Does Windows Vista Suck?
Does Windows Vista suck?… Maybe. =)
I am currently running three Windows XP systems and two Ubuntu systems. I really like Ubuntu and if it wasn’t for certain types of coding, programs, games, and Lotus Notes I would switch to Ubuntu permanently… OH yeah AND Netflix Streaming Videos which requires IE and Windows Media Player 11… You suck Netflix! … okay no you don’t.. I love streaming movies, I just hate your requirements. I want to pick up a new 3G iPhone and MacBook for some iPhone SDK goodness, but that will wait till Summer/Thanksgiving.
This is just a short open question. Does Windows Vista really suck? I would say yes it does suck because it doesn’t bring any new interesting features that my Windows XP installs didn’t already have and it moves everything around to different places so I have trouble helping out friends with Vista issues. I couldn’t even help my friend share a printer over a LAN. (Something I had done for years, but whatever, its working now, and thats another story.) All I hear is stories about troubles with install/upgrades and frustration even with machines from the manufactures. Runs slow, drivers issues, and software incompatibilities are all the issues I hear from Vista (Non-Ultimate) users. And the exact reasons I run XP is for speed, drivers, and software compatibility. So I am very VERY hesitant to switch to Vista.
I have only heard about good stories coming from people who either got “hooked up with” or pirated copies of Vista Ultimate. Ultimate Edition seems to be the only good version of Vista, but have YET to see anyone pay full price for it. They say it runs stable and if all drivers are available it works great.
So why would Microsoft only release an Operating System which has cheaper non-functions editions which their now unhappy customers purchased and leave the pirates and discounted people enjoying the Ultimate goodness? This doesn’t sound like a good business model. Let me know what you think with a comment or e-mail.
Task Manager Tip: Show Kernal Times
Heres a little tip to help you find the CPU Usage of your current applications. In the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del), click on the Performance Tab and it will display a graph of the CPU Usage History. The total CPU Usage is displayed in Green.
However, if you click on View->Show Kernel Times you can get information about the CPU Usage Time on the System (Kernel).
The Red Line displays Kernel CPU usage, while the Green Line displays total CPU usage.
This means that if your trying to figure out how much CPU your current program is using you take the Green (Total) CPU Usage - Red (System) CPU Usage = Current Application Usage.
Also if you Double Click on the Graph it will display in the full window.
Double Click the graph to go back to the previous view.
Subversion Revisited Again. Kind Of…
It took me about two days to write a post on How To Setup Subversion (SVN) With A Virtual Appliance.
So I’m not going to try and convince you to use Source Control. Instead I’m going to show you how easy it is to set one up, you have no excuses not to use it.
But guess who came along and wrote his own post on Subversion. (Setting up Subversion on Windows) Its pretty weird that we were both thinking about version control. Jeff talks about setting up SVN in the Windows OS using the default installer from Subversion. Its is good idea to learn how to setup Subversion once, and its worth a read if you have never done it. After that I would still recommend running SVN in a VM. Its easier to move around and back up since its all running in a file. His post does has some good points though.
I’ve met precious few developers that really understood the versioning concepts in the simple centralized source control model. I have only the vaguest of hopes that these developers will be able to wrap their brains around the vastly more complicated and powerful model of distributed source control.
Also the big blogs are battling it out about issue of using SVN or distributed source control. Even Linus Torvalds (creator of Linux) has chimed in about how much he hates SVN and runs GIT.
Czajnik responding to Jeff Atwood’s howto on setting up Subversion on windows: “Have you tried any distributed source control? I’ve recently switched from Subversion to Mercurial, and I’m very happy about the change. The most important reason was the ability to clone the repository to my laptop, do some checkins there (without network access, on a plain, train, etc.) and resync with just one command when I’m back home. Distributed model seems cool even for a single developer :)”
Jeff does respond back in his comments and also talk about GIT from Linus’ talk.
