Desolé, temporarairement inaccessible

Three links to sign up...
-- none of which work.

Desolé, temporarairement inaccessible
-- Nice broken header graphic, too.

Bubbles, Labels, and Turkeys

Some random bits of amusement, all safe for work.

• Modeling & Condom Bubbles
• Economic Bubble-Bursting
• You say you want an evolution?
• Empty Praise Can Be Harmful
• FARK trying to patent "Not Safe For Work"
• Gluttony in the UK

Your code is suboptimal!

Time to pay the bills. Thanks, Eric!

Your code is suboptimal!

In fact, it's patched...

... and buggy.

As always, the contents of this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions. This post should not be construed as an endorsement of any of CodeGear's software, only of The Evil Mastermind and his minions.

50 Ways To Be A Modeler

The Eclipse Modeling Project stands poised on the precipice, ready to break the 50 committer mark, just in time for M4 the holidays.

Are you that 50th person? Send me your headshot and details, and I'll add you into the fold.

If you're already listed but your information is out of date (because you are now a committer for more than one project?) reopen bug 182613 with your updated info. If you've so far neglected to send me a photo, now's your chance!

And now... some musical encouragement:

The model is all inside your head
Ed said to me
The answer is easy if you
Take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle
For notoriety
There must be fifty ways
To be a Modeler

He said it’s really not my habit
To intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning
Won’t be lost or misconstrued
But I’ll repeat myself
At the risk of flak from Euge
There must be fifty ways
To be a Modeler
Fifty ways to be a Modeler

Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

EclipseCON 2008 News

I can't believe I'm the first person to blog this, but it would appear that the nominations are open for the Eclipse Community Awards, to be announced of course on March 17 at EclipseCON 2008. Bjorn, Ian, what up? Anyway, here's some handy links:

• Nominations for Top Ambassador Award
• Nominations for Top Committer Award

In entertainment news, my two release engineering talks have been accepted, so it looks like

If you're curious what I do to convert insomnia into productivity for the Modeling project's component leads, come have a listen:

• Towards A Common Build Infrastructure: Designing For Reusability (short)
• Push-Button Building, Testing, and Publishing Your Plugins (long)

The New Rogers.com: 500% Better

Congrats, Rogers! Your new site fails to work even better than the previous one! That's quite an achievement!

I can't sign in, I can't go to 'Online Self Service', I can't recover my username or password, and I can't even register. It's as if your.rogers.com is completely broken, and that's a pretty impressive accomplishment! And it's not just in one browser, either - it's in Konqueror, Flock and Firefox, on two different machines (one ubuntu, the other debian). I'd check in Windows w/ IE, but let's be real. This isn't a browser issue.

Kudos, Rogers. Keep up the great work!

Beer-to-Peer Networking, Part 1

The following is an experiment in B2P networking, and an attempt to implement a cross-province UUBP transfer. (Aside: I had considered a cross-country experiment too, eg., Toronto to Porland, but I'm not sure how to implement such an idea, especially given the ever-tighter security policies at the US-Canada border. Any suggestions?)

I'd also like to say upfront that this experiment should not be construed as an irresponsible attempt to encourage others to mix beer (or any form of alcohol, really) w/ software development. Drinking and coding can lead to serious problems. Please, B2P responsibly.

While I realize I'm deviating from the spec, I've decided to implement using a more MDD-based approach, in that the message I plan to send via UUBP will not be an actual beer, but rather a model of a beer, which can then be extrapolated and ingested (and later digested!) at the receiving end.

Raw materials can be acquired from your nearest Beer Store and your office's mail room.

Required Materials

Next, the message is encapsulated for security using the "gift envelope" technique, which I presume won't cause licensing headaches or adoption problems as this technique is already widely used in the public domain.

Assembling the Inner Packet

Completed Inner Packet

Now, a second layer of encapsulation is required to ensure the packet can be properly delivered to its intended audience. While there is no real protection of malicious packet sniffing, this at least ensures that the casual observer won't want to intercept the packet. The procedure is very similar to the above, and so will be lest as an exercise for the reader.

With the completed packet, it was time to attempt delivery. The UUBP spec says nothing about transport methods, so I'll first try a web-based approach:

First Delivery Attempt

Unfortunately, even with a 20" monitor, the packet is too large to be sent via the web:

Delivery Attempt Failure

After this initial setback, it was decided to try a more conventional delivery mechanism. This Canada Post node will be employed to transfer the completed packet to its destination.

Second Delivery Attempt: Success!

The UUBP packet is now in transit via the B2P network. With any luck, its recipient will receive it in a couple of days and take some shots, er, photos to complete Part 2.

UPDATE: See Part 2.

EMF: Dynamic gay erection? Virtually unbelievable!

It's been a while since my last linkdump from the world of EMF, so here's a quick update, brought to you by Google Alerts:

• People start using Apache Tuscany SDO and JSF to build dynamic web forms.
• Gay Ghost of The George Hotel found thanks to EMF.
• Guildwood residents take to the streets to picket the erection of a new Bell cell tower planned for the roof of a local church, citing fears of EMF (well, RF, anyway).
• EMF Touts Second Life Virtual Protest against IBM as a Success -- "[I]f IBM employees stick together, organize and actively challenge IBM [Italia] they can change [...] practices."
• And finally, it seems the band EMF is coming back. Believe it.

Tickle the EMO

Part three of last week's thread...

Option A		Option B
Sad emo.		Happy EMO.

Nine Out of Ten Dentists

Continuing from yesterday's thread...

Option A		Option B
Life without floss.		Life with FLOSS.

For a Few Dollars More

'Tis the season. Won't you give?

Option A		Option B
Eat. Eat. Eat.		Dedicated mirror site. Snazzy logo for your site. Your name in lights All this for ten cents a day.

No can has?

Small problem...
-- ... font too big? ... message too long? ... testing not done?

The system is... up!

Transient error messages are like fireflies. Caught these tonight, but they'd been squashed before I could stick a pin in them and add them to my collection.

Eclipsepedia has a problem

Software error

Bloggered

Tuesday was a bad day for Blogger, but a great day for my errata collection.

Blogger is currently unavailable.

HTTP method POST is not supported by this URL (Error 405)

Your request could not be processed.

Eclipse Development All-In-One

I'm shocked. Check this out:

Twelve per cent [of those companies surveyed] said they focussed “exclusively” on .Net development while an additional 49 per cent focussed “primarily” on .Net. Only three per cent of enterprises were exclusively Java shops, while an additional 20 per cent focussed “primarily” on Java.
...
But as more companies adopt Microsoft Exchange as their messaging software and SQL Server as their database, the decision to use .Net develop tools is “almost a no-brainer,” Goodall said. (source).

