January 2011
1 post
me found a new home
Tumblr rocks in a sense, but rocks not in another sense. The worst rocks not of it is uptime (via), and 2nd worst is performance, among other things.
I’m getting away, setting up home on Posterous.
[update] After trying to like it for a few months, I am liking it too much. Although I haven’t experienced any downtime, it’s much slower than tumblr. Damn! I don’t wanna end...
December 2010
5 posts
I have yet to find a decent theme.
Sadly he didn’t state what sorta theme he’s looking for. As for me, the best-looking theme I’ve so far seen on Tumblr is Optimus.
Sadly it lacks features that Solstice (my old favourite) has:
Analytics integration
Disqus integration
no Pages
It’s such a time-consuming task to check a variety, to see what one likes. I never had this problem back in my old Blogger...
1 tag
attachment can lead to irrational behaviour
Mule ESB is an enterprise tool that we use at work, and deploy of our client’s systems. It’s distributed with with a lot of jar files, supposedly for the convenience of users. When we work on a project, we just add all those jars to the classpath (we use Eclipse, an excessively powerful and ugly IDE). Now me, being a sucker for the Debian way of doing things, I’d install packages...
2 tags
jhbuild HOWTO →
I’ve so far spent a ton of time fiddling with jhbuild, a powerful and flexible build tool for GNOME. This link is the best post I’ve read so far on the tool.
2 tags
blog of note: "We'll See" (Matt Zimmerman)
I’m a regular reader of Planet Debian, so I frequently bump onto Matt Zimmerman’s blog. This a Debian Developer who also happens to do paid work on Ubuntu as well (employed by Canonical). He writes clearly and with a sober and mature tone. It’s very interesting when you see a software developer conversant with non-technical stuff, and able to write about it so well.
I started...
'Stack Overflow' rocks hard! →
I asked the question on the single greatest developer resource on the web, and within 5min, I got 6 responses. This isn’t the first time I got so impressed by the site.
November 2010
13 posts
great customer service
So these guys at BMW Bavarian East Pretoria, a motorbike dealership, got me impressed with their great customer service. The standard procedure is to lend customers a bike for a few hours to use during the day, which normally happens when one takes the bike in for service. My F650CS was giving me some trouble which actually perplexed them for more than those few hours… a few weeks...
2 tags
project of the moment: Debian Installer
I’ve recently looked at Ubuntu’s 10.04 and 10.10 installers, and they are quite nifty tools, so fresh and gorgeous, and so easy to use that nobody would dare say “I can’t install Linux!”. And then I recently re-installed my Debian system and I don’t really see how much harder it is to use than Ubuntu’s (except that it’s far uglier, so I guess that...
best of the web
content
atheism: Common Sense Atheism (praise) atheist writing: Pharyngula (praise) software development: Stack Overflow (praise) software development writing: Paul Graham HTML5: diveintohtml5 (praise1, praise2)
presentation
blog: about:cmlenz website: Stack Exchange sites (praise)
3 tags
how to access Oracle DB using Python in Debian
I use Squeeze, the version of Debian currently in development, soon to be declared stable by the Debian release team. The instructions here are very specific, so look elsewhere for something more generic guide.
downloads:
Get registered on Oracle website, and download oracle-instantclient11.2-basic*.rpm (~40MB).
Get cx-Oracle rpm for your specific Python version and your specific processor...
1 tag
“Every person joining us is expected to evolve through the different stages: from...”
– Just one of the things that make Igalia a very attractive employer. Gorgeous.
it's less work building from a VCS than from a...
tarball:
find the website
find download link
download the tarball
navigate to the tarball (using a GUI file browser)
extract the tarball (using a GUI extractor)
navigate to the extracted directory (using the shell)
and finally… $ ./configure && make && sudo make install
VCS:
find the website
find clone link
clone the repository
navigate to the cloned directory...
1 tag
developer of the moment: Neil Williams
For some years now, Neil Williams has been working on Emdebian (embedded Debian). It’s a Debian sub-project where normal Debian packages are stripped of certain things like documentation and translations, making it more suitable for space-constrained embedded devices. He’s now started a series of posts explaining how it works… and it seems an elegant system actually.
[index]...
4 tags
where I live on the web
I spend so much of my time online, and these are among the things I follow:
planets: Debian, GNOME, Python blogs: Common Sense Atheism, Stack Overflow Debian: devel, release, vote GNOME: Tracker, GTK+ development, desktop development Stack Exchange sites: Stack Overflow, Unix & Linux, Ask Ubuntu
1 tag
recent movies
each movie in this installment of recent movies is very good, at the very least; I don’t remember this happening before
There are 2 main stories in Sophie’s Choice, one a fun-filled/stormy relationship between 3 people, and the other, a horrid tale of the title character’s experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Both are well-made, and Kevin Kline’s performance is...
