Well, it looks like the major version just jumped with Google Chrome dev to 27.0.1423.0, and it looks more like a semantic change than a real significant update based on the release notes. Still… it's nice to see that they are still on their schedule of moving things along as they promote from dev to beta to release.
This morning I noticed that Google Chrome dev 26.0.1410.12 is out with what appears to be a good set of updates from the release notes but the minor version update indicates that they see this as minor bug fixes. Interesting take on how they see these changes. In any case, the new maintainer seems to be generating good release notes, and I'm all for that. Maybe the quick succession of bug releases is signaling a shift to 27.*… we'll have to wait and see.
Today has been a lot of skut work - clean-up stuff that has been sitting in the queue for months but no one wants to do. But if the project is going to really work, someone actually has to do it. So since I finished up a lot of tasks today, it seemed like a natural thing to just get to it and clear the decks.
None of this is hard stuff, it's just not very fun, and it takes time.
First off, I followed up with a request for backups to be made of all the database machines we use in the group. This includes CouchDB as well as PostgreSQL. It's nice in that the install of each of these packages places the data files in the largest partition on our boxes: /var/groupon/ so it's simple to just back up that partition. I submitted the request a few days ago, but hadn't heard anything back, so I followed-up asking if I was going to get a completion notice when the backups were working.
Response was: "Yup, likely tomorrow". Good enough.
Next, we needed to get Nagios monitoring of the free disk space on the boxes as well - so that should a process go crazy and start to fill up the disk, we can fix it before it becomes a database killer. This has happened to us on several occasions, and it's something to be avoided as the main processes can't run if the database is offline.
Finally, needed to do what I could to compact the CouchDB databases on the production and UAT hosts because we're at 93% disk space used, and there's very little headroom left. If the compaction of the views doesn't work, then I'm going to just drop the database and start fresh. We have a replicate of the production data, and with the backups (above) we'd be able to go back to it anyway. But this is something I'd rather not do, but it's certainly a sure-fired way to get the space.
It's not glamorous work, but it needs to be done, and no one else is picking it up, so I might as well just do it all and have it done.
This morning I've been fussing with MacVim and Sublime Text 2 and trying to come to terms with the fact that Sublime Text 2 has crashed on me a few times, and I have no desire to go through that again. I have downloaded the beta of Sublime Text 3, and it appears to be decent - though because it's using Python 3 virtually none of the packages I use in Sublime Text 2 are going to work properly, but at least I get the default behavior, and that's about 95% of what I use day-to-day anyway.
So I decided that it's time to give it a shot, and I switched from Sublime Text 2 to Sublime Text 3 on my main MacBook Pro. This isn't my work machine, but my machine, and as such it's not getting the same number of keystrokes as the work machine, but still… as I work on it I'm hammering on ST3, and hopefully, they will get it out of beta soon, and the Package maintainers will upgrade their code to be compliant with Python 3 and I'll be able to get back all the functionality I have/had in the older version.
Among the new features in ST3 is the extensive use of C++11, and that includes the move semantics which should make for a much more efficient app. I'm hoping to see that the crashes I've had go away, and if so, I'll be more than happy to foot the bill for the upgrade price.
This isn't to say I've given up on MacVim - I just read a message that the maintainer is looking to add the window/file/tab restore feature to it, but that it's "hard", and so I'm not expecting it anytime soon. Should that come to pass, I think I might have a much harder time choosing an editor. Yeah, it'd be tough not to use MacVim if it had that feature. It's such a powerful editor.
Today I decided that I wanted to see what was out there to update MacVim to be something more like Sublime Text 2 - or at least how I use it. Since starting at The Shop, I've come to really like the project-management features in Sublime Text 2 - specifically the ability to find a file with partial filename completion, and the same thing for methods/functions, as working in Ruby has shown me that the standard way of working on Ruby projects is to have a mess of files, all no bigger than a thimble.
