I was so happy with a recent book purchase that I decided to install the book review module. It installed with no issues, and appeared as a content option as expected. Then the trouble started…

It appears that there is some incompatability with the module. It says it is installed, I can fill out the forms, but when I save it, nothing. After wasting a day on changes, attempted fixes, and browsing the database (of course I had opened the wrong one so nothing appeared to be working properly), I decided to uninstall it.

I was dragged to Barcamp 3 yesterday. It seems Carleton U has been granted some provincial money to “foster open source” so one of their contributions was to host Barcamp.

Barcamp seems to be a once-in-a-while (every month-and-a half? every two months?) event. I think the Ottawa event was started by some vulture/venture capitalists who wanted to meet techies to slave, I mean work in their startups. But, this time they seem to have attracted some actual techies.

I have to admit, I’ve never sat in a coffee shop and worked on anything with a laptop before today. It’s a pretty great thing. Fresh coffee, semi-fresh food, good access (not the cheapest), etc.

I’ve been working on a side contract and this was a convenient spot to meet with the other person working on the project, have some face time and get started on the project tasks list and timelines. It’s interesting acting as project manager for something you know portions of and have to depend on others to provide the missing expertise.

A friend of mine sent this around.

From: Arnold XXXXXXXXX arnold.xxxxxxx@xxx
To: Engineering Staff engineeringstaff@xxx
Subject: cable management
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:55:11 -0400

Hi All,
Thought I would share a tip I just thought of…
In pursuing the contract here at yyy, I got a mitt full of fibre yesterday..lots of pretty single and multi-mode 6’-10’ cables. Annoyingly, I realised these would end up a tangled mess as there are no twisties to be had (the metal wires in the “garbagebag” variety are not something you want around exposed circuit boards, obviously!) and tie-wraps are too permanent to use on delicate fibre in a lab environment. Sooo, in typical “Band-aid engineering” fashion, I walked out to the garden shed at home last night and snagged the roll of green “tomato tape” that LeeValley sells (basically a low-grade velcro in tape form). I have already discovered it is the cat’s meow for cable management; cut to length, easy to (re)open/close. Not nearly as strong as velcro in the perpendicular/peel direction(very low peel cohesion), but at least half the strength as typical velcro in the lateral loading direction. Wrapped around itself twice, it even holds the 100’ lawnmower extension cord bundled to keep it tidy while hanging on a hook (note: not hung by the tape itself though).
More than strong enough for wire bundling and perfect for fibre cable management! Keeps the stuff in nice tidy coils on the bench and more importantly is non-conductive and reusable and bright green! : - )

Well, I guess the better question is what’s in it for me? In my case, I get a book from O’Reilly for each of their banners. Most of their conferences and their magazines have this deal. So, having a banner for an event of magazine on the web page for a couple of months in return for one of their books is very nice.

The other items I may place on the site from time to time are local events or conferences. I get nothing for that, except satisfaction that I am promoting local events and proving that there is a real high-tech environment in Ottawa, no matter how underground it has gotten in the past few years.