Blog/January 2010/Jan 29th

Jan 29th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

As usual, a very busy week. Work was mostly "putting out fires". Esther and Sarah went to speak to a group of potential new immigrants, to help them understand what making aliyah with teenagers is like. According to the coordinator, it was a very successful meeting.

Truth be told, I can't remember everything we did this week. Put that down to 'getting older', I suppose. Speaking of which, yesterday we attended one of our friends' birthday party. He's turning the age of "זקנה" (as per our Sages in Mishna Avoth). Very pleasant gathering, and entertaining multimedia presentation of his life thus-far.

Esther and I went to see the currently-blooming almond trees, on the other side of Jerusalem from us (a place called "Sataf" סטף). The weather was incredibly nice. It was interesting to note that just half an hour from our house, the hills are all green and blooming; whereas on our side of the mountains, the hills have just acquired a meager dusting of green. In a few weeks, they will be noticeably green, then a month later they'll be brown again. Anyway, the outing involved a fair bit of walking, so now both of us are tired and ready for shabbat.

And now, the "geek corner" presents: "Things you can do with Fossil"

Three weeks ago, I mentioned a software package called Fossil SCM. Since then, I've gotten more use out of it, and a better understanding of its characteristics. I've even helped add features and fix issues. But that's not the topic of this week's "geek corner". What I want to mention is reasons a non-programmer might be interested in this software. So here goes:

There are three main reasons programmers use SCM software. First, as a sort of backup. That is, if a file gets lost or messed up, a fresh version can be easily and quickly retrieved. Second, it assists in managing having multiple users access the same set of files. For example, if Jane and Joe are both changing files in a project, the SCM software will help manage the changes so that (ideally, at least) things don't get lost or messed up. Finally, it makes it easy to see what changes were made to a file. That is, what actually happened on March 20th 2005 to that file (or, how is that particular version of it different from the version I have now).

So why would you, as a non-programmer, want or need something like Fossil? The first reason is that it is an excellent way to back-up your files. For example, you may have a bunch of financial documents on your hard-disk. If you stick them into a Fossil repository, you can then synchronize that with another copy of the repository on another machine. Only whatever isn't already in both copies gets transferred, so it generally takes very little time to synchronize. If you and someone else need to access the same files, this is a convenient way to share (and to ensure you both have the same files).

There are a number of other uses to which you could profitably put Fossil, but I'll talk about them another time. In the meantime, you can see what the interface looks like on my Reva site. As for "why Fossil" and not another package, there are a number of reasons: (1) it's free, (2) it's easy to set up, (3) it's very reliable...

This week we're invited to shabbat lunch at a friends house, which will be enjoyable as usual, I'm sure. So we only have two meals to make: the menu includes fantastic chocolate chip cookies by Sarah, as well as chicken and the usual selection of scrumptious salatim. More later ...

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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