It’s been a while since we’ve been thinking about moving to Mercurial from Subversion at our company. We were convinced about the benefits of DVCS and chose Mercurial over Git. However, due to pressure at work and some procrastination, the move was delayed a couple times. Finally, today we had the move and the team is already up to speed with it.

Although it’s quite simple to install it in a central server, the different articles on the web had me confused with too many options or with a different distro than Ubuntu. So, here is a dead simple list of things to do for installing Mercurial centrally for your dev team.

1. Log onto your server using SSH

2. Install mercurial from repository:

3. We need to have a directory to store our Mercurial configuration and repository files, so let’s create one and change it’s owner to the apache user so that apache can access them:

4. We’ll be creating a configuration that will allow us to host multiple repositories in this server. And we’ll be using CGI to serve the files through Apache:

5. We need to show the location of the config file to the CGI script, so open the file hgweb.cgi with nano or vim to update the line with “config = …” with the following and save it.

6. Now let’s create the file /var/hg/hgweb.config and write the location of the repositories:

Enter the following content and save the file:

7. As a final step, we’ll need to update the Apache configuration so that it executes the CGI when requested with a /hg prefix:

At the end of the defaul virtual host configuration and just before the </VirtualHost> tag, add the following and save it:

8. In order to take effect of the above change, we’ll need to restart apache:

9. Now you should be able to visit the server’s /hg location like http://rbs-server.com/hg from browser. However, you’ll be greeted with a username/password prompt as we’ve enabled that in our apache configuration above. So, lets add some user for our use.

It will ask for the password of the user admin twice and after you enter that, it will be stored in the file hgusers. You can add more users in the similar fashion, just ignore the c parameter as it was used to create the file first time:

10. Now visit the /hg path in your browser and you’ll see the empty list of repositories after you authenticate.

11. By default Mercurial only allows pushing changes through SSL, but in our case it was not necessary. Also, we wanted to give all our developers the push access to the repositories. For that, let’s update the system-wide mercurial configuration file /etc/mercurial/hgrc by adding the following lines at the end of the file and saving it:

12. Now that all is set, let’s setup a test repository so that we can clone it in our development machine:

This repository can now be accessed through http://rbs-server.com/hg/test and can be cloned in a development machine with the following command (mercurial must be installed already):

Hope this will make someone’s life easy. Enjoy the beauty of Mercurial!

Photo source

• Re-shaping my company to become a major OSS based company in Bangladesh
• Doing something meaningful for my country
• Learning Ruby and related frameworks (Rails, Cucumber, etc)
• Spending more time my family
• Having more fun with my friends
• Living a healthy life

[sourcecode language='php']

// Specify the target URL in your server
$targetUrl = 'http://YOUR_SERVER_URL';

// Specify what the response is from the server
$targetText = 'Hello from Daredevil';

// We will be using cURL for fetching the content
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the params
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $targetUrl);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);

// Get the response
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Are things in right place ?
if ($response == $targetText) {
die('Site is up and running!');
}

// Nope, so here are the sender's twitter info
$username = 'SENDER_TWITTER_USERNAME';
$password = 'SENDER_TWITTER_PASSWORD';

// Receiver's twitter username
$receiver = 'RECEIVER_TWITTER_USERNAME';

// Alert message to send
$message = 'Daredevil is not responding, please fix ASAP!';

// The Twitter API address (new direct message)
$url = 'http://twitter.com/direct_messages/new.json';

// We will be using cURL for this
$ch = curl_init();

// Set the params
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "user=$receiver&text=$message");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");

// Send the request
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

// Success or failure
if (!empty($response)) {
echo 'Recipient has been notified.';
} else {
echo 'No response from twitter.';
}

[/sourcecode]

Why I needed this?

Recently we have setup a server at our office for committing work to a local SVN repository and have the QA test our work whenever they are ready. We also have a staging server where we do SVN update from this repo. Now, for the last few days, I’ve found the local server to be off due to a few reasons – but every time I realized this at night when I am back home and can’t do anything to turn it on. So I thought about this Twitter alert which is sent to my cell phone immediately when the server goes offline.

