Seasonal headache: ABBYY eFormFiller 2.5 on Linux

The beginning of May (May 6 this year) is the deadline for income tax declarations in Lithuania. Our tax inspection accepts paper forms, has a lame web interface, and offers a Windows program that looks nice, calculates all the derived values for you, and has validation. There are some problems with running it on Wine. Last year I tried getting it to run for a couple of hours, then gave up and booted Windows on one of the laptops.

This year around, I made an effort and finally got it to run. Here are the commands that made the cut for me (Ubuntu Hardy, Wine 0.9.59):


mkdir /tmp/formfiller
cd /tmp/formfiller
wget -nv http://deklaravimas1.vmi.lt/eFormFiller25v6_2008_03_06.zip
unzip eFormFiller25v6_2008_03_06.zip
wget -nv http://kegel.com/wine/winetricks

export WINEPREFIX=~/.wine-eFF/
wineprefixcreate

sh winetricks dcom98
sh winetricks win98
sh winetricks riched20
sh winetricks vcrun6
sh winetricks wsh56

wine setup.exe /q

wine $WINEPREFIX/drive_c/Program\ Files/ABBYY\ eFormFiller\ 2.5/FormFillerLight.exe


I hope it will be useful to somebody.

Update: naaaah, it works with the last year's income tax form, but doesn't with this year's. Time to boot Windows again :(

Oh, the convenience!

I was browsing around for hotels close to the Europython 2008 conference venue (Reval Hotel Lietuva). I remembered that the classic Soviet-decorated Neringa hotel is 10 minutes away, just across the pedestrian bridge between the banks of Neris. Unfortunately, Scandic Neringa does not have any rooms available for the duration of the conference, but they suggested another hotel nearby.



Your daily commute: 1250 km in each direction.

Schneier on open WiFi

I've been running an open WiFi network at home (and at the office as well). Turns out, the security guru Bruche Schneier does the same, as he writes in his article "Steal This Wi-Fi". Not only Schneier puts down in words my own vague moral arguments for doing so, but also assesses the risks associated with the practice of running an unsecured wireless network.

So, whenever you come by my house, be my guest and use the WiFi. By the way, my ESSID conveys this in Lithuanian: "Skanaus".

So true

Java is like a variant of the game of Tetris in which none of the pieces can fill gaps created by the other pieces, so all you can do is pile them up endlessly. -- Steve Yegge

Personal DNA

I took the Personal DNA test today.

Considerate Leader

Bugs on da house

As promissed:

Façade-salade

Last week we had the façade of our house painted. We wanted a lively colour, but misjudged the one we've chosen a bit. Now our house glows in sunlight like a green pack of Skittles. The photos don't convey the real intensity of the colour. Ladybugs and caterpillars are mistaking it for a giant off-season lettuce leaf. Photos of said insects might follow.

Learn from the Masters

Here's a little gem of a Python line from Phillip Eby (setuptools.package_index):

    self.index_url = index_url + "/"[:not index_url.endswith('/')]

Kids! Don't do this at home!

Nabokov invented the smiley in 1969!

Alden Whitman: How do you rank yourself among writers (living) and of the immediate past?

Vladimir Nabokov: I often think there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile-- some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket, which I would now like to trace in reply to your question.

Nabokov's interview. (11) The New York Times [1969]

My Honda Civic

I got myself a red '91 Honda Civic (4th generation) at the end of April. Why would I go and buy a 16 year old car? Well, my brother got a black one in winter. I figured it's a hell of a car for 2000 Lt (around 750 USD). A neat, high tech, lean burning, economical 1.5 L engine that cranks out 66 kW (90 hp). Double wishbone suspension on all four wheels. Great overview in all directions. Low center of gravity and driving position. A peculiar, even a bit awkward, design. And it just about fits a 250 cm windsurfing board along the passenger seat!

Another intriguing thing about Honda Civic -- there's a whole subculture of modding enthusiasts. Honda's D series engines are all pretty similar in many ways, allowing relatively easy "swaps" of the whole engine or its parts in order to achieve more power or better fuel economy. So, once I get a garage with power, I'll swap my dual point injection for a real full injection system. About $100 worth of parts, a bit of wrench work, some wiring changes, and -- tada! -- 10 hp more.

I bought mine without having tested it on the highway, so there was some work needed to get it accelerate better than a trolleybus. :-/ Now it's still far from the official manufacturer figures, but better than it was.

Debugging page templates in doctests

Sometimes you get a page template error in doctests. The traceback does not point to the place in the page template that caused the error. Here's a quick, dirty and effective three liner to figure it out:

>>> import traceback
>>> from zope.exceptions.exceptionformatter import print_exception
>>> traceback.print_exception = print_exception

Hello world

So, here is my new blog. Welcome, readers!

What will this blog be about? I have no intention of centering on any particular topic, so expect an eclectic mix of posts on my interests: Zope 3, software development in general, windsurfing, photograpy.

A couple of words on naming. alga and albertas blog names on blogspot.com are taken by selfish irresponsible people who have posted one entry three years ago. LTU-42 is my sail number, so at least my windsurfing companions will recognize this as my id.