Michael Davies' Blog http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi Leveraging synergy in this championship year en A Better (svn) Diff http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/tech/code/a-better-diff.html It's nice to be able to control your diff(1) output when you run code reviews off of diffs. This isn't too bad unless you're trying to do this off the command line and using svn as your source code repository.

Here's my favourite magic subversion incantation for specifying the number of lines of context for a unified diff. It's been remarkably difficult to remember this, so here you go lazy web: 

     han:svn$ svn diff --diff-cmd diff -x -U5
]]> Remembering Chicago http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/travel/chicago/remembering-chicago.html Someone just sent thru a query asking what they should do in Chicago since they were going to be there for a couple of days. Here's the list of stuff I sent through to them:
  • Navy Pier is a fantastic visit (http://www.navypier.com/).
  • Walking the Magnificent Mile is great (http://www.aviewoncities.com/chicago/magnificentmile.htm).
  • Visiting The Bean at Millenium Park (http://www.millenniumpark.org/) - outdoor ice skating in December too!
  • Doing a Chicago River tour is fun (http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/things_see_do/tours/tourism/chicago_river_architecture.html)
  • Or just going for a walk around downtime like this one is excellent: http://www.metrowalkz.com/Tours/Loop/loop.html
  • Going and seeing a Bulls game (www.nba.com/bulls/), White Sox game (http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=cws&sv=1), Cubs game (http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=chc&sv=1/), Bears game (http://www.chicagobears.com/index.html) or Blackhawks game
    • (http://blackhawks.nhl.com/) is fun too! (depending on the season)
  • Visiting the Field Museum to see world-class exhibitions (http://fieldmuseum.org/)
  • Visiting the Adler Planaterium is worthwhile (http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/)
  • Visiting the Shedd Aquarium is amazing (http://www.sheddaquarium.org/)
  • Six Flags is a must if you like thrills (http://www.sixflags.com/greatAmerica/index.aspx)
  • Eating the best pizza in the world at Giodano's (http://www.giordanos.com/)
  • Go shopping at Woodfield Mall - http://www.shopwoodfield.com/
  • Visit a great church - Harvest Bible Chapel at Rolling Meadows - http://www.harvestbiblechapel.org/
  • Hearing the blues at The House of Blues Chicago (http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/chicago/)
  • Going and seeing a Blue Man Group show (http://www.blueman.com/tickets/chicago/)
  • Have some tapas at http://www.cafebabareeba.com/ (amazing food!)
  • Riding the "L" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_'L')
  • Seeing some of the great art pieces of the world at the Chicago Art Gallery (http://www.artic.edu/)
  • On a perfectly clear day going up and looking at of http://www.theskydeck.com/ - tallest view, but costs
  • Have a drink and enjoy the view up Hancock Tower (http://jhochicago.com/en/) - 2nd tallest, but view free so long as you buy a drink
  • Visiting Grant Park (http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks/grant-park/)
  • Visit Lincoln Park zoo for free - http://www.lpzoo.org/ or Brookfield Zoo (non-free) http://www.brookfieldzoo.org/czs/flash/landing/index.html
  • Have lunch in the Walnut Room - http://www.visitmacyschicago.com/dining.cfm/ - great at Christmastime!

Ahh, memories. Wish I could go back and visit this wonderful place :-) ]]> linux.conf.au 2013 CFP http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/tech/linux-australia/lca2013/cfp.html It's very exciting to see both the number and quality of talk proposals come in to the linux.conf.au 2013's CFP process.

Mary and I have been working hard this year (along with the whole papers ctte) at evangelising the conference among various communities, known good speakers, and topics that we'd like to see at linux.conf.au. It's been a multi-year effort, but I think we're starting to see the fruit from these efforts.

But with 5 days to go until the CFP ends, NOW is the time to get your idea for presenting at LCA in for consideration. If you're doing great stuff in the free software / open-source world; if you're looking to recruit a community around your project; if you're looking to make a difference and have a whole lot of fun at the same time - get your proposal in to this fantastic conference! ]]> offlineimap syncing http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/tech/email/offlineimap-sync.html Just finishing up an offlineimap(1) sync to a new laptop. 5 years of email has taken 2.5 days to sync. And that's over a fast network. I'm thinking twice about syncing the larger corpus of older mail. ]]> Google I/O http://michaeldavies.org/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/tech/conf/google-io-2012.html Wow. Again.

Google I/O 2012 sells out in 20 minutes. Compare that to the last few years.

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