Older blog entries for trow (starting at number 15)

All in all, a good one. Dan Mueth, hp (who was in Chicago to attend a wedding) and I spent a very late Saturday night hanging out at the neighborhood bar, discussing GNOME, free software, the meaning of life, and other weighty topics. Over our favorite beverages, we worked out some of the details of how we are going to implement the secret Red Hat/Ximian conspiracy to control GNOME. Oh wait... I'm not supposed to talk about that, right?

Confusion

I admit it. I just don't understand Bonobo.

I understand it enough to get it to occasionally do what I want it to do, but only by finding other code that sort of does what I want to do, and by copying/perturbing it. It gets the job done, but otherwise sucks. I hate not understanding what I'm doing. I hate that feeling of being... adrift.

I suppose I'll more-or-less figure this stuff out in time. Things are already slightly less hazy than they were just a few weeks ago. And the Bonobo API docs are (as far as API docs go) actually pretty useful. But it is still a laborious process.

Ximian has released some information on the Mono Project. I'm happy the word is out, because now maybe I can actually find out what Mono is all about.

Even though I'm a Ximian employee, I usually have no idea what we are up to. Since I work remotely, I miss out on all of the water-cooler gossip that goes on in Boston. As a result, I never have to worry about accidentally revealing proprietary information, because I never know any.

Hacking

I closed a bunch of Evolution bugs tonight (including a few I introduced with my big commit last Friday... oops!), so I rewarded myself with a few hours of Guppi hacking.

Guppi has been distressingly stagnant recently; Evolution hacking has been pretty all-consuming. However, the release of the new GnuCash (which uses Guppi) has caused a noticable increase in interest. And Jody is apparently hard at work on Gnumeric integration, so Guppi hacking is getting less lonely. If only I could find some Python guru to give some TLC to Guppi's badly-broken python bindings...

I'm also still playing around with subversion, but haven't gotten very far. I've finally gotten it to build w/ libtool 1.4; now I need to get it to not immediately segfault when I try to create a repository. There must be something screwed up on my system .

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I'm using <blockquote>s... I feel like such an Advogato user now!

On a whim, I ordered a bunch of CDs tonight. Most of my order was the glorious music of my misspent youth, filling out my CD collection with stuff I used to own on vinyl or cassette. Among other things, I picked up two by The Fall, a few XTC albums, "Meet the Residents", some Bowie ("Aladdin Sane" and "Heros") and Eno's "Before & After Science". Listening to these is going to be a big college flashback for me.

The big splurge item of the night was the four-CD William S. Burroughs boxed set that I've been coveting for some time. Burroughs has always been my favorite of the Beats, ever since I read Naked Lunch when I was seventeen. I didn't know what the hell to make of it, but suddenly all of that SF crap I'd been digesting for years didn't seem so clever anymore.

Listening to Burroughs read is a pleasure in itself. I'd recommend the excellent "Call Me Burroughs" to any of the adventurous among you. In fact, I'll make you this guarantee: if you buy this album, and if you really hate it, I'll defray your cost by buying you three beers. (This offer is only valid if the request for the beer is made to me in person. You must be able to verbalize your reason for not liking it coherently. "It sucks", "It is boring" and "All he does is talk about weird stuff" are not acceptable reasons. All three beers must be consumed in one sitting. Void where prohibited.)

T-iay s-iay a-ay eautiful-bay ay-day n-iay Hicago-cay, et-yay ere-hay I-ay m-aay acking-hay n-oay Volution-eay. Aybe-may fter-aay he-tay eature-fay reeze-fay (hich-way s-iay n-oay Onday-may) I-ay ill-way ave-hay a-ay ittle-lay ime-tay o-tay ack-hay n-oay Uppi-gay. Pig Latin impaired, fuck off.

Actually, I don't really have strong feelings about Bonobo one way or the other.

I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo. I love Bonobo. I hate Bonobo.

I lote Bonobo. I have Bonobo.

Evolution hacking continues. I spent the evening de-crufting some code I wrote a few months ago. It is always distressing to look back at code and have your main reaction be "what was I thinking?"

I finished Don DeLillo's White Noise today. An amazing, amazing book. How could I have gone without reading this for all these years?

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Anyone who is in the market for a GNU/Linux box should definitely check out Los Alamos Computers. Their prices are great, and the service is top-notch.
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I did some good Gnoetry hacking this weekend, after not having touched the code in months.

Much of the work was just code clean-up and disentangling the poetics from the GUI. Some of my earlier work on enjambment is now on a much sounder footing for going forward, and the foundations have been laid for some future algorithmic work.

I'll leave it to others to decide if this was a productive use of a weekend or not...

Spent the week furiously fixing Evolution bugs... I've managed to fix most of the problems that were frustrating me as I tried to use CVS Evo for my day-to-day work. I know I might appear to be biased, but I really like Evolution. And I'm a mail client snob.

Talked to Jody Goldberg on the phone the other day. We worked out a rough plan for how to proceed on integrating Guppi into Gnumeric. In order to be able to cleanly import and export XL spreadsheets containing plots, certain things in the Guppi/Gnumeric glue will have to be done the "MS way"... which isn't that terrible, but is certainly not the way I would have chosen to do things. Oh well.

It is a beautiful day in Chicago -- too beautiful to stay indoors, so I finally fixed the flat on my bicycle and took it out for a ride along the lakefront. If only the weather here didn't suck nine months out of the year, this would be the ideal place to live.

I feel like I need a change of pace, so I'm going to do some Gnoetry hacking tonight.

Went out to a fabulous restaurant for my birthday yesterday: anybody who finds themselves in Chicago should try out Sushi Wabi (on Randolph, just west of the Kennedy). The best sushi I've ever eaten. If they have it, be sure to try the caterpillar roll.

I also found out that (along with AIDS), I share my birthday with Kenny G. I've never believed in astrology, but now I have a strong vested interest in its falsehood.