Chris Reuter

nest is a Git front-end designed to organize a collection of
unrelated (mostly textual) projects. It maintains a central project
collection and creates working copies of individual projects as
needed, possibly on other computers via ssh. Projects and working
copies are all Git repositories and so can be cloned, pushed and
merged between computers. nest will also (optionally) create a local
backup/cache of the whole collection on any computer you use it from,
so if your server catches fire, you can restore your work from the
cache on your laptop.

I've been using it for about three months now and it hasn't eaten
anything yet, so I'm calling it done and releasing it.

The project page is here.

To use it, you'll need git (and to know how to use it), perl, ssh with
ssh-agent and a sufficiently Unixy OS. (Cygwin and MacOSX ought to be
sufficient but I haven't tried it so YMMV.)

It occurs to me that from an advocacy point of view, Python's significant whitespace is kind of brilliant.

It's a defensible design decision, in that the designer has traded a certain amount of source-code fragility for improved readability. If you want the readability enough that you're willing to be a bit paranoid about what happens to the whitespace, it's a worthwhile trade. If not, then it's not.

In other words, it's a matter of personal preference.

But that makes it controversial. Invariably, when someone starts complaining about the language, the first thing they start with is the most obvious--the indentation--and the discussion immediately degenerates to something with the calibre of emacs versus vi. Five hundred posts later with nothing resolved beyond "I like it" and "I don't like it", everyone gets sick of the whole thing and Python's real shortcomings are never discussed.

Brilliant!

Warning: Long and nerdy.

My current hobby project is a programming language named Deck. The goal is for Deck to be basically Lispish but to have a friendlier syntax.

( Read the rest )

This, to be precise.

So if you happen to get a Neuros and need a sync tool that works
under Linux, I got one for ya.

(For those that have no idea what I'm talking about: the Neuros II is
a now-discontinued digital audio (MP3) player that's physically bigger
than most others but has vast (for its time) storage capabilities.
Getting files onto the Neuros is a two-step process--you need to copy
the files onto it and then you need to create the cryptic binary files
that the Neuros uses to get artists, titles and the like. This gets
done by software on the PC--the sync manager. The one that comes
with the Neuros is Windows-only so I can't use it. There are
open-source ones tha work on Linux but they all suck for one reason or
another. So, I wrote my own[1].)

[1] Disclosure: I ripped some code from Sorune to use with this.

We're considering getting an XBox-360 and we're hoping one of you can offer some advice.

I have two concerns:

Firstly, we're considering the rock-bottom version, the XBox 360 Arcade and I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to get a higher-end version instead. It doesn't look like the hard drive is worth the extra money, especially since we can buy one separately. Am I wrong?

Secondly, is there a better option? The killer apps right now are Fallout 3, Diablo 3, Left 4 Dead and Netflix streaming. Is there a better way to get these?

Also, Debbie's posted a similar question on here blog here.

ADVAthanxNCE,

Chris

So when was the last time I posted? April? August? Depends on which blog.

But anyway, stuff has happened:

I Got Married

Happened April 12. Continues to happen. There are pictures that I haven't yet gotten around to putting online. I should probably do that.

A couple of days after getting back from the honeymoon, I had this conversation with a co-worker:

Co-worker: So, how's married life?

Me: Mostly, I keep thinking, Man, Debbie's hanging around my place a lot.

These days, I've gotten used to having Debbie around. And I even let her redecorate a bit. 'cuz I'm generous like that.

I Changed Jobs

I no longer work at WeShovelMoney. Instead, I now work at We'reInUrWarez, using my compiler tools skills to make life difficult for spammers, scammers and botnet operators. (Well, that's the theory anyway. Right now, I'm busy trying to make sense of the existing source code. I'm told that that's normal.)

This was probably the easiest job change I've ever had. It was the first time I ever applied for a job that I didn't feel I needed. The resulting interview experience was very relaxed.

(Dealing with the related immigration issues, though, was pretty stressful. Well, for Debbie, anyway. I just stayed at my parents' house and read. I even managed to finish 3/4ths of Anathem. And, of course, I fixed my parent' computer.)

I Now Drive Far Too Much

The new job involves a forty minute highway commute. Fortunately, things start late enough there that I can avoid the worst of the traffic, but it's taking some getting used to. Long-term, we'll probably either move or I'll start telecommuting some days. For the moment, the iPod Nano is helping.

I Became an UncleAunt

Well, step-aunt, anyway. My stepbrother Ryan and his wife Jen have just had a baby girl. This is the second such instance, actually. Stepbrother David and wife Amy had a baby last year.

I Do More Stuff

I've been to more concerts this year than in the previous decade. I've also attended a film festival, Q&As with Bruce Campbell and Neal Stephenson and shook hands with Tim O'Reilly[1].

