Jim's Blog

Windows XP on my macbook

For a while now I've been stalling on getting winXP running on my macbook. Mostly I have not had any need for it since if I really needed windows I could always use Laura's laptop (IBM thinkpad). Said laptop is just shy of 7 years old, the "t" key works only about 1/3 of the time and I fear the potential spyware that is running on it. (aside: I'm highly annoyed with the tech's at U of O for issuing laptops with OS update set to "off" and no firewalls or virus protection). I suspect that computer is not long for this world.

The problem: Laura needs to be able to use IE 6 on win XP (or Vista) for work. We had updated her computer to have IE 8, but the software she uses does not support that. I find it ironic that it's to use a "secure" site that it requires the most insecure browser.

First issue: Since Laura would want to quickly log on, bootcamp was out. I was debating between parallels and vmware, but had not made a final decision before going out and paying 100 $ for the software. After talking to some guys at work, they highly recommended VirtualBox. Getting it up and running without reading the doc's took me just a couple of minutes. Really easy.

Second issue: For our XP computers, I could not find any install disks and I couldn't find a license key. I was expecting to have to go out and buy a new copy of XP because even though I was lent a legit OEM disk, I didn't have the key. I had looked at the computer for the license sticker, but had not found it. Today Andrew pointed out that they put the stickers on the bottom of the computer. I had to turn it over... I feel like the biggest idiot, but I think that I'd feel like an even bigger idiot if I had gone out and paid the 200 $ for a new license.

After everything was installed, including the guest additions, my only thing that I didn't know how to do from my macbook is right click. A couple of forum searches later I figured out the trick was "place 2 fingers on the trackpad, then click the mouse". Apparently this is a setting under system preferences (in my mac), but I didn't even have to change that.

Total time to get things up and running, not including waiting for the XP install to finish, probably around 1 hour. Now we have an XP install that's much faster than our hardware install of XP. Good times, good times...

GUI toolkit is one of the first decisions

It's weird. My blocking point for learning new stuff seems to be that I don't know how to learn to start.

I want to do some small home projects, and I think that these would be useful to other people. But I can't provide an app that would be "okay, now go out and install library x, open a command prompt... oh, make sure you are using OS [fill in name here] version y". So I figure that I need a cross platform GUI toolkit for stand alone projects. If they contact a service, it probably won't be any server that I am running so trying to make it as a webapp would be pretty pointless - and difficult.

At first I look for something for Ruby. All signs seem to point to shoes, which has been difficult to read about after the lead developer committed virtual suicide. I need to look into it more, but when the creator disappears, I wonder if the people left can keep the flame going.

Then I looked at eclipse RCP since I know the java community and I figure that I could make good progress in it. But then my body sighs - it would seem too much like work. The point of doing a home project would be to learn new things as well as scratch my itch.

Any MS specific solution is pretty much a no-go since I'd like to support my current OS. As for python, I don't even know where to start there either. We'll see how long my patience is for this type of work.

Features through flags

Wasting time on the 'net is one of my favourite things to do, especially when I'm learning new things. I stumbled upon the flickr developer blog and a post about how they use source control: features enabled using flags. Here's one quoe that I found really interesting:

Flickr is somewhat unique in that it uses a code repository with no branches; everything is checked into head, and head is pushed to production several times a day. This works well for bug fixes that we want to go out immediately, but presents a problem when we’re working on a new feature that takes several months to complete. How do we solve that problem? With flags and flippers!

For a site that has a huge load in hits as well as content, this really surprised me. My first thought was "wow, you have to really trust your developers" followed up with a general "wow". At work from the code commit to going to prod it usually involves much more process and work that I think is worth. I'm all for pushing for shorting the feedback loop so that the developers know about problems right away, but the scale of this shortness had never occured to me for a large and "corporate" site like flickr.

This kind of thinking, feedback, and speed is what Ryan was always trying to get me to see. This type of thing is what he would say "would leave everyone else behind who couldn't keep up".

They don't want you when you're damaged

One of the frustrating things when we were traveling in SEA was using US currency. Some places prefer it, but all the places require that it was in mint condition. I ended up taking a photo of a 10 $ bill that was refused by over a dozen people in 4 countries because it was missing a small piece. I'm not sure why they wouldn't take it because in north america it wouldn't be a problem using it. Mostly it was a pain because people wouldn't want to give change for a 20, and they wouldn't accept a 10 like that, so you get a bit stuck.

Winterlude - best when cold

Sometimes you luck out with the schedule and weather gods. Sometimes not so much. We always like to check out the snow sculptures during Winterlude. Over the last couple of years we've had mixed luck checking them out. A couple of years ago the weather was cold, clear and sunny. It made for great pictures.

Another year we went and we were so early that the snow was still formed into huge blocks and carving had not even started. I didn't even bother to take pictures that year.

This year we went late in the festival on a grey day. The snow was all pitted and the pictures didn't turn out great because there wasn't a lot of contrast between the snow and the sky.

