E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

About Me

PBX I'm Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using open source software, especially Django. In the '90s I did graphic design for newspapers and magazines. Then I wrote technology commentary and reviews for Wired, Salon.com, Chicago Tribune, and lots of little places you've never heard of. Feel free to email me.

Book

I'm co-author of "Python Web Development with Django", an excellent guide to my favorite web framework. Published by Addison-Wesley, it is available from Amazon and your favorite technical bookstore as well.

Colophon

Built using Django, served by Apache and mod_wsgi. The database is SQLite. The operating system is FreeBSD, on a VPS hosted at Johncompanies.com. Comment-spam protection by Akismet. Vintage topo imagery from the Maptech archive. The markup engine is Markdown.

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Stuff I Use

Akismet, bitbucket, del.icio.us, Django, Emacs, FreeBSD, Git, jQuery, LaunchBar, Markdown, Mercurial, OS X, Postfix, Python, Review Board, S3, SQLite, TextMate, Ubuntu Linux

Spam Report

At least 96060 pieces of comment spam killed since January 2008, mostly via Akismet.

SourceForge needs help

Despite their adoption of Big Green Download Button technology, SourceForge still has an absurdly cumbersome download process. I know it's annoying to just gripe (I try to see the positive side too); I'm just surprised that it's still this crufty. According to the OSTG site, "SourceForge.net hosts more Open Source development products than any other site or network worldwide." But if the pace of modernization doesn't pick up, I'm afraid that won't be true for much longer.

Here's the process I went through to download a 22K zipped application. (Approximate total weight of these pages, not counting the downloaded file: 600K.)

1 I arrive at the application's project page. Cool, a big green download button! I'll click it.

2 OK, nothing's downloading, I'm on some other page. But look, there's another green download button! I'll click that.

3 Hm, a list of files. Well, I want the zip archive. There's nothing green. I'll just click on the filename.

4 Cool, it remembered my preferred mirror and is downloading! At least I think it is. The page seems to be refreshing every few seconds. Hm, I see the word "failed" in the URL up there. I wonder if that means the download isn't working. Here, let me change my preferred mirror. Scroll down, find a different mirror, click the radio button -- oops, the page refreshed on me! OK, try again, pick a mirror, update... I'm sure I'll have this soon. You guys can go to lunch without me, I'll meet you there.

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
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3 comments

Some related posts: STFU • QuickTime 0, Open Source 1 • Linux will eat itself • Web Inspector, a DOM inspector for WebKit • SourceForge prettifying • Taxonomy of Bubble 2.0 • Sourcemorgue
• Comment from Jessica , 1 week later

I haven't had the mirror problem, but damn is the rest of that annoying. *fumes*

• Comment from Gamelexi , 1 week later

I asked myself often why there is such a long and confusing way to get the files. Is it because you are generating advertising impressions on the way to get the file? I am not sure, but probably it is the answer for it.

• Comment from Darrin , 6 weeks later

gamelexi

it's been that way ever since i can remember going back 6+ yrs before they had all those ads.

it's a process bourne of developers and the like wanting not only the current version of an app but previous versions for whatever reason. it's kludgy to be sure, but sf.nets goals are (were?) far different than the bulk of large internet sites.

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