Tag Archives: svn

Unfuddle vs Assembla: Git Support

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Assembla seems to be having problems with their git service, and that’s too bad; now, I’m going to go use Unfuddle instead. The forums suggest that this has been an issue that started maybe a couple weeks ago. Of course, had I known this, I wouldn’t have spent the better part of yesterday and a couple hours today, banging my head against the wall.

I did, however, become much more well versed in the distributed source management system known as git. By the way, GitCasts is like the best thing to learn git from, I just hope that one day we’ll see all the commands that were used during the screencasts for easier consumption. Even as this project is going to most likely stay a solo venture, the saner branching/merging I keep hearing about makes my heart flutter.

But less about git, and more about the services that are providing git hosting: I liked Assembla because of their integration with Trac, one of my favorite bug tracking tools. I wasn’t familiar with Unfuddle’s or Assembla’s own milestone/scrum/chat/ticket system, and so I wanted to just keep using Trac. After tonight’s mess, I think I’m going to go and stick with Unfuddle for the time being and just try to start using their refreshingly different UI for all things project management. After all, I can move the entire repository with a single clone anyway.

Assembla: "Backpack" for Software Engineering and FREE

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I’ve found myself need a full toolkit for software development as I move forward with HanMeta. This list includes goodies like:

  • Wiki/Documentation
  • Bug Tracking
  • Source Code Management
  • Chat/Communication Tool
  • AND something to put all of this together.

Assembla has been working well. It’s kinda like basecamp for software developers. The application just screams Rails and lickability.

I have a couple of issues with using Assembla though. For one, I don’t like how I’m not in charge of my own data. Sure, with Subversion and Trac, I can just export the codebase back out using the standard interfaces they offer, but they have their own built in wiki and messaging system. I don’t see an easy way to export that data, because it would be nice to have a backup of the data… I don’t know how that would look like, since all of this data that exists on their servers is going to be in some proprietary format anywa.

The funny thing is for my job at NCSA, I had to do the same thing for the Blue Waters Project. I was in charge of looking into some project management, bug tracking, source control system. In the end, the suite of applications at Atlassian seemed to be the best bet. Since money wasn’t a problem, this was the valid choice.

Since all the funding for HanMeta is coming out of my pockets, it’s pretty important for me to keep my costs down. Using Assembla, I can effectively outsource all of the pain of maintaining and dealing with multiple tools. Plus, it was easy to get started.

I bet I won’t be saying the same when the Assembla servers go down… but that’s another story.

Why I HAVE to use Git from now on…

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I love seeing these technology leaders speak, even though not in person. First it was Sergey Brin, now, through the advent of YouTube, Linus Torvalds himself.

Yes, there’s an upside to the Internet video madness. All that VC money at hard work.

And man, he’s so very “strongly opinionated”. Codeword for: a jerk. He’s like David Heinemeier Hansson in this regard. “Opinionated” is the euphemism I’d use, but then again, they themselves wouldn’t tolerate that bullcrap. But they have a reason to be so opinionated… they wrote the book(s) on it. Literally.

Now, Torvalds makes very valid points. Almost… too valid. After all, he is the father of the Linux kernel, and heads one of the largest distributed open source project out there. He knows what is needed in this arena, and so I’m happy to have seen this clip.

And so… time to look into this git business.

EDIT: Version Control and “the 80%”

What I learned: What I forgot

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For someone who likes to plan, I can’t believe I’ve been trying to run without first learning how to walk. Maybe this time around, my “extremeness” got the best of me.

But less thinking and planning: Here’s the down low. Period.

I need to start somewhere. Instead of thinking about creating huge companies and changing the world, I gotta start with the essentials. For starters, I have to be able to not worry about money. Not that money is a problem right now… but… a “job”, perhaps?

But I don’t mean about getting any job. I need to make that impact, regardless of what I do. Holding out for that perfect job isn’t too bad, as long as your belief in finding that dream job is the truth. And I believe it to be true.

In reality, what will probably happen is as time passes and needs are found, the standard of that “perfect” job changes to something not as desirable. For me, that hasn’t happened yet. I’m still in that problematic phase of thinking I can get what I want in life. I haven’t become jaded… yet.

No matter how much I want to change the world, my personal “stuff” need to be in line.

Why the heck do I post this? I could have easily just made a mental note of this.

Well, being Josh Kim, I gotta track changes.

Think of most of my personal posts as:

svn commit currentDate.txt -m "Post Text Goes Here"

(I’m sure I’m going to get some nerdy comments as to why this isn’t correct, but I’ll try to explain myself if those people show themselves…)

I don’t know why it took Michael Moore’s film “SiCKO” to help me get to this state of wanting to slow down while speeding up.

On paper, it might seem like I have no idea where I’m headed. On the contrary, this enigmatic post has helped me even more…

But, yes. Enough is enough. Time to kick some ass.