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Chris Wells
My interface to the world.
During my eighty-seven years, I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.
— Bernard Baruch
Why Choose FreeBSD?
Published: Thu., Jan. 29, 2015
FreeBSD is my preferred OS thanks to ZFS, disk encryption, the wholly-owned base system, ports/packages, jails for securing network services, and the community.
A few years ago, I found myself looking for a new OS for day-to-day use. I'd been using Mac OS X for several years because my employer provided a MacBook Pro and I really loved the nice, clean Aqua UI on top of a POSIX compliant core. However, I was setting up a desktop, didn't want to spend a fortune on Apple hardware, and wasn't sure I liked the direction Apple was heading with OS X by making it more like iOS. My requirements pretty much boiled down to security (including support for full-disk encryption), stability, flexibility, software freedom, and a thriving community for those inevitable times when I would need some wisdom. If you're reading this blog, I probably don't need to tell you why Windows was ruled out before the competition started.
Open Source and the Free Software Ride
Published: Mon., Mar. 30, 2015
Despite existing open source revenue models, even popular projects are facing extinction. Is the free software ride over or is there something we can do?
Open source software powers the modern world. From operating systems to web servers and desktop applications, not only does open source deliver, but it provides truly competitive options. Given the prevalence of free and open source software, or FOSS, why are seemingly successful projects on the brink of collapse? The developers of TrueCrypt laid down their keyboards and walked away. Werner Koch announced that he was unable to justify further effort on GnuPG after 18 years. When critical security vulnerabilities were discovered, the OpenSSL maintainers revealed that they were grossly understaffed with a single full-time employee and averaging $2k per year in donations.
Core Web Application for PHP Released
Published: Wed., Dec. 30, 2015
The Core Web Application Libraries provide a logger, database layer, and MVC framework for PHP. The code is available on GitHub along with 2 example projects.
When I built this site, I chose to start from scratch for several reasons. I could've thrown something together using any one of the open source content management systems, but I've been down that road before. Once you customize a popular CMS, it becomes an outright burden to keep up with security fixes and other updates. It's convenient to have so many features and plugins at your disposal, but having thousands of lines of unused/inapplicable code with frequent vulnerability fixes can leave you with an uneasy feeling about what's creeping into each release. Once you have multiple sites in that state, maintaining them starts to feel cumbersome or, worse, like a second job. Additionally, I wanted the freedom to use the code in any project I work on whether I retain ownership of the finished product or not.
Migrating from Feedly to Nextcloud News
Published: Sun., Jan. 29, 2017
It's easy to migrate RSS subscriptions from Feedly to Nextcloud News, but saved articles are more complicated. Here's a bit of JavaScript to simplify the task.
I'll admit to using a few cloud services in moderation, but I tend to choose privacy over storing my life on other people's computers. While I was on vacation at the end of 2016, I set up a Nextcloud server to replace my privately hosted and very outdated solutions for syncing contacts (Kolab over IMAP) and calendars (ICS over WebDAV). After setting it up, I was surprised to find a News app for Nextcloud that adds support for RSS/Atom feed subscriptions. Of course, there are also apps that provide access to those subscriptions from mobile devices. Stop allowing Feedly to monitor my online reading habits? That sounded like icing on the cake to me.
FreeBSD Shell Scripts Added to GitHub
Published: Tue., Feb. 6, 2018
I use some shell script libraries to make FreeBSD system configuration easier. They're now available as freebsd-scripts on GitHub for anyone to use and improve.
I recently switched my hosting provider from Digital Ocean to Vultr to get tighter control over the configuration—a more "pure" FreeBSD installation. While updating my notes to prep for the install, I considered how many configuration steps were basic file editing: add this line under that line, uncomment this line, comment that line, etc. I love the simplicity that comes when the code is the documentation, so I decided to create a small file I/O library to make it easier to write shell scripts for system configuration. Why bother maintaining notes to describe manual changes when I could write a script to perform the changes automatically?
Introducing the Sitka Logger
Published: Sat., Sep. 8, 2018
Sitka is an extremely lightweight but powerful Node.js logger that's great for cloud/serverless applications.
Although it's a very small project, I'm excited to release my first open source Node.js package today. Sitka is an extremely lightweight but powerful logger that's great for modern cloud/serverless applications. It can be installed using the Sitka NPM package and the source code for Sitka is on GitHub. Yes, there were already tons of loggers to choose from. When I browsed through them, most seemed to fall into 2 categories: many felt too rigid while others were "kitchen sink" projects trying to do far too much. A logger is an essential part of every application, but it should be simple to use and stay out of your way. As a minimalist, I want something flexible without a lot of overhead. Sitka stands on its own with less than 250 lines of code and without importing any dependencies—much less half a dozen.
