A DIMM in one of our mail servers decided to break today… to make a long story short, I had to install a new imap on my own machine (as I switched incoming MXes) and with the new installation a new SSL key was created. Evolution (the MUA) of course kept on trying the old server key. DOH. After quite some minutes of swearing, re-installing and doing various other pointless things, I deleted the very suspicious-looking “cert7.
A useful tip
So, we all agree that Python is The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread™, right? To add several levels of pleasure to your interactive Python experience (ribbed or studded), please try IPython. This is so flexible that one could even consider using it as full-time shell, instead of your bash, (t)csh, zsh or whatever. Hmmm….
Bruce Eckel is even cooler than you thought
As if you didn’t know, Bruce Eckel is responsible for the very popular and electronically freely available and purchasable in paper form Thinking in C++ (and books about lesser languages such as Java too ;). On his FAQ page there are some interesting tidbits, such as his opinion about Ruby compared to Python and especially his opinion about publishing his books on the web (for free) as well as in print.
Christmas Present
If you want to buy me something, get me a laptop with one of these. Thanks, I appreciate it.
Good UI != Graphics?
I tried out Ximian Evolution today. It’s an email client, actually more a personal information manager, that looks a lot like Outlook, except that Ximian is free, runs on *ix and will probably not get your computer infected with 298374987 different interesting yet unfriendly viruses. Hey, interestingly, it seems the correct plural is “viruses” and NOT “viri”. If you’re a pedant, dodge this. In anycase, usually I use mutt which, unlike Evolution, is exclusively text-based and 100% hot-key (shortcut) driven.
Pragmatism
The man who is not a socialist at twenty has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at forty he has no head. — Aristide Briand (1862 – 1932)
All operating systems suck
At least, all operating systems that I’ve worked with suck in some way or another. These are not minor quibbles, but major problems. It seems these fundamental problems are present in both open and closed source OSen. You’ve probably read The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond, so you know the difference between the two methodologies. Most of the open source development that I’ve come into contact with adheres to the Bazaar philosophy.
Improve that UI
This guide to user interface differences between Winblows and Mac OS X (by Apple) should be consulted when you ever have to think about getting that UI perfect. Apple makes several very valid and straightforward points.