1 tag
'Precious' rocks
This is among the most emotionally powerful movies I’ve seen recently, a movie with a social message, without the preaching; excellent direction, superb cast (all classmates are such a joy to watch, and not only because they hot; the mother is amazing; Mariah Carey is a wow!). The story shown is the most horrific showcase of domestic abuse I’ve seen yet (EG, mother yells something like...
2 tags
my Stack Exchange milestone →
So I’ve been playing with the wonderful Stack Exchange network for a few months now, and not once has anyone ever Accepted an answer I gave, until now!
[update] I got another smile when someone else Accepted my Answer, but also because it made my cx_Oracle installation tutorial useful to more than just me.
Tumblr suckage
As much as I love Tumblr, I got a few complaints:
performance for some tasks is really bad; the most annoying one is the time it takes for the Edit button to appear; sometimes you’ll get a message along the lines of “can’t service your request right now; try again later”
search is real bad; often it doesn’t find stuff I know is there; sometimes I have redo the...
2 tags
'Sintel' disappoints
Sintel is the latest movie project by the Blender Foundation, and they’ve been cooking it for over a year now, and the result is really disappointing, and as with their previous movie, I still feel that their first movie, Elephants Dream, is superior both technically and artistically.
human character animation is really bad, maybe worse than the first Toy Story; okay they could not afford...
October 2010
15 posts
2 tags
abusing the computer 'genius' →
Funny comic.
Here’s a part-fictional account of events that are largely my fault:
Friend got a new laptop and I elect to install Debian (or whatever OS I find suitable at that moment) side-by-side with the pre-installed Windows.
I show Friend around since he finds the interface unfamiliar, and I get a dry mouth explaining the advantages, while trying hard to avoid Windows bashing. He...
1 tag
superb marketing campaign →
I seriously love the visual design (color theme and characters) of this website, which is also running on billboards and TV in South Africa. I don’t remember being as delighted by an ad campaign this much, since the launch of Cell C some years ago.
[sidenote] Cell C’s own new campaign, which got Trevor Noah as its face, ain’t shabby at all either.
1 tag
recent movies
In Date Night, Mark Wahlberg plays the koolest guy in movies so far this year; he’s hot, he got the sexiest gal imaginable who ‘speaks little English’, he’s got the koolest IT toys, and a number of not-cheap sports cars. Okay, he’s not quite as rich as Tony Stark (Iron Man 2), but he wins regardless, especially because that Tony Stark (and that movie) was far less...
2 tags
funny ad →
I respect Nandos for not fearing controversy in their marketing, and this is one good example. It gave me roaring laughter.
2 tags
project of the moment: Sudo
Sudo isn’t as well-accepted in the Debian community as it is in Ubuntu’s. In fact, by default, Ubuntu doesn’t even offer user to elect to have a root password. They are the great Sudo promoters, and to me, that’s a great decision. It’s interesting how simple things can make life so much easier:
The password I authenticate with to perform admin tasks is the same as...
2 tags
“My brain did not evolve to have accurate intuitions about what is morally right...”
– The fabulous Luke Muehlhauser, on a post regarding…. just check it out. It’s quite fun to read.
2 tags
“…a cruft-encrusted piece of crap that has remained essentially unchanged...”
– That’s a description of Matlab by someone who also complains about the shitty IT department she works in.
2 tags
“I would say he is man of a stature similar to the stature of Leonard Euler in...”
– This great admiration for Donald Knuth is found in a series that examines some key figures in FLOSS. Very ugly website that, unfortunately.
2 tags
wajig 2.0.50 released
Not sure, but I think this is my proudest release yet of wajig so far. Among other things:
I cleaned up the Debian packaging with some great help. I promise that it was seriously ugly. I guess nobody was motivated enough to clean it up… including me.
I added a fresh help system, and cleaned up the documentation machinery while at it.
Increased the use of aptitude, where it makes sense.
...
1 tag
revisiting Se7en
It would be dishonest of me to claim that my recent experience of Se7en was that of a landmark, a label I’ve placed on it for years. It felt more as an academic exercise, the kind that movie students would be ‘forced’ to consume, in order to make notes on various elements (and there are many notable ones), a cold experience if you ask me (think Citizen Kane, Casablanca,...
1 tag
book review: 'Thinking in Java' →
Excellent review of the most popular programming language of the past few years. Interestingly, the book he reviews has been sitting in the office ever since I started. I just might go have a look.
1 tag
what is being 'too concice': a Python example →
I think each Python newbie should read something along the lines of this great post. It would be a nice idea if it would be made part of an Appendix in a tutorial, or better still, in an official Python guide.
3 tags
great humour →
I haven’t had such a hearty laugh in quite a number of hours (or maybe days, can’t remember). The killer for me is the reference to masturbation.
1 tag
recent movies
There’s a bunch of people for whom acting seems like breathing. It seems for them an excellent performance isn’t much of a challenge. I’m talking of people like Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and in the case of Wolfman, Anthony Hopkins. The movie itself is not so good (story not fresh; campy visual effects) and I wonder why someone of Anthony’s prestige would take part in it.
