The main problem with reading a PDF book is navigation. It’s just plain hard to read a paragraph mentioning a table in Appendix A which is located in the end of the book. Now, in Info mode it’s not only easy but you have all emacsy ways to help you ‘walk’ around the text.

A PDF is also inconvenient helping my brain to map subjects to a particular physical area in a book. I know that what I’m looking for is in the middle of the red hard cover book in my shelf. The author mentions what a register RAX is right below the figure showing a leprechaun in the right top of the page.

I wish I could read more books in Info mode like the emacs manual and now the Elisp reference, CC-Mode, Org-Mode and alike. Ipads and Kindles just don’t work for me. They are a good fit for novels though. I’ll keep buying dead trees.

I don’t know what I was thinking but I tried to use the Update Manager and give it another chance since it never worked before for me. After the download was complete the system rebooted but nothing happened. Black screen of death?! Bummer, didn’t work. Fresh new install and the problem persisted.

Turns out Nvidia graphics and the resolution of 1366×768 don’t work out the box. The solution was the alternate installer. After the installation I manually included the edid file from the laptop’s monitor into xorg.conf before I could see any graphics. I mentioned something related to that here and here.

Another annoying video related problem is the brightness control. It’s broken since 9.10. Well, truth must be told, now at least the animation works when you increase or decrease the brightness using the keyboard. Still, no effect. I have to use nvidia x server settings to avoid burning my retinas.

Other than that I just had to tweak xorg.conf to decrease the sensibility of the mouse tracking pad. You could double click by just raising your voice next to the keyboard.

Section "InputDevice"
    ...
    Option "MaxTapTime" "230"
    Option "MaxTapMove" "230"
EndSection

I want my money back

Signing up for the 24 hour gym was the first step. The old stuff, get back to gym and deal with muscular pain for a week. It’s interesting that you can exercise in the gym without an instructor here in the US. You see a lot of folks that will most likely hurt themselves. I’m not into sports at all but you have to know at least the basics to lift weight.

I digress. I was looking for a tech novel to entertain myself during the approximately 40 minutes between Sunnyvale and Millbrae and found Coders At Work by Peter Seibel. The book advertises itself as “interviews with some of the top programmers of our times“.

Informative, entertaining and inspiring! Highly recommended.

I left my day job in Brazil and joined a talented team in Millbrae.

I thought this job transition was going to be smoother since I’ve been planning this for a while. Heck, I just needed to finish a few side projects. Turns out 2 members of the team in Brazil quit with a short notice and we even had a hard disk failure in one of the servers. A few thousand clients went nuts while we restored the services. The universe has sense of humor.

Well, routine is now settling in and I noticed that I actually missed commuting. I should have counted how many books I read in the bus/subway when I was living in São Paulo. Ha! Now I have this odd habit of adding a post whenever I finish reading a book. Anyways, I’m taking the train to Millbrae and I can calmly read not only technical books but my zen stuff too. Rhythm is important.

I’m having a blast. The team is friendly and culturally diverse and I’m switching between implementing new features and reading the code base. I should also mention that I’m ingesting a significant amount of caffeine because I just can’t resist the fridge.

In December I bought this brand new laptop and had the perfect excuse to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10. Like I mentioned in this post, the video drivers were the only issue I had.

Nvidia released new drivers for Linux 64 (v. 190.53) so I took the chance to update and plug an old 19” monitor to my laptop. To enable TwinView I muddled through some documentation but finally made it work.

Here’s the code from xorg.conf that enables TwinView:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option	    "TwinView"
    Option	    "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0, CRT-0"
    Option	    "MetaModes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select, CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select"
    Option	    "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/path/edid/monitor1.bin; CRT-0:/path/edid/monitor2.bin"
    Option	    "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0,CRT-0"
    Option	    "TwinViewOrientation" "DFP-0 LeftOf CRT-0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I had to add the binary EDID files because the X server was unable to identify the correct resolution for my laptop: 1366×768. The second monitor is 1280×1024… now I’m really seduced by a 27” monitor.

I bought another Sony Vaio but this time without a stupid keyboard. I opted for the VPCCW model because it offered an NVIDIA (GEFORCE 230M) graphics card. I was interested in the SR series but because of my bad experience in the past I didn’t want to deal with ATI.

And that is the irony. Installed Karmic and even wireless worked out of the box. Surprise! After enabling NVIDIA proprietary drivers (190.42) and rebooting my screen was black. Frustration.

After some time googling and reading NVIDIA documents I found out that I had to set xorg.conf to use a custom EDID.

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/path/to/bin/edid/SNY05FA.bin"

Everything is running smoothly now but I can’t stop thinking that this kind of problem is what makes linux desktop adoption harder. It’s just a matter of time though.

CakePHP

In my daily job we deal with tons of code written in the pre-framework era but I had a chance to experiment with CakePHP in the past months. I had a good time being involved in three side projects using the framework.

The documentation is good and written like a tutorial but some times you still need need to dive into the framework’s source code to get specific details about classes and methods.

Emacs PHP mode improved

I replaced php-mode for php-mode-improved. The improved version has fixed some bugs in from the previous version but it is sad to read:

;; This has been submitted to the php-mode maintainer, but I've not yet had a
;; response.


The (probably) most popular php-mode is abandoned.

Xdebug

I occasionally read Chromium’s tools written in Python and - as the newbie for life that I am  - I wasted a significant amount of time adding print and exit statements to the code.

It was time to learn how to use a Python debugger and make life easier. Enters pdb.

It didn’t take long to look for a similar tool for PHP: xdebug.

I just wonder why I didn’t try to learn these tools earlier.

PHPUnit

This was something I was excited to do. To move all the crude test scripts to a test framework as dictates industry’s best practices.

