoT) backend brought me unexpected joy. I just love the power and flexibility of open-source platforms like Drupal.

As a next step, I hope to design and 3D print a case for my thermometer, something I've never done before. And as mentioned, I'm also considering integrating additional sensors. Stay tuned for updates!

Next week, I'm traveling to Japan and Australia. I've been to both countries before and can't wait to return – they're among my favorite places in the world.

My goal is to connect with the local Drupal community in each country, discussing the future of Drupal, learning from each other, and collaborating.

I'll also be connecting with Acquia's customers and partners in both countries, sharing our vision, strategy and product roadmap. As part of that, I look forward to spending some time with the Acquia teams as well – about 20 employees in Japan and 35 in Australia.

I'll present at a Drupal event in Tokyo the evening of March 14th at Yahoo! Japan.

While in Australia, I'll be attending Drupal South, held at the Sydney Masonic Centre from March 20-22. I'm excited to deliver the opening keynote on the morning of March 20th, where I'll delve into Drupal's past, present, and future.

I look forward to being back in Australia and Japan, reconnecting with old friends and the local communities.

Two years ago, I launched a simple Web3 website using IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and ENS (Ethereum Name Service). Back then, Web3 tools were getting a lot of media attention and I wanted to try it out.

Since I set up my Web3 website two years ago, I basically forgot about it. I didn't update it or pay attention to it for two years. But now that we hit the two-year mark, I'm curious: is my Web3 website still online?

At that time, I also stated that Web3 was not fit for hosting modern web applications, except for a small niche: static sites requiring high resilience and infrequent content updates.

I was also curious to explore the evolution of Web3 technologies to see if they became more applicable for website hosting.

My original Web3 experiment

In my original blog post, I documented the process of setting up what could be called the "Hello World" of Web3 hosting. I stored an HTML file on IPFS, ensured its availability using "pinning services", and made it accessible using an ENS domain.

For those with a basic understanding of Web3, here is a summary of the steps I took to launch my first Web3 website two years ago:

1. Purchased an ENS domain name: I used a crypto wallet with Ethereum to acquire dries.eth through the Ethereum Name Service, a decentralized alternative to the traditional DNS (Domain Name System).
2. Uploaded an HTML File to IPFS: I uploaded a static HTML page to the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which involved running my own IPFS node and utilizing various pinning services like Infura, Fleek, and Pinata. These pinning services ensure that the content remains available online even when my own IPFS node is offline.
3. Accessed the website: I confirmed that my website was accessible through IPFS-compatible browsers.
4. Mapped my webpage to my domain name: As the last step, I linked my IPFS-hosted site to my ENS domain dries.eth, making the web page accessible under an easy domain name.

If the four steps above are confusing to you, I recommend reading my original post. It is over 2,000 words, complete with screenshots and detailed explanations of the steps above.

Checking the pulse of various Web3 services

As the first step in my check-up, I wanted to verify if the various services I referenced in my original blog post are still operational.

The results, displayed in the table below, are really encouraging: Ethereum, ENS, IPFS, Filecoin, Infura, Fleek, Pinata, and web3.storage are all operational.

The two main technologies – ENS and IPFS – are both actively maintained and developed. This indicates that Web3 technology has built a robust foundation.

Service Description Still around in February 2024) ENS A blockchain-based naming protocol offering DNS for Web3, mapping domain names to Ethereum addresses. Yes IPFS A peer-to-peer protocol for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. Yes Filecoin A blockchain-based storage network and cryptocurrency that incentivizes data storage and replication. Yes Infura Provides tools and infrastructure to manage content on IPFS and other tools for developers to connect their applications to blockchain networks and deploy smart contracts. Yes Fleek A platform for building websites using IPFS and ENS. Yes Pinata Provides tools and infrastructure to manage content on IPFS, and more recently Farcaster applications. Yes web3.storage Provides tools and infrastructure to manage content on IPFS with support for Filecoin. Yes Is my Web3 website still up?

