Mokka mit Schlag » 2007 » June

Beth Anderson’s Pennyroyal Swale Part 1, played by the Rubio String Quartet. Images of Kentucky by photographer James Archambeault. Video by Dmitriy Khavin.

The database schemas for my current project are getting hashed out, mostly in Visio. This is pretty but not very automatable. I’d like to see if we can follow a more agile, iterative approach to database development. In particular, I’d like to be able to check the database definition into source code control and build the whole thing, including database tables and sample databases for testing out of Ant. Requirements include:

1. Supports (at a minimum) MySQL and Derby
2. Can be read by Java and Python
3. Allows for inserting of data for unit testing; i.e. not just table definitions

It also wouldn’t hurt if it could reverse engineer existing SQL databases.

I’m tempted to write my own, probably using XML, but surely someone has already done this? I haven’t found a lot though. What I’ve got so far are these, none of which really meet the requirements:
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Sunday Beth and I watched Radiant City at two Boots Pioneer Theatre in Manhattan. (Short review: great movie: go see it if you have the chance, or, more likely, wait for it to show up on PBS at 3:00 one morning).

The tech left something to be desired though. The projectionist missed the cut between reels once. That could happen anywhere, but one weirder thing I noticed was that every three or four minutes, a pattern of dots that looked a little like braille would flicker briefly onto the screen. E.g. something like this:

* *
* *
*

The exact pattern seemed to vary from occurrence to occurrence, though they flashed by so fast I couldn’t be sure. The pattern seemed to consist of three or maybe four rows of one to two dots each. (I worked as a projectionist one year back in college so I’m a little more sensitive to these things than most people are.)

Is this maybe a watermark being inserted into the film to track videotaping? I’m not sure how many people noticed it, but it certainly wasn’t inobvious. I wasn’t certain I’d seen it the first time it flashed by, but once I was attuned to it, it became obvious. It does seem strange that this would show up in a small independent semi-0documentary like Radiant City though.

Harmonia axyridis, Ridgewood Reservoir, 2007-06-09

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So now that Hudson is up and running well, it’s time to install an issue tracker for the new internal project.

• What I really want to use but probably don’t have the budget for: Jira
• What I might get the budget for but probably not: FogBugz
• What I really, really don’t want to touch with a ten foot pole: Bugzilla
• What I’m willing to touch with a ten foot pole if I have to: Trac

Anything else I should consider? Anything that passes the no-P.O. test that’s actually pleasant to use?

Pachydiplax longipennis, Ridgewood Reservoir, 2007-06-09