It's the little things...

So it's taken two months to sink in that, if I'm working at home, I can finally use Internet Radio to my heart's content while working, without an IT department grumbling about my bandwidth usage or someone in the next cube getting cranky about the noise.

I *really* hope I can make a go of this. So far, the process isn't sucking. But now I need to find some decent radio stations on iTunes. Any recommendations?

It's the little things...

So it's taken two months to sink in that, if I'm working at home, I can finally use Internet Radio to my heart's content while working, without an IT department grumbling about my bandwidth usage or someone in the next cube getting cranky about the noise.

I *really* hope I can make a go of this. So far, the process isn't sucking. But now I need to find some decent radio stations on iTunes. Any recommendations?

First Slice of Cake finished

This month has been a somewhat tough one emotionally. This is largely because, about four weeks after I started, I now have a program that prints, "Hello, Mark Waks!" (plus, as of this morning, the last time I logged in).

Mind, I haven't exactly been quiet for the past month. The program:

• Uses Apache Tomcat to serve that string out via a servlet;


• Has a JSON-based Ajax interface to allow the static webpage to fetch the data from the servlet;


• Integrates the MooTools Javascript toolkit to signal when the page is ready (and will use it for lots of UI shortly);


• Runs inside of Facebook as an application, and fetches the user's data via the Facebook APIs;


• Uses Hiberate to generate all of the data-manipulation code, and to talk to a MySQL database on the back end;


• Implements the Ecology pattern that I'm so fond of as a program-lifecycle and discovery model, and has a bunch of specialty classes to make JSON and Hibernate and such all play together nice and transparently, and allows me to extend the program API trivially;


• and has automated functional tests that use Selenium to open the browser, navigate through FB to the app, and check the results. (No unit tests, admittedly, but that's intentional -- I've always focused more on functional tests than unit tests.)

So basically, I have a program that does nothing -- but does it *really* well.

This is all more or less according to plan. One of the precepts of at least some forms of Agile Development is the "slice of cake" model. You do your work in slices, and each is pretty thin, representing just a single bit of functionality, but each slice should cut all the way across the system, doing it all correctly. That first slice is always the hardest, because it requires you to set up the bulk of your infrastructure. With that done, it becomes much easier to add each feature as a proper little increment.

Realistically, I knew this was all going to take a while. I've never even touched most of those technologies before, so there has been a great deal of self-education in the past month, to get to the point where I can get each one up and running. It's taken about a week longer than intended, mostly because the documentation for this stack is rather less well-organized than the Microsoft stuff I'm used to. (And yes, that comment is as scathing as it sounds, but it's probably inevitable given how much open source I'm using here.)

None of which makes me any more content about having so little to show for a month's work. But with any luck, by the end of next month I'll have made quite a lot more progress...

First Slice of Cake finished

This month has been a somewhat tough one emotionally. This is largely because, about four weeks after I started, I now have a program that prints, "Hello, Mark Waks!" (plus, as of this morning, the last time I logged in).

Mind, I haven't exactly been quiet for the past month. The program:

• Uses Apache Tomcat to serve that string out via a servlet;


• Has a JSON-based Ajax interface to allow the static webpage to fetch the data from the servlet;


• Integrates the MooTools Javascript toolkit to signal when the page is ready (and will use it for lots of UI shortly);


• Runs inside of Facebook as an application, and fetches the user's data via the Facebook APIs;


• Uses Hiberate to generate all of the data-manipulation code, and to talk to a MySQL database on the back end;


• Implements the Ecology pattern that I'm so fond of as a program-lifecycle and discovery model, and has a bunch of specialty classes to make JSON and Hibernate and such all play together nice and transparently, and allows me to extend the program API trivially;


• and has automated functional tests that use Selenium to open the browser, navigate through FB to the app, and check the results. (No unit tests, admittedly, but that's intentional -- I've always focused more on functional tests than unit tests.)

So basically, I have a program that does nothing -- but does it *really* well.