But I had a feeling that there had to be something like this for Vim - and therefore MacVim, which I really like - but just need this kind of help with. So I asked my most Vim-savvy friend and he mentioned CtrlP.
Install this guy and a simple Ctrl-P brings up a searchable list - just like Sublime Text 2! This is directory-specific and includes most-recently-used files and buffers as well. It's a real treat. It's fast, clean, and does exactly what I need it to do. I've never heard of it, but it's really quite amazing.
The next real jewel today is VimClojure. This gives me the clojure syntax-highlighting and indenting that I really need to write in clojure in Vim. I'm doing about 90% of my coding in clojure these days, and the lack of a good default mode and syntax highlight for clojure is really something that kept me from really even starting to write clojure in Vim. With this, I'm golden.
I'm super happy with these two, but I really wish MacVim had the save/restore that other Mac apps have for windows and files. The ability to save and restore the state would be amazing and might make it so that I'm back to MacVim all the time. Sublime Text 2 is nice, and I've played briefly with Sublime Text 3 beta, but there's something about Vim and all the history I have with it that makes it exceptionally powerful for me.
I'll keep looking, and these plugins make Vim much nicer, but I'm not yet giving up on Sublime Text 2 - yet.
This morning I noticed that Google Chrome dev 26.0.1410.10 was released with another very respectable set of release notes. Sounds like a lot of little fixes, but necessary and advancing the cause of a better browser. I have to say I haven't seen a regression in the rendering or speed in a very long time.
Nice work, Googlers.
While I was updating Java on my laptop, I noticed that Apple posted an update to iOS - 6.1.2, and so I had to download that before I left for the train. The release notes that I read on the web this morning say it's for an Exchange bug that would cause excessive network traffic, and therefore battery drain, but I didn't notice the problem in 6.1.1 - but I'm not sure that I'm using Exchange connectivity any more. I think GMail switched over to IMAP for iOS 6.
In any case, it's nice to keep things up to date, and this was just another little thing to do to get a progress bar moving across a screen.
This morning I noticed that Apple had a Java 1.6 update for the Java exploit that's been going around, and Oracle had another for 1.7. It's interesting how vulnerable Java is these days - maybe because the other, historically more likely, back-door (open ports on boxes), has dried up of late. So the jerks turn to Java, and find problems and exploits there.
Seems reasonable to stay up to date because some Facebook and Apple engineers have had their machines compromised by visiting a hacked web site. Amazing that they can do this from visiting a website, but that makes sense in the context of Java plugins.
Crazy what poorly written software combined with kids with too much time on their hands can lead to. Kinda annoying…
It's been a while since I wrote anything, and there's a good reason for it: on Feb 2, 2013, Liza, my wife of 27 years, told me she wanted a separation. We don't have a ton of spare cash, so I was going to move into the office and sleep on the couch there. I'd stay out of her hair, and make myself as scarce as possible, and give her space. She said that she's been unhappy for the last ten years, and that she didn't want to go into it, but she felt it was time for her to be happy.
As her friend, I certainly understand.
As her husband, I could not possibly be more hurt.
It took me totally by surprise. I had no idea she was this unhappy. I knew she wasn't happy, but I thought that it was because the kids were getting older and she wanted to have something to do during the day - to feel useful, and needed. So she tried starting a business, which I totally supported. It didn't work out. Then she wanted to get a job - nothing fancy, but a job, and I totally supported that. Then she wanted to go back to school and start a second career, and I totally supported that. I was trying to help, but I guess I was the problem.
After two days of the in-house separation, she came into the office and said "This isn't working. You're in for the night, but you have to get out tomorrow." I tried to ask her not to make me leave, that I'd be out of her hair, but it didn't matter. She wanted me out.
People I have told this to ask me "Why did you leave? Just say 'No', and make things work." But they weren't there, and I could tell she was serious. If I wanted to have any chance of a reconciliation with her, I had to do this and hope for the best.
