Older blog entries for aero6dof (starting at number 10)

I'm getting close to a workable version of a Ruby Wiki - currently titled RuWiki. There a couple of others that exist already, mostly they're difficult or impossible to install on a site host when all you have access to is the standard web services.

RuWiki is designed for multiple backends - currently the only one is a flatfile. MySQL or PostgreSQL will probably be next. The twist for RuWiki is that you can define different "Projects" which essentially create separate namespaces for Wiki topics. I need to decide on a notation for cross-project notations still...

I decided to start looking for full-time work. I've been working small projects, but that was never the intent of Digikata. I'd like to see something in the Open Source area, but it's more likely that I'd return to my roots in Aerospace Engineering (or Engineering related simulation and modeling).

I'm going to try to keep up at least a once-a-month posting to Advo.

Well, it looks like Digikata will not be winning a Linux based proposal to develop school administration software. The fustrating thing is that the evaluation comments said that they were extremely comfortable with the competence of the team, but basically "not a mainstream OS"... And this after spending extensive sections of the proposal explaining why Linux would be so advantagous to the education sector.

Anyway, I think it's time to find a regular full-time job now...

Started to write a ruby+postgresql contact manager. Right now its mosly a little application to run through a list of potential clients and tag addresses with labels and tracking notes. I'll probably finish enough features to make it usable and then live with it for a while to see how I like it. So far ruby+glade+gtk seems pretty quick to develop with.

julian: College is only a (weak) approximate model of the real world. I feel for your fustration. If anything, I often sense that adademia eschews real world experience as "solved" issues - therefore the pragmatism of it all might taint you for academia. College is really a test of endurance, can you stay committed to one goal long enough to accomplish it? Oh, an by the way, you might as well learn some foundation information which may or may not be useful in your future endeavors.

When you re-enter the real world for a while, you'll find that it is much better suited for people who "get-it". It's not perfect, there are certainly patches of cluelessness aplenty, but people who know what they're doing get rewarded more often. And if you don't, move on to someplace that suits you. It's your choice.

Anyway, I should be getting back to my proposal now. Proofreading -- Ugh.

6 May 2002 (updated 6 May 2002 at 23:37 UTC) »

Received this inside a spam today:

$10,000.00 Investment could have returned $25,000.00-See How

200% return could have been achieved in less than 30 days!

If you're going to try to scam people, at least try to get your numbers straight. Sigh... forwarded to uce@ftc.gov

test entry from advogato.rb ruby utility

29 Apr 2002 (updated 29 Apr 2002 at 18:47 UTC) »

Haven't posted for a while. I've been busy - the entries stopped just before my son was born... babies are a lot of work!

Anyway, fun new (to me) Debian utilities are apt-proxy and apt-spy. Apt-proxy is working happily on my home-office mini-network now and I'm playing with apt-spy.

Was invited to submit a followup proposal for my education project, writing it up now.

Also trying out a advogato ruby post script -- fun.

Working of filling out more of the functionality of my prototype. Anyone who is involved with administering the U.S. Federal Headstart program for their local area may eventually be interested in the Open Child Development System (OpenCDS) product. (no public versions availiable yet, mail me if interested) With the support of my local school district and the Dept. of Education.

I'm prototyping a core database schema that an organization can use to track program information. (As well as stay fairly independent of specific program forms and data collection requirements). Oh yes, this is all web based letting them use their existing desktop computers and whatever OS they want for the clients. (Although, I'm recommending Linux as a cost saver in the long term) Their sys admin is very unhappy about the new/upcoming licensing requirements for certain proprietray vendors.. :)

The idea is also to make it cross program for various other city, county (LA. Co.), and state (CA) child related programs. It is estimated that 95% of all the information collected from a potential recipient is common to all the programs anyway.

I spent this weekend reading and writing for a new, related proposal (also open source, not education dept. related). For the moment this shall remain nameless.

I also continued repainting the spare bedroom, getting it ready to become a nursery. The color my wife and I chose was darker than the color sample as it dried, but it lightened up to match when completely dry. Tonight is layer 2...

Well, I'm now prototypeing my web application in Ruby (moved from Zope). Development seems to be going much faster now. The installation Directory structure is much more sane to me now. (Although I probably could have ground on Zope until I found out how to structure it the way I wanted).

Still waiting for the gov't to pay their invoice. Gov't contracts are double edged. On the one hand, if you can establish a service with the gov't it tends to be pretty stable. On the other hand, they can be pretty slow to issue payments (esp. with the mail scares/slowdowns in D.C. where my customer is located.) Sigh...

Spent sunday on the Pomona Historic home tour with my wife. We saw a number of homes in the neighborhood. They were all built anywhere between the late 1800's to the 1930's. It's depressing how well some of the homes were built then compared to how they're built now. (although there's a natural filtering effect -- many of the houses built badly simply haven't survived.

Today I'm working on my db normalization utilites a little more. I've gotten the ruby NQXML parser reading my userform xml docs. Next I need some way of rationally comparing field names to collect common fields. Eventually, I hope to be able to automagically translate these docs into html forms code, gtk gui code, command-line interface code. (which fits nicely with my chalice notes.)

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