sacha chua :: enterprise 2.0 consultant, storyteller, geek » opensource http://sachachua.com/wp I help people connect through blogs, wikis, other Web 2.0 tools. I'm also writing a book about Emacs. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:24:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 en hourly 1 Free Software and Open Source Symposium, Toronto, Oct 26-27 http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/09/02/free-software-and-open-source-symposium-toronto-oct-26-27/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/09/02/free-software-and-open-source-symposium-toronto-oct-26-27/#comments Sun, 03 Sep 2006 00:57:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2006.09.02.php#anchor-3 Via Kelly Drahzal: there'll be a Free Software and Open Source Symposium in Toronto from Oct 26 to 27. Admission for full-time students to the symposium is just CAD 10.00! I will so be there, if only to hang out.

The workshops look like mainly intro courses, which isn't bad. I'd like to see more people get into development. I wanted to get into the workshop for educators because I want to convince everyone that open source development really should be part of all computing students' experience. I can get quite passionate about that! The workshop seems to be full, though, so I may need to talk my way in.

Coming? =)

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]]> Via Kelly Drahzal: there'll be a Free Software and Open Source Symposium in Toronto from Oct 26 to 27. Admission for full-time students to the symposium is just CAD 10.00! I will so be there, if only to hang out.

The workshops look like mainly intro courses, which isn't bad. I'd like to see more people get into development. I wanted to get into the workshop for educators because I want to convince everyone that open source development really should be part of all computing students' experience. I can get quite passionate about that! The workshop seems to be full, though, so I may need to talk my way in.

Coming? =)

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/09/02/free-software-and-open-source-symposium-toronto-oct-26-27/feed/ Microsoft Word in schools http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/05/24/microsoft-word-in-schools/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/05/24/microsoft-word-in-schools/#comments Wed, 24 May 2006 06:54:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2006.05.24.php#anchor-6 Didith Rodrigo, the chair of my alma mater's computer science department, seems to be getting a bit frustrated with people who've asked her to consider teaching students something other than Microsoft Word for word processing. She reasons: "I think that teaching tools is need-based. If there is some reason that the tool is more appropriate for the need, then fine. If not, then don't fix what isn't broken."

I'm going to go on a bit of a rant because I feel that it's important to expose students to choices that they might not otherwise encounter on their own. I agree with Didith's main point at the end - that it's not about the tools - but my particular bone here is that university's also where students should learn to abstract general principles.

This is how I understand the educational system's _supposed_ to work: people who want to learn about specific things go to vocational schools and workshops, and people who want to learn about abstractions and things they'd never encounter on their own go to university.

We shouldn't teach Microsoft Word. We should teach writing (note: not even word processing). We shouldn't teach Microsoft Powerpoint. We should teach presentation. We shouldn't teach Microsoft Excel. We should teach data analysis.

The problems these students face go _way_ beyond the tools. You can inflict death by bullet point in OpenOffice.org Impress just as easily as you can in Microsoft Powerpoint. So why not spend valuable class time talking about the principles of the thing instead of the tools? (Oh, if I had a dime for every word someone's read off the slides...)

Here's a quote that captures what I think:

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Fill them with the longing to write wonderful articles and make effective presentations! Inspire them through your examples! Help them reach out through their words! As long as students write only for their teachers and their classmates, you'll see bad prose and hear people read off slides. Show them examples, point out common mistakes and show them how they can improve, and put them in front of audiences that care about what they're interested in... If you can set them on fire, they'll _learn_ about all the nifty tricks hidden in whatever software they use - and it will be about the result, not the tool!

Note to self: I need to learn how to write really, really well. I also need to learn how to present really, really well. Then I need to figure out how to teach this while inspiring by example. I _so_ want to run a class on "Communication for Geeks", or something like that. ;)

But wait! Wasn't this supposed to be a rant about open source in education and how students should be exposed to open source alternatives?

I've written a fair bit about this in the past, but let's look at the Atenean case more closely. For the sake of argument, let's assume that there _aren't_ financial reasons to choose open source. The stereotype of the Atenean student is a middle-class or rich student who can well afford to buy legitimate versions of Microsoft Office. Truth is, quite a few people are on scholarships. Besides, most people quite happily pirate software or use whatever their computer dealer "bundled" with their computer because they just don't care about software rights or they don't think Microsoft deserves even _more_ money.

So let's ditch the financial and ethical incentives, and talk about the pedagogical one instead.

I taught for a short while, and even that short a while was enough to make me feel the pressure to cover everything in the curriculum. If a teacher's already having a hard enough time covering all the little features of one thing or another, how on earth is that teacher going to find time to explore and discuss alternatives? Won't that confuse the students and make them lose confidence?

I feel quite strongly that we should drag people out of their comfort zones every so often, particularly in university when they can mess up without losing money. I suspect that one of the best ways to check whether students can abstract the notion of, say, emphasizing text is to throw them at an unfamiliar but usable word processor like OpenOffice.org and see if they can figure out what to do. (Open source geeks can substitute "Microsoft Word" or "Emacs" as appropriate.)

I _want_ to make students feel a little bit uncomfortable. That discomfort is what drives learning in the future, where it's most important. I don't want students to stick only to what they know how to do. They should keep learning!

This belief is probably not going to make me very popular with students, most of whom would like to get through school with as little effort as possible - but we need to help them develop critical thinking and abstraction, and we need to help them figure out how to figure things out.

I think that to know one thing is to know that one thing, but to know two things is to know two things, their similarities and differences - _and_ to know that I can learn more.

It doesn't even have to be open vs closed source. It could be two closed source ways of doing things, two open ways of doing things, whatever. But it has to be sufficiently different to force the students to think about their abstractions and to expose bugs in their understandings... =)

Hey, would _you_ test a program with only one test case? ;)

On Technorati: , , , ,

Random Japanese sentence: 「いいえ、ぼくです！、ぼくです！、ぼくです！」 百匹のねこ、千匹のねこ、百万匹、一億、一兆匹のねこがいいました。どのね こも自分が一番美しいとおもっていたのです。 No, I am! I am! I am! Cried hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of voices, for each cat thought itself the prettiest. [M]

]]> Didith Rodrigo, the chair of my alma mater's computer science department, seems to be getting a bit frustrated with people who've asked her to consider teaching students something other than Microsoft Word for word processing. She reasons: "I think that teaching tools is need-based. If there is some reason that the tool is more appropriate for the need, then fine. If not, then don't fix what isn't broken."