So the next day I asked again, and she was adamant - Go. So I packed up a few things and I went to a hotel in the area for a few days. During that time, I tried to talk to her about letting me come back, but every time I did, she was firm in her beliefs that I had serious issues that needed professional help, and she wasn't even interested in attempting couples counseling at this time.
I stopped eating. I couldn't sleep. I started having chest pains due to my heart pounding out of my chest. It was horrible.
She kept pushing - saying that I had to get a car to drive myself to the train station. I wanted to just take things slowly, but she'd have none of it. She wanted me to take an apartment for a year, and said that at the end of that year, "We'll decide".
So I'm living in a little apartment. Driving a 2002 Volvo wagon with 173,000 miles on it, and still not eating right. Still not sleeping right. And far too often, still having those chest pains. Like this morning.
Several times when we talked during this time, she's said "I know I'm the bad guy here", but it didn't stop her. Mercy, it seems, I did not deserve. I don't smoke, drink, gamble, neglect the family, hang out with the guys. I don't lie, cheat or steal. I haven't blown all our money on stupid things like a car or a boat or something.
She said on that Saturday that when she married me, I showed a lot of promise. And while she saw my faults, she thought they'd soften with time. But I haven't lived up to my potential, it seems, and my faults have not softened.
I can sit here and defend myself, but she says that just excuses. Me deflecting the real issues. That when I talk to other guys and they have similar stories as mine about work and hours, and home life, she calls that making excuses. I can't defend myself without ensuring that we'll never patch things up, so I take the hits and hope that someday soon her hatred for what I've done, or her anger at the events that started this, or maybe just time, will get her to a point where I can ask her what I've really done, and how I can fix things.
I've been talking to my Mom, and my teammates at work, and even a few friends that I've had for a while. Of them all, my Mom understands my position best as this happened to her with my Dad when I was 5. Yet she had the kids. I'm totally pushed out. I try to connect with them, but they're no happier with me than their Mom is, and to a point, I can understand it. They see her unhappy now, and they know what she did, so I'm the bad guy. I'm the reason things are all bad.
But it's not true.
I'm not perfect, but I'm not all that bad.
I've made plenty of mistakes, but that doesn't mean it's time to kick me to the curb and throw away a 27 year marriage. Not without at least letting me know what's made you so unhappy for 10 years, and give me a chance to fix it.
So I haven't been writing.
I find it hard to stomach the turmoil I'm in. I just want to work and get my mind off things. Then I want to try and stay busy to keep my mind off things. I'm doing a lot of praying, as I think God will see me through this, but I know from the events of the last two weeks that it's not going to be over quickly, nor is it going to be easy, and the pain has really only just begun to sink in.
I just pray for God to soften Liza's heart. Give me a chance to show her I can be a better husband to her, and we can fix things up. I don't need things to go back to the way they were - I want Liza happy. I want to be happy, too, and I want us to be together.
I have no idea if all that's in the cards. I just keep praying.
Well… I've really held off about as long as I can, and even then, it's probably a bit too long for what I'm doing. This morning I downloaded the Oracle JDK 1.7.0_13 with the latest security fixes for my main laptop. This is a big switch as I'd been holding out for Apple to step back in and really do Java right, but I think they are past that now, and it's up to Oracle to make Java work on Macs, and I pray that they do.
I'm doing more clojure coding, and with that, I really need to have the 1.7 JDK underneath, as there are optimizations that are done in the compiling if it's on the 1.7 platform. Since we're using that on the linux boxes at The Shop, and I have 1.7 on my work laptop, it makes sense to give it up, and switch.
I guess it's like my 17" MacBook Pro… legacy hardware. I'll move to the 15" with retina display for my next machine, and it's a beauty, and it's nice that it's smaller and lighter with the same pixel count, so it's a win - really, but it's a big change from all the years I've had these 17" machines.
Face the future, Bob… it might not be what you want, but it's all you have.