opensource

credit:C G-K

The 1.1.8 release of Log4r has the following changes:

• Fix for bug #28021 - major change to how Log4r handles thread synchronization, now using Monitor class instead of directly using Mutex. Yann Golanski reported what appeared to be a deadlock related to Mutex not being re-entrant.
• Move files from src directory to lib directory, following convential ruby gems.
• Add %T to pattern formatting, allowing for truncated file path, this runs opposite to the c vs C patterns. e.g. %t outputs /fully/qualified/path/filename.rb, %T outputs filename.rb
• Added example to illustrate logger inheritence rules see: examples/ancestors.rb
• Added "levels" method to Logger
• Incorporating STARTTLS support via Nitay Joffe wrapping change with a check for ruby < 1.8.6 to require 'smtp_tls' and handle different calling characteristics. Dan Sketcher submitted an almost identical patch a month later. Added examples/gmail.yaml and examples/gmail.rb to illustrate usage.
• Modifications to behavior of rollingfileoutputter.rb by David Siegal. Can automatically purge older files, intelligently picks up appending where left off, or deletes existing log files and starts at the beginning again.

Other changes that I did not blog about earlier:

Internet2 (yes, that's the logo)

Yes, the Internet 2 exists. Yes, they continue research into tools and protocols for high speed networks. This afternoon, I wanted to set up a server running the Internet 2 Network Diagnostic Tool. I wanted to run it with their "fakewww" server so that it would be isolated away from other services on the server I set aside. While fakewww allows one to specify the port it binds to, it does not allow it to bind to a specific address. Again, I am made sad. So, I fixed it and submitted the patch to the fine folks at Internet2, if they take the patch, I'll edit this to point at the release with the patch.

NDT servers are pretty nifty, here, try out ours: http://ndt.hcro.org

openSUSE 11.3 timeline:

http://www.suse.de/~coolo/opensuse_11.3/

openSUSE release schedule, credit: coolo

credit: C G-K

Renaming rgslffi to gsl4r. Might as well. Hopefully I won't wake up tomorrow and decide to call it Moon Child. Project page in the works http://gsl4r.rubyforge.org Git repository already available in alpha-planning stages:
git clone git://rubyforge.org/gsl4r.git

While working on rgslffiGSL4r, I needed to define a mapping for the gsl_complex struct (we'll ignore for now that gsl_complex is potentially platform dependent).

Here's my attempt:

  class GSL_Complex < ::FFI::Struct
    layout :dat, [:double, 2]

    R = 0
    I = 1

    def real()
      return self[:dat][R]
    end

    def imag()
      return self[:dat][I]
    end

    def equals( a )
      return ( a[:dat][R] == self[:dat][R] && a[:dat][I] == self[:dat][I] )
    end

    def set( r, i )
      self[:dat][R] = r
      self[:dat][I] = i
      return self
    end

    def set_real( r )
      self[:dat][R] = r
    end

    def set_imag( i )
      self[:dat][I] = i
    end

    def to_s()
      return "(#{self[:dat][R]},#{self[:dat][I]})"
    end
  end

I was stumped for a few hours on passing FFI::Structs into external routines, luckily, this post, 'Functions returning structures' (groups/google/ruby-ffi), tipped me off by showing how to return a struct by value:

From the C code:

...
    typedef struct
    { 
        int r, g, b, a; 
    } ALLEGRO_COLOR; 
...

setiquest

Each year, the non-profit "Technology, Entertainment, Design" or TED Group, holds a conference with invited speakers from around the world, in a kind-of "Big Thinkers" hoedown.

In 2009, Jill Tarter, a director and co-founder of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, won a TEDPrize, which comes with funding to help jump start a wish that the prize winner would like to see fulfilled. Jill's wish is being fleshed out by the work of Avinash Agrawal and the creation of http://www.setiquest.org

A major part of setiquest will be to take raw data from the Allen Telescope Array and load it into cloud computing services donated by Amazon. Those who sign up with setiquest will then help create algorithms to search for signals that might be hidden in the noise.

credit:C G-K

Now available, the 1.1.5 release of log4r (See: http://log4r.rubyforge.org or gem install -r log4r)

Addressed in 1.1.5:
FileOutputter no longer truncates files by default
Syntax fixed up in GDC/NDC classes to work in Ruby 1.9 as well as 1.8

I'm also quite happy about the move to hosting ruby gems at http://gemcutter.org. Its helped me become aware of how widely log4r is a pre-requisite for other software. Since I started new releases last September (2009), it was downloaded over 21,000 times, with the 1.1.4 release on January 12, 2010, downloaded 12,000+ times alone.

*nervous*

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