Partly, this is because Debbie does stuff and she drags me along. But also, Boston just has all this amazing stuff going on. The presence of all the schools make this place something of a nerd mecca so in addition to all the big-city culture, you get smart-people events too.

I Watch More TV

We have a PVR. 'nuff said.

[1]He walked by me at Ignite Boston so I stuck my hand out.

Matthew's sick of LiveJournal. I posted:

You know, it wouldn't be too hard to set up a livejournal service for friends and friends-of-friends as a kind of co-op. The software's open-source, virtual servers are $25 a month and we both know enough technically-knowledgable people to keep the thing up and running.

I'd certainly be up for something like that.

Matthew replied that he wants something different, but I'm wondering if anyone else here would be interested in setting up something like that?

In the past, I've warned friends that asking me to babysit their child was also asking me to teach that child new words.

Yesterday, someone took me up on it. They did, and so did I.

The word was "stucco".

Two days!!!!!

That is all.

Dear <!---- SELECT * DROP ALL,

This is in response to the lovely if minimal note you left on my wedding site's RSVP form.

Please be advised that in addition to being able to get a girlfriend,I can also clean my input data. Perhaps you would have more luck with
some IIS exploits?

Sincerely,

Chris

I asked her on New Year's day in the sculpture park as we stood between two giant bronze hearts festooned with hands, faces and handtools. She said "Okay" in a faint voice.

Afterward, we stood there a while and listened to the rain fall on my umbrella.

The wedding's on April 12. You might get invited, if you're good.

I just finished driving home from Burlington, Ontario with a rented van full of furniture. The furniture continues to stay in the van until at least tomorrow.

This all happened because I wanted my bed. See, I was sleeping on this borrowed twin mattress and box-spring and I really, really want something bigger. Eventually, I concluded that the best way to do this was to just bite the bullet and bring my futon back from Waterloo where it lay in a storage container. This entailed:

1. Reserving self-storage to hold the stuff I wasn't going to bring back.
2. Seeing if the moving-and-storage company I was using could do the move over (American) Thanksgiving weekend. Calling them and getting a "probably, yeah".
3. Renting a van.
4. Looking at the cost of renting the van, doing a Roger-Rabbit-style eye-bulge with accompanying horn effects, and resolving that the van would come back loaded with every large item I want to have here.
5. Calling the moving-and-storage company two days before I'm going to head out to make sure that yes, they really can do it that day. Turns out, yup, they can.
6. Going to the car rental place on Wednesday to get the van and being told that I'm not allowed to take it out of the country, even though the website doesn't say anything about that and I've done it with cars before. After my heart starts beating again, the manager calls his grandboss and finds out that no, it's only mini-vans that can't cross the border.
7. Driving a huge, drafty van with blind spots the size of battleships for 500 miles.
8. (Standing idly by as the movers do the work of) loading up said van with most of my furniture-like items.
9. Driving back the way I came, only with a load of stuff that makes alarming thumps each time I hit a bump.

So now I've got a rented van full of my furniture out in the parking lot. Well, full except for my futon. That, I took upstairs in three trips and reassembled in my bedroom. I'm so looking forward to turning over without worrying about falling out of bed.

[Note: Debbie has been telling me I should blog more. If you find this tedious and irrelevant, it's her fault. Yeah, that's the ticket.]

[I'm trying this newfangled LiveJournal thing for a bit.]

So this weekend, I saw Crowded House. Twice. In a row. And followed it up with the Beastie Boys[1, too. So thanks, Debbie, and please don't make me see another band tonight! I'll be good. I promise.

Random thoughts:

• Seventh row center for the first Crowded House show. Nyaah nyaah.
• Apparently, all it takes to make Debbie scream like a little girl is the opening notes of Recurring Dream.
• Opening act Liam Finn (Neil's kid) was sick. Emergency backup opening act (two of the Winterpills) were pretty good. I bought their CD.
• He did make it to the Boston show, however. He plays guitar and drums and also sings. Instead of playing with other performers or a backing tape, he uses a loop thingee and plays along with it. I also bought his CD.
• Crowded House sold CDs of the show afterword. Of course I ordered one. They didn't for the Boston show. The rumour is that the venue forbade it.
• For the second show, our seats were off to the left in a fairly large venue. They were still amazing seats, but nowhere near as good as the previous nights'. This set was way different from the first show.
• We sat next to a couple that had also been to the previous show. They'd driven from Connecticut, though.
• The Beastie Boys played all of the Beastie Boys songs I know.
• Debbie makes new friends easily.
• Monster Energy is vile, vile stuff but it got me through this morning.

And that is all.

[1] In my head, I continue to spell it "BSD Boys". I'm so ashamed.

This is not my blog. I only use this account to post followups to other people's blogs.

My real blog is here.

The software I wrote in order to blog is here.