This seems counterintuitive to me. Sure, there's entrenchment. Sure, there's comfort in using Microsoft products as for most people that's who provides their operating system, office tools, and mail software. But c'mon, which companies did they survey? I'd love to find out but I can't find a copy of their survey results online, and even if I could I'm not about to cough up $150 - $990 for a 200K PDF file. Begs the question -- who commissioned this report, and how deep are their pockets? IMHO, there's a fine line between market research and marketing.

Or... is it possible that OSS people just don't have time to answer surveys because they're too busy contributing to their community? ;-)

Pointed pontifications aside, perhaps the real point here is that Microsoft does a better job at selling the 'one stop shop' idea of operating system + office tools + database + mail tools + mail server + dev platform. Sure, all of that is also available in the FLOSS / LAMP world, but are we failing to market it it as a cohesive offering? Is it still too disparate, too complex?

And has anyone thought of building an ubuntu + Ganymede self-contained offering? I know there's some cool virtual appliances out there, such as Grandma's LAMP, but AFAIK there's never been an attempt to bundle Eclipse w/ an OS for an all-in-one offering. Now that there's an Eclipse Store and an Eclipse Donations site, isn't it time for some Eclipse DVDs to complete the trifecta? Along with the new EPP bundles planned for next July, wouldn't it be cool to have an Eclipse Ganymede + ubuntu 08.04 Distro DVD? A collector's item, for sure.

Oh, and with the advent of the EMF4Net proposal (yes, that's EMF for the .Net plaftorm), this all-in-one DVD would also allow people to develop C# apps as well as Java. And php. And perl. And ruby. And python. And C/C++. Whoops, there we go again with too many choices. ;-) Once again, maybe Microsoft continues to dominate mindshare not because they're better or more entrenched, but out of a sense of simplicity.

So, here's my new mantra:

Simple is sexy.
Options are overwhelming.

Agree? Disagree? Post your thoughts here, or blog them and/or link here. I'd love to know your experiences as a customer or as a vendor, as a client or as a developer.

Pattern Match Searches Within Multiple Files And Archives

Have you ever wondered what plugin is locking a particular file extension, and forcing it to be opened with a certain editor? Or wanted to scan some plugins to check their copyright information? Whatever the filetype, this script will allow you to search inside zips and jars for text files matching a given regular expression. Sure, there's probably a graphical way to do this, but nothing beats the purity of the almighty commanline.

Here's some sample output, looking for the plugins that lock *.mod files:

$ find.in.zip.sh ~/eclipse/eclipse-plugins-other "*.jar" "plugin.xml" "extensions.*.mod" -verbose

** [1] /tmp/plugins/org.eclipse.wst.dtd.core_1.1.200.v200710021541.jar!plugin.xml **
41-     <extension point="org.eclipse.core.runtime.contentTypes">
42-             <content-type
43:                     file-extensions="dtd,mod,ent"
44-                     priority="normal"
45-                     name="%DTD_Content_Type_Extension_Element.name"

** [2] /tmp/plugins/org.eclipse.wst.xml.ui_1.0.400.v200711071909.jar!plugin.xml **
16-     <extension point="org.eclipse.wst.xml.ui.catalogFileType">
17-             <fileType
18:                     extensions="dtd, ent, mod"
19-                     description="%_UI_PREF_DTD_FILES"
20-                     id="org.eclipse.wst.xml.core.ui.catalogFileType.dtd">

Looking for files that aren't in zips? Use this simpler script:

$ find.sh ~/eclipse/eclipse-plugins-enable34/ "feature.xml" "2007 by" -verbose

** [1] /tmp/features/org.eclipse.eclipsemonkey_1.0.0.200706060947/feature.xml **
11-
12-   <copyright>
13:      Portions copyright 2007 by Aptana Inc.
14:Other portions copyright 2006-2007 by Eclipse Foundation Inc.
15-   </copyright>
16-

Oh, and if you don't see red when you run these, make sure you have this in your ~/.bashrc, /etc/bashrc, or /etc/bash.bashrc file:

export GREP_OPTIONS='--color=auto'

Windows: A Survival Guide, Part 4: Long Paths

Specify a different file name?!?
-- How can you create a file you can't delete?

So what's the fix here? Rename the folders until the path is short enough for Windows to let you delete it. Or use Linux. ;-P

`man uubp`

On a lark (not a lart) I decided to waste a few minutes and installed the Debian funny-manpages and asr-manpages .deb packages. I tried the obvious man sex and man woman but then realized quickly there was no index to find all the rest.

Some quick digging into /usr/share/man found the "*.fun.gz" bundles, but that wasn't entirely useful either because pre-existing entries, like echo or date returned the real entries, not the spoofs. A little for f in $(find /usr/share/man -name "*fun.gz"); do g=${f/gz/txt}; man -l $f > $g; done later, and I've got them all as text files instead of gzipped nroff files.

To save you the work and serve up the funny, I've posted them here. You can beer me later.

Eclipse Modloling

As it's Friday and I'm not feeling creative, here's a lolcat (thanks to ICHC!) you can fill in yourself. I'll even give you a topic.

The Tigerstripe project proposal is now posted at Eclipse, ready for community feedback.

Is this a good thing? A bad thing? A corporate version of the existing Modeling Project? Should it be debranded and contributed to Modeling? Should it stay branded and exist on its own? Can the Eclipse Foundation really support a project coming with its own branding, if that branding isn't owned by Eclipse? (Consider the rebranding issues with Mylar/Mylyn & Maya/Maynstall.)

And as with Subversive/Subclipse and PDT/phpeclipse, is it really the best approach to have two projects competing for resources when they could instead be sharing them?

Frankly, I don't know enough about Tigerstripe to form an opinion yet. Read it yourself. Post your comments or lolz below.

Woof, meow, and get out of the way.

Modeler Bees

And now a little ditty to cheer up my fellow modelers out there on this miserably wet & grey day. If you're not already a regular in #eclipse-modeling, please drop in and say hi! Thanks to Dave Steinberg for his invaluable assistance in writing this one, and to Ed for the bee pic.

March on, modeler bees!
Know your MDD!

We take our orders given by the spec
Our PMC leaders are Ed and Rich
If you resist us you will feel our sting
Don't code by hand when you can use codegen

Control input with importers!
Control output with genmodel!
Follow the schema totally!
We can reuse our models

March on, modeler bees!
Use your MDT!

