Gigu’s blog

Everyone know how hard it is to come back from holidays. I’m in the office but my head is all over the place. I’m starting a .NET project next week. It’s good to change a seat after few months of Java chair. I do like to do that. I’m trying to become more of a universal developer then a one platform expert. It might look like I will not be an expert in anything, just know something in all areas. The point is to adjust to new circumstances and learn fast to do the job right. I guess it’s being agile

I was at QCon two weeks ago in London. Only one day but I heard a lot. Most interesting were discussions that we had at ThoughtWorks exhibition stand. Martin Fowler and Kent Back spent some time talking about social skills in software development. Was good enough to listen to those guys plus we got the chance to ask them some questions

I came across gOS last week. Downloaded live CD and I gave it a go. I think I used to much to Gnome or KDE to learn another Desktop environment. gOS is using Enlightenment version DR17. It is a little bit different then Desktops I used to. The whole idea behind gOS is to somehow integrate and make it easy to use Google applications straight from your desktop launchers. I have to say that gOS desktop looks very pretty. Other then that I’m not impressed. Missing button for terminal window is just a crime that can’t be forgiven. When booted from Live CD I can’t mount my hard drive too for some reason. Officially it is still beta release. I will wait for proper release to give it a go.

As you can see, holidays still in my head. Thoughts everywhere. Slowly getting there.

Cheerios, Gregsteros

Today first time in my life I decided to write small Ruby script instead of using COPY, PASTE. Does it mean that I’m a geek now?

I needed to get some data from a web site. Because data was nicely formatted in table I could just mark it, copy and then paste in spreadsheet tool. What I did instead was a little script that loaded the page, parsed table rows, extracted the data and saved it to a csv file. There is a nice library for HTML parsing called Hpricot. If anyone is doing some HTML, XHTML parsig in Ruby I do strongly recommend. Very simple parsing based on document tree.

Short example, to get all link elements from this blog I would do something like that:

document = open(’http://blog.gigoo.org’) { |opened_uri| Hpricot(opened_uri) }

link_elements = document.search(”a”)

Voila

So, why addicted

I think I became addicted. Got the Ruby bug on me now. I like it more and more. Still trying to keep away from Rails just play with language and it’s features. I love big number of useful tools and libraries and the fact that community is working hard to make great stuff for it.

What I don’t like is the fact that everything is design and created with Rails on mind. I hope that Ruby is not going to be “the Rails language” and that people are going to remember that it’s not only about WEB (well, almost all the time is).

Cheerios and other cereals, Gregster

I got standard Ubuntu Gutsy installation on my laptop. Some time ago I tried Ubuntu Studio and I always remembered its look. It was probably one of the best looks of Linux desktop I ever seen. It turns out that guys from Studio made they distributions look pre-packaged and you can use apt to install it. It is just one simple command

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-look

And results are:

Fancy a little bit of Studio for yourself?

Cheers, Gregii

I got dual boot at my laptop. Most of the time I use Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon at the moment). I do occasionally switch to Windows XP to use my digital camera software that is only available for Microsoft’s system. Few weeks ago problems with sound started. When I tried to use Firefox with a Flash it completely nuked the sound in Ubuntu. Not just for a moment but until next restart.

I know at least two people with same problem. Laptop I got is Dell Latitude D620. Have I fixed a problem? Sure I did, Google helped as usual

I got a deb package from Paul Betts, looks like he is fixing stuff If you can’t find it there here is a copy. All you have to do is download it and install. All that is required is a Firefox restart.

I thought I will share this knowledge as solution is fast and simple

Cheers, Gregster

If you are reading this post in feeds reader and it doesn’t support pictures please read original post on my blog.

I had a good laugh when I saw it.

Thanks for that Myro

Greg

It seem like time is passing really fast in UK or maybe just in Gigonsville. Lot of things happened in 2007.

Summary

Most important one is new member of Greg’s family, Oliwia Gabriela Gigon (Her pictures are in my latest posts). Joanna has finished PHD, we have bought a house and move to it, I have changed my job. These were the milestones, much more has happened. My life as a developer has changed as well. I went all the way from Java junkie to .Net developer and back again. I learned and had opportunity to work with certified Scrum master on a project and finished my first full agile project with ThoughtWorks. It was a Java web application that you can look at www.e4.com. What is available at the moment online is 10 weeks of development. Quite impressive I need to say.

Some of the technologies I have worked this year with: .Net, WCF, WWF, LLBLGenPro, Java, Hibernate, SiteMesh, String Templates. I have also used InteliJ on my last project and as a big Eclipse enthusiast I have to say well done JetBrains. I love it.

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Wow, it’s been a long time since I blogged. Didn’t had the time. I will write you what happened in last few weeks.

Let’s start with a BIGGE. So we bought the house. Not any house OUR FIRST HOUSE. That took some time. All paper work. The I seriously damaged my back during move (that was 6 weeks ago, and yes, developers should stick to comfty chairs and their computers, not hard physical labour :). After 5 weeks of physiotherapy I’m still not 100% good.

Baby is on a way. Preparing home for his (as we don’t know if that’s a boy or a girl (I mean I hope it’s a boy :)) arrival is not an easy task when you can’t lift anything of the ground without pain that feels like OH MY GOD SOMEONE STUBBED ME WITH A DAGGER IN MY SPINE. Those days are gone now. I did a lot of painting (some rooms 4 layers of paint) and I started to hate it. Bought all necessary things for our Baby. All I can do now is leave the rest to mother nature

It’s 3 months since I joined ThoughtWorks. I enjoy working for that company. I got a lot new experience and I will share.

This is it. It might not sound like a lot of work but … it was. And I’m so happy it’s almost over. I know that when Baby will arrive another responsibilities will start, but at least at the beginning it’s just feeding, changing nappies and taking out for some fresh air

I’m looking forward to all the events that are in front of us. I’m sure they are exciting. COME ON TIME, BRING IT ON!

Cheers all you beautiful people, Gregster

Ps. What you are thinking of my new Blog look?

Couldn’t imagine worst morning than today (weather wise). It was almost dark as at night and it was raining really heavy. All trains were late. It is amusing in country being famous of its bad weather that trains are late when it starts to rain.

Anyway, I was on a train listening to The Beatles album, Revolver, watching three ladies around me fixing their make-up and thinking about my problems with Dell Laptop I received as company toy.

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It is almost a month when I was on holidays. We (Jo and I) went for a week to see what is the beauty of Cornwall that everyone is talking about. We have seen many places. I will show you pictures from some of them

We saw Eden Project, Lands End, Minack Theatre, Goonhilly Giants (satellite earth station). Walk the cliffs and number of Cornwall beaches. We also went to see St. Michael’s Mount that is something like Mount Saint Michele in France but less majestic and impressive.

There is too many pictures to put them on blog so please visit separate gallery at this address: http://www.gigoo.org/gallery/cornwall2007.

Cheers, Gregster

It’s been two weeks now when I started my great new job. It’s really amazing to work at ThoughtWorks in its London office and I’m very happy that I made through recruitment process.

Something that stroke me after just few days of work is that people are using a lot of abbreviation all the time. It is either a business stuff or IT related. Technologies or funky names. I’m usually the dummy one that is asking what the hell is that? Is it new funky trend between Brits or did IT (IT, another one:) ) world go crazy?

Master of shortcuts are in Seatle in Microsoft offices. Some of the sentences they made during sessions and talks, when I was there, contained only abbreviations. Is it a lack of a time that makes the need to speak faster. Is it assumption that everyone else know those word shortcuts?

It doesn’t matter for me, I’m terrible at remembering those, probably because I don’t care about it

Cheers, Gregster