Windows - NagiosPluginsNT - Remote WMI Monitoring

Note to self:

Here is a really good collection of remote WMI monitoring scripts for Windows:

NagiosPluginsNT

It is written in C# and looks nicely done.

Big Push 2009 - Free Software Foundation Appeal

About 6 years ago, I spent a good chunk of time as a webmaster for the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation. Volunteering for the FSF and GNU was one way to express my ideals and somehow give back to the community. This is also what prompts me to release most of my own software under the GPL. The ethics and technical merits of Free Software have appealed to me since I was first introduced to the concept about a decade ago.

Here is the latest newsletter from the FSF regarding their current campaigns. It is a great summary of what is going on in the world of Free Software right now:

The Big Push 2009 -- Free Software Foundation Appeal

"As advocates for free software, we can challenge the status quo and so-called convenience of using the invasive tools of proprietary software companies, because the opportunities for change have never been better."

-Peter Brown
Executive Director, Free Software Foundation

Best Sticker Ever?

best sticker ever?

Work Computer Setup

Current Rig - Dec 2008 (AKA "The Matrix"):

... life begins at 3 monitors

Python - Trying Out NetBeans IDE

I normally don't use an IDE for Python development. The majority of my day is spent inside my SciTE editor.

However, Sun recently released NetBeans IDE 6.5 for Python, and I figured I would give it a try. So far I really like it. The Python support works well. It has syntax highlighting, code complete, debugger, integrated console, etc. Overall, it is a comprehensive and nicely designed IDE.

NetBeans is a full featured development environment and supports:
Ajax | C/C++ | Databases | Debugger | Desktop | Editor | Groovy | GUI Builder | Java EE | JavaFX | Java ME | Java SE | JavaScript | Mobile | PHP | Profiler | Python | Refactor | REST | Rich Client Platform | Ruby | SOA | SOAP | UML | Web | WSDL | XML

The IDE is written in Java so I thought it would be dog slow, but it's pretty snappy to work with.

I've decided I will try it for a week and then decide whether to use it as my main dev environment.

Anyone else using NetBeans for Python development?

Development Setup: Tools I Can't Live Without

At my current gig, these are the essential tools I use for almost all development:

IDE/Editors:

• SciTE
• Visual Studio
• Eclipse

Language Compilers/Interpreters:

• Python
• C#
• Java
• Perl

Utilities/Etc:

• Firefox
• FileZilla
• DropBox
• Cygwin
• WinMerge

"Wolf Fence" Debugging

I heard this term for the first time today, and realized it is a habit I usually follow rather than firing up a debugger and stepping through my code.

Defined by Dennis Lee Bieber here:
http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t356093-how-to-debug-python-code.html

"There's one wolf in Alaska, how do you find it? First build a fence down the middle of the state, wait for the wolf to howl, determine which side of the fence it is on. Repeat process on that side only, until you get to the point where you can see the wolf). In other words; put in a few "print" statements until you find the statement that is failing (then maybe work backwords from the "tracks" to find out where the wolf/bug comes from)."

The original term comes from "The Wolf Fence algorithm for debugging" (Edward J. Gauss, ACM - 1982)

Home Computer Setup

Current Rig (Nov 2008):