This is all more or less according to plan. One of the precepts of at least some forms of Agile Development is the "slice of cake" model. You do your work in slices, and each is pretty thin, representing just a single bit of functionality, but each slice should cut all the way across the system, doing it all correctly. That first slice is always the hardest, because it requires you to set up the bulk of your infrastructure. With that done, it becomes much easier to add each feature as a proper little increment.

Realistically, I knew this was all going to take a while. I've never even touched most of those technologies before, so there has been a great deal of self-education in the past month, to get to the point where I can get each one up and running. It's taken about a week longer than intended, mostly because the documentation for this stack is rather less well-organized than the Microsoft stuff I'm used to. (And yes, that comment is as scathing as it sounds, but it's probably inevitable given how much open source I'm using here.)

None of which makes me any more content about having so little to show for a month's work. But with any luck, by the end of next month I'll have made quite a lot more progress...

He who dies with the most stuff...

I ought to write up a diary entry on Birka before I forget bits. So: the high points:

Because, y'know, this is Birka, so Loot is officially the centerpiece --

I didn't actually *intend* to buy much -- indeed, my thought in the morning was, "Well, I'll take a pass through the merchants, but there isn't much I need." Which may be true, but I had an utter failure of self-control. Didn't buy anything completely useless, but got a lot more than I intended, including:

• Several games from Salamallah via Galen -- Kales (kind of like period bowling), Oblong Chess (a pleasantly goofy period variant), and Satur-ankam (yet another Indian racing game, since Things Indian have been popular lately);


• Also from Galen, somebody's pamphlet on Tarot Games (keeping up with what others are teaching), and a Treehouse Xeno stash (mostly because it's a bunch of pyramids in colors I don't yet have);


• A blue poofy shirt, to go with all my poofy shirts in other colors;


• A green belt, so that I'm prepared should it become relevant again;


• An arming cap, to replace the beautiful and period one that I bought from Klaus that sadly doesn't fit under my current helm (it's in rich purple, perfectly matching my favorite flat cap);


• The book "Tak V Bowes Departed" from Poison Pen Press, and six different colors of string (more on this below).

So overall, rather more of a haul than I had planned.

Court was pleasant: as others have mentioned, there were a bunch of awards to Carolingians, including hugh_mannity, rising_moon, vairavi and Quinn (who probably has an LJ, but I don't know it). Having been reminded by msmemory that I always wish I had handwork for court, I decided to try something new out: trying my hand at fingerloop braiding. I was introduced to this at Lochleven A&S Day a little while ago, and found it fun, so with my new book and string I passed a fine couple of hours. I had just enough time to get through a short piece of the first pattern in the book: it's not going to win any awards, but I'm pleased anyway. I'm going to have to figure out some kind of prosthetic hands to take it up during court, though, so I don't lose my place when I have to go up with the Orders.

My only real complaint about the day was that there was a bit too much to do, so I never got down to the A&S display, nor (more to my annoyance) to the EK History one. But I did send one person down to it, and it looked like mikekn got some interesting people to talk to.

We had dinner both nights in the hotel restaurant, which is unremarkable but quite decent. The second night, we wound up seating with a lady who had travelled up from Rusted Woodlands and was on her own -- we had a fine, wide-ranging conversation about everything from arts to RenFaires. (She got pulled into the SCA from the Faire side of things a couple of years ago, and has dived in headfirst. Since she is interested in dancing, I encouraged her to come up for Black Rose.)

I was quite pleased by the dancing, which is being remarkably successful -- it was almost as large as Black Rose this year.

As with Arisia, I brought the new toy (the OLPC) with me for Web browsing in the evenings. That struck out completely at Arisia, but James Turner (bless him) told me to update the OS, and that seems to have dealt with the network connectivity problems. And having installed Opera on the thing, I now have a rather nice, very light, super-cheap laptop for travel. Its only weakness is that it is *so* high-res that I have to zoom Opera in if I want to be able to read anything. But overall, it makes me happy.

