After venting for a bit, I decided to search for a better way to recover files than using an unerase tool. Fortunately, if you have System Restore enabled, Windows stores a copy of the files you deleted, and by using a tool called System Restore Explorer, you may be able to recover the recently unerased files (I recovered them all)!

As you may have noticed, this year I am focusing on doing exercise more often, and I intend to run a Marathon this year. This is something I have always wanted to do, but never did due to lack of self-discipline… Now that my mother has passed away (she was killed in a car crash recently), I want to achieve this goal to remember her (she was an athlete when she was young) and as a means of self treatment as well (Forrest Gump, anyone?).

In order to track my progress, I have been using a program for Windows Mobile called Marathon. It logs GPS data fetched from the mobile device, and then it gives you a lot of information, like current and average speed, a preview of the track, distance ran, calories burned (estimated, of course). It also has a feature called Announcements, where it tells you this information on a specified interval (time or distance, take your pick). This is very nice, as I am used to listening to music while I run, and I don’t want to take the phone out of the arm band just to look at the information. You can also set a goal and it will tell you how far behind or ahead of it you are.

Once finished, you can save the activity, and share the information via the program’s website (example), tweet a summary of it, or export it (this is useful as you can import the data into Google Earth or tracking services like Runmap.net or Garmin Connect and then publish to Facebook from them).

The only issue I have found so far is that my Omnia sometimes gets very bad GPS reception and the results get a bit distorted, but I think this is something due to the device itself more than the program’s fault, though.  So far, the only solution I have found is to get a better GPS receiver (and get the heart monitored along the way).

Lastly, Marathon comes in several languages, including Spanish! (I made the translations, BTW ). If you happen to know a language that Marathon does not support, you can do the translations in exchange for a free build (yes, it’s not free, but you can periodically download the latest beta bits, so it is not a big issue).

Today while I was setting up a Subversion 1.5 installation over Apache 2.2.10 on Windows, I was experiencing a strange difficulty. After making the necessary configuration details on httpd.conf and I tried running the server, everything went smoothly, however when I made it run as a service, it would not run and give the following error:

“Cannot load C:/../modules/mod_dav_svn.so into server: The specified module could not be found.”

Even though this module was at the right location. After googling for a while and reading the Subversion FAQ for this problem and another useful document, I tried all the suggestions but the problem would still persist. After a while of tinkering, I resolved it by copying the following libraries from the Subversion’s installation to the modules folder of Apache:

• intl3_svn.dll
• libdb44.dll
• libeay32.dll
• libsvn_client-1.dll
• libsvn_delta-1.dll
• libsvn_diff-1.dll
• libsvn_fs-1.dll
• libsvn_ra-1.dll
• libsvn_repos-1.dll
• libsvn_subr-1.dll
• libsvn_wc-1.dll
• ssleay32.dll

I hope this post helps those who are having problems with Subversion deployments.

It did not use to be like this in previous Subversion releases, usually after putting the *.so files on the modules entry on Apache and configuring httpd.conf it was enough to make it run…

After reading this post, I decided to change the layout of the blog, so that it will be more pleasant and functional.

New features added:

• You can now share the articles to several of the popular social networking sites.
• You can see page views.

Next post will be lifehacking related, so please stay tuned!

What’s Continuous Integration?

As Martin Fowler said, Continuous Integration is a software development practice where several people integrate their work frequently, usually each person integrates at least daily – leading to multiple integrations per day.

One specific point of Continuous Integration is that the verification of the integration is done automatically using what is called a Continuous Integration Server. This server will fetch the latest code from the corresponding VCS in use (hopefully Subversion, read my article about it).

Why Continuous Integration?

The most important advantage of following the Continuous Integration practices is that errors are detected in a much earlier phase, specially when you use it along with Test Driven Development. Errors in this context not only mean bugs but integration errors as well, as integration is done on a daily basis.

It is not the only advantage of course, for example, deployments to production are a LOT easier as the build process is already in place. I recommend reading the benefits section of Fowler’s article for a detailed explanation.

Tools and Useful Resources

I have used the following tools for doing Continuous Integration:

• CruiseControl
• CruiseControl.NET

I also heard good things about Hudson, so give it a try as well.

Useful resources:

Martin Fowler on Continuous Integration

6 Steps to Successful Continuous Integration

Regarding tools, for browsing I use Firefox with the following plugins:

• AdBlock Plus: As the name suggests, it is an advertising blocker. This will make page loads faster.
• AdBlock Filterset.G Updater: Updater for the previous plugin, this will keep the blacklists updated.
• Download Statusbar: Useful visual plugin for managing downloads in progress.
• DownThemAll!: Download Manager (similar to Getright)
• Fasterfox: For loading pages faster, tweaks the way the browser downloads pages. I don’t turbocharge it though.
• FEBE: This is for doing backups of the plugins installed, useful if you need to uninstall Firefox or create new profiles.
• Firebug: Very useful for debugging pages!
• Forecastfox Enhanced: I usually get the weather information from this plugin. The difference with the regular version is that I can choose which satellite image to show.
• FoxyProxy: Useful if you are changing the proxy configuration often.
• Greasemonkey: This plugin lets you inject Javascript code into any page you visit. I use GM so that I can use the GMail Macro scripts, so that my e-mail checking experience is faster as I use only the keyboard to do most of the actions. You can also use this for enhancing the browsing experience for other sites, or even write your own scripts. Get more scripts here.
• Image Zoom: Very useful for zooming in on images.
• PDF Download: This plugin lets you choose whether you want to download a PDF file, save it or view it online.
• ScribeFire: Blogging plugin. It is quite flexible as it supports multiple blogging platforms (Blogger, Livejournal, WordPress, etc.)
• YSlow: This tool lets you diagnose performance problems in websites.

Got any useful plugin? just write it in the comments for this post and I will have a look at it

EDIT: Done inserting the links, that was quick!

• Mapred
• GDU

The first one is for looking up addresses, and the second one is for getting from point A to point B (as the first one does not support it), by walking or by bus. Unfortunately, GDU is not very stable, so I use Mapred when the latter is down. Enjoy