AWS Summit 2018 in Atlanta
Published: Sat., Sep. 15, 2018
I spent a day joining 3 presentations and 2 workshops at AWS Summit 2018 in Atlanta. Read my summary and suggestions to get more out of an AWS Summit near you.
I've been working on a new product at Nokia for the past few months, and we're leveraging Amazon Web Services for rapid development. This is my first AWS project, so it's a lot to take in. That process has gone well, but there are still many services I haven't even touched on. When I heard Amazon was hosting a free AWS Summit in Atlanta, I decided to attend and see what I could learn. I had to run some errands early in the day, so I only spent about 6 1/2 hours at the event. Still, I was glad to have the opportunity to check it out. Since there are more summits scheduled this year (and presumably ongoing), I'm writing to both share my experience and to help anyone considering a future Summit. If you're attending an AWS Summit near you or on the fence about it, read on to see what to expect and get some tips around planning.
© 2014-2020 Chris Wells. Support this site. Credits.


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Home Africa News Tanzania presidential election to hold on October 28
Tanzania presidential election to hold on October 28
Tanzania's election commission has set October 28 as the date for the country's highly anticipated presidential election.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the body said the election campaign would run from August 26 to October 27.
President John Magufuli will be seeking re-election after being chosen earlier this month as the candidate of the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
Chadema, the main opposition party, has several candidates vying for the nomination, including Deputy Chairman Tundu Lissu who lives in exile in Belgium after being shot outside his home in 2017.
Party leader Freeman Mbowe, who was hospitalised last month with a broken leg after his party said he was beaten in a "politically-motivated" attack, has also announced his intention to run.
Meanwhile, former Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe last week switched allegiance from CCM to the opposition Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT Wazalendo), and is seeking their nomination to run against Magufuli.
Tanzanians will also vote on the same day to elect members of parliament and local councillors.
The opposition has called for the formation of an independent electoral commission, expressing fears the elections will take place in a climate of violence and intimidation. Magufuli has pledged "free and fair" polls.
Africa-News reports.
#Africa-News
#TanzaniaNews
Previous articleDR Congo church weighs in as parliament protests continues
Next articleZimbabwe declares curfew to tackle COVID-19
Nigeria getting set to face Sierra Leone on Friday for the 2022 Africa cup qualification.
Minister Patricia de Lille says they will stick to their plan to deliver infrastructure projects .
Suicides increase in Malawi as virus debts compound misery

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The cotton mop head can be washed by hand. The cotton mop is ideal for glazed and ceramic floors tiles. 3 year guarantee excluding the mop head.


I am looking for a person who can improve my local seo like my competitor. Should extract keywords used by competitor and optimize the keywords. competitor website: [login to view URL] Please bid only if you have full confidence on competing, Please do not bid if you are a SEO person afraid of high competitive keywords.
I am looking for step by step assistance in optimizing my Yoast SEO Plugin including various resea...research the keywords I can rank well. I actually already have such a list but I need guidance how to improve my SEO. This can be done for example via Skype where we look together through the Wordpress site and you guide me on how to optimize the page.
I already have a logo but I want to improve it.
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I have a bespoke jewellery business where I design and get jewellery manufactured in the UK. The business is based on personalised service. The way...freelancers who are based in UK or Europe to apply as that is our target geography and understanding of market is essential for this task. I am open to other approaches to improve our marketing as well.
Couple of figures need to be improved by increasing font size and changing the background. I have the Matlab code for the current figures.
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MapTool is a popular Virtual Table-Top application for remote role playing. It's a great tool to have when you and your friends grow up, get real jobs, have kids and move to far corners of the country and/or world.
In this tutorial video, Avotas shows us how to take your CC3 maps and make them compatible with MapTools.
What a great video. I was using CC3 only for continents and such and was using RPtools for dungeons, I never knew I could even add maps to my library, I was just dragging them onto a blank maptool sheet in jpg format.
Thanks for the great and informative video. I also watched your other tutorials too, they helped a ton!!


UdG LEQUIA research group will organise the fifth edition of the European conference of the International Society for Microbial Electrochemistry and Technology: EU-ISMET 2020. The event will be held in September 2020 and will place Girona (Catalonia, Spain) on the forefront of research in electromicrobial technologies in Europe.