Btw, if Twitter doesn’t send SMS to your country, don’t worry. Check out the excellent service at Twe2 that I’ve been using for a couple days.

Cheers!

You can download the presentation file here in two formats: PDF and Powerpoint.

The full workshop description is provided below. If you’re interested in attending the next workshop on April, get in touch with BDjobs.com.

Freelancing IT Jobs – How to Make Yourself Ready

A freelancer is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any particular employer. A freelancer provides some sort of service whether it is design, programming, content writing or almost any other occupation. The main difference is that a freelancer has many clients rather than one steady employer. Freelancers often charge by the hour, the day or the project and are effectively running a small business with their skill set as the star product.

Although you might be thinking that freelancing is simply a different kind of job, in fact it is running your own business. When you are a freelancer, you are a one-person business. At some point you might even expand to a larger operation by hiring staff. Or you could remain a freelancer permanently.

So, if you’re looking for the next major break in your career OR you’re a fresh graduate who wants to make a living OR you want to check what the thing freelancing is, this workshop will help you out.

Contents of Training:

Session One: Introduction to IT Freelancing

1. Introduction

• What is freelancing?
• Benefits of freelancing
• Type of freelancing scope
• Type of freelancing jobs

2. The Basics

• Things you need to start freelancing
• Popular freelancing websites
• Early success factors
• Preparing yourself

Session two: Successful Freelancing

1. Getting Projects

• Signing up in freelancing sites
• Building a good profile
• Successful bidding
• Project scope & Timing
• Project budget

2. Working with Project

• Milestones and deadlines
• Communication
• Track progress

3. Working with Clients

• Essential client skills
• Professional Relationship
• How to keep client happy

Session three: Payments and Others

1. Getting Paid

• Status reports
• Invoices
• Payment methods
• How to avoid payment pitfalls

2. Questions & Answers

So here goes seven random (weird) things about me:

1. The veins in my left eyes are dried up, so I practically use my right eye for everything…pirate king!

2. The real break in my programming life came when I went to a programming contest with a team and was declined to participate. We had our rights and they later let us in, but gave us a almost broken PC. We cracked three out of 5 problems straight in DOS edit as the compiler would hardly run

3. I do not watch TV programs for the last 5 years. DVDs and downloaded movies/TV series are the only source of entertainment. My most fav TV series is The X Files.

4. When I was a kid, I was damn fond of toys. I had a whole collection of figures from HE-MAN, J.I.JOE, Thundercats, Transformers, and a few others.

5. I was present only in 48% classes in my second year in college, whereas the rule of thumb was a minimum of 85%. After the test exams, I was given a punishment of attending to library from 8am to 5pm for 26 days where the only thing allowed is study (textbook only). No friends, no gossip, no newspaper.

However, I convinced my father that this punishment was imposed to me as one teacher did not like my attitude in his class; i made my father to the principal with an application where its mentioned that I cannot attend this due to medical condition. Principal had to agree and I only had to do it for 2hrs for the sake of records

6. The first program I wrote for money was a file copying & renaming program in VB6 for $20. It would transfer some old mail server (don’t rem the name) files from an old server to a new one and would rename their extension to match Microsoft Exchange. Exchange was smart enough to read & convert automatically, so it looked as if the program did the conversion. Heh heh.

The fun part is, later another company was somehow convinced that it’s a huge work and went into a partnership with me where I received a down payment of $1500 and a 30% profit sharing with the same application plus a few UI improvement. Not bad

7. I never studied Computer Science nor did any programming classes. I have been in business studies concentration since school and did my bachelors in Business Administration (BBA). Currently I’m pursuing my masters in Business Administration (MBA) as well.

Here are the seven people I’m tagging:

1. Hasin Hayder
2. Anis Uddin Ahmad
3. NHM Tanveer Hossain Khan
4. Omi Azad
5. Trivuz
6. M.M.H Masud
7. Suhreed Sarkar

And here goes the rules:

- Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
- Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
- Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
- Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Enjoy!

