Allan Willems Joergensen - OnDemand

Irssi notifications in Windows using Growl and Minivan

alj — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:21:28 +0000

After completing my script to deliver Irssi notifications to the Linux desktop using Perl (IPC::Message::Minivan and Desktop::Notify), I wondered if this framework could be extended to Windows (since I have a Windows desktop at work).

I have previously looked at Growl (on Linux) and think it is cumbersome to get the notifications across the network – but ended up using it anyway since it’s an easy way to display notifications in Windows (and probably in MacOS as well). There is a another Growl script for Irssi but I wanted to make my own that plugs into Minivan because I wanted the pop ups to look the same on all computers (at least the wording).

On Windows

Download Grow for Windows and install it.
Download MyEnTunnel and install it.
If you haven’t already (which I am guessing you have) then download Putty SSH client and install it
Configure MyEnTunnel to match your configuration, create a remote tunnel: :localhost:23053 – The random port is important and will be used later

On the server running Irssi

Install the Minivan – See this article
Install Growl::GNTP
$ sudo apt-get install libcrypt-cbc-perl libdata-uuid-perl
$ sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'Growl::GNTP'
Install the script
#!/usr/bin/perl

# The IRC icon is from here: http://aurls.info/4o

use strict;
use warnings;
use IPC::Message::Minivan;
use Encode;
use Growl::GNTP;
use Data::Dumper;

if ($#ARGV != 0) {
print "Usage: irssi-notify-growl.pl \n";
exit;
}

my $port = $ARGV[0];

my $van = IPC::Message::Minivan->new(host => 'localhost');
$van->subscribe("#irssi");

my $growl = Growl::GNTP->new(
AppName => "Irssi",
PeerHost => "localhost",
PeerPort => $port,
Password => "",
AppIcon => "http://dl.dropbox.com/u/262048/www.nowhere.dk/files/irc.png"
);

$growl->register([
{ Name => "irssi", },
]);

$growl->notify(
Event => "irssi",
Title => "Minivan",
Message => "Connection established"
);

while (1) {
if (my $cmd = $van->get(5,[])) {
if ($cmd->[0] eq '#irssi') {
my $c=$cmd->[1];

my $message = $c->{msg};
my $summary = $c->{summary};

$growl->notify(
Event => "irssi",
Title => $summary,
Message => $message,
);

}
}
}

Copy the script to ~/bin/irssi-notify-growl.pl.
Make the script executable and run it as
irssi-notify-growl.pl

The port number is the one you chose on the Windows machine for your remote tunnel – You need to run an instance of the script for each Growl-client.

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Irssi notifications using Desktop Notifications and Minivan

alj — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:02:43 +0000

I was pretty happy with solution to get notifications from Irssi though it had some shortcomings.

A couple of days ago a colleague made me aware of a Perl modules written by another colleague (Anton Berezin) called IPC::Message::Minivan which, it turns out, is perfect for my notification script. Basing the notifications on Minivan combine the speed of using something like Dbus locally (instant notifications) with the convenience of my previous script (notifications over the network, able to handle multiple clients).

This setup consists of three parts: The Minivan daemon, the Irssi script and the notification script.

As always my instructions are based on Ubuntu but should work on most Linux and Unix systems.

Installing the Minivan

IPC::Message::Minivan is not yet available directly through CPAN so we need to install it manually

