Although I’m no prude I generally don’t write offensive words. I have to make an exception though: Brazilian keyboards are stupid! Die!
I’m a programmer (at least I try to be one) and typing a lot everyday gives me the right to say that.
My previous laptop died in the middle of the night. I needed another computer the next day while I was still living in Brazil. I could only find laptops with Brazilian keyboards for prompt delivery.
The first annoyance is the right Alt key replaced by Alt Gr. It makes me feel handicapped.
If I need the ? or / character I need to combine the keys Alt Gr + q or Alt Gr + w. Great. Great idea.
Typing in Emacs is like playing guitar. You have chords. Now I can’t type M-f and avoid physical therapy. Normally I would press my right thumb in the right Alt key (where did it go??) and my left index finger in the f key. If you play any instruments you know what I’m talking about.
Another problem. The Ç character. C cedilhado in Portuguese. The name implies it. It is the same C character genius!! You don’t need a unique key for it the same way you don’t need a separated key for Á, á, É, é, Ô, ô, etc. Just add a dead key for the cedilha.
With the addition of this unnecessary key they moved the location of crucial chars like ‘ and “.
Really? Bear with me. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
I could go on and on but I should stop. That is enough for my karma today.
I’ve been using Wordpress for 2 months now. I was reluctant at first to adopt it. My main concern was having a whole system in the way in case I ever needed to code an unusual feature for my website. Then I listed several reasons why I was definitely wrong about not using Wordpress in my personal website:
1) Turns out I don’t have time to deal with code in my own website. The shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot.
2) How many times I have to remind you: don’t reinvent the wheel. At the moment you just need a tool to blog. Go for a ready made solution.
3) “Unusual feature“? Really? Please, list one that is crucial! A feature that you need to implement right now! The answer was… duhh…. none!?
4) Wordpress is under GPL. If you ever need a fancy feature you can actually code it! … although I doubt I will ever need to do so.
These should be enough reasons to have Wordpress installed. There is one more important reason, though: Plugins.
People should be able to extend the functionality of the software. If you add well documented procedures on how to write plugins and build an environment for people to share them, then you dramatically increase your chances for a hit. A killer app. Programmers and designers will write plugins and add-ons so cool that you won’t be able to live without their functionality. The competitors will have a hard time changing your mind.
That is why it will be hard to leave killer apps like Emacs, Apache, Firefox, etc.
Right now I have only 4 plugins installed on Wordpress but they all came out of pure necessity. They were easy to find, install and use. Things that work out of the box? Magic.
I have just finished reading a really good book: Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel. The text is enriched by examples taken from the Subversion project where the author used to be involved. The book covers a wide range of topics found in Open Source Projects including Technical, Social and Political Infrastructures, Money, Packaging and Releasing, Licenses and etc.
It is a good source of information if you are trying to improve or understand all the processes and overhead demanded by software development. Recommended even if the project you are engaged is not free/open source.
Seems that the Intel Graphics will have to be updated to work with version 2.6.28 of the Kernel running on Ubuntu 9.04. Performance is not good.
I followed the instructions to use UXA instead of EXA and it improved the perfomance on how graphics are rendered in my notebook. It is still not fast as it used to be though.
Note on Jun/23/2009
I was happy to notice this morning that the list of updates from Ubuntu 9.04 included the kernel (2.6.28-13) and compiz. All visual effects are back and working fine with the Intel Graphics card.
I finally decided to devote some time to learning elisp and get rid of the shame I have every time I copy and paste code into my .emacs file. I’m now reading Programming in Emacs Lisp (Second Edition) by Robert J. Chassell. It is really good reading. Not only to learn elisp but also because the author is a great writer and I have the feeling he is interested in the history of words. Etymology is a fascinating field.
The text mentions, for example, where the word buffer comes from:
The word `buffer’, by the way, comes from the meaning of the word as a cushion that deadens the force of a collision. In early computers, a buffer cushioned the interaction between files and the computer’s central processing unit. The drums or tapes that held a file and the central processing unit were pieces of equipment that were very different from each other, working at their own speeds, in spurts. The buffer made it possible for them to work together effectively. Eventually, the buffer grew from being an intermediary, a temporary holding place, to being the place where work is done.
