Chez G

Here’s what I do today. Mostly I’m running XBMC on Linux on a computer under the TV. I get TV shows via bittorrent — mostly documentaries from PBS. I also boot into Windows 7 so that I can watch streaming Netflix via Windows Media Center (which is built in to Win7). Unfortunately, I hate the music interface to WMC, so I use 2 programs.

I just tried the (closed) Boxee beta today. Someone figured out how to download the beta and posted it to bittorrent (see [1] below). Running on Win7, it searches all the various places to get media (such as Hulu.com and Netflix).

I run my own mailserver, for better or for worse, and I use SpamAssassin to catch spam. For years I have been tucking it away in a folder. Guess how much was there? Give up? Nine gigabytes! Thanks, spammers!

Curious thing some of you may run into. I tried to plug a Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 linux machine into my router running Tomato 1.27, but it failed. Turns out you need to disable IPv6, since Tomato does not support it.

Right click on NetworkManager panel applet.
Choose Edit Connections…
Choose “Audo eth1” (or whichever port)
Press “Edit”
Select IPv6 tab
Set Method to “Ignore”
Click Apply

Here’s the magic code for your document settings -> LaTeX preamble to get run-in headings:

% makes 4-th level (SubSubSection) headings run-in
% page 154 of memoir manual
\setbeforesubsubsecskip{0ex}
\setsubsubsecindent{\parindent}
\setaftersubsubsecskip{-1ex}

What is a run-in heading? Normal headings are on their own line. Run-in headings have the text immediately following on the same line.

This is a heading
This is the body text that is in the paragraph. This is the body text that is in the paragraph. This is the body text that is in the paragraph.

I’m writing a book, so fussy things like getting references to appear right in the text have been occupying my time unexpectedly. I use the LyX document processor, which I really enjoy for writing long documents like my thesis and this book.

Here’s how to get nice reference to appear in the text like this (Smith, 1995).

My extensive research into the subject (i.e., googling for 30 seconds) has revealed that there are two free PDF readers (Win/Mac) that will let you add comments to PDF documents. I’ve tested them, and those comments can be seen when you open it up in other readers, like Adobe’s free reader.

• Foxit reader
• PDF Xchange viewer

Good to know if, like me, you plan to send out PDFs and hope to get comments back on them.

Ok, so it doesn’t have the pizazz of a whole new chapter, but the chapter on architecture models has been seriously revamped. I changed the example that runs through the chapter and added several sections on views. But perhaps the most important change is that I packaged it better — frontmatter introduces the topic and sets expectations better, transitions are more effective at signposting, and the conclusion really is one and not just a summary.

It’s kind of nice to be back on book writing after taking a few months off to teach classes. Still, I hope to be doing some more classes soon.

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been slogging away at this book for quite some time now. Today is a big day: I finished the first draft of the narrative half of the book. The reference half is still unfinished, but this is a big deal — I can hand the book to someone and it’s got reasonable text in every chapter.

This calls for a hamster dance !!!

I wrapped up the chapter on Architecturally Evident Coding Style, an idea originated by David Garlan. He suggested that while architects have an idea of how the system is organized (the architecture), it could be implemented in source code in many ways. Some of those ways are easier to read and re-understand the big picture. This chapter elaborates the idea and provides code examples and a short catalog of patterns for making it work.

I’ll need to let the chapter sit for a few days then proofread it. In the meantime I’ll work on the last body chapter from the first half of the book.