Download IPC::Messaging and IPC::Message::Minivan (and unpack them).
Install dependencies: sudo apt-get install libjson-xs-perl libregexp-common-perl
One could use dh-make-perl but I chose to install the two modules manually
Basically run “perl Makefile.pl && sudo make install
:~/devel/IPC-Messaging-0.01_12$ perl Makefile.PL
Cannot determine license info from lib/IPC/Messaging.pm
*** Module::AutoInstall version 1.03
*** Checking for Perl dependencies...
[Core Features]
- Test::More ...loaded. (0.72)
- B::Generate ...missing.
- IO::Socket::UNIX ...loaded. (1.23)
- IO::Socket::INET ...loaded. (1.31)
- Storable ...loaded. (2.18)
- Time::HiRes ...loaded. (1.9711)
- IO::Select ...loaded. (1.17)
- Module::Load::Conditional ...loaded. (0.22)
==> Auto-install the 1 mandatory module(s) from CPAN? [y] y
*** Dependencies will be installed the next time you type 'make'.
(You may need to do that as the 'root' user.)
*** Module::AutoInstall configuration finished.
Checking if your kit is complete...
Looks good
Warning: prerequisite B::Generate 0 not found.
Writing Makefile for IPC::Messaging
:~/devel/IPC-Messaging-0.01_12$ sudo make install
[sudo] password for alj:
/usr/bin/perl "-Iinc" Makefile.PL --config= --installdeps=B::Generate,0
Cannot determine license info from lib/IPC/Messaging.pm
*** Installing dependencies...
[MSG] No '/home/alj/.cpanplus/custom-sources' dir, skipping custom sources
[MSG] No '/home/alj/.cpanplus/custom-sources' dir, skipping custom sources
[MSG] No '/home/alj/.cpanplus/custom-sources' dir, skipping custom sources
*** Installing B::Generate...
Running [/usr/bin/perl /usr/bin/cpanp-run-perl /home/alj/.cpanplus/5.10.0/build/B-Generate-1.26/Makefile.PL INSTALLDIRS=site]...
# running Build.PL installdirs=site
/usr/bin/perl Build.PL installdirs=site
Creating custom builder _build/lib/My/Builder.pm in _build/lib/My
Checking whether your kit is complete...
Looks good

Checking prerequisites...
Looks good

Creating new 'Build' script for 'B-Generate' version '1.26'
Unknown 'build_class', defaulting to 'Module::Build'
Running [/usr/bin/make test UNINST=1]...
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/alj/.cpanplus/5.10.0/build/B-Generate-1.26'
/usr/bin/perl Build --makefile_env_macros 1 test
t/basic............ok
2/10 skipped: various reasons
t/inspect-btest....ok
t/inspect-this.....ok
t/new_cv...........ok
t/op_list..........ok
t/op_list_bgen.....ok
All tests successful, 2 subtests skipped.
Files=6, Tests=721, 0 wallclock secs ( 0.24 cusr + 0.21 csys = 0.45 CPU)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/alj/.cpanplus/5.10.0/build/B-Generate-1.26'
*** B::Generate successfully installed.
*** Module::AutoInstall installation finished.
cp lib/IPC/Messaging.pm blib/lib/IPC/Messaging.pm
Manifying blib/man3/IPC::Messaging.3pm
Installing /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/IPC/Messaging.pm
Installing /usr/local/man/man3/IPC::Messaging.3pm
Writing /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0/auto/IPC/Messaging/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0/perllocal.pod
:~/devel/IPC-Message-Minivan-0.01_08$ perl Makefile.PL
Cannot determine license info from lib/IPC/Message/Minivan.pm
Writing Makefile for IPC::Message::Minivan
:~/devel/IPC-Message-Minivan-0.01_08$ sudo make install
cp lib/IPC/Message/Minivan.pm blib/lib/IPC/Message/Minivan.pm
cp minivan blib/script/minivan
/usr/bin/perl "-Iinc" "-MExtUtils::MY" -e "MY->fixin(shift)" blib/script/minivan
Manifying blib/man1/minivan.1p
Manifying blib/man3/IPC::Message::Minivan.3pm
Installing /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/IPC/Message/Minivan.pm
Installing /usr/local/man/man1/minivan.1p
Installing /usr/local/man/man3/IPC::Message::Minivan.3pm
Installing /usr/local/bin/minivan
Writing /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0/auto/IPC/Message/Minivan/.packlist
Appending installation info to /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.0/perllocal.pod
Create an Upstart script for the Minivan daemon
$ cat /etc/init/minivan.conf
# minivan - minimalistic message bus
#

description "minimalistic message bus"

start on runlevel [2345]
stop on runlevel [!2345]

expect fork
respawn

exec /usr/local/bin/minivan -l /var/log/minivan -d
Start the Minivan daemon
$ sudo start minivan

Install the Irssi script

Copy the script to ~/.irssi/scripts/notifier-minivan.pl (the script below is just for reference, it might not be up to date)
## Put me in ~/.irssi/scripts, and then execute the following in irssi:
##
## /load perl
## /script load notifier-minivan
##

use strict;
use Irssi;
use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI);
use HTML::Entities;
use IPC::Message::Minivan;