I watched the rest of Linus’ talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8 . Git *enforces* per-developer personality-driven p2p branches. This is great for ego-driven people like Linus who have a lot of power, fame, and personality. That makes sense.
I’m really intrigued by Linus’ claim that merging becomes extraordinarily simple in Git. He’s absolutely right about that– the problem with branches isn’t the branching, it’s the merging.
Wow… It feels cool that I’m thinking about the same stuff that these guys are thinking of… just maybe not on the same level =) However, I want my readers to get some main ideas from my post on version control.
- Version Control is good and you should use it
- VA’s are great for version control deployment. Easy to setup, runs on different OS’s. Network accessible. Easy to back up.
Yes, you should learn Subversion or another Version Control package. And if you want a custom VA, creating your own with an Ubuntu Image is very easy and clonable. I have create my own VA with Ubuntu and Tomcat running Axis. It has a shared SMB drive and from Windows I drop my WAR package and deploy web services. If anyone is interested in a copy of my Web Service VA let me know. (*HINT* post a comment, I can see your e-mail address but not the rest of the world) Hmm… maybe my next blog will be about how I created it.
How To Setup SVN And Trac With A Virtual Appliance
Source Control is a important tool for EVERY Software Developer. Jeff at CodingHorror puts it best.
Source control is the very bedrock of software development. Without some sort of version control system in place, you can’t reasonably call yourself a software engineer.
Its even part of Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code.
So I’m not going to try and convince you to use Source Control. Instead I’m going to show you how easy it is to set one up, you have no excuses not to use it. I previously talked about VMware Player and Virtual Appliances (VA), and were going to build off that. The repository of choice is SubVersion (SVN).
Step 0: Make sure you have the free VMware Player installed or another Virtualization software. (Parallels, Xen Open Source, etc..)
Step 1: Head over to JumpBox and download Trac/Subversion appliance. Its a 115MB download, but its the complete package. This Virtual Appliance does not only have source contorl, but also provides a Ticket Tracking System and a Wiki for your documentation.
It looks like JumpBox is starting to setup a Subscription Fee to download their VA’s. I was still able to download the Free Version. If your not able to download it, leave a comment and I will post a mirror.
Step 2: After you download the zip file. Extract it to your hard drive. This is your virtual computer. (If you want to backup your system, just burn a copy onto a CD/DVD disc, AWESOME!)
Step 3: Open VMware Player and navigate to the folder where you extracted the files. Select “JumpBox.vmx“. And your system will boot. It will use DHCP to aquire an IP address. You will manage your repository through a website.
After your VM boots you should get a screen like this.
Step 4: Open a web browser and type in the “Management Page” url in the address bar.
(In this case its https://192.168.1.110:3000/)
These are pretty simple configuration options. Just make sure to remember your password!
Step 5: Visit the application page! (In this case its http://192.168.1.110 and you don’t need the ’s’ in http)
On the Wiki you can see the location of the SVN repository. I would suggestion creating a new Account with a better name then Admin. So when you check-in files the repository has your name and not Admin as the author.
To Add Users you will first need to login by clicking the red login link on the top right hand side of this page. You will login in as the user admin and the password you used when configuring your JumpBox. Once you are logged in as the administrator new users can be added by clicking on the Trac Admin link (it will appear on the top right once you log in) then the Users link. These users will have access to both Trac and the Subversion repository. Many other settings can be changed through the Trac Admin link.
A popular SVN client is TortoiseSVN. Its a shell extension to windows. This means you get new menus when you right click.
It is implemented as a Windows shell extension, which makes it integrate seamlessly into the Windows explorer. Since it’s not an integration for a specific IDE you can use it with whatever development tools you like.
Another advantage of this shell integration is that not only web or software developers can use it but all the people who don’t have the development tools installed, for example translators, doc writers, …
I program with Eclipse so I also use a plug-in called Subclipse.
Subclipse is an Eclipse Team Provider plug-in providing support for Subversion within the Eclipse IDE.
