links for 2006-10-01
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Solution to a problem I was having while running the Subversion 1.4 tests and getting failures on Solaris 9.(tags: subversion python)
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links for 2006-09-29
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Up until maybe a year ago, I had a pretty one-dimensional view of so-called “Agile” programming, namely that it’s an idiotic fad-diet of a marketing scam making the rounds as yet another technological virus implanting itself in naive programmers who’ve ne
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- Steve Gillmor mentioned the new release of Google Reader made available today. Now this is an online newsreader! Much more useable than the last version. Good job Google! Comments Off
links for 2006-09-28
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For those who followed my PHP tutorials, it should be pretty clear by now that I’m a PHP fan at heart. That’s why it was a surprise even to myself that I started learning — and enjoying — Python.
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Is it somehow possible to use a “file” URI-qualifier for local intranets e.g. [file://localhost/C: C-Drive]?(tags: mediawiki)
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Pathway Wikipedia Visualizer
Photo by rbieber
The Pathway Wikipedia Visualizer. Pretty cool application.
I played around with this application a little tonight. For each page you go to, it lays out all of the links for you. You navigate based on the links laid out and you can keep track visually of everywhere you’ve been.
Way cool.
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Tagged with: applications, Macintosh, osx, screenshots, wikipedia
links for 2006-09-27
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A tutorial that helped me create a public repository to publish to. Still doing quite a bit of testing and experimentation.
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The US has lost its status as the world’s most competitive economy, according to the World Economic Forum.
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Using CSS to create standards-friendly sites requires a mindset that is alien to many experienced developers. This requirement hamstrings a lot of talented people, and for two years I’ve been looking for the words that will heal their pain.
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(tags: management antipatterns)
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A couple of psychologists have found that multitasking is easier to do if the various streams streams of info you’re trying to monitor arrive in different modes.
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links for 2006-09-26
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Article about GIT, the version control system used by the Linux Kernel team.(tags: versioncontrol)
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Time to start looking around for new cool tools … Git is the version control system used by the Linux Kernel folks. So far looks pretty interesting.
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Setting up a git repository which can be pushed into and pulled from over HTTP.(tags: git versioncontrol)
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How to run the GIT daemon to allow others to clone your repositories remotely.(tags: versioncontrol git)
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Git is the open source revision control software that Linus Torvalds developed to help manage Linux® kernel development. You can download it yourself and use it for your own kernel hacking — or for software development projects of your own. This article
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GIT suite has over 100 commands, and the manual page for each of them discusses what the command does and how it is used in detail, but until you know what command should be used in order to achieve what you want to do, you cannot tell which manual page t(tags: git versioncontrol)
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links for 2006-09-25
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“In perhaps the worst trademark enforcement decision–ummm–ever, it seems Apple is trying to get people to NOT use the term Podcast/Podcasting in the names of their companies.” - Completely rediculous. Witness the “asshole” side of Apple.
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Dave Winer chimes in on the Apple vs. Podcasting stuff.
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The Mac startup sound wasn’t a $$$ marketing exercise. It was a hack that was quietly dropped into the machine by an engineer with a home studio…
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When I first learned that Apple was sending “infringement”-claiming cease and desist letters to Podcasters such as Podcast Ready my first reaction was: OK, iPod has been around for two five years, (sorry-typo) and “podcast” two years, so why is Apple doin
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This article provides a quick and dirty introduction to the model, explaining what it is, how it’s supposed to work, and why it can fail.
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Ruby Meta Programming Techniques
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Many of the top Linux developers have announced their objections to the proposed GPLv3. In a position paper released on September 22, leading Linux developers like Andrew Morton, James E.J. Bottomley, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Christoph Hellwig, and six others
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This is really cool. Create a custom boot disk of the distro of your choice and perform a full network install to build your machine.
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Tagged with: apple, Bookmarks, gpl
- Check out these pictures of Alan Cox’s laptop after the battery exploded. eYikes. Comments Off
Current Reading Queue
Thought I’d throw out a list of the current reading queue. I have two books in process, another in waiting:
- Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash - Currently Reading
- Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated - On Hold Until #1 completed.
- The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From The World’s Greatest Manufacturer - In queue.
- Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas - In queue
Sensing a pattern here? I’m really intriqued by the lean way of thinking. The nice thing about it is as you read all of this stuff, you realize that they are pretty much the principles behind any agile method of development. The reading thus far has given me a good base of principles necessary to make sense out of the methodologies. There is something to be said about knowing the “why” behind what you are doing.
I’m sure there will be more to write about this later. One thing I will say: My brain hurts.
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Ron - One Week Old
Photo by rbieber
Ron at 1 week old. Ironically, I spent most of my 20’s just like this (sans the pacifier).
