18-th in linuxpackages.net

Today I noticed, that I had took 18-th place in the Top Contributors list of linuxpackages.net - 48 packages. This, to some extent makes me happy, because the work on the creation of the packages is not easy, and is expensive. Although the created by me packages are build with scripts, the lack of generalized system for building of packages is still a minus for Slackware.

Unfortunately I still don't have the possibility to run my own site for Slackware packages, because I have no time remaining to complete the advanced search. My repositories currently contain around 130 packages of about 60 different software distributions, and this indices along with the space taken grow constantly.

This Saturday thanks to Vassil Kolev I managed to made mirror of the packages on marla.ludost.net. I hope this way they will be accessible even when I have problem with the Internet connection or the machine at home.

Translation of Bugzilla 2.22.1 (also 2.18.6 and 2.20.3)

A day and half ago I managed at last to release the updated Bulgarian translations of Bugzilla. For the new 2.22.1 version several things needed to be translated and templates synchronized, because most of the changes were in the code and not in the text. Simultaneously with this I made several improvements of the translation and spell check fixes.

For the old versions the only thing that I done was to synchronize the templates. One way or another there were only code changes, and I don't have the possibility to support this versions qualitatively.

The packages can be found on the usual places - project packages and my home server.

Although that the changes this time were not much, the translations and the synchronization took full month, because

• I learned late for the new versions released by Bugzilla;
• I had problems with the softer, I use for the translation;
• I didn't have enough free time.

Happy using!

Just ask!

Transcard hid my card these last months. It all started when in the middle of August I found that my card is blocked - I couldn't log in the Internet service. On phone *77 they informed me that there was a reorganization ongoing and my card had to be "reissued", because they were ceasing work with EuroBank. As it wasn't possible this to be done by fax, I went to their office where they convinced me that it's better to wait for the expiration of the card at the end of August, because like this the card would be reissued automatically.

I armed myself with patience and waited the whole month of September. After the card didn't arrive after all I called again phone *77 from where they informed me that I'm required to submit a plea as I point out reassuring and transfer of old debts. So I did. A new half a month waiting followed, until finally I received my card in teared envelope. Of course this wasn't a problem as they assured me on phone *77, because the card wasn't activated. But hasn't the one the one that teared the envelope had all the necessary for activating it? Hopefully, it didn't.

After some days my card was activated. I decided to log in the Transcard's Internet service for users, to check the information there. Alas, there was no information at all, because as they informed me from phone *77 this was "a completely new card" and respectively they cannot provide me access to the information about the old card.

All this made me ask myself the following questions:

• Why it was necessary I to be deprived from my credit card for two whole months?
• What kind of "reissuing" is this, as the card is "completely new"?
• Is the level of security enough especially at the delivery of the new "reissued" cards by regular mail?
• Why am I deprived of the information about the past movements on the card?

These questions made me come to the conclusion that the level of services in Bulgaria is still quite low. I think that as a user I should feel the "reorganization" of Transcard in such a way. I think that I should have received the reissued card as early as the beginning of  September, and not with two months delays and for reasons beyond my control.

Now I have my card, but I'm very disappointed from what happened and I already addressed my complaint to Transcard for everything that happened in the past two months.

For the mail without Subject:

Very, really very much I hate the mail without subject. Many people (even professionals) continue to send mail to anywhere, which doesn't tell me anything at first sight and is getting ordered with all other such messages (I must check if there is a bug in Bugzilla for that).

I appeal to anyone sending electronic mail - don't send messages without subject. It is the most essential thing of a message. Always put subject on the messages, which you send, if you want them to be taken into consideration.

A little sport

This weekend I again went to swim in the pool of the elementary school next to our house in Dupnitsa. I use the possibility to congratulate the municipality of Dupnitsa for the initiative to restore the pool in which paradoxically I was not able to swim until I was student there, but about 15 years later. Похвално е, that the destruction of the building was stopped and public access to the facility was granted.

From the beginning of this summer I use the possibility to swim each time when I'm in Dupnitsa. For other there is no time, and anyhow there I'm as less engaged as possible. I love sport, but the strenuous daily round, the strive for professional success and the family didn't left much window for it.

On Sunday I began practicing swim with plunge under water in the styles breaststroke and front crawl. However still is pretty hard for me and I can't get enough air. Therefore next time I'll practice mainly breathing, because it is most important for the right swimming and moreover in my opinion it reduces the tiredness in swimming.

Is Slavi exhausted?

