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Here’s an example of its use, in a post-commit hook script (on Debian Linux):
#!/bin/sh
# This post-commit hook script shows an example of the use of the
# svn_authz_mail script, along with the SVN::Notify script.
#
REPOS="$1"
REV="$2"
MODULE=svn_authz_mail
PROJPREFIX="[SVN $MODULE ]"
SVNLOOK=/usr/bin/svnlook
SENDMAIL=/usr/sbin/sendmail
PASSWDDB=/etc/apache2/apache.password
AUTHZFILE=/home/subversion/public.authz
MAILFINDER=/home/jborlik/projects/svn_authz_mail/svn_authz_mail.pl
VIEWURL="https://www.borlik.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=${MODULE}&path=%2F&sv=0"
INFORMUSERS=`$MAILFINDER --module $MODULE --passwd $PASSWDDB --write_from --write_to --translate --svnrev $REV --repo $REPOS --authz $AUTHZFILE`
/usr/local/bin/svnnotify --repos-path "$REPOS" --revision "$REV" \
$INFORMUSERS \
--subject-prefix "$PROJPREFIX" --subject-cx \
--svnlook $SVNLOOK --sendmail $SENDMAIL \
--viewcvs-url $VIEWURL --handler HTML::ColorDiff --with-diff
Command-line options:
svn_authz_mail [options] [file ...]
Options:
--authz filepath Path to AuthZ file
--svnlook filepath Path to svnlook, defaults to /usr/bin/svnlook
--module name Name of the SVN module, e.g. MyProject
--passwd filepath Path to the username/email database file
--write_from Write out the SVN::Notify --from email address
--write_to Write out the set of SVN::Notify --to email
--translate Translate the usernames to email address
--debug Output some text debugging information
--svnrev number SVN revision in question (often $2)
--repo filepath Path to the SVN module repository (often $1)
--help This message
Other notes:
There were many other activities while we were there. Of course, most vacation days are orientated around meals, and there always seemed to be something tasty. We made use of the Longmont health club, to try to work off the ridiculous amount of food. I used cross-country skis for the first time, and there were occasions that I could almost imagine that could possibly be a very efficient form of transportation. We enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee at the Winot Coffee Company. We visited Elizabeth's brother Greg and his wife Nicole, in his new auto repair business. The mellower evenings involved watching the Season 2 DVD's of The Office and reading Alan Greenspan's autobiography.
December 30 was our second anniversary! (See wedding pictures here, and here for our first anniversary.) We celebrated with a lavish dinner at the Greenbriar Inn, a lovely restaurant near the mountains. Interestingly, one of the highlights of the meal was the cheese plate with dessert... Lots of delicious choices.
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Here is the link: Zip file.
]]>I've enjoyed each of my trips up there. This time around, some of the activities involved getting used to the new setup. Elizabeth forced me to swim around the island three times (each on different days), but that was a record for me. The water was cool and clear. The 2006 trip is documented here, while 2005 (an important trip!) and 2003 are also available in the archives.
I've also attached a couple of pictures from a hike with some co-workers up Mount Baldy (August 11, immediately after returning fit-and-trim from New York). We took the Ski Hut trail, and descended straight down the bowl. It was a moderately difficult hike, and it was pleasant to be down off the mountain before dark.
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It contained a number of case studies from the Great War, used to illustrate a number of infantry concepts (obscurity, simplicity, terrain, time/space, mobility, surprise, orders, command/communication, fire/movement, artillery, etc). The case studies are morbidly fascinating... In each example, anywhere between tens to thousands of men slogged it out in the fields of Europe, often loosing their lives due to bad information, shaky leadership, or sheer chance. There have been a number of movies that depict the trench warfare of WWI (dark skies, muddy trenches, another wave of men getting cut down by in a hopeless charge at machine guns), and this is a good complement to understand why those things were happening (on a tactical level).
It follows, then, that the leader who would become a competent tactician must first close his mind to the alluring formulae that well-meaning people offer in the name of victory. To master his difficult art he must learn to cut to the heart of a situation, recognize its decisive elements and base his course of action on these. The ability to do this is not God-given, nor can it be acquired overnight; it is a process of years. He must realize that training in solving problems of all types, long practice in making clear, unequivocal decisions, the habit of concentrating on the question at hand, and an elasticity of mind, are indispensable requisites for the successful practice of the art of war.]]>
Elizabeth, my sister Emily, and I made the trip to Notre Dame. Elizabeth swam in the fine Rolfs pool, while Emily and I did a 5.2 mile run around campus followed by some weightlifting. With the good food, rest, exercise, and time spent outdoors, I think that I came out of the vacation healthier.
 | A view of my parent's backyard. |
 | My parents relaxing on the deck. |
 | We built a fire, and toasted marshmallows. |
 | On the Fourth of July, my aunts, uncle, and cousins visited. This was one of my birthday cakes for the season. |
 | We also went to my grandfather's house, for dinner and yet another birthday cake. |
 | Elizabeth and I, on my proper birthday, back home in Los Angeles. |
Oddly enough, I didn't have an entry for last year.
]]>I host this website myself. There really isn't a good reason to do that anymore… There are a large number of free (or almost free) blog-hosting services, which do all of the setup for you. The next step in complexity are the web hosting services, which run the servers and provide space to upload. Those are amazingly cheap, too, and provide 24/7 service.