...
1 tag
"setuptools sux, long-live pip" →
I’m not much experienced with Python packaging, but here’s a thorough (but possibly dated) explanation on why people must stop using setuptools.
September 2010
27 posts
1 tag
a talk on what software engineering should be →
I really enjoyed this humorous, eye-opening, and informative talk that draws parallels between software and traditional engineering disciplines. The presenter really did good research to prepare for the presentation (which he heartily enjoyed), but unfortunately flies to quick near the end when realizing he’s out of time, without properly explaining what he proposes as real software...
1 tag
“The shortness of our lifespans makes us magnify the events we experience and...”
– This is from comment #10 in a post on Islamophobia.
1 tag
teaching programming to kids →
Excellent blog post promoting a book that uses Python to teach kids programming.
2 tags
getting rid of junk →
PZ Myers’ Pharyngula is the best atheist writer I’ve read yet, and his blog challenges that of Luke Muehlhauser’s Common Sense Atheism, as the best atheism blog I’ve read yet. In this link, he throws away his Bible and Koran, in a far more symbolic way than I did with my Bible some years ago, where I just put it in the trash.
2 tags
a series on applied ethics, episode 3 →
So I really loved the 1st episode of this series, and the 2nd, not so much. Fortunately the allure came back with the 3rd in the series, with its wonderful humor. It basically is a retelling of a tale Alonzo, the foremost proponent of the theory, of an earlier post named A Harmony of Desires.
1 tag
project of the moment: reprepro
I have given kudos to reprepro twice before, and my satisfaction led me to honor it as project of the moment. The inspiration for this post is due to my recent use (and hence appreciation) of it, getting rid of old junk inside of it —> this command displays deb files which aren’t referenced (not found in Packages.gz) for some reason:
$ reprepro --basedir ~/.repo_local...
1 tag
my current Debian package management setup
There’s useful tool in Debian named debmirror. It’s function is to create and manage a partial copy of an official Debian repository, and I use it to create 2 repos:
an (almost) entire i386 Debian repo for Squeeze
an (almost) entire source Debian repo for Squeeze
How this works is that I’d run the following command (an example for the source repo):
/usr/bin/debmirror \
...
1 tag
DD of the moment
A Debian Developer (often shortened to DD) is someone who has upload rights for any package to Debian machines; A more formal definition is a Debian Project member, who has gone through the Debian New Maintainers process and had their application accepted (source).
The series is meant to give recognition to specific such individuals on irregular intervals. This is not to be anything...
2 tags
apt-get vs. aptitude
Did I mention that I love Stack Overflow? It’s a Q&A site for anything that is related to computer programing, and the creators (luckily) didn’t just stop there. They went on to create a bunch of other sites using the same technology and branding, covering other topics (and they aggregate the best new content from those sites).
Enough with background info. What prompted this post...
1 tag
revisiting 'Dr Strangelove'
Dr Strangelove (older review) is one of the rare old black/white movies that are actually enjoyable throughout; it’s always a pleasure to revisit, but the character that [got me excited][excited] last time did hold on so well this time around, excellent as he remains. The guy remained as great, if not more, is the chewing gum-munching milirary General. The Russian guy was fun too, but too...
1 tag
a great Mercurial tutorial →
The excellence and great humor in this tutorial reminds me of Git Magic.
I’m split on which is better overall (HgInit has illustrations and the humor is more extensive, Git Magic’s allusion to gaming is unbeatable).
factors affecting choice of tools
technical:
speed
resource-usage
features
stability
non-technical:
ease-of-use
polish
standards-compliance
popularity
politics (EG, NIH syndrome)
support
familiarity
taste
monetary cost
2 tags
beware of superiority claims →
In software, as with other tools, someone always develops a better tool than an existing one, and should rightfully replace it, all else being equal. But, in some unfortunate cases, marketing for new tool uses inaccurate information to lure unwary users, as in this case, where someone painted an existing tool in a negative light.
1 tag
coding updates
So, I’m often having a fun developing wajig. This week’s proudest commit is one where I fix a bug that basically asks for a sane default for CHANGELOG command. Go there to see an explanation of what I mean [update: interestingly, python-apt already has the feature, which I used instead; this appreciation motivated me to take a look at how they implemented it].
1 tag
2to3 hotness
I was pleasantly surprised by Python’s 2to3 tool which, other than converting syntax from version 2 to 3, also converts the frowned-upon filter() and map() code to their list comprehension equivalents. I was glad partly because I don’t like those two functions for they are hard for me to read, jusk like I don’t like lambda. It all extra syntax, and I don’t like too much...
1 tag
recent movies
Death At the Funeral got excellent set-design (check the furniture) and good camerawork, spoilt by a story that exposes its rot halfway-through and worsens near the end. On a political note, it’s sad that the movie perpetuates the idea that homosexuality as disgusting and embarassing :-(
I was pleasantly surprised of the excellence that is The A-Team. It’s filled with superb and...