I don't know how many people are now asking themselves this question, but I begin to ask myself more frequently, and others my have found the answer for themselves long ago. I questioned myself yesterday, when the show was in format "Lets talk with Rossen Petrov". The talks was about "the great" show Survivor. I don't know if it is about the man, but I just can't stand Rossen Petrov and his participation in any form in the show. I admit, that I don't watch the broadcasts regularly, but I have he feeling that Rossen Petrov is more frequently guest in the show that it should be. Even it should not appear at all. I don't remember Jay Leno ever to have invited his script-writers in the show moreover to make political shows, like it was in Slavi Show on the previous parliamentary elections, when the whole script-writers army came out against the leaders of the big partyes.

There were time when Slavi made show, liked and watched by many people, but now if there are no actors with some fresh sketch there is nothing else to watch. Like Slavi himself said after one not so good show some years ago "If the script-writers sit down to work like it should maybe the show will happen..." - citing by memory.

5 mandatory Firefox extensions for the web developer

When it's about web development Mozilla's browsers have always been one step ahead. Recently Internet Explorer also added more possibilities for fine tuning of the applications by developers, but they first have to be adopted, because when for long you have been developing a technology aside from the commonly accepted standards then it's hard to make the ones using it to change their way of work. I have always strive to adhere to the commonly accepted standards, so my choice of Firefox as platform for development of web applications is not an accident. In this article, I'd like to present 5 extensions, which in addition to the wonderful browser can make your life easier.

I'd like to make in advance the arrangement that this is not a rating and the ordering is random.

LiveHTTPHeaders

This is one of the extensions, which I'm using the longest. HTTP protocol is of the type request - answer and this extensions allows you to see both. Much useful when tuning applications, because it shows what's transferred and what's received by the browser - headers, cookies, data. With this extensions you could easily find out what server software is serving a given site.

• Official page
• Installatoin

WebDeveloper

This extension is simply mandatory for everyone doing web development. The list of things, which it could do for you would require a separate article, so I'll mention only the most important. The extension adds a toolbar with instruments, which allow you to hide any part of a web page - pictures, forms and so on, to disable JavaScript, Java, cookies, CSS and so on, to highlight separate elements, to show hidden attributes, to resize the page and lots, lots more. It's the ideal solution for checking the accessibility of the page without pictures, styles or scripts, but this is just one of the things for which I'm using it. In addition to all this you could check your pages for compliance with the web standards.

• Official page
• Mozilla addons page
• Installation

Html Validator

This extension will allow you to check locally your HTML pages with the help of tidy tools of W3C. Through a comfortable user interface in View Source you'll be able to review consecutively the errors and warnings in the source, as well as the warnings for impacted accessibility. Really useful for those that have the willingness to follow the standards.

• Official page
• Installation

JavaScript Debugger (Venkman)

Long gone are the days, when to fix a problem in some twisted JavaScript you'd have to write alert("blah, blah") everywhere. The large credits for this go to Venkman - the JavaScript debugger. Irreplaceable extension for fine tuning some more complex JavaScript programs. Unfortunately, the current version (0.9.7) doesn't work well on my Firefox 1.5.0.4, but I have no doubts, that it's only a mater of time for this to change.

• Official page
• Installation

DOM Inspector

Although, this extensions comes by default with Firefox I highly recommend it to everyone that for one reason or another do not have it. With this extensions you'll be able to review the hierarchical structure of your HTML/XUL/XML source and to find the elements in the graphical representation of the page. Really useful for reviewing the styles applied to a given element, the size and position of the element and so on.

• Official page

Those were mine 5 mandatory Firefox extensions for web developers, which I'm using almost every day. They are famous enough, but if you're unfamiliar with any of them then it's time to install and try it. Happy hacking ;-)

Handiwork

Today at work we did practice handiwork, again and almost until 8 PM. We had to do a lot of things manually, because they can't be done otherwise - restrictions of the technology. To make man wonder how important is the human factor in the century of the information technologies. While people do things once and then only deliver, we make same thing many times with the purpose of perfection :-) Quite often this lead to errors, but what to do when this is the situation... well, at least for now.

Congratulations Italy!

What could I say, congratulations to the Italians. There were teams that deserved more, but this is the world cup. "World" only to the quarter-finals :-) Lets hope, that the next one will not be so frugally, but on the other side maybe this will be the future of football.

WebTech 2006

Last friday and saturday I was on WebTech. Again alone, because my friends which wanted to come couldn't, and there were others that didn't show any interest.

With satisfaction I can say, that this year there were more interesting for me themes and the lectures were presented more professionally, although the level can be raised even more. I was impressed, that some of the lectours from the last year continue not to present lectures passably. The good thing is that most of the lectours from Bulgaria did presented themself good.

This year I'm generally satisfied from the organization, because with the ticket I bought the accommodation was painless. On the other side how should I know, that only with the pass card I could take free beverages from the coffe next to the halls? Nevertheless, my ticket was for the middle of the halls, not allways I could take place there. From organizational point of view there are things you can want.