ACCU World of Code

FreeGuide is hopefully nearing a new release. Alex has been working on the plugins system, and hopefully I will be able to test it this week. If it works ok, we’ll release it as unstable, and then with a few bug fixes we should be able to make the next…

When I wrote DIYBlog it occurred to me that what I was writing would translate into a blog aggregator pretty easily, and so I’m working on making that so. I’d like to start a little community of Java developers who are working on small free and open so…

Been discussing with Alex about the dangers of re-implementing – he wants to simplify the command-line arguments code in FreeGuide, but rather than modifying the existing code, he’s re-written it. The problem with re-writing is that old code usually ha…

…for a while. Woke up at 4.30am today having awful dreams about how none of the code worked. My dreams transposed the problems I am trying to solve at work onto the code I need to write for my corrections. I couldn’t stand it any longer so I got up a…

Well, I passed, so I should be happy, but I’ve got to do some corrections before I become a doctor, so I’m feeling disappointed, but really I’m very close to finally achieving what I’ve worked so hard for. Just one last push.

Today I find out whether I get a PhD. I’ve been strangely not-nervous about it, although I’ve woken up pretty early this morning. It’s difficult to `revise’ since most of what we’ll be talking about is what I wrote. I’ve been trying to refresh my memor…

I made a page for the band Pete Beresford and me had when we were at uni. You can download the 3 songs I was getting around to sending to John Peel. If you like your metal instrumental and a tiny bit Propellorheads, it might be for you: Mnemonic. If yo…

Take a look at the latest TODO list. There are several categories of things on it: Already done e.g. “Add firefox to the possible browsers.” Completeness features e.g. “Use Java’s printing capabilities to print” Feature creep e.g. “Automatically make …

I couldn’t sleep last night, I think because my viva for my DPhil (PhD) is coming up on Monday. Work is going to be a struggle, but at least I got a chance to think about FreeGuide. Alex is working on a plugins system (it’s sort-of-working in CVS) that…

I’ve made a page about how I’m making this blog, here: DIYBlog. I may even get around to putting it on freshmeat at some point, and if others want to contribute I may even put it on SourceForge.

I think I’ve managed to work out a system to make RSS work. Basically I write my blog entries into a raw RSS file, and then run a little Python script to add ids, links etc. and generate an HTML page from that. It’s been a hassle to write (mainly due t…

By Thursday 9th June 2015 30% of corporate desktop computers will be running operating systems (and desktop environments) which satisfy the Open Source Definition.

Having previously been the anonymous benevolent dictator of Guilty Expression I have decided to become non-anonymous and I’ll just have to make sure what I write there is either acceptable or I’ll have to log out before I write it. Guilty Expression is…

I really should provide an RSS feed. Does anyone know of a good reference on the simplest form of RSS that I can use to auto-generate some RSS from the HTML of this page? I’m prepared to do a little python coding to make it happen. Give me an email if …

Getting used to working is an interesting thing. I haven’t been as tired as I thought I might be, probably partly because I got into a routine of getting up at 7am with my wife (she was working while I did my PhD). However, the weirdness of how much of…

I thought I’d write a little bit about FreeGuide, since I’m planning to link this page off the FreeGuide page. I’m the lead developer on FreeGuide, and having just started a new job (which so far is excellent) my free time is seriously limited, especia…

Can’t decide what to think about Google. I was very suspicious about gmail, and this whole portal business is very boring, and _so_ corporate, but you really can’t argue with sponsoring open source contributions, can you? If doing this kind of thing st…

I’ve decided to start writing a blog, not least to convince people that although my work on open source projects (especially FreeGuide) has slowed down, it has not slipped out of my mind. Quite the opposite: I’m finding my lack of time very frustrating…