joey.antesonic.org is my single point-of-contact from remote locations to my house. I have not built any other pass-through capabilities into my setup.
Therefore, the fact that my Windows Media Center PC holds all my music has been problematic, as I can’t really get to it from work.
That’s when I realized I could share the folder and mount it on joey, allowing me to SFTP into the server and grab the music over an SSL-encrypted channel to my work desktop.
I’m trying to be open-minded here, but I can’t even get updates to install. The screen won’t always refresh properly, and SP1 keeps failing after going through the entire process.
It took me quite some time to figure out how to cajole the computer to check for updates without turning on automatic updates, and I have to confirm a UAC screen both to disable and enable a network device, which was only necessary because the networking system had convinced itself there was no internet access.
It’s a funny scene, with OS X (I recently learned to say “Oh Ess Ten” rather than “Oh Ess Ex”) running on my MacBook right alongside this poor desktop doing all it can to get simple updates installed.
Plus, I’m bridging my MacBook’s AirPort wireless into the desktop, since it lacks a wireless card currently. Something about this arrangement reminds me of the final scene of Grapes of Wrath.
Piggybacking off EZ’s last post, I’m pleased to say we’ve purchased a house and are finally feeling moved into it at this point. We’re still getting the prior resident’s important mail, and the grass is still a bit on the crispy side, but all in all it’s most definitely home (more so than the apartment).
I’m a bit stunned at the effect created by actually owning the home. I’m really enjoying the tasks that need to be done. It’s especially cool to be able to poke big holes in the walls (on purpose!) and really only have yourself (and spouse) to answer to when complete.
I need to start up a Flickr account or something (PicasaWeb?) and steal Kristin’s camera to take some pictures.
I see on Proggit the question, “What would you recommend for a first programming language?”
Given that more than a few of my recent non-otherwise-occupied evenings are being devoted to Sigma these days, I of course consider Python as an excellent option. It is relatively easy to operate (but plenty of hidden goodies like list index slicing and comprehensions), and it has a standard library that rivals that of almost any other language.
Then I wonder: I learned on AppleBASIC/BASIC-A/QuickBASIC. These were user-friendly (in the sense that they weren’t assembler in the case of AppleBASIC and BASIC-A). However, they also didn’t pull any punches when it came to challenges in program structure and idioms.
See GOSUB. What a structure! You’re talking about numbered lines ticking up ten by ten by ten, then all of a sudden you’re in a completely nondifferentiated subroutine (unlabelled and unnamed) only evidenced by the existence of a “go back from whence ye came” directive at the end (RETURN).
Some more creative program structures were foiled by (what to me was a famous) RETURN without GOSUB).aspx error, which meant your primary execution path had tripped on a RETURN statement without GOSUBbing to that location.
This posting wasn’t intended to be a carp-fest regarding BASIC and its various forms of encumberance to reasonable thought. This is developing an argument that Python is too darn easy to be a first language.
The lack of preemtive type checking is wonderful for an experienced coder (I’m hearing this or something like it called “duck typing” in reference to a walks-like-a, talks-like-a form of reasoning).
The fact is, a lot of difficult programming involves working around language deficiencies or obstacles. While Python is not without its issues, for beginners the shortcomings are not obvious enough, in my opinion, to develop those skills.
I think we should all learn on C++ (better syntax, limited built-in library) or Java (horrid syntax, huge built-in library). Then, we should move quickly (after linked lists or so) to Python. Then teach how Python allows us to un-learn all the kludgery of C-based memory management and flow control.
An advanced class in Python could draw on the functional aspects of the code, like lambda functions and list comprehensions.
So, the CMS is in beta, meaning my programming muscles are no longer tasked with work people will use productively on a day to day basis, so it’s time to start diving into Sigma (in earnest) soon.
Based on a phone conversation wtih Dadio, I had to repeat the highlight of my vocal day yesterday, in which I was finally able to say:
“The issue has been fixed upstream in Trunk.”
Which to a programmer would be akin to a Navy pilot’s first “requesting fly-by” radio transmission. Just a hint of win in there to sweeten the sensation of nearing completion on a big, difficult project.
How do I feel about PHP? I know you didn’t ask that, but it’s what this textarea in my blog software is asking me right now.
Do I know how I feel about PHP? PHP gets things done. How does it get them done? About the way I likely would have gotten them done in eighth grade. Dig (not Digg) this. Explain why half the functions down the left pane are prepended with array_ and the other half are not.
PHP is basically the closest thing to a Microsoft C API you can get. “Oh, well, it was stupid at PHP 4.0.5 and we couldn’t break MediaWiki, which relied on the stupidity to save three lines of code in 1.1.2 beta, so it’s still here in PHP 5.0.0.” But it’s going away in PHP 5.4, so watch out, buddy.
What PHP rocks at is giving you functions, like, say, this one and this one and this one that are so time-savingly delicious you just can’t help but deal with all the backwards-compatibility refuse to eat up.
Of course, Python is good at most of this stuff and makes at least some sense from a style standpoint (even more to come in Python 3000, I read). But, despite having some lovely frameworks, I can’t get settled with developing for a platform that is almost universally shunned by shared webhosts.
In this respect, “requires mod_python” has about the same ring to my ears as “dry clean only,” which are both messages I tend to read only after getting committedly excited about the product.
The verdict on Git — at this point, for these computers, for this job — is fail.
I think the Mac (Fink) port of Git is a bit flawed, as I got some rather infuriatingly inconsistent (which in version control basically becomes a synonym for corrupt) data. I cut and ran.
For my purposes, subversion is the way to go. The CMS is now on a clean, textbook-created subversion repository on joey.
I’m at most a day or two away from a sort-of Beta/RTM phase on the CMS, which means sigma may be getting some increased attention shortly!