I'm going to go on a bit of a rant because I feel that it's important to expose students to choices that they might not otherwise encounter on their own. I agree with Didith's main point at the end - that it's not about the tools - but my particular bone here is that university's also where students should learn to abstract general principles.

This is how I understand the educational system's _supposed_ to work: people who want to learn about specific things go to vocational schools and workshops, and people who want to learn about abstractions and things they'd never encounter on their own go to university.

We shouldn't teach Microsoft Word. We should teach writing (note: not even word processing). We shouldn't teach Microsoft Powerpoint. We should teach presentation. We shouldn't teach Microsoft Excel. We should teach data analysis.

The problems these students face go _way_ beyond the tools. You can inflict death by bullet point in OpenOffice.org Impress just as easily as you can in Microsoft Powerpoint. So why not spend valuable class time talking about the principles of the thing instead of the tools? (Oh, if I had a dime for every word someone's read off the slides...)

Here's a quote that captures what I think:

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Fill them with the longing to write wonderful articles and make effective presentations! Inspire them through your examples! Help them reach out through their words! As long as students write only for their teachers and their classmates, you'll see bad prose and hear people read off slides. Show them examples, point out common mistakes and show them how they can improve, and put them in front of audiences that care about what they're interested in... If you can set them on fire, they'll _learn_ about all the nifty tricks hidden in whatever software they use - and it will be about the result, not the tool!

Note to self: I need to learn how to write really, really well. I also need to learn how to present really, really well. Then I need to figure out how to teach this while inspiring by example. I _so_ want to run a class on "Communication for Geeks", or something like that. ;)

But wait! Wasn't this supposed to be a rant about open source in education and how students should be exposed to open source alternatives?

I've written a fair bit about this in the past, but let's look at the Atenean case more closely. For the sake of argument, let's assume that there _aren't_ financial reasons to choose open source. The stereotype of the Atenean student is a middle-class or rich student who can well afford to buy legitimate versions of Microsoft Office. Truth is, quite a few people are on scholarships. Besides, most people quite happily pirate software or use whatever their computer dealer "bundled" with their computer because they just don't care about software rights or they don't think Microsoft deserves even _more_ money.

So let's ditch the financial and ethical incentives, and talk about the pedagogical one instead.

I taught for a short while, and even that short a while was enough to make me feel the pressure to cover everything in the curriculum. If a teacher's already having a hard enough time covering all the little features of one thing or another, how on earth is that teacher going to find time to explore and discuss alternatives? Won't that confuse the students and make them lose confidence?

I feel quite strongly that we should drag people out of their comfort zones every so often, particularly in university when they can mess up without losing money. I suspect that one of the best ways to check whether students can abstract the notion of, say, emphasizing text is to throw them at an unfamiliar but usable word processor like OpenOffice.org and see if they can figure out what to do. (Open source geeks can substitute "Microsoft Word" or "Emacs" as appropriate.)

I _want_ to make students feel a little bit uncomfortable. That discomfort is what drives learning in the future, where it's most important. I don't want students to stick only to what they know how to do. They should keep learning!

This belief is probably not going to make me very popular with students, most of whom would like to get through school with as little effort as possible - but we need to help them develop critical thinking and abstraction, and we need to help them figure out how to figure things out.

I think that to know one thing is to know that one thing, but to know two things is to know two things, their similarities and differences - _and_ to know that I can learn more.

It doesn't even have to be open vs closed source. It could be two closed source ways of doing things, two open ways of doing things, whatever. But it has to be sufficiently different to force the students to think about their abstractions and to expose bugs in their understandings... =)

Hey, would _you_ test a program with only one test case? ;)

On Technorati: , , , ,

Random Japanese sentence: 「いいえ、ぼくです！、ぼくです！、ぼくです！」 百匹のねこ、千匹のねこ、百万匹、一億、一兆匹のねこがいいました。どのね こも自分が一番美しいとおもっていたのです。 No, I am! I am! I am! Cried hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of voices, for each cat thought itself the prettiest. [M]

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2006/05/24/microsoft-word-in-schools/feed/ Working with Emacs http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/07/01/working-with-emacs/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/07/01/working-with-emacs/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2005 16:12:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.07.01.php#anchor-2 A recent post on the Philippine Linux Users' Group suggested a separate plug-emacs mailing lists for all the Emacs messages that have popped up recently. The suggester said:
There is a difference between discussion and stroking each other's ego. :)

Working with Emacs is a humbling experience. It brings you face to face with accumulated centuries of developers' work. Emacs involves people in its development to an unusual extent. Working with vi and even Eclipse made me feel more like a user than a co-developer. Working with Emacs made me feel part of the community, even when I was still struggling to make sense of the parentheses.

If in that sense, Emacs worship is considered ego-stroking, then sure, I'm guilty. I can't help but express my appreciation for one of those things that has really changed my life and made free, open source software really meaningful to me. For the culture, really, that made it possible. It's a piece of software, but it's also a conversation with so many developers around the world.

To newbies: if you're curious about the thrills of open source development and you want a nice, easy way to get started, why not try modifying Emacs? It's easy to pick up. All the source code is there, and you can modify it on the fly. We've had complete non-programmers try it out and fall in love with programming. They get thrilled when they share their tweaks and other people respond with comments and suggestions. This is good stuff. Try it out. =)

I suppose Emacs is off-topic. After all, it's cross-platform, not Linux-specific. I could easily be extolling the wonders of Emacs on Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, or BSD. Emacs doesn't require Linux. (Neither does Apache, but you don't see people waxing lyrical about web servers that often, do you?) The flood of Emacs-related posts that deluge the list whenever someone unwittingly brings up the topic is probably incomprehensible to people who've never tried Emacs or tried Emacs as just an editor and didn't like it.