A Ph.D. once coming from the west,
And in a flash! OMG, made a nest
Supply of models flowing bottomless
Input any form, you're not powerless

Bidi reference handshaking!
Reflection: code generically!
Conform to schema totally!
We save time with our models

And we'll merge... along, with our genmodel
And we'll fly... our JETs, with our templates drawn
Can the suits... in blue, believe what we've done?
We can regen our models

And we'll merge... along, with our codegen on
And define... constraints, validators drawn
Can even... record, changes that we've done
When we modify data

Can we persist our models?
Yes, go see E-M-F-T!

Billy Talent - Worker Bees

Defraggin' Physical

I wanna trash you baby
I wanna take you off
I wanna reformat you
The way you grind and grind and die
I want you right off my disk
So gone from my drive
Don't need a key to my OS
Or a phone to call n' snitch

Cuz you're too physical, physical to me
You're just too physical, physical to me

Don't want your Vista baby
I want this right in your ear
Don't need to buy new hardware
No closed source OS now let's be clear
Don't want the touch of your bugs
The constant updates
Don't wanna say all those things
That would be better unsaid
No!

But you're too physical, physical to me
Who needs a 2 Gig swap file, eh?
Used to come out on floppies
Now you're a whole DVD
You're really jus- just too- just
Defraggin'? No!

You're just too physical [x2]
Defraggin' physical
No no no no no no no!
Oh you're too physical
Just too physical
Just too

nin - physical (you're so)

M & 3s

You and I should get away for a while
I just want to be alone with your smile
Download some features and plugins to update the IDE
We'll blast the stereo and we'll build with PDE

Because when I'm with you there's nothing I couldn't do
I just want to be your only fool
I'm grasping out at straws thinking back to what I saw
That night I tried to use that other tool

IRC was getting so bland
There are only so many ways to type '~faq' with one hand
Sometimes it makes me want to laugh
Sometimes I want to take the toaster in the bath

Because when we're with you there's nothing we couldn't do
And now it's time to share that love
We all oughta be testin' out Gany M3
Cuz there's no free help coming down from above

Who wants to live the bleeding edge?
I want to to live the bleeding edge.
Are you going to help testin'
Or are you assuming it'll work out in the end?

Blink 182 - M & Ms

Happy Usability

I'm sure you've all heard is a million times. Boy meets tech. Boy falls in love with tech. Boy documents tech. Boy shares tech with others. Others read documents, scratch heads. Doc gets rewritten. ;-) Yes, this comes from recent personal experience. Just a day in the life.

dev screams he thinks he knows what you want
dev screams thinks he has something well said
dev screams hears feedback but doesn't wanna listen
dev screams he's being beat into submission

don't open your eyes you won't like what you see
designing for truth or usability
don't open your eyes take it from me
i have found
you can find
happy usability [x2]

dev screams he spends his life rewriting wikis
dev screams he claims it's fun - yeah right - no really
dev screams he's got to start all over again
dev screams at least sometimes others share my pain

don't RTFM you won't like what you see
there's too much detail or a scarcity
don't open your eyes take it from me
i have found
you can find
happiness in ID [x3]
happiness

i don't know what i am but i know where i've been
releng work just words so much buildin'
stick my hands in the code of this endless routine
help the folks caught in this big modelin' machine

happy in codeslavery

nin - happiness in slavery

Password Reset Hell

My Notes password expired on the weekend. November 11th, in fact. Apparently the 'lest we forget' messages about WWI and WWII this weekend made me forget about the triviality of my password expiry. Oops.

So, I logged in this morning to discover I couldn't get on my VPN network. Called lab IT support. Was told to talk call Corporate support, via the 888 number.

No, they couldn't just forward me there. No, there's no IVR automated option for 'Password reset' which auto-forwards my call there.

So, I called the 888 number, and got 4 options, none of which fit my problem. You'd think this would be a FAQ and thus merit a menu option, but apparently not.

Tried the "other resets" option, which tells me to use a website which I can't access because it's behind the VPN firewall. Woo, circles.

Backed up one menu and tried the password reset option for the old AT&T VPN client, which generated an email sent to me (which I can't access as I can't get on the VPN) and to my manager. Manager pinged acting manager, who pinged me on IRC. Thank the gods I managed to convince him to lurk in #eclipse-modeling!

End of story? Hardly. Password didn't work.

Called lab IT support again. Explained problem. Told to call the 888 number again, but this time pick 'Notes password reset' and then speak to a human. Why is 'VPN password reset' hidden under 'Notes password reset' in the IVR menu? Good question.

Called 888 again, chose the Notes option, and was told "for Notes password resets, go see the website ... or, if you tried that and it didn't work (way to instill confidence there), stay on the line and we'll let you talk to a human." (Yes, I'm paraphrasing.) Sat on hold about a minute. Got a human, who reset my password. Woohoo.

Manager pinged acting manager who passed it on to me and this time it worked. Logged into VPN. Story over? No, it gets better.

Fired up Notes. Notes password had expired (Notes has been nagging me for a week to reset my expiring password, but I didn't get any reminders about my VPN password's expiry, and had forgotten that they now expire on the same schedule). So, I can't check mail until reset the password. Used the new one so that they'd be in synch and expire together. All is well?

No, not yet. Checked mail. Found note with new *temporary* password in it, expiring in 24hrs. Damn, gotta pick a new one. Went to password reset website to set new password. Stored new password in password store for safekeeping.

Now I have to reset my Notes password again so that it's the same as the network one. Click File > Security > User Security. Prompted for password. Click Change Password. Prompted for password again. Why do I need to enter my old password three times (at login, to access security options, to change password) to change it? Good question.

An hour of productivity lost, including 4 phone calls and wasting the time of both my managers, just to reset a password. Must be Monday.

403'd

Error 403: Access Forbidden!

Fallen Leafs

Hee hee. Cracked rips the Toronto Maple Leafs a new one for their willfull mispluralizing "leaves," even if that's allowable. Me, I just point and laugh whenever anyone says "maybe this year." Not until the franchise starts to suffer will management pay for skilled players. Still, I can't complain -- afterall, SWMNBN's pension is heavily invested in MLS&E.

Lies, damned lies, and a side order of acronym soup

By my calculations, EMF has scored over 2 million download requests since 2006-01-01. That's a huge number, but it's also an inaccurate number because our stats gen was broken for a while so there's a big hole in the Update Manager download stats. As such it's probably much higher, given the traffic we've had since the stats tool was fixed.