Many of you have been writing to me in the last couple days when I took the site down. The main objective was to add the new theme and push a few code updates of the existing libraries. I really appreciate your concern and would like to reassure you that the site is up and will be up as usual Now, besides the slightly customized theme from Elegant Themes, I have put a few code updates. They are detailed below:

Extended Model for CodeIgniter

The original version of the Extended Model for CodeIgniter has been serving many people well. Although most users loved the nifty functions of the Model, many (including me) didn’t like the hacking of CI core to get this functionality. With the release of CodeIgniter 1.7, we can avoid that as we can now overload the Model class of CI like the other libraries. Follow this instruction:

1. Download the updated version from here
2. Put it in your application/libraries folder
3. In your model files, use it this way: class Product extends MY_Model
4. Everything else is same just like the original one

HTTP Class

There is not much update in this class except for a few bug fixes (thanks to you guys). Also, I have included a license file in the package as many of you have asked. It’s released under the MIT license. The original post is here for reference.

Download the update from here and the API reference is here.

Cross-domain AJAX calls using PHP

A minor bug fix in the code. Thanks to a few of you who pointed them out. Original post is here. Download the update from here.

I have accelerated plans for the blog in 2009 so stay tuned for some worthy posts in this month. And do write to me if you feel you have any questions/ideas/suggestions.

Cheers!

Nokia N81 8GB

Now, good points first. The N81boosts an extremely loud set of sterio speakers – combined with its Music Express, it delivers the highest quality of music I’ve ever purchased. Combined with the built-in FM radion, the dedicated music keys, and a multimedia menu – this is a music powerhouse, thanks to the all new Symbian 9.3 OS.

The Symbian OS is superb with all the applications and now has some stunning gameplay capabilities. The phone also has all kind of connectivity point you might need – GPRS, EDGE, Wifi, Bluetooth, WLAN, 3G. And don’t forget the built-in 8GB memory.

The only downside of this phone is the camera. It’s a 2 megapixel camera – which I don’t have any clue how got into a Nseries phone. If there is not enough light, the pictures are somewhat blurry. It has flash and a number of picture modes, so its a decent one – but nowhere in comparison with other Nseries 3.2mp and 5mp cameras.

All in all, here are the facts:

• 2.4” QVGA main color display (320 x 240 pixels), up to 16.7 million colors
• S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 based on Symbian OS v9.2
• Dedicated media keys for quick and easy access to music and video
• WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g with UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) support
• Bluetooth Specification 2.0 (profiles supported: DUN, OPP, FTP, HFP, GOEP, GAP, SPP, HSP, BIP, A2DP)
• Micro USB 2.0 Full Speed (mass storage class)
• Nokia AV Connector 3.5mm
• Up to 2 megapixel (1600×1200 pixels) camera, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 15fps
• Zoom: digital up to 20x
• Front camera (CIF)
• Video call and video sharing support (WCDMA network services)
• Integrated flash (modes: on, off, automatic, redeye reduction)
• Rotating gallery with Navi wheel support
• Nokia Nseries digital music player supports MP3 (VBR), AAC, eAAC+, AAC+, WMA/M4A, WAV
• OMA DRM 1.x, 2.0, Windows Media DRM (OTI/OTA with Nokia Music Store*)
• Synchronize music with Windows Media Player 11
• Media keys (play/pause, stop, forward, rewind)
• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz /76-90MHz)

Let’s see how long it can serve my ever-growing thirst of technology

At first sight, I thought it as “okay…another web 2.0 brainchild”. It seemed too simple to handle my complicated needs and I did not have high ambition with it. But as days passed, I was discovering new new features of it and gradually it became a part of my life. I’m a big fan of Getting Things Done (GTD) approach and Todoist became my dropbox for all the tasks in my mind.

If you ask me what’s so special about Todoist, I’d mention the following few features:

Simplicity

Todoist is damn simple and hosts one of the most powerful yet sleek web 2.0 interface on the web. It allows you to have an unlimited nested category/project list and under each of them, unlimited nested task list. This is something that most other tools miss. For me, it’s a super MUST feature.

Shortcuts

I was never fond of using shortcuts in web apps, but Todoist has made me use it’s ones. With very simple and familiar shortcuts, you can easily perform the most used tasks in a flash. For example, you press a to add a new task, Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right to indent/outdent your task, Ctrl+Enter to save the current item and add a new one below, etc etc. When you get used to with them, you’ll find that you’re using them unconsciously.