Still, I want to share what makes open source real for me. Not kernel hacking, which is still too intimidating despite the existence of projects like kernel-janitor. Not network or system administration, which I don't have the patience to do. Just the free and flexible customization of something I use everyday and the thrill of sharing these customizations with other people in a community that spans the world.

I guess that's why I post on PLUG instead of plug-misc. I don't think PLUG should just be a venue for asking and answering technical questions, but also for sharing nifty hacks and examples of how far a Linux system can be pushed. Other people push their systems in terms of hardware and services. I push mine in terms of how well it can fit me, how well it can anticipate my needs.

I want to stroke other people's egos. I want people to discover how they can contribute to free and open source software, to experience the thrill of seeing their code out there and being used. Open source development isn't just for PHP wizards or C freaks who can contribute to existing projects or launch an entirely new project on their own. Maybe—just maybe!—people who thought themselves just users of a text editor will be inspired to think about how they can start customizing their own.

コンピュータを使えば時間に節約になる。 Computers will save you a lot of time.

clair ching says:

I can't help but agree with you. Emacs is the way that I appreciated FOSS more compared to GNU/Linux per se. Why? It's because I easily felt part of the community of Emacs users and hackers on the Emacs Wiki. That kind of interaction makes it less scary for newbies, IMHO. I mean, not all people on the Emacs Wiki are very friendly, I suppose, but the ones I have interacted with as I was learning to use various tools and modes available showed me that I can do something for the FOSS community, which is to write about what I learn. I don't even know ELISP but at least I know that my blog entries are helpful to others too. =)

I guess we have been too giddy over Emacs on the PLUG mailing list that is why someone suggested that. Well, I know I have always been giddy about it but I can't help myself! ^_^ Emacs is wonderful...

Besides there are so many hacks in Emacs that make FOSS usage, learning and advocacy so much fun! Like the Planner mode that allows me to somewhat organize my life, my thoughts, my schedule. Eshell allows me to do some things without opening a separate terminal. In Planner, I also store my notes on advocacy and my blog entry drafts. I also listen to music on Emacs. And when something goes wrong on whatever mode I am using, I can email the maintainer immediately, to tell him/her what happened so that the bug can be fixed, etc. I try to be as detailed as possible when I do that. So I guess that is my contribution. =)

In any case, I also enjoy the company of people using Emacs, not just because we talk about Emacs but because I am learning so much about you guys =)

On Technorati: , , , ,

]]> A recent post on the Philippine Linux Users' Group suggested a separate plug-emacs mailing lists for all the Emacs messages that have popped up recently. The suggester said:
There is a difference between discussion and stroking each other's ego. :)

Working with Emacs is a humbling experience. It brings you face to face with accumulated centuries of developers' work. Emacs involves people in its development to an unusual extent. Working with vi and even Eclipse made me feel more like a user than a co-developer. Working with Emacs made me feel part of the community, even when I was still struggling to make sense of the parentheses.

If in that sense, Emacs worship is considered ego-stroking, then sure, I'm guilty. I can't help but express my appreciation for one of those things that has really changed my life and made free, open source software really meaningful to me. For the culture, really, that made it possible. It's a piece of software, but it's also a conversation with so many developers around the world.

To newbies: if you're curious about the thrills of open source development and you want a nice, easy way to get started, why not try modifying Emacs? It's easy to pick up. All the source code is there, and you can modify it on the fly. We've had complete non-programmers try it out and fall in love with programming. They get thrilled when they share their tweaks and other people respond with comments and suggestions. This is good stuff. Try it out. =)

I suppose Emacs is off-topic. After all, it's cross-platform, not Linux-specific. I could easily be extolling the wonders of Emacs on Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, or BSD. Emacs doesn't require Linux. (Neither does Apache, but you don't see people waxing lyrical about web servers that often, do you?) The flood of Emacs-related posts that deluge the list whenever someone unwittingly brings up the topic is probably incomprehensible to people who've never tried Emacs or tried Emacs as just an editor and didn't like it.

Still, I want to share what makes open source real for me. Not kernel hacking, which is still too intimidating despite the existence of projects like kernel-janitor. Not network or system administration, which I don't have the patience to do. Just the free and flexible customization of something I use everyday and the thrill of sharing these customizations with other people in a community that spans the world.

I guess that's why I post on PLUG instead of plug-misc. I don't think PLUG should just be a venue for asking and answering technical questions, but also for sharing nifty hacks and examples of how far a Linux system can be pushed. Other people push their systems in terms of hardware and services. I push mine in terms of how well it can fit me, how well it can anticipate my needs.

I want to stroke other people's egos. I want people to discover how they can contribute to free and open source software, to experience the thrill of seeing their code out there and being used. Open source development isn't just for PHP wizards or C freaks who can contribute to existing projects or launch an entirely new project on their own. Maybe—just maybe!—people who thought themselves just users of a text editor will be inspired to think about how they can start customizing their own.

コンピュータを使えば時間に節約になる。 Computers will save you a lot of time.

clair ching says:

I can't help but agree with you. Emacs is the way that I appreciated FOSS more compared to GNU/Linux per se. Why? It's because I easily felt part of the community of Emacs users and hackers on the Emacs Wiki. That kind of interaction makes it less scary for newbies, IMHO. I mean, not all people on the Emacs Wiki are very friendly, I suppose, but the ones I have interacted with as I was learning to use various tools and modes available showed me that I can do something for the FOSS community, which is to write about what I learn. I don't even know ELISP but at least I know that my blog entries are helpful to others too. =)

I guess we have been too giddy over Emacs on the PLUG mailing list that is why someone suggested that. Well, I know I have always been giddy about it but I can't help myself! ^_^ Emacs is wonderful...

Besides there are so many hacks in Emacs that make FOSS usage, learning and advocacy so much fun! Like the Planner mode that allows me to somewhat organize my life, my thoughts, my schedule. Eshell allows me to do some things without opening a separate terminal. In Planner, I also store my notes on advocacy and my blog entry drafts. I also listen to music on Emacs. And when something goes wrong on whatever mode I am using, I can email the maintainer immediately, to tell him/her what happened so that the bug can be fixed, etc. I try to be as detailed as possible when I do that. So I guess that is my contribution. =)

In any case, I also enjoy the company of people using Emacs, not just because we talk about Emacs but because I am learning so much about you guys =)

On Technorati: , , , ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/07/01/working-with-emacs/feed/ ntfsresize http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/27/ntfsresize/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/27/ntfsresize/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:52:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.06.27.php#anchor-3 Marcelle's laptop (a Compaq Presario 2500 with 60GB of hard disk space) succumbed to malware. I'm helping him out so that I can play a few days of Sims 2 on his laptop. ;) To avoid future problems with Microsoft Windows reinstallations, we'd like to make separate partitions for games and data. That way, the next time he has problems with Windows, he can just wipe C: and scan the other two drives.

