Chauffeino: we have contact!

It's been a while since anything happened on the Chauffeino front. Time for a little update. I announced this project back in April 2013, and until a couple of weeks ago, my latest GitHub commit dated back to March 2014. So clearly, not a lot of work was done on this front. The reasons are the same as everyone else's: it's my project, I work on it when I feel like it, and the same goes for the other three gazillion projects I'm currently neglecting. That and well, I tend to see things big. Which means I was getting too bogged down in the list of features I wanted to support, without actually ever getting around to implementing any of them because this one "crucial" feature was blocking progress.

So it was clearly time to change my approach: start small, and build gradually. The new plan is to just start by replacing the current wired thermostat with a wireless one, and have the host computer trigger the appropriate relays. The rest of the features will get added as we go.

With a smaller scope, I started toying around with it again, and I'm proud to say that we have contact:

Deploying indices to improve database performance

Part of my work at Odoo involves dealing with support questions on a regular basis. One of the common requests is how to improve database performance. Database tuning is a complex subject, and this post won't deal with all the intricacies of this field. But I'll outline a strategy that can yield significant performance gains by simply adding some well chosen indices. The idea is to offer admins without deep database knowledge the information required to speed up their queries without having to wade through reams and reams of documentation.

How to use Steam Chat with Empathy

Like most Linux users, I prefer to have all my IM needs met by one and only one client. My client of choice being Empathy, since it integrates nicely with my Cinnamon desktop under Linux Mint Debian Edition 201403. So far, my People Nearby, XMPP/Google Talk, Facebook (back when I used it) and even SameTime (which I needed back when I was working for a customer that standardised on umm, let's say "weird" software stacks) all worked very well. But, I had one need unmet... Steam Chat!

Chauffeino: obligatory picture

It ain't pretty, but it's alive...

Chauffeino: introducing my new pet project...

I recently bought a new room thermostat to replace the old one. With my life becoming more hectic lately, and no fixed routine during the week, the old thermostat which had one program for weekdays and one for weekends was showing its limits. I could either program it frugally and arrive at a cold house some days of the week, or program it for comfort and waste heat on an empty house the other days of the week. Full 7-day individually programmable thermostat to the rescue. And life was good...

Until of course, it wasn't.