Getting back into Python.
Written on 18 April 2007 by Chris AustinThe first position I had as a programmer involved programming using python almost exclusively. This was back in 2001. Unfortunately, along with the rest of the dot-com bubble my employer ran out of money and I along with almost the entire company found ourselves laid off and looking for work.
In those days it seemed that not to many people had heard of Python or gave it any credence. So, I had to follow the dollars and find work using other programing languages and technologies. But python was always in the back of my head.
Finally, I find myself in the position to build an application suite for a client using Python as the primary language. My, how things have changed since then. Python has really matured and improved it’s features. Also, it’s no longer suffering from obscurity.
But, one thing has remained the same, cutting code using Python is pretty darn fun. I am not quite the same Python hacker I was back then but, it’s like any other skill one develops and just needs a little practice to get back up to speed.
Python 2.5 OS X installer broke my .bashrc settings.
Written on 10 March 2007 by Chris AustinThe other day I decided to upgrade Python in my mac mini from version 2.3 to the most current release of 2.5. I opted to do this using the OS X install found here. After installing it appeared that it had completely hosed my custom PATH settings in my .bashrc and .bash_login files.
Luckily, for me that is, it had only created a .bash_profile file that was overriding my .bashrc and .bash_login setting. Fixing this was simple I just did the following
mv .bash_profile .bash_profile.broken
source .bashrc
Then I just needed to append the PATH entry in .bash_profile.broken
to the end of my PATH export statement in my .bashrc file the result looked something like the following:
PATH=”/oldpath:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/bin:$PATH”
My Tools of Choice
Written on 1 February 2007 by Chris AustinEvery seasoned developer has a list of tools that they love to use. This is meant to be a ‘living’ list of my favorite tools. As I find new tools and expand my range I’ll be sure to update this list.
Editing:
ReSharper: ReSharper is a Visual Studio Add In that, at the surface adds quality refactoring support. But, as one uses this tool you find that it has much more depth. For instance it allows you to quickly insert code templates and properties with just a keyboard shortcut. Additionally, it has a nicely integrates unit testing frameworks such as NUnit into Visual Studio.
Automated Builds:
CruiseControl.net: CC.net as it is often referred to is a continious intergration server for .net development. The upside to using this tool is that you can keep a solid handle on the state of you build. You can set it up to do a complete compile of a product/project whenever someone checks something into your source control system and on a nightly basis.
Version Control:
SVN: SVN is a high quality open source control system. It was developed as a replacement for CVS.
Perforce: Perforce is a fantastic commercial source control system. It runs on a slew of operating systems and has free version available for a single developer. If you are allergic to command lines this may be a good choice for you.
Testing:
NUnit: From their site “NUnit is a unit-testing framework for all .Net languages. Initially ported from JUnit” This tool and other like it are immensely useful. If used correctly, you can develop confidence in the quality of your code as well as the reliability.
Is this the start of something new?
Written on 31 January 2007 by Chris AustinMike Guderloy, a prolific Windows and .net developer, writer, and blogger has started a new blog about his attempts to wean himself from Microsoft Development tools. I find this timely, and a bit more than a coincidence that several developers I know personally and myself have been contemplating the same move.
For me the move is not political or ethical. I am simply disappointed with the latest development tools offerings from MS. Many people rave about how they love Visual Studio 2005. Meanwhile, I must have missed that bus. I find it slow, lacking in some basic features, and for some of my projects it simply lacks the stability of Visual Studio 2003. Yes I meant stability, I keep getting compiler and debugger crashes that were not there with Visual Studio 2003.
So, I too am planning on testing the waters to see where I can make money developing for non Microsoft Platforms. I don’t know if I will spend much time on client technologies like Cocoa and GTK or if I will study what appear to be the hot new web frameworks Rails and Django. I suppose that if pressed, I can get back to java development but, not to bash the platform or the developers, I might as well stick with .net and windows. I guess after some browsing of the job boards and calls to recruiters that I know will help make up my mind; after all there is no practical point in building expertise in a new technology (IMHO), if it’s not going to get me paid.
Possibly a new addiction
Written on 30 January 2007 by Chris AustinIn the past I’ve banned myself from playing MMOs. I simply lacked the ability to not get addicted. But, with the hype about Vanguard being one of the most expensive MMOs ever built I decided I’d give it a shake.
To be honest, I was not impressed initially. The game play and the interface seemed like the same old thing to me. But, as I played on I found that the game is choke full of little things that might just make it compelling for me to continue playing for more than the 30 days that come with the retail purchase of the game. I’ve only been playing for about a day now so I can’t really ramble on. But, if things get interesting I’ll be sure to post here.
How much does sleep affect your productivity?
Written on 16 December 2006 by Chris AustinI don’t know the answer to this question myself. But, I wonder if there is any type of immediate correlation between sleep and productivity throughout the course of a full day.
What’s piqued my interest in this topic is some information I’ve read on the web about biphasic and polyphasic sleep. Both of these are drastic departures from the typical sleeping and waking cycles and I am not honestly game for either. It seems everyone has their own opinion on what proper sleeping is.
