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MikeCodeAwesome | 12 years ago | on: Arq 4 is out – Mac backup to S3/Glacier

I've used JungleDisk, CrashPlan, and now Arq.

I left JungleDisk because it went sideways and S3 was too expensive. After that was CrashPlan; I liked its free remote backup option. But then my backup destination disappeared behind carrier grade NAT. That left me with paying for regular CrashPlan or looking elsewhere. Enter Arq.

Based on my estimated usage, for two computers, I calculated the following estimated yearly cost.

   JungleDisk S3 $288
   CrashPlan     $120
   Arq Glacier   $ 32
Assuming I didn't screw up my estimate, Glacier was a no-brainer, even with up-front cost of two Arq licenses ($70).

This month is the first full month in which I'm not seeding my initial Arq backup to Glacier. I'm hopeful that the cost will be significantly lower than CrashPlan.

MikeCodeAwesome | 12 years ago | on: Amazon Prime Air

Two guesses: cellular location services and custom radio telemetry systems. Maybe that's one guess.

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: Don't use Linksys routers

I, too, switched to the RT-N16 after my WRT54GL died unceremoniously one day. The RT-N16 is a pretty good router but I want to caution any one who, like me, was awestruck by its 128MB RAM without considering NVRAM.

The short version is that, depending on your usage, you may run out of NVRAM before RAM and may lose your settings. For reference see [1] and [2].

[1] http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N16#Current_Kno... [2] http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=506126

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: Rebuild code automatically with "watch" and a makefile

Yet another fun use of watch, one of my favorite tools! I use it daily in combination with curl and grep to look for certain output of my JSON/XML services during development. The -d flag is especially useful in this regard.

  watch -d -n 5 "curl -s localhost:8080/some/service | grep status"
Along the same lines as the original post, I also use watch as an ad hoc, pseudo continuous integration tool for executing code that doesn't fit well within a REPL. [1]

[1] http://codeaweso.me/2012/09/using-watch-as-quick-continuous-...

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: Favorite Unix Commands

Same here; and love that it doesn't clear the command line you're currently typing.

Does anyone know if there's a key command for clearing the scroll buffer?

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: PowWow - Collaborative Screen Sharing

I kind of hate to say this but I'm glad there's at least one other person out there who has troubles with TeamViewer on Linux. My remote coworker uses Ubuntu with two screens and we're unable to make the mouse work on the correct screen consistently. That and the screen won't update properly.

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: Error codes vs exceptions: critical code vs typical code

Given your scenario, you are indeed correct: throwing implementation-specific exceptions leaks internal details and further couples clients of the API. Can you imagine using such an API which forces you to continually handle new exceptions that arise from new implementations? As you suggest, it's better to create an exception for the API which then wraps the underlying exception. I would not go so far as to create a family or hierarchy of API exceptions unless there's a need to communicate each of them individually.

What usually happens in practice is a combination of none and all the above. A bit of a mess, really.

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: 3 Tips for Effective Stand-Up Meetings

My team consists of four people, two of which are remote, spread across three adjacent timezones. We find that a regular three-way conference call is sufficient. This arrangement has worked well for three years.

The idea of using Skype has surfaced once or twice but we've gotten by without it. I doubt we'll ever need it.

As for advice…

* I would suggest everyone place their call from a suitably quiet room. Someone doing dishes, making tea, or wrestling with a dog is extremely distracting.

* Hold the standup meeting on time and don't delay more than five minutes. If you don't, you're effectively chaining people to their phones for an indefinite amount of time.

* Two or more people in a room together should remember to speak to the phone and not each other. It's amazing how much of a statement or conversation can be lost over the phone when co-located people use gestures and glances to communicate.

MikeCodeAwesome | 13 years ago | on: Java's Cover (April 2001)

> Based on this, I will boldly make the following prediction: in 10 years' time, the most popular languages will still be some variant of Java and C#.

Your conclusion may very well come to pass. This reminds me of another article, Beating the Averages, in which pg writes: "And so the median language, meaning whatever language the median programmer uses, moves as slow as an iceberg."

http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

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