Seeing all these Web3 services operational is encouraging, but the ultimate test is to check if my Web3 webpage, dries.eth, remained live. It's one thing for these services to work, but another for my site to function properly. Here is what I found in a detailed examination:

1. Domain ownership verification: A quick check on etherscan.io confirmed that dries.eth is still registered to me. Relief!
2. ENS registrar access: Using my crypto wallet, I could easily log into the ENS registrar and manage my domains. I even successfully renewed dries.eth as a test.
3. IPFS content availability: My webpage is still available on IPFS, thanks to having pinned it two years ago. Logging into Fleek and Pinata, I found my content on their admin dashboards.
4. Web3 and ENS gateway access: I can visit dries.eth using a Web3 browser, and also via an IPFS-compatible ENS gateway like https://dries.eth.limo/ – a privacy-centric service, new since my initial blog post.

The verdict? Not only are these Web3 services still operational, but my webpage also continues to work!

This is particularly noteworthy given that I haven't logged in to these services, didn't perform any maintenance, or didn't pay any hosting fees for two years (the pinning services I'm using have a free tier).

Visit my Web3 page yourself

For anyone interested in visiting my Web3 page (perhaps your first Web3 visit?), there are several methods to choose from, each with a different level of Web3-ness.

• Use a Web3-enabled browser: Browsers such as Brave and Opera, offer built-in ENS and IPFS support. They can resolve ENS addresses and interpret IPFS addresses, making it as easy to navigate IPFS content as if it is traditional web content via HTTP or HTTPS.
• Install a Web3 browser extension: If your favorite browser does not support Web3 out of the box, adding a browser extension like MetaMask can help you access Web3 applications. MetaMask works with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. It enables you to use .eth domains for doing Ethereum transactions or for accessing content on IPFS.
• Access through an ENS gateway: For those looking for the simplest way to access Web3 content without installing anything new, using an ENS gateway, such as eth.limo, is the easiest method. This gateway maps ENS domains to DNS, offering direct navigation to Web3 sites like mine at https://dries.eth.limo/. It serves as a simple bridge between Web2 (the conventional web) and Web3.

Streamlining content updates with IPNS

In my original post, I highlighted various challenges, such as the limitations for hosting dynamic applications, the cost of updates, and the slow speed of these updates. Although these issues still exist, my initial analysis was conducted with an incomplete understanding of the available technology. I want to delve deeper into these limitations, and refine my previous statements.

Some of these challenges stem from the fact that IPFS operates as a "content-addressed network". Unlike traditional systems that use URLs or file paths to locate content, IPFS uses a unique hash of the content itself. This hash is used to locate and verify the content, but also to facilitate decentralized storage.

While the principle of addressing content by a hash is super interesting, it also introduces some complications: whenever content is updated, its hash changes, making it tricky to link to the updated content. Specifically, every time I updated my Web3 site's content, I had to update my ENS record, and pay a translation fee on the Ethereum network.

At the time, I wasn't familiar with the InterPlanetary Name System (IPNS). IPNS, not to be confused with IPFS, addresses this challenge by assigning a mutable name to content on IPFS. You can think of IPNS as providing an "alias" or "redirect" for IPFS addresses: the IPNS address always stays the same and points to the latest IPFS address. It effectively eliminates the necessity of updating ENS records with each content change, cutting down on expenses and making the update process more automated and efficient.

To leverage IPNS, you have to take the following steps:

1. Upload your HTML file to IPFS and receive an IPFS hash.
2. Publish this hash to IPNS, creating an IPNS hash that directs to the latest IPFS hash.
3. Link your ENS domain to this IPNS hash. Since the IPNS hash remains constant, you only need to update your ENS record once.

Without IPNS, updating content involved:

1. Update the HTML file.
2. Upload the revised file to IPFS, generating a new IPFS hash.
3. Update the ENS record with the new IPFS hash, which costs some Ether and can take a few minutes.

With IPNS, updating content involves:

1. Update the HTML file.
2. Upload the revised file to IPFS, generating a new IPFS hash.
3. Update the IPNS record to reference this new hash, which is free and almost instant.

Although IPNS is a faster and more cost-effective approach compared to the original method, it still carries a level of complexity. There is also a minor runtime delay due to the extra redirection step. However, I believe this tradeoff is worth it.