Unfortunately, Compaq's QuickRestore System Recovery CD makes one NTFS partition that occupies all of the space on the hard disk. PartitionMagic would've done the trick, but its hefty price-tag just isn't worth this one-time use.

Linux to the rescue. I'll be installing Ubuntu on Marcelle's laptop anyway so that he has a relatively safer system for browsing the Web and posting blog entries. When he's in a strange network, he can use Linux to protect himself from the worms and malware that would just love to reinfect his computer.

Ubuntu's based on the popular Debian GNU/Linux distribution, and among other things, it contains a tool for resizing NTFS partitions without losing any data. You don't even need to defragment your hard disk before resizing it. I had to run chkdsk from the Windows recovery CD to take care of a persistent error in the filesystem before I could use ntfsresize, but resizing it was easy after I took care of that problem. I followed the suggested usage in http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html and set up the partitions just the way I wanted them.

Hooray for Linux! Microsoft Windows might not anticipate my need to organize data the way _I_ want to, but free software gives me the tools I need to do what I want.

今やノート型コンピューターは弁当箱と同じくらいが一般的だ。 Now note computers are as common as lunch boxes.

John Sturdy writes:

If only I had known about Ubuntu being able to do the resize for you — I've just spent a rather sore week setting up an uncooperative Windows machine as dual-boot, using a variety of tools including Partition Magic, parted, and others!

On Technorati: ,

]]> Marcelle's laptop (a Compaq Presario 2500 with 60GB of hard disk space) succumbed to malware. I'm helping him out so that I can play a few days of Sims 2 on his laptop. ;) To avoid future problems with Microsoft Windows reinstallations, we'd like to make separate partitions for games and data. That way, the next time he has problems with Windows, he can just wipe C: and scan the other two drives.

Unfortunately, Compaq's QuickRestore System Recovery CD makes one NTFS partition that occupies all of the space on the hard disk. PartitionMagic would've done the trick, but its hefty price-tag just isn't worth this one-time use.

Linux to the rescue. I'll be installing Ubuntu on Marcelle's laptop anyway so that he has a relatively safer system for browsing the Web and posting blog entries. When he's in a strange network, he can use Linux to protect himself from the worms and malware that would just love to reinfect his computer.

Ubuntu's based on the popular Debian GNU/Linux distribution, and among other things, it contains a tool for resizing NTFS partitions without losing any data. You don't even need to defragment your hard disk before resizing it. I had to run chkdsk from the Windows recovery CD to take care of a persistent error in the filesystem before I could use ntfsresize, but resizing it was easy after I took care of that problem. I followed the suggested usage in http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html and set up the partitions just the way I wanted them.

Hooray for Linux! Microsoft Windows might not anticipate my need to organize data the way _I_ want to, but free software gives me the tools I need to do what I want.

今やノート型コンピューターは弁当箱と同じくらいが一般的だ。 Now note computers are as common as lunch boxes.

John Sturdy writes:

If only I had known about Ubuntu being able to do the resize for you — I've just spent a rather sore week setting up an uncooperative Windows machine as dual-boot, using a variety of tools including Partition Magic, parted, and others!

On Technorati: ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/27/ntfsresize/feed/ Software Freedom Day http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/07/software-freedom-day/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/07/software-freedom-day/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2005 20:22:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.06.07.php#anchor-1
1. Why Sept. 10? What's the significance of that date?
Hehe... well, that wss the day that Open Minds (now the Opensource Technology Association of the Philippines) declared "war" on Microsoft in a press conference back in 2002.

Note that the Software Freedom Day, worldwide, strongly discourages bashing of any companies or individuals. Including Microsoft.

It's not about war. It's about freedom.

For consumers, it could be as simple as the freedom to take advantage of freely-available quality software that they might not know about. Tell your friends about Mozilla Firefox, GAIM, GIMP, and other neat programs that run on even Microsoft Windows.

For students and hobbyists, it could be the freedom to participate in world-wide projects and make a difference not only through code but also through equally valuable efforts like art, translation, and documentation.

For companies, it could be the freedom to deploy best-of-breed solutions without having to allocate budget for yearly licensing.

This is your opportunity to show people what they can do. Listen to their needs and help them find answers.

Most people don't care about being anti-Microsoft. If people think that the best arguments we can make for Free software is that it's not Microsoft and it doesn't cost a thing, then we're even further from Freedom than we thought.

その限られた性能のために私はコンピユーターに幻滅を感じている。 Its limited capability has disenchanted me with computer.

On Technorati: , ,

]]>
1. Why Sept. 10? What's the significance of that date?
Hehe... well, that wss the day that Open Minds (now the Opensource Technology Association of the Philippines) declared "war" on Microsoft in a press conference back in 2002.

Note that the Software Freedom Day, worldwide, strongly discourages bashing of any companies or individuals. Including Microsoft.

It's not about war. It's about freedom.

For consumers, it could be as simple as the freedom to take advantage of freely-available quality software that they might not know about. Tell your friends about Mozilla Firefox, GAIM, GIMP, and other neat programs that run on even Microsoft Windows.

For students and hobbyists, it could be the freedom to participate in world-wide projects and make a difference not only through code but also through equally valuable efforts like art, translation, and documentation.

For companies, it could be the freedom to deploy best-of-breed solutions without having to allocate budget for yearly licensing.

This is your opportunity to show people what they can do. Listen to their needs and help them find answers.

Most people don't care about being anti-Microsoft. If people think that the best arguments we can make for Free software is that it's not Microsoft and it doesn't cost a thing, then we're even further from Freedom than we thought.

