Dan Makovec’s blog

SVN blues

SVN’s a lovely version controlling system. It’s still a little immature, but has most features that we’d want to use.

Unfortunately though, when things go bad, they go really bad. We’re running an older (no longer supported) version of it to host a 6GB repository, and it’s gradually been becoming less stable. I’ve been forced to delve into the inner workings of it, and the lack of quick-fix support tools for it are making repository cleanup rather cumbersome.

Still, this is the first serious maintenance we’ve had to perform on it since the company began, so I guess even in it’s early state it’s pretty reliable. I’d like to get 1.2 on as soon as possible. Fortunately SVN has a rather long release cycle (unlike MySQL and Fedora *sigh*) so this shouldn’t be too taxing.

What a week

Brian and I went out to Dom Qixote’s last night. Great food from Sydney’s Spanish quarter. A platter of mixed tapas for entree, and a massive paella for dinner, followed by some lovely home-made creme catalan - all washed down with a jug of sangria. Yum! It certainly chilled me out after the week that was.

There’s no other word for it - the week at work was a complete c*nt. It started ok, but rapidly deteriorated as I (with the full support of my seniors) began moving work out of our group and into the group that was supposed to be responsible for it in the first place. I’ve never copped so much abuse in a workplace !

Apart from him, we’ve had a few vendor software bugs that have been causing headaches. Now, how that is supposed to affect me as someone in platform development, as opposed to operations, is anybody’s guess, but since I was one of the two people with the most knowledge of the vendor’s software about 6 months ago in my previous job, and the other guy’s on holidays, guess who got called in to deal with every situation as it arose, while still being expected to handle my own job? *sigh* If nothing else, I’m being forced to learn the skill of delegation pretty quickly. One more staff member would make things a lot easier.

To cap it off on Friday night, we began testing some software I wrote a couple of months ago. The idea is that the software is supposed to monitor modem connections, detect old firmware in the modems, and force an upgrade. The good news is the software works (thank god, I was pretty worried that it would fall in a heap). The bad news is that once we started load testing with more than about 10 simultaneous connections, the entire test network crashed. So we’ve had to send off reports to the vendors of the network management software to get a fix in place, just so we can roll out my software. We’ve been trying to get this program out there since May - I’m starting to think it’ll never happen! Well actually, I’m being a little over-dramatic. Put slightly more dramatically, in the words of one other fellow here who’s great at drama, it *must* happen in order for the network to survive. I’m just eager to get it off of my todo list.

By the time it crashed last night, I didn’t care any more. It was drinkies time in the office while we got to preview our new TV campaign. This one looks pretty good. Hopefully it’ll get us the extra subscriptions we need to reach break-even point. Of course if it *does* work then that comes back to bite me too, as I need to get the platform to the level where it can scale to accomodate the number of users we’re hoping to have. No problem technically, just another job in a high workload.

Good news! I’m finally taking leave. Apart from another weekender in Adelaide on the 19th, then a weekend in Melbourne on the 26th, I’ve got two weeks off at the end of September. We’re hitting the travel agents today to find a destination. The smart money’s on Bali: beautiful beaches, health-spa massages, temples, jungles, asian food, and a quick drop in on Ms. Corby to say hi. Something to look forward to!

Gotta do my tax soon. I just want to get my finances in a known state so i can think about that car I’ve been eyeing off.

New admirers

Gotta love the power of search engines. It looks like the family have found this blog just by typing my name into Yahoo, so this could be fun! Must remember not to make too many abusive comments from now on….

Congratulations guys, I was wondering when you’d hit the 21st centry

Trying a new health kick

While we’ve both been hitting the gym on a regular basis - between two and four times a week - since about March, I in particular have been a bit dissatisfied with my health.

I guess I can’t complain too much. So far I’ve avoided the flu and all the other bugs that have taken out so many people in the office, but I’ve been continually feeling run down, and sleeping poorly.

I’m trying to improve things two ways - firstly, I want to ensure I always burn at least 600 calories in cardio every time I hit the gym (sometimes I’ve been getting by on as little as 200), and secondly - I never thought I’d do this - I’ve given up coffee.

I was up to 3 or 4 coffees a day on some days, but usually at least two. When I went to Adelaide last week, I was probably up to 5 a day, purely socially. I’ve been off it for five days now and I’m already feeling much better. I had some sharp headaches for the first day or so, but since then my mind has felt clearer and my moods more even (coffee crashes usually make me quiet and withdrawn).

I’m now having a single cup of tea in the morning, which warms me up rather than “waking” me up. The rest of the day is just water or juice. Hopefully the effects will last!