Fedora 17 Upgrade

So, to upgrade, rather than downloading a DVD image to a USB or disc and installing/upgrading from there, and instead of using the system updater (yum) to update OS versions like I do regular applications, I use pre-upgrade.  It purportedly offers you the complete experience that downloading an image does without any of the physical media woes.  Yay!

It has a few stages.  First, it downloads all the packages you'll need to your local machine for the upgrade (from Fedora 16 to 17 this time) and then it asks you to restart.  You then restart into a preupgrade mode which is a minimal system that runs an installer that updates your system.  It's great.

My first problem is this:

Key phrases being "An unhandled exception has occurred", "device has not been created", and "non-existent 0MB storage" with some UUID string.  I assure you, doctor, my devices exist and are relatively healthy.

It seems to be documented well by bug 823048.  I will try to fix that and then update you on my next problem. :)

GXml: bringing Serialisation for GSOC 2012

Hello there.  Here is a quick post because I haven't posted yet, but I am still a bit busy this week.

For GSOC 2012, we're adding XML serialisation of GObjects to GXml!  Whee!  For details, here is the proposal.  I'm happy to be working with my mentor from last year, Alberto Ruiz, again.

Since last summer, the amazing Daniel Espinosa Ortiz added autotools and useful GObject Introspection support.  Hooray!  Sadly, WAF support has languished a little and so have the tests.  My inadequate attempt to push libxml2 vala binding changes upstream also didn't go far, as most of my time went towards my Masters (two semesters to go!).  I'm pleased to be a part of the 2012 Google Summer of Code and grateful for the opportunity to focus time this summer on GXml again (rather than taking another unrelated (albeit exciting) Teaching Assistant position :D). 

So far, I've been

• investigating other serialisation libraries, such as Java's serialisable interface, XStream, JsonGlib, .NET's XML serialisation, and Buzztard's BtPersistence.  I'm grateful to Emmanuele Bassi for answering questions about JsonGlib so far. 
• fixing bitrot: I got waf working again, have the tests working again, and have addressed feedback on the vala libxml2 binding patch I originally submitted (and am making better progress now with it split up as a series of patches, thanks to reviews by the timely Evan Nemerson :D).  Relevant bug numbers filed today include 677375, 677374, 677359, 677355, 677354 if anyone's interested.
• playing with serialisation.  Part of my thesis wants it, so I have a prototype with that, and I have a quick prototype trying to use JsonGlib's approach, but with XML.  This is just for self-educational purpose.

Coming up, an actual design needs to be agreed upon and plans on integrating the new functionality with other people.  Whee! 

Pandemonium

I'm curious about how societies function that lead to recent events like cannibalism, publicised murder, and Saturday's shooting in the Eaton Centre.  I can try to understand it in the different nature of various societies, some where life might be valued less generally.  I suppose it's a grotesque form of violence that can't be completely removed, no matter how well a given society is pacified. 

Google+ Events coming

Hooray!  My biggest complaint about Facebook events is that I cannot trivially add them to my Google Calendar- actually, I just double checked and I can indeed export Facebook events to a calendar.  Now I just wish that that had been more obvious. :)

Hooray for standardised technologies! Hooray for G+ finally getting events.

Strange calls

I've been receiving phone calls regularly from (289) 597-2717 ... at my old number that I haven't used in over 8 months and hasn't even been connected to a physical phone.  When I call it back, it appears to be a Rogers number, but I can't leave it voice mail.  I wonder if it's someone who doesn't know I've changed my  number?  Dun dun dun.

Productivity and Firefox's Tab Groups

So recent habits to increase productivity involve segregating focuses.  I'm trying to use Firefox's tab groups to help separate life stuff, GSOC stuff, Thesis stuff, and other work/school stuff.  However, I have a couple complaints.