But: I've learned a lot setting up Apache on Debian Linux, and I've gotten a better understanding of the infrastructure of this amazing internet. (The "New Seven Wonders of the World" are ridiculous and almost irrelevant. I like crumbling old monuments built with slave labor as much as anyone, but the REAL action is in the huge scale of humankind's more recent creative achievements. Where are the wonder drugs, like Herceptin, that save lives through detailed science of genetics? For the sake of all that is good, where is the Internet on that list?)
Anyway, I've purchased my domain name from GoDaddy, and that experience has been generally good. I recently upgraded my internet connection from Earthlink's residential DSL plan to the Small-Office DSL plan. This gave me a static IP address, a more stable connection, and better upload/download speeds. In the past, I used Dynu.Com for DNS (the service that directs requests from "borlik.net" to the IP address of my machine, e.g. 192.168.0.1). Unfortunately, their service has been HORRIBLE over the past several months, and (even though I had the premium plan) required a service ticket every time my IP address changed. I gave up on them, and switched to EveryDNS , and that seems to be a much better service. (By the way, DNSreport is a great way to check DNS configuration problems.)
So, I am much happier with our network now, and maybe this will even result in more blog content.
On the map below, the blue line shows our path. Click on the camera icons to show pictures and description. Unfortunately, the map may be shifted around, but it can be panned back into place like any other Google Map.
This is a link to the KML file, which can be viewed in applications like Google Earth.
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The trail was like five hours on a Stairmaster: It went UP. It began with a series of switchbacks that rocketed us up from the dry riverbed. The last miles were up an exposed stone bowl to the final ridge, often covered with snow, and I thank Kath for pulling me up the hill. The elevation map below shows the altitude gain over the hike, with the vertical lines marking the hours of our trip up. (I calculated a somewhat longer distance than reported by other references, possibly because my analysis included elevation changes. Also, I also used the Haversine formula to correct for the curvature of the earth, which may be overkill for small differences. Or, most likely, because of errors in GPS readings in some spots?)
The trip down was about four hours, I think. (Unfortunately, I didn't time it.) I was pretty tired out, with my legs and feet burning. Some of the spots on the trail, in particular the final switchbacks by the dry creek, were so steep (and dusty) that we had to tread carefully lest we start sliding.
It was a beautiful day, the trail had amazing views, and it felt great to stand at the top.
On the map below, the blue line shows our path. Click on the camera icons to show pictures and description. Unfortunately, the map may be shifted around, but it can be panned back into place like any other Google Map.
This is a link to the hike KML file, which can be viewed in applications like Google Earth.
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Mr. Godin advocated getting your customers to talk to each other. Certainly there are many more ways for people to communicate. And communicate with strangers and those outside geographical bounds. Blogs, newsgroups, rating sites, portals, wikis, etc. Happy customers are the best spokespeople. (The flip side is that it takes only a couple of missteps to ruin one's reputation.) On the other side of it, the companies can use those same tools to find small subset of people that are really interested. I like the idea that the most profitable advertising is the most focused, i.e. spam, mass mailings, and other interruption-based marketing don't work.
Anyway, I had watched the video because I was interested in Mr. Godin's presentation skills. Well worth it. His blog seems interesting, too.
]]>It is always interesting to hear authors discuss their work and milieu. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if Scalzi and Doctorow have done many of these types of discussions, as they both had too many interesting thoughts (and stated too eloquently) to not have had many chances to practice. There was some interesting discussion about the marketing aspects of the internet. Doctorow (sidenote: I'm sad to hear that he's leaving LA, as I would rather have interesting people nearby) quoted Tim O'Reilly saying "His biggest problem is NOT piracy. His biggest problem is obscurity." The panel agreed, however, that simply giving away books for free on the internet is not a silver bullet: It can be helpful to build attention (because it is easy for fans to share links to good stories), but a solid base of fans is necessary. The panel also discussed some of the offshoots of SF, including movies, television, and comic books, and pointed out that SF book conventions usually have about 1000 attendees, while comic book conventions have more like 10,000 attendees. But, they touch on similar subjects, and the other genres often look to books for inspiration.
Of the first questions (asked by Turtledove, the moderator) discussed was "why isn't the present like what was envisioned by the SF writers of the 'Golden Age'". E.g. Where's my flying car? Scalzi pointed out that the SF visions of that time were based on large monolithic organizations, very much in tune with the culture in that time. Things really didn't work out that way: The monolithic organizations (corporations and governments, I guess) had other priorities, and much of the technological changes have been around information tech (i.e. computers) rather than space travel. Doctorow pointed out that one of the truly unique ideas out there is the idea that collaboration costs are so low that people can develop large-scale projects without a monolithic organizational structure. Another unique ideas is that of the Singularity: We've had visions of things getting worse and worse until the Apocalypse (rough beasts slouching around and all that), and visions of things staying mostly the same or plodding along slowly (e.g. Asimov's galactic empire), but it is unique that some people have started to think that things will get better and better until we just pop with greatness. (We shall see.)
The panel made a very important observation, related to the discussion of the visions from the "Golden Age". Science Fiction really deals with the issues and problems in the present. Placing the setting of the stories in the future enables the authors to slyly write about current manifestations of human nature without having to be explicit. Present-day SF will deal with present-day issues, including extrapolations of present-day technology.
Elizabeth and I have enjoyed hearing authors talk at the Festival Of Books in previous years, and we hope to make it an annual event.
A slide show will appear here shortly.