Updating my Web3 site to use IPNS

With this newfound knowledge, I decided to use IPNS for my own site. I generated an IPNS hash using both the IPFS desktop application (see screenshot) and IPFS' command line tools:

[code bash]$ ipfs name publish /ipfs/bafybeibbkhmln7o4ud6an4qk6bukcpri7nhiwv6pz6ygslgtsrey2c3o3q > Published to k51qzi5uqu5dgy8mzjtcqvgr388xjc58fwprededbb1fisq1kvl34sy4h2qu1a: /ipfs/bafybeibbkhmln7o4ud6an4qk6bukcpri7nhiwv6pz6ygslgtsrey2c3o3q[/code] The IPFS Desktop application showing my index.html file with an option to 'Publish to IPNS'.

After generating the IPNS hash, I was able to visit my site in Brave using the IPFS protocol at ipfs://bafybeibbkhmln7o4ud6an4qk6bukcpri7nhiwv6pz6ygslgtsrey2c3o3q, or via the IPNS protocol at ipns://k51qzi5uqu5dgy8mzjtcqvgr388xjc58fwprededbb1fisq1kvl34sy4h2qu1a.

My Web3 site in Brave using IPNS.

Next, I updated the ENS record for dries.eth to link to my IPNS hash. This change cost me 0.0011 ETH (currently $4.08 USD), as shown in the Etherscan transaction. Once the transaction was processed, dries.eth began directing to the new IPNS address.

A transaction confirmation on the ENS website, showing a successful update for dries.eth. Rolling back my IPNS record in ENS

Unfortunately, my excitement was short-lived. A day later, dries.eth stopped working. IPNS records, it turns out, need to be kept alive – a lesson learned the hard way.

While IPFS content can be persisted through "pinning", IPNS records require periodic "republishing" to remain active. Essentially, the network's Distributed Hash Table (DHT) may drop IPNS records after a certain amount of time, typically 24 hours. To prevent an IPNS record from being dropped, the owner must "republish" it before the DHT forgets it.

I found out that the pinning services I use – Dolphin, Fleek and Pinata – don't support IPNS republishing. Looking into it further, it turns out few IPFS providers do.

During my research, I discovered Filebase, a small Boston-based company with fewer than five employees that I hadn't come across before. Interestingly, they provide both IPFS pinning and IPNS republishing. However, to pin my existing HTML file and republish its IPNS hash, I had to subscribe to their service at a cost of $20 per month.

Faced with the challenge of keeping my IPNS hash active, I found myself at a crossroads: either fork out $20 a month for a service like Filebase that handles IPNS republishing for me, or take on the responsibility of running my own IPFS node.

Of course, the whole point of decentralized storage is that people run their own nodes. However, considering the scope of my project – a single HTML file – the effort of running a dedicated node seemed disproportionate. I'm also running my IPFS node on my personal laptop, which is not always online. Maybe one day I'll try setting up a dedicated IPFS node on a Raspberry Pi or similar setup.

Ultimately, I decided to switch my ENS record back to the original IPFS link. This change, documented in the Etherscan transaction, cost me 0.002 ETH (currently $6.88 USD).

Although IPNS works, or can work, it just didn't work for me. Despite the setback, the whole experience was a great learning journey.

(Update: A couple of days after publishing this blog post, someone kindly recommended https://dwebservices.xyz/, claiming their free tier includes IPNS republishing. Although I haven't personally tested it yet, a quick look at their about page suggests they might be a promising solution.)

Web3 remains too complex for most people

Over the past two years, Web3 hosting hasn't disrupted the mainstream website hosting market. Despite the allure of Web3, mainstream website hosting is simple, reliable, and meets the needs of nearly all users.

Despite a significant upgrade of the Ethereum network that reduced energy consumption by over 99% through its transition to a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, environmental considerations, especially the carbon footprint associated with blockchain technologies, continue to create further challenges for the widespread adoption of Web3 technologies. (Note: ENS operates on the blockchain but IPFS does not.)

