g-cpan thoughts
Posted by mcummings
I'm rethinking doing an 0.14.1 release - but hear me out. I've been doing a decent amount of work on the code lately, and what started out as a bug fix release has started evolving into a new feature release as well. My take is that sub releases should be bug fixes only - but I've added a new dep (Shell::EnvImporter), changed some of the functionality, plus fixed some outstanding (for time, not glamour) bugs, which sort of makes me think that the next release should be 0.15 - which means it will be pushed back a little bit further than I expected (cab: I think I have an elegant, simple solution to the config file addition 
. On the short list of things I'd like to do (in case evolution eats my todo list or something):
* Config file - exploiting Shell::EnvImporter a bit more, I'm thinking of a simple make.conf replica file with some additional option flags, but mostly as an override to make.conf. Not sure how this will work for some of the portage stuff when it comes to actual emerge time. I'd also like to consider an "if sudo" block so that ebuilds can be generated as a user, and root is only needed for the final emerge.
* Code cleaning - personal gripe with a beatiful plan gone awry. Want to try and clean up the visual appeal of the code from obj->ref->ref->ref->key to something a bit more readable (and memorable).
And since I'm extending this a little, a few things I want to look at trying to accomplish...
* What to do when $PORTDIR/dev-perl/module is older than the required version?
* What to do when your keywords are arch, but your deps are ~arch
And finally, related to bug 159360, do we need to maintain a master dependency graph so that all generated ebuilds dep at least the same version? Seems rather silly to me for what to me is an obvious portage bug, but in the end I want g-cpan to work (no matter who I have to mow down in the process).
Long time, no blog
Posted by mcummings
well, mostly i'm a victim of work and the holidays, but I haven't been completely slacking. At home, I've finished migrating everything to the p4 for mail (after a somewhat of an oops regarding the relay_host variable in postfix). I've also completely rebuilt the sun box from a fresh stage3 after almost 5 years of running on the same install (finally started running into some issues with it that demanded an upgrade and a lessening of duties).
On other fronts, I've been focussing a lot lately on tweaks, fixes, and correction in g-cpan. I encourage the brave to use the svn copy, which has been getting some loving every few days as I have a chance. The svn copy has seen some enhancements, though I have a ways to go before I wrap it up as an rc2. If you do use the svn copy, you'll need to install Shell::EnvImporter first (no ebuild for it yet), which I'm working in as a replacement for the Gentoo::Config module to more quickly and smoothly handle the reading of the portage config files.
bah. i'm sure there's more to mention, i haven't been completely slacking though it sure feels like when i try to write this...
Why amazon sucks (but not for me)
Posted by mcummings
'Tis the holiday season folks, and plenty of us have turned to our favorite proprietor of media on-line, amazon, to deliver to our loved ones the book, video, or media that they would most desire. I myself ordered three items from amazon this season, and all three have arrived safely and in time for my loved ones to enjoy them.
Where does this tale go woeful? The first shipment that arrived was a bit heavier than expected - because it contained someone else's shipment. I contacted amazon about it, they said oh my, and promised to send me an envelope to mail it back to them - in 2 or 3 weeks. Bah. Then today item number three arrived, and again, someone else's order was bundled with mine. Less than a week till Christmas (and all of these extra packages were marked as X-mas presents), and I have in my house someone else's bit of the holidays. I tried reverse addressing these folks (because Amazon gives you all the nice information, like address and name, in the package slips) but haven't been able to find contact info for them.
So, if you're expecting a package from Amazon, and it says its delivered and its nowhere to be found, consider asking a random stranger if maybe they got your gift too. And in the interim, I'm thinking it might be time to find another vendor to work with, because I think my luck is about run out on my orders actually making it to me.
i am remote man!
Posted by mcummings
big thanks to jbrown and chainsaw - jbrown got my happauge remote all squared away for me, and chainsaw gave me the missing link to get audacious working. I just need a big comfy chair and I can sit back and watch mythtv, mplayer, and listen to music with the comfort of my remote....yes, sloth rules!!
I want to build robots!
Posted by mcummings
Last Friday we took the girls to see old St. Nick at the mall (sorry, "townecenter" now). We managed to get a picture of all three girls around Santa (which I still need to get a copy of for work, but anyway), but after the photo session Santa asked Katy and Anna what they wanted for Christmas. Katy promptly replied puppets, which we knew and had already taken care of, but Anna, daughter of my genes, replied with something that threw us for a loop. It went something like this (sorta):
"And what do you want for Christmas?"
"I want to build robots!"
"What?" (mind you, she turns three in a month)
"I want to build robots!"
"Ok...." (perplexed look to Mom and I, who are frantically casting blame on which geek gene this is)
"I want to build robots!"
So sometime tomorrow, Monday at the latest, a k'nex kit for kids for building robots should arrive. I can't say where I'm too overly surprised - she takes things apart, and while both girls like helping daddy with the computers, it's Anna that revels in helping take apart the heaps to build something new. But still...robots at just under three can't be a good sign for the future. On the upside, at least I now have an excuse for any technical project I want to try ("it's for Anna, baby, it's for Anna").
I am, by the way, very geekily proud of my girls. A few weeks ago I also switched them off of a dieing windows install to edubuntu (byte me, just because I do Gentoo doesn't mean it's always the best solution), and while there was some initial growing pains at losing their videos on the nick jr. website (no response to my heated email to them asking why the require a particular operating system when the content is all flash anyway), they've adapted well and tend to play a lot of supertux and child's play, which has to be the coolest app for kids out there (they have g-compris too, but it doesn't seem to hold the same appeal).