Electromicrobial technologies or bioelectrochemical systems link a microbial metabolism to an electrochemical system. Such technologies are still under development, but during the past few years have increasingly attracted the attention of the scientific community due to its numerous environmental and energy applications. Thus, in a not too distant future, they could be used to treat wastewater or to synthetize commodities on a far more sustainable form than nowadays.
The Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (LEQUIA) is a multidisciplinary research group of the University of Girona set up 25 years ago. Widely known for its scientific activity in water treatment, in the past decade LEQUIA has positioned itself in the study and development of bioelectrochemical systems. Dr Sebastià Puig, the future chairman of EU-ISMET 2020, is currently the principal researcher of three European projects dealing with these technologies: BioRECO2VER, ELECTRA and WAFRA. BioRECO2Ver tackles bioconversion of carbon dioxide into isobutene, ELECTRA applies bioelectrochemical systems to water remediation and WAFRA focuses on aquaculture. Moreover, the group has produced five doctoral theses on bioelectroystems since 2015; three of them, were awarded.
Last edition of EU-ISMET took place during 3 days in 2018 in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne and brought together the main researchers and professionals in Europe within their field. We are looking forward to September 2020 to know whether Girona will meet expectations and give a significant boost to electromicrobial technologies so that they will be soon part of lives.


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This year's version of the "AFSCME bill"
Thursday, Mar 30, 2017
* AP…
The Illinois Senate is telling Gov. Bruce Rauner it doesn't want prison nurse jobs filled by private contractors.
Plainview Republican Sen. Sam McCann's measure won approval Wednesday 40-15. It would prohibit the Department of Corrections from eliminating jobs of any state employees who provide prison health care services.
Republican Rauner's administration announced last week it intended to dismiss 124 union nurses and privatize their positions this summer.
* Finke…
The Senate voted 40-15 on Senate Bill 19, whose chief sponsor is Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview. […]
"We have to really think about what's best for our districts, what's best for the state, what's best for these facilities, what's best for the safety within the facilities," he said, citing a 400-page study by the federal government that showed serious understaffing by Wexford. There have also been multiple lawsuits filed by inmates alleging inadequate care by Wexford.
"Wexford's busy counting their money in Pennsylvania. I'm trying to keep Illinoisans working," McCann said.
Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, said that Wexford has offered to hire at least some of the laid-off nurses. […]
A similar bill passed the General Assembly last year, but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. The bill died when the House failed to override the veto.
* Public Radio…
Governor Bruce Rauner says his plan would save 8 million dollars per year. Private companies, in his view, can do the same work for cheaper. However, Democrats say that's because private companies don't pay their workers well. Four Republican senators, including Sam McCann from Plainview, agreed.
"Why can't we be for working people?" he said. "Why would we let these nurses go, then hire them back the next day…for less."
The Rauner administration says Illinois has been outsourcing other prison health services for 25 years.
* Related…
* Menard prison nurse hopes to keep job after layoff notice: For 11 years, Tara Chadderton has worked a graveyard shift at Menard Correctional Center. This past week, she received a layoff notice from the state. This prison nurse refuses to go quietly into the night. Employment in a maximum security prison is not for everyone, but Chadderton said she has found it to be a good fit for her. It takes a certain amount of mental toughness, as there are occasions when she and the other nurses are harassed by the inmates while they make the rounds delivering medication. They have been spit on, and had excrement thrown at them. She said some nights are worse than others.
* Layoffs looming as nurses worry about prison care: She said it is important nurses stand their ground sometimes to get their patients the care that is needed. "These people are somebody's brother, somebody's loved one. They're people, too," she said. "It's not my job to judge. We're hired to take care of them."
* 13 Dixon prison nurses bracing for layoffs
- @misterjayem - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:42 am:
"This privatization scheme would screw the hard working families of my district! Who does the governor think we are? Chicago?!?"
– MrJM
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:42 am:
This will be a good test of the amount of GOP support to go around the Governor on things. IF they can manage a veto-proof number in the House, and IF both chambers over-ride the expected veto, THEN there is a possibility of a budget this year.
- Seats - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:48 am:
RNUG - aren't they already short of a veto proof by 3 votes if it was 40-15?
- Reese's Pieces - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:52 am:
AFSCME has members that are Wexford Health Services employees working at Correctional Facilities (like Pontiac and others.) So the 120+ getting laid off are only in INA, and AFSCME-based Wexford people are able to stay on the job (for now.) This is Rauner's way to pick off smaller unions before getting AFSCME's head on a platter? What other explanation is there?