Looking at the overall numbers for all the tracked Modeling projects, we've had 5 million download requests since 2006-01-01 for EMF + M2T + MDT ... and that's just the Update Manager requests!

It's also fun to see who's downloading our bits. As expected, the US tops the chart, with Canada a respectable 8th. To get a sense for where EMF is used consider where the following projects are developed:

1. US: GMF, M2T-JET, WTP, TPTP, VE, ...
3. China: MDT-EODM, TPTP
5. France: EMFT, MDDi, M2M, GMT
8. Canada: EMF & EMF-QTV, MDT (UML2 & OCL), M2T-JET, GEF, GMF, WTP, TPTP, ...
12. The Netherlands: EMFT-Teneo
17. Czech Republic: GMF, MDT-UML2 Tools

To paraphrase Ed and the Zulu people, "umuntu ngumuntu MDD!" ;-)

Beyond CVS, Subversion & Cirrus

Some news about the Beyond CVS project:

1. With the release of version 0.7.0, Chris recently added support for doing SVN compares.
2. Because of this, "Beyond CVS" is now a bit of a misnomer, so we're thinking of refactoring the project to better represent its scope and use. As part of this, we're wondering if the WinSCP and Putty support should be moved to another project or just a secondary feature/plugin. If you use this project, please let us know your thoughts.
3. Beyond Compare 3 Beta (aka Cirrus) is almost ready for its public beta release. It's got some cool new features like native Linux support (including -flags instead of /flags), three-way compares/merges, better syntax colouration, the ability to copy entire blocks of changes instead of just single lines, and the ability to edit files right in the Text Compare view.

For anyone who's in the private beta group, here's a quick patch in order to be able to use Beyond CVS with Cirrus on Linux. (Windows users need no such patch as the old BC2 commandline syntax is still supported in BC3.)

$ diff -u Cirrus.sh Cirrus.sh.new
--- Cirrus.sh   2007-11-01 22:08:42.000000000 -0400
+++ Cirrus.sh.new       2007-11-01 22:25:39.000000000 -0400
@@ -22,7 +22,12 @@

 #execute the program.
 chmod u+x $EXEC
-$EXEC $* >& /dev/null
+while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
+  if [[ $1 != "/rightreadonly" ]]; then
+    args=$args" "$1; shift 1;
+  fi
+done
+$EXEC $args >& /dev/null
 #$EXEC $* >& $BASE/Cirrus.log

Stay tuned for news of the public beta!

Dr. Strangechannel Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IRC

An excerpt of today's #eclipse channel log, showing three things:

1. PDT is hard to install for newbies, especially considering how their website is misleading
2. some people would rather rant than file a bug
3. life is surreal sometimes
4. UPDATE: apparently, this isn't DarthJesus' first appearance