I have a good friend who swears by his six hours of sleep a night. His wife on the other hand, asserts that nine hours of sleep a night is an absolute necessity. Personally, I’ve found that when I begin letting my sleep slip in favor of work or play for more than a day or two, I find it difficult to concentrate or just to motivate myself.
So, to answer this question I’ve decided to start logging my sleep time on a semi-daily basis along with the percentage of my daily task that get done. I want to do this often so I can see if it is a trend of sleep deprivation that hits the productivity or if one night of lost sleep will have an immediate impact.
In order to keep this as fair as possible I will work and play as normal and just attempt to observe the data for the first month or two. I know that this is far from a well designed experiment as I am not taking into account such things as exercise, stimulants (like coffee or tea) or, other things one may use to keep their motor running through the day. But, I will try my best to keep it honest and keep up my moderate exercise and supplements.
If after that time I see a trend or pattern evolve I will consider adjusting my schedule. Once I have enough data points I’ll start posting some charts here.
Windows Vista CD/DVD bug.
Written on 13 December 2006 by Chris AustinOk this is lame.
If you accidently ‘open’ or ‘explore’ a empty CD or DVD drive in Windows Vista you are given this friendly dialog.
But, before you can cancel, the os opens/ejects the cd tray.
I won’t comment on the potential for damage to hardware as it is pretty obvious. What I don’t get is how on earth did this make it through a couple of betas and release candidates?
Apple Support
Written on 12 December 2006 by Chris AustinI am usually the first one to go off the deep end when it comes with dealing with poor support *cough* Linksys *cough*. But, in this case I’d thought I’d share a positive support moment that I had.
While I have not bought into the Macintosh religion I do like playing with operation systems. So, I purchased myself a mac mini last February. So far it’s been a nice little box. Nothing to change the world but, I love that it just sat there and ran almost absolutely silently. One day last week however, I installed an update and it wouldn’t post video.
So, I took it down to the local Apple Store hoping to drop it off with their technicians. But, to my dismay I actually had to have an appointment. I didn’t really dig this at first as I just wanted to drop it off and fill out some paperwork and be done until it was fixed. In the end I begrudgingly made an appointment and came back the next day.
To my surprise and relief the appointment wasn’t nearly as touchy feely as I dreaded it would be. The technician asked me what was wrong, plugged it in to verify the problem and promptly told me he would need to replace the main board (crappy Intel GPU).
While this isn’t mind-blowing or earth-shattering, it was beyond pleasant because he did exactly what was needed to take care of the customer. Far too often I’ve had to sit for minutes or hours dealing with stupid questions from under trained technicians on the phone that knew less about the hardware than I did.
For me, this is how tech support should be run. I don’t know how scalable the apple in-person model would be and I don’t honestly know that I buy into it. But, having a knowledgeable person who knows how to cut through the crap and handle the problem is essential.
To the Apple tech who helped me, thank you very much.
Catching the ebay bug
Written on 11 December 2006 by Chris AustinOk, it sounds silly even to me but, I thought it would be fun to try to build a small ebay business in my spare time to generate some spending cash for those do-dads I just can’t seem to get my wife to allow me to purchase. So, to start I decided I’d begin dumping all of the working computer gear and tech toys that I am no longer using. So far, so good. I managed to unload my iPaq (hx4700) and my old Apple Newton (MessagePad 110).
What I’ve learned so far:
If you have a reasonably valuable or hot item the “Sell it now” option is great if you really want to sell it now.
If however, you want to let it run the full length of the auction avoid this. Experimenting and playing around I added it to both the Newton and the iPaq and they both sold in hours. I am pretty certain had I allowed the auction to run the full length (5 days) I may have made a few extra dollars.
Companies that pack boxes for you charge a lot for the boxes.
When the two auctions closed I found myself woefully unprepared as far as having reasonable shipping containers. So I went to my local UPSStore to have them packed for me. Big mistake! The packing material for these two items ended up cutting deeply into my profits from the sales. Later I found that the USPS will give you free shipping boxes.
Selling things on ebay is incredibly addictive.
I am now constantly looking at everything in my house and garage thinking “hmmmm……I wonder what that would sell for.” If my old things keeps selling well I will run out of inventory pretty quickly. So, I am going to have to find a source for my items. In a later post I elaborate on what I’ve looked at so far and what I think about them.
JohnChow.com: A great resource for bloggers.
Written on 10 December 2006 by Chris AustinI’d like to occasionally give a shout and a thank you to people who post genuinely helpful information on the web. My first will be to a blog I’ve started reading recently, johnchow.com. John Chow started the site The Tech Zone along with many other business ventures. At his personal site John shares his knowledge about running a successful web site as a business as well as a many other helpful and insightful tidbits.
I can’t really remember why and when I ended up at John Chow’s site but, I became a fan almost immediately. What I like the most about his posts is the sincerity with which he seemingly shares his hard earned lessons.
For those who are looking to build a brand on the web and new to the game, John Chow is a great resource.
