November 2006

The second of the Subversion pieces is out now and describes the software written to perform the migration from Visual SourceSafe to Subversion. The software isn't yet available for public download, but as I've been getting so many requests (via email) for copies of it I expect to be able to work something out.

The main problem is that it uses one of the FOST.3™ libraries and those are not yet open source. I'm looking to see if I can't get a release of the relevant library headers out so at least the tool can be compiled and worked on by people who may find it useful.

On the Netflix side I haven't had a chance to get as far as actually processing any of the data now in the database. After the import of the static data the next stage that would be done in a full business system is some sort of audit process, generally using different system interfaces (and languages) to the import mechanism. This is an important step that is often missed in business systems and I want to make sure that I describe it and the issues surrounding it properly. Clearly I should finish my explanation of the import process itself first though.

I've also managed to get myself involved in editing a new translation of a collection of essays by a leading Thai thinker, Nidhi Eoseewong (นิธิ เอียวศรีวงศ์). The book contains the columns he wrote for Trendy Man magazine in Thailand and Fringer has done all of the hard work in translating it. I'm merely asking stupid questions in the hope that getting her to answer them will clarify the language. She has more information as well as links to both the Thai and English versions of the book. Hopefully you'll be able to find a copy of “The Culture of Poverty?” pretty soon.