What's it all about, Alfie?

This morning I was able to track down some problems I've been having with ZeroMQ on Ubuntu. Turns out, it was bugs in the latest code in ZeroMQ off the github master. They had made some changes in the code, not checked them into master, and while they thought the bugs were fixed, they really weren't. So I talked to Sustrik on IRC and he asked me to try a simple test - it was just the simple change on a few lines of code.

Turns out, that cleared up the exception I was getting, as I expected - based on looking at the change, but that didn't solve the problem of getting the messages. Seems there's more to it. WHen I told him of these results, he asked me to make up a little compatibility matrix for the different versions: 2.1.0 (ref)... 2.1.0 with my changes for RECOVERY_IVL (me), and the git master (master). Here's what I found:

it sure seems like there's a problem in the latest code. Thankfully, the unix admins have built my drop of the code into Ubuntu packages, so we can continue with the project, but I'm going to have to be very careful when we move off this code as it's going to be possibly a significant change.

Just something to consider. I like helping out, and giving back.

This morning I noticed that Google Chrome dev 10.0.642.2 was released with a nice list of fixes including a new version of the V8 javascript engine. I'm pleased they are making progress, but still very disappointed that they are pulling H.264 support in the <video> tag.

But hey... it's their program. Their choice.

Today I noticed that Google Chrome dev 10.0.634.0 was out and so I upgraded. The big thing that seems to be in this release is the updating of the V8 engine to 3.0.6.1. I'm still a little sore about the plans Google has stated about removing H.264 from Chrome, but that just makes it easier to realize that Google really is going through a really bad spell, and maybe in a year or ten, they'll pull out of it. But I don't know... it took IBM more than a decade, and Texas Instruments never really recovered.

I sure hope the bad folks making bad decisions in Google get moved out. It's sad to see a great bunch of engineers used to do very bad things. Sad.

When I read this this morning I was stunned. Really. Stunned. I can't imagine what they are thinking. They include Flash in Chrome, and it's Adobe's IP, but they won't continue to support H.264 because it's what... supported by Apple? What gives? It's already there... it's already working... but they are going to take it out. I could understand if they took out all plugins or codecs. But they aren't. Just H.264.

I find it hard to believe that the engineers decided to do this. I also have a hard time believing that Google is running short on funds to support the work. And it's not like Chrome is not mature - it's polished when compared to many, and certainly in the mature category now.

Just stunning. Really.

Bad move.

[1/13] UPDATE: I could not have said it better than this post on Slashdot. Amazing. Painful.

I had a nasty little problem the other day, and I couldn't figure it out until I really started googling the problem and saw that the solution was (of all places) in the man pages. Here's the set-up for the problem.

I have a git repo and at the top level it looks like this:

  Makefile
  README
  bin/
  doc/
  java/
  lib/
  logs/
  src/
  tests/

and because the lib directory contains nothing by generated files (the so libraries), it makes sense to have a top-level .gitignore file looking like this:

  *.swp
  *.swo
  *.tgz
  lib
  logs
  __dist
  core.*

But then when we look at the next level, we see that things get complicated:

  Makefile
  README
  bin/
  doc/
  java/
    Makefile
    build.xml
    classes/
    dist/
    lib/
    peak6/
    tests/
  lib/
  logs/
  src/
  tests/

And in the java/lib/ directory we have third-party jars that we want included in the repo. The problem is, git looks at the top-level .gitignore and sees the line with lib in it, and therefore, the lib in the java directory is also ignored.

But there's a fix. Un-ignore the java/lib. How to do that?

Make the .gitignore fine in the java directory look like this:

  classes
  dist
  !lib
  *.classes
  *.swp
  *.swo

and it's the inclusion of the !lib line that's telling git "Hey, don't ignore this guy".

The more I use git the more impressed I am with it. Subversion made me copy the files to ignore to each directory, git is nicer with the directory structure providing the inheritance, and with this, I can now be as selective as I need. Sweet.

