I made some minor updates to DiskSlicer. Mostly, some minor bug fixes, but also I added the much-requested ability to delete files directly from the program.
20 Things to do when the Internet goes down
Even if the Internet connection goes out, your computer does not become a dumb brick. There were days these last few days where I didn’t bother turning it on. Then I realized all the things I could still do.
(My home Internet connection finally came back this morning. I’m bit upset that they didn’t figure it out earlier. It turned out that the first technician grossly misdiagnosed the problem. He put in an order for a new drop to be put in. Turned out it was just a broken modem. Why didn’t they try that earlier? Worse, why didn’t I think of it earlier. To be honest, I did think of it, but didn’t push it. Now I just need to get my money back from Comcast.)
Without further ado, here’s my suggestions for what to do when the Internet goes out:
On the computer:
- Organize photos in Picasa – I have nearly 6,000 photos on my computer. Many of them need to be deleted, organized, tagged, labeled, e-mailed, etc. (Yes, e-mailed–I can queue them in Outlook until the connection comes back).
- Organize My Documents – I’ve let My Documents folder get very messy. Lots of files that don’t need to be there anymore. Others need to be filed, or re-filed.
- Organize e-mail – I’ve got hundreds of folders in Outlook. I’ve tried to keep my Inbox empty and put things into @Action, @Someday, or @WaitingFor folders before they find a permanent home, but sometimes it still gets out of hand.
- Organize and fill in information in Windows Media Player. I still have music tagged with the wrong genre…
- Program. I’ve got two major programming projects I’m working on. They don’t depend on the Internet. The Internet is NICE if you need to learn something, but there’s always plenty of stuff to do that doesn’t require it. Write unit tests, run code coverage, design graphics, do all the other stuff if you must.
- Write e-mails to family. Long ones. Your mom will thank you.
- Catch up on podcasts. I got through ten episodes of Ask a Ninja, and nearly all backlogged podcasts. Now I’ll have a flood when I sync tonight.
- Write blog entries. I use Windows Live Writer. I should have done more of this.
- Play a game.
- Better, write a game.
- Setup appointments and events in Outlook for the next year.
- Read some classic programming texts.
- General computer maintenance. Defrag your disk, delete temp files, delete old installation files you haven’t used in 5 years (yes, I have some of those…). Use DiskSlicer to find where your space is going.
- Do long-avoided projects. I have approximately 20 hours of audio I need to edit and split into tracks. I’ve been putting it off for a very long time.
Off the Computer:
- Practice the piano.
- Read books. I’ve just started Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Very good, so far. Go buy it. If you’re a geek, you’ll like it. How can you not love a 2 page diversion into the mathematics of when a bike chain will interfere with a broken spoke and fall off? Other than the geekiness, it’s a good story.
- Learn to cook a new dish.
- Do crosswords.
- Exercise.
- Relax.
Or just go to the library and use the Internet. I only did this a few times, despite it being within walking distance from where I live.
Technorati Tags: internet,comcast,off the grid,piano,boredom,computer,programming
The Nerd Handbook
Found The Nerd Handbook via Phil Windley. I sent it to my wife and told her she needs to read it. A highly-accurate depiction of nerds, I would say. At least in the generalities…
BugTracker.Net
I’ve been meaning to write about this software for a while. When I started my current job, all software development was done by an outside contractor. I quickly took over, and that necessitated implementing a lot of tools and procedures to handle our large C++ and C# code base.
Choosing Subversion for source control was easy–free, open source, better than VSS and CVS.
Bug tracking software was a little harder. There are a lot of packages out there. I eventually decided on a great little package called BugTracker.Net. It’s written by a gentleman named Corey Trager who does it in his spare time. It’s a very simple system, and doesn’t provide a lot of the heavy-weight features of more complete packages, but if you’re a small team (like I’m in), then it could be perfect. I really appreciate Corey’s web-site, because he acknowledges that it’s not written with every scenario in mind. In fact, he even publicizes comparisons of his system with other popular tracking systems out there.
That said, there is a good degree of customizability in it, and it really was easy to setup, upgrade, configure, and customize.
Some of the features:
Suitable for tracking helpdesk customer support tickets as well as software bugs.
Sending and receiving emails is integrated with the tracker, so that the email thread about a bug is tracked WITH the bug.
Allows incoming emails to be recorded as bugs. So, for example, an email from your customer could automatically be turned into an bug/ticket in the tracker.
Allows you to attach files and screenshots to bugs. There is even a custom screen capture utility [screenshot] that lets you take a screenshot, annotate it, and post it as a bug with just a few clicks. (inspired by Fogbugz)
Add your own custom fields.
Custom bug lists, filtered and sorted the way you want, with the columns that you want.
You can display bugs of a certain priority and/or status in a different color, so that the most important items grab your attention.
Configure different user roles to see different lists of bugs. For example, a developer might see a list of open bugs. A QA analyst might want to see a list of bugs ready for testing.
(and more…)
![[screenshot]](http://ifdefined.com/bugtracker_screen_capture.jpeg){kind=link}
Like I said, if you’re a small team that just needs to coordinate on issues, this platform could be perfect.