その限られた性能のために私はコンピユーターに幻滅を感じている。 Its limited capability has disenchanted me with computer.

On Technorati: , ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/06/07/software-freedom-day/feed/ Net install http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/28/net-install/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/28/net-install/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2005 18:06:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.28.php#anchor-1 I'm setting up Linux on the Sony Vaio U1 so that I can use it as well as my Lifebook. I've decided to give Fedora Core 3 a try instead of just net-booting and installing Debian like last time. Besides, I couldn't find my handy-dandy one-disk Debian net install image.

Fedora Core's net-install support lags far behind Debian's. I don't know if it's even possible to start the installation process using boot/root floppies, so you really need to either burn a CD or set up pxelinux. Fortunately, I'd set up a DHCP and TFTP server on my Lifebook before, so I knew it could be done.

After some trouble getting the Vaio to acquire the DHCP address and pick up the boot files, I was relieved to see the familiar text dialog-based installation screen. I'm currently waiting for the 71MB stage2.img file to download. There are no progress indicators, and I'm getting rather nervous. I can't seem to drop to a shell to find out how far along the installation is.

I like the Debian net install far more. Plenty of progress indicators keep you in the loop so that you're not worried about interrupted network connections or sudden hangs. Come to think of it, going for Debian instead will make it far easier for me to migrate my configuration.

Bah. So much for Fedora Core. ;)

そのコンピューターは非常に役立つ。 The computer is of great use.

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]]> I'm setting up Linux on the Sony Vaio U1 so that I can use it as well as my Lifebook. I've decided to give Fedora Core 3 a try instead of just net-booting and installing Debian like last time. Besides, I couldn't find my handy-dandy one-disk Debian net install image.

Fedora Core's net-install support lags far behind Debian's. I don't know if it's even possible to start the installation process using boot/root floppies, so you really need to either burn a CD or set up pxelinux. Fortunately, I'd set up a DHCP and TFTP server on my Lifebook before, so I knew it could be done.

After some trouble getting the Vaio to acquire the DHCP address and pick up the boot files, I was relieved to see the familiar text dialog-based installation screen. I'm currently waiting for the 71MB stage2.img file to download. There are no progress indicators, and I'm getting rather nervous. I can't seem to drop to a shell to find out how far along the installation is.

I like the Debian net install far more. Plenty of progress indicators keep you in the loop so that you're not worried about interrupted network connections or sudden hangs. Come to think of it, going for Debian instead will make it far easier for me to migrate my configuration.

Bah. So much for Fedora Core. ;)

そのコンピューターは非常に役立つ。 The computer is of great use.

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/28/net-install/feed/ flpsed http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/13/flpsed/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/13/flpsed/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2005 04:24:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.14.php#anchor-2 flpsed is a WYSIWYG Postscript editor. To edit pdfs, install xpdf, then: ps2pdf, flpsed, pdftops. Interesting...

私は犬の方が猫より好きだが、それは前者が後者より忠実だからだ。 I like a dog better than a cat, for the former is more faithful than the latter.

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]]> flpsed is a WYSIWYG Postscript editor. To edit pdfs, install xpdf, then: ps2pdf, flpsed, pdftops. Interesting...

私は犬の方が猫より好きだが、それは前者が後者より忠実だからだ。 I like a dog better than a cat, for the former is more faithful than the latter.

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/13/flpsed/feed/ Open source and developers http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/12/open-source-and-developers/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/12/open-source-and-developers/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2005 18:41:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.12.php#anchor-1 raichu wrote on clair's blog:

and why code based on your imagination when you can rip off someone else's code for free (free as in free beer)?

I code because I want to. Often, there simply isn't anything else out there that does exactly what I want, or it'll be too much trouble sifting through thousands of applications to find that one perfect match. I code for fun, to explore my thoughts and to write them down in a form computers and people can understand.

Instead of locking up the source code beyond customization or forcing me to rewrite everything from scratch, open source gives me a fantastic jumping-off point for my own applications. Open source helps me be more creative by letting me quickly get to the interesting part, playing with concepts without having to write my own framework or scaffolding. At the same time, reading other people's code teaches me so much about how people solve similar problems and use available tools. Their code inspires me to do better.

Open source development is like standing on the shoulders of giants, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so thankful to the open source community for all the help they've given me over the years.

彼らは猫が木に登っているのを見た。 They saw a cat climbing up the tree.

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]]> raichu wrote on clair's blog:

and why code based on your imagination when you can rip off someone else's code for free (free as in free beer)?

I code because I want to. Often, there simply isn't anything else out there that does exactly what I want, or it'll be too much trouble sifting through thousands of applications to find that one perfect match. I code for fun, to explore my thoughts and to write them down in a form computers and people can understand.

Instead of locking up the source code beyond customization or forcing me to rewrite everything from scratch, open source gives me a fantastic jumping-off point for my own applications. Open source helps me be more creative by letting me quickly get to the interesting part, playing with concepts without having to write my own framework or scaffolding. At the same time, reading other people's code teaches me so much about how people solve similar problems and use available tools. Their code inspires me to do better.

Open source development is like standing on the shoulders of giants, and that's one of the reasons why I'm so thankful to the open source community for all the help they've given me over the years.

彼らは猫が木に登っているのを見た。 They saw a cat climbing up the tree.

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/12/open-source-and-developers/feed/ Philippine Open Source Conference 2005: possible talk on "Linux in Your Pocket"? http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/08/philippine-open-source-conference-2005-possible-talk-on-linux-in-your-pocket/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/08/philippine-open-source-conference-2005-possible-talk-on-linux-in-your-pocket/#comments Sat, 09 Apr 2005 03:48:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.08.php#anchor-2 I couldn't help but respond to the Philippine Open Source Conference 2005 thread on PLUG when I saw the posts mentioning embedded Linux. It's... amazing, really, to see how people are interested in it. =) So I went on a trip down memory lane...

I can speak on developing for the iPAQ; my code is still in the bootloader, and I played around with programming small apps for it. (You can get a small CGI-capable web server or Python and have tons of fun hacking in class.) I haven't touched it in three years, though. It's been a while. If someone has made a more recent contribution, I'd gladly step aside. Besides, (cross my fingers!) I may be out of the country by the time of the conference. Still, if I'm in the country and no one else is up for it, then I can talk about having Linux in Your Pocket.

