Projects

Private node modules

I use my rad-scripts node module to quickly set up management and automation of my active projects. I now have a couple private node modules:

mah-haus is my node module that mass-manages all my repos – it’s great; with one command I can completely sync my entire dev station when I start/finish a session
atci is for my AbetterTrader project and gives me all the dev tools I need to build, publish, and run continuous integration

Thanks node.js, I love my new automated life. Should I publish these modules even though they have no real public use? Nah, why pollute the npm-isphere? But I will put this post here so I can use it for the module home pages. 😉 Carry on!

Comments | Saturday, May 28, 2016 [ automation * continuous integration * semantic versioning ]

Sprintless Agile

I’m experimenting with Sprintless Agile as a methodology for my personal projects. It’s agile without managers and deadlines. It removes the artificial constraints of arbitrary deadlines from software projects. Because I just spend the free time I have on my projects, there is no need for deadline tracking. The need for task estimation is therefore eliminated, leaving priority as the only criterion to be freely applied to all tasks equally. Without the “get it out the door” pressure, crunch time is lost, but releases are more continuous than planned, and life runs more smoothly. The hope is that projects will be able to focus on the important goals instead of throwaway demo work. The fear is that too much time will be spent obsessing over unimportant tasks. Therefore, the top priority becomes to continuously prioritize.

Comments (1) | Sunday, May 22, 2016 [ Sprintless Agile ]

rad-scripts git-sync now pushes git tags, imagine that

Why would [git push] fail to push annotated tags as well? That just results in another disruptive layer of potential synchronization issues. They finally added sane behavior, but you have to turn it on with:

git config --global push.followTags true

Or, use rad-scripts! Which has [git-sync], and, as of today, always uses –follow-tags. I’m loving my Node.js lifestyle. 😛

Comments | Monday, May 2, 2016 [ semantic versioning ]

quick-http getting stable

Check it out on github.

Also, rad-scripts.

Comments | Saturday, April 30, 2016

Google as a Registrar

My domains just got a little more life in them. As in, an A rating from ssllabs, at least for the moment!

Highlights:

Problem: Time Warner has a monopoly on broadband here; they gouge you if you want a static IP; and they do thorough reporting of all IP ranges as dynamic to spamhaus, so no email servers from home folks
Problem: 1and1 has a horrible interface to maintain even a handful of domains, as you have to use a useless separate “packages” layer to get enough subdomains; they charge for email
Solution: Switched all domains to Google Registrar, which has a much better UI, supports subdomains, and allows domain name email forwarding for free
Solution: Once you have control over your domain email, StartSSL provides amazing easy free SSL certs; they have the BEST completely automated service and the best docs; my Apache site configs are now better organized, SNI-based, and the sites are getting great scores on ssllabs, thanks to using Mozilla’s “modern” recommendations
Solution: phabricator needs to run on its own domain, and with this new level of control, I can easily get that going; although curl and arcanist are picky about the CA store – I could NOT get them to work with the agile.bitpost.com subdomain, at all, and I really tried – so I went with https://abettersoftware.org

A brave new world. I love it when a plan comes together.