This afternoon I was working on my unsigned 128-bit integer class, UINT128, and realized that I needed to be able to swap byte orders in place, and so I wrote a little method on the class:

  #include <byteswap.h>
 
 
  void UINT128::byteSwap()
  {
    mBlocks[0] = bswap_64(mBlocks[0]);
    mBlocks[1] = bswap_64(mBlocks[1]);
  }

and the thing I love about GCC today is that bswap_64() is a built-in function. Could it be any better? I did a little googling on byte swapping in GCC, and sure enough, there was exactly what I needed. Previously, I had been individually assigning bytes, and while it allowed for optimization, I'm guessing that this is way faster.

I need to remember to google first. It's almost always worth it.

Well, this morning I got another little treat - iTerm2 Alpha 15 is out and has a rather impressive set of features (scraped from the Sparkle update dialog):

Alpha 15
This release has one big feature: split panes! You can divide a tab into rectangular regions, each showing a different session. Also, you can now save your window arrangement and have it automatically restored when you start iTerm2.

Big new features
- Horizontal and vertical split panes. Use Cmd-D to split vertically, Cmd-Shift-D to split horizontally, and Cmd-Opt-W to close a pane. Navigate panes with Cmd-Opt-Arrow keys (but note that you may have conflicting key mappings in your bookmark, as this had been a default setting).
- Save your window arrangement including window positions, size, tabs, and split panes. You can open new windows with the saved arrangement with a keypress or use a new preference ("Open saved window arrangement at startup") to do it automatically.

Small Enhancements
- Make window title and tab labels more configurable so you can remove window number and job name.
- Add global keybindings for cmd-arrow, cmd-pageup/pagedown, cmd-home/end to scroll.
- Make opt-arrowkey send proper escape codes.
- Preferences and Bookmarks windows can now be closed with Esc key.
- When the "hotkey" is pressed, prevent the running app from getting the keypress.
- Made Find With Selection (cmd-E) behave like a normal cocoa app.
- Allow the OS to pick the initial window position if smart placement is off and no saved location exists.
- Improved wording of context menus.
- Fixed context menu's "send email" feature.

Bugs fixed
- Fix arrow key behavior in paste history and autocomplete windows (bug 407)
- Various memory leaks fixed.
- Improved behavior of full-screen tab bar display.
- Fixed applescript bug with setting window size before adding session.

While I'm not a huge fan of the split screens, I have a lot of friends that swear by them - and interestingly enough, they are emacs users. Hmmm... coincidence? Maybe not.

In any case, it's a nice update because I can get rid of the instance number on the window title and just get what I want. Also, the saved window positions is as nice as Terminal.app, and I don't have to deal with the scroll bars any longer. Unfortunately, the window positions don't include the Space they were on. I'm really hoping that Apple fixes this soon as it's one of the most annoying things about the Terminal.app (after the mandatory scroll bars).

This morning I was lamenting that the US Options Expiration calendar that I've been subscribed to for a few years now had a problem, and it was no longer available on iCal Exchange. I think from this note, it was lost, and the author never republished it. So I got tired of lamenting and did something about it. I went to the CBOE page and created a new US Options Expiration calendar. It took me all of about 15 mins and I'm sitting here now wondering why I didn't do this a long time ago.

Anyway... it's got the normal equity option expiration, as well as the VIX expiration and even the quarterly expirations. It's nothing fancy, but it's decent. I tried to keep the event titles as small as possible to make them look nice on my small iCal window, but it's a matter of taste, and that's the way it goes.

Use it if you want. I'll update it every year so you won't have to worry about that.

This morning I noticed that after a year of nothing, HandBrake 0.9.5 is out, and it's hardly a "bug fix" release. There are some major new features, and thankfully, it's going to keep do the job I need it to do - ripping DVDs, as long as I need it. There are new UI features, and the ability to run more than one at a time. I can't imagine doing that, but OK.

Fantastic update.

I noticed (while on vacation) that there was an emergency bug fix for WordPress to make 3.0.4, and it was quickly available on HostMonster, so I took the time to make sure that everything got upgraded nicely. It's not a lot of work, and there were plenty of ways to know that there was an update in the offing, so it's not bad, but it is sad that WordPress is such a target of goofballs that it takes eternal vigilance to make sure servers aren't abused. Sad, but true.