(BTW, this is not a sponsored post–I just want to point out some software that I like).
Don’t delay your merging
Another one of those lessons learned posts. I know I’m supposed to merge changes across branches often to minimize the pain, but I didn’t do it.
Here’s the scenario: We’ve got 3 development branches: 6.3, 6.4, and 7.0 (the trunk). 6.3 and 6.4 are technically maintenance branches because we didn’t anticipate needing to them, but we are. Here’s where it gets funny. 6.4 is actually a branch off of 7.0 with some new features removed. 6.4 is the code base converted to handle unicode. 6.3 is the current development version, and it’s features need to be merged into 6.4 These two branches are rather divergent in places. It’s been months since the branches were synchronized. In addition to 20 conflicted files, the 13 localized resource DLLs can’t automatically be merged because their location changed. Yeesh…
So now I’m spending all day using DiffMerge to do these files. Not a fun day…
Lesson learned. Do frequent merges.
At least it’s Friday. Tomorrow, my wife and I are heading down to North Carolina to visit my grandmother before she heads to California for Christmas.
By the way, still no Internet at home. Comcast says it could be 28 days before the local construction company gets around to installing the new drop to our home. I’ve been getting a lot of piano practice and reading in.
San Francisco Restaurants – Dining Guide
We have another sponsor! MyChoyce.com is a free dining guide for the San Francisco area. And wow. It’s nice. I am really wishing something like this existed for the Washington, DC metro area. The site is attractive, easy to use. And they have menus! Awesome.
You can search and filter by food, services, location, price. I’ve used a few restaurant locaters, with varying results, but so far I like this one the best. If you live in the bay area, check them out. If you’re a restaurant owner–I would get onto this site fast.
Thanks to them for their sponsorship, and if you know somebody who would like a little bit of extremely affordable publicity, send them to BuyMeALego.com!
Free Resume Review – Professional Service
I’ve mentioned Free Resume Review before, but I want to now mention their paid services. In addition to their free offerings, you can make a payment and get even more options and services, including:
- Increased chances of securing employment. Our resumes have a high rate of success in landing interviews.
- A contemporary, stylish, unique digital resume or cover letter.
- A personalized resume or cover letter. No templates!
- Free review of your new resume or cover letter as often as you like.
- Confidentiality: Unlike some other sites, we will not share your personal information with anyone.
- Personal contact and expert advice from a resume or cover letter professional.
Go check them out if your looking for resume advice, need a career change, or just want to see how your resume measures up. Also, thanks to them for sponsoring BuyMeALego.com!
No Internet at home
It is really hard not having Internet service at home. Really, really hard. It’s not that I spend every minute checking e-mail, but the lack of ability to check makes the desire that much stronger.
It went out Friday night, sometime after 9 PM. I called Saturday morning, they sent a tech on Sunday night. He determined that the signal was very weak, and that it was weak coming into the house, and that it was so old it had probably corroded to the point where it was useless (these houses are very old). So they have to run a new drop from the junction box into the home, which they will do tomorrow…
It is making it hard to update BuyMeALego.com, my blog, and accomplish a lot of other personal communications. I can do a little at work, but it’s hard…
Door to Door Organics
A few months ago, Leticia and I signed up for a service called DoorToDoorOrganics. Simply put, this is a way to get farm-fresh, organic produce from local farmers, delivered to your door.
How it works is this:
- Create an account, decide on the size and type of box you want.
- Decide how often you want–every week or every two weeks (or just once)
- Friday before the week of delivery, you’ll get an e-mail. You can go to the site and customize the items in your box.
- Get the box on Wednesday via UPS. It has ice packs, food is fresh.
- Eat. Enjoy good, fresh food.
The quality of food is really high. And you also get occasional things that are new and different. We’ve loved it. We never have to go to the store for this stuff anymore. We go only occasionally now for milk, eggs, bread. Maybe every two months for a huge stocking trip.
Technorati Tags: DoorToDoorOrganics,organic food,vegetables
How to really have Middle East peace
With the talks in Annapolis this week between Middle East governments, peace is on a lot of people’s minds. A meeting like this, while it won’t solve anything immediately, does illustrate the point that you can’t reasonably talk and fight at the same time. With that in mind, I have a permanent solution.
How do you avoid getting things done at your job? You have meetings. You have meetings to plan your work. You have meetings to plan the meetings to plan your work. You have meetings about why the last meeting failed. You have meetings to decide to continue the meetings.
So let’s schedule everybody for a meeting once or twice a year for the next 500 years. Send them all a recurring Outlook appointment.
Of course, you’d have to make the punishment for not showing up pretty severe (like getting fired). Maybe just create an elite international team of kidnappers that will retrieve a missing president. (By the way, it wouldn’t do for the presidents to send delegations–they all have to come in person).
But what to do at these meetings? After a hundred years or so, they will have discussed everything in detail, so I suggest moving on to games. We’ll start with something formal and proper, like chess. After a few hundred years of international presidential chess (televised live, of course), they’ll begin to loosen up and we can move on to more interesting things, like Twister or water polo. Anybody who starts a war that year gets picked last.