The Joys of Late Night Problem Solving

It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I just went through a series of events that reminds me how fun it is to work with computers.

• Browse through Programming portion of my bookmarks
• Come across http://valloric.github.io/YouCompleteMe/ (YCM) and remember that I want auto-complete for Vim
• Check Vim version on the RedHat server provided by UW Bothell
• The provided version (7.0) is less than YCM's requirement of 7.3
• Looks up ways to build Vim from source without root privileges
• Find an answer on Stackoverflow
• Try using mercurial to download Vim source
• Fails because Mercurial requires python 2.6 and the school server is using python 2.4
• Give up and looks for alternate solutions
• Remembers about Git's remote pushing capabilities
• Reads a little bit from the free online Git book
• Sets up a remote repo using my home Ubuntu server (I finally learned how to use scp...)
• I can push changes to my home server!
• Pushing to the repository doesn't directly update any source code :/
• Clone the repo on my home server and set a remote to the git file right next to it
• Look up a way to automate the process of pushing changes to my home server's repo and having my home server immediately pull those changes into it's local working directory 
• Stackoverflow comes to the rescue again (SSH can execute commands then quit)
• It works! 

Currently, I can work on code using the school server, then run a script that automatically pushes those changes to my home server's repository and causes my home server to update it's local code base with those newly pushed changes. The branch names are hard-coded, and I haven't created a shared key between the two yet, but the process works! Of course, I also need to set it up in reverse, because ultimately, this was done so that I could work on my home server (which doesn't use silly old versions of C++ or python) and have the changes quickly added to the school's server.

It is now 2:10 in the morning and I have a busy day tomorrow. The process will continue at a later day! 

The Warhammer 40k Obsession

Woohoo! Only three days in and I'm already neglecting my daily postings! 

Let's talk about obsession. I'm sure a lot of people experience that feeling where your interests in a subject waxes and wanes over time. You pick up the scent of that interesting topic and spend the next few hours, days, possibly weeks, tracking every little bit of information you can about it. You obsess over it, you dream about it, you want more and more of it. Then over the course of a few days, you stop. Your obsession has moved on and that topic that took up the waking hours of your life is suddenly not that important. Of course, give yourself a few months or years and it might come back. 

That's my story with Warhammer 40k. My first obsession with the game began about a decade ago, when I was still a teenager. I picked it up again about a year ago, then have just started up again a few days ago. I'm hoping that I can stymie the obsession and keep it as a healthy hobby. Part of that involves keeping my interest for a longer period of time. I'm really not that good at providing self motivation. If I have a friend (or nemesis!) to collaborate with, I tend to stay much more focused on a goal. Jorge, that's you! 

I ordered the Dark Vengeance Set that includes the 6th edition mini rule-book. I'll be battling it out with Jorge this Sunday and might have my small Tyranid army built and painted as well. 

For the Emperor!

Some breathing room

I'm finished with my Software Engineering midterm and turned in the rough draft of my process paper for Technical writing... I can finally get back to programming! I'm undecided on what I should work on, though. I'd like to get back to work on my website, but there are also the projects for my scripting languages class that are fun to work on. 

Alas, this free time won't last too long. I have to finish the final draft of my first technical writing paper and prepare for the other two midterms that are coming up next week. It's nice to have a little breathing room and work on what I enjoy.

Introducing another blogger!

This is a blog. It doesn't have a specific purpose, but I do need to get in the habit of improving my writing and the best way to get better at something is by doing it. I'll take it slow and start off with something small. Eventually, I'll get around to all of those fancy blogger features I see on the side bar. For now, I'm sticking to whatever is on my mind when I start.

Test post. Please ignore.