Next year we're going to have to go early, on a clear (probably cold), day. Something that will give a better chance of trying to capture it well.

An archivist's nightmare

I have spoken about Project Archive before. My scanning slowed down to a halt, mostly with just the rest of Life getting in the way. My grandmother, whose slides I had borrowed in the first place, bought a scanner and offered to scan the slides since "she's got nothing but free time". My grandmother is 86 and very computer savvy, considering her age.

On Sunday we were hosting a dinner and she mentioned how she had gone through the slides, picked out the ones she wanted to scan, and thrown out the rest. Already picked up by the garbage men. I have no idea what she actually saved, but I would guess it's close to 5% of the original slides.

I was, and am, heartbroken.

Of the few slides I had scanned before, I have ones from parades from 1958 (I think - the box with the details is not probably at the dump) as well as the one below - which is one of my favourites. It has my dad and his brothers, my grandparents, and my great-grandparents. My only great-grandparents that I remember. The best part about the picture is the coffee table which is in use in our basement.

Short of destroying everything, I can't think of anything worse for an archiving project that someone selectivity destroying artifacts. If my grandmother had called me in the middle of the night with a "if you're not here in 30 minutes I'm going to burn them", I would have been there in 15 - and it's a 20 minute drive.

I'm just so upset. I want to go and take them all away before more get thrown out, but I can't. They are her's and what she decides to do with them is her decision, even if I don't agree with it. And that breaks my heart.

I think that it's time to shop for a bulk slide scanner.

Biking bliss

Yesterday we took the bikes out and went around for a peddle. I think that this is one of the earliest times of the year that we've ever taken them out - mostly due to the small amount of snow this year.

I've been lazy this spring and carpooled with Laura, but it looks like soon I'll be biking in, weather permitting. It feels so good to be out on a bike. The only problem is that my ass callus is gone, so after a while my bum was getting sore. I find that it takes a week or 2 of biking 5 + days / week to get to a point where I don't get sore after 30 minutes of riding.

YAY BIKING!

Sweet, sweet fruit

One thing that I'm actually having a hard time adjusting after being away for only a month is how the fruit tastes at home. In SEA, it was so, so sweet. The bananas were so sweet, it was like eating berries. All the fruit was fresh.

Today at lunch I had a banana and it tasted like cardboard in comparison. Such a difference. I have no idea how people who grew up in warm places become used to the (winter time) fruit here.

Ugg.

Funniest argument wins

In my family it's usually the funniest argument that wins a debate. If you are too busy laughing, that means that you can't add a counter argument and have effectively lost. It feels less like the other person has "won", and more like you are conceding defeat the funnier person.

This doesn't seem to be as common among other families. There, they tend to use well thought out arguments, or dogma, or loudness to try and win a discussion.

An example is where Laura was pushing for buying "light" or "healthy" cheese but I was arguing against it because I don't like the taste as much. It went something like this:
L: But it's better for us!
J: Every time I eat that light cheese, a little part in side me dies.
L: Ya, the fat part.

Another example was where a couple of us where trying to convince my middle brother to stop wearing the tapered, 80's jeans that he thought were cool (and might have been) when he was a teenager. There was some discussion on how to actually describe the jeans, so Laura who was doing some task in the kitchen was called over. When asked what type of jeans they were, she glanced at them and 1/2 a second later made the deadpan judgment that they were "woman's jeans". Everyone got a good laugh and as far as I know my brother has never worn those type of jeans again.

It's just impossible to debate when you're gasping for breath because you're laughing so much.

"Pedestrians in Ottawa don't have the fear of God in them"

The title of this post is something that Laura said this morning. Looking around Ottawa, people cross the road when the little cross walk guy says so, they don't have to often worry about 2 way traffic on a one way street, and no one worries about being run down by a scooter on the sidewalk.

On our trip, if there wasn't stairs preventing you from getting to a place, it was fair game for scooters. Traffic lights were more like suggestions. 2 way traffic on a 1 way road meant "try and stay single file if driving in the wrong direction". "Right of way" meant "biggest guy wins". Walking around could send the heart racing with the danger involved. In a couple of places I would sing my crossing-the-street song which went a little like "just don't die... just don't die... baby steps.... just don't die".

Really it was just about the "slow walk" in order for the scooters to break around you like the water in rapids breaks around a rock. If you sped up or slowed down unexpectedly you would cause problems. You also had to figure out which people wouldn't actually yield to you and pause while this went on.

People in SEA have much different comfort levels of personal space, including when driving / walking. In Saigon when we were going from the airport to our hotel, our driver was driving so close to the people on the road (because there wasn't a side walk) that a guy paused lifting up a smoke to his face because the van side mirror was passing between his hand and face. In Ottawa if you get within 6 feet of someone they would yell at you for "almost hitting them".

Now we're back, it's sort of nice not having that amount of stress crossing the road. Since I've been at work, I've hardly checked if I was about to be run over by a scooter on the sidewalk.