Since I’m starting to use this more regularly after precisely 16 months of sporadic activity (counting from the welcome post), I figured I’d analyze said welcome post and see how much of it I have managed to stick to.

Welcome to my blog of code, freedom, gaming, computing, and some other stuff. (I will say it now: most of my blogging will probably be software-related.)

How right that last part has been. Since establishing this and letting it (most of the time) just sit here, my computing focus has switched almost entirely to software. I just haven’t felt inclined to blog about the other stuff.

I have many software projects going on now. I am in the process of placing all of them onto my Subversion server, but the ones I work on the most are there. Check it out (literally) at https://svn.stump.jstump.com/svnroot/ (read-only – I commit through svn+ssh) or browse around at https://svn.stump.jstump.com/websvn/. Patches are always welcome! I will always post when I tag a release, including full build instructions.

It’s http://svn.jstump.com/r/ and http://svn.jstump.com/websvn/ now, but help is of course still welcomed. Some projects have even grown their own mailing lists and Trac instances now that I run my own VPS. I haven’t stuck to what I said about blogging releases, but I didn’t feel any were that major anyway – the only stuff with release tags is Python extension modules used by FoFiX (which I probably should move to the FoFiX repository). There’s stuff that’s nearing completion that is more blog-worthy though (if, say, the kexec project’s intentions are any guide to go by). Also, when I amass the willpower to rewrite lots of my infrastructure code, we’re going to git, as mentioned in my most recent post before this.

I write software for Windows and GNU/Linux; nearly all of it is under “GPLv3 or later”. I will post about specific software projects whenever something interesting happens.

Since that post, I have indeed maintained a habit of writing strictly cross-platform code unless there is a reason not to, and have stuck to the GPL wherever it makes sense.

I am an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons (version 2) and the Classic Marvel RPG. (My GM is the very best.) When it comes to downtime, it’s hard to beat rolling oddly-shaped dice. Knights of the Dinner Table is the most epic magazine.

The place in which I played in said campaign closed up in July 2009, and the campaign died with it, but I got involved with other campaigns around that time. Unfortunately, moving into college killed those, and nothing I have found since has been the same. (In a way, though, the timing of the closing of the store worked out for the best, as I’m not sure how well I could have borne having to leave that campaign behind were it still active.)

Until Stump GNU/Linux works (which is probably quite a long time from now), I primarily use Ubuntu and Debian. (Naturally, I will be “eating my own dogfood” once it’s feasible.) My preferred non-free OS is by far Windows Server 2003, and I know both Windows and GNU/Linux quite well (as both a user and an administrator). (Indeed, I have dabbled in Windows enough to gain a certification or two.)

I shelved Stump GNU/Linux very soon after that post but am interested in picking it back up again at some point. ’03 is still my favorite non-free OS, even with Windows 7 now out, though 7 came close to unseating it.

See you when something interesting pops up 😉

Yes, yes, yes…

For some patches and scripts that I contributed to the Performous project to help with Windows portability, I now have one more commit bit (since it’s git in this case, push access) to my name.

Probably the best part of deciding to contribute was actually learning git itself so I could maintain the history of my own changes even before I shared my changes with the other developers. This marks the first time I have made serious use of a DVCS of any kind, and I must say that I am impressed by the new workflows DVCS makes possible, especially those that would be nigh-on impossible under a non-DVCS such as my current VCS of choice, which is Subversion.

You can probably reasonably expect any new projects I create on jstump.com to use git unless there is a major reason to still use svn. I may even convert some of my other projects. (The main obstacle, of course, is forcefully shoving git into my awesomely-constructed current svn+trac+custom authentication setup. I guess we’ll see how that goes when I have some extra time on my hands.)

Performous is a GPLv2+ band rhythm game that started out with just vocal play and expanded into guitar and drums not too long ago; this is the opposite of how Frets on Fire X evolved. (My commit access to FoFiX was granted last New Year’s Day, and in that time I have arguably become one of its core developers. I will look back on my experiences working with FoFiX once I hit the one-year mark since it’s so close and I’ve digressed enough already.)

It’s a strange feeling, now having commit access to two projects that the uninitiated observer might say are directly competing. Things are friendly and fair, though, and I have only the best intentions for my participation in both.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, happy hacking!