$VERSION = "0.01";
%IRSSI = (
authors => 'Allan Willems Joergensen',
origauthors => 'Luke Macken, Paul W. Frields, Jared Quinn, Anton Berezin, Kristoffer Larsen',
contact => 'allan@nowhere,dk',
name => 'notifier-minivan.pl',
description => 'Alert the user of new messages or hilights through IPC::Message::Minivan',
license => 'Beerware',
url => 'http://www.nowhere.dk/articles/irssi-notifications-minivan',
);

# Default settings in Irssi
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','minivan_host', 'localhost');
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','minivan_port', 6826);
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','minivan_channel','#irssi');

# Fetch settings from Irssi
my $minivan_host = Irssi::settings_get_str('minivan_host');
my $minivan_port = Irssi::settings_get_str('minivan_port');
my $minivan_channel = Irssi::settings_get_str('minivan_channel');

# Connect to the Minivan
our $van = IPC::Message::Minivan->new(host => $minivan_host, port => $minivan_port);

sub notify {
my ($server, $summary, $message) = @_;

# Encode certain characters using HTML
my $safemsg = HTML::Entities::encode($message, '<>&"');

# Load everyone into the minivan
$van->msg($minivan_channel, {summary => $summary, msg => $safemsg});
}

sub print_text_notify {
my ($dest, $text, $stripped) = @_;
my $server = $dest->{server};
return if (!$server || !($dest->{level} & MSGLEVEL_HILIGHT));
my $sender = $stripped;
$sender =~ s/^\<.([^\>]+)\>.+/\1/ ;
$stripped =~ s/^\<.[^\>]+\>.// ;
my $summary = "Hilite in " . $dest->{target};
notify($server, $summary, $stripped);
}

sub message_private_notify {
my ($server, $msg, $nick, $address) = @_;
return if (!$server);
notify($server, "Private message from ".$nick, $msg);
}

sub dcc_request_notify {
my ($dcc, $sendaddr) = @_;
my $server = $dcc->{server};

return if (!$dcc);
notify($server, "DCC ".$dcc->{type}." request", $dcc->{nick});
}

Irssi::signal_add('print text', 'print_text_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('message private', 'message_private_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('dcc request', 'dcc_request_notify');
Load the script inside Irssi: /script load notifier-minivan.pl
If your Minivan is not running on the same machine as Irssi, change the configuration inside Irssi:
/set minivan_host your_hostname – IPC::Message::Minivan is tunnel-able through ssh, see client configuration
Auto-load the script:
ln -sf ~/.irssi/scripts/notifier-minivan.pl ~/.irssi/scripts/autoload/notifier-minivan.pl

The stuff running on your local machine

It is possible to use autossh to automatically setup the tunnel but since I am always connected to my server (at least when I am in front of a computer) I chose to use normal ssh port forwarding.

In ~/.ssh/config I have

Host my.server.bogus
LocalForward 6826 localhost:6826

The stuff that actually shows the notifications

I did not want to bother trying to make the script error proof so I simply call the Perl script from a shell script like so

#!/bin/bash

wait=0
while true
do
$HOME/bin/irssi-notify-client.pl

let wait=$wait+5
if [ $wait -ge 30 ]
then
sleep 30
else
sleep $wait
fi
done

Save the script as ~/bin/start-irssi-notify-client.sh

The notification script requires Desktop::Notify – It is available in the Ubuntu repositories but it is an old version, so let’s use a newer:

$ sudo apt-get install dh-make-perl libnet-dbus-perl
$ cpan2deb Desktop::Notify
$ sudo dpkg -i ~/.cpan/libdesktop-notify-perl*.deb

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Desktop::Notify;
use IPC::Message::Minivan;
use Encode;

my $notify_timeout = 500;
my $icon = "/usr/share/pixmaps/pidgin/protocols/scalable/irc.svg";
#my $icon = "gnome-irc.png";

my $van = IPC::Message::Minivan->new(host => 'localhost');
$van->subscribe("#irssi");
our $notify = Desktop::Notify->new();
my $notification = $notify->create(summary => 'Minivan', body => 'Connection established', timeout => $notify_timeout, app_icon => $icon);
$notification->show();

while (1) {
if (my $cmd = $van->get(5,[])) {
if ($cmd->[0] eq '#irssi') {
my $c=$cmd->[1];

my $message = Encode::encode("utf-8",$c->{msg});
my $summary = $c->{summary};

$notification->summary($summary);
$notification->body($message);
$notification->show();
}
}
}

$notification->close();

Copy the script to ~/bin/irssi-notify-client.pl.

