cross browser bookmarks sync on the same box ? not yet possible

I'm waiting for Mozilla and Google to come to an agreement, so I can easily import each other's bookmarks.

This is a longer history for me, I want them cross-synced, because I use one or the other depending on the split second decision when I need to get into a browser :)

I pretty much know the alternatives, cloud sync, mobile sync, I don't care. I'd consider myself a somewhat power user which needs to get his bookmarks in these two browsers, exactly the same. Without a third party, without plugins and other crapware.

Currently the master is FF, I used to export to a .html file, then import to Chrome. Somehow this has started to fail lately, not sure if this is a bug or not.

But how about Firefox Sync and Google Bookmarks interoperability ? Their clouds talk to each other, sync my bookmarks and spare me the extra step.

dropped blogger dynamic views

keep it simple is the motto I should have followed in the first place. As much as I used to found blogger.com Dynamic Views attractive, I have to admit they're also weird.

I use this place to post things I found interesting and share my experiences. I don't wanna create a magazine.

So I've reverted the template, where you can find the archives, my mail [for head hunters, I haven't dropped the email and I haven't got used to reading messages on other social networks. And I haven't ceased to the FB miraje, I still think it's kinda waste of time, so don't look me over there]

Then I also recovered the feedburner feed, the widget of proud contributor to World Community Grid and the lovely planetlotus.org latest entries.

I really hope to become more active here, again ...

SwiftFile Mail Assistant

I'm curious about how many Notes customers out there knew about it, installed it and used/using it on a daily basis:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21305206

Google returns 1500 results, couple of blogs and pretty much nothing else.

I can bet this is one of those things which would have been so good to have integrated in the product's default functionality, very useful but never made it the prime time ....

eclipse's orion

I've watched several articles about Orion, Eclipse's web based development tools. But never got in their hosted hub, to test and play. Until today :)

Now, that's worth the note to make it popular, it's for sure something ground breaking.

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Orion/Getting_Started_with_Orion#Logging_into_Orion

For now they allow CSS and JS. Good enough, let's see what's it capable of, I only suspect good things

my ssh fast path

This is a collection of past week digging and mocking SSH things. Here's what I have:

1. a neat Gnome Terminal alternative is quake-[ohhhh that Quake !]-like terminal http://guake.org/

have handy the terminal sliding down from the screen, clearing my panel to sometimes 5 to 10 terminals [sorry, didn't get to switch tabs in Gnome Terminal]

2. very useful article about tweaking local ~/.ssh/config, several things I applied from it:
http://blogs.perl.org/users/smylers/2011/08/ssh-productivity-tips.html

3. another very useful script which you can use to perform auto-complete to hosts you regularly use.
http://surniaulula.com/2012/09/20/autocomplete-ssh-hostnames/

Managing SSH connections: this is a topic I've been attempted to get my life easier from some time ago.
First I got on different SSH managers. That sucks, I'm already on linux, c'mon !

Second I got to manage ssh connections in simple .sh scripts. With my limited scripting shell abilities, I soon got bored :) Then I had to have different users/hosts combination, I'd needed to duplicate them, eventually.

Enter hosts autocomplete: you define your own hosts on ~/.ssh/config, then enter ssh followed by usual bash Alt key, all hosts found will get displayed.

At the end, here's my current  ~/.ssh/config

tada@tada:~/.ssh$ cat config
ControlMaster auto
ControlPath /tmp/ssh_mux_%h_%p_%r
ControlPersist 2h
TCPKeepAlive no
ServerAliveInterval 60
ServerAliveCountMax 10

Host xxx.yyy.com
Host xxx.yyy.com
#add hosts here, not /etc/hosts :) nice difference to NOT mix them

when IBMIM fails updating

worth checking this note: https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21424419

I just solved an issue of upgrading my RSA install to 8.0.4.1 performing the update as described in that note, which is basically saying to start it as


/path_to/InstallationManager/eclipse# ./IBMIM -vmargs -Dcic.doNotReconcile=true

this blog updates to dynamic template

I've mocked a bit the Dynamic Views template from Google's Blogger. This is because the previous "about me" where I've posted my gmail.com address disappeared and I only noticed today when someone wanted to get in touch.

However, on the right you can contact me on G+, also switched the default view which I like better.


I don't have a facebook account so don't look for me the there :)

Rupa with her fishes. Rich music. Definitely.

Yesterday I discovered a new band whose music went straight to our souls (me, daughter and wife). Yes, I took my daughter to a live jam of Rupa & The April Fishes. Rupa, yes, it was us, me and my friends, grabbing the kids to your play. Hope you enjoyed it as much as they did :)


Total admiration for this band and the organizers, http://www.cavalleria.ro, for making the effort to have them play, though the initial day and location changed on the last minute due to flight delays. This shows respect to the audience. Hope you'll have a good stay in Romania, two more concerts in Cluj, despite a troubled start. 


Looking forward to your new real concert in Bucharest, this has been more like 'Rupa's music being discovered'. 


For friends wondering how they're sound like, here's a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8Ixa0hE6JA&feature=related

jazz savings - figures

As sometimes happens, looking for something and hit another one. I'm posting this just to back the findings with my feelings, don't take it for granted:

http://dtoczala.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/real-world-jazz-results-our-customers-are-not-kind-of-blue/

These figures just might be true, and that is because of RTC flexibility. You can do whatever your project tells you to. The problem domain shifts from the tool focus to how to best make use of it.

After getting your way around (I'd estimate two weeks of playing for a seasonable architect) with workitems / source control / process setup, you start discovering that you're asking different questions to yourself, like: what am I going to do with it ? I have everything in one place:

- epics / stories (or whatever your process is saying) for business users to tell their needs to the nerds (that is the crowd making things happen ... ha)
- tasks for your crowd to track their work against
- defects for business/tech to track bugs -> unavoidable ... :)
- source control to manage the code

So you see, bridging the gap between business and tech staff adds savings to your company, I'd dare to say ...

RTC and RRC

Just spotted an excellent article about Rational Team Concert (RTC) and Rational Requirements Composer (RRC), which actually fills a gap to my knowledge.

Article is on devworks, a favorite place to look for interesting stuff. It touches a few points, go have a read.

From some time I've been using RTC quite extensively, handling the process / workitems definition, together with its source control system. The point is that the more I know, the more I do understand that a tool isn't enough.

I also came to understand that while tooling isn't enough, adoption is what counts in the evolution of the project.

As the PM or Architect, you can define for the project:

- template for deliverables
- process and roles in project area
- source control process for streams/components
- development conventions
- architectural decisions
- (...) add here countless items from any imaginable methodology

If your team does not adopt above items (which btw, should be tailored to suit the project needs), you're doomed to fail.

What a great PM/Architect does (I haven't seen many ... ), is convince the team that their additional work (like filling fields in workitems, write according to templates) is needed because .... (give the reasoning). And if you manage to convince that stubborn smart team member so that he freely complies and adopt your things, you're on the right track.

Development in small team of friends is one thing. Development in international teams of people only familiar to eachother over the phone, is another.