In this post I would like to show how one can exchange messages using AMQP protocol from Ruby, using RabbitMQ as a broker. I posted the original version of this script to rabbitmq-discuss mailing list back in September 2007.

Prerequesites:

• RabbitMQ broker configured, up and running on 127.0.0.1 (localhost) on port 5672 (standard AMQP port).
• Apache QPid Ruby library installed within RUBYPATH (svn co http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator/qpid/trunk/qpid/ruby)
• AMQP specification XML form AMQP official site saved as /etc/amqp0-8.xml

You can also download this script from here.

It appears that Amazon EC2 instances always boot to runlevel 4, no matter what runlevel you set as default in your /etc/inittab. I found a very old reference to this fact in forums (see here), which explains how it happens (XEN does it) but doesn’t explain why. And yes, by passing “4” as last argument to kernel “command line” (as you can see here) they can do it. I am just wondering why…

Today I discovered that Firefox 3 will refuse to display a site over HTTPS if its SSL certificate is revoked. And even though I am not questioning merits of this decision, I still would have preferred to have this behavior configurable, either somewhere deep in Preferences or at least via about:config (quick scan of the latter did not result in anything useful - did I overlook it?)

It’s started - AA will be charging for each bag you check in (via Today In The Sky). People will stop checking in their bags at first of course. So if you are boarding in group 3 or late in group 2, expect to find no room in overhead bins to put your bag. And if it’s big enough not to fit under the seat in front of you (or if you are flying on MD80 and your seat is next to left engine - there is no seat in front of you at all, it’s just a wall) - you might be SOL.

I think AA can kiss good bye to their on time performance for at least several months (if they are lucky!), but it will be pretty sad if other airlines will follow their lead. Good luck to us all! I also sympathize with American’s flight attendants who will have to face a lot of very angry customers.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/19/21FE-startups-intro_1.html and http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/19/21FE-startups-winners_2.html