Remember to make both scripts executable.

The final thing to do is to add the notify client to your desktop environment’s autostart

In GNOME: System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications

Add Startup Program

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Facebook Chat in bitlbee

alj — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:37:21 +0000

Facebook now supports XMPP. Yay.

Using Facebook Chat in bitlbee is pretty straight forward (I am running 1.2.4, older versions of bitlbee require a bit more tweaking, consult the manual).

For Facebook Chat through XMPP to work you need to set a Facebook username.

In the &bitlbee channel

account add jabber @chat.facebook.com>
account on

that’s it.

Facebook users are listed by their Facebook user id (uXXXXXXX) so you have to rename them manually, unless you are using irssi.

Download this script to ~/.irssi/scripts and load it

/script load bitlbee_rename

(Note: This script only renames your Facebook contacts – The original version which renames all contact but does not handle international characters really well is available here)

Now each of your contacts will be renamed based on their real name in their vCard.

Remember to symlink to script to ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun if you wish to auto-load it.

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Yet another way to get Irssi notifications on your Linux desktop

alj — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:53:01 +0000

For a better solution, see this article – I am keeping this post online because it makes it possible to implement distributed notifications with Perl modules included in the Ubuntu repositories.

One of the things lacking (in my opinion at least) when using Irssi and GNU Screen is the lack of a way for Irssi to alert you when you are not looking at the terminal.

I have looked at many implementations for libnotify (default in Ubuntu), Mumbles (Growl for Linux) and Dzen.

Some of the things I have looked at

thl’s irssi notification script aka fnotify
Most of this is actually quite good and has formed the basis for my implemenation. Uses libnotify.
Using irssi with libnotify over Secure Shell
A different implementation of the above, using xterm’s print facility to send data to libnotify.
irssi-libnotify
Uses notify-send on the same machine as irssi, requires X-forwarding (which is a bitch with screen). I liked this but as it uses X-Windows on the remote server the notifications might not match those of your desktop
Dzen notifications
This is where I got the idea for using a named pipe
Mumbles
I used this before libnotify became standard in Ubuntu. It was hard to make it work and required several (Python) daemon running to forward the notifications.

Since I have several machines I use to access my server where Irssi is running none of the other implementations I looked at really worked since I need to be sure that all machines get the notifications. In the end I decided to use MySQL as a “proxy” for the notifications.

Prepare the MySQL database

It’s a good idea to set up a separate database – just in case one of the scripts f*ck up and deletes everything.

$ sudo mysqladmin -u root -p create irssi

mysql> use irssi
Database changed
mysql> CREATE TABLE `notify` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`time` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
`summary` varchar(64) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
`message` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;
mysql> GRANT ALL ON irssi.* TO 'irssi'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'Password';

Installing the Irssi script

It is also possible to simply create a table inside an existing database; just adjust the configuration values in Irssi.

The Irssi script is based on Jared Quins work (which in turn is based on irssi-libnotify). The basic idea is the same as with fnotify but instead of writing to a temporary file I write to a MySQL database.

## Put me in ~/.irssi/scripts, and then execute the following in irssi:
##
## /load perl
## /script load notify
##

use strict;
use Irssi;
use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI);
use HTML::Entities;
use DBI;
use utf8;

$VERSION = "0.01";
%IRSSI = (
authors => 'Allan Willems Joergensen',
origauthors => 'Luke Macken, Paul W. Frields, Jared Quinn',
contact => 'allan@nowhere,dk',
name => 'notifier.pl',
description => 'Use libnotify to alert the user of new messages or hilights (Using MySQL as "proxy")',
license => 'GNU General Public License',
url => 'http://www.nowhere.dk/articles/irssi-notification',
);

Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','notifier_mysql_user', 'irssi');
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','notifier_mysql_password', 'changeme');
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','notifier_mysql_host', 'localhost');
Irssi::settings_add_str('notifier','notifier_mysql_db', 'irssi');

sub write2db {
my $db_user = Irssi::settings_get_str('notifier_mysql_user');
my $db_pass = Irssi::settings_get_str('notifier_mysql_password');
my $db_host= Irssi::settings_get_str('notifier_mysql_host');
my $db_name = Irssi::settings_get_str('notifier_mysql_db');
my ($summary, $message) = @_;
my $dsn = "dbi:mysql:dbname=$db_name;host=$db_host";
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass) || die "DB connect failed";

my $sth = $dbh->prepare("INSERT INTO notify (summary, message) VALUES (?, ?)")
or die "Can't prepare statement: $?";
$sth->execute($summary, $message) or die "Couldn't execute INSERT: $?";