June 1968.
Just really like this picture. A nice little thing to throw on the blog on a Sunday.
Honestly, I have no idea how old I was here. It looks to be a little more than a week though.
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More on Mind Mapping and MindManager
I’ve been playing around with MindJet MindManager over the last week or so and I have to say, overall I really like it. Mindmapping provides a great mechanism in getting your thoughts down on paper and establishing relationships between different concepts, especially for someone who suffers from “chronic editor” syndrome such as myself.
I’d love to post some examples of some of the things that I have been working on, but the only real “work neutral” mindmap I have available is the one I previously posted. Some really good examples can be found in the mindmaps that Cote produces. These are some really good examples of the complexity that can be represented using this technique.
I had first read about mindmapping quite a few years ago in the book Quantum Learning: Unleashing the Genius in You by Bobbi Deporter (with Mike Hernacki). Deporter and Hernacki describe the Mind Mapping technique as “a whole brain technique using visual images and other graphic devices to form impressions”. The key piece of this, for me, has been the connection and breakdown of different concepts into sub concepts. The graphical nature of a mind-map, coupled with the distilling of the key concepts and relationships and visual representation, have allowed me to retain much more information while taking notes over the past week than I have previously experienced.
I had attempted mind-mapping when reading Quantum Learning, but the extremely manual process (actual drawing) turned me off immediately. For me, it just seemed like too much work.
That’s where Mind Manager comes in. With a few natural keystrokes you can string all of these concepts together, attach images or URL’s to the key concepts for further reference material, and flag concepts as priorities or something to pay attention to. The additional benefit of a tool to do this stuff is the ability to dynamically refactor your mind maps without having to throw away your piece of paper and recopy everything. The refactoring of these concepts has been something that I have been doing quite a bit.
The folks at MindJet were nice enough to give me complimentary licenses for both the Macintosh and Windows environments. Since buying a Mac in June, I have decided to use it exclusively at home in order to learn as much about the environment as possible (and, of course, to justify the investment). So, I have had the opportunity to work on a few mind maps across the two environments. There is no ‘import’ or conversion necessary. I store the maps on my thumb drive, work on them at home, take them to work, and they just load and are ready for continued editing on the Windows platform.
There are some differences between the two versions of the product. The Windows version has quite a bit of Microsoft Office integration. You can export your mind maps to Visio, Word, Excel and even Microsoft Project, in addition to JPG and PNG image formats and PDF. Both versions allow you to add task information to map nodes, including flagging nodes as resources and flagging them as quarter, half, three quarters done, as well as completed. I have not experimented with taking these types of mind maps and exporting them to project, but I’m assuming these move along with them (I can mess with it later and validate this).
The Macintosh version has a more limited set of export formats. JPG and PNG are supported along with multiple flavors of RTF (Word, TextEdit) and PDF.
For me, the use of this tool over the past week has been a really positive experience - on the Macintosh. The Windows version has some pretty major performance issues that are being talked about in the support forums as well as being addressed specifically by the Vice President of Engineering on the companies blog.
The Windows machine that I am running MindManager on has 2G of memory and 80G of hard drive space. When docked, I run at a pretty high screen resolution (1280×1024 - maybe even higher). Docked, the software runs well enough to do the work I need to do as another connected concept hits me on some of the things I am working on.
The strange part is that as soon as I undock and run in ‘laptop’ mode at the standard 1024×768 resolution, performance drops to the point where the software isn’t even usable. I’m not sure why this is the case, but at a seminar the other day with the Windows laptop, I was unable to take notes using the software whatsoever, as the software began exhibiting the symptoms mentioned in the above links.
Overall, the technique of mind mapping is proving extremely helpful to me. As mentioned earlier, using the technique has increased the retention that I am experiencing while thinking through problems. The MindManager software is excellent - on a Mac. The Windows version needs some work to fix some of the performance challenges that I am experiencing.
The price tag for the software is not the cheapest in the world either. A single user license for MindManager 6.0 Pro weighs in at a whopping $349, with the Basic and Macintosh versions available at $229. The question then becomes is the price tag worth the value received from the software. While I’m receiving a ton of value from using the software, the price of a single user license would definitely stop me from even taking the time to try it in the first place. While the company does make trial software available (both a 5 day express trial with no registration required and a 21 day “premium trial” of which the premium is registering with the company), I rarely “do” trials on products in this price range for the fear of getting addicted to them and having to pay for them.
