Entries Tagged Random

I really ought to use source code control. I know it. But my laziness combined with my poor memory, makes it hard.

I’m trying out subversion. I’ll make some notes here to help me remember.

To create a new project myproject in my repository I need to:

cd ~/Desktop
mkdir myproject
cd myproject
mkdir trunk tags branches
cp -r path_to_myproject_files/* trunk/
clean up any junk files
svn import ~/Desktop/myproject svn+ssh://gb@cvs.cs.unc.edu/cvs/user/gb/svn/myproject -m "initial import"
cd place_to_work
mv path_to_myproject_files out of the way if necessary
svn checkout svn+ssh://gb@cvs.cs.unc.edu/cvs/user/gb/svn/myproject/trunk myproject

Then in that working directory the commands to know are: svn add, svn update, and svn commit.

Atool is an extension to our previous CamKeys project. Like CamKeys, atool allows keyboard input based on a cheap webcam. Atool adds DDR pads (or other game controller buttons) as an additional input and it allows playing recorded sounds on input events.
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I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 and switched to a new theme based on the copyblogger theme. Please point out any bugs you see.

An article in the WSJ reports on a study of energy consumption in Indiana before and after their recent switch to DST. The switch cost them $8.6 million extra for electricity.

I was excited about potential for the XO as a delivery vehicle for assistive technology. The laptop looks great online so I ordered one through the buy one get one program. I figured we’d get to develop a demonstration on it for Maze Day. Boy am I disappointed…

I made my donation on 14 November expecting the laptop by Christmas.

I got a thank you note from Nicholas on 16 November.

I got an email on 22 December promising delivery by 15 January.

I got email on 19 January saying their shipment system could not ship to my address. We get shipments here on campus every day from every shipper. I responded that their shipment system is broken and they should drop it in US Mail. Their email included a 24 hour dedicated 800 number for speaking to an agent.

I got email on 21 January apologizing for the email of the 19th, saying ignore the request for updated shipping information.

I got email on 25 January saying it had been sent to the warehouse for shipping.

I got email on 6 February telling my how grateful they were for the overwhelming response.

On 14 February I called the 800 number. The lady who answered the phone “hello?” didn’t appear to know anything about the OLPC. I figured I had the wrong number so I apologized, hung up, and dialed again. Same lady, except this time after much silence she gave me another 800 number to call.

I called it, got a menu, chose to speak to a person, and was informed that my XO would ship “at the end of March”.

Yow. These guys are going to change the world? My confidence is waning.

An interesting post suggesting that the proper response to the inevitable increase in surveillance of every aspect of our lives is looking back. Why should public officials have more privacy that us?

From Scientific American “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” by Carol S. Dweck. Hint: Don’t tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life.

I see these differences in our students.

I used the SVN approach this time. Very simple to set up and it seemed to work fine. In the future I should just have to type

$ cd wp
$ svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/2.3.1/

substituting the current version number for 2.3.1.

Please let me know if you see something broken.

I’ve been a platelet donor for the Red Cross for years but driving over to Durham to donate is a bother (can’t ride the bus so I have to drive to work that day but then parking around here is awful). So I’m going to give the program here on campus a try.

Their web page is impossible to find, so I’m blogging about it so that I can find it in the future. Go to the UNC Health Care Platelet Donor Program page.

I do my best to avoid the horrible 1980’s vintage computer system over at advising (3270 emulator running on a PC) but it has one feature I couldn’t find anywhere else; screen 1GE. This screen tells you what new curriculum requirements a course meets. You’d think maybe there would be a list in the undergraduate bulletin, and you’d be right except it is sorted by requirement, not by course! You might expect that each course description would list the requirements it satisfied but you’d be wrong.

So, I wrote a short python script to scrape the data off the requirements page from the bulletin. Here is the output of that script for quick reference without requiring a 3270.

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