$dbh->disconnect;
}

sub notify {
my ($server, $summary, $message) = @_;
my $safemsg = HTML::Entities::encode($message, '<>&"');
my $utf8msg = utf8::encode($safemsg);

write2db($summary, $safemsg);
}

sub print_text_notify {
my ($dest, $text, $stripped) = @_;
my $server = $dest->{server};
return if (!$server || !($dest->{level} & MSGLEVEL_HILIGHT));
my $sender = $stripped;
$sender =~ s/^\<.([^\>]+)\>.+/\1/ ;
$stripped =~ s/^\<.[^\>]+\>.// ;
my $summary = "Hilite in " . $dest->{target};
notify($server, $summary, $stripped);
}

sub message_private_notify {
my ($server, $msg, $nick, $address) = @_;
return if (!$server);
notify($server, "Private message from ".$nick, $msg);
}

sub dcc_request_notify {
my ($dcc, $sendaddr) = @_;
my $server = $dcc->{server};

return if (!$dcc);
notify($server, "DCC ".$dcc->{type}." request", $dcc->{nick});
}

Irssi::signal_add('print text', 'print_text_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('message private', 'message_private_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('dcc request', 'dcc_request_notify');

Download the script to ~/.irssi/scripts and rename it to notifier.pl.

If you want it to load automatically, symlink it to ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun
$ ln -sf ~/.irssi/scripts/notifier.pl ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/notifier.pl

Load the script inside irssi
/script load notifier.

Once you have loaded the script, set these variables inside Irssi (adjust according to your setup)

/set notifier_mysql_db irssi
/set notifier_mysql_host localhost
/set notifier_mysql_user irssi
/set notifier_mysql_password Password

Setup MySQL port forwarding

It is possible to use autossh to automatically setup the tunnel but since I am always connected to my server (at least when I am in front of a computer) I chose to use normal ssh port forwarding.

In ~/.ssh/config I have

Host my.server.bogus
LocalForward 13306 localhost:3306

The stuff running on your local machine

That is, the stuff that actually shows the notifications

I did not want to bother trying to make the MySQL-stuff error proof so I simply call the Perl script from a shell script like so

#!/bin/bash

wait=0
while true
do
$HOME/bin/irssi-notify-client.pl

let wait=$wait+5
if [ $wait -ge 30 ]
then
sleep 30
else
sleep $wait
fi
done

Save the script as ~/bin/start-irssi-notify-client.sh

The Perl script requires DBI and Desktop::Notify – Both are available in Ubuntu

$ sudo install libdesktop-notify-perl libdbd-mysql-perl

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use DBI;
use Desktop::Notify;

my $last = 0;
my $loops = 0;
my $notify_timeout = 2000;
my $icon = "gnome-irc.png";

sub mysql_connect {
my $db_user = "irssi";
my $db_pass = "Password";
my $db_host = "127.0.0.1:13306";
my $db_name = "irssi";
my $dsn = "dbi:mysql:dbname=$db_name;host=$db_host";
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $db_user, $db_pass) or die "DB connect failed";

return($dbh);
}

while (1) {
my $dbh = mysql_connect();

if ($last == 0) {
my $sth_state = $dbh->prepare("SELECT MAX(id) FROM notify");
$sth_state->execute() or die "Unable execute query: $dbh->err, $dbh->errstr\n";
$last = ($sth_state->fetchrow_array)[0];
$sth_state->finish();
}

my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT id,time,summary,message FROM notify WHERE id > ? ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT 0,10");
$sth->execute($last) or die "Unable execute query:$dbh->err, $dbh->errstr\n";

if ($sth->rows > 0) {
my $notify = Desktop::Notify->new();
my $notification = $notify->create(timeout => $notify_timeout, app_icon => $icon);
while (my $ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref()) {

my $id = $ref->{'id'};
my $summary = $ref->{'summary'};
my $message = $ref->{'message'};

$notification->summary($summary);
$notification->body($message);
$notification->show();

$last = $id;
sleep 1;

}
$notification->close();
}

$sth->finish();

# Clean up once in a while. This is not really essential so we simply
# do it once every 1000 iterations
$loops++;
if ($loops > 1000) {
my $sth_cleanup = $dbh->prepare("DELETE FROM notify WHERE id < ?");
$sth_cleanup->execute($last);
$sth_cleanup->finish();
}

$dbh->disconnect;

sleep 5;
}

Save the script to ~/bin/irssi-notify-client.pl.

