Mozilla Service Week

Sep 15th, 2009 Posted in And You Did What? Where?, F/LOSS News | No Comments »

Love this! Connecting to community through community. In the words of the Mozilla Foundation,

Mozilla Service Week is all about community – your community. We want you to find a way to use technology to make a difference in your neighborhood, your school, your library, your town, a fellow public benefit organization. We welcome any act of service, no matter how small.

How to participate? Visit the Mozilla Service week page for more information. Find a volunteer opportunity in your town, your city, your state, your country, or your world through the Idealist Mozilla partner listing of volunteer opportunities. You can search by location, field of interest, or desired skill set.

I’m off to see if someone needs a volunteer webmaster. I’ll let you know how it goes.

WordPress, Akismet, fsockopen, and cURL … Oh My!

Sep 12th, 2009 Posted in Sharing What Have I Learned | No Comments »

UPDATE 9/15: Issue is gone (I hope!). Everything I wrote about fsockopen, cURL, etc. forget it. It was a server firewall issue. The reason for the ad hoc creation of dynamic rules which intermittently blocked outbound http requests is still under investigation, but the installation of a firewall that had better integration with the backend web administration interface looks to have helped.
UPDATE 9/13: Issue is back. All outside connections, including rss feeds, are out. Damn.
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Systers Pass-it-on Awards

Sep 8th, 2009 Posted in Education, F/LOSS News | No Comments »

The Anita Borg Systers Pass-it-on Award applications for a financial stipend of $500-$1000 USD to women either in, or aspiring to be in, the field of computing. From the RFP page some possible uses for the stipend could include

  • Small amount to help with studies, job transfers or other transitions in life.
  • A broader project that benefits girls and women.
  • Projects that seek to inspire more girls and women to go into the computing field.
  • Assistance with educational fees and materials.
  • Partial funding source for larger scholarship.
  • Mentoring and other supportive groups for women in technology or computing.

Applications close November 4, 2009. More information and an application can be had here http://www.anitaborg.org/initiatives/systers/pass-it-on-grants-program