kindproject

CodeGen is cumbersome with tfs

Posted by jonathan - 28/01/10 at 11:01:12 am

Spent the better part of the morning trying to figure out how to setup a project which is using codesmith for codegen and tfs for source control.

Because tfs grew out of the VSS source control line where exclusive locking was the norm, the checkout command allows you set locking methodologies. Read about tfs source control lock types here if you want more info. Unfortunately, tfs also seems to use the “read-only” attribute to manage change tracking.

I have yet to uncover the logic or inner workings of this, but in a codegened system it presents a problem. There is contention between tfs needing something set as read-only, but codegen tools needing the file to be writable. Maybe I’m missing something, but I might need post ad pre and post build steps to handle the competing agendas of these tools.

Best one-liner about Apple’s tablet

Posted by jonathan - 27/01/10 at 06:01:52 pm

iPad for the bleeding in your iPants.

Facebook Connect, do you really need thirty cookies?

Posted by jonathan - 22/05/09 at 06:05:30 am

I know facebook was started by some guy in college, but you would think a more sophisticated, refined taste for sweets would have developed. Does facebook connect really need to stick its hands in the cookie jar 30 times in order to log me in?

Testing windows live writer

Posted by jonathan - 13/04/09 at 09:04:24 am

Here is my first post with windows live writer.

from xp to ubuntu

Posted by jonathan - 19/10/08 at 10:10:34 am

Yesterday I made my third attempt and first successful one installing a linux os on a home computer. Previously I had stumbled with Mandrake in ~2001 and Red Hat in ~2004. With $10 million dollar cash infusion, and initiatives to put machines in the hands of the bottom of the pyramid, ubuntu comes pretty close to matching the ease of use standard established by Microsoft’s simple GUI wizard install.

While packaged quite nicely for people making the switch, its important to follow the directions as there are still some hurdles.
Here are my cliff notes:

1. My first cd burn was crap.
   Follow the instructions here, using the cd burner it recommends.
2. I could not boot from cd
   Neither the full install or the help boot from cd option worked. I had to use the install in windows feature.
3. The install would hang partitioning drives.
   After some reading here, I tried going to the application > gparted software from the disc os but could not partition anything as ext3 (the favored drive format of ubuntu). My machine had two ntfs formatted drives so after shuffling around some files, I split the second drive into an ntfs partion and an unformatted drive using xp’s disk management tools. Once I did this the ubuntu installer had some unformatted space to play with and did its thing.

My only other gripe is that since I had to shuffle back and forth between operating systems and then reformat a drive, despite having burned the os onto disk the install process downloaded the 600+mb install more than once. I spent most of the day on this yesterday, but am happy with the results and will be spending some time sifting through documentation here and look for my next post about getting nx setup.

Finally, I went down this road because:

1. Microsoft OS’s are dead. Unless they start a new product line based on the newer xbox codebase, it will be a hard sell to get people to buy an os because it uses less resources. ubuntu, 256k ram, vista 1gb. I know the ram is cheap, but I’d still like to turn older machines into functional specialty appliances.
2. I hate Mac’s. I had a mac mini that I sold to a machead friend for .40 cents on the dollar, because i would have had to buy an os upgrade and then a ntfs file system reader etc. Macs have all the trappings of closed eco-systems, but they leech off of the open source community and then rape the consumer on price. Macs are for people who like designer jeans and overpriced coffee. Their concept of “it just works” means it just works if you overpay for a small set of products we have sanctioned.
3. I simply wanted to learn something new.

Is you office empty at 9:00AM?

Posted by jonathan - 29/09/08 at 08:09:56 am

Emma hits the web by storm

Posted by jonathan - 15/08/08 at 10:08:43 pm

Emma laughing from Mariana Kind on Vimeo.

ipod, its new to me

Posted by jonathan - 04/08/08 at 06:08:04 am

Back in 2001, apple debuted the ipod. Seven years later I finally broke down and purchased my first. I have always had a problem with the apple marketing messaging of “it just works”. Sure it does because it only interops with extremely pricey other hardware and software from apple. There is some 3p development, but its mostly play our way or your not cool. After a few weeks of use I have a critique.

First with the negative. The ipod, here I’m talking about the classic 80 gb, which is renowned for its navigation, leaves me a bit tired with the thumb twirl. While the smart playlist is great it only really becomes useful if you are anal-retentive, obsessively categorizing your music by genre and rating it. Unless I’m missing something the rating feature is only available on itunes and not the ipod, which is the rub. The “smarty pants in the room” assumes I listen to the same music on my computer through itunes. Additionally, while I have never had great dexterity, hence not winning many afternoon competitions of joust, I find myself playing songs when I am trying to scroll from The Black Keys to Santogold. Rarely do I find the right pressure for scrolling through whole letters of artists.

Second with the positive. The podcast is just rock-steady. Its Friday night and I’m listening to Tiesto’s club life while born-free bottle feeding by baby after her nightly bath. When shes done I’ll flip over to Mr. Woodard’s podcast recommendation, the bowery boys. To wind down and get a little history groove on.

All in all I’m happy with my purchase.

rowing for health

Posted by jonathan - 18/07/08 at 03:07:06 pm

Two weeks ago I started the learn to row class offered by the passaic river rowing association. In just two weeks our diverse class was able to get everyone in the 8-person boat rowing. While not winning any races or style awards yet, its an amazing feeling when the stoke and rhythm clicks. I rarely get more than a couple strokes in a row that feel right, but I’m looking forward to more. The class is run by a fun couple, gail and jeff, who are also teaching the class. Jeff is a coach of local high school teams and is very encouraging. I love being out on the water even though the passiac river is relatively polluted, tidal and urban. It makes me think twice about consuming so many drinks out of plastic bottles.

Many people have asked why I took the class and it comes down to three reasons. One, I wanted an entirely new activity. Two, I need the exercise as I could afford to drop twenty pounds and waterboarding seems like more fun than running to me. Third, I was looking for a sport where I do not have to see very well. With rowing I can rely on other peoples eye’s since my crappy continually detaching, now edema plagued fubared left eye does not allow me to do things like cycle because I have to come to a complete stop in order to turn left.

Its the best activity I have done since tai-chi. Its got meditative qualities, team bonding and an athletic workout. I encourage you to give it a try.

js hosted files, yahoo and now google

Posted by jonathan - 17/06/08 at 07:06:20 am

I like the fact that major players in the game, yahoo and now google are hosting javascript files. They have the global presence and resources to ensure that copies of the same libraries are served most efficiently from a single network, zipped, compressed and closest to the user. Yahoo started this trend way back in February 2007, but most people still only think about this company as the content powerhouse it was at the dawn of web 1.0.

Google started hosting the more popular javascript libraries, jQuery, prototype, mooTools, dojo and scriptaculous late last month. While its great that they are hosting 3p scripts, the problem I have with google is their documentation. As a company providing developer support they fail miserably compared to yahoo and microsoft. In their Ajax Libraries API documentation, they encourage you to use the google.load() method but fail to mention that you will need to pull in this script, http://www.google.com/jsapi. I had to do a search on google.load in order to find a post on their blog which has the complete documentation. Not that I am the best writer, but when you are posting example code as the indians say, “do the needful”, and make sure to include the full example code.

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