Remember to make both scripts executable.

The final thing to do is to add the notify client to your desktop environment’s autostart

In GNOME: System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications

Add Startup Program

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Shorten URL Firefox extension now supports aurls.info

alj — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:20:06 +0000

I am happy to announce that Shorten URL now supports aurls.info (my own URL shortening service).

Aurls.info is supported from ShortenURL version 0.3.5 onwards.

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Ubuntu: Fixing Java in Firefox 3.6

alj — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:44:26 +0000

If you have installed Firefox 3.6 (for instance from the Ubuntu Mozilla Daily Build Team PPA) you will discover that Java is no longer working

For i386 (32 bit Ubuntu):

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so 50

For amd64 (64 bit Ubuntu):

$ sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so mozilla-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so 50

Fixing unknown locale in Python 2.6 The fix itself is the same as for Python 2.5...
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Using ISO-8859-15 encoding with Twirssi Since I run irssi all the time, packing as many...

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Updated MoreAdorned template for Movie Sheet Generator

alj — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:29:08 +0000

A nice soul has converted rodfeli’s MoreAdorned Tvixie template for use with Movie Sheet Generator.

I have tweaked the template further and I am pretty happy with the results

Changes compared to the original

Removed effects from cover and added static cover backgroup
Changed fonts
Added support for media flags – only two since it looks nicer

Download the updated template

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The joys of outsourcing

alj — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:58:12 +0000

I normally don’t post stuff written by others but I just had to share this one.

It’s from Slashdot.org and sums up my experience with outsourcing to India really well.

>> Hello there!
>> Please refer to your opening on job posting site. I, Rajesh Sharma, would like to apply for the job.[...]My hourly rates are $ 9 USD.
> We all like to pretend this isn’t here and it isn’t happening, but I would say conservatively half the job market has disappeared in 10 years due to this currency/standard of living imbalance.

There’s another reality: it’s really, really hard to manage projects in India. I have tried this for a number of projects, and have learned the following things:

A day before the deadline, Rajesh will ask for more time

Halfway through the project, Rajesh will ask for more money

Rajesh will not give the source, as was agreed

Rajesh will not use unit tests, or Subversion, as was agreed

Rajesh cannot be bothered to provide an estimate or a planning

Rajesh will take on other projects and give priority to those before yours

Rajesh actually has a day job and just does projects on the side

Rajesh will tell you he takes a holiday for three weeks, starting tomorrow

Rajesh has a wedding of a brother, a pregnant sister, a sick father, etc and cannot make the planning

Rajesh will ask for more money at the end of the project

Rajesh cannot be reached because he lost his mobile

Rajesh cannot be reached because his mobile was stolen

Rajesh cannot be reached because his mobile its battery is empty

Rajesh cannot be reached because the e-mail server is down

Rajesh cannot be reached because the internet is down

Each and every project, I have had the above things. There are lots of ways around the above, but the main thing is that it’s very hard.

Pic is related

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Me. On StreetView

alj — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:39:27 +0000

Yes. That’s me – in our French spaceship

(Click for full size)

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Datatalk ApS erklæret konkurs

alj — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:38:12 +0000

Egentlig ikke en nyhed da virksomheden blev erklæret konkurs 24/12-2009, men jeg har først set det i dag.

Som jeg tidligere har skrevet om har vi stadig et udestående på næsten 1700 kroner med dem. De penge er desværre nok tabt for evigt (der er altid mulighed for at gøre krav mod konkursboet, men umiddelbart skulle det krav have været fremsat til kurrator senest 16/01-2010, men vi vil forsøge alligevel, selvom chancerne er minimale).

Jeg kan godt frygte at butikken genopstår under et nyt navn – altså samme folk bag og samme elendige service, men bare med et nyt navn.

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