The main schedule for the Percona Live Data Performance Conference is available. Almost everything has been defined. There are tutorials and plenty of sessions waiting for conference attendees.One thing that is still undefined is the session of lightning talks. The call for participation for these mini sessions of 5 minutes each is still open. If you plan to attend Percona Live, this is your chance to get your 5 minutes of celebrity: you can submit a proposal up to February 7th, 2016. There is a lot that can be said in 5 minutes. If you have an interesting topic to highlight, a pet project to show off, a neat trick to recommend, a happy or painful experience to share, a lightning talk is the right place to apply. There are also open slots for Birds Of A Feather (BoF) sessions. These are not lectures, but rather meetings of users who share the same interest. If you want to apply for one of these sessions, don’t propose a topic where you address the audience, but propose a theme for a discussion among peers. BoF sessions are often the place where new ideas are born, helped by the free discussion among passionate users. If you have an open source project and want to ask for feedback, or if you want help defining the road map for an already successful project, a BoF is what you need. Also for this kind of sessions, the deadline is February 7th.And remember: the conference is not limited to MySQL. Every data related topic (such as nosql, big data, database engines, data storage technologies) could trigger an interesting talk.
via Planet MySQL
Lightning talks at Percona Live Data Performance Conference
Create an RSS Feed for any Search Result
Whether you’re constantly searching your own name online (you know who you are) or there’s a topic you want to follow closely, Google Alerts lets you know when new pages hit the web that match your query—and you can convert these results into an RSS feed (or something else) to make them easier to manage.
It means you don’t have to start every day googling your own name or whatever else it is that you’re interested in, because the results come to you. Head to the Google Alerts page to get started—type your query in the top box and then configure your options underneath (click Show options if you can’t see them).
The final option, Deliver to, can be set to RSS feed rather than your email address. Once you click on Create alert, the new alert will have an RSS icon next to it, which you can select to get your feed: plug this into your RSS reader of choice and you’re good to go. The other icons let you edit and delete alerts as you need to.
Of course using something like IFTTT you can convert this RSS feed into a different format if you prefer: send the feeds to a read-it-later service or a Google Sheet, for example. The beauty of the RSS format is you can queue up all of your web search hits in the background and then check in on them when you’ve got the time.
Header image: Nito/Shutterstock.com
Sell Your Vacation Photos to Help Offset the Cost of Your Trip
If you’re already taking photos of your trip, you might as well make a couple bucks off them (and you don’t need a fancy camera to do it.) You won’t get rich, but you may be able to cover the cost of souvenirs or a nice meal.
Of course, you should only sell the good photos. Skip the ones with friends or family in them, since they may not want their image being used for stock photos. Travel+Leisure recommends entering your photos in contests to try for a big payday, but you can also sell your photos on sites like iStock, Alamy, Shutterstock, and Getty Images. If you have video from your travels, you can sell those, too.
How to Make Money While Traveling | Travel+Leisure
Image from Nicolas Navarrete Carrasco.
via Lifehacker
Sell Your Vacation Photos to Help Offset the Cost of Your Trip
Monitor the Consistency of Your Broadband Speeds with a Raspberry Pi and IFTTT
We all know you can pop over to a site like Speedtest to check your internet speeds, but most of us only bother when there’s a perceivable problem. If you want to create an actual database of your speeds throughout the day, Make shows off a logging system that uses a Raspberry Pi and If This Then That.
Essentially, you’ll install a command line interface for Speedtest on the Pi, then create a small program that logs the internet speed on a schedule. That log is then sent over to a Google Drive spreadsheet using IFTTT. With the log in hand, you can now complain to your ISP as needed (or automate the complaint process through Twitter if you like). If you’re worried you’re not getting what you’re paying for on a consistent basis, this is a good way to get some data to back up your claims. Head over to Make for the guide.
Use Raspberry Pi to Measure Broadband Speeds to Hold Your ISP Accountable | Make
via Lifehacker
Monitor the Consistency of Your Broadband Speeds with a Raspberry Pi and IFTTT
Use Raspberry Pi to Measure Broadband Speeds, Dropouts to Hold Your ISP Accountable
Constant drops and outages with your broadband connection can drive you to frustration, but you can use the Raspberry Pi, and a little bit of command line scripting to monitor it.
The post Use Raspberry Pi to Measure Broadband Speeds, Dropouts to Hold Your ISP Accountable appeared first on Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers.
via Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers
Use Raspberry Pi to Measure Broadband Speeds, Dropouts to Hold Your ISP Accountable
Angry Comcast customer set up Raspberry Pi to auto-tweet speed test results
Raspberry Pi does hourly speed tests, tweets if speed is lower than advertised.
via Ars Technica
Angry Comcast customer set up Raspberry Pi to auto-tweet speed test results
2015-16 Shelby Terlingua Mustang
Shelby turns the Ford Mustang GT into a 750hp track beast, w/ upgraded cooling, brakes, suspension, and aero, inspired by Carroll Shelby and his friends tearing up its rough and rugged namesake Texas district back in the day. We took a hot lap in one and are still smiling.
via The Awesomer
2015-16 Shelby Terlingua Mustang
Dilbert 2016-01-31
A Big Ol’ Friday News Dump, Courtesy of Hillary Clinton’s Email Server
Remember how Hillary Clinton used a private homebrew email server to conduct official State Department business? Today—only hours before the agency is expected to release the next batch of Clinton’s emails, and just days before the Iowa caucuses—the sitting administration disclosed that 22 of those emails are now considered top secret, and thus exempt from release:
The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s unsecured home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails with material requiring one of the highest levels of classification.
As the Associated Press notes, this could very well contradict the argument (floated by Clinton and her surrogates) that the former Secretary of State “never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time.” Given the nature of the classification, the Obama administration is not required to explain what exactly the top secret emails were about.
The candidate, for her part, appears to be protesting the classification, which allows the government to withhold the entirety of the emails (as opposed to simply redacting certain portions of them). A spokesperson for Clinton’s campaign told NBC News that “we firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails. Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public. We feel no differently today.”
Email the author: trotter@gawker.com · PGP key + fingerprint · Photo credit: Getty Images
via Gizmodo
A Big Ol’ Friday News Dump, Courtesy of Hillary Clinton’s Email Server
Jeopardy Bloopers
(PG-13: Language) World Wide Interweb compiled some of the funniest moments in Jeopardy!, whether it be from the contestants, the categories or host Alex Trebek himself. We swear, we’re the Blitz of this show.
via The Awesomer
Jeopardy Bloopers