Darcsforge: Review Board Looks Nifty
The recently released Review Board (Review Board Project Site) Django application looks really nifty. I've got a few notes on the sort of design I'd like to see for a similar role, and so I may look, when I get to that point, if I can leverage Review Board or at least features from Review Board.
In Darcsforge's case I was looking to build in the medium term some sort of Patch Manager. The Patch Manager would augment the Patch Tracker (and work hand in hand with the Repo Manager that is a higher priority) in several ways: primarily it would offer the ability to cherry-pick patches and push/pull them into other Repositories. I think it would be cool to grab the context information, and I'm not sure right now how that would be accomplished, from the patch and then highlight which Repositories can "take" the patch, if they have the context-mentioned patches.
The other side to the Patch Manager would then be to allow people to post Patches as attachments to Issues or other pages. It would need some basic review functionalities, like review board. Because a darcs patch is useful in or out of a repository, I definitely seeing this as the place to add some cool functionality like the ability for admins to directly apply an attached patch to a repository or to even quickly provision a new "branch" repository using that patch. I also think the power here is that all of this could use the same interface; the same Patch Tracker could track both Repository-controlled patches and Patch Manager-controlled uploaded patches... (The Patch Tracker is something I'm pretty proud of, I'll probably post an entry about it and my take on it...)
Let Them Eat Source
I promised the source code to this webpage about 10 months ago when I debuted it. Well, I don't have everything ready, just yet, but I've started in that direction and so for those who don't mind wearing hard hats, feel free to step gingerly through the newly updated Code.WorldMaker.net.
I'll keep slowly boot-strapping it over the next couple of weeks and when it is truly looking nice I might post a quick mention. I'll definitely want to spend a post or two on Darcsforge, what is does, what it intends to do, and how it works.
What's working? The Issue Tracker and Patch Tracker (and some cool cross-integration) both appear to be working. I don't have decent WorldMaker.net versions of the Darcsforge templates, so you'll have to bear with me and these rough first steps. (I've been doing testing in Darcsforge's clean default templates, which I like but I prefer having my personal site relatively consistently-themed.)
What's not working? The Project Map, The Repository Map, The File Browser, The Wiki, whatever other crazy applications I think should be added.
The Social: Ruminations on Facebook, Zune, Last.fm
Congratulations to Facebook for stirring some amazing buzz for their new platform initiative. Facebook is attempting to be the Social Networking platform, and this platform initiative may help to cement that. For those who haven't heard, Facebook has opened up development upon their platform so that a developer can build applications that get hosted inside of the actual Facebook pages, just like plug-ins or extensions in a Desktop application, and even more interesting are giving application writers access to just about all of the information in their Social Graph. Facebook will even start hosting applications for developers make it possibly a very interesting place for a social startup venture. Facebook is now going to be not just one of the highest used social sites, but is now definitely the most open one with a large backing of useful data. Where Ning has tried to be an open platform for social websites, Facebook is going to be an open platform for social website tools... Portal sites have long add the idea of bringing in a mixture of content from internally and externally under the same roof. Facebook is basically the first "social portal".
Congratulations to the Zune team for breaking a million sales. I'll use this oppurtunity to point out that the only reason I wouldn't buy a Zune is still just Ogg Vorbis support. It is a bit of a breaking issue for me, and if the Zune had it I would definitely consider buying one. Also, I was thinking about the "Welcome to the Social" tag line and how people sometimes comment on the lack of an actual community feeling and the Facebook announcement and Microsoft's involvement in it (they are trying to push Silverlight and Popfly as fun Facebook app development tools)... and what ...
Delivering A Package
In the morning, it was all I could do to keep from asking questions. The Captain has shown that for true loyalty to work when information is the currency everyone else uses that you must always speak the truth to your crew and you should only speak that truth as necessary, but immediately as soon as necessary. I knew questions would be futile because any information exchanged is booty for the taking by spies and rogues, and so I was prepared to wait for the Captain to feel it time to divulge what was going on.
We had arrived at a particular corporate campus several miles rimward from the Ship. It was several stoneâs throws from the river banks, and yet served as one of the ESTâs largest shipping ports; itâs medium of choice being air rather than water. We settled our dinghy, the beat-up van named Ravenâs Claw, a few feet from the security gates and got out. Pulling out one particular unmarked box, purely by memory, the Captain set the box on the ground and unfolded the top open. It was full of baseball-sized devices. The Captain picked one at random from the box and tossed it in the air in order to catch it on its way back down again.
âI call these my Bombes,â he said, while gently spinning the device in his hand, âThey are a bit of a rainy day investment⦠Today shall be a fitting day to put them to use.â
A black, expensive looking sedan pulled up just about at that point. The Captain placed his loose bombe back into the box and gently refolded the box top. A tall, thin man slowly loosened himself from the driverâs seat, calmly walked over to ...
I hate this Insight Cable Modem
5 months with this cable modem and 2 service interruptions/degradations. Yuck. The last time it was revealed that the source of the problem was: 1) not enough power at the pole, and 2) squirrels. I'm assuming it is a combination of the exact same two problems again this time and I really don't feel up to making the necessary calls again... Sigh. Not too many other options either.
