Monthly Archives: March 2010

Cherrypal underdelivers

Posted on March 28, 2010 | 6 comments

I got my Charrypal ‘Africa’ Linux on Thursday. I am happy to report that it works. Except for some pages that the broswer doesn’t like – it crashes consistently on slashdot.org. Continue reading →

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Posted in review

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Test driven design in Bash

Posted on March 20, 2010 | 1 comment

To test your bash scripts, or to use Bash to test other scripts, you need a way to create tests quickly and easily. I have created a library to support testing in bash. I have used this technique to test Bash, Python, and Perl scripts.

One of the example tests uses a Mock Module technique. Simply put, the test creates a Bash function called “mysql” and exports it. The function returns a useful test example that could be returned by the database in question. This technique relies on knowing what your script expects from “mysql”: in other words, this is for white box testing, not black box.
Continue reading →

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Posted in Ottawa

ncdu – UI for du

Posted on March 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

I discovered “ncdu” today. It looks like a front end for “du”, but I like it for the visual image of relative disk space. It runs in a terminal and requires ncurses – that’s what the “nc” part of the name means.

Continue reading →

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Posted in software

Agile for Ottawa Infrastructure!

Posted on March 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

Dave Rooney’s Agile Ottawa group on LinkedIn has attracted some interest from another infrastructure guy. Dan Murphy of DJM Systems has asked for a new sub-group about “Using Agile Methods for Infrastructure Projects”. Looks like an interesting group idea!

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Posted in groups, Ottawa

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Prize: Best use of a 5 year plan

Posted on March 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

So, the new book from 37 signals, Rework, is out.

Now, I don’t watch videos much, so maybe I’m not the best judge, but 41 seconds is short enough to match my attention span, and those videos take the prize for “best use of a 5 year plan”.

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Posted in process

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Hemingway gone

Posted on March 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

So I was watching the edit page tune up, taking forever, text instead of icons, and one said “Insert More Tag”. And it did what I wanted and I just had to edit 38 or so posts, waiting for the very slow edit window to tune up 38 or so times. And now Continue reading →

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Posted in frustration

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New tagline, eh?

Posted on March 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Quote: “Co-ops hopped up on sugar can find a lot of bugs”

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Posted in process

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Review: IGDA round table

Posted on March 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

The International Game Developers Association, Ottawa chapter, had a round-table meeting. I enjoyed the round-table called “Managing Your Way Through a Project Lifecycle”. I found the active presence of software managers a useful part of the meeting. Continue reading →

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Posted in groups, review

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Ottawa groups

Posted on March 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Migrated. Originally  posted: 2010-01-31 Updated lots.

Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) organizations that host events where software developers might meet other software developers.

The following groups don’t meet at the Code Factory. Yes, that’s an odd way to split the groups, but a really big chunk of groups DO meet there. Continue reading →

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Posted in groups, Ottawa

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Hemingway layout?

Posted on March 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Could not stand a layout where you could only trundle through my (mostly verbose) posts in full text mode.

This one is better, although not ideal. Fun though.

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Posted in Uncategorized