(16:25:52) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@unaffiliated/jargon] entered the room.
(16:26:12) DarthJesus: how do i change from java to php in eclipse?
(16:26:26) DarthJesus: it took me 17 hours to figure that out last time
(16:27:10) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: define "change from java to php"
(16:27:40) DarthJesus: if eclipse no longer does php i am boycotting your damn product that took 
8 hours to download and used precious hdd space
(16:28:01) rcjsuen: I never implied it did or no longer did php, I am merely asking for further 
clarification.
(16:28:14) DarthJesus: i want to make a php workspace
(16:28:17) rcjsuen: You are welcome to boycott Eclipse though, we won't stop you.
(16:28:25) DarthJesus: it defaults as java
(16:28:25) rcjsuen: So basically you want PHP capabilities.
(16:28:49) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: Windows -> Open Perspective -> PHP
(16:28:57) rcjsuen: So ask yourself, how would I add PHP capabilities to Eclipse?
(16:29:01) rcjsuen: ~g eclipse php
(16:29:01) KOS-MOS: Try googling - http://google.com/search?q=eclipse+php
(16:29:04) rcjsuen: Would be a good start
(16:29:07) d_a_carver: Windows -> Open Perspective -> Other -> PHP actually
(16:29:20) DarthJesus: there is no php perspective
(16:29:39) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: Did you download and install the PDT plugins.
(16:29:39) DarthJesus: you wasted 8 hours of my life
(16:29:49) nickboldt: DarthJesus: if you've got JDK 5.0 + Eclipse 3.3 + PDT 1.0, you get all you 
need for php dev
(16:29:56) nickboldt: ~wiki PDT/FAQ
(16:29:56) KOS-MOS: Check out this wiki article - http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/PDT/FAQ
(16:30:13) DarthJesus: i dont have that much hdd space
(16:30:15) rcjsuen: Surely you were doing something else when you waited 8 hours for Eclipse to
download.
(16:30:36) DarthJesus: i was staring at the screen wishing i was home with my niece and nephew
(16:30:38) rcjsuen: phpeclipse might be smaller as a plug-in
(16:30:46) rcjsuen: Since that has less deps than PDT
(16:31:03) nickboldt: the PDT all-in-one install is 140M; add a JDK for about 60-80M and you're 
done
(16:31:05) DarthJesus: i dont want ANY  of the java crap
(16:31:07) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: In that case shouldn't you have done some research prior to 
downloading it?
(16:32:03) nickboldt: yes, phpeclipse is 60-80M (JDK) + eclipse (40-50M) + 15M (phpeclipse)
(16:32:06) DarthJesus: i just hit download eclipse prior known as php ide
(16:32:18) DarthJesus: you have falsified info in your download page
(16:32:20) rcjsuen: prior known as php ide?
(16:32:27) DarthJesus: yes says so on site
(16:32:31) DarthJesus: on download page
(16:32:33) rcjsuen: Please provide a link.
(16:32:35) nickboldt: DarthJesus: what URL, please
(16:32:38) rcjsuen: So we ca nverify this
(16:32:44) rcjsuen: And talk to the necessary personnel to correct it
(16:32:46) rcjsuen: if we made such a claim
(16:33:00) rcjsuen: on eclipse.org itself, we claim "Eclipse is an open source community whose
projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks,
tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large 
and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research 
institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform."
(16:33:07) rcjsuen: which actually has no mention of Java or PHP
(16:33:24) DarthJesus: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/
(16:33:35) DarthJesus: downloads from the pdt former phpide
(16:33:48) rcjsuen: so what then
(16:33:50) rcjsuen: did you click on?
(16:33:50) DarthJesus: nowhere does it say that they arent fractions of the deal
(16:34:10) DarthJesus: no does it say they are fractions of phpide
(16:34:14) DarthJesus: nor*
(16:34:20) DarthJesus: its misleading
(16:34:20) nickboldt: ~bug207098
(16:34:21) KOS-MOS: Bug 207098 - Downloads page claims Eclipse ships w/ a JRE when this is 
patently untrue - https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=207098
(16:34:22) rcjsuen: so from that link what did you click next
(16:34:33) DarthJesus: your wording wasted 8 hours of my life
(16:34:36) rcjsuen:   R20070917?
(16:34:39) DarthJesus: and much hdd space
(16:34:40) nickboldt: DarthJesus: please post your comments in that bug so the PDT people will 
fix the error
(16:34:50) rcjsuen: you just went to the page, then what happened
(16:35:22) DarthJesus: downloads from the PDT (former PHP IDE) project
(16:35:28) rcjsuen: and then?
(16:35:29) DarthJesus: big fat lie
(16:35:39) nickboldt: DarthJesus: did you download the 'all in one' ?
(16:35:40) d_a_carver: Which link did you click, DarthJesus from that page.
(16:35:45) nickboldt: it's only 120M
(16:35:45) rcjsuen: Which link did you click on
(16:35:50) rcjsuen: what happened next
(16:35:53) rcjsuen: you read "PHP IDE" and went "okay i want this"
(16:35:55) rcjsuen: then what happened
(16:35:59) DarthJesus: it should say in big blazing letters if you want php ide download all in 
one
(16:36:05) nickboldt: hehe
(16:36:15) rcjsuen: So what you did was download Eclipse Classic?
(16:36:18) nickboldt: http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDT/FAQ#Installation
(16:36:25) DarthJesus: who the hell uses eclipse for java?
(16:36:28) DarthJesus: o.o
(16:36:32) nickboldt: I've been asking the PDT folks to improve their documentation 
(16:36:32) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: Could you please just answer the question?
(16:36:39) nickboldt: but sadly the best I can do is update the wiki
(16:36:48) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: There are many developers that do work both in Java and PHP.
(16:36:59) DarthJesus: 1.0 Stable Build   S20070910-RC1   2007-09-11 03:30:52 -0400
(16:37:11) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: Assuming you weren't being sarcastic, Eclipse is written in 
Java, so we use Eclipse to write Eclipse, so yes, we use Eclipse for Java.
(16:37:16) DarthJesus: i used the open source whatever mirror
(16:37:23) rcjsuen: okay, so yo uwent to 
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/?release=S20070910-RC1
(16:37:28) rcjsuen: then what hapepend
(16:37:43) rcjsuen: Which link did you click on next?
(16:38:03) rcjsuen: There is a Requirements section that details what you need although per 207098 it doesn't include a JRE.
(16:38:06) rcjsuen: there is also "PDT All-in-One package includes the complete set of software 
to start using PDT immediately. This package already has PDT combined with the complete set of 
prerequisites - you will not need anything else."
(16:38:10) DarthJesus: Eclipse SDK v3.3 version used in this build is here: Linux -->Windows<-- Mac OS X.
(16:38:24) rcjsuen: okay, so you downloaded that, extracted/what-not
(16:38:26) nickboldt: ah, so you started dl'ing all the prereqs
(16:38:28) rcjsuen: and now you want PHP capabilities?
(16:38:39) DarthJesus: i only want phpide
(16:38:45) DarthJesus: i dont give a damn about java
(16:38:48) rcjsuen: But I guess you missed the all-in-one section
(16:38:51) rcjsuen: while reading down the page
(16:38:55) nickboldt: DarthJesus:  
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/tools/pdt/downloads/drops/R20070917/all-in-one/pdt-all-in-one-1.0-R20070917-win32.zip
(16:38:58) rcjsuen: but instead jumped straight to the requirements one-by-one
(16:39:03) DarthJesus: i clicked top link on every page
(16:39:11) nickboldt: get that. install that. install a JDK (you need it to run Eclipse). voom, 
done
(16:39:14) rcjsuen: That's certainly fair. I may have done that myself.
(16:39:20) DarthJesus: all in one should be top link on every page
(16:39:25) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: File a bug and tell them
(16:39:39) nickboldt: or add your comments into bug 207098
(16:39:44) rcjsuen: both would be nice
(16:39:54) nickboldt: they need to be told how painfully unusable their site is
(16:40:00) rcjsuen: but you should file a bug for your suggestion
(16:40:03) rcjsuen: because that's what affected YOU
(16:40:10) nickboldt: (which is funny cuz PHP is more often used for web, so you'd think...) ;-)
(16:40:10) DarthJesus: btw use goddamn deflate64 or lzwa or whatever like a normal person
(16:40:15) DarthJesus: .zip is OLD
(16:40:25) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: If  you  have a problem with that, file a bug too.
(16:40:59) DarthJesus: i took atleast 30x longer to download than it should had were it properly 
compressed
(16:41:18) nickboldt: DarthJesus: ranting at us won't help. file a bug and tell the PDT folks
(16:41:21) d_a_carver: Anybody know if the PDT folks are going to be at EclipseCon, we can corner 
them then.
(16:41:26) rcjsuen: Sorry, we're not from the PDT team.
(16:41:29) rcjsuen: neither nickboldt d_a_carver or me
(16:41:37) rcjsuen: you can rant at us but we can't do anything about it
(16:41:46) rcjsuen: and it's just wasting your own time ranting at us
(16:41:49) rcjsuen: you seem strapped for time
(16:41:49) DarthJesus: i can blackmail you :P
(16:41:51) nickboldt: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=pdt&component=Website
(16:41:52) rcjsuen: use it on something that matters
(16:41:56) rcjsuen: filing bugs to _them_
(16:42:02) d_a_carver: We've asked the PDT team to send somebody here, but no takers as of yet.
(16:43:10) DarthJesus: don't use deflate32 to compress the damn downloads, do: put all in one as 
top link on every page
(16:43:45) nickboldt: DarthJesus: don't: bitch at us; do: open a bug. ;-)

...

