Uwe Hermann | A slightly paranoid Debian developer

I've started looking at Trac recently, a nice web-based project management tool written in Python.

It integrates with existing Subversion repositories; for example, you can browse the code in your repositories with Trac (it'll be displayed syntax-highlighted), view diffs between revisions etc. etc. Additionally, you get a wiki (e.g. for project documentation), as well as a built-in bug-tracker a la Bugzilla, all integrated nicely into a single piece of software...

It's Free Software, of course (the license changed from GPL to revised BSD somewhat recently)...

A few words on the installation:

• First, install Trac, e.g. via apt-get install trac.
• Then create a so-called Trac environment with trac-admin /path/to/environment/myproject initenv. You'll be asked where your svn repository resides, what's the name of the project etc.
• You can then edit /path/to/environment/myproject/conf/trac.ini, and change the header logo/URL, the default component/priority/issue-owner and more.
• For more administration, I recommend using the interactive Trac shell via trac-admin /path/to/environment/myproject. Type "help" for um... help.
• Read the docs for how to setup the web server in order to run Trac (you can use CGI, FastCGI, or mod_python).

So far I've set up ca. 7-8 Trac instances for various projects and I'm quite happy with it. While I was at it, I also created a tiny Trac article in the German Wikipedia.

You can get tons of useful plugins and macros over at trac-hacks.org for additional functionality, e.g. DoxygenPlugin, GanttPlugin, DebianBtsMacro, and many more.

You might have already noticed, but I'll re-iterate nevertheless: the Drupal project has released Drupal 4.6.4 and 4.5.6 which fix three security vulnerabilities. Everyone running a Drupal site is advised to upgrade, as always.

Multiple people were mighty busy yesterday preparing, finalizing and testing the patches and advisories. I was one of them, although I was more like lurking around trying to look busy ;-) Anyways, I have sent the respective advisories (DRUPAL-SA-2005-007, DRUPAL-SA-2005-008, DRUPAL-SA-2005-009) to the "usual suspects" today: Bugtraq, Full Disclosure, and the php-sec mailing list. The advisories have already been picked up by Secunia and a bunch of other security sites...

Btw: I finally received news that my domain was transferred to my new web hoster today, which led to a short downtime. Everything should be fine now. If you notice any problems, please drop me a note.

If you do a search for "yahoo blog search" on Yahoo Blog Search, you will find out that Yahoo has launched Yahoo Blog Search today. Or something.

They also launched a podcast directory, which lists my music podcast twice for whatever reason.

Looks like Google and Odeo are getting some competition.

(via Steve Rubel)

OMFG! Only yesterday I said there's no really nice Flash website out there. I might have to reconsider.

I just found Memry, a memory game written in Flash, which uses flickr images tagged with a given keyword. Very nice idea. Ahh, I like open APIs and the creative things people do with them...

(via Manuela Hoffmann)

The annual report from usability expert Jakob Nielsen:

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005

1. Legibility Problems
2. Non-Standard Links
3. Flash
4. Content That's Not Written for the Web
5. Bad Search
6. Browser Incompatibility
7. Cumbersome Forms
8. No Contact Information or Other Company Info
9. Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths
10. Inadequate Photo Enlargement

I agree with all of them, especially number 3 (Flash). I'm starting to like most of the AJAX sites popping up around me, but I have yet to find a Flash site which I really like.

(via Google Blogoscoped)