* * * flashback * * *

You know, that was the title of my _very_ first Linux-related talk at Linux10 Philippines in 2001... I presented to just _one_ person, as he was the only one in the room at the time my talk was supposed to start. He was an IT journalist, so it wasn't totally wasted. After the talk, I peeked out and found all these people who apparently had wanted to hear the talk, but were too shy to go in while I was presenting...

Incidentally, Linux on the iPAQ was _the_ thing that got me into development. My first public CVS access, my first instance of getting sent hardware (Jamey Hicks totally rocks)...

I'm going to stop now before I get all misty-eyed.

猫は枝の間に隠れた。 The cat hid among the branches.

On Technorati: ,

]]> I couldn't help but respond to the Philippine Open Source Conference 2005 thread on PLUG when I saw the posts mentioning embedded Linux. It's... amazing, really, to see how people are interested in it. =) So I went on a trip down memory lane...

I can speak on developing for the iPAQ; my code is still in the bootloader, and I played around with programming small apps for it. (You can get a small CGI-capable web server or Python and have tons of fun hacking in class.) I haven't touched it in three years, though. It's been a while. If someone has made a more recent contribution, I'd gladly step aside. Besides, (cross my fingers!) I may be out of the country by the time of the conference. Still, if I'm in the country and no one else is up for it, then I can talk about having Linux in Your Pocket.

* * * flashback * * *

You know, that was the title of my _very_ first Linux-related talk at Linux10 Philippines in 2001... I presented to just _one_ person, as he was the only one in the room at the time my talk was supposed to start. He was an IT journalist, so it wasn't totally wasted. After the talk, I peeked out and found all these people who apparently had wanted to hear the talk, but were too shy to go in while I was presenting...

Incidentally, Linux on the iPAQ was _the_ thing that got me into development. My first public CVS access, my first instance of getting sent hardware (Jamey Hicks totally rocks)...

I'm going to stop now before I get all misty-eyed.

猫は枝の間に隠れた。 The cat hid among the branches.

On Technorati: ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/08/philippine-open-source-conference-2005-possible-talk-on-linux-in-your-pocket/feed/ Open source licenses http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/06/open-source-licenses/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/06/open-source-licenses/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2005 05:33:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.06.php#anchor-3 http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/brian.html has a good explanation of the differences between popular open source licenses.

その少年たちはかわいい猫と一緒に２人きりで暮らしていた。 The two boys lived alone with a lovely cat.

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]]> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/brian.html has a good explanation of the differences between popular open source licenses.

その少年たちはかわいい猫と一緒に２人きりで暮らしていた。 The two boys lived alone with a lovely cat.

On Technorati:

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/06/open-source-licenses/feed/ Afternoon with Engels and Magie http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/03/afternoon-with-engels-and-magie/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/03/afternoon-with-engels-and-magie/#comments Sun, 03 Apr 2005 05:21:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.03.php#anchor-2 I'll be teaching a Linux Express course at http://www.bluepoint.com.ph from April 11 to 22. I had fun chatting with Engels and Magie Antonio. Kim and Mark will also be teaching courses soon; coolness...

うちの猫は大変海苔が好きである。 Our cat is very fond of sea weeds.

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]]> I'll be teaching a Linux Express course at http://www.bluepoint.com.ph from April 11 to 22. I had fun chatting with Engels and Magie Antonio. Kim and Mark will also be teaching courses soon; coolness...

うちの猫は大変海苔が好きである。 Our cat is very fond of sea weeds.

On Technorati: ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/03/afternoon-with-engels-and-magie/feed/ Fantastic explanation of cost of software http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/01/fantastic-explanation-of-cost-of-software/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/01/fantastic-explanation-of-cost-of-software/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2005 20:05:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.04.01.php#anchor-3 From We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin:

"Every license for Office plus Windows in Brazil - a country in which 22 million people are starving - means we have to export 60 sacks of soybeans," says Marcelo D'Elia Branco, coordinator of the country's Free Software Project and liaison between the open source community and the national government, now headed by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "For the right to use one copy of Office plus Windows for one year or a year and a half, until the next upgrade, we have to till the earth, plant, harvest, and export to the international markets that much soy. When I explain this to farmers, they go nuts."

Now _that's_ a fantastic way to make the cost of software really visible to people. Translate it into tangible stuff!

その猫は私のそばで寝るのが好きだ。 The cat likes to sleep beside me.

On Technorati: ,

]]> From We Pledge Allegiance to the Penguin:

"Every license for Office plus Windows in Brazil - a country in which 22 million people are starving - means we have to export 60 sacks of soybeans," says Marcelo D'Elia Branco, coordinator of the country's Free Software Project and liaison between the open source community and the national government, now headed by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "For the right to use one copy of Office plus Windows for one year or a year and a half, until the next upgrade, we have to till the earth, plant, harvest, and export to the international markets that much soy. When I explain this to farmers, they go nuts."

Now _that's_ a fantastic way to make the cost of software really visible to people. Translate it into tangible stuff!

その猫は私のそばで寝るのが好きだ。 The cat likes to sleep beside me.

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/04/01/fantastic-explanation-of-cost-of-software/feed/ MSU-IIT student wins IBM Linux Scholar Challenge http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/24/msu-iit-student-wins-ibm-linux-scholar-challenge/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/24/msu-iit-student-wins-ibm-linux-scholar-challenge/#comments Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:58:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.24.php#anchor-1 http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=31491

Filipino software developer wins IBM Linux Scholar tilt

Posted 00:33am (Mla time) Mar 24, 2005 By Erwin Lemuel Oliva INQ7.net

FILIPINO software development talent shines once again.

Jan Stevens Ancajas, a student of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, was among the grand prizewinners of the 2004 IBM Linux Scholars Challenge, INQ7.net learned Wednesday.

Ancajas was among 20 winners from all over the world in the yearly challenge hosted by the computer giant IBM.

The Filipino developer's program entry described as "Dynamic DNS solution for a campus network" was cited as one of the best software programs developed by a student.

