Subversion and SSL Troubles

Posted on by
2

I decided to upgrade my home Subversion repository to version 1.4.3 as soon as it was released. Since then, my ViewVC application has ceased to work, getting a Python exception every time I try to execute it. Creating a small Python program that just imports the library (from svn import fs) gave me the following error:

ImportError: /usr/local/lib/libsvn_ra_dav-1.so.0: undefined symbol: SSL_load_error_strings

Thinking it was an SSL library problem, I upgraded SSL – a few times. I kept mucking with the options, rebuilding Subversion, only to get everything installed and get that same error:

ImportError: /usr/local/lib/libsvn_ra_dav-1.so.0: undefined symbol: SSL_load_error_strings

Over, and over and over again I repeated the process and got the same result. The absolute definition of insanity. This has been going on for a couple of months and I’ve been trying to address it in my spare time, as I’ve been pretty busy lately during the week and gone to the Relaxation Unit the last few weekends.

I googled my ass off to find the error, but to no avail. Finally today I ran across this thread that explained the problem. After going through my distribution directory for 1.4.4 (which I upgraded at the beginning of the month only to receive the same error) I realized that I hadn’t pulled down the Subversion dependencies tarball and rebuilt neon. So, basically I was using an old version of the neon libraries.

I finally settled on the configure statement listed here, after downloading and untarring the deps file:

./configure --with-ssl --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs 
            --with-apr=/usr/local/apache2 --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apache2 
            --enable-shared --with-libs=/usr/local/ssl

This uses the already installed apr libraries that I build with my Apache server, and ensures that the neon shared libraries are built. A quick configure/make/make install/make swig-py/make install-swig-py sequence later and my Python libraries were working fine.

I made it a point this time to document this on the Labs internal wiki, but thought I should throw this out here in public so that others can find it. Hope it helps save the weeks of frustration that I have been suffering for someone out there.

Happy building …

The Myths of Innovation and the Full Machiavelli Quote on Change

Posted on by
9

Last month I posted a quote from Nicolo Machiavelli on change that I had heard in a lecture by Carly Fiorina. I’ve recently picked up the book The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun where he includes the whole quote – which is much more interesting than the subset.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it.

— Niccolo Machiavelli

Aside from finding this gem, this book is excellent – and has provided so much mental relief for me in its reading. So many people I know talk about innovation like its a thing, rather than a series of ideas, experiments and failures that may lead to something great.

Scott describes innovation in the book like this:

The dirty little secret – the fact often denied – is that unlike the mythical epiphany, real creation is sloppy. Discovery is messy; exploration is dangerous. No one knows what he’s going to get when he is being creative.

To which he follows up with:

Creative work cannot fit neatly into plans, budgets, and schedules. Magellan, Lewis and Clark, and Captain Kirk were all sent on missions into the unknown with clear understanding that they might not return with anything, or even return at all.

This is a perfect book for managers all the way up the chain. It documents everything about the creative field that those in it know, and those who manage people in it have been conditioned to forget. If there is one book you pick up this year, pick this one up, read it, give it to your manager, and have him give it to his manager.

A Trip To The “Ewok Village”

Posted on by
1

Inlaws CamperYesterday we took a trip up to my inlaws camper to spend some quality time with them. Jonna and I haven’t been up there for over a year, but every time we head up there I am amazed at what I see.

The camper is located in a little campground in Wisconsin. I named it the “Ewok Village” a few years ago because it really is like a miniature town. People buy campers, rent land, and landscape the hell out of it, creating their little “home away from home” where there is constant work to do (deck building, lawn mowing, etc), where golf carts substitute as cars (and everyone has one) and everyone tries to create their unique little space on their little spot of land.

The interesting thing about it to me is how committed people get to it. The inlaws have a new neighbor, which we met yesterday. He had been there since Thursday, getting ready to build a new deck. Interestingly, he said he didn’t even want one when he got the site, but here he was, buying lumber, measuring it out and building one. I guess it just catches on like that. Who wants to be the only guy on the “block” without a deck?

The place is called a campground, but what you do there is the furthest thing one would call camping. The campers have electricity, satellite TV, bathrooms and some even phones (don’t quite get this one – everyone has a cell phone these days). One trailer on the corner actually has an outdoor bar, while another one has a gazebo with a ceiling fan, for those unbearably hot days. Everyone has their little golf cart that they tool around in in lieu of cars, some electric, some gas powered. People build driveways, decks, and complete house fronts to make their camper look unique.

Each time we go up there, I realize that there is some “guy gene” that I am missing. Mine would be the camper with no driveway, no deck, nothing. Just a plain camper with a car parked in the grass – if there was grass – I don’t see myself taking the time to plant and nurture it into a lawn. Sure, I would get me one of those sweet mini-rides and tool around the park, but mine would be the plain golf cart – no ATV wheels, nothing jacked up – just something to get around. After all, who wants to WALK when you’re out camping? We are civilized after all aren’t we?

Here’s the most fascinating thing to me, that I think about every time we go up there. Its almost like the people there are building their own little Utopia. They put everything they really want in real life into these campers. The difference between this place and “real life” is that everyone has a sense of “camaraderie” here. The guy who didn’t want a deck? He had my father in law and his neighbor over there helping him build it. Everyone invites everyone else over to their fire to hang out and talk in the evenings. Everyone waves to one another and everyone knows everyones business. It really is like a little town – a small little miniature village that has all of the things that “real life” doesn’t really have. Its a community – but one in which people actually (shudder) meet face to face and hang out in, as our son calls it, “RL” (real life). For my in-laws, I would call this their version of “Second Life”.

I have to admit, every time we go up there I think about how wonderful it would be to be a part of it. I think the only thing that stops me is when I think about the amount of work it takes. The last thing I want to do on a weekend off is to go up for a “deck raising”. For me, a place like this would be someplace to go to relax, not to work.

And that would be my demise. I can just imagine all of the “neighbors” getting together at their evening fires irritated at the guy without a deck or a lawn. “When is he going to fix that place up? He’s bringing the property value down!”. Pretty soon, people are showing up at the camper late at night trying to scare me away. Or worse, they actually build a deck and plant a lawn FOR me – and now I have to keep them up. Pretty soon, I’m making trips up just to mow the lawn or plant flowers.

In the end, thats probably why I just visit. I don’t think I’d be able to handle the ‘hardcore-ness’ of Ewok Village residency, but it really is a great place to visit.