Some tests were written using SimpleTest but after a few grep and sed commands they all work with PHPUnit now.

PHPUnit’s documentation is better and development is active. SimpleTest is stuck in version 1.0.1 since April 2008.

Couldn’t wait any longer to have Chrome on Ubuntu so on Sunday night I checked out the Chromium source code files, installed depot tools and all software dependencies, typed hammer and voila! Binaries up and running after a few hours. Gosh, I need better hardware.

I did not expect for it to run at all but I was able to navigate through most of the websites I needed. I was quite amazed by the results. It is more than a plausible promise after all.

This week I decided to add a second monitor to my notebook. I first thought I was going to have a hard time. Check manuals, forums and alike. Especially because the 2nd monitor and my notebook have different resolutions.

Surprise. It was too easy. Plug and play.

Well, almost. I could not set the 2nd monitor to a higher resolution. I had to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf, increase the Virtual resolution and restart gnome.

Anyway, having fun with 2 monitors again. Wohooo!!

To improve typing or playing one should avoid unnecessary motion. If your hands stand still while only your fingers move you save energy, time and visual distractions.

Emacs key bindings are a great deal to move around text or code. You don’t need the arrow keys. You don’t even need page down, page up, home, end, delete or backspace keys.

There is a learning curve though. You should memorize key combinations, I mean, chords. It is a small price to pay for what you get in return. After you master it you will feel pain to type in a word processor without key bindings.

The good news is that Emacs key bindings are available not only inside Emacs but also in your favorite applications. I use the same key bindings at the terminal, Firefox and even in Gnome. That is a lot of fun.

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.

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 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.

The only drawback for me is that the Intel Graphics built into my laptop is not supported. No fancy visual effects right now. I have to check it later though. I’m using a Sony Vaio VGN-NR330AE that I bought while I was still living in Brazil.

As noted on my previous post I’m back to Gnome. KDE versions 4.0 and 4.1 didn’t work for me although KDE 4.2 seems to be really good. I might be wrong but I just have the feeling that Gnome is more stable. I also noted that I spend most of my time with 3 tools: Emacs, Firefox and the terminal. The first 2 are built upon GTK and the 3rd is great at both graphical platforms.

Besides working in the office I have been also coding for the Autoresponder. A new minor version is almost ready. There are still some bugs to resolve though.

Since I mentioned bugtracking it is also worth mentioning unfuddle.com. It is a really nice website service for Project Management and I’ve been happy with their services so far.

Well, I must admit that it was not 100% fun. First my flight was canceled and I had to make a connection in France. Then they lost my luggage. Due to almost 8 hours delay I missed the chance to visit Switzerland. Aff. At least I had a book with me. For good or bad I improved my skills on security. PHP Pro Security is good reading by the way. Since I mentioned a book I can also recommend Beginning Linux programming although I’m still reading it.

Now! I didn’t know how tired I was until now. I’m feeling that batteries are recharged and don’t need to sleep for a long period. And that’s great

‘CAUSE I’ll will put on hold the AR development.

BUT I have a new side project with a great webdesigner.

Details about Vaporware some other day.

The main reason I’ll put on hold the AR project is time. I just don’t have enough free time for it now. Other than that it’s PHP code. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a PHP issue. The problem is that my “official” job demands most of my day into PHP. You know, nothing like a different project/language to keep you fresh and learn new stuff. Since the AR is not an online project no one will be hurt if I bury it into fridge for some time. Gesundheit.

Emacs? Lisp? Ain’t the title about Ubuntu??

Yes it is!

Well, I’m a huge fan of Ubuntu. Can’t go back to Windows anymore.

There’s only one thing that pisses me off. Wireless is a nightmare. Here’s the saga. Installed Ubuntu 7.04. No wireless. After reading some tutorials and hundreds of posts it finally worked! It is worth pointing out that Ubuntu Forums is great source of information but has a lot of noise.

Updated to Ubuntu 7.10. Wireless broken. Here I go again… forums, blogs… wireless back. Ubuntu 8.04? Guess? Wireless broken again. Hell. Ok, this time just one blog for the rescue. Everything back to normal, then… update in the kernel plus a few more fixes and not for the first time something happened. Guess? Again? Wireless.

I hate to copy and paste solutions from forums. I need to understand why things are the way they are. That’s why every time the Internet on Ubuntu stops I need to re-read tips and recipes and be remembered that I’m no wireless network whiz.

I’m not lazy. I can tell you that. The problem is on my focus. I don’t want to loose my current focus and order some books about wireless from Amazon so I can have internet connection, so I can study elisp (and power of spaces and tabs whenever I want), so I can go back to PHP and Python.

I can only hope that Intrepid Ibex finally offer wireless network working out of the box.

Too much whining today. Guess I’m pissed about my passport and PF here in Brazil. As an angel once told me about PF: “there’s no sense of customer service”.

Note on Dec/02/2008

Bought a new notebook. Good chance to install Intrepid Ibex and check how is the wireless issue. I had a feeling that it would not work. And tadaaaaaa! Crap! I was right. No wireless out of the box and ndiswrapper in rescue. Well, this time I’m running KDE instead of Gnome. Just for the sake of something new. Blue is way cooler than brown.

Note on Mar/22/2009

Truth must be told. KDE 4.1 made me wanna go back to Gnome. I will wait until Ubuntu 9.04 to try Wireless out of the box again and get rid of KDE that by then will probably have a good 4.2 version that I won’t check. That is a lesson for people selling software to be learned. You have to paint a Mona Lisa everyday.

Note on Apr/25/2009

I’m running Ubuntu 9.04!

Note on Mar/22/2009: This section was removed because I no longer have the game or the source code for it. It was just some excuse to learn the Windows C API anyway.