December 2007
46 posts
Shoulda TextMate bundle →
Yup yup.
FBI prepares vast database of biometric... →
There’s a lot about this that seems scary. Even the new service by the FBI to keep your fingerprints on file after your company does a background check just seems wrong.
Tamarin →
Tamarin is an open source ECMAScript virtual machine from Mozilla. There is talk of adding many languages on top of it, from JavaScript and ActionScript (already supported) to Ruby and Python. However, the Ruby implementation will be built on top of IronRuby, which is a bastardized version of Ruby on top of Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime. It fires me up and gets me interested in...
“I will be prepared to take all of your questions and I would suggest maybe you...”
– Albert L. Lord, new CEO of Sallie Mae, from his first shareholder conference call
“I think there are things wrong with Java, and every other programming language....”
– Mike Burns
What Amazon SimpleDB means for Rails apps →
Amazon’s new SimpleDB is an object store built on top of Erlang designed to provide super-fast access to small objects (large objects such as images, videos, audio should be stored on Amazon’s S3). It is a departure from the problems of relational databases and Rails’ ActiveRecord needs to meet SimpleDB in the middle for an optimal object-based data layer underneath your...
Ooyala →
I think this is going to be the video platform of choice for my next projects… won the Amazon Web Services Developer Challenge.
Pattern matching, S-Expressions, and External DSLs →
We’re taking about using some of these techniques, particular pattern matching, as an ideal technique to code without if’s.
Railroad lingo and slang →
Lots of good potential Rails-related product names.
Ribbit →
Most interesting startup launch I’ve seen recently. I don’t like the Flash/Flex aspect of working with their API, though. Is there really no good open source way to interface with a computer’s microphone outside of Flash or Silverlight?
Rails tagged 2.0.2 (December 16th, 2007)
RAILTIES * Changed the default database from mysql to sqlite3, so now running “rails myapp” will have a config/database.yml that’s setup for SQLite3 (which in OS X Leopard is installed by default, so is the gem, so everything Just Works with no database configuration at all). To get a Rails application preconfigured for MySQL, just run “rails -d mysql myapp” [DHH] *...
“It’s not the motorcycle maintenance, not the faucet. It’s all of...”
– Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Copernican revolution
Do a Copernican revolution: quality is the source of objects; objects are not the source of quality.
“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a...”
– Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Prevayler, object persistence library for Java →
Written originally by Hakan Raberg.
“Self-expression is dangerous when too much expression is mixed with too little...”
– Charlie LeDuff
Piston →
Tammer keeps talking about how Piston is better than using svn:externals… I need to try this.
Rails patch - Added tiny doc for rake routes →
Accepted. Ahhh, satisfaction.
Areas for improving ActiveResource documentation
* ActiveResource::CustomMethods::ClassMethods (custom_method_collection_url) * ActiveResource::Connection (requests, default_header) * ActiveResource::ConnectionError * ActiveResource::Errors (clear) * ActiveResource::CustomMethods::InstanceMethods (get, post, put, delete, custom_method_element_url, custom_method_new_element_url) * ActiveResource::Request (new, ==, eql?, to_s, hash) *...
Remove nasty Microsoft characters from your Ruby...
Need to remove a smart quote or apostrophe?
require 'iconv' # original_string = grab it from the Microsoft Excel file or whatever str = Iconv.iconv("UTF-8", "WINDOWS-1252", original_string).to_s str.gsub!("Ô", "'") # remove Microsoft "smart" apostrophes str.gsub!("Õ", "'") # variation of previous str.gsub!("Ò", '"') # remove Microsoft "smart" double quotes str.gsub!("Ó", '"') # variation of...
Ruby hooks
“A hook is a technique that lets you trap some Ruby event, such as object creation. The simplest hook technique in Ruby is to intercept calls to methods in system classes.” - Programming Ruby, Dave Thomas Module#method_added Module#method_removed Module#method_undefined Module#extend_object Kernel.singleton_method_added Kernel.singleton_method_undefined Class.inherited … gets...
Better integration tests with Ruby
While watching this talk by Dave Thomas, my ears picked up when he said you can use classic metaprogramming techniques to write good integration tests. He also mentioned Fit in the same breath… gonna have to check that out.
"The pill" for men →
Coming soon.
Bungee Connect
I went to a breakfast this week hosted by Bungee Labs, the creators of Bungee Connect, a cool technology that combines web development environment over the web, cloud computing, and some interesting stateful components. They were looking for feedback and I provided some from the perspective of the Ruby community as folows: Ruby and EC2: There is a simple Ruby library that lets you easily work with...
Evan Phoenix on Rubinius →
A set of interviews with Evan Phoenix about Rubinius. Notice the links at the bottom of the page.
Changes in Ruby 1.9 →
Ruby 1.9 is coming Christmas, 2007 … only three weeks away! Mauricio Fernandez has put together an unbelievable compilation of the “best-of-the-best” from the changelogs.
Subversion tricks for Rails
“The -c switch in “script/generate any_generator -c blahblahblah” will automatically ‘svn add’ generated files.” ~ Jason LaPier on the Rails Studio mailing list. Rake task to add all ?’s into Subversion from Dave South:desc "Add unmarked files into the repository" task :add do system 'svn st | awk \'/^\?/ { print $2 }\' | xargs svn add' end...
Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site →
It’s all about improving the front-end, where 80% of the total response time is spent dealing with what is in the HTML document.
““You, Mr. Wilkes, will die either of the pox or on the gallows.”...”
Rails access control code →
Robert Thau, one of the original members of the Apache group in charge of writing the Apache web server, has been working on some really cool Rails access control code for Smartleaf. He has open sourced it and I’ll be taking a look at it shortly…
iPhone on Rails →
Juicy tutorial on building iPhone interfaces with your Rails apps. Written to Rails 2.
Publishing RubyGems with Hoe →
Good tutorial I just followed while publishing my first gem, Quiet Backtrace. The first of many, methinks.
Incentivizing Rails documentation
I just commented on Geoffrey Grosenbach’s post regarding the efforts of folks to improve Rails’ documentation. Here’s my idea: “http://api.rubyonrails.org should be the de facto documentation and to get my doc patches accepted would be a great personal achievement. It would be a little more worthwhile is if it is measured and evaluated. http://api.rubyonrails.org could have...
The Rails Documentation Project →
Looks pretty but why would I use this over the Rails RDocs?
Home robots!
Oh, I desire thee, Roomba and Looj… in fact, I desire a whole army of robots at my beck and command.
A tour through Merb's source code →
By Ezra.
“In my personal track record, 2/3 of businesses made complete transformations or...”
– William Pietri