I finally got around to doing a kernel upgrade on this server for CVE-2006-3626, the recently-announced security vulnerability in the Linux kernel. I've been using the simple workarounds for a few days, but I got around to installing a patched kernel this morning, so I did a remote reboot to restart the server.
Which, of course, hiccuped. I thought the server wasn't coming up and filed a SR with iWeb, my server host, but by the time they got to it, the server was up and running again. Sometimes it just takes time.
I've got a theory that the probability of a server successfully power-cycling is inversely proportional to its physical distance from the operator. iWeb is only about 15 blocks away, so I guess I lucked out this time.
tags: iweb linux security vulnerability reboot server
WikiBios
del.icio.us served up a tasty wiki treat today: WikiBios. No, it's not a project to code up a Basic Input Output System collaboratively using Wiki -- although that would be real cool. Rather, it's an effort to create biographies for every living person on Earth -- whether or not they're notable.
Paul Auster, in his book Brooklyn Follies, described a plan for creating biographies for everyday people as a business. The idea being that people like to know about each others' lives -- their family, their friends. Memorializing someone in a biography keeps them alive and immortal in a way, yet only a tiny fraction of human beings have this privilege.
I hope WikiBios takes off. It seems like a good idea.
tags: wiki wikibios biography paul auster brooklyn follies bios
Limited single sign-on on Wikitravel
So, after about a week of testing on our review site, I've rolled out a single sign-on system on Wikitravel. I'm starting with a very limited test: users of any of our language versions (English, German, French, Spanish, dot dot dot) can log in to our Wikitravel Shared repository with their account from their "home" wiki.
The project uses OpenID, the URL-based SSO solution that's implemented on LiveJournal, Movable Type, Zooomr, and a few other systems. Although this trial is very limited, my hope is to allow sign-on between all the language versions of Wikitravel soon, and sign-on with external OpenID-enabled services soon after.
Wikimedia, Wikia, and WikiHow admins have expressed interest in installing the [[$$vote abstain http://www.mediawiki.org/ extension that makes OpenID work on Wikitravel, so with luck we'll have some very nice Interwiki Interlogin very soon.
tags: openid wikitravel wiki single sign-on sso limited