Three Incredibly Nerdy But Ultimately Pointless Topics - Scott Huntley

Three Incredibly Nerdy
(But Ultimately Pointless)
Topics
by 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 automatically
Once 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
Yes!
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
No!
Well they do.
But they’re terribly difficult to install!

NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO

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
puter
Ship’sComputer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’sComputer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’sComputer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’s
Computer
Ship’sComputer
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.

Or...
@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.technologyusenet:
alt.b2ecam
p.sydney.pherlog.pherlog.pherlog
#B2ECampSyd #b2evo #pherlog #LongLiveTheGopher #GopherPi #ImStillDoingMySlidesOnSundayAM alt.b2ecamp.sydney.pherlog.pherlog.pherlog

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Three Incredibly Nerdy But Ultimately Pointless Topics - Scott Huntley