Brian's World

Technical Stuff (Git/SVN/Concerto)

Its rare I blog about really technical stuff here, so I want to forewarn you that this blog will be very technical in nature and very cool like my other blogs.  Originally, I thought about posting this over at the WebTech blog however these are my personal opinions and I am not speaking on behalf of the WTG  or anything like that.  Just me, writing over here.

As most people know, Concerto uses SVN for version control.  Its worked really well for everything that I’ve needed it to, and I have no reason to complain or dislike it.  I’ve started to play around with Git for my work on the bonsai-video project and I like some of what I see.  The ability to commit locally and then send it up to the main server is a neat feature… though I’m not sure why I would every want to not push my changes to the server right away… its still neat to have the “offline” support.

The coolest thing about git isn’t even a feature of git itself, its github.com.  I really like the social components introduce into the programming area.  People can freely make their own copy of the code and start doing their own stuff… with a moderately useful web interface to tie it all together.  Typically I would download the source code for a program, make my changes locally, and call it a day.  With github there is an easy way to share those changes with others without having to formally submit a patch to the maintainers.

This social coding stuff makes me think twice about my general dislike for git and I’ve actually considered looking to switch Concerto to GitHub.  It has nothing to do with git vs svn at all actually, if the site was SVNHub we might already be there…well maybe not, there is also the issue of locally hosted vs remotely hosted repositories.  Github would certainly be a quick and easy way to track what other people are doing with their own copies of Concerto.

On another note, this past weekend we’ve finished work on the Concerto public site: http://www.concerto-signage.com which means you can finally download Concerto and start to do cool things with it!  For those of you who don’t know, Concerto is an open-source digital signage system that was developed at RPI.  I’ve been working on it since the spring of 2007 and I’m glad to see its being publicly released for everyone to enjoy.  If you just want to check out what you can do with it, the demo page has instructions to login to a demo system we’ve setup.  If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it!

Flapping

I rarely enjoy it when things flap.  Things should be up or they should be down.  Ya know, I’d even settle for “in between” if they would stay that way.  The transition from one state to another solicits some form or response from me and constantly changing states is just a bother.  I’m talking about my VPS, and more generally people.

Lately my VPS has been stalling out for unknown reasons.  Well, I should say known reasons to me.  If I were to guess, I’m hosting on an oversold box and one or two of the other users are a) morons b) running high traffic/load sites c) have been hacked.  I tend to stick with answer B or C because most people don’t pay a monthly bill to be a moron.  I’m considering switching hosts, but its always such a big deal to package everything up.. move it over… make sure things are working… etc.  I like the “set it and forget it” concept.

If you were wondering why I hadn’t blogged in a while its pretty simple, a lot of people died.  No, no one I was particularly close to passed away but its all over the news and that frustrates me.  I remember when President Reagan and President Ford died, and I don’t recall Larry King talking about them for over 2 weeks!  I understand finding worthwhile news is challenging, and yes… some people do great things that deserve recognition… but I’ve always been a fan of the “hey you’re alive I’m going to tell you that you’ve done a great job” strategy.  The whole “on no you died, but I thought you were cool now that I am paying attention to you” plan doesn’t make much sense to me.  That is why I send people short emails to say thanks or try to express my appreciation for their work while they are still alive.  And I’ve just been really busy, the main reason why I haven’t been blogging.

I think that most people flap too much, and could use some consistency.  I strive to be as consistent as possible, and if that means repeating the same thing over and over again I will.  Its not that I’m opposed to change, but I’m opposed to changing and later having to revert back and then wanting to change again.  If I’m going to change something, reverse a behavior, change up the pants I wear on a Wednesday,  I need to know that I can firmly hold that change and consistently apply it.

The consistency I practice also helps to make me immune to some “hot trends” which is both good and bad.  Its good because I don’t go out an buy the latest cool thing every month… but it can hurt me because people find me outdated, old fashioned, and boring.  I can be hard communicate the old fashioned ways to people caught up in the latest and greatest trends, which troubles me regularly.  I understand what I understand and it works.  We could consider reinventing the wheel, but the current system seems pretty darn stable as it is; at least that’s how I see it.

Goodnight moon.

Black Ink

Its rare that I’m handling a multiple threads of negative things at the same time in my life.  Historically, when things are going not well for me, they tend to be going not well one at a time.  Right now I feel (and I know that feeling isn’t the most accurate method of measurement here) that things are going not well on several fronts.  I’m struggling to identify if I’m failing to compartmentalize as effectively as I need to be, if I’m suffering from a lack of motivation, or something else.

I’ve found that I’m frustrating people who I dislike to upset with some of my planned and repetitive behavior.  Unfortunately I do the same thing just about every day.  You can set your calendar by what I wear for clothes, the list of places I dine at and things I eat could be counted on one hand, and my options of “fun things to do” has remained fairly stagnant over the past few years.  It’s not that I don’t like changing things up, but its very rare that changes are going to make things better for me.  Far more likely, I find myself opting for changes that benefit others because I know they feel pulled down as a result of me… or the changes I’d like to see are simply unacceptable for the standards others.

Most people who have been involved with me when planning some sort of complicated travel plan would believe I’m against traveling.  That is not true; I am no hermit, and I feel quite skilled at navigating complex maps, airports, and directions.  However the whole pre-departure bit can be a challenge for me.  I think I’m using the word challenge a lot, because its more opaque than words like disaster, uncomfortable, terrified, etc.  In my current state, I live with my family, who are all great family members.  As someone who is 21, I have remained with the same privilege level as I did when I was 17 or 18.  This would be acceptable if the state previously established exceeded the limit or would appropriate satisfy the requirements others have of me now that I am 21.  Alas that is not the case.  I am prompted on a daily basis to head to bed before midnight and encouraged to escort my friends out between 11 and 11:30pm.  Sometimes, even waking up early (like 5:45 AM) will invoke a negative response.  Personally, I wouldn’t mind going to bed at, say 11:30pm, if all my work was done and most of the time, I feel I exercise moderately good judgement when deciding when friends should leave.  However, my current environment doesn’t allow me to appropriately practice such decision making skills without feeling dejected and unaccepted.

I progress.  In the past, I have taken a very very very small number of trips that involved a >2 hour drive to a location where we stayed for longer than 6 hours.  I can’t think of any one of those trips that made me feel like I wasn’t a terrible person when I asked-permission/informed parties of my intent to attend or previous act of attendance.  I get very put off to things that produce repeated negative results.  I can certainly understand that a first or maybe second event would produce some spite, but the continual production of it only hampers my will to try again.

Frequently I get upset, looking around at the environment of others and find myself thinking “how did they get there?” but realistically knowing that being able to follow a similar approach would likely not yield the intended results.

Pulling at me is this concept that I am may be a lesser person, or maybe that’s what my conditioning has made me.  Someone who shouldn’t experience, who shouldn’t think, who shouldn’t disappoint… at least for now.  I don’t see others struggle between two, struggling to find the solution that fits both holes no matter how complicated it may be.  On a positive day I would tell myself to keep going, recognizing that progress can only be made by spinning the wheel, even if it doesn’t move where you want it to.  Today is not a positive day. I find myself disappointed in myself on multiple fronts, and presently unable or unwilling to move.  Unfortunately that lack of momentum will hurt me just as much as moving, but I’ve never been able to provide enough.

I’ve come to accept that its my fault, and I’m ok being written off as a failure if you’d like.  If I were someone else, I’d have trouble writing it off as anything else.