Zope-3.1.0

I did not find any ebuilds for Zope-3.1.0. So I converted the ebuild that's currently available for the older experimental version (ZopeX3). The ebuild can be downloaded here.

The Zope Package Manager caught my eye and so I also added an ebuild for this program. It can be used to install Zope-Add-On packages into the installation. Actually the tool can handle the complete Zope installation. It still needs some more documentation. But there are enough examples since all packages within Zope seem to use this new tool.

Posted at: 18:01 | Permalink | category: /english/technical/gentoo

Emacs Language Sensitive Editor (ELSE)

I recently looked at ELSE and decided to give it a try. I wrote an ebuild for the package and started using it with python.

Once the code has been installed, the code can be imported into emacs:

;; load path for else-mode
(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/else-mode")

;; my own modified templates for ELSE reside here
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/usr/devel/website/config/emacs/else-mode")

;; autoload on function 'else-mode'
(autoload 'else-mode "else-mode" "Starting template engine" t)

;; automatically start with python
(add-hook 'python-mode-hook
	  (lambda ()
	    ;; this is shown as a lambda so you can add further interesting
	    ;; minor mode definitions here.
	    (else-mode)))

Once you start an empty python file you will now get an initial placeholder that you can expand using C-c / e. This will give you more placeholders which you can successively expand to give you a complete script.

This is just the basic use and in many cases won't be too useful for programming since the main part of coding is not really concerned with optimizing the code skeleton.

But ELSE offers a lot more than this basic placeholder replacement. Just check the documentation of the package since it is pretty good.

Posted at: 14:20 | Permalink | category: /english/technical

The Soma Haunt

Nice. They have a Halloween special on SomaFM. I really don't care about Halloween but I don't mind switching to darker tunes for a weekend.

It's definitely strange music with wailing babies in the background...

Posted at: 09:17 | Permalink | category: /english/personal/media

Python Startup

There exists a useful feature for the python interpreter: The PYTHONSTARTUP variable.

It can be set to a python source file that will be executed when python is started in an interactive mode. This can be used to add command line completion and a history.

This needs to be added to ~/.bashrc or any of the startup files you use when starting an interactive bash session:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=${HOME}/.pystartup

The following code will add history as well as the command line completion.

File ~/.pystartup:

import atexit
import os

try:
    import readline
except ImportError:
    print "Module readline not available."
else:
    import rlcompleter
    readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")

historyPath = os.path.expanduser("~/.pyhistory")

def save_history(historyPath=historyPath):
    import readline
    readline.write_history_file(historyPath)

if os.path.exists(historyPath):
    readline.read_history_file(historyPath)

atexit.register(save_history)
del os
atexit
readline
rlcompleter
save_history
historyPath

Posted at: 09:28 | Permalink | category: /english/technical

Some ebuild updates

• The Emacs muse mode moved to version 3.02.01.
• The del.icio.us api for emacs has been improved and the current snapshot is 20051023. You either need to run it in emacs-cvs or you also install this url-cvs ebuild as package for a stable emacs version.
• Ledger has been updated to 2.4
• Claroline 1.7.0 is available now.

Posted at: 19:18 | Permalink | category: /english/technical/gentoo

Pharmaceutical patents

This has been a slashdot discussion that I really enjoyed reading.

It is concerned with the decision of Taiwan to ignore the Roche patent on Tamiflu, the vaccine regarded as being the most efficient one against the current bird flu epidemic.

Taiwan apparently tried to negotiate with Roche to be allowed to produce the vaccine themselves. Since these negotiations failed the country just decided to ignore the patent since it regarded the concern for the population as more important.

Some nice comments from the discussion:

What about less widespread, but equally fatal diseases? For example, why isn't it equally ethical for a country to ignore patent laws for cancer drugs? Why hasn't this already been done for AIDS drugs?

Should a lack of patent laws cause the death of people? Imagine that the entire world declared that for "serious disease" no one had to respect patent laws. Let's say that AIDS was declared such a disease. Would any more private sector research money (by far the most research money spent) go into finding a cure or better treatment for AIDS? Would anyone be able to write a business case to get venture money to start a new bio-tech firm looking at AIDS treatment?

If patent protection isn't required for drug development, where are the "open source" drugs? It only requires a few billion USD to develop drug lines... I'm sure there is plenty of non-profit, non-patent money to fund that, and so we can do away with the entire patent system.

An editorial in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, possibly the most authoritative source in the field, pointed out how drug companies spend far more money in marketing than they do in research. Also, drug companies often outsource the pure R&D to little-known laboratories, or buy patents from them, just to re-brand the products.

Btw, Taiwan can afford the drug. The amount of money in the corruption-fueled grey economy of corrupt officials is more than enough to buy the drugs. Just check out the world-wide corruption studies in The Economist for evidence. It's not about lack of money in Taiwan, but about priorities of spending (bribing MPs is more important than buying drugs - so break the patents).

I'll raise exactly one counter-example: Should fire departments be run as for-profit enterprises, and only purchase fire trucks in jurisdictions where they can make money charging for fire protection services? Drug research is high tech, but it is a question of public health and safety, and the fundamental decisions should be made with that in mind - so it is more like the fire department, and less like high end consumer electronics.

Do you know why Roche, and so many other pharmaceutical companies, are based in Switzerland? Because when they were founded there Switzerland had no intellectual property laws and did not recognize any such foreign laws. So Roche, Ciba, and the rest set themselves up in Switzerland ripping off patented formulas from the UK and elsewhere.

Roche is Swiss. I'm sure China, mainland or Taiwanese, quakes in fear at the thought of the Swiss navy launching an assault.

It did not really help me to come to a final conclusion concerning patents. I still feel they are utterly useless but I understand that there were reasons why such a system has been established.

But patents are definitely nothing more than a bunch of concepts, ideas and laws. In cases where this leads to people dying I believe there is not much need for discussions anymore.

Posted at: 10:27 | Permalink | category: /english/personal/news/science

Moved

The last three weeks have been somewhat quiet because I moved to Hamburg and that did cost me a good deal of time. Especially since my home server experienced a nice little head crash which was not funny at all.

I am hooked to DSL since a week again so looks like I can now pick up where I left.

I updated a number of my gentoo ebuilds and will post these during the next week.

I also started working on Kolab again, but I will not comment on this as long as it is not finished :)

Posted at: 19:22 | Permalink | category: /english/personal