So the real question for me as I use the software further is whether I will buy it. Time will tell. I like to (and see it as an obligation) to support software I find useful with my wallet. The only real guarantee that useful software will continue to be available is if there is a community behind it, or, in the case of commercial software, people actually buy it. Once the “newness” of the software wears off, we’ll see if I continue to see value in the process and whether I keep using the software. At the point that I find it indispensable, I will definitely shell out the money to show my support for the product.
And when that happens, you’ll definitely be the first to know.
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links for 2006-09-23
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Enterprise wiki vendor SocialText rolled out version 2.0 of its software this morning and made a couple of changes that are important for people beyond its existing customer base. The changes include a drastic overhaul to the standard wiki interface and t
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Using a Mac - A MindMap
Photo by rbieber
Experimenting with MindJet MindManager, an application used to create mind maps. Tom the Architect has talked to me about mind maps a bajillon times, but I have been reluctant to start using them because the only "free" program was a Java app. The folks at MindJet shot me a complimentary copy of their software and I’ve started using it. Sat in a meeting yesterday and walked away with more content than I’ve ever walked away with note-wise. Excellent software.
This is something I used just to play with the software. These are things I like about the Mac, as a new user.
I’m really liking the complimentary copy of MindJet MindManager I received the other day from the folks at MindJet. I have been intrigued by mindmapping since first reading about it in a book and later watching Tom the Architect produce them as a form of meeting notes (using FreeMind). Lately, I’ve been watching Cote produce a slew of them. Playing around with the software, it makes note taking so much easier.
I just might buy a copy at some point to show my appreciation for the productivity gains I believe I will receive just from having this software installed on my machine.
As I use it more in “real life” I plan to write more about it. Mind mapping definitely puts you in a different state of mind in a meeting. I’m one of those people that has a hard time taking notes because I wind up editing sentences while people are talking rather than getting the data down. This process removes me from that mindset all together. I can see all sorts of uses for this to increase my productivity.
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Tagged with: Macintosh, mindmaps, products, software
links for 2006-09-20
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After discussing how my iTunes library is set up with a few readers in the comments on my First Impressions/2G iPod nano post, I figured this might be a handy tip for readers who find themselves running out of room to store an expanding iTunes library.
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Python 2.5 is the latest major release of Python. There’s a bunch of places you can look for more information on what’s new in this release — see the “What’s New” section further down this page.
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Bigmouthmedia reports that Google Sitemaps has a new feature that allows you to choose how often Googlebot crawls your site. You can select from 5 values, from slowest to fastest, but you must know that a faster crawl uses more bandwidth. For the moment,
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links for 2006-09-18
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IT experts are more likely to suffer from stress than any other professional, according to the survey. A staggering 97 percent of people working in IT claim to find their life at work stressful on a daily basis.
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Some organizations consider taking the plunge off of big iron PBX platforms into IP telephony as being pretty daring, but that’s nothing compared to what Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is doing. The south Texas school is boldly moving thousands of us(tags: opensource voip)
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I bought one of these today to back up the Linux server and the data residing on the MacIntosh, just in case. Super easy to set up and use. While the WD page says its $169, I picked mine up at Sams Club for $117. Yes, it works with the MacIntosh Po
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“By this time it is a well-worn cliché that there are 10 kinds of personal computer users: those that get this joke, and those that don’t Mac users and PC users.” Amusing little article on the Unofficial Apple Weblog.
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Title says it all again.
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Tutorial on connecting to Samba shares from Mac OSX
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Perfection
I’m currently reading Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones in my quest to learn more about lean principles in general.
During my reading this evening, I came across this quote that I really liked.
Perfection is like infinity. Trying to envision it (and to get there) is actually impossible, but the effort to do so provides inspiration and direction essential to making progress along the path.
This kind of reminds me of this Bruce Lee quote:
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
People tend to think of goal setting from only the S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely) perspective. While these goals are important, and give you an idea of short term goals, the idea of a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) as outlined in Jim Collins Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies are also very important, as they give you somewhere to move towards.
Just a little something I was thinking about this evening after reading that quote. Goals of the ‘Big Hairy Audacious’ type, with buy in and commitment from everyone, can be a really good way to drive behavior in a long term direction rather than keeping everything at an attainable and realistic viewpoint, which can often keep us in a very short term frame of mind.
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- Kato Atsushi is making Japanese translations of the SVK tutorials available. These are a work in progress. Part I is up so far. Thanks Kato! Comments Off
links for 2006-09-17
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Have you noticed slowness when posting lately? I’ve seen more than a few recommendations on how to fix this issue, but no real fix for the fix.
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Mindmapping software that Cote’ uses for his mind maps
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Clips of bloopers that have happened during Apple Keynote Presentations. Pretty fun to watch.
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Knowing a handful of programming languages is seen by many as a harbor in a job market storm, solid skills that will be marketable as long as the languages are.
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