(16:48:47) ***DarthJesus presses forehard into blank space on laptop
(16:49:09) DarthJesus: your site is total crap
(16:49:15) DarthJesus: i demand it be reworked
(16:49:18) d_a_carver: file a bug
(16:49:28) DarthJesus: its not a bug, its stupidity
(16:49:33) DarthJesus: fire you sys admin
(16:49:57) nickboldt: DarthJesus: it's open source. to "demand" without opening a bug is like 
pissing on your car to make it start
(16:50:23) nickboldt: follow the process and you'll get what you want. 
(16:50:38) DarthJesus: there are 134 people in here
(16:50:47) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: And?
(16:50:55) DarthJesus: i am telling 134 people to get off their butt and fix the site
(16:51:06) mxttie: DarthJesus, you are one of the 134
(16:51:09) rcjsuen: But we don't have access, to that site.
(16:51:11) nickboldt: DarthJesus:none of the people in here are PDT committers
(16:51:18) rcjsuen: nickboldt: At least, we don't think so.
(16:51:19) rcjsuen: ;)
(16:51:25) DarthJesus: then why does this channel exist?
(16:51:27) rcjsuen: mxttie: touche
(16:51:38) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: To help users like you and to help each other.
(16:51:40) d_a_carver: for general eclipse support regardless of project.
(16:51:48) nickboldt: not to whinge about the websites
(16:52:06) rcjsuen: But you do not seem to want to help yourself or help other people that may 
hit the same problem as you tomorrow, for instnace.
(16:52:37) nickboldt: (note it's websites plural -- one per project -- if you (as I've said at 
least three times already) have a problem with the PDT website, open a bug: 
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=pdt&component=Website)
(16:52:59) d_a_carver: by filing the bug reports you will potentially help people that may run 
into the same issue as you, without it, it'll still exist and may never be addressed.
(16:53:01) DarthJesus: ok i will file a bug: use lzwa asshat and put all in one as top link on 
every page or i will blow up the erie canal
(16:53:09) DarthJesus: :P
(16:53:13) rcjsuen: okay, good
(16:53:15) nickboldt: DarthJesus: yeah, that'll certainly be addressed
(16:53:17) rcjsuen: Tell us the bug # when it's been filed.
(16:53:36) rcjsuen: nickboldt: I'll take the benefit of the doubt that DarthJesus is not going 
to write that literally.
(16:53:47) nickboldt: rcjsuen: here's hoping he's being flippant
(16:54:18) d_a_carver: at least DarthJesus if you create the bug, we can monitor it and ping them
on the issue every once in a while.
(16:54:23) rcjsuen: not 'take', gah, bad grammar
(16:54:41) d_a_carver: Anybody cruise the PDT newgroups to see how responsive they are there?
(16:55:06) rcjsuen: d_a_carver: Not me.
(16:55:46) DarthJesus: i've blown up a canal before x.x
(16:56:58) DarthJesus: just get a big enough sodium brick and enough gallons of kerosine and drop
it from a plane
(16:57:58) Zerone: ah rcjsuen :)
(16:59:06) d_a_carver: rcjsuen: looks like they have one guy that is pretty active.  I may drop a
note about a couple of bugs in that newsgroup to hopefully get some action going.
(16:59:13) DarthJesus left the room (quit: Nick collision from services.).
(16:59:21) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@ip68-99-90-88.ph.ph.cox.net] entered the room.
(17:00:03) DarthJesus: i am agent palmer with the fbi
(17:00:24) DarthJesus: do not associate with the man you have been speaking to under this screen 
name
(17:00:27) DarthJesus: he is flippant
(17:00:37) DarthJesus: crimnally flippant
(17:02:43) DarthJesus: when invited to our office for a job interview he put cappucino mix in our 
water dispenser and mircodots in our tea kettles
(17:03:10) DarthJesus: why does the fbi need tea kettles?
(17:03:17) DarthJesus: ...wouldn't you like to know...
(17:03:30) nickboldt: DarthJesus: perhaps to make tea?
(17:03:41) DarthJesus: ABORT ABORT
(17:03:51) DarthJesus left the room (quit: Client Quit).

...

(17:12:57) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@unaffiliated/jargon] entered the room.
(17:13:19) DarthJesus: ok who was calling me on the phone?
(17:13:47) ***DarthJesus glares
(17:16:06) DarthJesus: it was some sort of satanic loud annoying beep noise
(17:16:35) DarthJesus: i simply said 'i dont do ctty' and hung up
(17:21:30) ***DarthJesus pases out ..... dart in neck... gak

Powerfully Lame Marketing

I'm not one to bash the competition, but I need to mention this. zx pointed me to a "Pro NetBeans" site, bearing this post:

But lame attempts at humour aside, this site is whois-privacy-blocked:

Administrative Contact:
   Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
   Whois Agent (hvbffrld@whoisprivacyprotect.com)
   +1.4252740657
   Fax: +1.4256960234
   PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
   C/O pronetbeans.com
   Bellevue, WA 98007
   US

Most of the posts (almost all by "admin") are about Sun's point-releases of their JDK (snore), or features in NetBeans. Who's moderating this site? Could it be the NetBeans girls? Certainly isn't the Eclipse Ladies... ;-)

On the plus side, Amazon isn't so "Pro NetBeans" with its site ads (they're not all O'Reilly, o'really).

Notes 7 vs. 8: Inbox Folder Warning Message Smackdown

In today's installment of my ongoing series on Lotus Notes' unique personality, I present a nuissance warning message that apparently means nothing and affects nothing. But it appears three times, just to make sure I'm sufficiently warned. Granted, it only appears if you do something really odd (like installing Notes 8 on top of Notes 7, which I'm sure is NOT a supported install method), then go back to using Notes 7. Still, it's pretty funny, for me at least.

Here's how you can play along at home:

1. Install Notes 7 (WMC) on Linux
2. Install Notes 8 on Linux (on top)
3. Create a folder in your Inbox database (er, "application") with Notes 8
4. Try to open that folder w/ Notes 7, and you get this warning message three times:

Not a member: GETPROPERTYBROKER
-- Clicking OK three times disposes the warnings,
and everything apparently works fine.
Thank goodness I was warned!

I never meta data I didn't like

In my collection of web-based errata (ever wondered why this site is called Division By Zero?), I've snagged a lot of Google snafus. Here's my first Google-IBM composite snafu -- an Adsense ad from IBM sitting next to my Gmail:

NEED META TAG DESCRIPTION HERE
-- Yes, quite.

Then, clicking on the link for 'More related pages >>' yielded this:

Temporary Error (502)
-- Does that mean "502 (Bad Gateway). When a server acts
as a go-between it may receive an invalid request. This code is
returned when that happens" [1]? Or is it more like this 502? ;-)

Happy 15th, Thinkpad!

I'm on my 4th Thinkpad (770X, T23, T40, T60p) since I started at IBM, and with the exception of the first motherboard in the T40 (which died within the first few weeks and was quickly replaced), they've all survived admirably.

