I thought using Mac was easier than Linux...

I was just trying to add a group, which is a very easy thing to do in Linux, especially when using GUI.
But it turned out that it is such a pain to do so with Mac OS X. Maybe it's because I'm new to it and not familiar with it. But I wonder if it is because of OS X or FreeBSD.

Also I found that copying and pasting an application on Desktop actually copies the entire application to the Desktop folder instead of creating a short cut on it like in Linux. So I opened a terminal window and created symbolic link inside the Desktop folder. But I wonder if general Mac users would do that or even know what symbolic link is.

It seems that I have a lot to learn. Despite of it, I'm enjoying using Mac. It's just that so far, Ubuntu is much easier to use for me.

Installed Ruby on Rails and Subversion on MacBook

Locomotive didn't work well or I don't know enough about it. Also I couldn't use Eclipse with it.

So I installed Ruby on Rails and all the dependencies from command line, including compiling Ruby from src.
Certainly my experience of installing it from command line on Ubuntu in order to install the latest one instead of the older one installed by packaging tool helped me.

Also installed Subversion server.
The steps I had to take reminded me of what I had to do when I installed it on Ubuntu.
But this time, I installed everything under /usr/local instead of using the packaged ones for the depending libraries. So it involved more.
Those libraries are in addition to what is written in Dan Benjamin's blog.

But I liked the process because it was Unix/Linux-like. Of course, it is Unix.

The steps I took for Subversion installation are as follows:

1. Install Apache Portable Runtime.
1-1. Download src.(http://apr.apache.org/download.cgi)
1-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
1-3. make
1-4. sudo make install
2. Install Apache Portable Runtime Utility.
2-1. Download src. (http://apr.apache.org/download.cgi)
2-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-apr=/usr/local/
2-3. make
2-4. sudo make install
3. Install WebDAV neon.
3-1. Download src. (http://www.webdav.org/neon/neon-0.25.5.tar.gz)
3-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-openssl --with-ssl
3-3. make
3-4. sudo make install
4. Install Apache to eliminate warning during ./configure for subversion.
4-1. Download src. (http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi)
4-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-module=so
4-3. make
4-4. sudo make install
5. Install Apache Portable Runtime iconv.
5-1. Download src. (http://apr.apache.org/download.cgi)
5-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-apr=/usr/local/
5-3. sudo make install
6. Install Subversion.
6-1. Download src.
6-2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-openssl --with-ssl --with-zlib --with-apxs
6-3. make
6-4. sudo make install

I've got MacBook!

I have just got a MacBook two days ago.
I'm enjoying using it.

Since I like Ubuntu, I installed it on VMware Fusion (Mac version of VMware) on it.

I still have a lot to learn about MacBook. It's different from Linux and what I'm not familiar with is how to manage applications, which you can do with apt-get, yum, etc. on Linux. Also the directory structure itself.

The next thing I do is to set up Ruby on Rails on it.

Well, I kept the promise to get one with a speaker at No Fluff Just Stuff conference last September. Of course, many other people recommended, too.

James Bach's talk: The Unbearable Lightness of Model-Based Testing

There was a talk by James Bach this evening.

The talk itself was OK. But the Question and Answer session was very interesting. Many good points and interesting concepts. "The Law of Leaky Abstractions", Pair Testing, Blink Testing (which is based on the functionality of a certain region of frontal cortex), etc.

From his past presentation, I knew that his background was from exploratory, more like hacking style. With that knowledge in mind, what he said today had good points.

Most problems come from what is not written in specification

I spent the New Year's Eve at a small town and had a chance to have a dinner with someone who owns a software business.

He mentioned that most of the problems come from what is not written in the specification. And that big companies deal with it by making smaller contracting companies work long-hour over-time, which I think is terrible.

He was not familiar with Agile software development.
I mentioned that the essence of Agile software development is to accept the reality of what actually happens in software development and to deal with it. What those big companies are doing is completely wrong.
It seems that people who are not familiar with Agile software development is also noticing what it is identifying.
I felt that more people are in the same page with us.

Anyway, I enjoyed the conversation with him.