Random Thoughts

Punch Card Save the Date by lilribbers on Etsy

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:10:48 -0800

Punch Card Save the Date by lilribbers on Etsy

Travel Themed Weddings, II | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:08:12 -0800

Travel Themed Weddings, II | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

Travel Themed Weddings | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:01:20 -0800

Travel Themed Weddings | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

Wedding Calligraphy Artwork From Deborah Nadel Designs | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:01:00 -0800

Wedding Calligraphy Artwork From Deborah Nadel Designs | Style Me Pretty : The Ultimate Wedding Blog

wrong argument type Hash (expected Data) - Merb json

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:05:13 -0800

I was having a heck of a time with .to_json in Merb. Turns out, it was because Merb’s to_json implementation doesn’t work the same as ActiveRecords.

In order to get it working, I had to disable the Merb one by placing the following code at the top of my init.rb file:

Merb.disable :json

Just thought I’d share. :)

How much has ModRails made in donations?

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:32:22 -0800

So, after totally falling in love with ModRails (Phusion Passenger) a few months back, I was looking at their “Enterprise Edition” and began wondering how much they had made so far with their free software…

Luckily, I had Ruby and Hpricot handy. I opened up IRB and ran the following code:

require 'hpricot' require 'open-uri' doc = Hpricot(open('http://www.modrails.com/enterprise.html')) (doc/"tr/td").collect { |td| td.inner_html.scan('USD').empty? ? nil : td.inner_html.sub('USD ','').to_i }.compact.inject { |s,n| s + n }

To date, they have made $20,700 in donations! Not bad for two guys and some “free” software.

Setting up a remote server to access my git repository

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:28:14 -0800

I host all of my Git repositories on a box that has a different port than normal SSH connections use, which causes git checkouts to be a bit of a pain in the butt.

So, in order to deal with this, any computer I plan on continually using for Git access, I add to the git user’s authorized_keys list. Here is the step by step I use to make it easy.

All of these commands are performed on the computer I want to grant permission to.

First, make sure I have a public ssh key.

cat .ssh/id_rsa.pub

Now, lets copy that public key to the Git server.

scp -P 8888 .ssh/id_rsa.pub git@YOUR_SERVER_ADDRESS:~

Using a remote SSH command, lets append our id_rsa.pub file to the authorized keys list, and then delete the file since we won’t be using it anymore.

ssh -p 8888 git@YOUR_SERVER_ADDRESS "cat id_rsa.pub >> .ssh/authorized_keys; rm id_rsa.pub"

Test the connection to make sure we can connect without a password. Just ssh and then exit immediately if it worked.

ssh git@YOUR_SERVER_ADDRESS -p 8888

Alright, so once that works, you have permission… but it still doesn’t deal with the port problem. To do that, we will create a .ssh host in the config file.

vi .ssh/config

You want to add something that looks like this:

host myserver hostname YOUR_SERVER_ADDRESS user git port 8888

Once you’ve done that, save the file and exit.

Now, you should be able to clone your git repo without any problems. No more passwords, no more long git urls. Just beautiful simplicity.

git clone myserver:commentize.git

2008 Election Coverage - I'm in the running.

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:54:05 -0700

2008 Election Coverage - I'm in the running.

Is playing Tumble from his iPhone

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:14:39 -0700

Is playing Tumble from his iPhone

The language of the land

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:44:51 -0700

The language of the land

coley: E: 12:07AM “I saw this and thought of you”

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:48:50 -0700

coley:

E: 12:07AM “I saw this and thought of you”

Just hangin around

Tue, 20 May 2008 13:45:16 -0700

Just hangin around

Save Mr. Splashy Pants!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:31:57 -0800

Save Mr. Splashy Pants!

Phenomenal Japanese Game Show

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:51:16 -0800

Phenomenal Japanese Game Show

Alex Rubin makes his mark on mobile

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:05:00 -0800

Alex Rubin makes his mark on mobile

Why I enjoy cooking.

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:32:44 -0700

I made dinner for some of my friends in Mexico CIty last night and while I was plating everything one of them asked me why I started cooking. My standard response was that it’s a great way to get my head off of writing code and that it’s so much different than what I do every day.

Later that night, while cleaning up, I thought about it some more and it really isn’t that much different. The thing that I think I like about it is that it’s a finished product every time. Other than that, it’s actually quite similar to what I do for work.

1) Project Planning

* What will I be cooking? (Overall Concept)
* Who am I cooking for? (Intended audience)
* Does anyone have allergies I should know of? (Accessibility concerns)
* What time is everyone arriving? (Scheduling)
* What if something doesn’t turn out right? (Contingencies)

2) Actual Cooking

When you’re actually cooking, you can find better ways to make something just like when you’re coding. You can re-use dishes and combine ingredients to make a custom result. You really have a lot of flexibility within a semi-constrained set of guidelines (flavor).

On top of that, you have things to consider:

* What order do things need to be cooked in? (Planning)
* Do I have all the tools I need? (Resource Allocation)
* Do I know how to cook everything? (Skills Requirements)

3) Plating and Setup

Inevitably, if you’re cooking a big meal, the kitchen is in a bit of chaos at this stage. Now comes the decoration. This is what your guests are actually going to see. You plan out your presentation, set the plates up and lay everything out so that it is well accepted by your guests.

No matter how messy the process was, if the plating looks good and the food tastes great you’ve done well. Just like with any project though, you can have ugly presentation for great food or great presentation on crappy food. Finding the best of both worlds is tricky, but very rewarding.

3) Cleanup

This is where you take away all the mess caused by the cooking process. Get rid of the excess, wash the pots to give them a break and get them ready for the next time you need them, and get your working space back in order.

The end result is that you have an entire project from concept to completion done in one day. I think that it’s important for people to feel a sense of accomplishment and completion. In my industry, projects range from a few week to a few months, and others seem like they never end. Cooking provides that feeling for me.

Cost analysis on the threat of global warming (via )

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:41:27 -0700

Cost analysis on the threat of global warming (via )

Now that’s a well designed car

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 09:52:00 -0700

Now that’s a well designed car

Fight For Kisses

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:33:52 -0700

Fight For Kisses

Restart just one mongrel configuration

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:15:12 -0700

sudo mongrel_rails cluster::restart -C /etc/mongrel_cluster/file.conf