• Pinned App tabs appear on all Tab Groups.  So, I can't pin Google+ to my Life one and have it not appear on my work-y ones.  I have to unpin it to prevent the potential distraction, but then I lose all the benefits of having it pinned.  I want pinning to be per-tab group, not global.  
• Update: Bug 722375 already exists.
• ctrl-w, upon closing a tab, takes you to the last one accessed globally, not per tab group.  So, if I hop between tab groups (e.g. I want to check if I've received any IMs or e-mails while in the past two hours of work), and then go back and close a tab, I suddenly hop to another tab group.   I want ctrl-w to be per-tab group, not global.  
• Update: This is probably actually bug 582872 and its happening might be anomalous to my old, aged profile.
• ctrl-` for switching groups seems slow.  So slow.  Like a whole second slow

I was thinking about using "firefox -P profilename -no-remote" so that I could instead create separate profiles (and use -no-remote to use them simultaneously) but this apparently isn't working on my installation for some reason.  UPDATE: I hadn't removed .parentlock, as I had forked my default firefox profile while it was running. Whoops. :)  I can do this now.

I can do that with Google Chrome, but I really benefit from having tabs laid out in a vertical tree-style tab view, as an extension in Firefox gives me.  Sigh.

I'm also beginning to miss the static workspaces of GNOME 2.x.  GNOME 3.0 has dynamic workspaces, but they're in a linear list.  I'd like to keep some just constantly there, and I'd like them in a grid, so I can spatially orient my work.

It's not so bad.  I've been being pretty productive without these enhancements, I just want to be able to focus more on specific tasks without switching so much.

Fedora 17: Almost Installed

A new release of Fedora is out, Fedora 17.  I notice fewer and fewer new things recently, but I'm pleased to see that there is improved support for Tablet PCs like mine.  (Like, actual dialogues apparently that let you map buttons, rather than having to edit text files in the terminal all the time!  Yay!)   Now to go home, back up, and run preupgrade. :D

Background music

I've been working in the Grad Lounge recently.  I enjoy the atmosphere, and will buy something every now and then.  The radio plays and here are some terrible songs that have caught me.

• Fun.'s We Are Young
• Adele's Rumour Has It
• Jennifer Lopez's Dance Again
• The Wanted's Glad You Came

I'm not completely sure that those are the artists behind the renditions played.  Ever since Somebody That I Used To Know started being covered by everyone and their fire ferret, including a delicious parody by Hank Green =D, I'm having trouble distinguishing artists.

I am too lazy/busy to even bother linking any of those.

Recent thoughts

• Reasonable support of friends.  Some times friends need a supportive friend for a prolonged period of time.  I'm trying to balance being there with not getting exhausting myself and running away.  (I did that once before.)
• Time versus friends.  A friend is allegedly on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to all the work she has to do and how strong a demand her friends are putting on her time.  She's finding herself frustrated when people want to hang out, because she wants to hang out but can't justify it.  She's also feeling a little suffocated.  I'm trying to balance that too, trying to keep in mind that people who want my time even though I'm busy do mean well and to not get frustrated with them, even when I try to explain how busy I am.  So far, I'm managing to appreciate the interest and avoiding becoming avoidant.
• Second guessing.  A friend recently questioned my decision to wear an artefact (a purple mushroom pendant) and whether it was influenced by unhealthy motives.  What I didn't want to tell them at the time but will note now is that I constantly second-guess decisions I make to try to ensure that they're justifiable and not unduly influenced by other people.  This comes down even to the things I blog and food I eat, and sometimes I still have to veto something, which can be quite hard.  Overall, this helps me better understand my own motives for things and helps legitimise my concept of myself to myself.

Things of recency

I realise I haven't written much.  I'm busy with school, GSOC, jodo/iaido, and trying to escape my computer.  So, here is a bunch of points if you're curious about where I've been, complemented by pretty photos.  If you like, you can just look at the photos. :)

• The other weekend was the iaido/jodo seminar in Guelph.  It was amazing.  I volunteered with it since it's hosted by my dojo.  The crisp, decisive movement of 70-year olds is amazing.  We had 5 sensei come over from Japan to teach us. 
  