Powerful Date

Todoist features one of the most powerful date input system. It understands any natural date entry you can have: today, friday, next tuesday, tomorrow @ 5pm, last friday, etc. And it’s not limited to that only, you can add recurring dates in as simple way: ev day @1pm, every fri, every 2nd mon, etc.

Task Query

So, you’ve added a bunch of tasks and now want to find out a small set of them. How do you do that? Simple, type the query in the Todoist query box at top left. Example: tod, tom, next 4 days, overdue, @meeting, etc. Btw, Todoist allows you to tag your tasks with a very simple manner. Just put a “@tag” in your task details and it will become a tag. You can later query using that tag as well.

Reminders

Like all other similar applications, Todoist also features a number of reminder methods. You can plug in your jabber client, ask it to send you sms, or fire an email. Moreover, if you’re one of those twitter fans, then it can send msg to your twitter also. What more can someone need?

API

Yes, I knew you’d ask about it. Todoist has a very simple yet powerful set of API functions that you can use to fetch the contents from your account. They return the data in JSON format so you can use it in your JavaScript based applications and also can use in any back-end applications as well by converting them as per your need. And it has a number of different plugins for QuickSilver, Launchy, Mac Dashboard, iGoogle, Netvibes, etc. And lastly, there is a Firefox sidebar which integrates seamlessly into your firefox for a faster and smarter access to your tasks.

Some missing functionality

Although Todoist boosts an array of excellent features and satisfies all my needs in full, I’d love to have a few more features in it: Offline access (using Google Gear), Export/Import of tasks, iCal/RSS, Google Calendar Integration etc. The best part is, they’ve opened a place to hear from the users and are willing to value the user’s voice.

All in all, Todoist is my most favorite tool on the web at this moment. It helps me like a little buddy and keeps my life organized and clean. I’d ask you to give it a try and stick with it for a couple days and I am more than sure that you’ll find its beauty.

Happy tasking !

When you interview them and ask about complex topics, they’ll reply: “Oh my last company didn’t allow me work with that, but I’ll be able to grab that in a day“. You trust them and think that if they get the chance, they’ll sure be able to excel. After all, they’ve got that Company X’s experience and Guru Y’s reference.

At first everybody gets amazed with these developers employment history, the projects they’ve done, the technical jargons they can utter, the ideology/framework/pattern they talk about, etc etc. Everybody wants them in their team. The team who gets them finally are happier than ever, after all life will get easier to have such an expert in team.

Soon projects get rolling and everybody in his/her team is eagerly waiting to see the magics from these “senior” developers. To their disappointment, more ideas/criticism/review (e.g. “Pattern X is better than pattern Y. Why you’re choosing X?”, “Why are you doing Z in this way? Who taught you this?”, “Have you ever heard of DEF?”, “I have done research on DB normalization and you teach me schema?“) takes place but they don’t see actual code from these developers.

They come to office in an awkward timing, leaves early, works with personal things at office – but nobody can question their activity as people might not believe them. With much regret, the remaining team members continue to complete the work which the “senior” developer was suppose to do. Instead of a team synergy, an unintended pressure is created in the team.

Eventually the project misses deadline by miles, team members become unhappy as they had to do extra work each day to cover the team’s ass, company gets screwed as client is unhappy and decides not to do repeat business. Company digs down the cause of the failure, finds the responsible person, and fires them away.

Surprisingly, when a friend of the “senior” developer asks them in a social party: “What happened with the Company X you were working on?”, they’ll reply: “Oh that crap! You know, it’s a pain to work with junior developers. They don’t understand things. All they know is coding, no knowledge, no understanding of architecture. And the management is so poor, you won’t believe……“.

Don’t include someone like them in your team and think twice or thrice if you don’t have many options. Try to find out how good programmer they are in the interview. How senior they might be, ask them to write code in the interview. Try out proven questions that others have shared from their experience. Overall, make sure you’re taking the right person. The best hiring option is to hire “no one”.

Have you been in such situation? Share your experience here!