I don’t like systems that use git push for deployment (Heroku et al). Why? I do a lot of this:
$ git push deploy ... realize I forgot a domain name ... $ git commit -m "fix domain name" -a ; git push deploy ... realize I didn't do something right with the database setup …
I think the most interesting work in programming languages right now is about the runtime, not syntax or even the languages themselves. Which places PyPy in an interesting position, as they have put a great deal of effort into abstracting out the concept of runtime from the language they are …
At PyCon there was an open space about deployment, and the idea of drop-in applications (Java-WAR-style).
I generally get pessimistic about 80% solutions, and dropping in a WAR file feels like an 80% solution to me. I’ve used the Hudson/Jenkins installer (which I think is specifically …
All the cool kids love Node.js. I’ve used it a little, and it’s fine; I was able to do what I wanted to do, and it wasn’t particularly painful. It’s fun to use something new, and it’s relatively straight-forward to get started so it …
Many years ago I wrote a fairly straight-forward port of Python’s doctest to Javascript. I thought it was cool, but I didn’t really talk about it that much. Especially because I knew it had one fatal flaw: it was very unfriendly towards programming with callbacks, and Javascript uses …
When it comes to software licensing, I get annoyed at GPL critics. Mostly they argue that a permissive license is more hassle-free. But all licensing hassles come from proprietary licenses. All of them. Open source licenses are simple, well-understood, and if you are doing open source stuff you don’t …
I hang around people who talk about security and privacy and activists quite a bit. When talking security beyond the typical attackers — people committing identity theft, simple vandals, spammers, etc. — there’s the topic of government surveillance and legal attacks, and privacy as a way to defend political activists against …
I find myself working in a Windows environment due to some temporary problems with my Linux installation. In terms of user experience Windows is not terrible. But more notable, things mostly just feel the same. My computing experience is not very dependent on the operating system… almost. Most of what …
OK… so I said before Silver Lining is for collaborators not users. And that’s still true… it’s not a polished experience where you can confidently ignore the innards of the tool. But it does stuff, and it works, and you can use it. So… I encourage some more …
I’ve been leaning heavily on Ubuntu and Debian packages for Silver Lining. Lots of “configuration management” problems are easy when you rely on the system packages… not for any magical reason, but because the package maintainers have done the configuration management for me. This includes dependencies, but also things …