Older blog entries for neale (starting at number 25)

Yesterday I merged my mod_virgule changes in with CrackMonkey's tree. So now there's a mod_virgule tree which has an XML configuration file (for virtual hosting--no more recompiling! at least, not as much) and CrackMonkey's awesome "Last Read" hacks (as seen on Badvogato, among other places). Next stop: GNOME CVS.

I dusted off my modified jhcore last night. Maybe now that I know real (as opposed to net.) people, it will see some use. I debated a little bit about whether I should use a Cold Project core, since I'm much more familiar with the language, and tinnkered with the idea of a Scheme MOO, but decided to go with jhcore simply because it's very robust and I don't get much hack time these days. The first MOO I launched was pretty successful until I axed it and replaced it with a ColdCore. The users tried to use it, but eventually everyone ditched it.

Seems like I'm not content unless I have too much stuff to work on.

14 May 2001 (updated 14 May 2001 at 19:07 UTC) »

Working on mod_virgule now, and raph has perused through my patch archive. This included him seeing a rather flippant comment about a quick hack I inserted to make something work. I hope he didn't take it the wrong way, but I realize now that when you're treading in the tracks of your elders, it's wise to show a little respect.

raph, I think Advogato as it stands is just about ideal for its purpose. It's a community for free software developers, and the projects et cetera are targetted toward that sort of group. Adding additional rooms to this forum would be out of place, IMHO. Do one thing, and do it well.

If, however, you wanted to make Advogato its own room, inside a larger board, I imagine that would be fairly well received. But perhaps your best bet is to virtual host a new site with new users. I would like to end up with something that can continue to run Advogato more or less as it exists today, perhaps with a few extra amenities, but something which is also capable of supporting a larger BBS-like site with multiple topical message boards.

Wouldn't it be cool if the rooms could be distinguished by virtual host name? books.advogato.org, rants.advogato.org, what have you. Then www.advogato.org could be what it is right now.

I got on to say something about how there was more traffic to the mod_virgule archive than I expected, and ask if I should start a mailing list, but then I saw binaryfoo's diary entry and it changed the flavor of my day. It's cloudy out, perfect weather for introspection. Today has ceased being a good day for work.

More on thunk. The spouse factor seems to be an oft-overlooked hacker-related issue, and I don't doubt that folks on Advogato would have quite a bit to say about this. Maybe there's something relevant in the linuxchix mailing list archives.

If you run a mod_virgule, you may be interested in my patch repository.

I just registered thunk.geek using the OpenNIC system. Pretty cool. I'm glad to see that something like this has finally happened, and that there's enough support behind it to make it stick. At least, it looks like it's going to stick. Hooray! The Internet is (mostly) free again.

maelstorm: yeah, same guy. Cold* was interesting, but the whole time-sucking effect of on-line chat has sort of turned me away from it. I might drop by your MOO later on today though.

I feel honored that I'm now responsible for half of all bruce's diary entries :-)

So the article on GObject renewed my interest in Objective C. The last time I used it for a project I totally loved working with it, it seemed sort of like C with objects. As opposed to C++, which is like C with objects and operator overloading and a template system and data hiding and... I suppose C++ has its place somewhere, but I'm more a fan of Python's "we're all consenting adults" object system, and it seems like ObjC is much closer to that than C++.

I think ObjC might be a relatively easy sell at work, since it allows the kind of object oriented programming we tend to do with structs, and doesn't require any additional libraries. I wish I knew more about performance impacts, and I wish I could remember what dynamic binding meant. Maybe I'll work on the grad school application tonight...

10 Apr 2001 (updated 10 Apr 2001 at 20:04 UTC) »

I'd like to think that if I had something interesting to say here, I'd say it. But here I am, writing this diary entry anyway.

maelstorm: is the Colin from ColdStore the same dude who did some work on Cold MUD?

I ran into the other PHPix2 developer today at the sandwich shop downstairs. Turns out he works in the building next to me. What a riot. We talked about various problems he was having with trying to get a multi-user upload capability into PHPix2, definitely got some creative juices flowing. He suggested we sit down and plan things out sometime. The package might be getting a lot more attention now that we each have a face associated with it :-)

29 Mar 2001 (updated 29 Mar 2001 at 17:47 UTC) »

If someone were to ask me what person active on Advogato has the most expertise with mod_virgule, I'd have to say it was lkcl. Which is why it's supremely funny that he got censored on badvogato. In a way, that's sort of like someone launching a DoS attack against transmeta from a Linux 0.99pre16 box.

Anyway. Work, life, yadda yadda. I have pixy stix. Yum.

Randakar, while it isn't a part of the language, there's no reason you couldn't implement a trust metric system in ColdC. It also provides all the networking stuff you'd need to have a distributed object system (although it might be necessary to hack the core language a bit for nicer integration). Think of ColdC as a general-purpose byte-compiled language with a built-in persistant object store.

After over six months doing self-directed research at my job, yesterday I finally got something to do with a definite deadline. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders, as I finally had some incentive to get my arse in gear. I guess I work better under pressure.

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