So overall, a fine weekend. Birkacon remains the strangest event in the East, but always fun...

He who dies with the most stuff...

I ought to write up a diary entry on Birka before I forget bits. So: the high points:

Because, y'know, this is Birka, so Loot is officially the centerpiece --

I didn't actually *intend* to buy much -- indeed, my thought in the morning was, "Well, I'll take a pass through the merchants, but there isn't much I need." Which may be true, but I had an utter failure of self-control. Didn't buy anything completely useless, but got a lot more than I intended, including:

• Several games from Salamallah via Galen -- Kales (kind of like period bowling), Oblong Chess (a pleasantly goofy period variant), and Satur-ankam (yet another Indian racing game, since Things Indian have been popular lately);


• Also from Galen, somebody's pamphlet on Tarot Games (keeping up with what others are teaching), and a Treehouse Xeno stash (mostly because it's a bunch of pyramids in colors I don't yet have);


• A blue poofy shirt, to go with all my poofy shirts in other colors;


• A green belt, so that I'm prepared should it become relevant again;


• An arming cap, to replace the beautiful and period one that I bought from Klaus that sadly doesn't fit under my current helm (it's in rich purple, perfectly matching my favorite flat cap);


• The book "Tak V Bowes Departed" from Poison Pen Press, and six different colors of string (more on this below).

So overall, rather more of a haul than I had planned.

Court was pleasant: as others have mentioned, there were a bunch of awards to Carolingians, including hugh_mannity, rising_moon, vairavi and Quinn (who probably has an LJ, but I don't know it). Having been reminded by msmemory that I always wish I had handwork for court, I decided to try something new out: trying my hand at fingerloop braiding. I was introduced to this at Lochleven A&S Day a little while ago, and found it fun, so with my new book and string I passed a fine couple of hours. I had just enough time to get through a short piece of the first pattern in the book: it's not going to win any awards, but I'm pleased anyway. I'm going to have to figure out some kind of prosthetic hands to take it up during court, though, so I don't lose my place when I have to go up with the Orders.

My only real complaint about the day was that there was a bit too much to do, so I never got down to the A&S display, nor (more to my annoyance) to the EK History one. But I did send one person down to it, and it looked like mikekn got some interesting people to talk to.

We had dinner both nights in the hotel restaurant, which is unremarkable but quite decent. The second night, we wound up seating with a lady who had travelled up from Rusted Woodlands and was on her own -- we had a fine, wide-ranging conversation about everything from arts to RenFaires. (She got pulled into the SCA from the Faire side of things a couple of years ago, and has dived in headfirst. Since she is interested in dancing, I encouraged her to come up for Black Rose.)

I was quite pleased by the dancing, which is being remarkably successful -- it was almost as large as Black Rose this year.

As with Arisia, I brought the new toy (the OLPC) with me for Web browsing in the evenings. That struck out completely at Arisia, but James Turner (bless him) told me to update the OS, and that seems to have dealt with the network connectivity problems. And having installed Opera on the thing, I now have a rather nice, very light, super-cheap laptop for travel. Its only weakness is that it is *so* high-res that I have to zoom Opera in if I want to be able to read anything. But overall, it makes me happy.

So overall, a fine weekend. Birkacon remains the strangest event in the East, but always fun...

And then there were two-and-a-half

Not really a surprise: McCain and Romney split Florida, with Giuliani in third. Pretty much what I expected, but I believe it means that Giuliani is toast: he staked everything he had on winning it. I'll be surprised if he stays in the race at this point. So I think that leaves the Republicans with three candidates who have any credibility, maybe really only two: still too many, but gradually weeding...

And then there were two-and-a-half

Not really a surprise: McCain and Romney split Florida, with Giuliani in third. Pretty much what I expected, but I believe it means that Giuliani is toast: he staked everything he had on winning it. I'll be surprised if he stays in the race at this point. So I think that leaves the Republicans with three candidates who have any credibility, maybe really only two: still too many, but gradually weeding...