That should be enough to get you setup with your very own software repository. Congratulations, you can reasonably call yourself a software engineer! However, there is still much to learn about version control.
Link-a-tron: Post is getting long, so I’ll put some quick links.
Subversion Homepage
Secure SVN Repository using svn+ssh
Google’s Free Online Open Source Repository (Great for sharing, but must select Open Source License to release under)
SourceForge (Another free hosting to Open Source projects)
Happy Easter!
The Art World Can Finally Go Fully Digital
I work with advance information systems like distributed computing and stream data… and I have never seen technology like this before.
(youtube.com)
That one tool is awesome… I mean it looks just like spray paint, it really does!
Google Sites
I recently went to a Google API Workshop (http://googleworkshops.googlemashups.com/) and learned great stuff like Maps API, Google Gadgets, AJAX Search and Feeds. The talks were a little basic for the average programmer (ZZzzzz). The Web Services talk made me want to shoot myself in the head because of all the details left out, but the code on how to use the API was good stuff. Plus they showed us this awesome site to learn google maps by Doug Ricket (http://doug.ricket.com/gdd2007/intro.html) who made his slides in Java Script! You can modify the code inside the slides and watch it work! Great job Doug!
Well it looks like Google has just released a new App, Google Sites.
Google Sites is the latest offering from Google Apps, a suite of
products designed to improve communication and collaboration
amongst employees, students, and groups. Google Sites makes
creating a team web site as easy as editing a document. You can
quickly gather a variety of information in one place — including
videos, calendars, presentations, attachments, and gadgets — and
easily share it for viewing or editing with a small group, their
entire organization, or the world.
This looks like its in direct competition with 37 Signal’s Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com/). I love the fact that it supports Google Calendars and other Google Apps. This is where 37 Signals Apps falls short. They are great simple applications, but each one has repeat features. I guess Ruby on Rails framework is great for making ToDo list and contacts because each app 37 Signals provides has one. But I don’t want four different ToDo list, I want one that syncs between all apps with simple labels. Google Sites allows data from different Google Apps inside your Google Site. Good Job!
I wonder if Google will come out with a decent contact manager app like Highrise(http://www.highrisehq.com), with iPhone support of course =)
Lotus Notes Sucks
One of my favorite sites to read is /. (Slashdot) and they recently posted a store on The Life of a Software Engineer. On of my favorite quotes from the article they linked to was about the IT Department.
In fact most employers I’ve worked for actually have rules in place to suggest that I not try to fix my own computer. There’s these organizations, some (not all) still stuck in the 70s and 80s, called “I.T. Departments” who’s official purpose is to fix computers — but who’s actual purpose is to attempt to prevent their users from doing anything dangerous (read: useful.)
This reminds me of my current companies I.T. department. Where they love to prevent anything dangerous (useful) from happening by doing there best to prevent users from doing work. No work = no danger. I’m sure the I.T. department would work great if the company was filled with users like my grandmother… but its not. One example is that they love lotus notes. Its the de facto e-mail program and they are adding this useful feature (bug) that allows single sign on. This feature now has some user creating two different passwords for the same e-mail account if they use more the one computer or version of Notes. Because every I.T. department knows that no one uses more then one computer right?
I recently found other people also think Lotus Notes Sucks (http://lotusnotessucks.4t.com/index.html) with plenty of examples. Here are some of my favorites
- The login windows
- The Property Sheet (and poorly designed icons)
- Stupid Error Messages (These are terrible when its an important e-mail)
- Entering a Hyperlink (WTF is a Hotspot?)
- You’ve Got Mail! (Couldn’t you just update my inbox without making me refresh it?)
- Least Favorite Favorites
- Meeting Invitations (Invite me to a meeting on LN and I wont show up… I might even block you)
For some reason my inbox always says I have 5 unread messages. I have looked everywhere. I have searched and sorted by unread. I have gone through every option… they are no where to be found. I get nightmares sometimes about the 5 unread messages. One might be a memo about the TPS report cover sheet update.