This IBM-hosted contest solicits entries from students all over the world. Each winner will receive an IBM ThinkPad T-Series with Linux and will also have the opportunity to qualify for one of the three Summer 2005 internships at the IBM Linux Technology Center.

Wow! =D Congrats!

(Oooooh, envious...)

E-Mail from Miguel A. Paraz

On Technorati: , , , ,

]]> http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=31491

Filipino software developer wins IBM Linux Scholar tilt

Posted 00:33am (Mla time) Mar 24, 2005 By Erwin Lemuel Oliva INQ7.net

FILIPINO software development talent shines once again.

Jan Stevens Ancajas, a student of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, was among the grand prizewinners of the 2004 IBM Linux Scholars Challenge, INQ7.net learned Wednesday.

Ancajas was among 20 winners from all over the world in the yearly challenge hosted by the computer giant IBM.

The Filipino developer's program entry described as "Dynamic DNS solution for a campus network" was cited as one of the best software programs developed by a student.

This IBM-hosted contest solicits entries from students all over the world. Each winner will receive an IBM ThinkPad T-Series with Linux and will also have the opportunity to qualify for one of the three Summer 2005 internships at the IBM Linux Technology Center.

Wow! =D Congrats!

(Oooooh, envious...)

E-Mail from Miguel A. Paraz

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]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/24/msu-iit-student-wins-ibm-linux-scholar-challenge/feed/ Living with ratpoison http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/19/living-with-ratpoison/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/19/living-with-ratpoison/#comments Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:33:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.19.php#anchor-3 I use the wonderfully minimalist ratpoison window manager. Unlike most window managers, ratpoison leaves my shortcut keys alone. I can do everything without lifting my hands from the keyboard.

The important parts of my ~/.Xsession are simply:

emacs &
exec ratpoison

This is my ~/.ratpoisonrc

banish
escape F11

Whenever I start up X, I get Emacs in full-screen mode. I can use F11 c to create a terminal window. If I need to refer to another application, I use F11 :split and :hsplit to arrange my screen. F11 :only returns to my one-window layout.

ratpoison doesn't deal well with window-y applications like the GIMP, but that's what the :tmpwm command is for. I usually switch to FVWM with :tmpwm fvwm when I need to use GIMP, then exit FVWM to return to my ratpoison environment when done.

Great stuff. Glad Clair's checking it out.

On Technorati:

]]> I use the wonderfully minimalist ratpoison window manager. Unlike most window managers, ratpoison leaves my shortcut keys alone. I can do everything without lifting my hands from the keyboard.

The important parts of my ~/.Xsession are simply:

emacs &
exec ratpoison

This is my ~/.ratpoisonrc

banish
escape F11

Whenever I start up X, I get Emacs in full-screen mode. I can use F11 c to create a terminal window. If I need to refer to another application, I use F11 :split and :hsplit to arrange my screen. F11 :only returns to my one-window layout.

ratpoison doesn't deal well with window-y applications like the GIMP, but that's what the :tmpwm command is for. I usually switch to FVWM with :tmpwm fvwm when I need to use GIMP, then exit FVWM to return to my ratpoison environment when done.

Great stuff. Glad Clair's checking it out.

On Technorati:

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/19/living-with-ratpoison/feed/ The conference was so much fun! http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/the-conference-was-so-much-fun/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/the-conference-was-so-much-fun/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2005 03:50:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.14.php#anchor-3 My laptop wouldn't talk to the projector, so I did my Knoppix talk without slides. I forgot to give people my e-mail address. Whoops. Still, I have a few contacts, and I guess that's a good start. Most people had already tried Linux, so I went for the evangelization-of-others angle instead, although I threw in a few benefits for newbies.

I misplaced Vahid's index card, but I know he's a Ma. IT student at USC. I should write to him about repartitioning.

Chatted with Lawrence and Justin over dinner. Turns out they're both into Stephenson and other SF stuff. (Thanks to Baryon for introducing me to those books!) I think I convinced Justin to try out Emacs.

It was tons of fun geeking out and swapping stories. Lawrence is a treasure-trove of business experience and geek stories. =)

Tired from a long but absolutely fun day. Good night!

On Technorati: , , ,

]]> My laptop wouldn't talk to the projector, so I did my Knoppix talk without slides. I forgot to give people my e-mail address. Whoops. Still, I have a few contacts, and I guess that's a good start. Most people had already tried Linux, so I went for the evangelization-of-others angle instead, although I threw in a few benefits for newbies.

I misplaced Vahid's index card, but I know he's a Ma. IT student at USC. I should write to him about repartitioning.

Chatted with Lawrence and Justin over dinner. Turns out they're both into Stephenson and other SF stuff. (Thanks to Baryon for introducing me to those books!) I think I convinced Justin to try out Emacs.

It was tons of fun geeking out and swapping stories. Lawrence is a treasure-trove of business experience and geek stories. =)

Tired from a long but absolutely fun day. Good night!

On Technorati: , , ,

]]> http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/the-conference-was-so-much-fun/feed/ Major new contacts from the open source conference http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/major-new-contacts-from-the-open-source-conference/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/major-new-contacts-from-the-open-source-conference/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2005 03:09:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.14.php#anchor-1
  • Engr. Dioscoro L. Conejos Jr.
  • Justin Wiley
  • Damian Domingo O. Mapa
  • Joe Mari Maja
  • Lawrence E. Hughes

    • On Technorati: ,

    ]]>
  • Engr. Dioscoro L. Conejos Jr.
  • Justin Wiley
  • Damian Domingo O. Mapa
  • Joe Mari Maja
  • Lawrence E. Hughes

    • On Technorati: ,

    ]]>     http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/14/major-new-contacts-from-the-open-source-conference/feed/     Official website for OSC-Ph 2005 http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/08/official-website-for-osc-ph-2005/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/08/official-website-for-osc-ph-2005/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2005 06:54:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.08.php#anchor-1 Official website for open source conference to be held in Cebu on March 14 and 15:

    http://www.secure.net.ph/ossa/

    On Technorati: , , ,

    ]]>     Official website for open source conference to be held in Cebu on March 14 and 15:

    http://www.secure.net.ph/ossa/

    On Technorati: , , ,

    ]]>     http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/08/official-website-for-osc-ph-2005/feed/     Clueful cybercafe in the Philippines http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/04/clueful-cybercafe-in-the-philippines/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/04/clueful-cybercafe-in-the-philippines/#comments Sat, 05 Mar 2005 04:06:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.03.04.php#anchor-1 Clair wrote:

    Sessinet in Dilimall =) It's on the second floor of Dilimall. It is across Red Fox (the photo shop). It's the net cafe with extra study tables so students can study/do their homework while waiting their turn in the net cafe.

