Earl grey, hot.
Morning brew,
Happy soul.

There’s been a whole host of changes in my life since my last blog post. I left “Ping”:http://www.pingidentity.com back in August and am now working at “The Hive”:http://thehive.com. My wife and I also welcomed our first child into the world a few weeks ago. :)

At any rate, I’m now using emacs on a regular basis for editing C/C++ code and got tired of switching buffers manually between header (.h/.hpp) and implementation (.c/.cpp) files. So I hacked a little lisp for my .emacs to make life better. Maybe someone else will find this useful too..

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;; Association list of extension -> inverse extension
(setq exts '(("cpp" . ("hpp" "h"))
             ("hpp" . ("cpp" "c"))
             ("h"   . ("cpp" "c"))))

;; Process the association list of extensions and find the last file
;; that exists
(defun find-other-file (fname fext)
  (dolist (value (cdr (assoc fext exts)) result)
    (if (file-exists-p (concat fname "." value))
        (setq result (concat fname "." value)))))

;; Toggle function that uses the current buffer name to open/find the 
;; other file
(defun toggle-header-buffer()
  (interactive)
  (let ((ext (file-name-extension buffer-file-name))
        (fname (file-name-sans-extension buffer-file-name)))
    (find-file (find-other-file fname ext))))

;; Bind the toggle function to a global key
(global-set-key "\M-t" 'toggle-header-buffer)
 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on rewriting (for the most part) SSH Assistant. The last version, 0.8.1 has a variety of issues with the installer and functionality. I really hate it when one has to run an installer with root access to install something that really doesn’t need root access. So, I’ve gone back and redesigned the app to be more amenable to a “normal” user install. I’ve yet to upload a build, but you can grab the source from my personal repo. I’m hoping to cut a 1.0.x release sometime in the next week or so.

When you build the new SSH Assistant, the output is a single pref pane bundle. Install that bundle by double-clicking on it. Then go into the pref pane and click the “enable” checkbox. You may have to logout so that it can setup your environment.plist properly, but that’s the extent of the install process.

I recently rebuilt my gateway box using OpenBSD 4.1. It’s pretty easy to construct a DVD that ensures you have all the stuff you need for an install. The tricky thing is getting the DVD setup to boot. Herein are my notes so that the next time I need to do this I can remember how. :)

There are two tricks to get this to work. First, use the mkhybrid from MacPorts. Secondly, make sure that the location of the boot image is inside the hierarchy of files being burned to disk. I’m not sure why mkhybrid requires this, but it means the difference between working or not. Ultimately the command line should look something like:

mkhybrid -joliet-long -iso-level 4 -r -b 4.1/i386/cdrom41.fs -c boot.catalog -o obsd.iso OpenBSD

I have hardly blogged since January — school and work has just been too much. I wrapped up one class this weekend and the remaining one is mostly done. My days have been one long series of homework assignments, or so it seems. It will take some time to acclimate back to a more sane schedule that allows me to pursue other interests.

One thing I have been doing is continuing to work on my Erlang skills. The tricks you can pull with that platform is outright amazing.

One year ago today, PGM passed away. I still think of him often and miss the many conversations we had commuting to downtown Denver together. I also miss his always pragmatic approach to software development. He just had a way of cutting through fancy designs and overblown ideas to identify the heart of a solution.

I suppose that these characteristics that I miss are really the most superficial ones; I know that family was far more important than any amount of code or elegant design to him. That’s how it should — code lasts only long enough to get re-written, typically.

I guess all of this is to say that I remember him and wish things had worked out differently.

After my last post about Monarch, I had pretty much given up on ever resurrecting my desktop machine. In an interesting turn of events, I was contacted by another computer company that was willing to honor my warranty with Monarch and help me out – J&N Computer Services. Their offer was simple, if there was no physical damage to the motherboard they would RMA it with Asus and send me back a verified, functional board.

One week, $25 in shipping (both ways) and 10 minutes on the phone later, I have a functioning motherboard on its way back to me. Obviously, I haven’t tested it yet, but my interactions with J&N left me feeling that it’s a skilled outfit that knows how to keep customers happy. More importantly, I find them to have a sense of class – they went out of their way to avoid flaming Monarch in my blog comments. It’s rare to find this sort of respect (if that’s the right word) for fallen competitors in today’s business world.

This the type of company I like doing business with – technically competent, user friendly and well-mannered. I wasn’t planning on ever building another system, but with a company like J&N providing good service…why not?

I’ve been needing a new bag for work/school. During the school term, I carry both school and work items on the bus – i.e. books, notebooks (computer and otherwise), pens, calculator, lunch, etc. All that stuff adds up to a good sized load; a robust bag is important. I went ahead and picked up a bag from Timbuk2 – the Commute XL. So far, I really love it. It’s thoroughly water-proofed, with a solid rubber bottom and rubberized inside. It’s got a padded sleeve for the laptop and a nice broad strap. It’s a little on the pricey side, but considering the durability built into it, I suspect it’ll last for quite a while.

It’s another snowy day in Denver. Two massive snowstorms have left us with more snow than is typical for this time of year, so I have lots of time to think and blog. I’m not big on New Years resolutions but I think it’s wise to look back over the past year and see if corrections need to be made for the future.

I want to live less cheaply in 2007.

For me, this means reading, thinking and writing more – working and procrastinating less. It means more time listening to things that people say and less time focusing on how to respond. More yogurt, less coffee. I want to spend more time thinking about what I believe and why.

These are my resolutions. This is the person I want to be.

Yesterday was my 3 year anniversary working for Ping Identity. It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by, but I can genuinely say that I’m glad to still be working there.