RCS for config files

My co-worker Stephen introduced me to using RCS to keep track of revisions of config files like httpd.conf, and I really like the practice.

It's a super simple solution that just makes sense.

Here's a link to a handy cheatsheet for RCS commands, because they are juuuust that different from SVN commands that I always forget them.

RCS Cheat Sheet

ok, I totally Git it now

light weight, fast branches. easy merging. seriously.




This is the example that has me convinced. I don't know how much the details of this chapter make sense if you haven't read the previous two chapters, but take a look and you'll see it's a compelling use case.

Git Basic Branching and Merging

What's even cooler is you can use git as a front end to a live, active SVN repository.
http://www.viget.com/extend/effectively-using-git-with-subversion/

Switch to Git?

I've been a subversion user since 2005, and was thrilled with it compared to CVS and ClearCase- finally a version control system that made sense.

However, the slow checkouts and painful merging have been bogging me down lately.

This article has laid out the case to switch from SVN to Git better than anything else I've seen.

He quotes times of 5 seconds to create a branch and 8 seconds to switch to it. I'm happy when those come in at 15 seconds a piece. And I often go get a cup of coffee when I do a switch.

Why You Should Switch from Subversion to Git

This warrants further reading

QT, SSL, MSVC2008, and Windows

I want to build my QT apps natively on windows, not using QT's default mingw package and its giant support library.

The standard MSVC2008 QT Framework SDK binaries work great until you start using lots of bells and whistles like OpenSSL and SQLite. I got away with not having to install SQLite on the windows side of things, so here is the cookbook for OpenSSL 0.9.8g and QT 4.6.2

download and install the QT Framework SDK
* http://qt.nokia.com/downloads

download and install the prebuilt OpenSSL binary pacakges
* http://www.slproweb.com/download/
* install the 32b versions
configure and build QT with explicit directions to where to find OpenSSL

configure -release -confirm-license -plugin-sql-sqlite -plugin-sql-odbc -qt-libpng -qt-libjpeg -openssl-linked -opensource -no-incredibuild-xge -I "c:\OpenSSL\include" -L "c:\OpenSSL\lib"

* thirty minutes later you should see a happy message from configure
* nmake, and several hours later you'll be all set
* if you still have linking trouble copy all the OpenSSL .lib files into the qt\4.6.2\lib directory

C to FPGA to ASIC

C to FPGA to ASIC is a very interesting proposition.

http://www.impulseaccelerated.com/index.htm

I want to know more details.

Inc Mag goes virtual for a month

The theme of the April issue of Inc Magazine is "The Case for the Virtual Company" and it was produced with no one physically at the office.

Really interesting stuff in the 7 stories on this theme.