three incredibly nerdy but ultimately pointless topics - scott huntley

Three Incredibly Nerdy (But Ultimately Pointless)

Topicsby Scott Huntley

WordCamp Sydney 2016

#WCSyd #Pointless3 @kshuntley

Hey, who am I?

I’m Scott

@kshuntley@kshuntley#WCSyd #Pointless3 @kshuntley

Hey, who am I?

I’m Scott

(or Kenneth? - see scott.technology/name)

Hey, who am I?

I’m Scott

(or Kenneth? - see scott.technology/name)

I work for as a Consultant/Trainer for Pukunui Technology, an LMS hosting company

Day to day, I use Moodle which is not WordPress

Hey, who am I?

I used to work at TAFE NSW

I used to teach WordPress

I am dreamer

I spend far too much time thinking about the world that could have been

I am very good at bad Photoshop.

@kshuntley#WCSyd #Pointless3 @kshuntley

So what’s the point of this exercise?

Well, in this presentation, I’m going to talk about three incredibly cool and nerdtastic things.

They’re not very practical though.

But maybe by exploring crazy off-the-wall topics, we might learn something useful after all.

Note: You will not learn something useful after all.

How am I going to keep on track?

I like to waffle.In fact, if I could, I’d talk to you now for 10 minutes on waffles.

I have 30 minutes, give or take, and 3 topics

Math tells me I should spend 10 minutes on each topic

To keep to that schedule:The slides are going to progress automaticallyOnce the slide changes, I’ll start talking to the new slide

Image: Parkerman & Christie from San Diego, USA - Crispy Waffles with Strawberries, CC BY 2.0,

Topic One: Can you use WordPress

to run your pherlog?

What’s a pherlog?

@kshuntley

“Blog” comes from the words “web log”.

Hence a “gopher log” would be a “pherlog”.

“What the hell is Gopher?”

@kshuntley

You don’t remember Gopher?

It was what all the cool kids used before the Web.

And by “cool kids”, I’m specifically referring to all of us in the high school Dungeons and Dragons Club.

I mean this guy

Do Gopher clients still exist?

@kshuntley

You used to be able to connect to Gopher using any browser. Not any more.

I actually had to download Lynx to connect to Gopher sites.

WordCamp on LynxThe Lynx Browser

My Blog on Lynx

Do Gopher servers still exist?

@kshuntley

Well they do.

But they’re terribly difficult to install!

NONONO

Can you power your pherlog using WordPress?

@kshuntley

Well… in theory…

Step one, get a gopher server up and running (see the past two slides)

Can you power your pherlog using WordPress?

@kshuntley

The project I wanted to implement is called WP2GOPHER.

A single PHP file that will connect to your WordPress blog’s MySQL, extract the posts, and write them into a Gopher file.

Sounds incredibly easy to implement.

After, it’s fairly recent (Mar 27, 2008)

Find out more at gopher://gopher.4d2.org/1/phlog/page1 .

Topic Two: Who is

WordPress’ sibling?

How can WordPress have any relatives?

@kshuntley

WordPress was forked in 2003 from b2/cafelog.

I know this because Wikipedia tells me so.

I would say that makes b2/cafelog the parent of WordPress

Does WordPress have any other relations?

A forgotten sibling?

@kshuntley

b2evolution was forked in 2003 from b2/cafelog.

I know this because Wikipedia tells me so.

I suppose that would make b2/cafelog the parent of b2evolution

This would make b2evolution the sibling of WordPress.

Comparison Time

@kshuntley

Open Source (GNU GPLv2)

Latest Version: 6.7.3 (May 29)

Plugins: 224 (on the official site)

Skins: 768 (on the official site)

Listen to François deliver “The State of the Evolution”

Powers about 0.1% of the web

Open Source (GNU GPLv2)

Latest Version: 4.6.1 (Sep 7)

Plugins: 46,670 (on the official site)

Themes: Difficult to determine - 4,119 “Latest”

Listen to Matt deliver “The State of the Word”

Powers about 26.4% of the web

What’s it like?

Stop picking on me!

@kshuntley

Reading the b2Evolution site, a two things stand out:

● Their focus remains on being a blogging platform● Most of their features are blogging related

● They know they are in WordPress’ shadow

Topic Three: Can you use lose WordPress

in your sofa cushions?

WordPress on the Raspberry Pi

@kshuntley

“Okay, that’s kinda small.

But I couldn’t lose it in my sofa cushions.

I mean, you still gotta plug it in and stuff.”

WordPress on the Raspberry Pi Zero with a Pi Zero IoT Hat

@kshuntley

“Okay, I could lose that in the sofa cushions.

But what’s the point?”

“What’s the point?”

@kshuntley

The point is this is changing everything.

It’s the perfect storm people! It’s Crowdfunding meeting the Shenzhen AliBaba machine creating cheap Single Board Computers.

Computers are being distributed on magazine covers.

Computers are disposable now.

You could put computers in vending machines now.

This should be blowing your mind!

Let’s put it this way

@kshuntley

Ship’s Com

Ship’s Computer

Ship’s

Computer

Ship’s Computer

Ship’s

Computer

Ship’s Computer

Ship’s

Computer

Ship’s Computer

Ship’s

Computer

What they told us the future will be.

What the future will be.

“I still don’t get it.” and/or “Big deal, I already know this”

@kshuntley

Okay, think about this:

How much did your first computer cost?

That first one you took to Uni or TAFE, how ever many years ago it was that you pretend wasn’t really that long ago, but probably was longer than you’d like to admit, OMAG Am I over 40?

Raspberry Pi Zero was the $5 computer

It actually was the £5 computer

You still had to buy all the special bits and pieces

Pine A64 is $15 with a lot more guts

Indiegogo campaign for a $1 computer

The hardware will be cheap enough that we can teach programming to any kid on the planet.

@kshuntley

I just wanted an excuse to show off my Raspberry Pi Zero.

Bringing it all back together...

Did I just completely waste 30 minutes?

@kshuntley

I did say I was a dreamer…

I suppose I just like to imagine what could have been...

@kshuntley

...like an alternate reality where we’re all discussing Pherlogs...

#WCSyd #pherlog #LongLiveTheGopher @kshuntley

...at B2ECamp Sydney...

@kshuntley#B@ECampSyd #b2Evo #pherlog #LongLiveTheGopher @kshuntley

...but I’ve got to stop by the vending machine because I’ve lost my computer.

@kshuntley#B2ECampSyd #b2evo #pherlog #LongLiveTheGopher #GopherPi #RasberryEvolution #COBOLDOTNET @kshuntley

Continue the conversation...

In this reality:

Email: scott@pukunui.com

Twitter: @kshuntley

Web: scott.technology

In another reality:

ICQ: 74325126

Identi.ca: kshuntley

gopher.scott.technology usenet:

alt.b2ecamp.sydney.pherlog.pherlog.pherlog

#B2ECampSyd #b2evo #pherlog #LongLiveTheGopher #GopherPi #ImStillDoingMySlidesOnSundayAM alt.b2ecamp.sydney.pherlog.pherlog.pherlog

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