Notes In The Margin

An svn question, reposted here in the chance that one of my brilliant readers knows the answer:

From #svn on Freenode:

[10:29] Good morning, all you brilliant people.
[10:30] I'm attempting to checkout a versioned copy of a directory tree on top of an unversioned one. So, an installed product, and overlay that with versioned files - modifications to the installed product.
[10:30] Is such a thing feasible?
[10:30] When I try, I get "svn: Failed to add directory 'application': object of the same name already exists"
[10:30] The scenario is a custom build of a product for a customer, which consists of adding/modifying various files on top of an installed product.

I'll be teaching two training classes at the upcoming ApacheCon in Atlanta in November.

On Monday, I'll be teaching Apache, Nuts to Bolts, with Jim Jagielski, another long-time contributor to the Apache httpd project. This class is a day-long training on everything from obtaining and installing the server to configuration, third-party modules, and security, and everything in between.

On Tuesday, I'll be teaching a half-day training onmod_rewrite, the most powerful, and probably most confusing module, and the source of the majority of questions on any given Apache support forum.

I'd love to have you in my classes. ApacheCon will be fun, as always, and Atlanta is a great city. We'd love to see you there.

If you care about scalability, you should care about Surge, a new conference put on by the company that's synonymous with scalability, OmniTI. The speaker list reads like a who's who of scalability - the folks who do this stuff in Real Life and who have figured out the rules and when to break them. Pretty much every hour of the conference offers a choice between two can't-miss talks.

You should go.

Pockets

From the pair of socks --

every boy must some time succumb
to the need to run barefoot,
sink his toes in the mud and feel the grass
tickle his toes --

to the small toy gun, slightly chewed --

some lego hero, in his last throes,
squeezed off a last round before being eaten
by the alien invaders
come to enforce their new tyrannic rule --

there’s a map of the weekend in his pockets.

A stub of pencil,
number 2, Ticonderoga,
sharpened all the way down to the eraser,
no doubt in preparation for writing
the great novel to displace Harry and Percy
in the hearts of millions.

A rubber band, a flashlight, and a keyring,
part of elaborate plan lacking only dynamite
and a fishhook
and perhaps a few small bits of string
for the construction of the doomsday machine.

And a misshapen blob of beeswax,
a tribute to hours spent listening to theological proclamations
less interesting than candles.

Assorted other nicknacks,
a carabiner, a small canvas strap,
a bottle cap, a length of chain,
several scraps of paper and plastic,
paint a picture much more vivid
and active than he tell himself.

What did you do this weekend?

Nothing.

I picked up a book at the beginning of the summer called Handy Dad. The idea was to pick a dozen projects that I could do with the kids in the coming year.

We did the water rocket on July fourth. I'm pretty sure there's video of it somewhere.

Both kids picked the climbing wall, which is really simple in concept, but the instructions tell you to buy preformed climbing handholds, which, while very cool, are also very expensive.

So I decided to make them myself.

I got a 4 x 4 fence post and I'm cutting 3 or 4 inch pieces from it, and forming them with a dremel. It takes anywhere from 2 minutes to a half hour to make one, depending on how elaborate you want to make it. Later today, I hope to attach the first batch of handholds on a tree down at the creek, and will post pictures of that, too.

This is part of a much larger project, including a rope bridge and a tree house. I expect that this will take at least until next summer. I'm really looking forward to how this turns out. I'm completely making it up as I go along, and have no idea what I'm doing.

I recommend this book, along with Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do as project starters for you geek dads looking for ways to indoctrinate your not-yet-geek kids.

Also, if you haven't seen Howtoons you should check those out, and you should read the Geek Dad blog every day.