I'm not talking about this, but about a cvs web client (web cvs client?). Another employer, same task at hand. I didn't really finish the task last year, but I'll have to manage this time.

I spent the day looking at and trying to install ViewCVS. I think I'm almost there, but there seem to be a few things missing (read: I don't get a 404 anymore, just a blank page).

What I don't like so far? The fact that you have to run the webserver on the same machine as the CVS repository, is one issue. The fact that every goddamn configuration string is unix-based, another one (yes, we're running CVSNT as a server).

My dream? A nice servlet/jsp/anything else Java-based (we're a Java shop), that you can just drop in tomcat/webapps, and that you configure by entering your CVSROOT.

Well, we're not there yet. Going back to the world of PYTHONPATH and its friends.

Oh. My. God. Will anybody stop this gun-lobby-sponsored maniac?

Via Lance.

I managed to think out of the box myself (well, more or less): I am now the proud owner of Subversion-on-a-stick! Does exactly what I want: the Eclipse plugin supports the file:/// protocol.

Life is ironic: I've just moved an entire company from VSS to CVS, requiring me to learn much more nitty gritty details of CVS that I cared for, and now I'm using Yet Another VCS myself. Well, experience is something to cherish, I guess.

Matthew reports that Stephen Hawking is again counterproving his own theories. This is what I felt when reading his book "Het Heelal" (yes, I chickened out on reading it in English): there's only one person alive who understands what Hawking is talking about, and that is Hawking himself. And thus, the only one he can discuss and argue with, is himself. He must be lonely.

Yesterday, I saw my USB memory stick lying around. I had forgotten that I had it (not used for a while), but suddenly an idea sprang to mind: a portable CVS repository! Wouldn't it be nice to not only carry your code with you at all times, but to also have version information on it?

So I came up with a few requisites:

1. no installation needed. I don't want to install CVSNT every time I want to access the code.
2. usable with eclipse. That's my IDE.

Well, quite a short list, actually. But even merely 2 requisites can be mutually exclusive: (1) demands for the :local: protocol, and (2) doesn't allow the :local: protocol.

No problem, I thought: Google to the rescue! Now, that didn't turn out as expected. Ever tried querying Google with CVS as one of the keywords? Lots of links, but none of them having anything to do with CVS. Add "local" to the mix, and you get lots of references to "local repositories", but none to "local protocol".

So actually, this blog entry is a challenge to your Google skills: come up with a Google query that returns me (in the first two or three pages) a link that explains me how to combine :local: and Eclipse. Of course, you're also allowed to just give me a damn link.

Any other solution to the above requisites will do too. <managementspeak>Think out of the box!</managementspeak>

A blogger, even before the internet as we know it existed: E.W. Dijkstra. Fun to browse through his notes.

Something that struck me as odd for a scientist like him: he had very elaborate and insightful thoughts about the industry. See for example the gap between computer science and computer industry, or all humans should be replacable. Insightful, and not without humor.

Other notes are proves of theorems I even fail to understand, let alone I would understand the solution. I'll just skip them.

I'll leave you in exploring the rest by yourself... Let me know if you find something interesting.

Trackback works! The other day, I referenced Scott's reference to Inside Jack. And this morning, I get an email from him pointing me to his reference to Totally Gridbag. Which I'm now referencing here. Bittersweet recognition.

Confused? Just click here, for &divinity;'s sake.

Well, that's not entirely true. "I'm 90% the man I used to be" is closer to the truth. The scales were official this morning. And that all thanks to this.

Not a bad cartoon: Inside Jack. Made me smile, at least.

Via Scott

If you're in a car, and you're trying to get into Antwerp these days, please remind this:

The bicyclists are not responsible for your 45-minutes traffic jam.

On the contrary, if they weren't there, you would've had a 1-hour traffic jam at least. So please don't push us in the gutter, block the bicycle path, or threaten to run us over. If you really want to release your frustration, drive into a wall or something. I am faster than you (even if you think driving 100km/h for 100 meters is any faster than driving 20km/h on that distance), and I will catch you up.

End of service message -- frustration relieved, thank you.

I've just switched from an outdated rss2email (great utility, but no atom support, and the new version didn't work out on my WinXP machine) to Bloglines. It looks like the best I'm going to be able to get in my current configuration (involving multiple locations with lots of firewalls and NATs). Bloglines seems to be pretty good nowadays. It imported my OPML file without a single hickup, and keeps my blogroll automatically up-to-date. The most immediate downside to me: you can't mark individual blog items as "read", you've always "read" a whole blog. Quite a big granularity, when you're catching up on two weeks of Erik.

We've been on holiday for two weeks. We pretty much accomplished what we planned to do: as little as possible. Previous years, when we went to France, we saw every castle and every church (and even the odd museum) that was within a day's drive. This year, we got as far as the camping's swimming pool. And we hit the car 2 times: for animals, and for animals. Nothing as fulfilling of seeing a 2-year old's jaw drop when confronted with a giant turtle behind the window. Plans have already been made to relive the experience closer to home. (We already have year passes to the land animals next to our door).

To end a great fortnight, we gathered up with some life-long friends (as in: friends for over 10 years), along with their offspring, and paid a visit to one of the best attraction parks for small children. More jaws dropping in "Carnival Land" and, especially, "Fata Morgana".

When coming in on Monday, I was treated with the welcome message "you're moving all our code base from VSS to CVS the day after tomorrow. And by the way, you have to prepare the developers for this move in the mean time, too". Great. During the day, I heard a lot of news that came by surprise, and looks worrying and hopeful at the same time. We'll have to see how things work out. Quite a re-entry day.

The big move is planned for this evening (the developers have hopefully been prepared yesterday), so I've arranged for pizza at home to avoid a midnight cooking session. But I'm ready for it. Let the beast go!