… in the context of coding that is.

I’m intrigued to know how often developers reading this commit code and why? Frequent commits are trendy these days, the “hip” developers are all doing it (I don’t know if I qualify as “hip” but I’ll pretend I do). Especially with the advent (or at least wide-spread adoption) of distributing revision control systems like Git, frequent commits seem like a great idea. All of the backing up of code and high level of granularity in changes without the pain of constant difficult merges.

I work with a lot of older developers who have been coding since before I was born. These developers (who have a lot of experience and knowledge) always seem very reluctant to make frequent commits and also seem annoyed that they’re expected to comment their commits. To me, it’s very natural and I find it confusing and bewildering working even a relatively small project without any commits that are at least tied to requirements or specific major features of the application.

Any war stories with regards to version control systems, older developers, and general crankiness with the combination of these two?

A good StackOverflow post here has some good thoughts.

(The screenshot is on revision 40. Or commit de9f2c7f d25e1b3a fad3e85a 0bd17d9b 100db4b3 if you’re using Git. When I said frequent, I meant it! :-P)

Well, OK, maybe it’s a little premature to call it dead, But I’m barely using it anymore. With some notable exceptions, I’m finding my new Windows 7 box to fill most of my day-to-day needs. I still love my Mac and I still mostly despise Microsoft but there are creeping doubts and uncertainties towards Apple at this point. I’m not liking their decisions regarding Google, I’m not liking the direction they’re heading, and it seems like maybe the glory days are now behind them.

If I had my druthers (whatever they are), I’d still prefer a new MacBook Pro (or Mac Pro) over virtually any system. They’re pretty, the OS is immaculate and I feel productive, secure, and efficient. But there are some issues. I know these are super, super specific issues that many users don’t care about. But it means something to me:

• Non-finalized CD support. I’m talking specifically about the application ISObuster for Windows here. OS X tends to be easy to use and simplified but sometimes you need something a little closer to the metal. I know of no such tool on OS X that can open up non-finalized CDs. This seems to be a common issue in some cases. OS X works beautifully for 99% of the time, but it seems impossible to do certain tasks. Know of a tool that will do this under OS X? I’d love to know.

But there are some real advantages of OS X too that I’ve hit:

• Sound routing. I love the Soundflower application. It allows you to virtually route sound around the OS. It presents as a playback and  recording device and it just plain works. When I want to record something from a YouTube video that I’m listening to, I can pop open my preferences, route to the Soundflower device and then record from that device in Audacity. It takes just seconds and it works nicely (incidentally this is how I convert MIDI to MP3 as well).
• Command line tools that work. Putty works OK on Windows for SSH’ing but why can’t it just be part of the base OS? Grep, Cat, etc. I love my command line and Windows just doesn’t have the same depth. I know Cygwin exists. It never seems to work that well, always seems to have some issues here or there but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

In addition to the above (and the fact that OS X is clearly just way cooler), I’m really enjoying my new iPad. How can you not like it? It’s magical! I find myself doing a lot of the typical blog reading, email checking, and movie watching on this. It’s powerful, quick, and the battery lasts a long time. Not the easiest for input (as in replying to long emails or making blog posts) but with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, it definitely comes close.

Update: As I was finalizing this, I realized that in fact, the Macbook may be toast. My oldest son (who I love dearly, but still) may have destroyed it. It won’t boot and this is just AFTER I replaced the screen (which I cracked on our last road trip). I’ll probably try to salvage it and maybe get it booting again if that’s possible, but I think I’ll be posting it soon on Craigslist. Anyone want a “well-loved” black Macbook? I’d be willing to sell for a good price…

I have another project in the works… I bought a security camera and some accouterments recently with the hope that I can easily configure up to 4 for my house. We live in a safe [relatively] neighborhood and I’m really much more into this for the geekery of it rather than the practical value although I think it may have some value down the road if any of my customers are interested in security solutions.

Here’s the gear:

540TVL, LED 30pcs, 4.3mm Fixed Lens, 1/3 inch Sony Super HAD II CCD IR Bullet Camera ($62.61 at Monoprice)

Seems like a good price for a camera as solid as this is. I just got this on Tuesday but haven’t got it set up. I’m impressed with the construction and I did verify that the IR is working great (if you want to check for IR, you can set this up to shine its IR LEDs, turn on a digital camera and see the room bathed in “light”). As a side note, I’ve been REALLY pleased with Monoprice. Great prices and solid products. Their camera line is new as of this summer and so far, I’m impressed.

I also picked up some video baluns so I can run the power and video over Cat5e instead of running video and power separately. A lot easier to manage and install and you can terminate them using typical keystone jacks (which makes for a nice clear install).

PV-149 – 4 port video capture card (120FPS) ($154.95 at BlueCherry)

Might be overkill, but it looks like a nice solution. I haven’t purchase this yet, but hope to soon. I may stick with the 4 port model and save a few bucks. This should allow me to use 4 cameras at about 30 frames/second, which is ideal.

I’m planning on using ZoneMinder for the DVR solution. I’ve not used this before, so I’ll definitely do a writeup when I get it up and running. The hope is to get this streaming data to disk but also presenting the video display on a simple web server. I’ve been really irritated by the somewhat more expensive turn-key DVR’s that support video streaming using an ActiveX control. Not that friendly unless you happen to be running Internet Explorer. Yuck.

As I progress, I’ll post details on the install, additional hardware, ZoneMinder installation and configuration, and overall evaluation.