Page validity

My first stop was the w3 mobile website validator. The tools the W3C provide are great (You'll notice I try to keep this site CSS and XHTML valid too).

The interesting thing about the mobile validator compared to the other two, is that it provides a percentage bar to show how close you are to validity (Fixing two critical issues bumped me from 49% to 93%... whatever that means). It also includes a list of informational points for things you might wish to fix (eg, too much whitespace/comments) - a feature I plan to take advantage of down the line. Unfortunately, the validator doesn't help with my specific problem, as the nav bar is a layout issue not a code issue.

The only glaring omission that I can find, is that it doesn't check for 'jump to content' and 'jump to navigation' links. While these are primarily for accessibility, I feel they are also useful on a mobile screen.

Another validity check is ready.mobi, which gives all sorts of information, including page size, estimated load times and a collection of additional tests. These show a different set of possibilities to the W3 checker, so provide a bit of extra depth to the testing.

But how does it look?

Thats where the other sites come in handy. To test the structure I was aiming for, I found that mowser gave a good layout test. I just need to work out the CSS they use so I can copy it ;) To get the layout I'm after, I'll need to move the website title back over the navigation bar, which means moving it into a different div. (And that means more possible display issues). Despite my using it in this way, mowser isn't a website tester. Its a website minimiser, so you can view any website mobile.

The last page shows how the site looks in a variety of smartphones by loading an image of the phone, then poking the website into it. This is a great way to see how well you fit on various devices... and a great way to discover that this website fits badly!

Removing duplicate categories.

The problem with the code above is that it collects duplicates into buffer. This means printing it directly through mako lists the tags several times in the side bar - not a feature.

An easy solution is available thanks to Nathan Hamiel of neohaxor.org, in one line of python. (See the next section for the line, albeit combined with the initial code).

The result

The final template file looks like this:

<%
        # Build an array with all the categories in it.
        # Lowercase so we don't have (eg) Debian and debian listed.
        all_categories = [ '<li><a href="/category/%s">%s</a></li>' % \
                (repr(category).lower(), repr(category).lower()) \
                for post in bf.config.blog.posts for category in post.categories ]
        # Dedupe the array before adding it to the nav bar.
        nodupes_categories = set(all_categories)
%>

<ul>
% for category in nodupes_categories:
        ${category}
% endfor
</ul>

Branching i2p.

i2p is an interesting bit of software, aiming to create an annonymised network that anyone can use. Sadly, its source is kept in mtn.

Checking it out

To be honest, even this is too much of a pain in the arse (compared to what it should be)

mkdir i2p-mtn
cd i2p-mtn
mtn -d i2p.mtn db init
mtn -d i2p.mtn pull mtn.i2p2.de i2p.i2p

To keep it up to date, simply re-run the last line at times and get the updates.

A plea!

Anyone, someone, please! Save me from monotone!

How to escape? bzr has no reliable way of doing it yet (that I can see), but mtn does have a git_export function we might be able to exploit to help us here. (If someone can tell me how to get i2p into bzr too, please let me know! Its still my preferred DVCS).

How to escape

The magic invocation can almost be found at the monotone site , and all it takes is mtn ( > .48) and git installed.

::

mkdir i2p-git cd i2p-git git init mtn --db ../i2p-mtn/ git_export | git fast-import

Note that the linked page talks about 'git fast import' (two spaces), which is invalid - it should be 'fast-import'

This took a while, as it has 6,967 revisions at the time of writing. After that, you'll need to checkout the branch with actual code it in. git co i2p.i2p

And you are ready to view the source! yay!

Look at the 'unknown' branch, you'll see a tree with a debian/ directory too - enjoy.

Future work

I'm yet to really see how well this works (for example, if I can keep it up to date somehow), but not needing to use mtn for day to day poking around is a good start. A good thing to find out would be if git_export can resume where the last export left off, or if each update to the mtn repository means a new start from scratch for git?

PS

Its probably just easier to learn mtn - If you know a good guide to the basics let me know. (If you know a way to stop it being so annoying thats even better)

Disassembly

So here you go, a quick photographic guide to taking it apart.

Tools required: a philips head screwdriver and a flat head screwdriver (flatheads of different sizes might be handy, esp if they have a longer handle then the one I have in the photo).

Undo the bottom screws

Prise out the back panel. You should be careful doing this, as the cable into the wireless antenna (next to the power plug) is quite short, and doesn't have a lot of room. Its also worth noting that the back panel is not attached to the ports, but is to the antennas. This means it can be prised out the back, but you might have to poke and push at it a bit.

Carefully insert a flathead down the side, and using the plastic 'towers' (for screwing the two halves together) for leverage undo each hook one at a time.

Once the sides are loose, the top should only need a little wiggle to get the front loose.

And thats pretty much it! From here you can take out the PCB, but there is nothing attached to the underside

But where is that serial port? I'm not sure, but I suspect its CON1 (JP1 is the only other possibility). If I find a link to resolve the question, I'll link it here :)

Reassembly

This is easiest if you take the PCB out. From there you can sit the rear plate against the power/connection ports, and slot it all back into the bottom casing.

Thats about it really, let me know if I forgot to mention something (I might still remember...)