The Ship, The Old Man, The Tale
I was led into the Ship by the man named First Mate Parrot. (âYou can call me First, Mate, or Parrot, your pick⦠and yes, that is the name on my driverâs license.â) Parrot, as his name implied, was McRavenâs second in command. Parrot had a tendency to squawk, an odd hobble to his walk, and the ability to stare down a mongoose at 50 meters. He was a great messenger and odd job man, had something of the art of command, but wasnât as bright as his sense of humor was.
The Ship was an upscale downtown apartment with an extremely expensive lock. Inside it was crammed with computer displays, comm. devices, and people. The Captain loved the beautiful irony that the most infamous Pirate Crew in the Digital Seas was here in this room. Louisville is just about as far as you can get from the ESTâs lovely Atlantic and Gulf coast lines, and yet still is a major US shipping port. The Captain was silhouetted by the setting sun to the east, his eyes transfixed on the apartmentâs breathtaking view of the Ohio River a stoneâs throw to the north. His hands were clasped behind his back and the way the shadows played across his haunches, the set of his body, and the view of water nearby all helped to give him that timeless look of a sea Captain examining the horizon for storms. It made you almost feel as if you were on the main deck of some great vessel, not some floor of a skyscraper.
As Parrot shut the door behind me, the Captain turned towards me, extended his hand in a firm handshake, âWelcome aboard, matey. This here is the Ravenâs Eye. She sails ...
Man Overboard
The hull was in pieces. My head was a ball of pain. Someone was shouting.
What adrenaline I had called for support had left just as quickly as they came, leaving me with a headache for a souvenir. My mind seemed to be made of molasses as I worked to gather the puzzle pieces back together and figure out what happened. Somehow I had been surprised by a swell, but not just any swell, something like the mother of swells. It had ripped through my hurried patchwork like a steak knife through vacuum. Only pieces and fragments of the hull remained, connected by mere splinters that could fail at any minute. I couldnât even look at the display, because I knew all of my hard work up till that point had been for naught⦠Then my ears caught up.
â¦
âWe got it!â someone had shouted first.
â¦
âMan Overboard!â the newbie Rat had shouted, a tinge of amusement there in his voice.
â¦
âWe thought we had lost ye,â said a soft voice beside me as my eyes finally found something to focus on, which just so happened to be the smiling face of the Captain. âThe sea can be a harsh mistress.â
âAye,â I coughed, nearly choking. It felt as if I hadnât spoken in years. âI canât believe I failed you, Captain.â
The Captainâs eyes became stern, and I suppose I must have braced for a verbal beating, as the Captain chuckled and his eyes softened, âYeâve had a major battle, me heartie, and have survived to tell the tale. Ye didnât fail me, you saved us the precious few seconds we needed to grab the booty...â ...
Awesomeness in a Bottle: Grindhouse Posters
I'm worried because I think these photoshopped Grindhouse Posters (insert usual Something Awful NSFW and BFTS [1] link disclaimer) really do go to show that the movie-going experience could be a lot more exciting if the studios went back to "thrilling posters" and gave up on "let's show every important scene in the movie" trailers.
| [1] | Big Fat Time Sink |
Awesomeness in a Bottle: Sockbaby
To explain this I could spend a bit rambling and mention random kung-fu and sci-fi films or I could just say watch this, it's from the insane mind of Doug TenNapel, creator of, among other things, Earthworm Jim:
or here's some direct links to the easy to swallow YouTube chunks:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GqXiOm7d8k
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEsmVSds6fM
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scsvkNBmzAI
(Discovered via Destructoid's Article on The Neverhood.)
Between Roc and HardPlace
I had pinned the Jolly Roger business card to the bulletin board behind my main display. Considering it was a standard, Spartan menâs dorm room, the brilliant gold fill was basically the only decoration in the room. Somewhere in the middle of the term I became restless. I wanted to do something new and challenging; school just didnât look like it would ever offer me a challenge I might enjoy. It was in this funk that I found myself staring at the card.
McRavenâs words tumbling in my head, I decided to seek the key to unlocking the cardâs secrets. I wish I could tell you that McRavenâs words, or that the card itself had been some mind-racking riddle. After staring at it, and thinking about it for hours, I was amazed at how simple the solution was. When I asked McRaven about it later he told me that it wasnât so much of a puzzle, but a question of allegiance and the ability to try the obvious solution for a non-obvious puzzle, or something like that.
After countless hours, when I couldnât figure it out on my own, I went to the group. I went to the Tribe. Researchers say that a person can only reasonably know about 150 people well; they call it Dunbarâs Number. The Tribes, largely anarchic power structures subcutaneously controlling society, were there to help you reach outside of your 150. Through digital handshakes the Tribes were huge extended families, built on layers upon layers of trust. There were Tribes focused around most modern aspects of life and modern differentiations of people, but the most powerful of the Tribes were established with the time zones. People in the same time zone often shared the same circadian rhythm ...
