The Subversion repository I use at work is hosted by java.net. Performance is generally on the slow side, but lately, the server is frequently going down. The most recent outage was more than 24 hours. Since Subversion is a centralized version control system, server uptime is critical. Without access to the server, we can’t view logs, commit, merge, or update.
Why is performance so bad? Why does the server keep failing? Sun and CollabNet have been responsive (thank you Sonya and Eric!) but mainly all we hear is “we’re working on it”.
The outages are costing us. If service doesn’t improve, we need to move to another provider. SourceForge sounds hopeful, especially since we can directly migrate over our Subversion repository and, eventually, switch to a dVCS like Mercurial.
Mifos has been accepted for the Google Summer of Code 2009! Working on Mifos has been my full-time job since October of 2007. The Google Summer of Code is an awesome program funded by Google wherein students get paid to work on FLOSS. Yay!
If you’re an eligible and interested student, check out our ideas page, hop on IRC during US/Pacific business hours, ask away on the mailing list, download the code, try building it, etc. and we’ll get you signed up!
Please check out the latest episode of FLOSS Weekly, featuring Mifos director George Conard and myself. The interview covers topics such as our mission, future direction and community involvement. The interviewers are Leo Laporte and Randal Schwartz.
Today is Blog Action Day, and the focus is poverty. Mifos is software designed to help eradicate poverty by providing an efficient way for microfinance institutions to serve many customers. If you’re into technology, please check out Mifos!
Mifos’s beloved director George Conard will be giving a talk on Mifos at the 2008 O’Reilly Open Source Conference in Portland, Oregon.
The phrase double bottom line refers to having a bottom line besides just profit.
See you there!
Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) knows a thing or two about fostering a geeky volunteer community. A desire to do well at my current post of “Mr. Open Source” on the Mifos project has led me to try and learn some lessons from people like Jimmy. Here are two crucial points gleaned from an interview with him on FLOSS Weekly:
- small group dialogs are best, too many people on one problem ends in voting/groupthink
- build a system that supports bees and and handles wasps (my verbage)
IRC is an ancient, tried-and-true one-to-many chat protocol. Pidgin is a feature-rich instant messaging client that can handle many protocols, including IRC. Pidgin runs on many different platforms, including the three most popular ones. Pidgin integrates nicely with the desktop.
Here’s how to set up a Freenode IRC account in Pidgin:
- Open Pidgin; click
Accounts -> Add/Edit.
- Click the
Add button.
- Change the protocol to
IRC and enter
irc.freenode.net as the server.
- If you have a Screen name (called a “nick” or “nickname” in IRC
parlance), type it (e.g. MrOpenSource) in the Screen
name field. If you don’t own one yet, make one up.
- Click on the
Advanced tab, and fill in the Real
name field.
Now, register your nickname. This helps people recognize you, protects your
identity, and allows you to send private messages.
- Click on
Buddies -> New Instant Message.
- Fill in
NickServ for Name.
- Change
Account to the Freenode account you just created,
and click Ok. Now you can “talk” with the
NickServ robot.
- The first message you send should be
register PASSWORD
(where PASSWORD is one of your choosing).
- Next, set an email address. This will give you a way to reset your
password later should there be a need. Send set hide email on
to NickServ.
- Next message should be
set email ADDRESS (where
ADDRESS is your email address)
Then, join #mifos. :)
One problem sometimes occurs when you have connection problems. You may be disconnected from the internet and the IRC server may not realize you’ve dropped off. When you reconnect, you may see what appears to be two of your username in the channel with slightly different names. Like: USERNAME and USERNAME_. Send help release to NickServ, and NickServ will tell you how to release the original, correct nickname.
Further instructions can be found here or by saying help to NickServ. Commands like /msg NickServ help do work in Pidgin.
This guide was heavily inspired by the following article on freesoftwaremagazine.com.
One more final tip: enable the “Join/Part Hiding” plugin to supress the many “so-and-so joined the room, so-and-so left” messages that will likely show up in the channel.