As I went through the check-up, I discovered islands of innovation and progress. Wallets and ENS domains got easier to use. However, the overall process of creating a basic website with IPFS and ENS remains relatively complex compared to the simplicity of Web2 hosting.

The need for a SQL-compatible Web3 database

Modern web applications like those built with Drupal and WordPress rely on a technology stack that includes a file system, a domain name system (e.g. DNS), a database (e.g. MariaDB or MySQL), and a server-side runtime environment (e.g. PHP).

While IPFS and ENS offer decentralized alternatives for the first two, the equivalents for databases and runtime environments are less mature. This limits the types of applications that can easily move from Web2 to Web3.

A major breakthrough would be the development of a decentralized database that is compatible with SQL, but currently, this does not seem to exist. The complexity of ensuring data integrity and confidentiality across multiple nodes without a central authority, along with meeting the throughput demands of modern web applications, may be too complex to solve.

After all, blockchains, as decentralized databases, have been in development for over a decade, yet lack support for the SQL language and fall short in speed and efficiency required for dynamic websites.

The need for a distributed runtime

Another critical component for modern websites is the runtime environment, which executes the server-side logic of web applications. Traditionally, this has been the domain of PHP, Python, Node.js, Java, etc.

WebAssembly (WASM) could emerge as a potential solution. It could make for an interesting decentralized solution as WASM binaries can be hosted on IPFS.

However, when WASM runs on the client-side – i.e. in the browser – it can't deliver the full capabilities of a server-side environment. This limitation makes it challenging to fully replicate traditional web applications.

So for now, Web3's applications are quite limited. While it's possible to host static websites on IPFS, dynamic applications requiring database interactions and server-side processing are difficult to transition to Web3.

Bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3

In the short term, the most likely path forward is blending decentralized and traditional technologies. For example, a website could store its static files on IPFS while relying on traditional Web2 solutions for its dynamic features.

Looking to the future, initiatives like OrbitDB's peer-to-peer database, which integrates with IPFS, show promise. However, OrbitDB lacks compatibility with SQL, meaning applications would need to be redesigned rather than simply transferred.

Web3 site hosting remains niche

Even the task of hosting static websites, which don't need a database or server-side processing, is relatively niche within the Web3 ecosystem.

As I wrote in my original post: In its current state, IPFS and ENS offer limited value to most website owners, but tremendous value to a very narrow subset of all website owners.. This observation remains accurate today.

IPFS and ENS stand out for their strengths in censorship resistance and reliability. However, for the majority of users, the convenience and adequacy of Web2 for hosting static sites often outweigh these benefits.

The key to broader acceptance of new technologies, like Web3, hinges on either discovering new mass-market use cases or significantly enhancing the user experience for existing ones. Web3 has not found a universal application or surpassed Web2 in user experience.

The popularity of SaaS platforms underscores this point. They dominate not because they're the most resilient or robust options, but because they're the most convenient. Despite the benefits of resilience and autonomy offered by Web3, most individuals opt for less resilient but more convenient SaaS solutions.

Conclusion

Despite the billions invested in Web3 and notable progress, its use for website hosting still has significant limitations.

The main challenge for the Web3 community is to either develop new, broadly appealing applications or significantly improve the usability of existing technologies.

Website hosting falls into the category of existing use cases.

Unfortunately, Web3 remains mostly limited to static websites, as it does not yet offer robust alternatives to SQL databases and server-side runtime.

Even within the limited scope of static websites, improvements to the user experience have been marginal, focused on individual parts of the technology stack. The overall end-to-end experience remains complex.

Nonetheless, the fact that my Web3 page is still up and running after two years is encouraging, showing the robustness of the underlying technology, even if its current use remains limited. I've grown quite fond of IPFS, and I hope to do more useful experiments with it in the future.

All things considered, I don't see Web3 taking the website hosting world by storm any time soon. That said, over time, Web3 could become significantly more attractive and functional. All in all, keeping an eye on this space is definitely fun and worthwhile.

For the fifth year in a row, Acquia has been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP).

Acquia received this recognition from Gartner based on both the completeness of product vision and ability to execute.

