So I’ve been looking at different hosts for version control whatnot.  I would host it myself, but I prefer to put it in the hands of another, that way if things go wrong, I can blame someone else.

I’m all for learning something new like Git, Hg, or Bzr.  When looking, I sortof eliminated Bzr from the list.  There’s only one main host for it, and I’ve just heard bad things about it (yup, I listen to the rumors).

So here’s basically what I was looking for.

• Public and Private Repositories
• Have collaborators on projects
• Reasonable priced
• Eye candy (sadly)…

So I’ve been looking around and saw GitHub, BitBucket, Codaset, and Codebase.  I won’t really go into a feature by feature comparison, just point out what I like and don’t like.

GitHub

This is probably the most popular at the moment.  It’s known for it’s awesome Git hosting, being fast, reliable, and feature rich.

My favorite part of GitHub is the interface.  It’s nice on the eyes, easy to navigate, and makes it fun.  The downside is the features of the plans.  Public repo’s allow you to have as many collaborators as you want.  For Private Repositories, it’s based on your plan.

I usually only have 2-3 private repositories at a time, but the number of people I work with fluctuate.  The smallest plan (which provides much more space than I need), only provides 1 private collaborator.  Normally, it’s me and 2-3 other people (per project).  I don’t really want to pay that much more just to have more people collaborating on a project.

So GitHub is great, but needs to be more flexible in the number of collaborators.

BitBucket

BitBucket is pretty awesome.  It does Hg hosting.

It’s not as pretty as GitHub, in my opinion, but it does provide a great set of features.  What I really wish for is that the Source tab would display the readme file.  Other than that, it’s okay.  Could use a few minor changes to make it friendly and lovable, but good as it is.

My main nit-to-pick is how the project pages look.  Not that big of a nit-to-pick, but I like my eye candy .  Other than that, it has a lot of the features I want.  I can have my private repositories, and have as many collaborators as I want.

I’ve heard rumors about uptime issues they previously had, but nothing recent.  I do wish the blog were updated more because (like I said earlier) it needs a more welcoming feel to it.

Codebase

Codebase supposedly hosts Git, Hg, and Svn.

I like what features it has listed.  My main issue is that the site isn’t well documented.  It has good instructions for using Git and setting stuff up, but there’s nothing much about the other features.  In terms of cost, it’s reasonably priced.  Good number of people you can have collaborating and everything, but it’s too costly for what I’ll be doing.

Codebase seems more like something for a small group or company.  So it’s really cool, but it aims to be in an area that’s not aligned with mine…

Codaset

Codaset is another Git host.  I think it’s kindof new…

It’s kindof like GitHub, but I think Codaset is more social.  Codaset provides a lot of what I want, but right now it doesn’t have a price setup.  The developer is still debating and setting up how to pay for it.

I love the features of Codaset, but my main nit-to-pick is how they’re setting up pricing.  It’s a great idea (don’t get me wrong), but I prefer a flat fee.  They haven’t implemented it yet, so I’ll see if I like it later on, but it’s sortof leaving me with my current setup of host personal stuff on GitHub and group projects on BitBucket.

Pay as you go is good, but I’m concerned about the implementation.

In Conclusion…

What do you currently use for your projects and why?  Do you work with people?

As I stated, I currently use both GitHub and BitBucket.  I might move it all to Codaset once I see it up and running with payments and all.  So yeah…  Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

Posted in: Hosting, Internet, Rants

I’m back home in Maryland now.  Fall semester is finally over.

I’m hoping to take a break from everything, but there’s a lot to do to prepare for next semester.

So yeah…

Final grades came out today.  I’m proud of myself.  I’m hoping to raise my GPA up a little more to be in my happy zone, but it’s sitting at a safe level right now.

Still working on a poem for the Transformations Project.  I was told it good right now, but I still feel like it’s missing something.

As for videos comparing VMWare Fusion to Parallels, VMWare Fusion just published an update that was supposed to fix a lot of stuff.
I couldn’t get Team Fortress 2 to run well under Fusion (it kept glitching), but it ran fine under Parallels.  The new update (3.0.1) is supposed to offer a big boost in speed and whatnot.

The more I compare Parallels to VMWare, Parallels seems much better.  The only issue I run into is that Parallels will crash more often, although I’m guessing it’s the same reason why it seems better.

Posted in: Computer, Life

So I was told that buying music and programs is “retro.”  I asked several others for their thoughts, and many actually agreed.

The was mostly a discussion of purchasing music online, but we also talked about applications and programs.  Most of the people I talked to felt it was fine to download music illegally.  Most said you should purchase applications, with a few saying alternative methods should be used.

I personally believe you should buy the music, movies, or applications.  I know that some of the stuff is expensive (and I’ll agree that some applications are over priced), but most of the time, the pricing is reasonable.

The main argument about music was a bit odd.  You can have 7,000 to 40,000 songs depending on your iPod (not including the suffle).  Songs normally cost anywhere from $0.69 to $1.29.  So assuming you’re luck enough to buy all of you music at $0.69, then you spend at least $4,000 (all prices in USD).  Larger iPods could go up to ~$30,000 to fill.  If you’re caught downloading music illegally, apparently most of the time, it’s a $3,000 – $10,000 fine.  So they were arguing that if you do get caught, it can be cheaper than filling up your iPod (but some get charged millions).

Some other arguments were that there are other crimes that are much worse that have a lower fine (don’t know how that’s an argument).  Apparently if you’re caught shoplifting a CD, it’s a lot cheaper.  I argued you don’t get as good quality when you rip the CD…  That was a joke… Anyways, I found this blog post analyzing some different crimes in Illinois that are cheaper than illegal downloading.  Instead of struggling to make ends meet though, you’ll be given a free room and meals in prison.  I’m not sure about you, but free food has me sold.

Some of the more sound arguments were that if it’s not made available to a person, then illegal downloading could be fine.  I still disagreed, but I do understand.  If a dead band you liked isn’t signed anymore and published an album on a vinyl record independently (and the songs weren’t sold on CD or anything else), there’s no way you’d find that in a store or an online store (you might, but chances are slim).  I wouldn’t say “Go and download it.”  I’d first say check eBay or check some pawn shops or something.  I’d advise not to download it illegally, but I wouldn’t be calling the music police if they did.

Anyways, in looking at some previous cases, it’s really odd.  One woman downloads 24 songs and pays $1.9 million (although she was just being tried for 24 songs when there were over 1,000?).  Another guy downloads 30 songs and pays $640,000.  I’m guessing it varies by song?  I’m wondering if the RIAA would take it easy on you if you logged all the people you shared music with or downloaded music from and gave that to them (not that people should try to find out).

So yeah, I do know this post is late on the whole “OMG RIAA is suing people!”  But the conversation just came up recently.  So what are your thoughts or feelings on the debate?  Apparently a lot of my friends disapprove of Obama now because he supports the whole RIAA fining up to $150,000 per song.  I didn’t vote (so I don’t think I can argue so-and-so would have been better because I didn’t voice my opinion at the election), but I do think the punishment is a bit high.  A song is usually at most $1.29, so I think the fine shouldn’t be 116279 times that.  $150 for downloading a song is punishment enough (I think), but then I agree that people distributing the music should pay more (but it should be proven that they distributed to # number of people, so they pay $150 * # of people or something like that up to a certain amount).

Posted in: Internet, Life, Rants