    They currently use Firefox as the default browser but they have had customers who want IE. They plan to use Open Office soon. And after a while use Linux for their OS =) One of the computers in the shop is currently dual boot Windows XP and Debian Sarge.

    E-Mail from clair ching

    On Technorati: ,

    ]]>     Clair wrote:

    Sessinet in Dilimall =) It's on the second floor of Dilimall. It is across Red Fox (the photo shop). It's the net cafe with extra study tables so students can study/do their homework while waiting their turn in the net cafe.

    They currently use Firefox as the default browser but they have had customers who want IE. They plan to use Open Office soon. And after a while use Linux for their OS =) One of the computers in the shop is currently dual boot Windows XP and Debian Sarge.

    E-Mail from clair ching

    On Technorati: ,

    ]]>     http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/03/04/clueful-cybercafe-in-the-philippines/feed/     More Emacs evangelization: flashcard http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/14/more-emacs-evangelization-flashcard/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/14/more-emacs-evangelization-flashcard/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:43:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.01.14.php#anchor-1 Aris and I are both struggling with far too much kanji. I used a combination of kdrill to gain familiarity with kanji and ../emacs/flashcard.el to drill the meaning into my brain, as flashcard.el requires me to get a question right 5 times in a row before considering it solved. Aris searched the Internet for flashcard programs on Windows and played around with things like Kanji Gold and King Kanji, but couldn't figure out how to import our wordlist into them. Kanji Gold looked promising as it also used EDICT, but I couldn't figure out the magic number at the end of the dictionary entry. With over 200 words in our word list, there was no way we were going to enter those things one by one!

    I told him to download Emacs and grab Jorgen Schaefer's flashcard.el from my ../emacs directory. I then grabbed the dictionary file that Kanji Gold couldn't recognized, replaced [ with : to get flashcard to recognize it without problems, then set up a deck for him. I tweaked the default faces a bit—they're horrible on light-colored displays. I copied the suggested feedback config and explained the pigeonhole method to him. I tweaked the checking function so that it checked for substrings and treated empty input as a definitely incorrect answer. He wanted the answers displayed all the time, so I coded that in as well.

    The initial word list was too big, so I copied 9 words and put them into a file, then imported them into a deck. Later, when he finishes this deck, I'll show him how to create another colon file and import it. I'll also ask him if he wants to tweak the number of compartments.

    He's asked me if I can get YM working in the text editor as well. I'm currently tunneled through Richi's host, but I think I can open a local tunnel for him as well, if he feels like using ERC. 'course, normal YM just might work, and chances are there's a YM-specific client somewhere in Emacs.

    I've made no efforts to hide Emacs' complexity. I lean over and drop into Lisp code in front of him because I want him to have a working environment up and running as soon as possible. Who knows? Maybe he'll use Emacs even after the internship. =)

    He looks like he's having fun, and certainly appreciates the fact that I can hack the editor to fit how he wants to do things. He wants to match the readings, too, which means I'll need to figure out how leim works under Windows. I'll do that on Monday.

    On Technorati: , ,

    ]]>     Aris and I are both struggling with far too much kanji. I used a combination of kdrill to gain familiarity with kanji and ../emacs/flashcard.el to drill the meaning into my brain, as flashcard.el requires me to get a question right 5 times in a row before considering it solved. Aris searched the Internet for flashcard programs on Windows and played around with things like Kanji Gold and King Kanji, but couldn't figure out how to import our wordlist into them. Kanji Gold looked promising as it also used EDICT, but I couldn't figure out the magic number at the end of the dictionary entry. With over 200 words in our word list, there was no way we were going to enter those things one by one!

    I told him to download Emacs and grab Jorgen Schaefer's flashcard.el from my ../emacs directory. I then grabbed the dictionary file that Kanji Gold couldn't recognized, replaced [ with : to get flashcard to recognize it without problems, then set up a deck for him. I tweaked the default faces a bit—they're horrible on light-colored displays. I copied the suggested feedback config and explained the pigeonhole method to him. I tweaked the checking function so that it checked for substrings and treated empty input as a definitely incorrect answer. He wanted the answers displayed all the time, so I coded that in as well.

    The initial word list was too big, so I copied 9 words and put them into a file, then imported them into a deck. Later, when he finishes this deck, I'll show him how to create another colon file and import it. I'll also ask him if he wants to tweak the number of compartments.

    He's asked me if I can get YM working in the text editor as well. I'm currently tunneled through Richi's host, but I think I can open a local tunnel for him as well, if he feels like using ERC. 'course, normal YM just might work, and chances are there's a YM-specific client somewhere in Emacs.

    I've made no efforts to hide Emacs' complexity. I lean over and drop into Lisp code in front of him because I want him to have a working environment up and running as soon as possible. Who knows? Maybe he'll use Emacs even after the internship. =)

    He looks like he's having fun, and certainly appreciates the fact that I can hack the editor to fit how he wants to do things. He wants to match the readings, too, which means I'll need to figure out how leim works under Windows. I'll do that on Monday.

    On Technorati: , ,

    ]]>     http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/14/more-emacs-evangelization-flashcard/feed/     Back on ratpoison http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/13/back-on-ratpoison/ http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/13/back-on-ratpoison/#comments Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:53:00 +0000 Sacha Chua http://sachachua.com/notebook/wiki/2005.01.13.php#anchor-2 xwrits can take care of my typing breaks, so I'm off GNOME and back on Ratpoison again.

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    ]]>     xwrits can take care of my typing breaks, so I'm off GNOME and back on Ratpoison again.

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    ]]>     http://sachachua.com/wp/2005/01/13/back-on-ratpoison/feed/