== RNUG - aren't they already short of a veto proof by 3 votes if it was 40-15? ==
At the moment, yes. But we at least see some Senate members willing to stick their neck out, so there is a ray of hope.
- RetiredStateEmployee - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:56 am:
Somebody needs to ask to see the math on the 8mil per year. That average savings of 64,500 per nurse for 124 nurses. I don't see how that could possibly be.
My fault. They need to flip 2 'no' votes to 'yes' not 3.
- Maximus - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:57 am:
If Illinois had the money to pay top dollar for these workers then I would say this bill is a waste of time. Since Illinois is in dire straits financially then this bill makes sense along with any other cost cutting measures. Saving 8 million a year is just a small start to closing the massive hole in the budget.
- Honeybear - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 11:00 am:
I don't get it. Just because it is pro-Union doesn't mean it anything like our AFSCME bills which required interest arbitration if negotiations failed. With respect caking it such garners antipathy.
- Earnest - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 11:02 am:
>"Wexford's busy counting their money in Pennsylvania. I'm trying to keep Illinoisans working," McCann said.
I am thrilled to see someone making this point. I abhor the trend of contracting services to large, multi-state corporations, which is Rauner's vision of Illinois state contracting.
>The Rauner administration says Illinois has been outsourcing other prison health services for 25 years.
I think Governor Rauner would make the point in one of his campaign videos that, just because the state has been doing things a certain way over the past couple of decades, he is willing to stand against "business as usual." /s
- Whatever - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 11:06 am:
$8 million in savings for replacing 124 nurses? That's $64,516 per year. I'd like to see the math on that.
That should say per position per year.
== "Wexford's busy counting their money in Pennsylvania. I'm trying to keep Illinoisans working," McCann said. ==
We need more of an emphasis on "Buy Local".
- Juice - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 11:13 am:
Seats, it takes 36 votes in the Senate to override a veto.
- Birdseed - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 11:15 am:
I could see the math working out easily if they are currently Tier 1 employees making 6 figures. They would consider their undoubtedly large pensions throughout retirement years. Then back out to the annual cost of money to fund them long term.
- illini - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:04 pm:
I am so glad to see that my Sen. McCarter is attempting to be engaged, relevant and sympathetic to the plight of his constituents in this debate, /s/
- Langhorne - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:14 pm:
$8 mil in savings, $64.5 k per job
Rauner coveniently failed to say if that is for one year, two years, or what. Even if for three years, its a whack.
As corrections employees, they are prob being paid under court order. Where is the approp to pay for a new contract?
- Anonime - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:16 pm:
They need to pass a bill that any outsourcing is to Illinois based companies. that's part of the problem now when all our tax money is going out of state to support large corporations. Anyone looking into what relationship Rauner has with Wexford?
- working stiff - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:16 pm:
"Nicole Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said the move will save $8 million a year and streamline delivery of medical services."
exactly how does this save 8 million a year? is someone going to do the work free of charge? if outsourced, you still have to pay for the workforce. are there any numbers to show what the outsourcing would cost?
- Dr. X - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:24 pm:
"Why can't we be for working people?" he said
Because you haven't been since Teddy Roosevelt?
- WEX - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 12:30 pm:
Let start with some history. The reason we have state nurses is they are at older facility's (prisons) and where never changed. They do the same exact jobs that the privatized nurses do with over double the pay and state benefits (Pension). So is it fair to pay say 85% of privatized nurses doing the same exact job. It makes me sick to see a older prison in the deep south with state nurses transfer its work to another prison next door with private nurses. The private nurses get dumped on and get paid half the salary. Its really sad AFSCME represents both state and private nurses but have never stood up to make the private nurses state. Its not a thing that the state nurses are better qualified, its they where more connected to get hired at a state nurse facility. I support the private nurses doing more work with half the pay!!!!!!!!!!!
- d.p.gumby - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 4:03 pm:
States privatize prisons and prison food and prison health. States "save" money. Prisoners die. That's how government runs like a "business".
- Power House Prowler - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 7:18 pm:
You will never get ownership of equipment and buildings as good as you will with state employees. Contract vendors come in, put out the fire and leave. State employees know what is wrong with equipment and take care of it to keep it operational.
- Present - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 7:32 pm:
I had no idea. However, this is not what I am paid to do. Is this correct? There are only a little over 100 state employee nurses? If that is true this was over a long time ago. Before Rauner?
- property of IDOC - Thursday, Mar 30, 17 @ 10:14 pm:
The Feds recently published a report denouncing privatization of prisons. Greater risk, greater cost, findings were generally negative in every aspect researched.