Happy 15th, Thinkpad!

Rules

NOTE: For the record, there should be no inferred or implied interpretation of the selection of the source tune used for this parody. Simply, I was out walking my dogs this afternoon through Curran Hall Ravine, listening to that album, and it struck me as a perfect rhythm to talk about the benefits of structure and rules in terms of clarity, consistency, and ease of use. Ed uses photos & analogies, I use punk songs & parodies.

I don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to imply that the EMO's rules are somehow bad, malicious, or simply just lies. ;-) Au contraire, Bjorn's readiness to improve processes and simplify overhead proves the opposite. I'm well aware that we're all in this together and the point of setting rules and standards is to ensure things are done legally, consistently, and without perceived bias toward any given member company or other.

Anyway, enjoy...

Rules

Stored conversations, open processes
Some think we're stupid, that's their thing
But we build useful tools, coordinate with rules
So we can overcome

Lambasting critics, with naught but rhet'ric
Your accusations have worn thin
But we've got work to do, and out in public, too
We've got one on you!

Rules... make it better
Rules... aren't forever
Rules... to be consistent
Rules... for the betterment
Rules... from the EMO
Rules... from the Councils
Rules... keep IP clean
Rules... 'till review's done... rules

Management office, process designers,
With best intentions at heart, yeah
Try to improve workflows
Despite critical shmoes
Truly this job blows

But when there's...

Rules... (to) make it better
Rules... (that) aren't forever
Rules... simplification
Rules... for automation
Rules... don't like 'em? change 'em
Rules... we'll rearrange 'em
Rules... keep things structured
Rules... 'nuff damn lectures...
[x2]

RULES!

Rules are designed to serve you
Committer reps: your way for change
Rules are designed to serve you
Contact their home on the range!

Rules... make it better
Rules... aren't forever
Rules... to be consistent
Rules... for the betterment
Rules... from the EMO
Rules... from the Councils
Rules... keep IP clean
Rules... 'till review's done...

Rules... (to) make it better
Rules... (that) aren't forever
Rules... simplification
Rules... for automation
Rules... don't like 'em? change 'em
Rules... we'll rearrange 'em
Rules... keep things structured
Rules... 'nuff damn lectures... rules

Billy Talent - Lies

Notes 8: The Good, The Bad, The YouTube Videos

Now that Ubuntu 7.10 is out, is it time to upgrade to Notes 8? Here's some random Notes 8 love:

• Review: Clunky but Clever -1 +1
• Video: Notes 8 on Linux w/ Beryl +2
• Video: New Features Demo +1
• Article: The Untimely Demise of CTRL-TAB -2
• Article: Notes 8.0.1 Screenshots & Previews +1
• Video: Notes 8.0.1 Preview (very little on the actual Notes (Eclipse) client, mostly about Notes via AJAX on the web or on a PDA) +1, if you're into that sorta thing

The Three Laws Of Eclipse

Bjorn just posted his first draft of The Three Laws Of Eclipse, ostensibly in response (in part anyway) to my perceived piercing from yesterday. Clearly not everyone was amused by my attempt at levity, and for that I'm sorry. That was not my intent.

In my humble opinion, The Three Laws is *EXACTLY* what we need. Something simple, concise, and easily referenced. (Unlike the rambling blog entry that will now follow.) ;-)

A couple of years ago I took a course about presentation skills called Think on your Feet (developed by McLuhan & Davies -- yes, that McLuhan), and one of the big things it stressed was what I'll call 'the rule of three':

1. Three bullets to a section, three items on a slide.
2. Three aspects of a topic (points in time, degrees of complexity, etc.).
3. Three parts of a talk (intro, content, summary).

The human brain works well with the number three, for many reasons I won't bore you with. If you have a chance to take the course, I highly recommend it.

The reason I mention it is because the 'Three Laws of Eclipse' works perfectly in tune with the guidelines from that course -- you have three major rules, and the rules break into no more than 3 subpoints. This would work great as a powerpoint (for execs, PMCs, ID people, lawyers, policy people) and also as a quick wiki/webpage, as currently formed (for the geeks). Different audiences, different format; same content, same themes.

Because it's simple, it's memorable. Because it's memorable, it will stick with people.

And because it will stick, we'll stop feeling that the rules change too often. Or that there's too many.

Just for the sake of contrast, have a look at this 29-section legal-ish-style document.

Now, look at this page, where we find an explanation and history (in the linked bug) about why the document was changed, and everything relevant is conveyed in 3 (well, 4) easily-digested sections.

As a side note, perhaps annual changes aren't too often. As David says, the need for change is normal. Perhaps, as Mik points out, the problem is communication. This is IMHO twofold:

a) announcements of changes are not communicated to Joe Average Committer -- this could be my fault for not being subscribed to the right mailing list. Should these be done on cross-projects-issues-dev@ and/or the eclipse.org-planning-council@ lists? Or as a committer-wide announcement like the notes Denis sends once in a while about outages and new infrastructure? I'd say all of the above.

b) changes (due to (a)) seem to happen without a stated reason for the change. Again, this could be just the way my brain works: I need to know WHY a change is happening, even after I've accepted it's a good thing. And I need to be able to easily look up when and why so that when I've forgotten something (as I am wont) I can be shown the error of my ways by my own search or that of a friendly reminder from Bjorn. (This works both ways -- I nag Bjorn, he nags me, and over time we both fix things and improve. Win-win.)

So while I could probably pull the CVS history of documents and see when/why, it's not nearly as friendly as having a quick note sent to the committership at large saying "this rule has been changed from ___ to ___ because of problems with ____ so we're trying a new approach this year." Or better, having a bug to point at, like this page with this bug.

Oh, and just in case anyone out there thinks that from up on this pedestal of mine I don't strive to practice what I preach, contrast before with after, when I realized that the Modeling Releng doc had gotten too big for wikipedia to handle it, much less human users. (It's still too damn big, but hopefully more manageable when chunked up into smaller docs.) I'm open to suggestions if you have a better way.

Seems that 43 years later, it's still true. The way you convey information is often more important than the information itself.

So long, and thanks for all the FOSS

Recently, Wayne blogged that he's had to apologize for Linux's quirks.