• I had my iaido and jodo gradings on the Monday.  I woke up early, got ready, and casually went to the bus stop.  20 minutes later I realised that it was Victoria day and buses had a Sunday schedule and wouldn't start for another 2 hours.  I quickly made a mad dash to my friend K's and commandeered her bike (she willing) and cycled like mad.  The adrenaline had not quite passed by the time I went in for grading.
• I managed raffle sales.  It was wonderful fun obnoxiously harassing people to purchase raffle tickets.  After raffling the main prize, I started raffling off all the things at random: boxes of butter tarts, people, etc.
• At the end of the Monday, I joined up with some friends for fireworks by the Speed River.  I arrived a little late and felt a little asocial so I just sat in the shadows until they were done and surprised them.  There had been some vagrants camping in the park that weekend, but I failed to talk to them. They seemed classy.
  
• I bought a lamp and painted it pretty colours.
  
• This has acquired a new line of art supply to replace my lost one
  
• I've watched a lot of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with my friend K in the past month.  
• We've watched a couple episodes every other night for a few weeks.  She'd sprained her ankle so it was an easy way to keep her company. :)
• I quite enjoy a lot of anime, and I enjoy clever cartoons still.  MLP borders on clever the same way Genndy Tartakovsky's works (Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Samurai Jack) do.  I don't think I'd invest the time in MLP if it wasn't for watching it with my friend.  This became relevant at Anime North.
• Samurai Champloo: I've not managed to watch much in weeks.  Mostly I'm too busy with school + GSOC + iaido/jodo stuff. 
• School: I'm taking my final course for my Masters this summer to try and wrap everything up.  I fear I may be making myself too busy. 
• I love the course.  It's about knowledge acquisition and knowledge discovery and does a better job of covering AI in breadth and detail than the actual graduate AI course did.  Wow!
• I haven't written about them much but I'm having some serious challenges remaining interested in my Masters.  This course helps.
• Google Summer of Code: GXml, redux!
• Last year I felt much more comfortable with the work I was doing: it was within the realm of stuff I was familiar.  This year, I'm branching out a bit conceptually and technically, and I'm having a slightly harder time figuring out what to do.  I need to remember to be willing to request help. :) 
• Silly funs
• I've been accumulating more people who like playing on jungle gyms and climbing trees.  And, perhaps more importantly, people who CAN climb jungle trees. :D
• I've gone on a couple picnics with a friend, such that I've now got two thrift-store picnic blankets.  (One has my primary motif of stars.)
• I've recently been in the business of making huge bubbles
• Food and colourful things
• I've baked a lot of cookies recently, but upon improving my acquaintance with a gluten-free friend, I feel obliged to make more gluten-free vegan cookies.  Or perhaps I will replicate this cupcake:
• The more I sit before my computer, the more I want to integrate nature into my world.  I have added a fallen feather to my plant collection; I wonder whether it will grow into a duck.
  
• That reminds me that my apartment's duck was sadly struck by a truck.  In other avian news, this nostalgic nest appeared at my father's.  I think it was abandoned.  I didn't need a mirror pole to check it, though.
  
• This past weekend I went to Anime North, Canada's largest anime convention.  It's important for me because I have a few friends who I rarely get to see, so meeting up with them at least once a year here helps.  This year, I didn't particularly do anything anime-y, though for a variety of reasons.  :) 
• I attempted a few costumes, but some I gave up on due to connotations and others because some ponies bailed. :)  Also, I've been busy the past two weeks and didn't have much time in-week to spend on it, so I went as Jin from Samurai Champloo (I have almost all the parts already) and as ... Pikachu!
   
• I think it was honestly my favourite and least stressful Anime North yet, despite spending half the time hiding in the hotel.  :)
• I also got to go for a swim when I returned to 32°C weather + humidity in Guelph with friends.  They're crazy ones, I assure you.
  

Thank you.  Back to work now, so good night!