Central to our vision and execution is a deep commitment to openness. Leveraging Drupal, Mautic and open APIs, we've built the most open DXP, empowering customers and partners to tailor our platform to their needs.

Our emphasis on openness extends to ensuring our solutions are accessible and inclusive, making them available to everyone. We also prioritize building trust through data security and compliance, integral to our philosophy of openness.

We're proud to be included in this report and thank our customers and partners for their support and collaboration.

Mandatory disclaimer from Gartner

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms, Irina Guseva, Jim Murphy, Mike Lowndes, John Field - February 21, 2024.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Acquia.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Martti Malmi, an early contributor to the Bitcoin project, recently shared a fascinating piece of internet history: an archive of private emails between himself and Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's mysterious founder.

The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains one of the biggest mysteries in the technology world. Despite extensive investigations, speculative reports, and numerous claims over the years, the true identity of Bitcoin's creator(s) is still unknown.

Martti Malmi released these private conversations in reaction to a court case focused on the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto and the legal entitlements to the Bitcoin brand and technology.

The emails provide some interesting details into Bitcoin's early days, and might also provide some new clues about Satoshi's identity.

Satoshi and Martti worked together on a variety of different things, including the relaunch of the Bitcoin website. Their goal was to broaden public understanding and awareness of Bitcoin.

And to my surprise, the emails reveal they chose Drupal as their preferred CMS! (Thanks to Jeremy Andrews for making me aware.)

The emails detail Satoshi's hands-on involvement, from installing Drupal themes, to configuring Drupal's .htaccess file, to exploring Drupal's multilingual capabilities.

At some point in the conversation, Satoshi expressed reservations about Drupal's forum module.

For what it is worth, this proves that I'm not Satoshi Nakamoto. Had I been, I'd have picked Drupal right away, and I would never have questioned Drupal's forum module.

Jokes aside, as Drupal's Founder and Project Lead, learning about Satoshi's use of Drupal is a nice addition to Drupal's rich history. Almost every day, I'm inspired by the unexpected impact Drupal has.

OPC UA client code that relies on hardcoded NodeIds is brittle and often only works with a specific OPC UA server instance. This article shows the proper way to write robust and portable OPC UA client code.

Continue reading OPC UA: Programming against Type Descriptions at basysKom GmbH.

To prepare Drupal.org infrastructure for providing automatic updates for Drupal and upgrading Drupal.org itself, we are removing support for Composer 1 on Packages.Drupal.org.

• New Drupal.org packages & releases will not be available for Composer 1 after August 12, 2024.
• Composer 1 support will be dropped after October 1, 2024.

Preparing your site for Composer 2 is documentation for updating Drupal site codebases with Composer 2.

Deprecating Packagist.org support for Composer 1.x is Packagist.org’s announcement.

Less than 1% of our Composer traffic comes from Composer 1. Drupal’s automatic updates require Composer 2. Packagist.org has already reduced support for Composer 1. So now is a good time to upgrade to Composer 2, if you have not already.

Follow #3201223: Deprecate composer 1 for detailed status updates.

Here's what I've been working on for my LocalGov Drupal contributions this week. Thanks to Big Blue Door for sponsoring the time to work on these.

We are excited to announce that Jacob Coffee has joined the Python Software Foundation staff as an Infrastructure Engineer bringing his experience as an Open Source maintainer, dedicated homelab maintainer, and professional systems administrator to the team. Jacob will be the second member of our Infrastructure staff, reporting to Director of Infrastructure, Ee Durbin.

Joining our team, Jacob will share the responsibility of maintaining the PSF systems and services that serve the Python community, CPython development, and our internal operations. This will add crucially needed redundancy to the team as well as capacity to undertake new initiatives with our infrastructure.

Jacob shares, “I’m living the dream by supporting the PSF mission AND working in open source! I’m thrilled to be a part of the PSF team and deepen my contributions to the Python community.”

In just the first few days, Jacob has already shown initiative on multiple projects and issues throughout the infrastructure and we’re excited to see the impact he’ll have on the PSF and broader Python community. We hope that you’ll wish him a warm welcome as you see him across the repos, issue trackers, mailing lists, and discussion forums!