Don't worry, Wayne, you're among friends. I've been apologizing for the better part of a year that my Thinkpad T60p w/ MEPIS 6.0:

• doesn't to dual-monitor very well (cursor on second screen tends to disappear, get mangled, or just freeze as it crosses from the laptop to the monitor, so I have a text-selection-pointer no matter what I'm doing on that screen)
• crashes unexpectedly when left alone for hours
• needs ALT-PrtSc,S,U,B to recover from said crashes, or from being put to sleep/suspend
• won't do wireless very well anymore (even with several reboots between config changes)
• sort of works with MEPIS' "bioauth" fingerprint reader, but needs to be swiped twice for every authorization and only works for SOME root-required password requests.

Actually, my current setup involves dual booting between Windows XP Pro and Linux, sharing the same ext3 partition and thus same Eclipse workspace in both OSes. There's a few quirks still to work out, like:

• .lnk files vs. cygwin symlinks -- .lnk files work in Explorer and Eclipse, but not in cygwin; conversely, cygwin symlinks don't work in Explorer or Eclipse. Pooh.
• all the filenames in your ext3-hosted workspace must be Windows-friendly in terms of length and special characters like ":" or the workspace loaded in Windows throws 'can't find file' errors and you can't save files. Double Pooh.

So far the dual-boot scenario is the best of both worlds, since I can share both features (using Eclipse Extension folders) and workspaces between the Eclipses... along with nearly identical shell access (Konsole or cygwin inside WinTabber), IM/IRC clients (Pidgin or Gaim), browsers (Firefox or Flock), office tools (MSO or OOo).

Besides, who doesn't apologize for Microsoft's stuff? Vista's "so annoying I'll just turn it off" security system? Outlook viruses like the dreaded Mailissa? IE exploits? Security patches that make things less secure? Or even just dumb-ass VBScript bugs?

But c'mon, it's okay to love your linux. It's cool. It's free (as in beer). And suffering is the road to enlightenment, or something like that.

No system is perfect. Just use what you love and tolerate its quirks, or divorce it for something sexier.

Release Review Today!

UPDATE: Clearly not everyone was amused by my attempt at levity here. My apologies.

Wake up, the EMO's on fire
And they're sick of policing th'entire
World of Eclipse releases
Cuz the PMCs should be

"Rename" is the last chance for hope
When there's no such thing as unrelease
Your GA build's in the ditch that
You dug yourself in

[Pre]
Last chance to get your slides in place
Nothing but hell to pay
If you forget your review

[Chorus]
Release Review Today - celebrate your SDK!
Post your N&N and hang 'em high
On the wiki and your home
Release Review Today - get on your knees and pray
Forget your review and you'll be screwed
But at least you're not alone

Marquee lights in the middle of June, now
Old bugs come back, no boon now
Your oldest allies are your long lost PMCs
Sit though the review and you'll find
That it's a +1'ing good time
Unless you're a hotbed of non-diversity

[Pre]

[Chorus]

Review Day! Vote +1!

[Pre2]
Last chance to get your slides in place
But the policies seem to change each day
When all you wanna do is... try to... comply

[Chorus] x 2

Review Day!

Green Day - Deadbeat Holiday

OS Nadir?

Of course, they're not the only ones having problems tonight:

Error: Completed Successfully

I love error messages like these:

Error: User request completed successfully
-- Great, then why can't I proceed?

Video Codecs & Unpacking Script

BitTorrent a lot?

Annoyed at always having to unrar, move the resulting video file, then move the source folder out of your incoming folder and into your 'ready to be deleted when share ratio is > 1' folder? (I use > 3.) I am. Here's a quick unpack script for doing the above in one simple command. Works with foo.rar and foo.part01.rar as the input file.

Secondly, do you find sometimes you can't play the videos you've downloaded? Or you try to share them with someone, and they work great for you but that someone can't play them? Here's a quick list of places to get a/v codecs/players for Windows. You may not need all of these, but if you can't play audio or video, try these. As always, YMMV.

1. Install updated Windows Media Player & DivX Codec/Player Bundle
2. Install codecs from c|net: [1], [2], [3] and Nimo

For linux users (*ubuntu, debian, etc.) see these walkthroughs for installing libdvdcss and w32codecs: [1], [2], [3].

Linux in the Mainstream

You know Linux -- well, ubuntu, anyway -- is gaining mainstream acceptance when it gets a nod on a show like Veronica Mars.

Meanwhile, here's a collection of some Linux / "I'm a Mac..." spoof ads:

• IBM Linux: Prodigy
• Novell Linux: #1
• Novell Linux: #2
• Novell Linux: #3
• TrueNuff: Gaming
• TrueNuff: Security
• TrueNuff: Portability
• TrueNuff: Upgrading
• TrueNuff: Services / Open Source
• Chinese Workers' Rights

Notes 8: Dead by Dawn

After just under two months of loving and hating Notes 8's usability issues, it has died completely, the result of several hard drive crashes & unsolicited KDE logouts.

But in true Lotus fashion, Notes 8 leaves me with these hauntingly unhelpful messages:

This software has encountered a problem and needs to close
-- ok, but what problem?

Failed to login
-- makes sense given the previous error message
and the fact I wasn't asked to login,
but how is this helpful?

The only saving grace here is that because I installed Notes 8 on top of Notes 7, I can still run Notes 7 even though 8 is no longer functional. Of course the dictionary is now utterly corrupt so every email I try to send throws an error message until I disable spellcheck...

Error accessing User Dictionary File
-- why can't we just fail gracefully here
and skip the spellcheck with a warning?

Delivery Options... > Basic > [ ] Auto spellcheck
-- there's apparently no way to turn this off by default

... And I already miss the 'more addictive than crack' 'cached locally for better performance' 'not just the IBMers' typeahead name lookup functionality of Notes 8 (which I got addicted to thanks to GMail, and Lotus had the good sense to adopt too).

Still, at least Notes 7 is quasi-functional enough to make do until I have time to reinstall the whole thing from scratch, or Notes 8.0.1 is released next year, whichever comes first.

And really, I can't fault Notes (entirely) for its early demise. Then again, everything else on the machine works great despite the crashes... well, everything except:

• Konqueror won't let me save bookmarks anymore.
• I get unexpectedly logged out from KDE when I leave the machine alone for a while.
• When left alone for long periods, sometimes the screen dies and the only way to ressurect it is with the klaatu verada nikto-like incantation of Alt-PrtSc-S, Alt-PrtSc-U, Alt-PrtSc-B.
• My cursor will disappear after about 6hrs and only be visible on the secondary screen as a purplish narrow rectangle. Ever try using a mouse when you can't see the pointer? It's about as much fun as boxing with your computer.

Yes, it's so time to upgrade to a new OS.